Blog


aliens
  • February 2, 2011

Aliens and Predators

Note: This piece was originally published in the CERN Student Club’s “Creative Voices” in 2009. The website is now under major revamp, so I am republishing it here. When she was ten Janine was asked to write a story based on four pictures in her mandarin writing class. The first picture showed several workers working […]

mc
  • February 1, 2011

The Marie Curie Actions Fellowship Program: A Personal Account

Note: This piece was originally published in the CERN Student Club’s “Creative Voices” in 2010. The website is now under major revamp, so I am republishing it here. It was a hot and humid day in the peak of summer July 2008, I was in a room somewhere inside CERN, too early in the morning, […]

insect
  • October 6, 2010

Describe Yourself

“I am a bundle of contradictions wrapped in a tiny frame, with a heart too small to accommodate all my wildest dreams and an appetite too big for my tiny frame. I’m a proud tree hugger, a hopeful realist, a silent rebel and an aspiring writer-editor. My best friend says I am too fast, too […]

f-word
  • June 30, 2010

The F Word

Faith – not wanting to know what is true. Friedrich Nietzsche When I think about it carefully, my elation on this tumultuous joyride is, by all standards and diagnosis, unfounded. Holding on stubbornly to the notion that doing it wrong is better than doing nothing? Oh yes. That’s it. For all I know, I might […]

pillows
  • June 26, 2010

Combat and Pillows

It was intense.    

Switzerland. get natural. Blooming poppies on the shores of Lake Geneva in Montreux are announcing the spring. In the background the still snow-covered Grammont (2172 m).

Schweiz. ganz natuerlich. Der bluehende Mohn am Ufer des Genfersees in Montreux verkuendet den Fruehling. Im Hintergrund der noch schneebedeckte Grammont (2172 m).

Suisse. tout naturellement. Des Coquelicots fleurissent - sur les rives du lac Leman a Montreux - annoncent le printemps. Au fond, le Grammont (2172 m), toujours recouvert avec de la neige.

Copyright by: Switzerland Tourism - By-Line: swiss-image.ch/Beat Mueller
  • April 25, 2010

Spring

There are cloudy and confusing days, and then there are days like today. The weather is glittery and warm. On days like this I feel like I own the world. Being alone is a luxury that I could seldom afford nowadays. Claustrophobic antsiness led me to the lake, into an open space and open sky […]

ancient
  • April 14, 2010

Time Travel

If I walk the thin line between reality and surreality, I would find myself transported into the default settings of an ancient valley. I would be fighting dinosaurs and drinking blood from a crudely crafted container. I would be ruthlessly defiant of my desires and needs. I would be the recurring nightmare of my nemesis […]

sonder
  • April 5, 2010

Pointless

Let’s talk about everything and nothing. For the past few weeks I was troubled by a very strange thought. Strange, not because it was outer-spacely nor bizarrely exciting as I am inclined to be attracted to. But because it was very uncharacteristic of me. I realized that I might very well be living the best […]

Disconnection
  • April 4, 2010

Chapter Three

It’s too easy to be condescending when you’re perpetually stuck in your safety zone. From the flimsy pedestal that you’ve placed yourself upon, it is not sympathy, but merely a badly hooded superiority that you are feeling. Do not judge my choice, for you are not qualified to decide my purpose. Do not take my […]

dancing
  • March 7, 2010

New Wave

It was a strange feeling. When I looked into the crowd and was swept over by an immense need to cry. I stood frozen in time, frozen in my sudden urge to reach inside myself and yank my heart out. The thundering beats, the florid lights, the melodic swaying, the sweat and the smell. If […]

birthday
  • February 19, 2010

Twenty Seven

There will never be a wrong time to say this, but I really do think you are shaping up as a fine young lady. There are still some kooks and kinks burrowed somewhere under that impeccable camouflage of yours which perhaps you’re still figuring out how to refine, but if there is one thing I […]

letters
  • January 9, 2010

Unsent

A messy start to an allegedly magnificent year. Why am I always stuck in a perpetually paradoxical situation? I hate the connotation of anything remotely conventional or stereotypical, or the futile effort of trying to prove otherwise. My head hurts. My heart hurts. Every pore of my existence hurts. There is too much ambiguity in […]