University of Basel Tour, 27/01/2012: On Friday we had the option to tour the universities in Strasbourg, Basel, or Freiburg. Since I am interested in an advanced chemistry course on nanosciences in Basel, I opted to take the train to Switzerland for the day. After 30 minutes on the ICE and a frazzling 15 minute bus ride (did you know that Switzerland is not on the Euro?), we arrived at the university. There was a bit of miscommunication between us and the international office at the University of Basel. They thought that we were registering for classes but we were under the impression that Friday was just a campus tour. After a lot of hand gestures, speaking in German, speaking in English, and finding the proper administrators to answer questions, we got everything figured out and began the tour. Two graduate students who had studied in the US showed us around “campus.” Instead of being one central campus, the university is spread out over several blocks and students mainly just visit the academic buildings in their core subject. We ate lunch in the student cafeteria, which felt both incredibly expensive and incredibly empty. It was empty because classes are not currently in session, but our guides said that only about one third (or less) of students eat in the cafeteria, since it is often easier to bring a lunch from home or just head home for lunch. The food was expensive because everything in Switzerland is expensive. The Swiss Franc is locked with the Euro (1.2 Swiss Francs to a Euro, which equals about 1 dollar per Swiss Franc), but the prices were much higher than we would expect in the US. My coffee and pastry at a cafe was 9.60 Swiss Francs (8 Euro) whereas in Freiburg it would be 3.50 Euro. After exploring the university a bit, we walked around the town. After winding up and down narrow streets lined with old, colorful houses, we emerged into a large square with a cathedral at the far end. I took too many photos of the cathedral, but here is one of my favorites.
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University of Basel Tour, 27/01/2012:

On Friday we had the option to tour the universities in Strasbourg, Basel, or Freiburg. Since I am interested in an advanced chemistry course on nanosciences in Basel, I opted to take the train to Switzerland for the day.

After 30 minutes on the ICE and a frazzling 15 minute bus ride (did you know that Switzerland is not on the Euro?), we arrived at the university. There was a bit of miscommunication between us and the international office at the University of Basel. They thought that we were registering for classes but we were under the impression that Friday was just a campus tour. After a lot of hand gestures, speaking in German, speaking in English, and finding the proper administrators to answer questions, we got everything figured out and began the tour.

Two graduate students who had studied in the US showed us around “campus.” Instead of being one central campus, the university is spread out over several blocks and students mainly just visit the academic buildings in their core subject.

We ate lunch in the student cafeteria, which felt both incredibly expensive and incredibly empty. It was empty because classes are not currently in session, but our guides said that only about one third (or less) of students eat in the cafeteria, since it is often easier to bring a lunch from home or just head home for lunch. The food was expensive because everything in Switzerland is expensive. The Swiss Franc is locked with the Euro (1.2 Swiss Francs to a Euro, which equals about 1 dollar per Swiss Franc), but the prices were much higher than we would expect in the US. My coffee and pastry at a cafe was 9.60 Swiss Francs (8 Euro) whereas in Freiburg it would be 3.50 Euro.

After exploring the university a bit, we walked around the town. After winding up and down narrow streets lined with old, colorful houses, we emerged into a large square with a cathedral at the far end. I took too many photos of the cathedral, but here is one of my favorites.