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Final Post & Retrospective

I ended up returning slightly early to attend my aunt's funeral. Because flights had to be switched around I arrived at the Philly airport about 2 hours before my family. That's where I'm writing this entry now. All in all I spent 84 days in Switerland from May 20th to August 11th. I'll start with the good things. I found the chemistry to be fascinating. I think that I am better prepared for my future career and graduate school as a result of this experience. I worked on projects that I found interesting and I enjoyed the hikes that I went on with my brother. I feel a need to be honest in this blog post, so I'll follow with the bad things.  This was probably the worst 84 days of my life. While the chemistry was good, I have never before been so incredibly socially isolated. Failing to do proper research before I arrived in Fribourg, I only learned that it was a french speaking city 3 days before my departure. The linguistic isolation was one of the most challenging
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Week 12

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  Samnaun is beautiful. I've been struggling with persistent stomach problems for a while now (hopefully they clear up when I go back to the States) so I was only able to go on one good hike with my brother. It was a very good hike. We went about 8 miles around a river valley and gained a total of 3000ft, the highest we got was just shy of 9000ft. This was one of the most challenging day hikes I've ever been on. The wind was strong and we were buffeted by snow squalls on and off the entire trip. We attempted to climb to the peak of a nearby mountain (Mt. Muttler), but turned back after realizing that climbing a mountain in the snow without gloves was probably a bad idea. All in all it was an excellent experience, and a great change of pace compared to the rest of the trip. I received texts from my cell provider that I had crossed into Austria. Based on maps I somewhat doubt that we crossed the border, but we sure got close!   Climbing up this was a pain, but certainly worth the
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Week 11

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My research time here is now at an end. My time in Switzerland however, is not. My family has been vacationing in central Europe the past few weeks and are now coming to visit me. We, along with the research group, will be heading to a village called Samnaun. Samnaun is a small Swiss tourist town that can only be accessed by going across the Austrian border. I can now add Austria to the list of countries I've been to. Samnaun is in the Swiss alps. The drive across Switzerland was comically beautiful (as most of this country is) Everywhere you look, there's idyllic fields and lakes, towering, snow capped mountains, etc. Even the rest stops have impressive mountain views. My next post will cover the time at Samnaun. If it wasn't clear by now, my entries are not weekly despite being titled as much. I figure its easier to keep this formatting. Some weeks there just wasn't much to write about, especially this past month or so.
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