derektrip

I know its been a few days since I made a post. I'm back home now! For the remainder of last week we worked really hard on brainstorming for project ideas. We were taken out to dinner to a nice, very local restaurant with some very french dishes. Almost everything involves cheese. The coolest one was a block of cheese that you put under a heater, with a plate under that to catch the melted cheese, and you just eat the melted cheese with some cold cuts and potatoes & bread. The week ended with a bunch of goodbyes, and then I retraced my steps home. First it was a train to Geneva, where I did a tiny bit more shopping and then sat in a park and read my book for a few hours. Then ... read more

The week is going by pretty fast. Tibi and I are working fairly hard. The main researcher who got the funding for us to be here is keen on getting something concrete out of our visit, so we're trying to come up with new ideas and improvements for something they are already working on, in order to get a publication in the future. In the evenings we're still trying to enjoy ourselves :). Last night we went out to an Irish pub with a guy we met here who is really nice. Tonight there was a group bbq for everyone in the small part of the lab we're visiting. It was about 20 people. We had some great sausages and shish-kabob, plus wine and beer, and played some games. At times it was hard because everything ... read more

Well, I'm now in France. A really nice city at the base of the alps called Grenoble. I came here by train this morning from Geneva. I'm very quickly falling in love with Grenoble. Its a clean city, surrounded by huge mountains, appears to have quite a few parks and trees everywhere, and my hotel is particularly awesome. Getting around is much easier now that everyone speaks french instead of german. Although, people still seem to have trouble understanding my french accent. I think I'm really out of practice. I took a lot of pictures on the train, since there were some great views. Sorry the quality is not so good, I was moving pretty fast and looking through thick glass with lots of reflections. Its also very hazy out today, which you'll see in the ... read more

After getting some rest, I went out on the town tonight...looking to get a nice meal and find a cool bar to hang out. I had looked up the top bars (according to google) and so I went off in the general direction that they were in. The Restaurant: I found a restaurant that looked good, lots of people were inside and it seemed nice. I looked at the menu outside and it had all the wine & alcohol listed, plus all the desserts, but at a quick glance I didn't see any main courses. I figured I must have just missed them, as I walked inside. The hostess sat me down at a small table, and I was waiting for quite awhile to get a menu. Finally, the waitress came by, but instead of bringing ... read more

This morning I got up at 3:30 AM so I could get myself checked out and get myself to the subway, so I could get myself to the above ground train, so I could get myself to the airport, so I could get myself to Geneva, Switzerland. Needless to say, I'm pretty tired. But I just couldn't sleep after checking into my new hotel, because this city looks SO awesome. I took about 200 photos of Geneva alone, so I obviously can't put them all on here. But basically the city has a beautiful waterfront (with a water jet that shoots 500 litres of water per second, 140 meters in the air), is surrounded by mountains, and has nice clean old buildings and parks. Accept for the water jet and the old buildings, Geneva actually reminds ... read more

Hi, So the conference is now over. We had lots of fun, with 3 different receptions including all the free beer and wine we could drink :). Last night the conference dinner was even at a Brewery, and they were serving beer in glasses that we estimated to be about 1.5 litres! I've attached just one more picture, its the new soccer stadium that I passed by every day on the subway (it just happens to go above ground for a little while). The design of the stadium is pretty cool. This is where they had the first game of the 2006 World Cup. I think it would be cool to see a soccer game here, since its so popular (like hockey in Canada), but apparently its also like Vancouver in that its impossible to get ... read more

The conference has started and I don't have too much to report. I'm hanging out with some old friends that I've met at previous conferences and such. I have 1 new photo to show, but I haven't downloaded it from the camera yet. Its a big slide (4 floors high), in the atrium of the conference building, and its a valid way to get to the ground floor from the 4th floor. Its awesome. I expected it to be slow and easy going, but it was like a roller coaster ride. Nice and scary :). I'm going to try and ride it every day :). Ok, gotta go. Derek... read more