Either someone genuinely wants to welcome me back to Linköping, or these cookies have some “special” ingredients

My time in Switzerland is over, and I’m sitting here in my new apartment in Linköping. The last ten days can be described as crash landing and takeoff.

Monday, the 23rd of August: Studying for the exam in probability theory. The exam starts at 15:00, but when I get to the Professor’s office, another student is scheduled for the same time. As if I wasn’t stressed out enough… After a short discussion, I got a new time later the same evening.Four hours later I left ETH for the last time, said goodbye to the Hauptgebäude and headed home. I had passed!

Tuesday, the 24th: Packing, packing packing. Cleaning, cleaning cleaning. Meet up with Dan at the airport for a last coffee before the MD-82 took me to Stockholm-Arlanda.

Evening of 24th: Wow, was Sweden really this cold? Dad picks me up at the airport and drives me home. Home!

The next few days: Zzzzz… trying to calm down after the exam. Harder than it seemed.

This last weekend: Packing and moving to Linköping. Lots of help from my family.

Monday, the 30th of August: The semester started. I’m no longer an exchange student.

I will continue writing here, and I know that several of my Swiss friends will be reading. Let’s stay in touch!

Everything I do right now is focused on passing the exam on Monday, planning and packing will have to be done the night before I leave. Exams are interesting. I always come into a sort of high when working so focused during extended periods. All other things just fade away and my productivity doubles. The theme of the week is probability theory, I am in the process of memorizing proofs and definitions from a 130-page script. Two days until H-hour.

I have come to like oral exams, as they test more understanding than mechanical calculations. I find it easier to communicate complicated concept in, say, maths and physics, when you are talking to the professor. What I don’t like about the ETH examination session is that it is located at the end of the summer, nullifying your summer vacation. I’m going to be the palest person in my class when I come back home…

Seems like the new Yi students have got their blogs set up. It will be interesting to follow their adventures in the big world of Yi! I also really like the new front page design of our blog system. I guess that I will remain syndicated there until my return home. Follow the blogs here.

Things look bright for this upcoming semester in Linköping. I have very interesting courses in physics planned, and will also be mentoring new students (“nollan”) in the wonders of linear algebra together with Christopher. Time to meet many an old friend and live in an apartment with your own kitchen! I’m quite sick and tired of the dorm here at Meierwiesenstrasse.

Alright, enough writing for this time. Back to the probability theory…probably…

On a Monday afternoon at the Arboretum at Renti, a short promenade from Bürkliplatz we gathered for the ceremony. A lot of people from ICF had come to welcome me “home”, I felt honored that so many friends showed up.  Down with me in the water were Richard and Daniel.

The baptism itself was swift, physically it’s just down in the water and up again.

So this marks the beginning of the new life, down goes the old person, up comes the new me.

Some people had to go home for the evening, but the rest of us stayed behind for some chillin’ in the grass and barefoot football. The evening was wonderful, with a golden sunset over the lake and city. After the football match we lined up for a group photo to remember this time.

Thanks for all of you who came to this special event of mine. It meant a great deal to have you all there.

Canton of Schaffhausen – Check!

Swiss challenge
Zürich, Bern, Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Glarus, Zug, Fribourg, Solothurn, Basel Stadt, Basel Land, Schaffhausen, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Sankt Gallen, Graubünden, Aargau, Thurgau, Ticino, Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel, Genève, Jura

The Fields of Gold. Tried some new tricks with this one. There are more things in this world than sharpness and acuity

People had brought their instruments, and together with Joel’s portable amp we had an afternoon of jamming on the beachside.

The water was even warmer than the air.

Having a part of the seaside just for us was amazing; on days like these all public beaches become crowded with people.

Being a photographer, I seldom get photos of myself. But Olivia was kind enough to borrow my camera for a while. My hair was all over the place as I just had been swimming.

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Oh yeah, and as you can see, the Germans are always loud

Thanks to Noemi for inviting all of us to her place for this party. This evening and these people is what I will carry with me in my heart when I leave this country in not too long a time.

Beni had invited me to see the best sights of his home canton of Glarus.  As he had a car, we could go and see all the sights that are unavailable for train travelers like myself.

Really generous of him, I had no idea about the hidden gems this close to Zürich. Take Klöntal for instance:

The mountains are almost surreal, the Glarner people live in a tiny valley wedged between rocks that reach higher than our own Kebenekaise. These are the mountains you see from Zürich (on a very clear day) After a nice dinner with Beni’s family we went up to the wooden cross overlooking the town of Näfels. Breathtaking, to say the least. From there we could see the majority of the Glarus valley, with a half moon rising over the mountaintops.

And with this view, a tripod, flash, remote release, ,ultrawide and three funny guys this is what you get:

I took more photos than those above, but I’ll save them for another time…

“Not again”, was my first thought as I heard the alarm, before putting on my shoes and reaching for the Speed Freak. “Let’s make the best of the situation and snap some quick shots of the firemen.”

It was some automatic alarm on the fourth floor this time. (To be clear: no fire) I was a bit annoyed as I was just going to sleep. The firefighters were quickly on the scene, but really took their time in the corridor, looking through fire plans before finding the rooms.

As the fire captain searched the rooms for the non-existent fire, some of us went to chat with the firefighters standing by at the trucks. Juan was curious about the rescue ladder.

The firemen were really relaxed and funny, but had to say no to a game of Töggeli because they were on duty. The girls were “super-excited” to have all these good-looking firemen around, and they of course wanted photos.

Perhaps you recognize the guy on the right side of the frame. He’s been here before.

I know that my neighbors want to download the photos, so I’ve made it easy for you guys. Follow this link to download a zip archive, everything’s included there. Please be kind to my server. I have limited bandwidth and wouldn’t be able to cope if everyone hammered the connection. Thank you. (The link will be removed in a couple of days)

The weather was superb. 30 degrees Celsius and sunshine, and a light breeze over Lac Léman. Perfect. Music was played in almost every corner, from a bluesy trio playing tunes by Ray Charles (plus a classic Montreux song)…

…to a funky German jazz band, here performing Herbie Hancock’s funk tune “Butterfly”.

But the real reason for coming to the festival was to see Keith Jarrett.

(Photography was not allowed, so I had to borrow a stock photo)

One of the greatest pianists this world has ever seen, Jarrett, together with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack deJohnette played at 19:00 in the Stravinsky Auditorium. I won’t even try to describe the awesomeness of these musicians, my English just isn’t up to the task. A picture is a thousand words, so I believe a video clip is a few million words. Check out this (same trio as above, crazy soloing), this (solo, completely improvised) or this (solo) recording. Note that those clips are from other performances.

I was sitting in the second row, and had an unobstructed view of the whole stage and musicians. The mixing was superb, with the majority of the sound coming directly from the instruments. The second half of the performance was definitely the best, as Jarrett asked the audience to become more alive and not be afraid of interacting with the music.  The two last encores were my favorites, I will carry the melodies with me for as long as I live. Expensive concert? Yes!! Worth it? You bet. (It was a birthday present for myself)

Oh, and now I have serious bragging rights, having seen KJ live. At the Montreux Jazz Festival 2010