It's been a wonderful 9 weeks working here at CERN, and it's over now. I'm sitting at a public terminal in the main building with my suitcase and am getting ready to head off to the train station to jump on a train and then, later tonight, meet Mom, Dad & Jess in Zermatt.
It's hard to believe that it's all over now. There was a lot to do yesterday, including getting my uber cool summies t-shirt (I'll post a picture once I'm home) picking up my final payment, handing in my CERN ID and keys, having a "goodbye" beer with Dan at Restaurant 1 and finishing a bag of (delicious!) curry potato chips Nathan found at COOP. I printed out some reading for the train to get ready for my independent study this fall and felt slightly naughty using the HEP (high energy physics) printers to print out my AMO (atomic and molecular optics) reading.
This seems like the right time to wax nostalgic and give some grand overview of the summer, but there's no time for that... another adventure awaits in the Alps!
16 August 2008
13 August 2008
Swiss Bank Account
I've got to say, CHF1000 bills are pretty.
In part of my preparations to leave CERN on Saturday, after presenting my work this morning (this week's second presentation of three), I closed my Swiss bank account. It seemed like the end of an era - granted it was only two months - but I had become accustomed to saying, with a grin, that I had a Swiss bank account. It was all the more awesome because, lately, people are aware of Swiss bank accounts from more than just movies and books. In February, extra attention was drawn to Swiss bank accounts (and those of other small European countries like Lichtenstein) when a German tax-evasion scandal came to light.
My interactions with the Swiss banking system (through UBS - which, incidentally, like CERN is an acronym that no longer has any meaning) were rather mundane. When I opened the account, the most interesting thing to me (other than having to sign lots of legalese in French) was that my initial pin code was behind a sticker instead of the scratch off I was expecting. I had to remove the sticker and then hold the paper up to a light to read the code. My bank card was also surprisingly plain. There was no picture, just the essentials: my name, the account number, a few things about UBS, and the magnetic strip. The most exciting thing was that the Bank-O-Mats (ATMs) distributed both Euros and CHF. Oh, and I had to present a passport any time I wanted to make transactions at the desk.
When I closed the account today, I was given the balance in cash - including a pretty CHF1000 bill. CHF1000 bills are purple and considerably longer than the punier bills. They know they're important.
Note to the reader: If you're thinking about finding that cash in my room, think again. I only had it for 30 minutes, if that. I walked over to the hostel desk as soon as I had finished at the bank and paid the most of of my housing bill for the summer.
In part of my preparations to leave CERN on Saturday, after presenting my work this morning (this week's second presentation of three), I closed my Swiss bank account. It seemed like the end of an era - granted it was only two months - but I had become accustomed to saying, with a grin, that I had a Swiss bank account. It was all the more awesome because, lately, people are aware of Swiss bank accounts from more than just movies and books. In February, extra attention was drawn to Swiss bank accounts (and those of other small European countries like Lichtenstein) when a German tax-evasion scandal came to light.
My interactions with the Swiss banking system (through UBS - which, incidentally, like CERN is an acronym that no longer has any meaning) were rather mundane. When I opened the account, the most interesting thing to me (other than having to sign lots of legalese in French) was that my initial pin code was behind a sticker instead of the scratch off I was expecting. I had to remove the sticker and then hold the paper up to a light to read the code. My bank card was also surprisingly plain. There was no picture, just the essentials: my name, the account number, a few things about UBS, and the magnetic strip. The most exciting thing was that the Bank-O-Mats (ATMs) distributed both Euros and CHF. Oh, and I had to present a passport any time I wanted to make transactions at the desk.
When I closed the account today, I was given the balance in cash - including a pretty CHF1000 bill. CHF1000 bills are purple and considerably longer than the punier bills. They know they're important.
Note to the reader: If you're thinking about finding that cash in my room, think again. I only had it for 30 minutes, if that. I walked over to the hostel desk as soon as I had finished at the bank and paid the most of of my housing bill for the summer.
04 August 2008
Update!
Liz recently (gently) reminded me that I haven't posted in about two weeks. She's right - I owe you an update, even if it isn't as complete or as artfully constructed as some of my previous posts! So, let's travel back a week and a few days to...
July 25-27: I visited Thun. Thun is a city in the Bern canton, a few stops before Interlaken on the train after changing at Bern. More importantly, it's where the Aergerters, a Swiss family that I know through one of my friends from U of R, live.
Thun is not as touristy of a city as Interlaken or Bern, so for these three days, I had a taste of real Swiss life in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. It was amazing. The Aergerters went beyond "hospitable" and treated me like one of their grandchildren. (Mrs. Aergerter even dug through the attic to find a pair of American flags to put by the bed I slept in!) They took me for drives in the surrounding countryside, told me stories about their daughters, introduced me to the staff at one of their favorite restaurants and tried to teach me a bit of Switzerdeutsch, the local dialect of German. If I cleared my plate, I'd be given more with a word or two about my being young and needing more food. (I learned by Sunday how to say "I'm full" - Ich bin satt - which worked better than trying to convince them in English that I had had enough!).
July 30: Jazz concert in the park! I went into downtown Geneva with two other people to go for dinner and a free Jazz concert by Lac Leman. We went to Les Brassieurs, a restaurant by the train station, to eat Flamenkush, which is a (from what I understand) a Swiss adaptation on pizza with a tortilla-like crust and without tomato sauce. After dinner ended, we went on a chocolate quest and walked to a park on the other side of the lake where the concert would be held. Les Fêtes de Genève were just getting started as we walked through, with carnival rides, food vendors, other free music and people watching galore. We stopped to smell the roses in the rose garden in the park before finding our way to the Ella Fitzgerald Stage for the concert. We sat with a bunch of other summer students who we found once we arrived at the concert.
August 1: Friday was Swiss National Day and the fireworks for it completely outshown anything I've seen in the States. It was an amazing display with groundworks galore by the statue of the reformers in Parc de Bastion.
August 2: After a lazy morning, I went into old town for an organ concert at 6pm. The first full set of pieces that we heard was some organ suite by Poulenc, which was in a distinctly different (and considerably harder to love) style playing with atonality on the edge of tonality than the other Poulenc that I know (namely, one of my favorite flute pieces of all time - Poulenc's Sonata for Flute & Piano). After walking around for a bit, I had dinner after the concert at a creperie right next to the cathedral.
August 3: Mom, Dad & Jess arrived at the airport early this morning from NJ! It was great to see them. After dropping off their luggage at their hotel, we went to Jardin Botanique (Dad liked the little of the math exhibit that we saw there - mentioned in my post from July 15) where Mom and I struck up a multi-lingual conversation with a couple from somewhere in Northern Spain. After that, we visited the UN together.
July 25-27: I visited Thun. Thun is a city in the Bern canton, a few stops before Interlaken on the train after changing at Bern. More importantly, it's where the Aergerters, a Swiss family that I know through one of my friends from U of R, live.
Thun is not as touristy of a city as Interlaken or Bern, so for these three days, I had a taste of real Swiss life in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. It was amazing. The Aergerters went beyond "hospitable" and treated me like one of their grandchildren. (Mrs. Aergerter even dug through the attic to find a pair of American flags to put by the bed I slept in!) They took me for drives in the surrounding countryside, told me stories about their daughters, introduced me to the staff at one of their favorite restaurants and tried to teach me a bit of Switzerdeutsch, the local dialect of German. If I cleared my plate, I'd be given more with a word or two about my being young and needing more food. (I learned by Sunday how to say "I'm full" - Ich bin satt - which worked better than trying to convince them in English that I had had enough!).
July 30: Jazz concert in the park! I went into downtown Geneva with two other people to go for dinner and a free Jazz concert by Lac Leman. We went to Les Brassieurs, a restaurant by the train station, to eat Flamenkush, which is a (from what I understand) a Swiss adaptation on pizza with a tortilla-like crust and without tomato sauce. After dinner ended, we went on a chocolate quest and walked to a park on the other side of the lake where the concert would be held. Les Fêtes de Genève were just getting started as we walked through, with carnival rides, food vendors, other free music and people watching galore. We stopped to smell the roses in the rose garden in the park before finding our way to the Ella Fitzgerald Stage for the concert. We sat with a bunch of other summer students who we found once we arrived at the concert.
August 1: Friday was Swiss National Day and the fireworks for it completely outshown anything I've seen in the States. It was an amazing display with groundworks galore by the statue of the reformers in Parc de Bastion.
August 2: After a lazy morning, I went into old town for an organ concert at 6pm. The first full set of pieces that we heard was some organ suite by Poulenc, which was in a distinctly different (and considerably harder to love) style playing with atonality on the edge of tonality than the other Poulenc that I know (namely, one of my favorite flute pieces of all time - Poulenc's Sonata for Flute & Piano). After walking around for a bit, I had dinner after the concert at a creperie right next to the cathedral.
August 3: Mom, Dad & Jess arrived at the airport early this morning from NJ! It was great to see them. After dropping off their luggage at their hotel, we went to Jardin Botanique (Dad liked the little of the math exhibit that we saw there - mentioned in my post from July 15) where Mom and I struck up a multi-lingual conversation with a couple from somewhere in Northern Spain. After that, we visited the UN together.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)