A week in Basel (actually a little over)

So, I am here in Basel and spent crazy week trying to learn how to make 2D crystals with protein and look at them with fancy microscopes. I was probably the only non-biologist there and felt dumb plenty of times but overall had a great time with a good group of people and got to learn some interesting things. Additionally, I think I can now work with Dr. E’s group and ask for help when needed. The course was pretty grueling with lectures starting at 9 AM till noon and then lab sessions in the afternoon which went till 6 PM and in one case till 8 PM. After that, we all had dinner together and on a couple of days went out for drinks.

The hotel beds were tiny (see attached) but otherwise well maintained.

In any case, I was pretty stoked all week because I got a bike! Basel is perfect size and topography for having a bike and the rules for sharing the road are quite strict. A friend of a friend gave the bike to me as he bought a new one for his girlfriend. I am attaching pictures. Notice in the background there is a wall with a climbing vine whose leaves look like maple leaves. They have these all over Basel and look great!

One of the instructors from the course is leaving Dr. E’s lab to go to Germany for a postdoc and has offered to give me her Czech bike. I think I am going to get that from her for when Anu gets here. I love old bikes!! Hopefully I can keep riding when I get to Champaign.

Manish’s Bike

Hotel Spalentor, Basel

Judges in wigs

Apparently judges in the UK till yesterday still wore horsehair wigs in court.  I never imagined this would still be happening.  In any case, the administrative court judges (civil) will stop wearing it starting today.  However, the criminal court judges will continue on with the head gear – in case they meet a criminal that they recently sentenced in the street….

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/oct/01/9

The late night talk shows (if they exist) in the UK must be having a field day with this.

Nobelists for Obama

It seems like 61 nobel prize winners including my favorite – Peter Agre  have endorsed Obama.  Obama has promised “consistent and predictable” increases in science funding.   If he really does this it would be great for aspiring academics!

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/925/3?etoc

Preparing for Another Trip

I (Manish) am preparing for another long trip away from home and Anu… I am going to Basel again to work in Dr. M’s group and am hoping that this time will be even more productive work wise.  Anu will join me in December so it should be fun – we will probably hook up with my bro and sis-in- law and take a drive down to Spain.  I am spending countless hours in the lab trying to get things ready.  Anu has picked up knitting, and has been making some cool gear – you can see some of her work through the side bar.

In any case I signed up for a course in Basel related to my work and just found out that I won a European Union fellowship named after Marie Curie to attend the course! I feel awesome, but the truth is – this probably is due to the fact that Dr. M wrote a great recommendation and Dr. E (another collaborator) is a supervisor for the course.

Snowy weekend

We decided to go for a little walk at the Meadowbrook Prairie this weekend to check out the winter scene. We go there quite a bit during the warmer months, but winter did offer a more serene environment.

Travel Woes

Our blog was recently added to our friends Sinziana and Mark’s blog which made us realize how long it’s been since we posted. No guarantee we’ll keep this up on a regular basis, but here is an attempt to getting back into the groove of things in the blogging world.

We should be hanging out with family in the bay area in CA right now… but we’re not and are still in Champaign! We were expecting to leave bright and early this morning (planned to leave for Springfield around 4 am) so we went to sleep early. Manish jumped up in bed to his cell phone ringing thinking that the alarm he had set went off but it was a call from a 1-800 number, so he promptly went back to sleep. Then Anu got a call and she had the presence to realize that this could be more than just a junk call. American Airlines informed us that our flight was delayed out of Springfield, so we would not be able to make our connecting flight in St. Louis. So we called and had them change our tickets so that we fly out of Chambana at 3 pm. While we were driving to the airport to catch this flight our phones rang, another great message in the tune of how things had gone the whole day. Our flight was canceled and now we’re booked on a flight out of Chambana tomorrow morning connecting through Chicago. Hopefully the wind will calm down and we’ll get out of here tomorrow.

Anyway, enough griping about travel woes, at least we are at home and comfortable. Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow. On another note, we are thinking of buying a camera. We want a small upgrade over our Canon A95 (which died unexpectedly and suddenly with its eye (lens) wide open. So we are looking at the Canon S5 IS and the Canon Digital Rebel. The rebel might be more than what we need, we’ll need to do some more research on it. Hopefully we can get a deal right after Christmas. Manish has been itching to take some cool pictures of the snowy weather, and Anu has been wanting to document some of her winter projects.

Anu is in Basel

Anu is finally here, so we are finally blogging again. I spent the last two months in Switzerland completely immersed in research and got a lot done- which was great. Now I am hoping to have some fun, relax and travel. I really need it!

I went to the Euroairport with M and K to pick Anu up. She was in good spirits even though the plane was a little late and they (British Airways) lost her luggage! We will see when we get that back. Our friends Kim and Bill from California were in Chamonix, France last morning and decided to pay us a visit. They jumped 5 trains and finally showed up when Anu was falling asleep – poor angel! We hooked them up with the bed and breakfast that is in my building and that my landlady runs.

http://www.bnb.ch/index.php?p=page&id=882&PHPSESSID=40a8896632d12e97f9033a03c6d951e1

We then headed over to a tapas bar on the Rhine and spent a couple of hours there. It was good to meet B and K in a new settting and catch up on their world travels. We have met Kim now on three continents! They have a great blog

http://justkimmydoll.spaces.live.com/

Anu had trouble sleeping and consequently I did too. I hope she gets over this jetlagged state soon – so that we can enjoy the day in Alsace, France today. Our landlady is preparing breakfast for us…I am hungry

What to do w/ so much time…

I’m sure this is not a problem I’ll encounter very often, and should consider myself lucky to have so much free time in my hands. With Manish gone I am left talking to myself most of the time and finding projects to stay busy.

We laid some brick tiles as a patio extension for our picnic bench, and I also put in a garden in the backyard with some perennials. Just creating the bed was such labor intensive process. The sod had to be pulled out first… I felt pretty strong just ripping it up, and at that point very excited visualizing the future garden. Manish helped out in the ripping process too, which made it go by faster. Then I learned the hard way that we have really hard clay soil which is not very easy to work with. Plants need soil that is not compacted and has enough fluff to it so the roots can spread easily. So of course, the next logical step for me was to do some tilling to break up and loosen up the soil. I had seen commercials on TV for the type of tiller that looks like a giant twisted fork – they show old women use it with ease. Ok, so off I go to Lowes and invested $25 towards the garden. Back to the garden site w/ my nice new shiny tiller, and let me tell you, those old women must be some mighty tough cookies or they were doing the digging on the beach. I had to thrust the fork into the ground, stand on it, put my whole weight into, wiggle it as much as I could, step down, and put my whole weight into it to do the twisting motion. Two weekends and plenty of sore muscles later, I had tilled up my little patch, added top soil, tilled that in, and made it somewhat workable. Now that I look back, I think I should have added more topsoil, guess I’ll just have to wait and see how the plants perform. And of course, as I was telling M about my tilling woes he says “I have an automatic tiller at home that you can borrow”… a little too late for this time around, but there will be more gardens in the future in my little yard.

On memorial day weekend I went out to Country Arbors and picked up some perennials. I identified plants that will thrive even with very low care – four lavender bushes, four silver mounds, two purple coneflowersand two brown eyed susies. I worked in quite a bit of perlite for the lavenders and silver mounds since they like very well drained soil and not much water. I am a little worried that the clay soil in the bed would still hold too much water and kill the root – we’ll just have to wait and see I guess. I put stones around the lavenders and silver mounds as it was recommended on some website – they’re supposed to reflect the sunlight and reduce moisture. The lavenders are close to the patio, so hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy the fragrance from our picnic bench. I used the silver mounds as a border on the rest of the bed, and filled it in with the coneflowers and susies , both native prairie plants. I also picked up a fuchsia which is supposed to attract hummingbirds for the back of the bed where there is more shade. The fuchsia is supposed to get up to 6′, so it’ll add nice height to the garden. I also have a pole w/bird-feeder and bird bath… I don’t think birds know about it yet. I did spot a hummingbird last week drinking out of the feeder.

So far the lavenders and fuchsia have bloomed and there are lot of buds on the prairie plants. I’m hoping to be able to enjoy the garden pretty soon. Vegetable garden will be a project for next year… and a raised bed is sounding more and more attractive than a tilled bed.

It’s summer in Basel too

Both of us have been feeling a little lonely lately. Why you ask… Manish left for Basel, Switzerland over a month ago, and I am still hanging out in Champaign. He’s doing research at the University of Basel, and is trying to get adjusted to the European lifestyle. I’ll let him write about his expriences there. I’m counting down the days till I leave to join him – 23 days now. We are planning on doing a bit a of traveling around Europe for few weeks. We’ll spend around a week hiking in the Alps, and some time in France and Belgium maybe.

It’s summer in Champaign

Ok, now fast forward to summer of 2007.  Life has been moving at a steady pace since we moved to Champaign.  Manish finished two semesters, I started working at the University, and we are enjoying our new home.  The winter was pretty brutal – apparently it was an out of the ordinary, extremely nasty one.  The University closed due to the weather for the first time since 1979!  And I thought we were bringing the pleasant weather from San Diego.  Spring was a welcomed change, and I am trying to enjoy the warm weather as much as possible now.

A belated goodbye to 2006

Ok, here’s another one we never posted…

We’re already in 2007! 2006 was a very eventful year for us – our first full year as married couple, a lot of traveling, a big move, and Manish started his student life. Here is our year in review:

January – back from India after our weddings and honeymoons

February – England trip and moved into the new apt in Glendale

March – 1st first wedding Anniversary in Mammoth (as opposed to 2nd first and 3rd first – we’ll explain this later)

April – trip out to Champaign to check out our possible new hometown and Manish accepted his admission to UofI

May – started packing,visited Anu’s sister and family

June – quit jobs, moved out of Glendale apt

July – left for South America, toured Peru and Ecuador

August – back from Costa Rica, drove cross country to our new hometown, Manish started ABCs

September – Anu started new job at the outdoor gear store

October – we turned 30 and celebrated at the Chicago marathon

November – started house hunting

December – moved into our new home

We’re hoping 2007 will be a bit slower and we’ll be able to take our time enjoying midwestern living (lot of corn)

Chicago Marathon is around the corner

Here is a post we had written up early October 2006…

Both of us have been fretting over our lack of preparation for the big Marathon which is now in approximately 3 weeks! Manish has been running in spurts with wildly varying distances every weekend. He started out with a 18 miler, ran a few 13-14 miler and then ran a 22. The 22 miler was tough on him. The only good thing was one of his professors was with him. This professor is 10 years older than him, but runs like the wind. Manish was trying to keep up with his pace of 8:15 and could not keep up for long. But in the time he could stay with him, Manish started his usual discussion on his “dream” thesis project and somehow got talked into teaching a class on design of a membrane treatment plant that he had worked on. After this he kept falling back till everybody passed him and ended up close to a 10 min pace for the complete run! Anyway, we will see how he does in the marathon.

Anu has been running rather consistently but has not done the big 20 yet. We are thinking of doing that this weekend (Sunday). It is kinda tough to run 20 miles in a town which is maybe 7-8 miles wide. We will figure something out. Anu’s job involves being on her feet all day so that has placed a lot of stress on her feet (and legs) and she sometimes feels like she is injured. After being on her feet all day she feels like she has ran a marathon already! However, she has been plugging away and trying to run as much as she can. We ordered some recovery drinks and gel packs and hopefully that will give us the kick that we have been missing at the end of our runs!

Update: We both finished the marathon!  Anu shaved off 22 minutes from her previous (and first) marathon, and Manish did rather well also.  Manish is now determined to train hard for next year’s race and beat his PR.

Staying active in Chambana

We had signed up for the Chicago Marathon back in the spring… we figured, what better way to tour the city than on foot. Anu has only seen a small part of Chi town, and we probably won’t make it out there again till the marathon weekend. We are excited to be a part of such a prestigious event. The only problem is, with traveling and moving we are not quite where we should be with training. The marathon is on October 22, and we just started running two weeks ago. So our training program is cut short to 2 months instead of the ideal 4 – 5 months. Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up without getting hurt. We have to be careful not to overdo the runs, which can cause injury, but at the same time build up the strength quickly… tricky!

We found a running group here called the Second Wind Running Club and went on a long run with them this past weekend. We are happy to find such a group here, however after having experienced SDTC’s training program and being with the awesome people over there including Coach Paul and Coach Joe it is a little disappointing. We miss the awesome organization, beautiful courses and overall good cheer and camaraderie we had there! Anyway, Anu ran about 10 and Manish managed to get lost and did about 18. We’ll post details of our training as we progress so we stay motivated.

Also, Manish joined the Illinois Bike Racing Club and is officially the oldest member of the club. The club board seems to be very dedicated group of college students and the first ride with them through the cornfields was awesome!

We’re taking full advantage of the summer, trying to get out as much fun as possible before the weather changes. We go out to hit volleyball around, throw frisbee, stroll around the campus and take it all in.

We’re home!

We have been in Champaign about two weeks now, and we’re doing our best to make ourselves feel at home. The first shock we got was when we actually saw our apartment… it’s so tiny. Guess that’s what you get for renting a place without actually seeing it. The description and pictures online looked so much better. But we did our best to fit all our things into the space we have by doing some clever engineering. Bed raised on concrete blocks frees up a lot of space for storage! Now it’s starting to feel like real home as we’ve added a lot of personal touches.

The location of our place is great though, we are right outside the campus and close to almost everything. Manish’s bldg is just 5 minutes walk… hm… maybe it’s not such a good thing b/c he’s been spending a lot of time there We barely use our car here, which is a huge change from LA living. There’s even a great international market just down the block from us.

Something you can’t miss driving on the highway and just outside of town are the cornfields! Corn, corn everywhere… can’t miss ‘em. They’re really beautiful right now, mostly green and golden… and they spread out as far the eye can see. We went to a BBQ last Friday to a professor’s house, and his beautiful house was located smack in the middle of cornfields. It was quite eerie (or peaceful according to Manish) at night with a silence that we’re not accustomed to. It was awesome to see all the fireflies flying around in the dark.

So guess what they have in a town surrounded by corn – a festival to celebrate them. We went to the sweet corn festival last weekend with D and M and it was fun overall. The corn was yummy, however, we heard that they were actually from CO. Huh! So many cornfields and they have to import edible corn for a showcase festival. Apparently the corn they grow around here are mostly feed corn… go figure.

Manish has started school and has two classes to TA. He is actually enjoying it and says he is “relearning a lot”. Looks like the student life is agreeing with him so far.

Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa and…. Illinois!

After CO our plan was to pretty much drive directly to our destination with short stops for anything that came up. From Rocky Mtn Park we drove northward into Wyoming. While we were crossing the state line into Wyoming, it started to rain and we saw an incredible rainbow. We took a detour to chase the spectacular rainbow and enjoy it. It was so beautiful over the golden summer fields of WY which could be considered a classic American landscape.

We then drove through WY and Nebraska for 3-4 hours on the and reached the town of North Platte which is basically a highway town on the 80. Here we camped at a private campsite right by the freeway for the night and decided to get out of there early in the morning. Manish was in one of his “anxious” moods and Anu could sense that he just wanted to get to Urbana-Champaign. So by the time Anu woke up, Manish was showered and champing at the bit. After this we drove pretty much non stop to Champaign (about 760 miles) theough Iowa with stops for food, gas, and photographs. We reached Champaign at about 9:30 pm on August 14, 2006, a day ahead of schedule.

Rocky Mountain High…

Colorado lived up to its name. Both of us had never really visited Colorado extensively and this was a great first trip. If the whole state of Utah be called a national park (see our earlier post) the entire state of Colorado should be called a national forest. In fact several parts of the I-70 are within a national forest. It was great driving on a green mountainous highway. We passed by Vail which indeed is beautiful and swanky. The condos there looked like they belonged to movie stars. Another curious thing (very exciting for us) was that every two miles there was an exit for a ski area. Some of these were very famous resorts such as Copper Mountain and Breckenridge and many we had never heard of before.

We decided to call the rangers at Rocky Mountain National park to decide what the best way would be for us to get into the park from the west and they suggested that we take CO 40 to Granby and then take CO 34 into the west entrance of the park. We went as far as Winterpark, CO (on the way to Granby) that day and the drive was breathtaking going over a high pass and descending into a wooded area. Winterpark as the name implies is a ski resort but it is right by a lake and very close to forests so it is bustling in the summer as well. Here we decided to splurge and stayed in a nice lodge right by the lake. In the morning we were pleasantly surprised to see everybody on bikes or engaged in some form of physical activity. CO is a place we might consider moving some day!

We drove into Rocky Mountain National Park in the morning and it was beautiful, just as we entered the park a herd of deer darted in front of us crossing the road. It was green as mountains in So Cal never are. We stopped by at some view points and made our way to the visitor center. Here again we hiked up to a viewpoint. Manish was not feeling to well so we decided to get out of the park and hit the road again. The park was very crowded and it seems like to see the real beauty some long hikes are the way to go. We will return!

The haunted campground

After dinner we headed back to the campground, and found that it had another set of occupants. In the dark the campground looked eerie and somewhat ominous. Anu was a little freaked when she saw that the rain fly strap (on the tent) was unstrapped again, something she had corrected the night before. She remarked that this must be the act of some ghost as she had made sure this was fixed. Manish freaked Anu out by pointing out that the trees that populated the site were “Pipal trees” (Bo trees, Ficus religiosa) which in India is supposed to be the abode of unsatisfied spirits that do not make it to their final resting place.

During the night Anu had morbid fantasies of the three girls at the other campsite, who had eagerly offered us their flashlights, coming over and massacring us. She was a little unsettled by the fact that they did not take campground number one which we had chosen early that evening but had not left any evidence of returning, and had strategically chosen number 2, in effect setting a trap for us. After tossing and turning for what seemed like an eternity, listening to these seemingly happy spirits, Anu decided that there was a distinctively evil timbre to their laughter. In the middle of the night she woke up to what seemed like the smell of the pit toilet and was horrified at the prospect of the evil spirits, which are known to trouble gentler souls this way. After a restless night, morning came and Anu could finally gather enough courage to look outside the tent, she was taken back an panicked as the tents of the evil spirits was gone and she hurriedly woke the husband up. The husband opened his side of the tent and showed Anu that the evil camp was still there and profusely apologized for an unusually gassy night!

Hoodoos, arches and canyons

Bryce itself was amazing at first light with different shades of red and the interesting formations (hoodoos) evoking a Martian landscape. We were so excited to be there, we practically ran down the trail that lead to the bottom of the canyon and gave us a great view of the hoodoos from below.

  

After reaching Arches National Park we decided to find a place to stay before exploring the park. We found an isolated campsite surrounded by majestic red mountains next to the Colorado River, off the town of Moab and decided to return here.

In Arches we did a sunset hike to the Delicate Arch which is on the Utah license plate. As we reached the trailhead we heard a thunderstorm coming on. Foolishly and dangerously we decided to push on this 3 mile tough hike. We practically ran up the trail, panting, set on outrunning the storm. We barely made it to the arch and took some pictures when the thunderstorm moved in, with gusts of wind, with which Anu felt like she was going to get blown away. We headed back through some surreal slickrock landscape. We were pretty wet, but enjoyed the hike nevertheless.

Next morning we did a short hike to the Landscape Arch which draws visitors because of its unbelievable span. It is as wide as a football field! After the hike we headed to Canyonlands Nat’l Park which is famous for its great canyons carved the the Green and Colorado rivers. We wish we had more time to spend there, but we had to keep driving in order to make it to Colorado for that night’s stay.

Utah National Park

The entire state of Utah should be a National Park!  This was our conclusion after driving through the state and visiting Zion NP, Cedar Breaks NM, Bryce Canyon NP, Arches NP and Canyonlands NP.  These parks are strikingly magnificent and otherworldly.  However, just driving on some of the backroads (U14 and U89) and interstate 70 is an amazing experience with interesting rock formations everywhere and viewpoints every few miles.

Duckcreek Village, where we camped the first night is a beautiful area but it seems to be that real estate agents have taken over this once sleepy village!  We left early morning for Bryce to catch the sunrise and were surprised at how many deer we saw by the side of the road.