depart

Wednesday was my last day in lab. Yesterday, I went nevertheless because there were still a few things to be done – mostly getting those started who will take over the project. Today, I went to the lab once more, but it was not for work.

Today was my "pot de depart", a few hours of farewell party with colleagues and friends. I went to the grocery store for cider, beer, juice, cakes, cookies and the like, made my world-famous baba ghanoush, and a colleague contributed her world-famous (here I'm not exaggerating) tiramisu. To commemorate the occasion, the rain that had beaten down on the city all morning stopped and the sun heated the air up.

I am not leaving Grenoble with a heavy heart. I'm ready to leave, and it's about time. But I know that, looking back, I'll be melancholic and I will miss many things. Even though it didn't translate much into out-of-lab activities, people were truly kind and very funny. And how can you beat a farewell card that reads: "ti aspetto per la prossima danza"?

Another thing I'll miss is ice cream. Germany has great ice cream parlors (inevitably run by Italians) and of course Italy does. Up to today, I was disappointed in this regard with Grenoble, but tonight I found a little hole in the wall selling 91 flavors. This is ninety-one. If you have a hard time coming up with 91 fruits to put into the ice cream, you wouldn't be alone. In fact, the ice cream makers don't restrict themselves to fruits.

We bought a cone with tomato and bergamot and one with lavender and plain old blackberry. It was an experience way up on the bizarre list. Tomato ice cream tastes a bit like frozen tomato soup or gazpacho, if you're into that kind of stuff. Bergamot was like licking frozen Earl Grey tea, except that it tasted strong than fresh Earl Grey leaves ever smell. You'd never find tea that tastes a tenth that strong. The weirdest, however, was the lavender. If you've ever eaten a bar of soap straight from the freezer, you know what I'm talking about. If not, I advise you to go with blackberry, a rather traditional flavor. I'm not saying any of this tasted bad. Far from it. I'll go back and try more flavors, but I have to admit that it was very, very different.