As usual, I spent some time in Europe this summer. This time it was not a vacation trip though. I managed to unite business and pleasure and spent an absolutely wonderful month based in Zürich, Switzerland with detours to Budapest, Milan, Brescia, Geneva, and Delémont. It is quite amazing how productive the month was while also allowing for some social aspects. Sorry, but the page is not completely done yet.

Hint: click on the images for larger versions of the photos. 

Base: Zürich, Switzerland 
 
 

	I was based in during my Zürichwhole stay in Europe.  I was living at my friend Madlaina's house.
The two of us met in the Spring of 1995 in Geneva when I was studying there through the Smith College Junior Year Abroad Program and Madlaina was spending a couple of months there practicing French and studying Latin and Biology.
	My other Zürich-native friend acquired in Geneva that year is Irene pictured here with two plastic cows on the streets of Zürich. These two cows are just two of hundreds that decorated the city this summer. (More to see at the end of this photo-essay.)

There were two components to my weekend spent in Budapest. Visiting family and seeing a few friends.  Only a few of the latter, because I didn't spend much time in the country and I wanted to make sure to leave enough time for my family. 
 

	My cousin (the woman on the left) moved out of Budapest with her family into a really neat house. I visited their place with my parents. Pictured are (from left to right) my cousin's husband, my cousin Kati, her son, moi, my Mom, and my Dad.
Same situation, similar setup. Adam has been replaced by Balint, both sons of my cousin.
	Here I am with my cousin's son Adam.
Pictured here is my friend Ildi (most know her as Pixie, but I knew her before she got that name). We went to visit our friend Zsófi (known to me as Cö) who had just settled in at her new apartment. She cooked us a great dinner.
	This is after the dinner, Cö has now joined us for the picture.

Weekend Visit #2: Geneva, Switzerland 
 

Unfortunately, I do not have too many photos for the Italian section of my trip because I managed to leave my camera in the car at many of the exciting points of the weekend. 

The reason I went to Italy for a weekend (like one really needs a particular reason) was to visit my Princeton Econ friend Tamba. Tamba is originally from Brescia, a town of about 200,000 inhabitants and home of the Brescia Calcio football team (this here is for Andrea's pleasure .) Tamba got his undergraduate degree at the famous Bocconi - not just any old school of economics - in Milan and since Brescia is close to Milan and Tamba has lots of friends there too, I got to explore that city too. 
 

	We didn't waste much time, off to the school we went. Here I am being very proud of breathing Bocconi air.

For now, you can check out the conference's official site at http://www.isoc.org/inet98.

 

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