Day 5 in the Zurich Youth Hostel is coming to a close. I checkout by 10am tomorrow, at which point I'll go over and crash with one of the current students in the program I'm joining. Hopefully from there it won't take too long to find an apartment of my own.
So far I've focused on checking things off my to-do list, so wandering around the city has been limited to walking the long way around between the train station and wherever I'm going for errands in between the stretches of hunting the internet for somewhere to live. I can say that the lake is pretty - looking out down Lake Zurich with the blue sky over the gradually fading rows of mountains in the distance. Not a bad place to find a park bench on which to eat lunch.
Anyhow, not a lot to share yet, but I'm doing well and still looking forward to the next 16+ months and whatever it may bring! Onward and upward. Up the stairs, that is. To bed.
Showing posts with label switzerland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label switzerland. Show all posts
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
The wheels on the bike...
...go 'round and 'round, 'round and 'round, 'round and 'round. The wheels on the bike go 'round and 'round, but now I've finished riding it and shipped it back to Ohio so I can move to Zurich. While the visa process has not been as cooperative as I'd hoped (I fly out tomorrow afternoon and it was not yet in as of two days ago), the move is beginning to take shape. After 15 days and nearly 1100 miles of biking in the Rockies plus a few days with the family at Priest Lake in Idaho, I'm back in Chicago for the night before flying out of O'Hare tomorrow.
Theoretically, I'm coming through Chicago to pick up my type D (long term) visa from the Swiss Consulate General here in town, but it seems to be taking longer than anticipated and is probably not ready. Worst comes to worst, I go over there on a tourist visa and get that "upgraded" to the type D once it comes through. Hopefully by the beginning of next week I can register for classes at U Zurich (UZH), find an apartment within 2 or 3 weeks, and get my residence permit by the time classes start on September 17th.
Clearly I did not manage to post any updates during the bike trip. Being away from the internet was both a blessing and a curse - I might have made a little more progress in expediting my visa process had I had internet, but without it I was forced to completely back off from thinking about Switzerland and focus on the time at hand. For a brief pictorial summary (less than 10% of pictures taken are in this album), I have some photos up on a facebook album. Maybe some time soon I'll get more up on picasa for a little better accessibility. Had some hard climbs, annoying headwinds, and long days, but it was a good 15 days spent in good company. And now, after getting used to 5 meals a day, my body is telling me it's time to eat after a pretty meager couple of snacks through today's traveling across half of the country.
Theoretically, I'm coming through Chicago to pick up my type D (long term) visa from the Swiss Consulate General here in town, but it seems to be taking longer than anticipated and is probably not ready. Worst comes to worst, I go over there on a tourist visa and get that "upgraded" to the type D once it comes through. Hopefully by the beginning of next week I can register for classes at U Zurich (UZH), find an apartment within 2 or 3 weeks, and get my residence permit by the time classes start on September 17th.
Clearly I did not manage to post any updates during the bike trip. Being away from the internet was both a blessing and a curse - I might have made a little more progress in expediting my visa process had I had internet, but without it I was forced to completely back off from thinking about Switzerland and focus on the time at hand. For a brief pictorial summary (less than 10% of pictures taken are in this album), I have some photos up on a facebook album. Maybe some time soon I'll get more up on picasa for a little better accessibility. Had some hard climbs, annoying headwinds, and long days, but it was a good 15 days spent in good company. And now, after getting used to 5 meals a day, my body is telling me it's time to eat after a pretty meager couple of snacks through today's traveling across half of the country.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Riding, Reviving
Bon Bon on a Bike is about to come back! After just over two and a half years in Chicago, this guy's moving on. Back in March I applied for a few master's programs in Europe to study Biomedical Engineering. I was fortunate enough to get accepted by all three programs (TU Delft in the Netherlands, Aalborg in Denmark, and U Zurich in Switzerland), but ultimately the Alps won out.
The past two months have been a blur - two weeks in Minnesota for camping and canoeing the Boundary Waters with Nate, Mitch, and Amber, several weekend trips for family reunions and weddings, wrapping up work projects as much as possible, trudging through the paperwork to get a Swiss visa, figuring out how much stuff I can afford to take/get rid of/leave, training for a half-marathon (finished in 2hrs 10mins!), tweaking my bike setup to optimize for touring, planning said tour between Pueblo, CO and Priest Lake, ID (via Kalispell, MT), and on top of all that desperately trying to learn as much German as I can before being plopped down into an intimidatingly multilingual country. Whew!
With only three days left in Chicago, it's probably time to buckle down on packing - right now there are only three boxes packed. With the advent of this Next Step, I'm reviving this blog. Hopefully I'll get a few entries in during the bike trip, and will keep on posting while I settle into my first international move as an adult (not counting SST). So on to further adventures and the next stage of life!
The past two months have been a blur - two weeks in Minnesota for camping and canoeing the Boundary Waters with Nate, Mitch, and Amber, several weekend trips for family reunions and weddings, wrapping up work projects as much as possible, trudging through the paperwork to get a Swiss visa, figuring out how much stuff I can afford to take/get rid of/leave, training for a half-marathon (finished in 2hrs 10mins!), tweaking my bike setup to optimize for touring, planning said tour between Pueblo, CO and Priest Lake, ID (via Kalispell, MT), and on top of all that desperately trying to learn as much German as I can before being plopped down into an intimidatingly multilingual country. Whew!
With only three days left in Chicago, it's probably time to buckle down on packing - right now there are only three boxes packed. With the advent of this Next Step, I'm reviving this blog. Hopefully I'll get a few entries in during the bike trip, and will keep on posting while I settle into my first international move as an adult (not counting SST). So on to further adventures and the next stage of life!
Sunday, April 1, 2012
April now
As of a few weeks ago, I am officially an applicant for master's programs in Delft, Netherlands (BME), Aalborg, Denmark (BME), and Zurich, Switzerland (Neural Systems and Computation)... should hear back in two months or so (to start this fall). As of last Wednesday, I have finally renewed my studio membership for ceramics after two months off. As of yesterday morning, I now have a nephew, Ozias. As of right now, I should go clean up my dishes/etc from dinner so I can go to bed soon and get up for work in the morning.
Short post, yeah?
Short post, yeah?
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