And so this is the suisse/schweiz/svvizzera

So the first real thing I did last night was go outside on the gästehaus patio and start talking to the other people there. I remember not a single name from the exchange but there were two turks, two dutch, and maybe a german (I wasnt drunk I just dont think he ever said and I just guessed). They were all quite friendly and talked about what a shithole PSI Gästehaus is (I think students/people just like to complain no matter where they are), but they did talk about bbqs that happened up to 3 times a week and apparently there are 250 phd students here and almost always a number of interns. They also apparently have bikes that can be borrowed for free, but sadly no free coffee (only 0.50sfr, but its the concept of free coffee that really gets me, not the actual cost) So perhaps a point to BASF on that issue, but dont worry PSI gets a plus infinity points real soon so a single win for basf doesnt mean too much. I probably stayed up too late chatting with them, but I will have plenty of time to sleep when I move into my own slightly desolate apartment.
The next morning we had orientation which started off deutsche bahn style (german message then english translation usually missing at least one key point from the german one) but after awhile they just gave up and did only german. So I learned about all sorts of Gefahren for nuclear reactors, nonionising radiation, and finally watched a tacky tacky 3d movie about global warming (the co2 molecules were like people, there was even a kissing scene, wtf?) We got free coffee and croissants, and had some discussion time so I could figure out the deal with cellphones, residence permits, food, living, and all that. I also met a student from Connecticut who goes to UVA, and did what initially sounded like a cool phd program where he split time between PSI (paul scherrer intitut, where I am now, I am bad at explaining things at appropriate times) and UVA. Unfortunately what he didnt realize was that an american phd stipend (22-30k) doesnt do all that much in switzerland where stipends are from 28k and up with 28k being nearly unsurvivable. So he had about a year and a half of subpoverty level funding, somehow he managed to still enjoy it here and gave me a goal for my living costs (think how much I could travel and ski if i could live on 26k or so)
After all this I got to meet with my advisor, Marco. He was as friendly as I remembered him despite the fact his recently purchased house was flooded with mud and rain last night. He showed me around, and to my office (I get an office, how sweet is that), and the few new staff members that came since I had last been there. He also explained how everyone in his group will be here for at least another year and some as many as 3 more years, which is quite nice (assuming I get along with all of them, should be easy enough) since I will have time to really get to know them and they seem pretty sporty. I share my office with a guy whose name sounds like bernard but isnt from the czech republic. He studied/worked on his PhD at ESNF in Grenoble, speaks 7 languages (apparently he likes dating exotic foreign women and thus learned languages to satiated his appetite), and likes running. I figure, given that I idolize him now, we will do just fine together. He also showed me to the beamline again and some entirely new setup they had built to do even higher resolution imaging and what not, it was pretty impressive to see. We then all went to lunch together at the cafeteria where the setup was almost exactly like basf, but the food was a little bit more diverse, and generally tasted better. Also they had beer, not that I wanted to drink any, but knowing that I could is a nice comfort.
After all this marco drove me to ETH so I could attend the second half of the Bioimaging summer school I am attending for the next two weeks. In the car on the way there while discussing rail passes and things my day was peaked. He mentioned the possibility of being able to fund me getting a general abo (unlimited riding on almost any train/bus/tram in switzerland for a year!!). Since uni-students can get them cheaply or cheaper perhaps if they are under 25 or something along those lines and I may have to make a number of trips to Lausanne. I was ecstatic about this. I dont know exactly what it is, but being able to travel anywhere in switzerland whenever I want for free, is pretty cool, really cool.
So finally when getting to the summer school in a great mood, I found the poster sessions (the afternoon activity) and talked to a number of people about there work and it was pretty interesting. I now feel like a quasi-expert on AFM so when I saw a poster there on it, I confidently went over and starting learning about a few really cool techniques TU Vienna people were doing to study drug interactions. From the posters it was pretty easy to see that a huge range of backgrounds were represented everything from straight signal processing to straight biology/biochem. I also got to see the updated practical session sheet which includes a few really exciting looking lectures on image reconstruction, structure determination from SEM (scanning electron microscope) images, and viral infection.
After all the posters there was a dinner prepared for us with predinner cocktails (open bar, wheee), a really nice salad, and a great meat selection. I ate far too much but since its the last free meal we get till next monday, I probably should get every pennys worth. The students were all really friendly and a few were interested in traveling this weekend (maybe paris?) and going out to bars this week (my kind of people). I also met a Russian from Siberia with just about no russian accent. I, first, did not realize siberia was actually inhabitited (winters as cold as -52C he said), and second would have guessed he was dutch or even canadian, his english was that good). He also spoke far too many languages and "only a little german" which meant he could converse fluently with one of the germans with slightly weaker english.
The male to female ratio wasnt awful, but it was markedly worse than BASF, and the BASF intern functions, I guess this is when reality starts to set in. Oh well, all in all a great start.