It's Done!

I apologize for the lack in updates (again).
The past month has been nothing but pure work and studying.
But I'm proud to say that I am officially done with exams and papers. I have just gotten my results back from my last quarter of grad school and I've passed with flying colors; even better I got the best grades out of my other semesters which was very surprising considering I worked 30 hours and had two 8 am classes. As you can imagine it was an extremely tough semester and there were times where I wanted to break down but I'm really glad I pulled it through and I'm extremely happy with my results.

I still have the thesis left so I can't celebrate just yet, but it's a sigh of relief that I don't have to study for another test on sustainable development of renewable energy initiatives!

Now is a time of transition for me; I'm currently in limbo between working full time and still being a student. I will have to make big changes in the coming months and needless to say a lot of work needs to be done. But up till now I'm very happy and have no regrets on the steps I have taken the last 3 years. I have learned an enormous amount and I can't be more satisfied of coming to study in Geneva. I'm a bit apprehensive of what awaits next but at the same time I'm excited of where I am about to go.

I think for now I have to figure out the basics. For the past 3 years, I never really had a weekend since they were used for studying whether it was for GREs, catching up on reading, or reviewing lecture notes. So now that I have proper weekends, I'm a bit confused on what I should do. Is it bad that I spend my weekends sleeping and watching TV? Or should I be out enjoying the world? Any suggestions are welcome on weekend ideas!

Thank you for all your support, hopefully in the coming months I can keep you updated on more on my career and thesis progress (eek)

Buvette des Bains

So it may seem odd that I have been in Switzerland for over three months but never had fondue this time. To clarify, fondue is not a casual occasion. First of all, fondue is a group activity - you can really do fondue alone. Well, you could but it's quite lonely and the bigger the group the more fun it is. Secondly, it's not cheap (as is everything in Switzerland) so you can't exactly have it every week. And, we've of course fondue is perfect in cold weather. As we've had a long summer this year, we had to wait until it was prime season to enjoy the dish.

Luckily one of our classmates organized the event for his birthday so we had great fun at Buvette des Bains  at Bain des Paqûis. Frankly, it's not a fancy restaurant - if you prefer to have fondue in a more traditional Swiss setting, there's a lot of other choices around the city. Nevertheless, this venue is situated above Lac Lehman and has a bit of a cozy setting. It reminds me of one of the winter time bar outdoor extension bar places in Seoul. I saw a lot of English speaking expats fondue-ing away with their coworkers but also lot of local Swiss families and groups of friends all huddled around the pot.

 

 

It was towards the end of the semester so it was great gathering with all my classmates together. Yup, group fondue is the best. 

Fondue is 23CHF which is quite a deal around here. A bottle of wine is 35CHF.  You can also have fois gras and fresh oysters (6 for 10 CHF). I highly recommend the oysters. They're fresh and refreshing after having so much bread with cheese.

School Life

I apologize for the massive delay in posts once again! 

School has finally started. My program has 13 people and we have all of our classes. Initially I would've favored a total class around 80-90 but that creates a few factions among the group where as we don't really have the numbers to form such things (at least for now).  I like that we have kind of a strong alliance since we are such a small program. 

  I'm very much amused that we are a diverse group that comes from all walks of life. This is also true in our nationalities and the languages we speak. Of us, we comprise of 11 nationalities (including those that have 2+nationalities) and speak 15 languages total. Talk about globalization? 

More to come on what I am specifically studying and my curriculum but for now, here are some pictures of my dear school. The best part about campus is that it's a 7 min walk from my flat. Nothing beats a short commute. And of course, our main campus building is quite nice as well...except reminds me a bit of the death star building at UC Davis because the classrooms are tricky to find!