Caroline Uhler

Holidays in Switzerland (June 5-June 21, 2008)

2008-06-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

Punctually for the start of the European Championship in soccer taking place in Switzerland and in Austria, I am back in Switzerland. I will spend two weeks of holidays at home before departing for my trip through Europe. The trip will first bring me to a week of holidays in Italy, then to a conference in Durham (England), after that to another conference in Berlin and finally to Greece, where I will spend some days with Anna from Berkeley, working on a paper and at the same time enjoying the sea.

I am very happy to be back home, spending time with my family and friends from here. Every night I go out with friends, usually to watch the soccer games and afterwards to some party in the fan zone. The atmosphere here in Switzerland is indescribable. There are people from all over Europe who traveled to Switzerland to support their team. Switzerland is like one huge party. The streets in Zurich are filled with people at any time and no matter if it is raining or the sun is shining. When the games finish at 11 at night, the parties start. The bars are full, people are dancing in the streets, no matter if their team won or lost. Everyone is happy. In the run-up to this event the Swiss were afraid of Hooligans disturbing the parties and drunk people making problems. However, nothing of this has happened until now. The atmosphere is just amazing!!! I hope you'll get a feeling of this by looking at my pictures!

In addition, Christoph and Anna from Berkeley visited my here in my hometown Rapperswil. It sometimes feels strange to have two separate lives, one in Berkeley, and one in Switzerland. For me it was a really nice to have these two lives meeting, once through Christoph and once through Anna. They met my family and some of my friends here and I'll meet Anna's family in Greece. I'm really looking forward to that!

Finally, I enjoyed clubbing in Zurich a lot. It is so different to Berkeley: No hip hop, elder people, less drunk students, nicer clubs,... This is what I am used to and I love it!!! :-)

Enjoy my pictures from Switzerland!

Second semester in Berkeley

2008-06-18T03:25:00.000-07:00

After five wonderful weeks of winter holidays in Switzerland, where I passed great Christmas days with my family, went out with my friends every night, went snowboarding a few times, laid in bed with a cerebral concussion for a few days due to a bad fall while snowboarding about which I don't remember anything, and spent some relaxing days in the various spas in Switzerland, I am now back in Berkeley ready for the second semester.

The second semester in Berkeley was maybe the hardest in my life. I took more classes than required, as I wanted to be done with classes after the second semester in order to start research in my second year. Now that the semester is over, I am really happy. However, during the semester I was asking myself quite often if this was a wise decision. However, although I spent a lot of time studying, there are still some highlights I would like to tell you more about.

Swiss dinner at my apartment (February 3, 2008)
In February it is very rainy and quite cold in Berkeley. It's time for a Swiss dinner! From Switzerland I brought some cheese fondue such that my friends in Berkeley could taste a real Swiss dish. I decorated the apartment with Swiss flags and balloons and soon everything was smelling from cheese. My friend Joseph from Trinidad had already eaten before as he could not imagine that one could eat only bread and cheese for dinner. However, he seemed to like the fondue, but was quite cack-handed with his fork... He lost his bread in the cheese pot several times and so as a punishment he had to sing the Trinidadian national hymn. The film will be uploaded soon... I had a really fun evening together with my friends in Berkeley. Let's end this story with Garvesh's statement: "I didn't know that bread and cheese could tast so good!" :-)

Have a look at the pictures!

Enrichment seminar in Washington (February 20-24, 2008)
Similar to the Gateway in New York, this time I was invited by Fulbright to an enrichment seminar in Washington. I always wanted to visit Washington and now I even got a free trip there. I was so excited!!

We were about 140 students from all over the world studying in the US all sorts of subjects. I knew that I would experience four unforgettable days.

On the first day we went on a bus tour through Washington. It was freezing cold and even snowing. I was very happy that I brought my winter jacket from Switzerland. Due to the upcoming elections, the theme of these four days in Washington was "Politics in the US". So there were various talks presenting the political system in the US and at the end we had to play the election. So everybody got a role and had to prepare for this game. Fortunately, I was just a state inhabitant and therefore didn't have to prepare anything. So every night, I could go out with the Fulbrighters from all over the world. We went out dancing or to bars and when they closed, we continued chatting in the lobby of our hotel. Once back home I had to make up for a lot of sleep... ;-)

These were four awesome days where I made wonderful friends. Many thanks to Fulbright for making this possible!!

Click here to see the pictures I took during these unforgettable days.

My first birthday in the US (April 22, 2008)
The semester is ending soon and so we are all very stressed with our studies. So I would never have expected my birthday to be one of my nicest birthdays ever.

It actually began the evening before, when Nancy came by my apartment and brought me a wonderful purple orchid for my birthday. She knows me so well, I love the orchid! And it's in my favorite color! The next day I walk to university and meet some friends on my way. Thanks to facebook everyone knows about my birthday and wishes me a happy birthday. This is really very unusual! At university I meet Anna and I can't believe my eyes when I see her with the same identical orchid I received from Nancy the day before. It was sooo funny, but I first didn't tell Anna... The chance of such an event is tiny... they both must know me really well... I love their present!! :-)

Anna then asked me, if we wanted to go out for dinner that night. I liked the idea and so I started inviting my friends. However, this was not what Anna had in mind, but I didn't realize. When Nancy said that she couldn't come for dinner tonight and she didn't tell me why, it felt really strange. However, I still didn't suspect anything. So finally, we were about 20 people having dinner at a Thai restaurant in Berkeley. With Meromit, a good friend from Israel, I was planning to go out to another place for desserts afterwords. I didn't understand the world anymore as at the end everyone wanted to go home and even Meromit felt too tired for desserts. In addition, Anna asked me to accompany her to some random bar. Quite unhappy, I went with her. In this bar I met some other friends who were having dinner there and so we chatted for quite a while. However, Anna could not find her friend in the bar. She told me, that she must have understood the name of the bar wrongly. After everyone had finished dinner, we walked back and met another friend on the street. He was really confused about meeting us and was talking about the three pizzas he ate today. I didn't understand a word, but I was still not expecting anything. Finally, we bought a cake in a coffee shop and Anna urged me to eat the cake together in my apartment. This sounded strange, too. But she always had some good excuses. This time she argued that the coffee shop was too crowded and that we could drink a nice warm tea together with the cake in my apartment. So about one hour after dinner we walked back home and when I got into the apartment everything was dark. I thought that Laura was watching a DVD with a friend. But then all my friends stood up behind the sofas in the living room and shouted: Happy Birthday!! And also Nancy was there!! Finally I understood why Nancy could not come with us for dinner, why everyone had to go home after dinner and why Anna wanted me to come with her to that bar. Because I started to organize a dinner for my birthday, I complicated their plans a lot... in addition, everyone had to wait for more than an hour in my apartment because I met these friends in that bar...

I was soo happy to have all my friends around me for my birthday. This was a wonderful surprise!!! And the chocolate cake was delicious!!! Thank you so much Nancy, Anna and Laura for organizing this amazing surprise!!!

As usual, Joseph also this evening took a lot of pictures. After waiting for the photos for six months and blackmailing him with the following letter ;-) I received the pictures. Her e they are. Thank you so much, Joseph!

Anna had organized a booklet, where everyone wrote, where they see me in 10 years. You are all sooo cute! Thank you all very much for coming and making this a wonderful day! That day I again realized how many wonderful friends I found in Berkeley and how much I am enjoying my time her. I am very much looking forward to the next 3 or 4 years with you guys!!!

Final dinner (May 25, 2008)
Finally, we have all our exams behind us. For everyone, it was a period of stress and a lot of studying. Before everyone leaves for the summer holidays, it is time for a last dinner in my apartment. I have some cheese fondue left. Because I know that, unbelievably (!!!) some of my friends do not like this delicious fondue that much, I also have some homemade Lasagne as second dish. :-) Although Nancy, Anna, Aleks and Meromit had already gone home or on a trip, it was again a really fun night and a good end of my first year in Berkeley.

Have a look at the pictures I took during this evening and at some last pictures of Berkeley!

Enrichment seminar in San Francisco (May 31-June 3, 2008)
I was very lucky to have the opportunity to participate in two enrichment seminars. This time, Fulbright invited all Science and Technology Award winners to a seminar in San Francisco. We were a smaller group than in the two seminars before. About 25 students pursuing a PhD in science came together for four days. Unlike the other seminars, we did not have a main theme for the four days. It was all about us students and we got a lot of time to get to know each other better, to talk about our research and to find common research interests and possible collaborations.

The first day we were free to visit San Francisco by our own. Being viewed as a local there, I led a group of Fulbrighters to an Italian restaurant, in my opinion the best Italian restaurant in the city. The food was delicious, even in the eyes of the Italian Fulbrighters. We then ended our first evening in an Irish Pub, before the Fulbrighters from Boston had to return to the hotel. Due to the jetlag they were too tired...

The following day we went on a 6 hours bus tour through San Francisco. I was really curious about what we would see, as some friends will be visiting me in August and so I'll have to play tour guide. We even went to two places in San Francisco I had never seen before. That was interesting!

The next day took place in Stanford. It was dedicated to our research and to a visit of the beautiful campus in Stanford. Finally, it got really warm again and so we all enjoyed the time strolling around the campus. After dinner, the Nobel Price winner Robert Laughlin gave a talk, in my opinion quite disappointing. He received a Nobel Price for his amazing findings in 1983, but for some reasons his talk was quite confused...

For me participating in this Fulbright seminar was again an unforgettable experience, where I made friends from all over the world. I am very much looking forward to meeting all of you again latest in one year at the next Science and Technology seminar!

Have a look at the pictures form this seminar!

This seminar represented a great end of my first year in the US. I am very happy that I made the decision to come to the US to pursue my Ph.D. This was one of the nicest years of my life and I am very much looking forward to spending 3 or 4 more years here!

Thanksgiving (November 22, 2007)

2008-06-18T03:02:00.000-07:00

This is my first Thanksgiving. From films I have some imaginations about what Thanksgiving is and I am really eager to experience this event life. Through Fulbright I got the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving in an American family.

Together with another Fulbrighter we are picked up by their son at our apartment. He then drives us to their house in the Berkeley hills. The whole family is gathered in the living room. By a glass of wine we get to know each other better and have great discussions about American politics, culture and the differences to our own countries. Already the appetizers are fabulous, but what comes afterwards for dinner surpasses all my expectations. The turkey and the various side dishes are absolutely delicious! After dinner I can hardly move, I am sooo full.

Many thanks to the family Hanauer for their grand hospitality!! I had a wonderful evening together with their family. They made my first Thanksgiving a great experience!

Have a look at my pictures!

Dias de los Muertos (October 21, 2007)

2007-10-30T01:44:00.000-07:00

Today, I am again participating in a Fulbright event. It is Dias de los Muertos and Fulbright has invited us to celebrate it with the Mexican community living here in the area. I went there with Giovanni, an Italian guy, I knew from former Fulbright events. The event started with a tranquil breakfast. At noon, the celebration began. Dias de los Muertos is the day where the Mexican remember their dead relatives. There was a very strange and mystique atmosphere during the whole day. I hope you will get a feeling for it by looking at the pictures.

The opening ceremony consisted of a wild "Danza Azteca". It was so impressive to whatch these dancers jumping, gyrating and screaming. During the whole afternoon beautiful Mexican dances were performed. We were just sitting in the grass and enjoying the music and dances.

Also the visitors were invited to remember their dead relatives by constructing little altars or decorating sculls. We had a lot of fun giving our skull a nice face... ;-)

You shouldn't miss these mystique, funny and at the same time scary photos!

Midterms are over!

2007-10-30T01:31:00.000-07:00

During the last weeks I studied very hard as it was time for the first midterm. The exam was really very, very hard, but as nobody got more than half of the points, it was still ok. After all this studying it's again time for a fun weekend!

Early in the afternoon, Nancy, a very nice Chinese girl I study with, and me left for San Francisco. We passed a day as tourists in the city. We visited Fisherman's Wharf, observed the sea lions, enjoyed the great view from Telegraph hill and finally went for some shopping. This afternoon we were walking for about six hours without a stop and you can imagine how happy we were to relax our tired legs while having dinner in a Mexican restaurant. Later in the evening, we met some friends at a bar. Anna, a Swiss girl I met here in Berkeley had organized a party there, which was was a lot of fun.

Back at home we were really tired but we had passed a great day! Have a look at the pictures of our trip to San Francisco!

Fulbright events

2007-10-30T01:17:00.000-07:00

Fulbright, the organization that pays my scholarship, organizes many events here in the bay area for us grantees. For Fulbright it is important that the students they support really get to know the U.S. and its culture and don't only study. It is always a lot of fun to meet Fulbrighters from all over the wold studying at different universities here in the bay area. The first event I went to was a brunch at the house of a lady who works for Fulbright. She has a huge house, as she accommodated more than 100 students for brunch. She also showed us the beautiful and famous wall paintings in the Mission district in San Francisco. I took some pictures of them for you.

As usual here in the US, every event has a beginning and ending time. And straight at that time everybody has to leave the party. This was also the case for this brunch. However, many of us remained in San Francisco to stroll around and chat with each other. It is great to meet people from different universities and cities here in the surrounding as it gives me also the possibility to visit these cities.

Have a look at the pictures from this Fulbright event!

Berkeley does not only mean studying!

2007-10-30T00:29:00.000-07:00

Although, I have to study quite hard here in Berkeley and spend a lot of time doing homework, I still enjoy life a lot. Berkeley has many great restaurants and eating out is almost cheaper than cooking by yourself. So I often go out with friends for dinner. You'll find photos of my first dinner in San Francisco here. I went out with friends I met at the hotel where I was staying before moving into the apartment. We went to a Spanish restaurant and ate delicious Paella with great Sangria... We are all very good friends now and go out together for dinner every Sunday evening.

Marcel, a friend from Switzerland, who spent some months here in Berkeley, always enthused about the Cal Sailing Club. So I really had to check it out. This sailing club organizes various open days. Many other students were interested in it and finally we were a group of 17 people going for sailing. Sun, sea, and beach: It was like being in holidays. We had so much fun that day and we are definitively going to repeat this. Click here for pictures.

I am very happy to live just five minutes away from Ihouse, where about 600 students live. I often spend the evening there, chatting with people. It is so easy to make new friends. I enjoy my time here in Berkeley so much! But with all these parties it is sometimes difficult to concentrate on work. ;-) For pictures of various dinners and friends click here.

Settled down in Berkeley!

2007-10-29T23:52:00.000-07:00

After three weeks of holidays with many wonderful trips in Berkeley's neighborhood, my parents returned to Switzerland. But before leaving, they helped me move into my new apartment. It was so much work! But they left me with a truly wonderful apartment. You can find some photos of the apartment here.

Now, I had one day left to buy school supplies and get ready for the start of university. Buying the textbooks for the courses is so easy here: I went to a bookshop near campus and was thinking that I would spend a long time in there looking for good textbooks for the various courses. However, here in the U.S. even for Ph.D. students the professors already tell the bookshops which textbooks the students will have to buy for their courses and so the students just have to pick up the books. Individual thinking is not allowed... However, I have noticed that this system leads to serious drawbacks as many American students are not able to go to the library and look for helpful books by their own. However, like this I got my textbooks very quickly and was ready for university.

I already knew the campus of UC Berkeley from my first visit here in March. It is just wonderful. But I was quite shocked when I first saw my office and the classrooms. Have a look at my pictures! By then I started to appreciate the equipment of the University of Zurich a lot. But as I have such a nice apartment, I spend very little time in my office and study mostly at home. And here in Berkeley the weather is always so nice that many students study sitting in the grass somewhere on campus.

There are so many different courses offered here at university that it was hard to choose. In addition, most professors do a great job in teaching. And if you don't like a class, there are so many others... This semester, I am taking three classes and they are all so interesting. In one of these courses we are about 200 Ph.D. students! Not imaginable in Switzerland!

Although I knew that a Ph.D. in the U.S. is very school-like, it took me some time to get used to it. Here I have weekly homework in every course and 2 exams per semester, a midterm and a final. During the first week I asked my office mate what the rules were for the homework. I wanted to know what percentage of the points I needed as I was used to be required to get 50% of the points. But my office mate was very confused by my question and finally explained that I have to solve 100% of the problems... I again got aware: I'm in Berkeley now! ;-)

Please check out my pictures about my apartment and university!

Arrival at San Francisco / Berkeley

2007-08-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

After these fantastic four days in New York I took the plane for another 7 hours to San Francisco. Finally, I had some time to sleep... ;-) My parents were already waiting for me at the airport of San Francisco. I was really happy that they came to pick me up with their rented car. So I did not have to bring my heavy luggage to my hotel by my own. The first thing to do in Berkeley was to find an apartment. Laura, a Canadian girl I met in Switzerland and who will study statistics with me here in Berkeley, had already found some nice apartments in the Internet and so I went to look at them. We were so lucky: The second apartment was great and we got it! We can already move in in a week... So the hardest thing was done. But there were still many other things to do as opening a bank account, buying a mobile phone, filling in hundreds of forms,... Beside these awfully boring things, I still had some days to explore the area. I made three trips with my parents, one to the north, one to the south, and one to the east of Berkeley. The surroundings are so gorgeous. Have a look at my photos: First trip, second trip and third trip.

Gateway in New York (August 6-10, 2007)

2007-08-17T00:46:00.000-07:00

Before coming to Berkeley, I spent some days in New York. I was invited by Fulbright to an orientation on the graduate students' life in the US. We were about 130 students from over 50 countries. I had a lot of fun during these four days. It was really interesting to talk to all these students with so different backgrounds. There were talks on living and studying in the US, we went on a city bus tour and we also had some spare time to explore New York by our own. Here you find some pictures from these unforgettable days.

Farewell Party (July 27, 2007)

2007-08-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

My departure to Berkeley is getting closer and closer. So I organized a party at a nice bar in Zurich to say good-bye to all my friends. Thank you all for coming! I will miss you so much!!!

For pictures of the party click here. I'm sorry for the bad quality. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera, so I took some pictures with my brother's mobile phone.

Short trip to the U.S. in March 2007

2007-07-20T04:57:00.000-07:00

After a long application process I have been accepted at all five universities I applied to. I'm so happy!!!

As I wavered between UC Berkley, Harvard University and University of Chicago, I decided to visit all three universities and combined this trip to the U.S. with a workshop on Algebraic Statistics taking place in Minneapolis. So I first flew to Boston and then spent a week in Minneapolis. After that, I continued to Chicago and finally visited Berkeley. And all this in three weeks! I have never spent so many hours in airplanes as during this trip, but it was really worth it. I enjoyed all three universities a lot, but I had to take a decision and I finally decided for Berkeley.

You can find pictures of my trip here.