What I've been up to (24/08/2025)

It has been a while, and as usual, a lot has happened since my last post. I’ve been very busy, and only now have I finally found the time to share some news. Tomorrow students will start arriving at the boarding house, and that’s when my work truly begins. I’m very excited.

At the beginning of July, I had my final Bachelor’s exam and it went really well. What didn’t go well, however, was my driving test the day before. In Switzerland you get about three attempts before being required to undergo a psychological assessment, after which you’re allowed more tries. I really wanted to get my license before starting work on August 18th, since it was technically a requirement for the job. During the interview, I had told my supervisors I was still working on it, but I was accepted anyway.

When my exam date came up, I felt I had a 50/50 chance of passing. Still, I wanted to use as many attempts as possible before the 18th. Rescheduling wasn’t an option—my mom had already booked a trip to Portugal, where I had scheduled the removal of some wisdom teeth. Unfortunately, I failed the test. That left me with two problems: my instructor would be on vacation after I returned, meaning I’d need a replacement teacher, and all test dates were booked until August 20th—too late for my job requirement.

A few days later, I spent three weeks in Portugal. I traveled there by bus for the first time, and it was a terrible experience. The only activities that didn’t make me carsick were looking straight ahead, sleeping, eating, or listening to audiobooks. Thankfully, the return trip was by plane.

On the day after we arrived in Coimbra, we went to Figueira da Foz and looked for a place to stay near the beach. We found one in Buarcos, owned by Mr. Pedro, a Portuguese man who had migrated to France during the Estado Novo dictatorship to avoid being drafted for the war in Africa.

When he was about 18, his mother—after years of hard work—gave him a large sum of money and arranged for him to discreetly flee with a guide. That guide turned out to be a fugitive who had escaped prison after protesting the war by stripping naked during the Juramento de Bandeira ceremony. At the border between Spain and France, the guards demanded money to pass. Mr. Miguel reluctantly paid most of his savings, but soon after, the guide returned claiming he had negotiated free passage. Realizing the money was already gone, the guide smashed a wine bottle, threatened the guards, tied them up, and forced them to hand the money back. Mr. Miguel eventually made it to France safely, though he never saw the guide again. I should add that I may be misremembering some details of this story, but that’s how it stayed with me. Either way, it was one of the most striking stories I've ever heard.

The first week in Portugal brought some good news: my driving instructor found me an exam date that someone else had canceled. In the second week, I had some of my wisdom teeth removed. The recovery was frustrating. My gums bled for a week and it was very hot. I don't usually mind the heat, but it wasn't ideal for my situation.

When I returned, I had to empty and disassemble my cabinets to prepare for moving into the boarding house on the 20th. In the meantime, I took lessons with another instructor. Unfortunately, on the 11th, I failed my second attempt at the license. This time, though, I’ve decided not to rush. I’ll only take the test again once I consistently pass practice simulations.

After that failure, I procrastinated online, reading about driver’s licenses. I learned that Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries to get one—the average is around 3,600 CHF. I’ve already spent between 7000 and 8000 CHF! Thankfully, I’ll soon have a salary, because my savings are nearly gone. Still, I can’t help being annoyed at these country-by-country inequalities.

On a brighter note, I finally completed my blindfolded letter pairs list! The only letters I couldn’t fill were Q and X, so I adopted a Speffz color scheme where Q is replaced with Y and X with Z.

I’ve also been working behind the scenes on Math From Scratch. I decided to rearrange the chapters. The reason is Gödel’s first incompleteness theorem, which requires some knowledge of set cardinality. Most of what’s already published will stay, but I want to emphasize the distinction between truths of mathematics and the sentences we use to express them. My current plan is to start with numbers and arithmetic, then move to naïve set theory, then informal axiomatic set theory, and only after the chapters on logic introduce formal set theory. To prepare, I’m reading three books at once: one on arithmetic, one on set theory, and one on mathematical logic.

That’s about it, I think I’ve covered the main events. Next time, I should be writing about my experience at the boarding house and whether I finally pass my driving test (or end up facing the psychological assessment). The suspense continues! See you in the next episode blog post.