Oct/090
Honeymooning & Return
Hi Everyone,
We have obviously been neglecting this blog quite a bit, but no worries, because “It’s over!” … sort of. I finished my 3.5 month research term at CERN and we have both returned from Switzerland. We did however get one last trip in together, which was: our long awaited honeymoon.
Seriously… Could you stay away?
Katelyn and I hopped a train over to scenic Neuchâtel, CH. We stayed at the Beaulac hotel right on the water (a 4-star hotel), and enjoyed the most beautiful view I’ve seen in a long time overlooking the second largest lake in Switzerland, near the marina. There were all kinds of boats going in and out of dock, from yachts to skiffs to row-boats and speed-boats, as well as several really beautiful sailboats. I envy the rich… I may be rich at heart, but I’d be the happiest man alive if I was sailing the Mediterranean with Katelyn.
We went browsing through your typical European marketplace and had some food at a French/Swiss bakery, and almost immediately sat down in front of the lake to enjoy the water (an act which would have required a severe gunshot wound to keep me from). Even though the weather was clearly “more fall-like” than it had been to that point, the red, orange and yellow leaves off in the distant hills painted a beautiful picture to take in. One I would gladly suffer the high winds for again.
We ate at the hotel restaurant the night we got in, and I had some sushi (as per my usual), which was pretty decent for a fusion restaurant. Katelyn tried some goose (a meal I wish I’d tried, based on the fork sized portion I got). We watched the sunset behind the Jura mountains, and the boats bobbing calmly on the lake as the city lit up in the darkness. Romance was abound, despite the crummy wine suggestion by the maître d’.
The second day we went searching for souvenirs in the market, since Neuchatel is the birthplace* of Absinthe (* not actually the birthplace. It originated in the canton of Neuchatel, specifically Couvet). We had seen a bottle of the liquid which “summons the green fairy” in Geneva at a convenience store in a volume which we deemed “too much for testing”. The search yielded no fruit, but we managed to walk away with a few surprises for some family back home.
The concierge of the hotel suggested a few places in the market for our second supper in Neuchatel, and we decided to visit one called “Le Cafe des Halles“. Built in medieval times as a trading house, it has been converted into a beautiful restaurant/bar/cafe, with amazing food and drinks. Katelyn and I had a honey wine (sorry, can’t recall the name), Katelyn had a poached salmon (very good) with a salad, and I had some smoked salmon with fillets of perch. We both had a chocolate fondant cake for desert, and enjoyed the atmosphere immensely. The walk home was beautiful with all the renaissance buildings lit up on display.
The next day we packed up our goods and hopped the train back to boring old Geneva, where they were happy to drain us of our money once again. The trip was relatively expensive, but extremely worth it. Katelyn has many pictures of the city to show you all in her albums (which she will upload soon to picassa). Words have difficulty capturing just how wonderful a place it really was, and I advise any couples (young or old) make their way over to Neuchatel as soon as they can spare the time.
Cheers!
-Adam
Aug/090
The adventures of AAA & KRR in Geneva & Zurich
Hi all,
As I am sure some of you are mentally exhausted from reading Adam’s very informative post, I will take it easy on you for this entry and dazzle you with funny anecdotes and pretty pictures. Sound good?
As you know, my dear friend Alex-Ann (for those of you who need a refresher, she was my ‘maid of honor’/witness at the wedding), came to visit us in Europe for 10 days in early August. We did many things and went many places, but I will start with the fun that was had close to home (Geneva and Zurich), and leave Milano & Paris for the next entry.
Alex-Ann arrived on August 7th which was great time as the Fetes de Geneva (week long festival that follows Swiss National Day), were wrapping up that weekend. On Saturday I took AA to the shopping district so that she could get some souvenirs, and to see the lake and the Jardin Anglais. We actually went in to the Louis Vuitoon store (since it seems that is what everyone does in Geneva), and AA fell in love with a lovely coat which unfortunately had the price tag equivalent to 6 return trips from MTL to Geneva (part of her mourned the rest of the trip). It was a great day to be near the lake and there were tons of kiosks set up for the festivities including displays from Oman, as the Sultan of Oman was Geneva’s guest of honor for the week. That evening we gathered with our friend Paras to watch the musical fireworks – an annual event not to be missed in Geneva. It consisted of an hour long fireworks display themed to music. It was divided into three parts to reflect the music of Oman, the Oriental world, the Tropics and the Occidental. It was an amazing display, hands down the best we have ever seen (and most likely ever will see). To end the evening, Alex-Ann and Paras went wondering the streets of Geneva getting into their own adventures and misadventures.
On Sunday the 9th, we decided to take a cable car up Mont Saleve. It is called Geneva’s mountain, although it is actually in France. We went up in a little cable car and saw some great views of Geneva and the surrounding area. Unfortunately we couldn’t get a good view of the alps as it was too cloudy. AA did however manage to take a ride on a donkey! Pictures from all these Geneva events can be found in the ‘ Geneva Album 2 ‘.
On Monday the 10th AA & I headed off to Zurich for the night. It was the first time I had been on a Swiss train, and I must say I was impressed. They really are very efficient and fast, although unfortunately I did feel nauseous most of the way. When we arrived in Zurich, we realized we were completely out of our element. Since neither of us knew any German, we ended up being fairly lost most of the trip. It started with finding our way to the main lobby of the train station (since oddly the train platforms were a fair distance away from the station), then finding our way to the tram stop, then trying to understand how to pay for a ticket (we almost gave up, bud an old man luckily helped us). We finally found our hotel (which happened to be near some hilarious looking ’shops’), and were please to find very helpful people at the reception desk (they would late give us detailed directions on how to get to a restaurant). Our hotel room was huge (even though we just booked a standard twin room online). I was really envious of the room, wishing it was our apartment.
We set out with a map and found our way to the lake (yes, every Swiss city has a lake or a body of water). Unfortunately for us, weather was not on our side and it was gray, cold and rainy. We did manage to see some nice sites, and laughed at ourselves every time we tried to say the word ‘Danke’ (which means thank you), when we went into a store. We then got a dinner recommendation from Paras who said we should got to this Swiss-German pub called Zeughauskeller that served beef on a sword, so we thought why not! It turned out great (after it got sent back from being undercooked), and the roti (rosti?), and beer were great. It was a very loud busy atmosphere with everyone sitting with strangers because it was so crowded.
After the sword experience, we went to find another pub that was recommended to us because you could drink wine out of horns, in traditional German fashion. We ended up getting quite lost trying to decipher all the ’strasses’ on the map but eventually found the place in a tiny cobblestone ally that went uphill. To our dismay, it was closed on Mondays. So, we started on our way home when we saw a cute little lounge and decided we might as well have one fancy drink. This little lounge was called Wings, and decorated like an airplane. Turns out it was operated by Swiss Air and the bartenders were even dressed like airplane stewards. But, that was not all. We also made a friend- well sort of. A 58 yr old German man from Munich who offered to buy us a class of champagne. He was nice at first, albeit drunk off his ass, and he proceeded to tell us that Geneva, Zurich, and Milan (where we were going next) were all horrible places, and that we should just go to Munich. Then he started saying Alex-Ann should cut her hair to fit in with the Europeans…and it just got weirder from there. Needless to say we were glad when he decided to stumble off and we enjoyed a nice fruit drink called “Happy Landing”.
The next day, Tuesday, we were suppose to take a train from Zurich to Milan, but our train was canceled and so we were told to go to Bern, which we did, then we had to go to Brig to catch a train to Milan, which we did. Although it was a bit tiring with all the changes, and we did lose 3 hrs of our day, we did get to see a bit more of rural Switzerland (or at least I did, because AA slept a good chunk of the time). We passed by little places like Spiez (pronounced Shpits), Fich (sp?), and Thun. Some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Pictures for these places as well as Zurich can be found in the two following albums: ‘ Zurich Album ‘ and ‘ Random places between Bern & Brig ‘.
Hope you enjoy the photos! I will have another entry up for our Milan, Comolago, and Paris adventures shortly.
Also, next week Maya will be arriving and spending 7 days with us! We have trips planned to Montreux, Spiez (I will actually be off the train this time), Interlaken, Basel for a Van Gogh exhibit, Bristol UK (Adam is going for a conference), and a day in London!
Take care,
Katelyn
Aug/090
CERN from a distance
Hi everybody,
It’s your favorite male adamnode.ca author with (sound the trumpets) a post on CERN, and since this opening is becoming a little bit too radio-show host friendly with sound effects and a cheesy accent already playing in my head, I’ll get down to business.
The view from CERN entrance B.
For the uninitiated, I was sent here to Geneva, Switzerland in order to complete a research term in partial fulfillment of my M.Sc. (High energy physics) program at Carleton. I’m studying under a man named David Asner, and I’m working for the ATLAS collaboration. The ATLAS collaboration have built one of 4 gigantic (5-story high) detectors on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)’s main accelerator ring. Warning: Scientific Content ahead…
The LHC is a 27Km long ring about 100m underground which takes bunches of protons (that’s a positively charged particle found in the nucleus of every atom, and the counterpart of the electron which “orbits” it), and accelerates them to speeds which are fractions of a percent from the speed of light (99.999% I believe) in opposite directions. This process of acceleration harnesses the power of the most powerful man-made magnets on earth, and requires a tremendous amount of power and precision to perform correctly. The protons are sent in opposing directions (Clockwise, and counter-clockwise) around the LHC’s main ring, and are collided at 4 main interaction points. One of which being…
The ATLAS detector is a massive piece of machinery whose main purpose is to shine some light on the dark spots of current physical theory (specifically particle physics). The detector is made up of several detector pieces all of which take snapshots of the particles flying through them every 25 nano-seconds (that’s 25 millionths of a second). We measure the position, movement and energy of particles with hopes of reconstructing entire physical processes. The physical processes we observe (and under specified conditions) tell us what reactions and changes are allowed to happen in nature, and the higher the energy of these collisions, the more similar the conditions get to the mother of it all… The Big Bang.
Now it looks like the LHC (and subsequently ATLAS) will begin operation in early to mid November, and we will begin our lengthy process of watching the detector. We will collect billions upon billions of events, in hopes of viewing several rare occurrences as many times as we can (similar to the process of looking for good movies or TV shows to come out of Hollywood *rimshot*), but in the process, the countless number of high energy particles passing through the microchips we use to detect these particles in the core of the detector, will begin to break irreparably. And to make matters worse, they want to upgrade the LHC to increase the rate at which collisions occur, making it even more difficult to keep these detectors functioning!
A Single-Crystal CVD Diamond Pixel Detector
I can hear you asking, “Oh Adam, what can we do to keep the inner detector working so we can detect our Higgs from vector boson fusion?!” Well worry not my little saplings, I’m on the case! I’m part of a small research and development group called RD42, and it’s our job to develop a new sensor capable of withstanding the increased luminosity of the sLHC (super LHC, unfortunately I kid you not). The sensor material which we’ve chosen to work with is diamond. Home grown, incredibly high purity, 1cm x 1cm x 0.3 mm diamond. I’ve seen diamonds worth more than a house, and yet I’m still a poor graduate student…
In any case, CERN is not at all what I expected it to be like. I walked in expecting it to be a large complex of international physics collaboration, embodying the very image of “central” into its being. I expected to see people of all race and creed working together in a state of the art facility. What I saw was not quite what I was hoping for…
CERN is potentially the only organization I’ve seen intimately which remains true to it’s purpose: Science. When I walked in I saw buildings (some 50+ years old) gutted and renovated to keep up with the modern telecommunication requirements (i.e. – the internet), none of which were particularly pretty. It’s just outside of a small Swiss village called Meyrin, and is about a 5 second walk from the French Swiss border. Admittedly, some of the scenery is nice – if you can escape the overarching “warehouse” look that haunts a great deal of the facilities.
Beware food: May bite back!
The hallways are old and smell like pancakes, and most of the offices\desks (assuming you can get one, I was not so lucky) aren’t air conditioned. There are a tremendous amount of people there, most of which suffer the same homelessness that I do, and are thus forced to work from the air-conditioned library, or un-air-conditioned, yet oddly up-scale, restaurant R1. The chefs wear fancy uniforms, and the food looks amazing with it’s little garnish and fancy name, but don’t be fooled! The money is clearly going towards science…
All that being said, I have to admit: The people here at CERN are truly a community. Physicists will bring their husbands/wives and children (mostly young ones that like running up and down R1, incessantly, for hours, giggling like giddy … kids… screaming “LOOK MA! LOOK!!!” in a handful of different languages) into the complex all the time. I’ve seen entire families sitting outside enjoying a meal together, and groups of students from all over the world stay late to enjoy a beer while solving various physics problems. There’s a very intense atmosphere which entices you to work harder, and the people here are nothing but the best and brightest. It’s both a pleasure and a privilege to take part in the excitement that’s coming from the LHC’s upcoming second beam, and it’s exhilarating to help make that possible.
I will say that I miss Canada – there is definitely some culture shock which is making me a little home-sick. Geneva may be the 3rd best place to live in the world, but that knowledge seems to have an odd effect on one’s personality… And while visiting people at CERN tend to be immune to the change at first, you notice certain behaviors develop in yourself very quickly.
CERN is very much a busy place with incredibly intelligent people at the helm, but I’m just a small graduate student here struggling to be noticed. It’s somewhat disheartening to know that I will never know all 1700 scientists on the ATLAS collaboration, let alone the 6000+ scientists at CERN. I have learned an incredible amount since I’ve come here – and while I can assure you that I’m working hard in the pursuit of knowledge, know that I miss you all too and that I can’t wait to come home.
Cheers,
-A
Jul/090
Catching Up…
Hi all,
So it seems as though I have failed with my goal of adding new entries every 4-5 days. Time just seems to be going by so quickly! A few updates…
Last Friday Adam and I went to the United Nations headquarters in GVA (or I should say I convinced him to go). We had a one hour guided tour along with time in the bookshop (which I could have easily spent a lot of money in – fortunately I only have limited space in my suitcases). It was awkward getting into the UN as we had to go through security, and although this normally wouldn’t be a problem, Adam forgot to leave his dosimeter at home. For the many who have no clue what this is, it is a badge that measures the amount of radiation you receive so that you can track when you have received your maximum annual dose. The problem is of course that these security scanners use radiation, so Adam had to explain to them that if his badge went through the scanner it would receive a dose of radiation (whereas he wouldn’t) and therefore not be accurate. Well, it was about a 5 min back and forth between he and the security guard who didn’t understand. In the end he didn’t make Adam put it through the machine, but commented that he didn’t realize there was radiation at CERN (hahaha).
I enjoyed the UN tour and took quite a few pictures (see the United Nations Album). Our tour guide was pleasant and told us funny anecdotes such as the fact that the grounds of the UN used to have 14 peacocks, but unfortunately they now only have 6.5 – 7 died of disease and one got hit by a car, namely that of the former French president Jacques Chiraq, hence the .5 of a peacock. I’m not sure if Adam was impressed or not by the UN, as he did show concern for the amount of expensive ‘gifts’ that were given to the UN by other countries (paintings, statues, marble for the flooring etc), instead of having the money put towards the UN’s work, which I have to agree is a very good point.
A few days before that, Adam took me on a small tour of CERN. I went to visitors centre and picked up a book on the LHC (which includes info on ATLAS) and went to see the microcosm exhibit. The exhibit held a few scale models of various older detectors (since you cannot go underground to see experiments), as well as historical information about CERN. Adam also brought me to building 40, the new collaboration building, and we had tea with his colleague Paras at the cafeteria. Sometime in the near future Adam is going to show me the specific things he is working on in the lab. Photos can be found in the CERN Album.
Aside from the amazing pizza we had when we first moved in (pictures of the pizza and our new neighborhood are up), we have also had some great Thai food at Sam-Lor Thai (which happened to be in Geneva’s small red light district – quite interesting as prostitution is legal in Switzerland). A very safe area though, families with children walking along side women looking for clients at about 8pm. We also had Ethiopian food last week with a bunch of Adam’s fellow CLEO folk which was a nice evening. The food was great although I must say it left me sick all weekend.
I’ve done some more exploring around Geneva – some great warm days near the water. And also found a cafe that serves delicious panini sandwiches and real fruit juices. I finally received my rail pass, so am all ready for the upcoming trips with Alex-ann to Zurich, Milan Italy, and Paris. Also planning to take a train/gondola up the alps.
This evening Adam and I went to the movies to see “Up” (a funny yet sad kids show that was actually really good). Always fun to have German & French subtitles. We also made a stupid mistake at the grocery store. I was in the beverage section of the store (which has many bottles of wine, water and juices) and saw this bottle called “Eau de Vive” with huge pictures of fruit on the front and adverts about it being organic etc. The name sounded familiar from a restaurant menu as I had seen it mixed in with perier and fancy fruit juices that cost a fortune, so I figured it was a fancy type of fruit flavored water (sparkling fruit flavored water is very popular). So we decided to try some just to see what was so great about it, a bit confused as to why it was 15CHF for a large bottle (although at a restaurant you cannot get water for less than 5CHF). When we opened it at home I realized right away that it wasn’t water at all, but indeed strong alcohol. Turns out that Eau de Vive is a popular brandy made from fresh fruit which are fermented. You wouldn’t think so by looking at this clear liquid which had no mention of alcohol. And, even though our bottle had a big apple on it, I sure couldn’t taste any apple flavor in it! I guess the price should have given it away – we are just not informed on European alcohol! Now we will have to buy some real fruit juices to mix with it as I doubt we are going to use it for its real purpose, which is a digestif after meals.
By the way, if anyone has dog allergies, I’d advise you to stay away from Geneva, or I presume most European cities in general. It seems as though EVERYONE has a dog here, and the dogs are allowed everywhere – on the trams/buses, in restaurants, in the grocery stores, malls etc. Needless to say, it is only making us want a dog that much more.
In other news, tomorrow (Aug 1) is Switzerland’s national holiday. Geneva has a week of activities to celebrate the day and so there are free concerts all this week along with two firework shows (one next Saturday which lasts an hour and is themed with music), and what I find most entertaining, is that tomorrow there will be a GIANT fondue. Only the Swiss would close of one of their main bridges to have 3000 gather to taste a fondue which will consist of 500 kg of cheese and 170 liters of wine mixed together in to three big fondue stations. That, accompanied by Swiss musical performances and fireworks will surely make for an interesting evening!
Aside from the two specific albums mentioned above, keep checking the Geneva Album as we are continually adding photos there as well.
All for now,
Katelyn
Jul/090
Nostalgia, Mooncakes and DRAGONS!
喂! (Hello, for the uninitiated)
We’ve moved! We’re now officially located in downtown Geneva (semi-permanently), with cramped living spaces, and crummy internet. Luckily the tram is much more frequent and we can finally start living in a bit more of a routine. If you want our address, please don’t hesitate to email, skype, message, or call us. If you’re brave you can try guessing our address and hope we get it. We celebrated by going out for the pizza Katelyn’s been craving at a place called Pizzeria al Carpaccio (guess what they put on the pizza). It was excellent. Katelyn will update you on that later on.
As you can probably tell by the new images in the Geneva Album, Katelyn and I went out today for a little bit of fun, and many zany unexpected things happened. Firstly, we got on the tram to go to a region of Geneva we’ve been to several times before: Place du Cirque. Once there however, we began an adventure of such uncanny randomness that I would say it rivals my discovery of the superior toilet systems here in Europe (which is – by the way – a godsend to those of us who are easily amused, but I digress. That is a tale for another time…) Long story short: it involves Dragons!
- Ye (10-year) Olde Gaming Shoppe
So Katelyn suggested that we go out today to look for a gaming store I found online called Xenomorphe. They sell RPGs (Role-playing games), strategy games, and board games of varying complexity. A hobby shop if you will. So after getting lost while looking for the place, we (almost literally) bumped into it on a side street where we least expected it. They had several interesting objects for sale there that brought back several memories from my years in middle school. Some even pleasant!
They sold a great deal of merchandise from various franchises exploited in Canada and the US, (think Lizards and Labyrinths) as well as some new ones I was unfamiliar with. They had several books which haven’t yet found their way to Ottawa, and I was very pleased to see them here… until I realized they were mostly in french. So I left the store empty handed, perhaps to return with my younger brother Andrew at a later date. Bright eyed and bushy tailed… sigh.
- The business card for the Chinese tea shop
Not 10 seconds after we step outside do I notice a Chinese tea shop across the street called “Le Thé”. Those of you who know us well are aware that Katelyn and I enjoy a good tea above many things. We sat down in what was a truly authentic Chinese tea shop, and ordered mooncakes, steamed buns (with vanilla flavoring), and dragon pearl jasmine tea – my favorite!
Dragon pearl jasmine is a tea that was enjoyed by Chinese royalty. It is a perfumed tea, and consists of long jasmine leaves, rolled into tight little balls that unfurl like dragons in boiling water. It is by far the best tea I’ve ever had, from scent to taste; although it does get very strong very quickly due to the difficulty of removing the leaves from the teapot.
It rivaled the mooncake and tea I got at the Chinese cultural center in Halifax. They sold several trinkets in the shop such as little teapots, tea cups (the smaller, Chinese kind) and various, delicious teas. I will probably make a trip over there at one point to grab some boxes of tea. If you’re having trouble finding a specific tea, let us know and we might be able to help. If you ever have the opportunity (机会) to go to such a teashop, indulge yourself! You won’t regret it.
The next stop on our random walkabout was another game shop (this time specializing in various visual stimuli, rather than forcing the player to use their imagination). To our surprise, we found a whole bunch of older consoles (Super Nintendo, and Sega Genesis to name a few) along with several games from our childhood. We browsed the shop reminiscing of our childhood, and laughing about our favorite childhood games. It was a pleasant experience, again filled with nostalgia.
We walked around the “bazaar” held in Place du Cirque, and shortly glimpsed at the objects on sale there. It was basically a flea market with various antiquities (vinyls, chandeliers, gypsy clothing, and so on in a similar fashion…) but quickly found our way through it to the tram stop. We took the crowded (as always) tram a stop beyond our new home, and visited a local chocolatier in our vicinity. Let’s just say it’s a good thing our budget doesn’t allow for large amounts of delicious. We grabbed some macaroons, and enjoyed them thoroughly. Some of you may even be fortunate enough to sample some when we come back… assuming we don’t eat it all on the way home. 
In any case, it’s nearly supper time here so I’m going to stop rambling. I’ve been sitting on my responsibilities of making a CERN post for you lovely people, but I promise I’ll have that done some time in the near future. Let’s just say it will be full of surprises.
Cheers,
-Adam
Jul/090
USA, $ and Swans
Happy Bastille Day!
It seems easiest for me to update you approx. every 4-5 days so that I can include more pictures and capture more than just 1-2 events. Beware, the entries will be longer.
Last Friday (July 10th), we went to an event called “Good Evening America” which was a after work party hosted by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel – although 6 days after Independence day. We were invited by one of Adam’s colleagues who felt gypped by the un-eventful 4th of July. It was a fun and interesting night – complete with an American menu of beverages and food. Needless to say, it did not reflect US prices (hot dogs = 9 CHF, hamburgers = 16 CHF, beer = 12 CHF and cocktails = 22 CHF). Despite the steep prices, the MO bar was quite nice, and it was amusing to have one of the hotel managers continually walk by our table, give us a big smile and speak to us in English (a rare occurrence in Geneva).
Yesterday I hit one of the many H&M stores in the city to find a few more summery articles of clothing (since the temp has been 28-32 the last few days). Luckily for me, the Canadian sizes are listed on the clothing and I was able to find some pretty good deals.
Today I went and got a hair cut. I actually went to a hairdressing school and let a student do my hair (something I have never done before, but considering the crazy prices in the city and the annoying length of my hair, I gave in). It turned out pretty well, just chopped a big chunk of it off and it only cost me 24 CHF (roughly the same in CAD). The area where the school is located is an interesting one, at Place du Molard and rue du Rhone. This area, situated behind most of the major bank buildings, is a shopping paradise for people with lots of cash. Just to name a few of the stores I came across: Gucci, Louis Vitton, Dolce & Gabana, Tag, Swatch, Armani, Apple, and a bunch of other stores that are so pricey that I can’t even name them – I have never even heard of them!
I also went down by the lake to finally get a really good view of the Jet d’Eau and to walk along the wharf and through part of the English Garden. A really nice afternoon with perfect weather. I now know where we can take a boat tour which we will be doing soon. 
Earlier in the day I also took a walk by our new studio (which we are moving to this Thursday). It is in a good area, surrounded by a lot of other apartment buildings and really close to the tram line. It’s going to be very small, but I guess that’s what we have to deal with in order to move downtown and have easy access to everything (yay no more Y bus from Saint Genis!). Tomorrow we will be cleaning up the studio for the next tenant and packing our stuff up for Thursday. We are suppose to have internet in our new place so hopefully I will get a post up about it sometime on the weekend.
In other news, my friend Alex-Ann has her ticket booked to come visit in August 
So her and I are currently planning where we are going to go. We’re thinking Milano Italy. Can’t wait to see her!
Adam will be making a post soon about his work thus far at CERN – I don’t want to attempt to write about it!
Here are the links to the albums both with new photos:
Take care,
Katie
Jul/090
Cheesy
Hi there,
Yesterday was my birthday so I decided we should go have an authentic Swiss meal at Cave Valaisanne et Chalet Suisse downtown. Our reservation was for 7pm, which is still pretty early here, as we were the only ones in the non-smoking section (the chalet side as opposed to the cave side) until about 7:30pm. Most customers arrived around 8pm. From a quick glance around the room, most people were having cheese fondue, or else chicken (I now understand where Canadian Swiss Chalets get their influence; the chicken from the Chalet Suisse looks and smells amazing!)
We had received recommendations from a friend to try raclette, which we did, and we were definitely not disappointed. Raclette (derived from the french words ‘to scrape’) is when cheese (in our case fromage au lait cru) is melted and scraped on to a person’s plate, and is to be eaten with small boiled potatoes, pickles, bread, and often dried meat. We had all these things, including the dried meat, accompanied by white wine (apparently you can get horrible stomach aches if you only drink water).
The meal was extremely good and VERY filling. There were only two ways to order the raclette on the menu, either ‘a gogo’ which apparently meant A LOT of cheese, generally for a group, or else ‘a 5 services’ which means 5 servings of cheese. The waiter said the second option was best for us, and so he proceeded to bring us plate after plate of melted cheese (when one was finished, another arrived). I would have been fine with 4, the 5th really was too much and I had to get Adam to help me finish it. Although we didn’t order desert because we could barely move, their menu of ice cream was quite appealing after so much cheese.
To top it off, Adam bought me a large chocolate mousse cake from the bakery around the corner, so after coming home and waiting a few hours, we were able to have a piece of yummy cake (which I subsequently also had for breakfast today).
I would be happy to bring any visitors for a lovely cheese experience should you happen to come see us Just to entice you, I have posted pictures of the raclette meal on the Geneva album, and also pictures of the cake on the St Genis album.
Take care,
Katelyn
Jul/091
Venturing into the city
Yallo,
Contrary to what you may think, ‘yallo’ is not actually a salutation, but the name of our phone company which I am using as a salutation.
Since my last post, Adam has been doing a bunch of reading and online training for the shift work which he will be doing at ATLAS. He has also been on the hunt for a Swiss power converter for his mac – which we finally found at an actual mac store.
We have also traveled into downtown Geneva three times (about 25 mins with one bus and one tram). Although the trams are very efficient (and air conditioned!), the buses are not so easy to deal with. This is mostly because the bus we take into Saint Genis does not come as often, and there are a lot of round-abouts and crazy turns which makes the bus ride a bit nauseating.
I have started posting some pictures of Geneva in the album at the end of this entry – only a handful for now but more will follow. I’ve also added some more Saint Genis photos in the album on the previous post.
To make things a bit more interesting, we have decided to give you a top 10 list of important things we have learned in the last few days. Here they are in no particular order:
1. OC Transpo (Ottawa Transpo) should be more like the TPG (Transport Publique Genevois) – by not requiring your life story to get a bus pass, providing discounts for non-students under 25, and having a tram system which goes everywhere in the city.
2. Fresh bread is cleary the superior breakfast choice along with pain au chocolat.
3. If you bank with CIBC, notify them before traveling overseas. Adam has to call them every time he wants to withdraw money from an ATM because an attempt to withdraw money from Switzerland seems “suspicious”. RBC just assumes you’re traveling.
4. The Swiss love H&M. We’ve seen 3 stores already, two of which are less than a 5 min walk from each other.
5. That European converter you bought, won’t work in Switzerland.
6. The beds, pillows, and towels suck. The mattresses are thin and hard, the pillows small and lumpy, and the towels are clearly intended for the ‘petite’.
7. Pharmacies are not pharmacies. Drugeries are pharmacies. Pharmacies are like the cosmetics department in Shoppers Drug Mart.
8. Although there is a large selection of cheese, beware of their smell. Camembert isn’t suited for a small fridge.
9. You’re getting ripped off by Canadian cell phone providers. We can call you for the same price you can call each other! And it’s 0.05 cents/min to call anyone with the Yallo service.
10. REAL macaroons are expensive, amazingly delicious, and pretty – as is everything else in French pastry shops.
All for now.
- Katelyn and Adam
Jul/091
Settling In
Bonjour,
We have arrived safe and sound in Europe (after being seated in separate areas of the plane), and have recovered from the jet lag over the last two days.
We are staying at a residence in Saint Genis Pouilly, France, until mid-July and have settled in nicely to our one bedroom studio. Adam’s supervisor was with us for the last two days and he helped him get everything set up for his work.
We have discovered the 2-3 bakeries near our studio, and the grocery store which is about a 15 min walk away. We also had dinner at a quirky Asian restaurant that served Korean, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and also French dishes like frog legs. Although that meal was slightly odd, we also discovered a lovely Creperie (I’m missing the French accents) last night which was very good – spinach/ham/cheese or chocolate/banana crepe anyone?
We have both bought cell phones (so much cheaper here!), although we did have to battle with them for a while to get them to display English (for some reason they come set to German – it was pretty confusing!).
I have started to take some pictures of the area which are posted in the album below. More will follow.
Take care,
Katelyn
Jun/090
Wedding Bells!
Hi Everyone,
As many of you probably know, Katelyn and I got married on June 19th at the Salmon Lodge in Flatlands, NB. The weather was perfect, and our 35 guests generally spoke positively of the evening. Lots of pictures were taken and several unexpected pleasantries were had from amazing speeches by Alex-Ann Adams and my brother Matt Robichaud, to my talented aunt Jacquelin d’Eon singing “When I fall in Love” for us.
On a side note, the Salmon lodge comes with the highest recommendation from Katelyn and I as both a venue for special events and meals in general. Their staff and service are unequaled in the Restigouche region, and are very much worth the trip out. If you’re fortunate enough to try their Fiddle-head puree, you’ll understand why!
We would like to thank everyone who attended the event, and sent in their wishes of love and support. The evening was spectacular, and we definitely won’t be forgetting it. We owe it all to you; as a down payment of our appreciation, we hope you’ll accept this album of photos of the event. I haven’t had a chance to comment on the photos, but we hope you enjoy it.
Cheers,
-Adam