Sunday, December 31, 2006

New Year's Eve in Florence

Florence, Italy

We spent New Year's Eve in Florence Italy. Again, we wandered around aimlessly, somehow managing to run into countless cathedrals, piazzas, palazzos, and yummy bakeries. The amount of marble spent on these cathedrals could build entire planets. This is a bit excessive given that all of Florence could be sitting inside one cathedral and it could still look empty. After strolling around the streets in the morning, we hit the Uffizi to see some Renaissance art. They had a special exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci and an exporation of both his artistic and scientific mind. We treated ourselves to a fine dinner in a piazza (in the rain) and then watched the New Year's fireworks at midnight from a bridge over the River Arno.






Saturday, December 30, 2006

Zurich -> St. Gallen -> Friedrichshafen -> Pisa

5 cities and 3 countries in 1 day = 2 tired girls

After 2 days in Zurich, we were ready to get out of the cold and jet off to Italy. Being cheap grad students (or unemployed in my case), we decided to go for RyanAir's ridiculous $80 round-trip flight from Friedrichshafen, Germany to Pisa, Italy. Of course, that meant getting to Friedrichshafen, which is 2 hr from Zurich by train + boat ferry. Our flight wasn't until 5 pm, so we decided to stop off in St. Gallen to check out the cathedral and abbey library. The library is one of the world's oldest libraries and features books from as far back as 800 A. D. (No pictures were allowed inside, though).

P looking sleepy in the cathedral

After a couple hours in the rococo paradise that is St. Gallen, we hopped back on the train to Romanshorn, Switzerland, where we caugh the ferry across foggy Lake Constance to Friedrichshafen, Germany. At the airport in Germany, we learned (1) how terrible an airline can get when it offers you tickets for 5 euro + tax, and (2) how hard it is to make a phone call in Europe without a calling card.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Uetliberg: Planet walk


On our second day in Switzerland, we decided to get out of the city and do a little hike in the hills surrounding Zurich. We took the train to Uetliberg and did the "Planet Walk", which amusingly enough, takes you past a scale model of the Solar System. While the planets were not as exciting as one would think (we missed a Jupiter of all planets), the views of the mountains, lake, and Zurich were stunning.



Thursday, December 28, 2006

Pictures from Zurich




Our first day in Zurich was spent wandering around aimlessly but somehow managing to stumble into the main attractions even if we didn't know what they really were. Our cluelessness was partially due to the fact that we arrived into Zurich airport at 7 am after a whole day of flying, but we couldn't check into our room at the Zic Zac "Rock Hotel" in medieval Old Town Zurich until 2 pm. We spent part of the afternoon in the Kunsthaus museum and then, after a checking in and getting a much-needed shower, went out for some ridiculously expensive (and not that great) Swiss cuisine.

Audrey hides behind a newspaper on the train from the airport

Audrey and Patricia acting like silly foreigners

P saying "Peace, yall!" in some snazzy shades

Switzerland: Zurich

For those of you who don't know, I am on my post-graduation travels in Switzerland. I flew from Baton Rouge to Dallas to Zurich from Dec. 27-28. I met up with fellow Stanford alumns Patricia and Audrey in Zurich, where we are staying for two days before we head off to Florence, Italy via Friedrichshafen, Germany and Pisa, Italy. Zurich so far is beautiful but cold and expensive. The kezbaords in the internet cafes are also annozing because the kezs are in different places+%&รง"*!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

2 signatures down, 1 to go...

The Mathies Fall 2006 Ph. D. Line-Up






Sunday, October 15, 2006

New Byron Bay post

So, back in Berkeley, I'm making progress on my Ph. D. dissertation... I only have a chapter or so left to go. I also finally cleaned my room and cleared out the mess I left behind went I left in a flurry for Australia and the mess I created when I dumped all my belongings when coming back.

I also finally got around to posting some pictures and commentary about my Byron Bay weekend trip that I took right before my research in Brisbane wrapped up.

For the sake of chronology, I back-posted the blog entry to the proper date. Check out my surfing and other interesting adventures here.

Oh, and if anybody's still reading this blog, feel free to give a shout out in the comments.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

This is what....

This is what trekking around Australia and New Zealand for 3 months will do to your shoes...

Saturday, September 23, 2006

UQ: These were the people in my neighborhood

The lair of JJ's Secret Squad

Despite what you may infer from this blog, I actually spent the a fair portion of my time in Australia in the lab at UQ. So you may be wondering, "Just who were these shady people you were hanging out with?"

Well, these were none other than JJCW's Secret Assassins Squad.

Above is a picture of the doorway to their lair, or at least it used to be. If you go there now, there won't be anybody there! This is how shifty those guys are.

Now that I am safely back in Berkeley, I can reveal true identities of JJ's secret squad without fear of retribution:

Below is Elisabeth, a French national trained in the deadly art of slide-tackling. Don't call her "crazy" if you value your legs.

Elisabeth says "Helloooooo!" to her little droplets

Below, on the left next to Elisabeth, is Meilani. Meilani is a Indonesian student at UQ who is actually studying abroad at Berkeley, but was working at UQ for the summer. That's right, I went all the way to Oz to share an office with someone who went to Oz then Berkeley then Oz (and back to Berkeley). Confused yet?

Meilani and Elisabeth plotting their next victim

Below are the tag team duo of Lien and Mike. Mike is a Canadian assassin who can throw around lethal Canadianisms like "hoser" and "eh" with nary a guilty conscience. Lien is Mike's henchwoman. Her secret power is her paralyzing "Hand of Chau," which she practices on innocent Australian males.


Below is shiny Shiny, an Indian assassin trained in the art of deconstructing the egos of Indian men.

Below is Lucy a.k.a. Lucy Lawless, St. Lucia, Lucifer, or "the Pride of Townsville." Lucy was my mentor for all things microfluidic. I first met Lucy at a conference a few years ago, where Lucy announced that she had used her secret powers to trick fluids into violating the No Slip condition.
Lucy flashes her evil smile

The rest of these pictures are from a going away dinner on my last day in lab (Aug. 10).
Below on the left is Michael, the Australian man-child that can conjure fume hoods out of thin air. In the middle is the big Boss himself, Justin J. Cooper-White. While his minions do his bidding at home, Justin travels the world expanding his evil empire. On the right is Vanessa, my fellow Brisbane EAPSI-ite. She was not working at UQ, so she has no idea of what kind of scoundrels she's surrounded by.


Below on the left is Jenny, also an Australia. Jenny's secret power is a flying Cassowary kick, which she learned while living in Cairns. On the side, she builds torture contraptions for cells.

Below are Tristan and Yang, partners in crime. Joung-Sook lurks behind, waiting to use her lethal "Two-Point Exploding Bunny Ears" technique.


As much fun as it was being a member of JJ's Secret Squad, the life of crime was not meant for me. I escaped with Vanessa in tow (below), and three weeks later, I slipped out of the Australia undetected. If you don't hear from me, you know who got to me...