Recruiting: A Grad Student's Worst Nightmare

An unfortunate part of our looming graduation date is securing employment.  I headed back to Boston for just that one week in November.  Though my days were filled with preparing, interviewing, company receptions, and running between the two events, it was good to be back.  Plus I’m now in the fortunate position to be on the other side of the table and interview the companies to see which offer is the best fit.  Come June 3^rd (well if I get this thesis signed off on), we will need to swap the lectures, tour of the world, and themed parties for responsibility and a paycheck.

However June isn’t here yet and I still managed to have a good time despite the ten hour interviews. My LGO team took one evening off of all things recruiting and had a reunion dinner at our favorite sushi joint.  Teammate Steve and his wife had a baby over the summer and this was my first time seeing the little guy. 

 

Newsteam

I was fortunate to fly in Halloween day and got to participate in the MIT Halloween parties.  What a grand opportunity to break out a German dirndl.  My co-workers told me that only small children participate in Halloween in Switzerland and found my description of American Halloween hilarious. 

 

LGO's celebrate Halloween

I also was in town for a fabled MIT tradition - Fall Ball which is a cross between prom and a high-end wedding.  Since all my stuff was in a suburban storage locker, I dressed up in a pal’s finest and danced the night away at the Fairmont Copley downtown.

Ladies at Fall Ball

Bone Church

A classmate and avid traveler, Todd, tipped us off to make a half day trip out of Prague to the small town of Kunta Hora to the “bone church”.  While we were skeptical, Todd was so insistent on the excursion that we trekked out to Kunta Hora.  Wow he wasn’t kidding.  The Sedlec Ossuary aka the bone church is an ossuary that is estimated to house the skeletons of 40,000 – 70,000 people.  The ossuary had been a popular burial site in Bohemia and was overrun with bodies during the plague in the 14^th century and Hussite Wars in the 15^th century.  A new family purchased the chapel in the 1800’s and hired a local woodcarver to arrange the bones.  The result is both morbid and fascinating.  See for yourself in the pictures below.   

Chris & I underneath the chandelier

Chandelier had every bone in the human body

A crown of skeletons to commemorate the king

We returned to Prague to accidentally encounter the taping of Mission Impossible 4 which was quite a departure from starring at 40,000 skeletons.  

Foray into Eastern Europe

Little did I know all those years singing Christmas carols, the Good King Wenceslas was a real prince who ruled over Bohemia.  At present day, King Wenceslas’ land is the Czech Republic solidified in 1993 by the Velvet Revolution and subsequent Velvet Divorce.  I learned all these fascinating facts (and many more) on a private walking tour we ended up on by happenstance shortly after arriving in Prague.  We flew in at the crack of dawn to maximize sight-seeing time and conveniently stayed right off the main square pictured below. 

Main square of Prague

Our local tour guide spun tales of love, revolution, and history as we wandered from sight to sight.  We began in the main square to watch the changing of the hour from the astronomical clock.  It was fairly amusing to watch throngs of people gathered to see a small parade of apostle and a bell-ringing skeleton.   

Astronomical clock

The biggest tourist site of Prague is the elegantly formidable castle on the hill that overlooks the city.  We trucked up the hill with our guide to view the grounds and take in the soldiers who guard the gate similar to those in front of Buckingham palace.  Other fascinating tidbits from the tour included seeing the Prague Castle window where two Habsburg councilors were thrown in the early 1600’s.

Prague Castle

After the tour we walked across the famed Charles Bridge.  It spans the river from the Castle to the main city center of Prague and was built in the 1300s.  Another official was thrown from the bridge for disobedience and it is considered good luck to rub his foot on the statue the marks his last spot. 

Good luck here I come!

One morning while the rest of the group went shopping, I went to check out Josefov – Prague’s former Jewish Quarter.  The Jewish Museum is consortium of former synagogues and a cemetery.  I found the graveyard interesting.  The disheveled appearance came from a practice of burying one generation of people on top of the next.

Jewish graveyard

We of course sampled much of the local food and beer.  Everybody always raves about Czech beer and it didn’t disappoint.  Given the cold weather and how much time we spent walking around outside, I loved the gluwein (hot wine). Though I enjoyed the litany of dumplings, my favorite Prague gastronomic treat however was beef goulash. 

Friendship Across Continents

Two of the things I’ve always loved best about my friend and college roommate, Kelly, are her adventurous streak and spontaneity.  In the previous posts, I told you guys about our paragliding escapade and Oktoberfest exploits.  In addition to paragliding during the Interlaken trek, we also went hiking and canyoning.

       

Kelly, Susanna, & I pre-hike

According to Wikipedia my favorite source of online knowledge, canyoning is “traveling in canyons using a variety of techniques that may include other outdoor activities such as walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, abseiling, and/or swimming.”  We went with my paragliding instructor, Luki, in a canyon right outside Interlaken.  Wow what a crazy sport.  Within five minutes of entering the canyon, Luki, Susanna, & I were accidentally swept down a chute of raging white water after Luki tried to jump across a gorge with me on his back, missed the landing, and Susanna tried to heroically grab us.  Don’t worry mom, I was wearing a helmet.  Not more than ten minutes afterwards, we all had to jump 30 – 40 feet through a narrow rock chute into a small pool.  Clearly the Swiss aren’t concerned with pesky American traditions of liability.

What a sport

Besides crazy sports, Interlaken is also a beautiful region of Switzerland to go hiking in.  Jungfraujoch is the hallmark mountain in the region and the scene of a James Bond movie.  The boys tell me that it was the scene of a revolving restaurant.  Like with most hikes in Switzerland, we spent most of the hike in awe of the natural beauty and slightly ashamed as seventy year olds with walking sticks overtook us with ease.

With Jungfrau

Over the past nine years, Kelly and I have gotten together in three continents. Friend anniversary year ten is coming up next fall.  How do you feel about Antarctica Kel?    

Bring those muscles to Antarctica Kelly!