Settled In

So time has again been flying... I'm honestly here since 2 weeks already and I am adapting to my new life here.

Everything is different ;-). Work is good, quite demanding as I still have to read a lot to learn all the new technologies, but I'm happy to learn something useful for now and the future. What is the most amazing difference is that I come home at 6pm and I can do whatever I like...

In the beginning I hardly knew what to do, but now it already seems again like there isn't enough time for all the things I want to do: cook, bake (oh yes!), going to the gym, socializing, watching movies with Simon and Lukasz on the beamer (yes, we have a BEAMER), playing PlayStation (yes, we have a PS3!) and sleeping... All of this still doesn't include making trips, because so far I didn't get to see anything. I haven't even been to Galway City Center, but I'm hoping to change that this weekend... Last weekend the weather was so bleak that I really didn't feel like going out of our lovely home, unless for the necessary groceries shopping, but luckily I could go with Lukasz in the car.

Otherwise everything is fine. I meet new people at DERI every day, there's quite a lot working there and it's very international, but I'm the only Swiss :-).

Ok, that's all for now I guess.

Und für all mini Schwyzer Fründe: wenn ihr mich wännd cho bsueche sind ihr do härzlich willkomme, me cha gärn bi mir übernachte. D Gegend um Galway ume isch wirklich super (Connemara) und d Cliffs of Moher sin au nit wyt ewäg, sowie natürli d Aran Islands.

Second Day...

So, my second day at work was fine, not much to tell. I read a lot, set up the laptop which I got today (email, printer, internal applications,...) and went to have my picture taken for the deri website...

Here some pictures from the office:

This is VinhTuan's desk... he would not let me take a picture of him, so I guess that's all I have for now ;-).

Me at my desk, I redecorated a bit in the morning because these green walls are a bit boring.

 After work I went home and decided to check out the gym and the swimming pool. So I called at the local place, kingfisher club and then went there, it's just like 10 min walk from where I live. I made a 6 months contract with them and paid, so now I better go frequently. After I went swimming. When I was done with 13 lanes the fire alarm went off... Damn, it was soooo loud. So everyone had to get out of the pool and wait, after about 15 minutes that horrible noise stopped and everything was back to normal and I finished my 40 lanes. Then I went to shower and how could it be any different... the bloody alarm went off again. I really could not be bothered this time and went to dry my hair... Sure enough the alarm went off after 10 minutes.

Then I went home, had some dinner and now I'm so tired I'll go to bed. More reading for tomorrow...

First Day at Work

So my first day at work is behind me and I'll shortly write how it was... pretty unspectacular, but I had a lot of fun! :-)

I arrived in DERI at 10 and there was like hardly anyone around! So I got some papers to read with administrative stuff (oh yes, I think that DERI is secretly a nuclear facility and that's WHY I had to sign all those non-disclosure, secrecy, whatever agreements) and other infos and got a coffee from our kitchen. It's quite cool, there's coffee for free and there's also water from these big water-cooler thingies. After like 20 minutes my boss, VinhTuan, showed up and he showed me some more things. He also introduced me to some more people (hehe, I can't remember half the names...). There's quite a few people at DERI and also they come from all over the world.

Then because my laptop wasn't there yet, the boss of the boss, Sigi was travelling today. So VinhTuan gave me some papers to read and this book, I had read all 5 papers by 5 and there wasn't really anything else to do, so I went home. It was quite interesting to read all about VinhTuan's research, lots of new things I have never before seen or heard of, but I think now I kind of have a good overview.

Lunch was great too, Simon and Lukasz told me that usually everyone brings their own lunch, so I brought some prepared lunch. I ate with VinhTuan and we talked a lot and he told me some stories :-). So I guess we got along well and I'm positive about working with him.

So at about 15 past 5 I left and decided I was gonna bake a special kind of bread (Dreikönigskuchen) because I didn't have one of them on the 6th. So now it just came out of the oven and I'm awaiting judgement from my flat mates... They're still awesome :-) and we'll watch a movie now... So I kinda gotta go.

A yeah after dinner I played some more little big planet with Lukasz :-). That's just the most amazing game and sooo much fun.

So all in all my first day at work was great and I'm looking forward to getting my laptop tomorrow :-).

xoxo

Start in Galway

So I have arrived in Galway 4 days ago.

I rented a car and drove all the way to Galway. It was quite enjoyable to drive a car on the wrong side of the road and sitting on the wrong side of the car and having to shift on the wrong side and well, I guess you kinda get the point :-). Remarkably enough it wasn't really a problem at all, I managed juuust fine and all too soon my journey was over with me having found my new place without getting lost once!

Lukasz was already waiting for me - admiring my parking skills (ehm yeah, let's not go there, that is just a bit too weird and confusing) and lucky for me he turned out to be a real gentleman and helped me carry my heavy bags up into my room... Hehe, getting them inside the room was a bit tricky (I have to go in in two stages, open door, go in, close door and go past the bed post, lol), but we managed.

After that I left again to go groceries shopping and got to drive a bit more :-). I bought loads of stuff, because after all, I had a car to bring it all home.

Unfortunately that same evening I started to feel bad and the next morning I had a bad cold. Brought the car back (they gave me a lift back home) and then I slept for the whole afternoon. In the evening Simon (my other flat mate) gave me his thermometer and turns out I had 39.5 fever. So I wasn't gonna go working the next day, which sucked big time.

Now it's Friday and I am better, fever is gone finally and I guess I should be back to my normal self on Monday and then I'll finally get to go to DERI :-). Can't wait! Especially after this really boring week of just lying around, listening to audio books, sleeping, sleeping some more and so on.

I have to say that I am in a nice place here, my flat mates are great so far and I feel comfortable :-). So don't worry about me!

xoxo