sey085

So, there I was: right hand tightly clutching a thicket of grass growing out of the cliff face, left hand holding a small bump in the rock, left foot on the only dry foothold to be seen, and right foot hanging in the air. I knew that if I could move my right foot into the groove my left foot was currently occupying, delicately slide my left foot out and stretch it further along the rock face, and then support my weight as much as possible with my left arm, I just might be able to reach a better hold with my right hand and thus pull myself to a more secure spot on the rock. I'd seen three people do just that, and now they were safely past the narrow ledge and waiting for me on the river bank a few yards further down. There were only a few small problems with this plan: if either of my feet slipped, or if my strength failed, I would undoubtedly end up dropping about 4 or 5 feet down from the rocks into the freezing cold river below, potentially losing or ruining my phone, camera, ...

Probably the two most common questions people ask me about this blog are, "What can you tell me about the swiss hip-hop scene?" and "How are you, my little son?" Until this weekend, the answers to those questions were, "not much" and "I'm fine, Mom." Thankfully, this weekend I got my first taste of Suisse-Romande hip hop and it was not bad at all. This weekend was Label Suisse , which in addition to being a clever pun was also a weekend-long party featuring dozens of free concerts in a handful of venues across Lausanne. The party was supposed to commemorate the opening of the new M2 metro line, but since that won't actually open for another month, Party-goers were forced to wait inline for a half-hour if they wanted a special "test ride" this weekend. At any rate, it was a huge deal and an estimated 300,000 people showed up for the excitement, and I was one of them. And, if that wasn't enough, meanwhlie the Comptoir Sui...

When I picked up my copy of 20 Minutes this morning, this was on the cover: Fig 1: Most likely, the picture goes with the bottom story, "Too cool, this M2 Metro!", but you have to admit that it's more entertaining to imagine that it goes with the top story, "DNA Test for Jews Produces Scandal." After all, how could anyone in their right mind be so excited about the opening of a new metro?

As an unofficial ambassador of the United States, I frequently find myself on the receiving end of some distinctly anti-American opinions. As most of them comes from people who have never been to the United States, or have only visited briefly, it's fair to say that the reflect fairly widespread (and mild) stereotypes about the United States and its fine citizens. In the interest of providing a cultural defense of my occasionally indefensible country, I present here what I consider to be the 5 most under-rated (or unfairly beleaguered, at least) things about the red, white, and blue. 1. Politics Yes, we elected W. Twice. No one is proud of this, but it happened. Blame the media for his initial victory in 2000, blame the culture of post-9/11 fear mongering for his re-election in 2004. Or, just blame the electorate for being so easily bought and sold (most people got "rebate" checks for about $600 after his first election). The two terms of George W Bush will no dou...

I swear that I was going to write a nice, long post tonight (it was going to be about how awesome America is. USA! USA!), but I am afraid it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Tonight, I finally got internet access set up at my apartment. Hooray! Of course, this being Switzerland and all, there are caveats. Slow? You bet. Unreliable? Completely. Annoying? Off the charts. I am using a "Flybox" modem from Orange Mobile, which connects to the UMTS/HSDPA cellular network and then transmits a WIFI signal to my laptop. In theory, it's capable of pretty decent download and upload speeds, and the price is reasonable as well. In practice, it's a piece of junk that can't download even a single webpage without timing-out. I'm hoping that the ridiculously patchy service I'm getting right now is due to me only having partial access to the network or something similarly lame, because otherwise I think I'll have to take advantage of the 14-day free tria...

If you enjoy blogs written by American post-docs who went to grad school in California and are now living in the francophone part of Europe, then I recommend my good friend Loren's blog, Super Grenoble . It's all in French right now, but we'll see how long that lasts.

To prove that I have thoroughly infiltrated Swiss society, I have taken a picture of the various cards and such that have been issued to me sine my arrival. Fig. 1: My wallet bulges with ... cards. After I've been earning the sweet post-doc coin for a while, hopefully it'll bulge with " Giacometti's " as well. On the right are all the (Swiss) cards I use regularly and thus carry with me in my wallet. On the left is my brand new Residence Permit, type B. This document -- which I am legaly obligated to keep on my person at all times -- not only allows me to remain legally in this country until at least 31 July 2009, but it also represents the final piece of the legal puzzle here. Permit in hand, I can finally apply for a credit card, sign up for internet access, and most importantly, get a library card. Yesterday after French class, I finally fulfilled the promise made by every first-year high school French student, and je suis allé à la bibliothèque . Specific...

Today was a bad day. Bad, bad, bad. In just about every way that a day can be a failure, today was a failure. Normally, I wouldn't want to bore my beloved readers with the sordid details, but I think that this blog has taken on an unrealistically upbeat and optimistic tone. I don't want the reader to get the mistaken impression that, as the Hungarians might say, life here is sour cream all the way to the bottom, but that, in fact, some rain does fall (metaphorically) here in Lausanne. So, a brief rundown of the vacuum of suck that was today. First, I woke up in a great mood. That should have been a worrisome sign as I usually have to drag myself out of bed, but instead I skipped out of my apartment at 8:30 with a smile on my face and a belly full of coffee. The first thing I checked when I got to work was the score of yesterday's Chargers' game. Eight and a half point favorites against an undermanned Carolina team; I had every reason to hope that the Chargers wo...

Just a couple of quick notes today, with no particular theme. First, I've switched apartments. No, I haven't gotten a proper apartment (I visited 5 more apartments yesterday), but I have switched rooms in the same building. The new apartment is smaller (it's about the size of my last dorm room at Mudd) but significantly nicer and cheaper. It doesn't have the same "charm" as the old one (every single scrap of furniture is from IKEA), but it also doesn't have the same "smell" or "unusual stains on the walls." I will post a picture of Basil in his new digs soon. I was able to switch french classes as well, so last night I had my first class at level B1. It was definitely much more my style. The teacher was enthusiastic and friendly; the students were... well, almost all of the student were older than me (by a lot) and German, so it was an odd group. We had to do an activity at the beginning of class wherein we talked to the people n...

It's not exactly a secret that Americans think that Europeans smell bad. OK, it's not a secret either that I think that Europeans smell bad. Just like blind people have heightened senses of hearing, I (in order to make up for my astigmatism, no doubt) have been given a powerful sense for detecting body odor. This gift, though, has been a cruel curse through four years at Harvey Mudd College and then another half dozen surrounded by grad students with less than ideal grooming habits. Still, I believe that it makes me an expert in this field, and thus I feel qualified to comment on the situation here. As I only have true first-hand knowledge of the situation here in Switzerland, I will focus my comments on the Swiss, who -- for the most part -- don't smell that bad. Some (not all) Swiss people smell bad most (not all) of the time because they are living in the frigging dark ages of doing laundry. Here, doing laundry is a chore roughly on par with changing the oil in yo...