35 - Week 5 5ieme: Oh la vache! - Geneve & Lausanne

 Friday, March 28

It finally happened: I was a few minutes short of catching the tram and thus a minute late for the train to the office.  Fortunately, it wasn't a big deal and I took coffee at the station before grabbing the next train 30 minutes later.  

I was just beginning to settle in and relax after my coffee and pastry when I realized that almost twenty minutes had elapsed.  I quickly packed up lest I miss the train again 😅 

Today was a quiet day in the office and I spent most of it pouring over my schedule, trying to find ways to fit in meetings with people in my last two weeks.  I think I've got all but 1 person on my list accounted for at my local site and will need to pick two days to visit the facility in Meyrin.  

Apparently this damn (la barrage) will be conducting maintenance in May, which involves opening up the sleuce gates to purge accumulated sediment.  The quality of river water will affect the plant downstream, so the site will also need to shutdown for maintenance.

The evening kicks off the weekend festivities: I'm headed to Zurich with one of my friends from work!  We caught the train to Geneva together and had dinner at a place he'd told me about: Holy Cow!  It's a straightforward burger & fries joint that he says offers much needed satiation after his Ramadan fasting.  It was a seriously filling meal, for sure; though I won't be skipping fluids or lunch tomorrow 😅 

He wasn't kidding, this thing was costaud and kept me full the rest of the evening despite eating much earlier than I usually do.

Bon appetit, mon ami!  I can attest that Holy Cow is a Swiss institution worth preserving; more of these, fewer secret bank accounts.

I spent the night at his place, a little bit outside of Lausanne.  It's super nice of him to have invited me to stay over, both the generosity of hosting and the practicality of saving an extra hour on the travel tomorrow morning.  It was also interesting to see his bachelor pad, the feral cat just staring at us through his patio door, and chitchatting about Egyptian vs US cities.  As a guest, I was treated to luxurious Egyptian cotton bedsheets and bath towels!