Monday, December 31, 2007

Photos from the Trip to Rome, Italy (Dec 2007)

Michael (Papa) Johnson, fellow Beta Theta Pi (BH 1358) and Senior Skulls (Class of '97) alumnus, flew over to spend a few days in Stockholm before and after our trip to Rome, Italy.

As usual, don't hesitate to let me know what you think! You can access the full-size uncompressed images by clicking on the link to the right.

We started with the Spanish Steps. Mercedes-Benz seems to have a lot of advertising in high profile tourist areas. They also had a few billboards at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.













Next stop was Trevi Fountain. As suggested by local lore, if one throws coins over their left shoulder into the fountain, they're ensured a return trip to Rome. We were believers so we threw a few Euros in. Every morning, over 3000 EUR are removed from the fountain and used to run a food pantry for Rome's needy. Which makes sense, because we arrived early and the fountain was more or less devoid of any coinage.











Before we traveled to Rome, we heard that scooters were used everywhere, but we were still shocked by the sheer number in use. Here are two photos depicting the narrow streets full of scooters.





We weren't paying attention and ended up at the Piazza del Popolo while trying to get to the Pantheon. It was a very nice detour! However, in the first photo it looks like someone stole the soldier's swordblade.









We did finally arrive at Pantheon and we were quite impressed with it's stature. It's very hard to believe that it was built without a specific purpose in mind.











Our next destination was the Colosseum. Luckily, the Metro exit led straight to the site. We agreed that it must be one of the best exits to an Metro station in the world.

From the outside:









From the inside:











These were taken on Palentine Hill (the mythical origin of Rome).













These final few are from the Roman Forum

















Friday, December 14, 2007

Swedish TV Footage of the Research Group

Nobeldagen (The Nobel Day) was Dec 10th.

A TV crew interviewed Gunnar (Chair of the Nobel Committee in Chemistry) and shot some footage of us inside the lab. I am the tall dorky guy waving at the end!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Research Group Christmas Party (Dec 2007)

A few people have wanted to see photos of the research group.

It's an eclectic group with a mix of nationalities. Swedish, Finnish, Swiss, Korean, Portuguese, Italian, South African, Australian, and of course, American. I'll let you figure out everyone's nationality.