My Life - So Far

"Unbounded ambition makes an obscure existence simply impossible for me"
Lucien de Rubempré

Monday, March 30, 2009

MSc in Food Science II

Today I had a job interview at the laboratory of Swiss Quality Testing Services in Dietikon/ZH. As the current spring semester will finish end of May, and the fall semester will start mid September, I have plenty of time for a second internship. This time I'd like to work in the analytical and chemical field, which is what interests me most and besides I think I'm more an analytic kind of person.

A couple of weeks ago I and Valentina were invited at the apartment inauguration of my friend Chälli. He moved to Zurich together with his girlfriend some time ago, so it was really time for the inauguration. It was pretty funny to see some old friends and we had some good talks. The evening passed by much too fast, and fortunately Kai gave us a ride to Winterthur where we could catch a train back to Schaffhausen.

Whenever we pass by the Gelateria El Bertin, we just can't pass by... Even though the weather, with a few exceptions, was not good during March, I invited Valentina, or vice versa, for a spoon of ice cream at least once a week. However, there was one sunny and fine day where I went jogging to Merishausen in the evening. I once again will participate at the yearly SOLA race in May, to run the Uetliberg stretch for the Food Biotechnology Team.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

MSc in Food Science I

Finally I finished the novel "The Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe which I started reading last fall. Unfortunately I had not so much time to read every day, so it took me some time to get to the end. But commuting to Zurich and back gives me enough time to read.

However, I need to read heaps of scientific papers about microbiological applications or nutraceutical production of vitamins by some bacteria strains. But reading is not all, I also have to hold a few presentations at the end of the semester and conduct a study about fruit and vegetable intake in swiss school children and another one about laddering techniques in sensory evaluation. Yes, there is quite a little bit of work to be done, but that makes live interesting.

Besides, Valentina is also going to carry out a research project as final thesis. And coincidentially she has the same supervisors as I had, when I wrote my thesis about the brachiopods fauna in Schaffhausen in 2003. How the years pass!

Lucky me, I now can work as research assistant at the Laboratory of Food Process Engineering at ETH. I work on a PhD project on the flow structure of non-newtonian fluids in elastic tubes. Must sound horrible to lay people, though.