"Are you happy in Switzerland?"

This is a question I have asked from several foreign bachelor students here. What would you expect? One of the richest countries in the world, a beautiful city, very international so it should be easy to find friends.... But the answer is usually "hmmmmmmm weeellllll I don't know..." or "hhmmmmmm weeellllllll no". The main reason for that is the university system here - the one that makes Swiss universities to the best in Europe but is at the same time very harsh on students. On girl answered well - that she feels very successful to be here but is not happy.

I already touched this topic last week but a bit in more detail now: All the students that are taken to the university have to apply some qualifying exams after one year (seven if I remember correctly).
If you can't pass them during the first year you have a chance to try again next year. If you haven't passed all of them by the the end of second year - goodbye!
You fail one exam twice - goodbye.
You fail more than six exams during your bachelor's studies - goodbye.
So - you get really smart people from here but they're under constant pressure! It's so weird to see students working so hard after being in FInalnd! And also cool to see a greek and turkish person studying together and speaking fluent German with each other!
Well - goood luck for them!!!

A bit about the lab: The big boss of the group is called Olivier. Our lab manager is called Olivier. Today a new student arrived - called Olivier. In March we'll get a 4th one. Gonna be interesting!!! :D

I feel that I'm slowly becoming familiar with the project and the literature and the lab etc. And I'm feeling super motivated right now! And thiiiiiis close to having my own ideas for the project and experiments etc. There's just not enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do!!! - read papers, start some experiments, socialize with coworkers, attend courses/meetings etc... So everything is interesting :)

By the way, what place is this?

No! Zürich doesn't have an undergorund! It's a tram stop! :D The first undergorund one I have ever seen....

Then we went to a cool bar today with a new friend - it was huge ang cosy!!! Sorry, the picture is not the best - but you'll see it with your own eyes when you come to visit ;) As we didn't have CHF cash, the good thing was that you could pay with euros. The bad thing was that the exchange ratio was 1 CHF = 1 EURO. But well, the price of beer was still similar to prices in Finland

And to finish up: In this picture you can see an ugly construction site behind which is actually a beautiful river!!! And along this beautiful river are beautiful old-fashioned houses! And on top of those beautiful houses, the view is dominated by a beautiful big building - do you know what is the purpose of this building? What buildings are ususally put on top of a hill? ;) Churches? City halls?

Well, not in Zürich. This is the ETH polyterrasse - a university building! It's a big building that hosts, among other things, a university cafeteria and a fitness centre! From the terrace on top one has an amazing view on the city and it is a place where only the most important people are invited for gatherings by the university. Well, we were there once with fellow PhD candidates in September to celebrate the end of PhD interviews but already then we were advised to enjoy the view - because we would not see this place for yeeaarrsss, if ever! :D