This doesnt really go along well with the whole theme of this blog, but as it is my blog and my life, I shall do as I please.
I went back to oregon for 5 days to run hood to coast with a few fellow alumni from BU (that is a scary phrase to say). I was feeling sickish before I went to the airport so I was really quite afraid the whole race might be a disaster, but it managed to clear up over the next few days.
So first, the plane ride.
I had a great seat next to the window, and this nice lady sat next to me. I started talking with her about life and germany and all sorts of other things. She was quite interesting an oregonian who studied abroad in germany then went back to chase a guy and started all over. The best part was, after talking for awhile I looked down to check how much time we had, and we had been talking for 6 hours. I had just had the longest conversation of my life with a complete stranger. I do not know about you, but I find that to be incredible. I almost made it the whole flight without knowing her name, but she let it slip near the end. I think I should write a book called the sociology of long distance airplane flights.
After getting back I kind of laid low for awhile, watched some much needed tv, and relaxed. That night we had our team dinner where we got to meet our last minute add from eastern oregon. My sisters found the whole ordeal quite awkward, but I enjoyed it quite a bit, and the food was excellent. I had nothing to do with any of it beyond sending an email to my parents.
The race itself was awesome. At the start we saw teams from all over the place (germany, france, texas, italy, florida) most of whom had planned themes and outfits (except the french who just wore berets and french flags like they normally do) We had some really really fast people on our team and made a huge number of roadkills (when you pass someone).
We were able to sleep at the mac for a little bit which was really nice, but far too short as always. The night running was nice because it was cool and the roads were much less busy or completely closed off in my case. By the third leg, I was pretty exhausted and had difficulty walking normally, but I was able to run as fast as I have run in my life. So go figure on that one.
The final celebration at the beach was nice, although everyone was pretty tired and some people were starting to become frazzled and a little loose with their comments (guilty).
Somehow I was able to convince my mom and sister to come pick me up and bring me back to portland so I could relax and sleep in my own bed. Which was a wonderful experience. Those races are so much fun, exhausting, but definitely worth it.
I was also able to see my relatives in oregon before I went, making the trip not entirely for some silly race.
Finally my flight back to frankfurt (I almost said home, weird) was similarly exciting with a much younger women this time, about 25 or 27, I think. She was really interesting to talk to, and had a completely different life experience than I did. We talked for the whole flight save about 90 minutes when 21 was playing. She might have said her name once, but I do not remember. So another person on the list of people I know tons about except for their name.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
When Science Meets Video Games
So it has been quite awhile since I have updated this. I have been mildly more busy at work, but mostly I have just been lazy about it.
So things have still been going wonderfully. I am really enjoying all of the people I have met here, the middle school like drama from earlier seems to be fading, and I have my own real project to work on at work. So unfortunately it looks as if Switzerland can only be worse than here, because I cannot envision how I could enjoy myself more than I am now. But that is neither here nor there as one of the elements that makes this wonderful is how short it is. I do not know that I could do this much longer, but perhaps a little longer wouldn't've hurt.
So the weekend of the 1st of August we went to Strasbourg in france. It was a beautiful city that happened to have some of the worst looking buildings I have ever seen. Literally the law school looked like a facility only clowns could consider training in. Also nearby the Greenhouse was a quite disgusting unkempt facility that reminds one of scenes in Lost World when they find the abandoned labs. (In reality the fact I have made it this far without a crichton reference is impressive)
Last weekend, I went to Munich to meet up with someone who went to high school with my dad. We had met the family together last summer, and they invited me to come down. It was a fantastic weekend with friday spent at Hofbrauhaus, and another bar with students in an International Literature Summer School (a good balance to the scientists I spend every waking moment with). On saturday they have a german family reunion and fantastic BBQ. The food was all great and I likely consumed too much of it. I also was able to brush up on my table tennis and german since on of the kids was 9 and thus had not begun english studies (Yea!). Sunday we went to Alledamer Lake southwest of Munich. This was also wonderful as you could easily see the alps in the background (pictures will come soon). The lake was also relatively warm and I was able to swim around in it although my attempts to swim across were thwarted by being informed it was 3km across.
This week at work has gone very well. I have been productive on my own project and hopefully we will have some very cool/useful results soon. The highlight of my week being on Thursday when we broke our last tip for the AFM instrument and still had measurements to make. I was able to call Veeco in Mannheim, arrange to get the tips and fly over on my bike to pick them up (I dream about having a job that requires clutch biking skills). I also had to cleverly stash the sensitive tips (the last 2 in the region) between my head and my helmut so they would not be vibrated too much.
This all leads to the meaning of my title. The picture on the right is an SEM (a 1.5million dollar machine that focuses electrons through gold coated) image of some polymer that my friend made today. And I was just fantastically impressed how much it looked like the ghosts from mario. (or as they thought the Scream painting from Munch, I am clearly much less cultured)
So things have still been going wonderfully. I am really enjoying all of the people I have met here, the middle school like drama from earlier seems to be fading, and I have my own real project to work on at work. So unfortunately it looks as if Switzerland can only be worse than here, because I cannot envision how I could enjoy myself more than I am now. But that is neither here nor there as one of the elements that makes this wonderful is how short it is. I do not know that I could do this much longer, but perhaps a little longer wouldn't've hurt.
So the weekend of the 1st of August we went to Strasbourg in france. It was a beautiful city that happened to have some of the worst looking buildings I have ever seen. Literally the law school looked like a facility only clowns could consider training in. Also nearby the Greenhouse was a quite disgusting unkempt facility that reminds one of scenes in Lost World when they find the abandoned labs. (In reality the fact I have made it this far without a crichton reference is impressive)
Last weekend, I went to Munich to meet up with someone who went to high school with my dad. We had met the family together last summer, and they invited me to come down. It was a fantastic weekend with friday spent at Hofbrauhaus, and another bar with students in an International Literature Summer School (a good balance to the scientists I spend every waking moment with). On saturday they have a german family reunion and fantastic BBQ. The food was all great and I likely consumed too much of it. I also was able to brush up on my table tennis and german since on of the kids was 9 and thus had not begun english studies (Yea!). Sunday we went to Alledamer Lake southwest of Munich. This was also wonderful as you could easily see the alps in the background (pictures will come soon). The lake was also relatively warm and I was able to swim around in it although my attempts to swim across were thwarted by being informed it was 3km across.
This week at work has gone very well. I have been productive on my own project and hopefully we will have some very cool/useful results soon. The highlight of my week being on Thursday when we broke our last tip for the AFM instrument and still had measurements to make. I was able to call Veeco in Mannheim, arrange to get the tips and fly over on my bike to pick them up (I dream about having a job that requires clutch biking skills). I also had to cleverly stash the sensitive tips (the last 2 in the region) between my head and my helmut so they would not be vibrated too much.
This all leads to the meaning of my title. The picture on the right is an SEM (a 1.5million dollar machine that focuses electrons through gold coated) image of some polymer that my friend made today. And I was just fantastically impressed how much it looked like the ghosts from mario. (or as they thought the Scream painting from Munch, I am clearly much less cultured)
Monday, July 28, 2008
Eurail Magic, Hiking, and Mass
Friday night after trying to go riding with the Mannheim Rennrad group and missing them because mannheim is a really hard city to race through, nearly worse than boston. I started out and saw two german cyclists going at t reasonable pace. I managed to join them and they said I could go along as long as I could handle 50km (Ha). Of course moments after this taking place, my tire went flat. (I shouldnt really say of course, my luck as of late has been absolutely phenomenal, I have nothing at all the whine about, but still). An old german man came and told me he saw another cyclist get a flat in the same spot and that there must be something bad on the ground there. I tried to take the tram, but the tram driver would have none of that or at least thats what I gathered he spoke pfelzish so he could have been saying he loved bicyclists, or that my shorts were so cute, but I dont think so since it sounded angry. I pedaled back a bit dismayed.
At that point someone decided to go see Mamma Mia, the movie. It was absolutely not what I expected at all, and I dont know that after watching those old ladies sing those songs I will be ever able to hear them the same again. I also realized that when you go to movies with nonenglish speakers asking them what was said when you missed a line is nearly completely worthless. Afterwards we went out for asian food (germans dont discriminate much among that tiny landmass), it was quite good, but I am still not sure tea+alcohol is a good idea.
So basically the moment after I got my eurail pass, I felt regret. 10 days of travel in a two month period is a pretty hectic schedule. Plus for quite a few of the trains you need to make reservations and pay even more money to ride them. And since it appears at the very least difficult to get a bike on an ICE train, I felt as if I might spend my weekends traveling to cities I didnt really want to go to just to "justify" my eurail pass.
So I felt this way basically until I walked into Mannheim station at around 1130am on saturday. I just looked at the list of outgoing trains in amazement. I could hop on a train going to berlin leaving in 20 minutes, Interlaken in 15 minutes, Paris or München in about an hour. I was in complete awe. I hopped on the train to interlaken, feeling much much better about my purchase.
I didnt actually make it to interlaken or even switzerland, I got off at Freiburg, figuring that was far enough away. Once there, I explored for a bit and then headed off into the forest to go hiking. The trails there were in excellent shape and pretty steep which of course means I was able to get fantastic views over the city and across the Rhein valley. There were a number of trail runners which impressed me quite a bit as the path was not easily runnable. I would have exhausted myself in a number of minutes trying. I was sweating up a storm just walking.
After getting back I was able to join some of the french people at Lea's apartment. This was really enjoyable although I felt a little imposing. This group would have without a doubt been speaking french had I not been there, and because I (1 of 6) was there they must all resort to english. We ate some great food that lea cooked, and I had leek for the first time (I think?). We also played some games her roommate had, including Jungle Speed (fantastic, even without alcohol) and some german trivia game. It was wonderful when we we're playing that because I can for the most part follow the gist of german conversations especially when spoken slowly. I was even able to answer some questions correctly. Finally I learned my favorite explaination for what BASF stands for , (Besten Arbeiter Sind Französich = Best workers are french)
Sunday was a little less eventful. I did manage to wake up in time to go to the Catholic, possibly even jesuit (58 minutes!), mass down the street. I didn't really have the faintest idea what was going on, but it was enjoyable and if I concentrated really hard I could kinda keep track of the storys and serman. It was spoken slowly enough but from what I can tell the language is dated and the priest mumbles more than I am used to, but nonetheless interesting. Plus I figured I better go to mass, since I do have quite a few things I need to be praying for, and I dont want god to get the impression I am taking my time here for granted. Not many young people there though, some families but lots and lots of old people.
At that point someone decided to go see Mamma Mia, the movie. It was absolutely not what I expected at all, and I dont know that after watching those old ladies sing those songs I will be ever able to hear them the same again. I also realized that when you go to movies with nonenglish speakers asking them what was said when you missed a line is nearly completely worthless. Afterwards we went out for asian food (germans dont discriminate much among that tiny landmass), it was quite good, but I am still not sure tea+alcohol is a good idea.
So basically the moment after I got my eurail pass, I felt regret. 10 days of travel in a two month period is a pretty hectic schedule. Plus for quite a few of the trains you need to make reservations and pay even more money to ride them. And since it appears at the very least difficult to get a bike on an ICE train, I felt as if I might spend my weekends traveling to cities I didnt really want to go to just to "justify" my eurail pass.
So I felt this way basically until I walked into Mannheim station at around 1130am on saturday. I just looked at the list of outgoing trains in amazement. I could hop on a train going to berlin leaving in 20 minutes, Interlaken in 15 minutes, Paris or München in about an hour. I was in complete awe. I hopped on the train to interlaken, feeling much much better about my purchase.
I didnt actually make it to interlaken or even switzerland, I got off at Freiburg, figuring that was far enough away. Once there, I explored for a bit and then headed off into the forest to go hiking. The trails there were in excellent shape and pretty steep which of course means I was able to get fantastic views over the city and across the Rhein valley. There were a number of trail runners which impressed me quite a bit as the path was not easily runnable. I would have exhausted myself in a number of minutes trying. I was sweating up a storm just walking.
After getting back I was able to join some of the french people at Lea's apartment. This was really enjoyable although I felt a little imposing. This group would have without a doubt been speaking french had I not been there, and because I (1 of 6) was there they must all resort to english. We ate some great food that lea cooked, and I had leek for the first time (I think?). We also played some games her roommate had, including Jungle Speed (fantastic, even without alcohol) and some german trivia game. It was wonderful when we we're playing that because I can for the most part follow the gist of german conversations especially when spoken slowly. I was even able to answer some questions correctly. Finally I learned my favorite explaination for what BASF stands for , (Besten Arbeiter Sind Französich = Best workers are french)
Sunday was a little less eventful. I did manage to wake up in time to go to the Catholic, possibly even jesuit (58 minutes!), mass down the street. I didn't really have the faintest idea what was going on, but it was enjoyable and if I concentrated really hard I could kinda keep track of the storys and serman. It was spoken slowly enough but from what I can tell the language is dated and the priest mumbles more than I am used to, but nonetheless interesting. Plus I figured I better go to mass, since I do have quite a few things I need to be praying for, and I dont want god to get the impression I am taking my time here for granted. Not many young people there though, some families but lots and lots of old people.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Eurail
Today we went to heidelberg with the intention of solidying our trip to paris, and the experience all but dissolved it.
We were able to buy eurail passes, which by the way though not cheap, is probably the most thrilling thing I have done recently. They give you a map and a timetable for all the major trains in europe and you feel like the world is sitting at your fingertips. Picking only three countries felt a little limiting, but really with germany, switzerland, and france, there is still plenty to explore. Also as long as I get out of europe every six months (they check your visa stamp on the passport), I can indefinitely get eurail passes. So in the event I make no friends and live a terribly lonely life, I will be able to travel voraciously through more than 20 countries.
The service agent thought killed our plans to paris because although we could get reservations on the way there, we cannot get them at any time on sunday and taking a day off work is not feasible. So I guess we will have to venture somewhere new, but thats the point isnt it, (gell?)
After that Stephanie and I decided to do a run through heidelberg, as it is so much prettier than ludwigshafen), it was quite beautiful although since we only had 20 minutes before our train left our run wasnt exactly epic. I will have to go back at some point to continue and run some hills so Hood 2 Coast doesnt eat me for breakfast.
We gave alex our keys and because of communication issues we ended up being locked out of our appartments imaging what possible things alex might be doing in there as to cause him to not answer the door. In fact he had just taken the wrong train back. Which is comforting and scary at the same time as it means even germans get confused by train overload.
When that was sorted out we headed to stammtisch which was at an irish pub (Ive been to more irish pubs in germany than boston), it was nice and they had cheap pitchers, so no complaints. I also met a german who spent a year at stanford. And his response to where I was going for grad school (I guess I am kind of bragging but most people are like where? oh zurich is an expensive city) was wow, that is probably the best overall technical university in europe. Super.
This morning I was able to watch Charlotte use the Scanning Electron Microscope. The device was amazing. Everything for it was so much more elegant than any instrument I have ever used. Plus some of the pictures it produced were incredible. If only samples didnt need preparation it would be the perfect instrument.
We were able to buy eurail passes, which by the way though not cheap, is probably the most thrilling thing I have done recently. They give you a map and a timetable for all the major trains in europe and you feel like the world is sitting at your fingertips. Picking only three countries felt a little limiting, but really with germany, switzerland, and france, there is still plenty to explore. Also as long as I get out of europe every six months (they check your visa stamp on the passport), I can indefinitely get eurail passes. So in the event I make no friends and live a terribly lonely life, I will be able to travel voraciously through more than 20 countries.
The service agent thought killed our plans to paris because although we could get reservations on the way there, we cannot get them at any time on sunday and taking a day off work is not feasible. So I guess we will have to venture somewhere new, but thats the point isnt it, (gell?)
After that Stephanie and I decided to do a run through heidelberg, as it is so much prettier than ludwigshafen), it was quite beautiful although since we only had 20 minutes before our train left our run wasnt exactly epic. I will have to go back at some point to continue and run some hills so Hood 2 Coast doesnt eat me for breakfast.
We gave alex our keys and because of communication issues we ended up being locked out of our appartments imaging what possible things alex might be doing in there as to cause him to not answer the door. In fact he had just taken the wrong train back. Which is comforting and scary at the same time as it means even germans get confused by train overload.
When that was sorted out we headed to stammtisch which was at an irish pub (Ive been to more irish pubs in germany than boston), it was nice and they had cheap pitchers, so no complaints. I also met a german who spent a year at stanford. And his response to where I was going for grad school (I guess I am kind of bragging but most people are like where? oh zurich is an expensive city) was wow, that is probably the best overall technical university in europe. Super.
This morning I was able to watch Charlotte use the Scanning Electron Microscope. The device was amazing. Everything for it was so much more elegant than any instrument I have ever used. Plus some of the pictures it produced were incredible. If only samples didnt need preparation it would be the perfect instrument.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Just general thoughts
So without resorting to a painful blow by blow of my every moment, although at times that path seems tempting, I will update on the major events since saturday. After riding so long on saturday I was a bit sore on sunday, I was able to get in a short run, but nothing of note. I really miss being in fantastic cycling shape where centuries didnt phase me. On monday night I talked with a couple of the love parade folks, and it sounded like a pretty fantastic event. Something definitely worth trying to go to next year. From what I can tell 1.4 million people go crazy for no apparent reason, and just wildness in the streets.
So on tuesday we did another group lunch which was nice. I do enjoy lunchtime a little bit better when it is not just eat as quickly as possible to get back to work. I also was able to find out more from the austrian girl, Caroline, about Kärnten, an area written about in my german running magazine. It looks fantastically beautiful with all sorts of mountain races and hiking areas. I certainly have no problem figureing out how I will spend my eurail pass.
Tuesday night the french people Charlotte and Lea were celebrating one of their friends from schools birthdays. Upon arrival I could see the most alcohol on one table that I have seen since my Ashford street days. Also many different kinds of crazy fruit juices : cherry, banana, blueberry; some clearly worked better than others but all were quite unique additions to normal cocktails. The event itself was pretty enjoyable although more because the people were so friendly and the food was quite good, the alcohol only served to grease the rails. I also was able to learn quite a bit more about how post highschool studies in france work, and I think the system they use is probably better at sorting out students, but as the american system worked great for me, it is hard to really comment. Also I think the american system provides more flexibility to make decisions later and not be locked into a single path, so I guess it depends on what you value. Also I learned that these french students after doing the equivalent of a masters degree and 12 months of internships (+/-), they still have trouble finding jobs and it usually takes 6 months or more. So I guess I will not be looking for future work in france anytime soon. Fortunately the only country in the world I can work in, needs plenty of people just like me.
Today the goal is to get my Eurail pass in heidelberg and figure out as many logistics as possible for Paris this weekend. Hopefully everything will workout at which point I will have to get the slightest clue of what is happening on the tour. And then of course the thing that makes wednesday my favorite day of the week, Stammtisch. This time its in ludwigshafen so walking home will not mean getting to bed at 2am
So on tuesday we did another group lunch which was nice. I do enjoy lunchtime a little bit better when it is not just eat as quickly as possible to get back to work. I also was able to find out more from the austrian girl, Caroline, about Kärnten, an area written about in my german running magazine. It looks fantastically beautiful with all sorts of mountain races and hiking areas. I certainly have no problem figureing out how I will spend my eurail pass.
Tuesday night the french people Charlotte and Lea were celebrating one of their friends from schools birthdays. Upon arrival I could see the most alcohol on one table that I have seen since my Ashford street days. Also many different kinds of crazy fruit juices : cherry, banana, blueberry; some clearly worked better than others but all were quite unique additions to normal cocktails. The event itself was pretty enjoyable although more because the people were so friendly and the food was quite good, the alcohol only served to grease the rails. I also was able to learn quite a bit more about how post highschool studies in france work, and I think the system they use is probably better at sorting out students, but as the american system worked great for me, it is hard to really comment. Also I think the american system provides more flexibility to make decisions later and not be locked into a single path, so I guess it depends on what you value. Also I learned that these french students after doing the equivalent of a masters degree and 12 months of internships (+/-), they still have trouble finding jobs and it usually takes 6 months or more. So I guess I will not be looking for future work in france anytime soon. Fortunately the only country in the world I can work in, needs plenty of people just like me.
Today the goal is to get my Eurail pass in heidelberg and figure out as many logistics as possible for Paris this weekend. Hopefully everything will workout at which point I will have to get the slightest clue of what is happening on the tour. And then of course the thing that makes wednesday my favorite day of the week, Stammtisch. This time its in ludwigshafen so walking home will not mean getting to bed at 2am
Sunday, July 20, 2008
To France
With an ending like that to friday, you would think saturday would be one of those, woke up at 2pm and ate pretzels till I felt better. It was not. It was supposed to be rainy, but when I got up I could see a bit of rain but mostly clear sky. There was a winefest in Freinsheim that some of the other BASFGuest house students went to. I decided to try and go, of course by bike. I started heading over there and received a text saying the festival was dead and probably wouldnt start until night. So I diverted to Neustadt am Weinstrasse (Germans Wine Road). I went through a number of beautiful small towns all with wine shops and tasting locations. The bike route even goes through some vineyards. It reminded me of oregon, but it liked these ones much better. You ended up going through a different town about every 10 minutes (they are quite close together) and the bike paths were exceptional. You never had to ride on the street if you didnt want to.
In Neustadt I met up with Neeta (an undergrad from India, it is her last day) and Olga (a student at UniHamburg). We went to get some food, sunscreen, and Icecream. Then tried to go to the castle but barely missed the hourly bus. After a little recharging I decided to continue southward. The weather at the beginning was flawless. The scenery was beautiful and all the little towns were great. The bike paths were at times a bit confusing, but between the signs, my GPSs, and my map, I was able to figure most of it out. It started raining quite hard at one point, in a town in the middle of nowhere. Luckily there was a nice Wine tasting/cafe with tons of other cyclists at it. I decided to try and wait it out with a nice big coffee. The coffee was excellent and I got a chance to practice a little bit of german with them. Based on my accent they guessed I was from the Netherlands (even though my bike jersey says Boston on it). I feel sorry for any dutch person right now. They had come from Ausburg and were on a short wine tour.
Anyways the rain let up and I hit the road again in brilliant sunlight. At this point it began getting much hillier. I still had plenty of time, I hoped, and at least I wasnt wet and still had food and water. The whole ride continued to be quite fantastic and scenic. I will have to come bike here again. The highlight of the trip though was riding by the sign at about 25mph that said with an EU star logo saying Frankreich in the middle. All of a sudden everything went from german to french. Along those lines the pretty little wine towns turned into the dead or mostly dead Wissembourg. I also had the shocking realization, that I dont know how to say Train station in french. So I went up to the first friendly looking french person I saw and said. "Ou est le Hauptbahnhof" at which point they told me in german. I found the Gare centrale, or something like that. And then realized not only did their schedules use french days of the week (a little foggy on thursday-sunday), but they list two trainstations for Wissembourg. I found a french man and tried to ask him using french/german/pointing and we decided I was in the right place, but he wasnt certain. I found a small cafe in the center of down which was slightly nicer looking, the outskirts were just butt ugly ~ ludwigshafen. I ordered Pannekuchen (clearly not a french food) and a little container of french vin rouge. It was spendy, but I satisfied my goal of having a nice glass of french wine. It also made the train ride much more pleasant.
Finally I was told by some french persons in Ludwigshafen that the french no longer use Bicyclette, and I heard two different 30-40 year old persons use it, to tell other people to get out of the way.
All in all about 70 miles on the day.
See the ride stats here
Ride map here
A small detail I forgot was I saw a sign that said "Honig Aus" -> Honey out?, and didnt really understand it. A few seconds later a bee flew into my jersey and stung my heart. Bee strings smart more than I remember than, and fortunately I am still not allergic to bees.
In Neustadt I met up with Neeta (an undergrad from India, it is her last day) and Olga (a student at UniHamburg). We went to get some food, sunscreen, and Icecream. Then tried to go to the castle but barely missed the hourly bus. After a little recharging I decided to continue southward. The weather at the beginning was flawless. The scenery was beautiful and all the little towns were great. The bike paths were at times a bit confusing, but between the signs, my GPSs, and my map, I was able to figure most of it out. It started raining quite hard at one point, in a town in the middle of nowhere. Luckily there was a nice Wine tasting/cafe with tons of other cyclists at it. I decided to try and wait it out with a nice big coffee. The coffee was excellent and I got a chance to practice a little bit of german with them. Based on my accent they guessed I was from the Netherlands (even though my bike jersey says Boston on it). I feel sorry for any dutch person right now. They had come from Ausburg and were on a short wine tour.
Anyways the rain let up and I hit the road again in brilliant sunlight. At this point it began getting much hillier. I still had plenty of time, I hoped, and at least I wasnt wet and still had food and water. The whole ride continued to be quite fantastic and scenic. I will have to come bike here again. The highlight of the trip though was riding by the sign at about 25mph that said with an EU star logo saying Frankreich in the middle. All of a sudden everything went from german to french. Along those lines the pretty little wine towns turned into the dead or mostly dead Wissembourg. I also had the shocking realization, that I dont know how to say Train station in french. So I went up to the first friendly looking french person I saw and said. "Ou est le Hauptbahnhof" at which point they told me in german. I found the Gare centrale, or something like that. And then realized not only did their schedules use french days of the week (a little foggy on thursday-sunday), but they list two trainstations for Wissembourg. I found a french man and tried to ask him using french/german/pointing and we decided I was in the right place, but he wasnt certain. I found a small cafe in the center of down which was slightly nicer looking, the outskirts were just butt ugly ~ ludwigshafen. I ordered Pannekuchen (clearly not a french food) and a little container of french vin rouge. It was spendy, but I satisfied my goal of having a nice glass of french wine. It also made the train ride much more pleasant.
Finally I was told by some french persons in Ludwigshafen that the french no longer use Bicyclette, and I heard two different 30-40 year old persons use it, to tell other people to get out of the way.
All in all about 70 miles on the day.
See the ride stats here
Ride map here
A small detail I forgot was I saw a sign that said "Honig Aus" -> Honey out?, and didnt really understand it. A few seconds later a bee flew into my jersey and stung my heart. Bee strings smart more than I remember than, and fortunately I am still not allergic to bees.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Work to do and Week wrapup
So on Wednesday, I got to have lunch with my old boss (Since I will only be here for two months it makes sense to have two different bosses, one for each month). I got brought up to speed on why things may have seemed a bit crazy. It was nice to get to speak with him and get a lease a little insight into what has happened. He also explained more on the PhD position from earlier, and it looks like things for me will go just fine without it and I need to regret anything.
Wednesday night we had the Stammtisch, it was a good event the bar it was at at 6.7 liter drinks (yes about the size of the suburbans engine) for 30eu. So we had a few of those, and I was the only one/first one who could drink the drink through all the straws at the same time. An impressive feat among graduate students in chemistry, chemical engineering, and the like. For those curious you cant do it if you have the straws in a big bunch, too much air leaks through; you need to line them up so your lips can seal the edges. I, purely out of curiosity, ordered a Blue pool or something like that. And it was the first cocktail, I believe that lived up to its crazy name. It tasted like pool water, with a hint of chlorine as well.
Thursday at work was a tiny bit dismal. I spent the entire day debugging IGOR code. Luckily my suitemate made some german ravoli things with, I guess, meatballs inside. They were quite good and we got to try to start planning out exactly which trips we will do when. All we really decided was definitely munich for october fest, and 90% on paris next weekend.
Friday. I got to work today and had a note from my new boss saying he wished to speak with me. I, of course, figured all my internet surfing/lyric translating caught up with me. Luckily, the meeting was about what I will be working on and I even got to see some documents that said Vertraulich (Classified/Top Secret). The meeting was quite good because now I have some general direction for what I will be trying to do over the next 5 weeks or so. Furthermore at the moment it seems feasible that something potentially quite good could come out of the work. Friday for lunch we went out to one of the restaurants on campus (a 10 minute busride away, this place is so big) The food was good, but still nothing tastes as delicious as Görtz's Pretzel covered in cheese and sunflower seeds. At night we went back to the irish bar but a few of the americans decided to pregame. This may or may not have been a good idea, but lets just say its the most I have felt like dancing in a long time.
Wednesday night we had the Stammtisch, it was a good event the bar it was at at 6.7 liter drinks (yes about the size of the suburbans engine) for 30eu. So we had a few of those, and I was the only one/first one who could drink the drink through all the straws at the same time. An impressive feat among graduate students in chemistry, chemical engineering, and the like. For those curious you cant do it if you have the straws in a big bunch, too much air leaks through; you need to line them up so your lips can seal the edges. I, purely out of curiosity, ordered a Blue pool or something like that. And it was the first cocktail, I believe that lived up to its crazy name. It tasted like pool water, with a hint of chlorine as well.
Thursday at work was a tiny bit dismal. I spent the entire day debugging IGOR code. Luckily my suitemate made some german ravoli things with, I guess, meatballs inside. They were quite good and we got to try to start planning out exactly which trips we will do when. All we really decided was definitely munich for october fest, and 90% on paris next weekend.
Friday. I got to work today and had a note from my new boss saying he wished to speak with me. I, of course, figured all my internet surfing/lyric translating caught up with me. Luckily, the meeting was about what I will be working on and I even got to see some documents that said Vertraulich (Classified/Top Secret). The meeting was quite good because now I have some general direction for what I will be trying to do over the next 5 weeks or so. Furthermore at the moment it seems feasible that something potentially quite good could come out of the work. Friday for lunch we went out to one of the restaurants on campus (a 10 minute busride away, this place is so big) The food was good, but still nothing tastes as delicious as Görtz's Pretzel covered in cheese and sunflower seeds. At night we went back to the irish bar but a few of the americans decided to pregame. This may or may not have been a good idea, but lets just say its the most I have felt like dancing in a long time.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Starbucks and Riding
I hadnt run very much in the last couple days and my running database was beginning to hassle me about it. So yesterday I decided to go explore this park in Mannheim. The park itself was right on the river and has fantastic part dirt running paths that run along the Necker. It was especially nice because it was still fairly early (7am) so the place had an almost glowing sensation to it. I think I have found my replacement for the esplanade while I am here. I also was able to run by the 'Space Needle' of mannheim which is much uglier and less impressive when you get right up to it. Anyway it made for a nice run and as a gentle reminder that all my hard work from the spring wont just vanish in a poof of smoke if I take a few days off.
After that I was in a great mood to go to work with which was extended when I finally was clued into the bigger picture for what I am working on. I am pretty sure I can't tell you but I feel much less like a lab monkey at this point, and if the project works out I will have been a tiny part of something very cool.
After realizing that without DAADs money infusion soon I will be dangerously low on cash, I had the sudden realization that there are a number of places that take credit cards (after being abroad for awhile you start to think no where takes credit cards). After getting out of work yesterday I decided to bike over to starbucks in mannheim. The resturaunt was as always in a prime location and they even had hot sandwiches. I got chicken and pesto and a small coffee milkshake. After doing this I felt motivated to possibly bike a bit longer. I wandered around pretty aimlessly for awhile and discovered a town with basically one entrance/exit which made me feel quite dumb searching around for another one.
Eventually I ended up at this ferry (the rhein doesnt have many bridges outside of real cities) I assumed like the canby ferry it was free for bikers and of course I assumed incorrectly. This was however the first time german has really helped me out. The toll guy on the ferry clearly didnt speak any english (I didnt even try), but when I explained to him I didnt have any money with me he just said next time pay double. After that I continued to bike down to speyer, to make a real ride out of the day. The ride was fantastic. The roads out here are so wonderful. I got down to speyer and basically just turned around, there was not much still to see.
For the route back I decided to take the bike paths. My experience in Bielefeld taught me that basically all bike paths blow so I tend to avoid them. It was getting dark and I had a car pass me quite quickly without giving me more than a foot of room so I thought I should at least try them. The bike path was absolutely perfect. It reminded me of the Minuteman Trail in boston only less busy, slightly wider, and no intersections. I was able to really just ride without distraction nearly the entire way back. All in all it made for a pretty great day, but I do need to find some cycling partners.
Motionbased of my Ride
After that I was in a great mood to go to work with which was extended when I finally was clued into the bigger picture for what I am working on. I am pretty sure I can't tell you but I feel much less like a lab monkey at this point, and if the project works out I will have been a tiny part of something very cool.
After realizing that without DAADs money infusion soon I will be dangerously low on cash, I had the sudden realization that there are a number of places that take credit cards (after being abroad for awhile you start to think no where takes credit cards). After getting out of work yesterday I decided to bike over to starbucks in mannheim. The resturaunt was as always in a prime location and they even had hot sandwiches. I got chicken and pesto and a small coffee milkshake. After doing this I felt motivated to possibly bike a bit longer. I wandered around pretty aimlessly for awhile and discovered a town with basically one entrance/exit which made me feel quite dumb searching around for another one.
Eventually I ended up at this ferry (the rhein doesnt have many bridges outside of real cities) I assumed like the canby ferry it was free for bikers and of course I assumed incorrectly. This was however the first time german has really helped me out. The toll guy on the ferry clearly didnt speak any english (I didnt even try), but when I explained to him I didnt have any money with me he just said next time pay double. After that I continued to bike down to speyer, to make a real ride out of the day. The ride was fantastic. The roads out here are so wonderful. I got down to speyer and basically just turned around, there was not much still to see.
For the route back I decided to take the bike paths. My experience in Bielefeld taught me that basically all bike paths blow so I tend to avoid them. It was getting dark and I had a car pass me quite quickly without giving me more than a foot of room so I thought I should at least try them. The bike path was absolutely perfect. It reminded me of the Minuteman Trail in boston only less busy, slightly wider, and no intersections. I was able to really just ride without distraction nearly the entire way back. All in all it made for a pretty great day, but I do need to find some cycling partners.
Motionbased of my Ride
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