A long time ago I wrote a post detailing what an average everyday weekend in my life looked like as a PhD. I look back with fondness on that post because the shape of my life has changed a lot in the interim- the people, the work, my home. So I thought I would write a post about another ordinary weekend in my postdoc life- another little entry into the time capsule.
Friday, December 14
6:00AM Benno’s alarm clock goes off and he springs out of bed merrily like the morning person he is. I take a little while longer but am awake drinking coffee and checking email by 6:30AM.
7:32AM I catch the train to Basel and enjoy a cappuccino while preparing for my first meeting. I arrive at the office by 8:40AM or so.
9:00AM The annual review meeting for one of the PhDs I help supervise. This lasts for around 1.5 hours and I still find it a bit strange to be on the other side of the table during these meetings. I make mental notes on what I would do differently next time in such a meeting- coming up with good feedback at these meetings is more difficult than I anticipated.
11AM Briefly meet with my supervisor to discuss urgent issues. The whole group is together only 1 more week before the PhD students from Africa go back to their respective countries, so progress is getting urgent. The goal for the next week is to completely finalize the fieldwork plan for 2019, along with the data collection tools.
12:30PM Eat lunch with some colleagues. Discussion is mostly about which countries have the best food, a favorite topic of mine. Continue working after lunch until around 4PM, when we have organized a celebratory apero for one of the PhD colleagues turning 40. However, the surprise is foiled when we find out that she has spontaneously decided to travel. We reschedule for Monday and decide to have some drinks together anyway. Apero drinks conversation are centered around the differences between military service in Burkina Faso and Switzerland.
6:00PM I catch the train from Basel back to Zurich. The plan is to join two of my good girlfriends in Zurich for a catch up chat. Because of the time delay getting from Basel to Zurich, I join them only for dessert and drinks, arriving around 7:30PM. After some much needed girl talk, I head back to Baden and arrive home around 11:30PM. I relax on the sofa with Benno a bit while chatting about our days- it was his holiday party that night so it was fun to hear the gossip. In a weird turn of events, we both fall asleep without realizing it on the sofa, and wake up 3 hours later. However, I only realized we had both fallen asleep when I looked at my phone while brushing my teeth and realized it was 3AM! Twilight zone.
Saturday, 15 December
9AM Slowly roll out of bed. Benno and I agree that the apartment is in dire need of a deep clean. I start on the job while he goes off to prepare brunch for us, our usual weekend tradition. He buys fresh bread, cheese, and salami, and then comes back and fries a couple eggs for us while I start on the cleaning. We enjoy also the new jam and honey that Benno’s parents gave us last weekend.
11AM Time to take a cleaning break to watch downhill skiing, our usual winter ritual. This week it is in Südtirol, otherwise known as the Dolomites area in northern Italy where German and Italian are spoken interchangeably. Swiss favorite Marc Gisin has a terrible fall, but other than that sad event the Swiss have a good showing and we are happy.
3PM I finish up cleaning and go for a nice 11KM jog.
7PM It is my friend’s birthday party. Benno has to work on a brochure for an event for his shooting club, so I pick up some flowers and wine and head to my friend’s house in Zurich. Good times and good laughs are had- I got to see a lot of friends that I haven’t seen for a while. Enjoy a long conversation about the #metoo movement in Switzerland vs. the rest of the world. Many conversations as well about the ups and downs of our postdoc and PhD lives and research in general. We make sandwiches out of cheese and Spanish ham and drink lots of red wine. Eventually I head back home around 12:30AM.
Sunday, 16 December
10AM I roll out of bed to a welcome sight- a full blanket of snow on the ground. Unfortunately I have no time to dawdle this morning because we have a brunch to get to in Zurich.
11AM Brunch at Hiltl, a popular vegetarian restaurant in Zurich, with Benno and four other friends. A long conversation ensues about the different cultural emphases on humility vs confidence and the relative importance of politeness in the US, India, Switzerland, and Germany.
2PM Most friends head home, but my friend Heidi who is visiting from Munich decides somewhat spontaneously to come back to Baden with us and spend the night. She takes a quick nap while I do some Christmas shopping at the Baden Christmas markets that are specially open on a Sunday today.
4PM Following a long discussed plan, Heidi and I watch the Sound of Music while Benno prepares dinner and dessert. The Sound of Music is a movie that Austrians/Germans/Swiss are vaguely aware of, but have not really seen. This movie is basically my only childhood exposure to Alps culture aside from the book Heidi, and I was very curious how accurate it is to my later experience actually living in these areas. I actually found that the movie surprisingly lived up to my childhood memories! And is not entirely inaccurate to how Alps culture really is. Except for that line in the “My favorite things” song that talks about schnitzel with noodles. Who eats schnitzel with noodles?!? We laughed in fact about how frequently schnitzel in general is discussed during the movie but agree that that is also accurate to life. We also groan a bit about how sexist the movie is in parts. We get teary eyed when they start singing the Edelweiss song. Benno is reluctant to join in to the viewing wholeheartedly but enjoys the Nazi chase scene.
7PM We eat a delicious homemade fondue prepared by Benno, and a slice of Nusstorte after a long digestive pause. All is incredible and we agree again that Benno can feed us any time.
10:30PM Early bed time to prepare for another intensive Monday on all our parts.
So that is it! A “typical weekend” around the house, a mix of catching up with friends and relaxing. Also a good mix of jumping between Basel/Zurich/Baden, which is unfortunately also a big part of my life these days. I know the Swiss train system very well these days!
the gipfeli diaries 