This weekend we went on a trip to Italia! We went to a town close to Switzerland (of course) which is a 2.5 hr drive. Max drove all the way since he was the only one able to drive a manual transmission. And we fit 7 people into an European Minivan.
As you all know I was in a conference in Gotland, Sweden last week. The conference was great and the community was very nice. Here is a picture of all of us and the links to the papers published.
I have been enjoying the EPFL campus the last couple of days. I got my monthly pass for transportation which was $72 franks, not that expensive considering how expensive everything else is around here! I came to work with Fernando Porte-Agel. I will be using some of the experimental data from experiments done by his group and run simulations of those. Also we will be discussing some ideas for future projects and collaborations. I have an office here with Joel and Max from JHU and Trey from UT Dallas.
They have a wind tunnel here at EPFL. It is quite an impressive tunnel. It is huge, and they are in the process of installing equipment to be able to do temperature control at different heights.We met with Vincent over there, a Hopkins graduate who is now doing his PhD over here.
A huge wind tunnel!
Vincent giving us the tour.
We tried a self-driving car that goes around the EPFL campus. It's part of a startup company and they test-drive their car around. It's awesome! haha
I flew Gotland-Stockholm-Zurich-Geneva and then took a train to Laussane and finally a bus to the place I'm staying at. I had a little bit of a hard time getting in, but finally figured it out and here I am! I practices my French with the bus driver and was able to verify that I was on the right bus and that I had the correct ticket! :D
The Swiss airline I took from Zurich to Geneva was great. Very friendly and you start the flight with a water bottle and a chocolate. And its only like a 45min flight.
My new bedroom is tiiiiny, but cozy and the apartment is nice. I had a little bit of a hard time getting my stuff to fit into the room but its all been worked out now. I am staying in the middle of the city. Also Gilbert (host) left a note and some great Swiss chocolate for me when I got in. He got home about an hour after I had gotten in and then we talked for a while.
My tiny bedroom.
Some chocolate at my new place.
Water and chocolate by Swiss airline.
So once in Lausanne I got to see my friend Joel and Laura! We walked around the city on Saturday and then went to EPFL. They had already been here for a week so they showed me around. Also I got some groceries and put my luggage around.
Sunday was a lot of fun! We went to Geneva to visit CERN. There, we met with Andres Delannoy, a friend of mine from UPRM. We were together during undergrad in Mechanical Engineering and then he went to do his PhD in physics. I learned the other day through FB, of course, that he was in CERN! So I contacted him and we met after many years of seeing each other in Geneva, Switzerland! Andres gave us an awesome personalized tour of CERN with a lot of information on particle physics in a way we would understand. It was a great day at CERN and we certainley learned a lot about what happens there. The facility is currently operating so going underground was not an option, but we got to see a lot of cool things during the visit, and I am amazed on the amount of work and engineering required to build such an amazing facility.
Some solar panels with a nice view of the lake.
The most expensive starbucks coffee I have drank. 1 frank ~ $1.1
A picture with Andres after many many years!
Joel and me in an old piece of equipment at CERN.
An awesome screen in the control room.
A pretty picture in Geneva of Joel and his wife Laura.
Some ducks really close to people.
A particle accelerator!
A cool video showing how a particle accelerator works:
The best personalized tour guide ever showing us one of the control rooms!
My visit to Gotland last week was great! The conference was very nice, with a lot of people that I knew from their work and some that I had seen at other conferences. Gotland is a nice place, although the city we were in (Visby) is very small! It was very nice for visiting one week but I can't imagine living there for too long. Nevertheless, the conference was great and a lot of fun. They have a campus of the University which is composed of 2 buildings, that's where the conference was held. The last day I went on a bike ride with Richard, we rented some granny-style bikes and went around the city.
Granny bike!
Richard in the Granny bike.
I got the chance to touch the water from the Baltic Sea!
The Baltic Sea
During the bike we saw an old-style wind mill. We stopped and took some pictures.
A Wind mill (oldstyle).
The last day we walked around the city before leaving and I took some pictures. I like this one.
Pretty Gotland.
The conference and everything was next to the sea. So that's something very nice!
thumbs up for Gotland.
The buffet was delicious. Oh I'm gonna miss it! hahaha
Oh I will miss the breakfast buffet :'(
The path that went along the sea was very nice. I walked/ran/biked through it :)
Today has been my longest trip ever. It started in Baltimore, after a fun night with some good friends at fells I went home and napped for about 3 hours. I got up at 6am and took an Uber to the airport. The Uber took the longest ride ever so I filed a complaint and they gave me a reduced rate. Go Uber!
I first went to Boston. I had to go out of the terminal and into a different one. The way there was weird and when I finally got there the terminal was closed because they don't open until 11 am. I just waited and then went in. I flew from Boston to Iceland.
The empty terminal.
I have to say I am impressed. Iceland has put a lot of effort into tourism and it seems to be working great for them. Now I wanna go to Iceland! Who's up for joining me by the end of the summer!? I can probably ask for a change with a layover of a couple of days. It's their new business model. Then I flew into Stockholm where I saw the coolest most automated bag checking system ever!
Haha
I am dead tired today. But my goal is to not sleep until nighttime to adjust my schedule right away. Only one more flight at this point! Its now 11 am in Sweden and I haven't seen the night in more than 24 hours. While I was in the air it was always sunny. It's 10:40pm and I''m about to go to bed. I did manage to get some sleep during the day, but I'm still super tired so I might be able to fix my schedule.
Gotland is a very unique place and I like it very much. It reminds me of Old San Juan. Gotland in general reminds me of PR, since its also 100 miles by 35 miles, or close. Here are some pictures of Gotland.
This summer I will be travelling to Europe as part of my research project under the WindInspire grant! I'm super excited and here are the dates and places I will be travelling to:
1. Gotland, Sweden June 7
I am going to present at a conference on wind energy wakes. Here I will present some of the work I've done during the last year with the help of my friend Matt Churchfield from NREL and my advisor Charles Meneveau.
2. EPFL Laussane, Switzerland June 12
I will visit a collaborator here and stay for about a month.
3. KU Leuven Leuven, Belgium July 7
I will first go to the WindInspire Conference where most of my Wind Energy friends from JHU will be.
4. DTU Copenhaguen, Denmark July 18
My last visit will be to DTU. I will meet with one of my colleagues and discuss on some ongoing projects and future ideas/collaborations.
I will keep this blog updated with posts and pictures from my adventures.
I hope you enjoy the blog!
