Saturday, March 26, 2011

Basel Bound


On Friday, I received an offer to take a position in Basel, Switzerland for Roche. After being away from Europe for 20 years, Nancy and I will be returning for an extended adventure in the land of chocolate, cheese, and cuckoo clocks. We have many questions and some concerns, but we are very excited to transition into a new world with our family. What follows are a few of my hopes for our time in Switzerland:

  • I hope that the children will warm to the place, and that the opportunities to experience Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy will spark a sense of curiousity and wonder about the languages and cultures that they will be seeing.

  • I hope that we will have the resources and time to explore the new world, to understand more about that world, and appreciate the ideas and practices that help to shape the world.

  • I hope that we can all learn German quickly so that we can get closer to the allegedly closed and cold Swiss.

I ordered an intellectual/cultural history titled Basel in the Age of Burckhardt by Lionel Gossman. The city has a rich cultural history, attracting some of the brighter lights of Europe over the last several centuries. I am so excited to be there!

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