The Flight and First Day

We flew Swiss Air direct from O'Hare to Zurich.  If you ever get a chance to fly this airline, do it!  Definitely worth the little extra we paid.  The service was excellent and they kept us well fed throughout the journey.  As you may know I get crabby when I'm hungry, so that was a very good thing for me.

^Our plane.
 
The aircraft we flew on was an A330-300.  Pretty new looking inside with a 2-4-2 seating configuration.  I had an aisle seat in the middle section.  Once we took off, the crew brought us small bags of chex mix and came around with drinks.  About two hours after takeoff came dinner.  There was either chicken or pasta.  I had the chicken, which came with vegetables and mashed potatoes, and it was good.  The pasta was tortellini, which Nick and Will had.  In addition to the main course, we also got a small salad, a piece of cheese, a roll, and a brownie.  After dinner they brought around coffee for dessert.  Another nice thing was that they had free wine, so I had a glass with dinner.

I tried to sleep some, and was somewhat successful.  I couldn't seem to fall asleep unless I was listening to music, so every once in a while a song would be louder than the previous one and wake me up.  But I think I managed to get about 4 hours of sleep off and on throughout the flight.  About 2 hours before we landed, the crew brought us hot towels to wipe our hands and faces.  That felt wonderful after being on the plane for about 7 hours at that point.  Then they brought breakfast, which consisted of orange juice, yogurt, a croissant, and a drink.

When we finally landed in Zurich, the first thing I noticed was how quiet the airport was compared to O'Hare.  It wasn't super busy, but it still seemed very quiet for the amount of people there.  Our luggage came quickly, and we didn't even get stopped in customs.  I guess if you have nothing to declare they don't usually stop you. 

 ^A view from the train at the airport station.
 
We took a train from the airport to Brugg, a city near where we are staying.  There we stopped and had lunch at an outdoor restaurant.  I had some kind of sausage that I forgot the name of, and the team all shared a plate of french fries.  After lunch we took the bus from Brugg to Villigen, which is the village PSI is in.

^The Guesthouse
 
Arriving at PSI, we checked into the guesthouse where we are staying.  My room is on the third floor.  It's pretty simple, but good enough.  There is a sink and vanity in the entryway, and then the room opens up a little and has a bed, nightstand, shelves, refrigerator, closet, and desk.

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^Coming into the room.

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^Sink and vanity.

  ^Looking into the rest of the room.

 ^Shelves, fridge, and closet.

 ^Bed and nightstand.

Being on the top floor, my room gets a little warm.  It was pretty hot yesterday, but today it's a bit better in here.  It helps to have the door open to get the air moving since there is no fan. Dr. Palumbo says it is normally cooler than this, so hopefully the weather will get more normal soon.

Last night we went grocery shopping.  There is a small grocery store in Villigen so we went there.  Normally we will go to Brugg since there is more of a selection, but this was enough to get us food for the week.  For dinner we went to one of the cafeterias at PSI.  There is a larger one on the east side of the river and a small one on the west side (where we work).  We went to the east side one last night, called the Oase.  I had the salad bar, which was really good because they have a bunch of different meats and cheeses to try.

^The crate our reactor is in.
 
Today we started our first day of work.  Learned about safety, got introduced to the people working in the solar furnace, opened up the crate to make sure nothing broke in transit, set up the data acquisition system, and started building up the platform to put the reactor on.  We had lunch at the smaller cafeteria.  I had a salad and a corn cream soup, which was tasty.  Tonight we are going to a pizza place that Dr. Palumbo always takes the team to on the first day, but we couldn't go last night because they are closed on Mondays.

I hope you are enjoying reading, and I appreciate reading all of your comments!

--Leanne