Tuesday: We arrived in mid-afternoon and I immediately perked up from our overnight flight when I saw the Jet d'Eau in Geneva as we were landing. It was absolutely georgeous and clear out when we arrived...one of those rare crystal clear May days in Lausanne. We went directly to EPFL and then spent a couple hours hanging out at Melody's house. We then went directly to Lutry with our luggage (thanks to traffic)! I asked if we could leave our suitcases in the caveau while we went out to the lake with a couple bottles of wine...of course, it was no problem. We then hung out in the caveau until it closed and headed to GE for a late late dinner...yeah for yummy salads!!
-Melody and Jeff's awesome house, finally all finished and landscaped
-View of the Alps from the beach in front of the house
-Joe along the lake in Lutry
-The vineyards
-GE
-GE
Wednesday: We slept in a bit, I went grocery shopping, and then I went up to the DBCM to have lunch with my old lunchmates. It was great to eat at the Italian place again and take a long leisurely lunch in the park. Then I hung out with Stéphanie & Tristan all afternoon...we played a bit in the apartment, and then we went to pick up her wedding dress! Afterwards, we picked up Joe & Manu at EPFL and headed to Stéphanie and Manu's for dinner.
Thursday: Was a swiss holiday, so I demanded that Adrian, Jen and Jacqui go hiking, but nothing too long or far away or too difficult...see, not too demanding ;) One of Jen's friends, Suzanna, and her boyfriend, Ben, also joined us on our medium 2.5h hike on 1h by train away from Lausanne to hike along the Gorge du Trient. Of course we went the wrong way and ended up under the Pissevache waterfall. Once we realized we were going in the complete opposite direction, we turned around, backtracked to Vernayaz and headed up a trail. It had lots of switchbacks and around switchback #18 I about died. Every part of my body hurt and I realized that I'm in terrible shape. Around this time, Jen realized that we were on the wrong path and instead of going up 500m, we were going up ~800m. We had beautiful weather, so I couldn't complain too much ;) We eventually hit a small town, Salvan, and took a break for lunch, where I nursed my poor feet and applied bandaids. We then headed from Salvan down the path we were supposed to have taken up the town. In the end, because we got lost, we were gone much longer than expected, so I ran running home to clean up after the hike to meet Dragana for a drink and then dinner with Stéphanie & the girls for a sort of bachelorette dinner.
Friday: We slept in a lot, after being up super late for the 3rd night in a row. I then headed up to the DBCM to have lunch with Natalie and Jyoti again. It was so nice to have lunch with them again. I really miss hanging out with them... Martha Stewart is no substitute! I then hung out in the DBCM for the afternoon trying to straighten-out the lovely discovery that HR at UTSouthwestern was not happy with my foreign PhD and I now had to get it certified. I also spent an hour with Sandoval and Yannick, working on questions about my photos that the reviewers asked about and I couldn't answer without access to the microscope and my original files. We now have answers! I then headed to EPFL and on to Melody and Jeff's house, where they graciously invited us and the lab over for a barbeque (see Kris Allen entry for photos).
Saturday: Stéphanie & Manu's wedding day!! I already blogged a bit about it, and I'll write more soon!
-The lunch gang
-Stéphanie & Tristan playing in his room
-Riding in the backseat with Tristan
-View from their apartment...I just realized this was the last time I will ever be in there!
Thursday: Was a swiss holiday, so I demanded that Adrian, Jen and Jacqui go hiking, but nothing too long or far away or too difficult...see, not too demanding ;) One of Jen's friends, Suzanna, and her boyfriend, Ben, also joined us on our medium 2.5h hike on 1h by train away from Lausanne to hike along the Gorge du Trient. Of course we went the wrong way and ended up under the Pissevache waterfall. Once we realized we were going in the complete opposite direction, we turned around, backtracked to Vernayaz and headed up a trail. It had lots of switchbacks and around switchback #18 I about died. Every part of my body hurt and I realized that I'm in terrible shape. Around this time, Jen realized that we were on the wrong path and instead of going up 500m, we were going up ~800m. We had beautiful weather, so I couldn't complain too much ;) We eventually hit a small town, Salvan, and took a break for lunch, where I nursed my poor feet and applied bandaids. We then headed from Salvan down the path we were supposed to have taken up the town. In the end, because we got lost, we were gone much longer than expected, so I ran running home to clean up after the hike to meet Dragana for a drink and then dinner with Stéphanie & the girls for a sort of bachelorette dinner.
-The Pissevache (peeing cow) waterfall in the Valais
-crap, we're on the wrong trail!
-View from one of the 37 switchbacks
-Snail on a wall
-Lunch break in Salvan
Friday: We slept in a lot, after being up super late for the 3rd night in a row. I then headed up to the DBCM to have lunch with Natalie and Jyoti again. It was so nice to have lunch with them again. I really miss hanging out with them... Martha Stewart is no substitute! I then hung out in the DBCM for the afternoon trying to straighten-out the lovely discovery that HR at UTSouthwestern was not happy with my foreign PhD and I now had to get it certified. I also spent an hour with Sandoval and Yannick, working on questions about my photos that the reviewers asked about and I couldn't answer without access to the microscope and my original files. We now have answers! I then headed to EPFL and on to Melody and Jeff's house, where they graciously invited us and the lab over for a barbeque (see Kris Allen entry for photos).
Saturday: Stéphanie & Manu's wedding day!! I already blogged a bit about it, and I'll write more soon!
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