Update from Zurich

I have received several requests for updates and information. Instead of the mass email route, I decided to return to the blog. Its good to back.

First off, Bryn and the baby are doing great, I think. My observations of the baby are limited to the sound of her heartbeat at the hospital once a month, and the increasing size and disturbances of Bryn's stomach. Both seem to indicate that our baby is going to be a hyper-genius supermodel.

Bryn and I just returned from a trip to Spain. We wanted to escape the entrenched below-freezing temperatures here in Zurich, and get in some final traveling without a child. We spent a few days in Seville with the family of my co-worker, Elias. They made us feel right at home and gave us an insiders tour of Seville. It is a beautiful, historical city, with many narrow cobblestone streats and a GIANT gothic Cathedral. Palm trees sway in the wind, and the streets are lined with vibrant orange trees. Elias' family even let us participate in their celebration of the Three Magic Kings, which is a day of feasting and gift giving. In Elias's family, it is also a day of singing, dancing, hugging and kissing. I'm not sure every family in Spain is as extroverted as his, but I like to think so. After Seville, we spent the weekend in a devalued four-star hotel (thank you economic crisis) in the city of Cadiz, located on a small penesula on the southern Atlantic coast of Spain. The beaches were beautiful, and the entire city is like a history museum. It gave me real perspective to stand in a Cathedral that is more than five hundred years old and look out over the Atlantic ocean, which is more than 4 billion years old. People have been standing in that spot and seeing the same view since before the United States existed. Before the writing of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, before slaves were taken then freed, before baseball, basketball or football were invented, before a single chemical element was known.

As far as work, I am settling in and finally getting some real work done. It is amazing how long it takes to get settled in a new place, especially in a new country. . . and maybe even more especially if that new country is Switzerland. We have a very diverse group here, both geographically and scientifically. Our group members come from India, China, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Chile, the U.S. and Switzerland. Dr. Wagner is from Austria. In the lab, we are evolving yeast, fruit-flies and ribozymes. The computational biology projects are looking at gene expression networks, signal transduction, transposable elements, and cooperativity/conflict in ecology. It is great to be exposed to so many different cultures and scientific ideas. If I don't learn anything about computational biology, I should learn how to make a mean Shahi Paneer.

Bryn is also keeping a blog, and she has been putting our pictures on the web.
http://ericandbrynhayden.blogspot.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/thebrynster