46 - Week 7 2ieme: Liquid Confiance - Geneve

 Tuesday, April 8

It's weird to think that I'm still meeting some people on-site after 6 weeks, and yet here we are.  I had two very interesting conversations today: one was with a chemist who grew up near Interlaken and the other with an asset manager.  With the chemist, he told me a bit about his history and career with the company but really he was most excited to give me suggestions about things to visit in the Berner Oberland.  It must've been 20 minutes of work talk before he unleashed a torrent of excited recommendations of things for me to see and do around Interlaken.  Two of the items I'd already heard about but I appreciated his recommendations for rainy day activities too as a back up.  

I felt bad having to eventually tear myself away from the chemist, I didn't want to stop him but I was late to have lunch with the asset manager.  Turns out asset manager's role is to examine equipment availability around the world and balance production portfolios and recommend investment money.  So talking with him was super useful for my own perspective and I get the feeling it won't be the last time I talk with him as I try to convince people to fund my projects.  

My final conversation was with a Belgian chemist-turned-manager.  Someone had mentioned to me that it'd be best to talk in English with the guy, and I think they were right: he talked as fast as a New Yorker, even in English.  Still, it was another meeting that ended up going long because learning about his group and his job was utterly fascinating.

After work, I went out to dinner with a couple colleagues.  We went to a small town in France near CERN and had some beers and food.  I got to try une biere panaché, which is a lager blended with French limonade (which isn't the same thing as American lemonade).  They split a flammekuche (a regional flatbread item) while I enjoyed a choucroutte (I felt a bit guilty that my choucroutte included a bunch of pork with turns out neither of them would eat).  Dialog with beer this evening might be the closest I've heard to actual gossip; I think it was valuable info to seeing what's behind the curtain but I'll take it all with a grain of salt.  

The suitcase is almost fully packed.  I've made the executive decision not to pack the snowpants, I'll say the skiing season is done for me.    

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