Winter Smorgasbord
Lots of old news to cover, what with me not writing an actual update in like a month, so away we go.
Way, way back -- before Christmas break -- I took the train to beautiful Grenoble to visit my friend Loren, who works there as a lab monkey, like me. Although Loren has made it into Switzerland (successfully) two times, this was my first trip to France to visit him. I had heard lots of talk about how awesome the city, so I was pretty excited about checking it out.
To most French people, Grenoble = the Alps. Located smack dab in-between three massive sets of mountains, Grenoble is known for its mountainy beauty. On the mountains to the north is La Bastille, a huge prison complex that was begun in the middle ages. Loren and I -- trying to recreate everything we knew about French history -- decided to storm the bastille. It wasn't the same bastille, but it was close enough.
Fig. 1: La Bastille, in Grenoble. Pretty much the ultimate snowball fort.
Grenoble hosted the winter olympics many years ago, and thus is left with a huge amount of "futuristic" looking stuff. Or, at least it was "futuristic" back in 1968.
Fig. 2: "Les Bulles" have been bringing a taste of the future to the citizens of Grenoble for 40 years. Like the Jetsons, really.
I also took this picture of a cafe that clearly had some sort of connection to the family. Immediately after I took this, though, the woman inside came out and started yelling at me. She said it was "Forbidden!" to take photos without permission. I told her she was "crazy!", she kept insisting it was "Forbidden!", I reminded her that was "Ridiculous!" A stalemate reached, she went back to the cafe. Loren followed her and took four or five more photos with his camera, but the excitement was over. What a weird experience.
Fig. 3: The forbidden photo. I'm not sure why they would forbid anyone taking a photo of their crummy cafe, but French people are a constant mystery.
One last shot of Grenoble, this one emphasizing its natural beauty.
Fig. 4: Would a rose in front of someone else smell as sweet?
During Christmas, I went back to SD and saw the whole family and whatnot. What can I say, it was incredible. I had an unbelievable time seeing everybody and all I could wish for was that it was longer. Even though I was home for nearly two weeks, for a variety of reasons I barely got to spend time with anyone. Oh well. At least I did get to spend some time with the Neph, who -- by the way -- is ADORABLE. Want proof? Here's a pic I took of us on the Mini-Railroad in front of the world famous San Diego Zoo. Alexander loved riding the choo-choo and especially enjoyed going through the tunnel.
Fig. 5: I have NO IDEA who that crazy person behind us is.
So, here's a weird story. Flying back to La Suisse, I went from LAX to London to Zurich. From LAX to London, I was seated next to an extremely stoned Australian guy who spent the whole trip sucking down those fake plastic "cigarettes" and chugging Courvoisier and Cokes (or Cro-vo-sser and Coke, as he said it). Anyway, it was miserable and I was happy to land, somewhere, anywhere. I wandered around the London airport for a bit, then headed to my gate for Zurich. As soon as the gate agent has looked at my ticket, I hear this voice say "What a coincidence!" I look up and it is none other than Andrei Garcia.
Andrei (a.k.a. "Drei2K") is a good frend from the McCullough basement crew at Stanford, and also holds the distinguished claim of being the person who took over the wheels of the Science Bus when I bailed. He was visiting his mother in Ireland, who had been working on a Fullbright scholarship. They were on their way to Salzburg for a vacation and it was just a bizarre coinicidence that we ended up on the same flight to Zurich. Fortunately, Andrei's mom let me switch tickets with her and Andrei and I had to whole flight to talk and share gossip. Here's an interesting piece of gossip: nearly everyone I know from Stanford has not left. Stanford people: what is wrong with you? Leave!!! (Not you young ones, you can stay).
Fig. 6: Me and Drei. Yes, we are dressed identically. No, that is not on purpose.
OK. One final thing. Once I got back to Switzerland, I was greeted at the Zurich airport by Christine and Patrick. We hung out in Zurich, came back to Lausanne for New Year's, and then set off for Eastern Switzerland for an exciting adventure. We went to Bergün, near Chur, to go Schlitteln! What is Schlitteln? Why, sledding, of course! But not just normal sledding on some small hill, no. The road between Preda and Bergün is closed off and you can sled the entire length. To get to the top, you just take the train. Crazy! Anyway, the sled run is something like 4km long and takes about 15 minutes, I'd guess, to go from top to bottom. With rented sleds, you can end up going pretty darn fast, which seems dangerous but really isn't due to the snow all around. The only real danger comes from other sledders, many of whom decided that stopping in the middle of the run was a good idea. At any rate, it was lots of fun, and one of the most scenically beautiful places I have ever seen. I took lots of pictures (no action shots, unfortunately -- maybe Patrick has some he could send to me) so, here they are!
Fig. 7: Me, Christine, and my sled. There's a reason I'm covered with snow and Christine isn't: she's a much better sledder.
Fig. 8: How's that for scenic beauty?
Fig. 9: Christine with some sort of shaggy animal.
Fig. 10: Downtown Bergün. That is an actual horse-driven sleigh coming toward the camera. For real.
Way, way back -- before Christmas break -- I took the train to beautiful Grenoble to visit my friend Loren, who works there as a lab monkey, like me. Although Loren has made it into Switzerland (successfully) two times, this was my first trip to France to visit him. I had heard lots of talk about how awesome the city, so I was pretty excited about checking it out.
To most French people, Grenoble = the Alps. Located smack dab in-between three massive sets of mountains, Grenoble is known for its mountainy beauty. On the mountains to the north is La Bastille, a huge prison complex that was begun in the middle ages. Loren and I -- trying to recreate everything we knew about French history -- decided to storm the bastille. It wasn't the same bastille, but it was close enough.
Fig. 1: La Bastille, in Grenoble. Pretty much the ultimate snowball fort.
Fig. 2: "Les Bulles" have been bringing a taste of the future to the citizens of Grenoble for 40 years. Like the Jetsons, really.I also took this picture of a cafe that clearly had some sort of connection to the family. Immediately after I took this, though, the woman inside came out and started yelling at me. She said it was "Forbidden!" to take photos without permission. I told her she was "crazy!", she kept insisting it was "Forbidden!", I reminded her that was "Ridiculous!" A stalemate reached, she went back to the cafe. Loren followed her and took four or five more photos with his camera, but the excitement was over. What a weird experience.
Fig. 3: The forbidden photo. I'm not sure why they would forbid anyone taking a photo of their crummy cafe, but French people are a constant mystery.
Fig. 4: Would a rose in front of someone else smell as sweet?During Christmas, I went back to SD and saw the whole family and whatnot. What can I say, it was incredible. I had an unbelievable time seeing everybody and all I could wish for was that it was longer. Even though I was home for nearly two weeks, for a variety of reasons I barely got to spend time with anyone. Oh well. At least I did get to spend some time with the Neph, who -- by the way -- is ADORABLE. Want proof? Here's a pic I took of us on the Mini-Railroad in front of the world famous San Diego Zoo. Alexander loved riding the choo-choo and especially enjoyed going through the tunnel.
Fig. 5: I have NO IDEA who that crazy person behind us is.So, here's a weird story. Flying back to La Suisse, I went from LAX to London to Zurich. From LAX to London, I was seated next to an extremely stoned Australian guy who spent the whole trip sucking down those fake plastic "cigarettes" and chugging Courvoisier and Cokes (or Cro-vo-sser and Coke, as he said it). Anyway, it was miserable and I was happy to land, somewhere, anywhere. I wandered around the London airport for a bit, then headed to my gate for Zurich. As soon as the gate agent has looked at my ticket, I hear this voice say "What a coincidence!" I look up and it is none other than Andrei Garcia.
Andrei (a.k.a. "Drei2K") is a good frend from the McCullough basement crew at Stanford, and also holds the distinguished claim of being the person who took over the wheels of the Science Bus when I bailed. He was visiting his mother in Ireland, who had been working on a Fullbright scholarship. They were on their way to Salzburg for a vacation and it was just a bizarre coinicidence that we ended up on the same flight to Zurich. Fortunately, Andrei's mom let me switch tickets with her and Andrei and I had to whole flight to talk and share gossip. Here's an interesting piece of gossip: nearly everyone I know from Stanford has not left. Stanford people: what is wrong with you? Leave!!! (Not you young ones, you can stay).
Fig. 6: Me and Drei. Yes, we are dressed identically. No, that is not on purpose.OK. One final thing. Once I got back to Switzerland, I was greeted at the Zurich airport by Christine and Patrick. We hung out in Zurich, came back to Lausanne for New Year's, and then set off for Eastern Switzerland for an exciting adventure. We went to Bergün, near Chur, to go Schlitteln! What is Schlitteln? Why, sledding, of course! But not just normal sledding on some small hill, no. The road between Preda and Bergün is closed off and you can sled the entire length. To get to the top, you just take the train. Crazy! Anyway, the sled run is something like 4km long and takes about 15 minutes, I'd guess, to go from top to bottom. With rented sleds, you can end up going pretty darn fast, which seems dangerous but really isn't due to the snow all around. The only real danger comes from other sledders, many of whom decided that stopping in the middle of the run was a good idea. At any rate, it was lots of fun, and one of the most scenically beautiful places I have ever seen. I took lots of pictures (no action shots, unfortunately -- maybe Patrick has some he could send to me) so, here they are!
Fig. 7: Me, Christine, and my sled. There's a reason I'm covered with snow and Christine isn't: she's a much better sledder.
Fig. 8: How's that for scenic beauty?
Fig. 9: Christine with some sort of shaggy animal.
Fig. 10: Downtown Bergün. That is an actual horse-driven sleigh coming toward the camera. For real.
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