Swiss Wrap-up

The meeting ended, with yet another lovely three course meal served with a desire to be perfect. I had mentioned that Switzerland was expensive, and a colleague replied, “Switzerland is expensive, but you always get the service you’re paying for.” The best way to visit Switzerland, it turns out, is when the EU is paying for your lodging and meals, and the National Science Foundation your airfare.

The weather was not ideal for amazing Alpine views, but it was easy to get the point. Below are a few photos.

After three hours on a train, two flights with a lay-over, and a taxi, I made it home on Friday night. The meeting was very interesting and I began a collaboration with two electrical engineers. Hopefully we can get something out of the project we started during the meeting.

There are many wonderful things about being an academic, in particular a mathematician. One example is a meeting in Switzerland. But each night at dinner, I was reminded of my absolute favorite part of being active in mathematics research. The first night, my dinner table was occupied by an Italian, two Iranians, an Israeli, and me, an American. Think about the power of science in that context. Of the 19 people at this meeting, the participants claimed nationalities from Belgium, France, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Serbia, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States. Now that’s a dinner party.

Now it's picture time. When I got on the slopes, I realized I had forgotten my camera, so there are no skiing pictures. (Actually, I think I was still subcontiously contemplating never telling anyone I went skiing with inspiration taken from the pacifist Swiss.)

First, this is the hotel.




My room came with turn down service. They even came in once it was dark to turn on a light for you. (The first day I was confused; I was certain I had turned the lights off.)






This was the view from my room the first day. It snowed and was cloudy the whole time.




The second day, you could see a bit more into the valley.

I tried to capture the mountains across the way, but the camera couldn't really distinguish the mountains from the clouds. This is a doctored version of the photo so you can see the mountains.



Here are some other pictures from off my balcony. I love the houses.





In Austria and Switzerland, they love wood. They never paint it. If it is made of wood, it looks like wood. And they don't go through a big hassle of making it all smooth. The wood looks like wood. Here are some examples:

My room





The meeting room



The restaraunt (I apparently did not take a picture of the very intricate woodworking above the tables we sat at each night.)



the bar



Oh yeah, and look back at the picture of the hotel.

Finally, I snapped this photo on the train down the mountain. I post it here because of the cool effect. If you look carefully in the "sky" you can see me taking the photo. What you can't make out, is I'm sitting with an Iranian, or that strangely, the woman across the aisle is holding a fish bowl, whispering to the fish for the entire hour.