Cora vs Ratatouille and the Border

So I will start with my arrival at Zurich Airport. As soon as I arrived I got a message saying my plane was delayed. Wonderful. I use ryanair and easyjet all the time and I’ve had a delay ONCE. (With delay I mean more than like 30min or so). I take Swiss ONCE and it’s delayed. Not cool. So there I was, trying to make time pass. Ok, yeah, let’s read a few scientific reviews about stem cells. The abstracts are usually ok but then, the details... argh... „The growth of EpiSCs depends on signaling by Activin, FGF2, ERK1/2 and TGF-beta; their growth is inhibited by BMP4 but is independent of LIF/Stat3 activity“. Aha. Yes. Absolutely. And what the heck ARE these things? What do they acctually DO? But anyway so I read all my reviews, highlighted some sentences that sounded important and then went on to read a travel magazine until finally. FINALLY. I could board the plane. The pilot greeted me, which was nice. (Even if this is just a psychological trick to make people feel more safe on board.)

Now a few of you will know that, although I first took a plane when I was only four, every time I have to fly, I am more scared. Sitting in the last row (The safest one) makes things a bit better. But where is my seat this time? Over the wing. Where the ENGINES are. Now if they catch fire, i’m the first one to go down. Argh. On top of that, the person next to me is extremely boring. (and I mean EXTREMELY. I asked all sorts of things. I tried really really hard to engage him in a conversation but no, he would not interact. Bad luck. So how did I pass the 7:40h flight?

First there was a snack but it was not very good. Then drinks. I asked for Heinecken. One last beer before the under-21-stuff kicks in. Then food. Rösti and chicken, a salad, a roll, Guryere cheese and a piece of cake. Not bad Mr woodpecker (Yeah, try to translate „nicht schlecht Herr Specht“. Although, as some people know because I annoy them with it all the time, my favorite one is „zero-eight-fifteen“. Nullachtfufzäh ;) )

After that I decided it would be a good idea to go over the reviews so I did that. Then I tried to sleep a bit but I got very nervous because the engines kept changing the way they sounded and that scared me. So I decided to watch „the vow.“ It was ok. But not very realistic, even if they claim it was inspired by a real story. But I mean, if they say inspired, it could be that the main character and the real person share the same favorite color and that’s already an inspiration. I don’t really trust them. So anyway I watched the vow and then they brought more drinks (i took tea) and food but it was an odd mix: Pizza and icecream. And the pizza was a bit weird as it was ratatouille-pizza. And since I don’t like ratatouille that much it was a bit disappointing. But I tried it and i think that, if you are a ratatouille-lover, you might have found that pizza gave you a food-orgasm. By this time, around 5 hours had passed. I decided to play „who wants to be a millionaire“. I really wanted to be a millionaire but i only got up to 64'000. Bad performance, I know. I tried several times until i got frustrated and so I went on to listen to some music on the entertainment thingy. And then it broke. I complained but they did not fix it. So let’s summarize the performance of Swiss international airlines: a delay. Ratatouille pizza and an entertainment system that breaks.

By now, around 40minutes were missing until landing. I spent this time staring at the clouds (did i mention I had the window seat?), at the sea, the land underneath me. Yeah, I’m getting into a poetic mood (as a matter of fact, I even wrote a poem, but it’s in italian and it’s for my boyfriend)

And then, finally, the airbus landed. It was a very smooth landing, as it happens quite often with such big planes and I liked that. I was in America. The new world. The land of the infinite possibilities. The land of supersize. It was, in Swiss time, around 3 am and I was very very tired. But now I needed to stay awake, because It was time for the, dadada duummmm, border. This scary place with scary, agressive agents who think we’re all terrorists or at least people trying to illegally immigrate into their paradise. „No, I’m not involved in illegal organ transplantations. No, I’m not a terrorist. No, no, no.“ I had said no to everything on the 10 000 forms i had to fill in for my visa. But it was not enough. When I arrived at the counter, the guy looked at me suspiciously and went: „So, what are you doing here?“ The thing about these agents is that they treat you in a way such that, even if you are the most harmless, innocent person who only wants to spend some time in a lab and is sure to leave again, who is not importing any illegal products and is not involved in illegal organ transplantations, they will still make you feel guilty, insecure and scared. It’s quite humilitating actually. I replied: „I’m gonna be a short-term scholar at the Whitehead Institute.“ „The Whitehead? Mhhmm“ He goes and he googles it. Luckily he finds out that indeed this institute does exist and he lets me into his holy land. Cora vs Border Agency: 1:0 :) Ok. Next step: get my suitcase. It’s one of the last ones, as usually. Then a second check with an equally intimidating agent and then, finally, I step into the arrival area of Logan International Airport , Boston. USA: Here I am.  A really good friend of mine, Luis, is there to pick me up. (We met at IBO 2010 in korea and stayed in touch via skype. He’s a genius and now studying at prestigious Harvard University.)

So we took the subway (silver line) which is not actually a subway but a bus. (but they call it subway. Don’t ask me why.) Then we changed to the red line, which is an actual subway but i don’t remember if they call it bus. To be consistend, they should. We got off at Kendall/MIT and walked to my dorm, Burton-Conner house. It was quite a walk but it was really warm and so nice to catch up on 2 years’ time! Everything went really smoothly, i got my MIT Acesss card and key really quickly and then we went to check out the room and OMG... it’s AMAZING. I mean it. So: i have a double room for myself. I have two beds, two desks, two everythings :) the toilet is, um, a bit odd. There is, for ex, no WC bürste (sorry, too lazy to translate). The room is part of an appartment with 4 rooms and an amazing kitchen: two massive fridges, a table, a sofa, a big stove (everything seems to be at least double the normal size here) and loads of cupboards and stuff. It’s great. The only thing that’s missing is AC. Which is acutally a little bit of an issue. I am boiling in here. It’s really really hot. Argh. So anyway we arrived at the room, checked it out and then went for a coke and a piece of pizza. The pizza was awful. And i mean awful. I could hardly swallow it. Then we went back and I went to bed and he went back to Harvard and for my body it was 5am or so, so I was very glad to get some sleep.