View from my window

After a 20+ hour journey, I arrived at the Hotel Sternen Oerlikon in Zurich and discovered this view from my third floor room's balcony. The darkening clouds brought a mix of hail, rain, and then bright sunshine while I walked around the oldest part of the city before going to dinner with Michael McCullough (from University of Miami), Mathias Allemand (of the University of Zurich -- our host), and Pearl (doctoral candidate -- didn't catch her last name). We traveled to this part of the city from our hotel on train and tram -- Zurich's public transportation is terrific! I forgot to take my camera so couldn't take pictures of the beautiful old homes lining the river, the church where Zwingli preached, the wet cobblestone streets, and the narrow alleyways lined with fancy shops. Suffice to say, it was a lovely way to be introduced to Zurich, all the while passionately discussing psychology with my colleagues. Pearl's work is looking at stress in prenant women and its effects on the moms and the babies. Mathias studies how forgiveness might be a process component of personality, and Michael's work ranges wide, but recently has been addressing forgiveness and gratitude. On the walk home, Mathias (guitar) and Michael (bass) discovered they both play in blues rock bands.

Today, I'm off to a full day of meetings with folks at the psychology department. There's much to write about but I'll end with a couple of random observations about "things done differently."

1. On the plane from Amsterdam to Zurich, there were "throw up bags" in the pocket behind the seats. I hadn't seen those in years.
2. My hotel room has buttons you push to raise and lower venetian blinds on the outside of the window and the door to the balcony.
3. The hotel elevator is teeny and is entered by opening a door and stepping in. There's no automatic door that closes like an Otis; the elevator just zips up or down and you open the door out to the hallway. I keep waiting for it to open automatically...
4. Breakfast this morning was the usual wonderful European array of yummy things: hard boiled eggs, grainy fresh bread, yogurt with "fruitti de bosco", coconut, and other good things, fresh orange juice, great coffee... there were other options like cold cuts, cheese, sweet rolls, but what I had was my perfect European breakfast.