21 - Week 3 5ieme: Un Peu de Nachtmusik - Geneve

 Friday, March 15

It was a quiet day in the office: most of the engineers worked from home and the two who came into the office both left by noon.  So I had the office to myself for most of the day with only an impressive chemistry presentation in the morning and a call in the late afternoon.  I took advantage of the time to begin synthesizing from my notes: I've taken a lot of notes, spoken with a lot of people, and learned a lot about the projects and how places work and it's about time I process that info before it begins to escape my head.  

Perhaps it's been all the social stimulation this week but it was both relaxing yet isolating to have the place to myself.  It's weird to think that it's the end of week 3, the time flies by so quick; I won't be able to play the "new guy" card soon 😂

On life's journey, I'd try to stop to smell these flowers, but they were a bit out of reach.  I'd opted to take the path less traveled from the train station to the office when I found myself walking by a playground and flowers; on sait jamais!

I'd taught a coworker about the phrase "a little pick me up", well, I needed a pick me up this afternoon.  Good thing Switzerland is simply replete with chocolate.

After work, I met up with the coworker I'd had dinner with my first week; he and his wife and invited me to Victoria Hall for a concert that they had an extra ticket for.  The concert was classic music played by a local group that serves as a Genevois version of Juliard: truly some talented fiddlers amongst those kids.  The hall itself was pretty exquisite, the lights reminded me of will-o-the-wisps and I found myself chuckling at the thought of some eccentric noble building a concert hall with posteriors instead of busts as ornament pieces.   

I was urged to go check out the bathroom at dinner, and after walking in I could see why.  With such a quiet, zen quality in the room, I'd almost feel bad taking a 💩 in there.

Apparently Patiño was a Bolivian guy who'd bought a mountain and found a huge copper vein inside.  Yeah, that would do it.

The 1st half featured two pianists followed by a soprano; the 2nd half was pieces featuring one-two students at a time.  I hadn't heard many of the pieces before but I found the juxtaposition of student pieces really fascinating: a fast, technical piece was followed by a slow, sad piece which led into a call & answer duet, etc.  I don't know if the students got to pick their pieces but count me impressed by the Menuhin Academy's talents. 

It piqued my interest when he shared his observation of me as someone who's shocked his opinion of people my generation: he said I act more like his generation.  I'm not entirely what that's supposed to mean but I think it was a compliment, so I'll take it 😆 

I'd mentioned to a friend that I'd been munching on my asparagus from the market raw and they were completely befuddled.  At their behest, I decided to try them cooked tonight.  Raw, I'd found them sweet; cooked with a bit of fleur de sel and a splash of moscato, they're even sweeter 😂