Pasadena

So as promised a few words on California. This time the getting settled part was pretty easy (especially compared to the struggle for housing I had in NJ). My professor managed to get me invited to join a lab at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena as a visiting researcher. So, after I got the letter of invitation, Caltech was quite efficient in providing me the required forms for the Visa (F-1 this time) and they also provided me with a room in one of the graduate housing apartments. This is quite convenient as those apartments are right next to the campus and there are plenty of shopping possibilities in walking distance. So, in strong contrast to my stay in NJ, I don't actually need a car here!

In the end the arrival in Pasadena worked out very smoothly. A shuttle took me from the airport to the campus (with a detour through skid row late at night) and a lab-mate from Zurich, who is also spending a few months here, met me there. He was also nice enough to help me find and get settled in my new apartment and so I was all set to crash and sleep away the jet lag... ;-)
Besides that, the first striking impression of California was clearly the weather. Big temperature difference to Switzerland! And best of all, it's predominantly sunny and still hasn't gotten colder... ;-) ...so ever since I arrived here the worst daily high may have been around 15ºC. Not exactly what I call a winter (or fall) but I could definitely get used to that... ;-)

So what about the city of Pasadena? I would say that it is mainly a really pretty city (lots of green, nice houses, parks, etc) with all one needs to do research. It's a bit like Princeton...cute but may get boring in the long run. Pasadena is mainly known for its research at Caltech and the connected JPL (one of NASA's main research facilities) and for hosting the Rose Parade (to celebrate the New Year) and the Rose Bowl Game. Since I happened to be there on the first of January and somehow managed to wake up (I celebrated New Year's Eve in Los Angeles), I also took some pictures of the parade and of the crowd at the Rose Bowl stadium. The pre-game festivities also featured an impressive flyover of 4 F/A-18 which I failed to take a picture of (and I even had the cam ready... :( ), but trust me that it looked quite impressive...

Of course I had no plans of staying put in Pasadena for 4 months and even though the public transports are quite good here for US-standards, it is still a good idea to have a car for these things. So, we simply bought one... ;-) ...I have no pictures of the car as it is not as impressive as the rental cars I had in NJ, but it is a very decent car (a 2001 Mazda Protege LX/ES 2.0L). So we used the car to do a couple of trips to Los Angeles, Las Vegas (forgot my cam, so no pics for that one...sorry ;-)) and to San Francisco (going through some of Sierra Nevada's national parks on the way there and along the scenic Pacific Coastline on the way back). But more on those trips in the next couple of posts. Now, I need to look at the pictures I took today in the botanical gardens of the Huntington Library in Pasadena. So, make sure to check the "Latest Pictures" on the right since I may add new pictures to old albums...