2.11. - 8.11.

This is about the 8th and last week of being in the states, and it was a great experience! My last few days were all packed, so I didn't really realize that the trip back is getting closer and closer.
Monday and Tuesday I finished my project and finalized my presentation which I gave on Wednesday morning. It was quite a strange thing to present a topic in front of doctors and professors in this area. The talk was about 25' long, with people asking questions at the end which really challenged me.

So I left National Jewish after that and visited downtown for the last time. I actually went straight to the Broncos stadium, where I asked several security guards to let me enter it for taking a picture, but none of them would let me in.
But I kept asking more and more, and finally found one who would let me take some pictures from inside. And I was impressed by the size of it: it holds 77k people and it is sold out for almost every game.

So after that I went to some more shops to make my last purchases.
Thursday I went to Boulder with Urs and worked all day long in the lab, which was a cool feeling. This night I watched my first basketball game ever, unfortunately the Denver Nuggets lost their game. However it was a great game, there is something on all game long, you don't get bored at all.

Friday I went to the labs in Boulder again and continued on the work we did the day before. This night we also went to watch the new 007-movie: "Spectre" is a really good continuation of the last few Bond-movies!

Saturday morning we went to walk the dogs in the mountains and I was glad to get some exercise too as my trip back is going to take quite a while.
So in the afternoon I made it to the airport and flew back to CH via Reykjavik and Oslo (where they had problems with my ticket, so I caused some delay!).
But after all I landed in Zurich and was looking back on 8 of my best weeks ever!

26.10. - 1. 11.

This is about the seventh and second last week in Denver Colorado!
On Monday I went to National Jewish to work on my project about bacteria is space. I made quite a bit of progress, so I have enough time left before giving the presentation next Wednesday in NJ in front of all the experts and professionals.

Powerpoint for my talk

On Tuesday, Urs, Mary Ann and me went to Boulder to work in the lab (here I'm actually allowed to work in the lab being supervised by a person working here). I could help a guy doing some experiments about bacteria, searching for antibiotics. It's amazing how much work it needs to make any findings in this area!

Lab in Boulder

On Wednesday I joint my hostmother to Fort Collins to Colorado State University to attend a talk about tuberculosis. I honestly didn't understand a single word about it!! This night I went to see one of Americas most famous play in East Highschool in Denver: "To Kill a Mockingbird". It was really well done!
Thursday morning I went to NJ again to continue on the powerpoint for my talk. In the afternoon I cycled to Northfield which is about a 45' bike ride. It is an area which a lot of stores and restaurants where I bought some more jeans (they are so cheap in the US!) and sports clothes. This is where I met my hostparents for having dinner in a pretty restaurant.
Wednesday night I got invited for a haunted house (Halloween is a gigantic event in the states, the second biggest after Christmas). So when we made it to the entrance on the huge spooky tent we didn't know yet that we'll have to wait for 1.5h, just to learn that it would have taken us another 2h to get in. So we left the queue and drove back home where we spent the night watching TV.

Halloween decoration in front of the neighbors house

Saturday morning Urs and me went off for a 3h ride south-west straight into the Rocky Mountains where my hostparents constructed their own cabin about 12 years ago in the midst of the wilderness. It is a gorgeous place and certainly one of the highlights of my stay! It is absolutely quiet, with a breathtaking view to the mountains of the opposite side of the valley, which is full of deer. Occasionally one would also see bears or mountain lions.

View from the Cabin

As this area is one of the 8 places on the world following the 'dark sky initiative', no light is permitted at night which leads to a jet black sky. Lucky as we were, no single cloud covered the night and the moon rose behind a mountain, so for the first time of my life I saw the Milky Way by eye!! It was so impressive to see this far off blurry white strip on the sky! In addition we saw some beautiful 'shooting stars'.
Sunday morning we left quite early to do the drive back to make it into the ice hockey stadium at 1pm. It was my first hockey game being in a stadium, and it is really different from watching in TV. Unfortunately the Colorado Avalanches lost an exciting game against the San Jose Sharks 3:4.

The football game in the evening was the event I was looking forward for two weeks as the Denver Broncos faced the Green Bay Packers, both teams undefeated with 6 victories each so far. It was a great game which was finally won by the Broncos with 29:10, still leading the American Football Conference!

Pepsi Center