14 - Week 2 5ieme: Friday Night Lights - Geneve

Friday, March 07

It was a long day today but a good day at work.  I was out the door just after 7 to make it to work by 8 so I could listen in to a chemist's presentation at 8:30.  I could pay close attention to two of his subjects and intend to follow-up with him later on them, the other 4 subjects were too deep in chemistry for me to follow and I had to pace around the office to keep from snoozing 😆 

The rest of the day was conversation: about the simulation tool, meeting a new chemist, and about how things operate at this site (concerning coordination among teams).  It was a neat surprise to discover that two of my colleagues collected coins and didn't know that of each other, so I was happy to make the connection 😆 That left just a little bit of time for answering emails at home base and summarizing my first two weeks.  My bosses hadn't asked me for a progress report but it was my first time officially putting pen to paper regarding how I define my objectives for this trip to be successful and where I stand.  Unfortunately, one of the objectives was to meet with a bunch of scientists and the list has only grown in the past two weeks.  It's ok, I'll make it up towards the end!

Getting some of that Friday afternoon breeze to keep fresh towards the end of the workday.  

The train commute home is pretty convenient.  It lets me type on my phone while closing the gap home 😆  My plan for tonight is to rest tranquille.  I've got my visit to CERN scheduled tomorrow afternoon (I'll give Uber a whirl rather than rent a car) and I think I can manage a short museum visit afterwards.  Additionally, I have a ticket for a piano concert tomorrow evening, though I thought I'd booked it for tonight 😅 maybe I need to sleep in a little tomorrow to catch up.  My circadian rhythm has me running on fumes around 2:30 at the office so a little extra sleep could go a long way.  

Since I didn't have plans for the evening, I decided to take a walk in a different direction from the gare.  I don't intend to get lost but let's see another part of the city I haven't tackled yet! 

Working my way through the section of town called Les Grottes, I stumbled across a lizard.  It reminded me a bit of the mozaic salamander in Barcelona but this one was more reserved and had 1000x fewer people milling around it.  Then I traversed the mildly lit Parc Beaulieu (pretty place); there were a few groups just hanging out and chatting in the dark.  I'm not so sure it was worth writing home about but it was surreal to find a bit of nightsky.

Walking back along the road, I noticed contrasting styles of buildings.  Modern, pragmatic, yet stylish vs modern, stylish, yet pragmatic.

The tram I took stopped due to a traffic accident ahead and the operator let everybody out just in front of les Halles on the Rhone.

Working my way to the other Belair station, I took a moment to admire the lit Jet d'Eau.

I ended up taking dinner at a small little restaurant near me called L' Écorse; the place served some fancy food and was very tasty.  At the entrance, there was a little plaque boasting of a Michelin review, so I supposed I was in for a gourmet treat.  And I think aside from having to have good food, I think what puts a restaurant on the list for Michelin stuff is presentation and creativity: I received a few small treats as amuse-bouches or digestifs on top of my entrée and main plat.  

Foamy fish with transformed green beans and charred endives.  For dessert, du fromage.

While dining, I had plenty of time to reflect and found my thoughts wandering back to the train ticket thing.  At lunch today, someone mentioned it should be possible to get a demi-tariff card for two months; looking into I realized that the price difference between a 1-month demi-tariff and 1-year is 120 vs 190 CHF.  I'd been hesitant to grab the 1 month because it wouldn't cover my entire stay; but silly me, I should have gone straight for the 1-year subscription.  Doing a woulda-coulda-shoulda analysis: by buying my cartes journalieres without the subscription, I payed 12CHF more than if I had it.  Multiply that by 7 (I got a little carried away since I knew I'd be traveling at least those specific 7 days), that's 84CHF saved.  Add on top that I will likely have a few shorter train trips to nearby cities, that's around another 50CHF saved.  THEN factor in that scenic trains (like that to the Aletsch Glacier) cost up to 200 CHF, it's looking like it would've been a blow-out for the demi-tariff.  🤯

But all is not lost, I can still get the card and benefit from it considering I fully intend to visit the Aletsch Glacier.  I won't have planned my travel costs optimally but that's just the price of not knowing ahead of time.  Switzerland puts a premium on reserving tickets ahead of time, so I don't think I was acting completely irrationally.