Christmas Day 2009

Had you asked me a year ago what I would be doing Christmas Day of next year, I would have said being in Sacramento with family, eating lefse and reading a book next to a fire.  Only a few months later, I would learn that I'd be going to Germany to study physics for a year and that flights back and forth would not be a likely option.  Then, several months after that and we'd find that my girlfriend has this crazy idea to go to Croatia for the holiday.  That didn't work out, but the backup plan did - Italy.  Spending Christmas on the island of Sardinia was an intriguing experience and I have to say my most unique Christmas so far.  Who knows what the future holds?

Not having a tree, a fireplace in the flat where we stayed for 5 days or a region 1 DVD player, let alone any of my holiday favorites to play, made for a different kind of Christmas.  I woke up like any other day, realized it was Christmas and proceeded to have breakfast.  Outside, it was a blue sky, partly cloudy and 60+ degree day.  Perfect.  Rachel and I had decided that if it was a nice day we would take out the free bikes that were offered as part of our cost of the room.  So we chose our bikes and headed off down the street.  Our plan was to ride along the coast north.  The next town is called Fertilia and is about 6 km away.  But before we got there, we were treated to some beautiful coast line.  We parked the bikes a couple times to walk to the water and see what we could see.  Sandy beaches, eroded rock formations, palm and pine and other sorts of trees, green shrubbery... it was a beautiful ride.  

We crossed over a bridge next to a small harbor and found ourselves in a very small town.  The coast and sea here were just as vast as in Alghero and we took the time to just sit and stare, listening to the waves.  Surprisingly, there were many people taking walks or being out and about.  There was even a cafe open.  We would have continued on, but it had been a while since we had ridden bikes and the 6k back seemed it would be a good stopping place.  Unfortunately, I had chosen a bike that had a temperamental chain, which when given too much pressure enjoyed slipping off.  I must have stopped 10 times on the way back to put it back on the gears.  Oh well.

An afternoon siesta with a early evening walk to our favorite rocky beach spot to catch the sunset.  It was the perfect ending to the day.  The waves crashing and the Sun sinking behind the waves made me hungry.  Our dinner was the most flavorful fresh gnocchi with pesto sauce and mozzarella that I'd ever enjoyed.

Alghero, Italy

So I think I'm going to try a couple posts here back to back so make sure to catch them all avid reader.  Here I'd like to recount a few experiences of the Sardinian coastal town of Alghero.  First off, it was the off season so I'm pretty sure that Rachel and I were the only tourists on the island or at the very least in Alghero itself.  Flying in to probably the smallest airport of which I've ever flown in or out, we find ourselves on a rickety bus that probably can't go faster than 40 mph (note, that's miles, not meters).  It first takes us to Fertilia, which you can read a little bit about here, and then on to Alghero.  Rachel found this amazingly good deal for 5 nights of lodging for a total of €200.  We quickly found the address with the help of a map from a travel desk and discovered how perfectly located it is.  Pick any direction and you're 80% sure to heading towards the beautiful Mediterranean.  The grocery store was just up the street and downtown was only 5 minutes away.  Since we had a kitchen, we went shopping for food at the store.  I just want to say that it's quite amusing when you realize you're shopping in a grocery store in another country.  I don't why.  

Alghero is very beautiful and old.  The sea wall has seen some many centuries of wear and tear and the buildings have few to none modern brothers.  This town screams old and settled in its ways.  It was also very sleepy.  The off season is definitely for me I think.  No tourists everywhere, the beaches (sand and rock varieties) were devoid of all human life, save for the occasional local walking their dog.  Lots of dogs in the area that like to get walked it seems.  The old city sector had narrow streets, a sprinkling of Christmas decorations and a great many shops.  Nearly all of these shops were closed from 1 until 3 in the afternoon.  We concluded it was siesta time so we also would take siestas in the afternoon.  Anyway, these old city streets also had many alley ways that were kind of scary in the dark but exciting to explore in the daytime.  

The harbor was filled with boats of all kinds and I pined over several of the sail boats I saw.  One day...one day.  Next to the harbor, Rachel and I found a commune of wild cats.  No joke.  It was a little surprising.  I saw one cat (thinking of course this is no strange thing) and went up to it to try to pet it.  It scurried slowly around a corner and when I came around, there were about 10 cats visible amongst the rocks.  I briefly feared that I'd been led into a trap, but they were content to sit and stare at the human.  We realized these 'feral' cats must be getting fed and taken care of since they came right over to us after a few seconds, no doubt seeking food.  Walking along the harbor wall and looking down into the breaker rocks, I could see several more cats between the stones.  Who knows how many were there?

Staying in Alghero off-season for 5 days for Christmas was simply quite relaxing and the perfect amount of time.  We would wander the city for 2 hours or so, come home, eat, nap, go out and wander again, come home, eat, sleep, repeat.  We saw a lot of the city this way.  We now even have favorite spots, plus a place I'd recommend if you were thinking of traveling here.  Did I mention that the owners of this place are vintners and included a bottle of their wine for us!?  All in all, I could see myself going back.  

Nürnberg, Germany

Holy Cow.  It seems there is just something about Bavaria.  That's two times now, once for Oktoberfest in München and now, that I have traveled by slow train into Bavaria and it was as nuts as last time.  Of course, last time we didn't have seats for a two hour leg...but that's part of a different story.  Rachel and I really want to see a lot of Germany while we're here and a trip to Nürnberg's famous Christmas festival seemed an ideal time to visit Nürnberg and if you glance at the first paragraph of the linked story, you'll know that weekends are a good cheap time to travel.  So we were kind of expecting a ton of people.  What we weren't expecting was that there would also be a Football game going on and apparently some sort of anime convention!  The train for the latter half of a 5 hour trip was stuffed with furry-eared costumed 15 year olds and boisterous-red-and-white-clad drunk 20 sumthin's banging drums.  And of course, it seems that the game didn't start right away so the football fans were wandering the market for a while.  Well, whatever.  On to the market.

Wow.  It was huge and spanned block after city block.  Stalls filled with food, drink and crafts everywhere.  And a crap-ton of (~50 billion trillion) people.  Nürnberg is home to the Nürnburger which is a small roll with 3 small bratwursts stuffed in it.  Add a little mustard and it's the most awesome little snack.  They must do something different with their brats because it was really good.  Lots of chocolate covered fruit, roasted nuts with different toppings, waffles with all sorts of toppings, dumplings, potato poppers and of course hot chocolate and glühwein.  

Stall after stall.  It looked like it was divided up into sections and one such section had stalls with different city names and countries on the signs above the stalls.  Rachel noticed it first that these were Nürnberg's sister cities selling things from their lands!  So, what were some of the cities?  Glasgow in Scotland, Venice in Italy, Nice in France, Kraków in Poland and...Atlanta in the US.  Atlanta?  Well, whatever.  We wandered over and saw Oreos, JIF peanut butter, Reese's, in fact a great many things that we haven't seen in 3 and a half months.  Guess how much the JIF was costing?  Go ahead.   €15- !!   Holy cow!  I want some peanut butter but that's ridiculous!  

To get out of the mass of people, we decided to go up and visit the castle, which turned out to be different than one I've seen since being here.  I could not tell which structure was the 'main' castle building.  This castle had a great many buildings and appeared to my minds eye as a mini-city.  It looked very functional.  We took in the view and then wandered down again, winding our way down some side streets, ducking back into the main market area when it suited us, and generally heading back the way we came.  Of course we grabbed a few more snacks on our way out.  It was then just a matter of a 5 hour train trip back to Giessen.  Overall, it was a great trip to Nürnberg and I think I'd like to go again when there isn't so much hubbub.  

Addition: I forgot to mention the music.  There was a bandstand setup that was hosting a choir when we first got there and later a brass band of young kids with a few adult members.  They were both doing traditional carols.  Near the sister-city section, a group of about 7 were singing with accompaniment from a drum, jingle bells, clarinet and recorder.  They were from Romania and, I assume, singing Romanian carols.  It was cool. 

Einstein Field Equations

Here in Germany I knew I would be probably yearning for some English, especially in my schooling.  As such, I signed up for a Nuclear Astrophysics class as some of you dear readers already know.  Also, this is a graduate level class.  I knew, or at least had heard, of the Einstein field equations and how they were supposed to equal 42 or some such thing...alright that last part is a lie.  I had heard of them before though.  So it turns out that this class seems to me to be more Cosmology than Nuclear Astrophys, especially since one of the first things mentioned in lecture was how we would develop the tools to solve the field equations in the first few weeks.  Here we are almost 2 months in and we recently got there.

I was amazed.  Why?  Because I was able to follow the steps.  These are 10-coupled equations.  You start with defining the metric which I think describes how the space-time you have should work.  On second thought I'm pretty sure that's wrong, but please roll with it for the purposes of this blog.  Anyway, you have to have this metric so that you can find the Christoffel symbols.  With the Christoffel symbols and the metric, you calculate the Riemann-Christoffel tensor and from that tensor, you use the metric to contract it to the second-rank Ricci tensor.  From the Ricci tensor, contracting with the metric again gets you the Ricci scalar.  And with all these pieces you solve the equations.  I was wowed.  I'm still not sure exactly what these equations tell us, but I'm pretty sure they describe the universe.  Holy cow.  

On a related note, I discovered today that I am definitely a theorist, not an experimentalist.  Sure, I like to think I have a little engineering in my blood, but that's just from watching too much MacGyver as a kid.  I definitely prefer math and the cosmos to experiments with circuits or particle accelerators and what not.  I'm happy sitting at a computer analyzing light from start thousands of light-years away or manually calculating Fourier transforms.  Is that wrong?  

No.  Cheers!

Three Months In

It has been over three months since I moved to Germany to study physics for a year.  You may ask, "Hey Brian, how's it going?"  To which I would naturally respond with "great!" or "it's different, but alright."  But of course, on the inside there is something else that is going on that isn't quite on the level of 'great.'  Inside I'm a spinning turbine of unknown energies and power.  

What does that even mean!?

Got me, this is more of a free-verse-poem-prose-write thing than a normal post.  -rant, I forgot -rant as well.  So what's got me all riled and contorted into some weird brain fart thing?  Well...

I once knew a man in Reno,

who was very tired of Dino

and went from bored to crazy

with a great big oops-a-daisy

cause he didn't know what he said!

So I lied about the free and -verse and -poem part.  Anyway, it's the fact that my classes are in German.  Yes, I hear you laughing from here when you say, "but Brian, you knew what you were signing up for, didn't you?"  Of course I did!  That's not the point.  The point is in the crappy verse I just wrote.  Imagine spending two hours on a hard wooden seat while somebody who you know is intelligent and has something important to tell you jabbers on in a language of which you can follow about 50 percent at best.  This is what happens every class period.

I take notes and notes from boards or powerpoints have always made sense nearly immediately, be it straight math or straight physics.  The real beauty of my notes is from notes I make to the notes themselves, and that comes from the extra things the professor says while he isn't writing on the board.  My notes are crap! because of how little extra stuff I'm able to write down.  I'm borderline twiddling my thumbs sometimes when there is no writing happening on the board.  Thank goodness these professors don't have any odd mannerisms or I'd be caught staring to the point of mesmerization.  

I'm not saying the my German hasn't improved because it has indeed.  It's just that it's not at the point where I can learn as well as I know I can.  And I hope that made sense cause this is a rant and there is no time to correct typos or grammar.  So there.  

Cheers. 

p.s. Additionally and aside from missing Mac&Cheese, IPA, Kiss Cafe, small and intimate coffee shops, regular interaction with animals, my friends and my family, I have no complaints about living in Germany at all.  It's beautiful and the food is great.

Praha, Czech Republic: Part 2

Where did I leave off?  Ah yes!  We stayed at the all night café until about 0430 and then migrated to a McDonalds to grab a bite and await the coming of the Starbucks opening time of 0700 (can you believe that!?).  Greeting them with a hearty "Mornin',"since morning it was and we were the first, I grabbed my first peppermint mocha of the season and we walked towards Charles Bridge to cross over to the old city and visit the castle.  The plan had been to watch the sunrise on the bridge as it lit up the buildings on the other side of the river, but gray skies meant that we just watched the gray get a little lighter.  Oh well, next time.  The statues dotting the bridge were amazing.  They were so diverse and detailed that it took us probably 30 minutes to cross this bridge, and half of it was under renovation so half the statues were inaccessible.  Getting over to the other side, we begin by walking around a park area bordering the river.  Turns out there is an art museum there and a strange restaurant with a large row of bright yellow penguins.  I have no idea what use they have.  None.  

Heading farther away from the river, we walked south of the castle and wandered an orchard there, which along with the fruit trees also resembled a large field that was tilted at a huge angle.  It was quite the hike but afforded an amazing view.  The castle was filling the view but it was still several streets away.  I glanced at my map and realized that a little idea I had been toying with was going to bear fruit.  Several embassies were in the immediate area on the way from the orchards to the castle proper including the US one.  All I know about them is from movies or what not and I think I heard from a non-movie source that you can go visit and just say hi if you wanted.  Thinking this was not too dumb an idea and finding it amusing to stand on US soil again, we wandered over.  We walked up and saw our flag flying high.  A couple guards outside I could tell were looking our way and we simply walked up to one and asked if we could just go inside.  They said that all we could really do was visit this anteroom but not actually go in.  Inside behind some glass was a young marine and we yakked with him for a bit, basically telling him we just wanted to say hi.  It was fun.  

At the castle we picked up some sort of deep fried mass of cheese placed between two soft warm buns.  It was a most welcome treat especially for the trek up to the top of the hill that the castle sits upon.  At the top, a beautiful view and at least two tour groups awaited us.  Oh well.  Getting to see the entire area from way up high is always a hoot.  I enjoy getting the bird's eye view.  Rae and I are frugal travelers and we will only occasionally pay to go into somewhere, which is why we did not go into the inner area of the castle.  Perhaps next time.  After walking down from the castle hill, we roamed the surrounding area some more, finding little nooks and crannies and random streets.  In truth, we were trying to find our way over to the river just to walk along that park again and then cross the bridge.  Nothing much more happened for some time besides walking along and taking in the city until we started to get hungry.  We also started thinking about moving along back to the airport.

We both decided on an early dinner/late lunch and so commenced a search for the cheapest place with local food we wanted to try.  We must have wandered for an hour at least just looking at every restaurant's menu we passed for prices or deals.  Lo and behold!  We stumble on one of those nooks I previously mentioned.  A restaurant sequestered down an alley with a 'tourist' special that included starter, entrée, and dessert.  But that wasn't the most interesting part.  It was that its a jazz restaurant and jazz music was playing from speakers in the courtyard.  Whoa.  It may have been early but we were hungry and this place just seemed to unique to pass up.  In we went and old instruments, posters of the great jazz musicians, and wonderful aromas greeted us.  We were the only people there in the area they sat us and our meal was prompt and well timed (salad done, there's the main course).  Overall a really good experience.  

I cannot continue to ramble on, this is too late in coming to you already.  Suffice it to say, once done with dinner, we moseyed the city one last time and then returned to our subway, bus and plane combo.  No large hassles greeted us that need be told here.  Perhaps I'll get a chance to rant about a slight experience we had on the return train to Giessen one day.  Regardless, my apologies for dragging out my first foreign foreign country experience.

Rae and I at the top of the castle hill.

Those penguins. I don't know what purpose they serve at all.

Just makes you think, doesn't it?

Praha, Czech Republic: Part 1

Yes, part one.  I don't want to bore people and I think an extremely long blog post would lose people's interest at interesting times.  Therefore there will be 2 posts about my visit to the Czech Republic and more pictures will be with the second post. 

Rachel and I found our journey beginning with a late lunch of döner immediately followed by a walk to the Bahnhof and a free trip down to Frankfurt by train.  Once there, we sought and found the bus that would take us on the 1 hour and 45 minute trip to the airport in Hahn.  Little did we realize that this bus would cost us 12€ each!  Gar.  The trip on the bus was less than interesting but it got us to the airport.  There we encountered our first real excitement: security at a non-US airport.  I admit to being very curious as to how it would be and I was not disappointed.  Shoes could stay on but you had to take off all your tops down to the t-shirt and to be safe (I learned afterwards) everything out of your pockets.  I had a chapstick and my belt on still when I came through the detector.  The man who waved me through had me put my arms up and I got the wand...which promptly goes off for my belt and once that was off, my chapstick.  The man removed the cap carefully while asking what it was and then proceeded to run my belt and chapstick through the scanner.  Rachel was similarly scrutinized by a female.  But wait!  I had a flashlight in my bag which they did some sort of swab test on with a paper in a plastic bag!  During this, I calmly stood there and tried not to have a smirk on my face from my bemusement.  Anyway, we got through.  

The flight was on Ryanair and I hear tell they are based out of Ireland, which means that all of my inflight instructions were in English first with German second.  The flight was supposed to be an hour but we had a 130 km/h tail wind which got us to Prague in 30 minutes.  Shortest flight I've ever been on.  From Prague airport, we bussed to a subway station and took the S-Bahn to the center of town!  The time is 10:30p.  We step up and out of the subway to buildings that look old, weathered and chock full of history.  Spires dot every other structure and a tenth of them are lit up by large soft colored floodlights.  We pick a direction and mosey that way.  A huge promenade greets us.  It is dotted with Glühwein stands that also sell sausages of all kinds.  This mall way slopes gently up and at the top is a huge old structure that is now a museum but at one time I could have seen it as a capitol building.  But it could have always been a museum, I don't know.  

Rachel and I proceeded to zig-zag our way from there to the river and in 2 hours we had seen very nearly all of the new (new being 400ish years old) city.  Around 12:30 we decided to head back to a small alleyway we had walked through that had several 24 hour bar/cafés that looked just right for college kids like us.  We picked one that looked nice, sat down and stayed there for the next 4 hours.  It was amazing.  We had failed to really learn any phrases in Czech but I managed to order 2 coffees (hold up two fingers, say coffee with a 'please' in my voice).  The bartender was very nice in that he didn't talk to us but kept on eye on his customers and was ready to help anytime.  I liked that.  The coffee was incredible.  It bordered on Turkish coffee because it was very thick and rich.  I ordered a second round.  About an hour into our stay, a soft pop followed by the lights going out interrupted my reading of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  The barkeep comes out and starts jibber jabbering with some of the ladies at another table.  They sound like they're all joking around about the lights and the atmosphere of the place is one of amusement only.  The barkeep grabs a flashlight and is looking around and makes his way downstairs, all the while cracking jokes (we think) in Czech which just sounds awesome (think of Zelenka from Stargate: Atlantis).  Well, the lights come back on after about 5 minutes and life at 2 in the morning in Prague goes on.  

to be continued...

One of the statues near the top of the promenade.

One of the many kiosks dotting the area. Yum! 

Marburg an der Lahn, Germany

On Friday, Rachel and I went up to Marburg, which is north of Gießen, for a date day/night.  It is only a 14 or 30 minute train ride (depending on if you get the fast train).  We had gone before already but the trip had not been for long and there had been other people.  Last time, we left the train station and took a turn that consisted of step stairs leading towards a cemetery and small chapel.  We saw that the path continued and so we continued climbing until we reached the summit of one of the hills of Marburg.  Looking across the valley from way up high and surrounded by trees was very cool.  Quite peaceful as well since there were no other people around.  

On this trip though, Rachel and I started making our way to the castle immediately.  We passed St. Elizabeth's Church, which will be performing Verdi's Requiem soon (I'm thinking of attending).  Marburg has retained its older architecture and road style and as such is very new for me.  Roads twist up and down, stairs connect different street levels, building seems skewed based on the angle of the road and multiple generations of cobblestones pepper the ground.  Beyond Elizabeth's church is a quiet group of streets with small shops and cafes.  For a Friday, the streets here seemed oddly quiet, but I'm sure the dreary weather was a contributing factor.  We stopped in one of these cafes and had chai lattes (amazing!) and a snack.  After that, we worked our way step by step up to the castle.  There are some pictures I hope I'll get to post once Rae gets them up because otherwise I can't say much.  It's large, old, has grounds that you can wander (which we did), and is dominating this hill with a view to kill for.  I promise pictures will be forthcoming. 

After the castle, we made our way down the hill and went to a central plaza area for that shopping area I mentioned.  There we sat and had some beer in a local establishment.  There weren't a lot of people in there and it was nice to escape from the sprinkling rain for a time.  A second round was inevitable and we talked for over hour.  We then decided we were hungry and the most important part of date day/night was upon me - dinner.  

We had passed a place earlier in our wandering named Barfuß, which means barefoot.  Inside was a small, well lit and quiet restaurant.  We were seated and Rachel immediately wanted Auflauf, which it seems (additional research pending) is a local dish and resembles a casserole.  Needless to say I was nervous but we ordered and split the Spinach and Lachs Auflauf.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I hope that says it all.  Having smoked salmon with potatoes, cheese, and spinach all cooked together was the most amazing thing ever.  Of course, I didn't think it would fill me up so we also ordered two more entrees for us.  One wiener schnitzel and filet mignon with accompanying fried potatoes and green noodles in a mushroom cream sauce (respectively) and we are pretty much dead.  We don't know the policy, or if there is one, for doggie bags so we ate as much as we could.  It was amazing though and I'm getting my own Auflauf next time.

We waddled our way back to the train station and caught the train home.  All in all a pretty successful date and visit to another city.  I hope to have those pictures up soon of the castle.  Bis später! 

Let the classes begin!

Guten Morgen everyone!  I trust you had a lovely evening back on the western hemisphere.  Here, it's 9-ish and my first class starts in an hour.  The university here in Gießen employs two primary types of physics classes-theoretical and experimental.  Both are lecture classes but I assume just a different take on the physics.  I signed up for the 3rd semester experimental physics class, which focuses on atomic, nuclear and particle physics.  I've taken some of this before, but I didn't think I would do to well in the 5th semester EP class which was titled core and particle physics (but a different word for particle, go figure).  I am also going to take the electromagnetism course this semester with plans to take the quantum mechanics class next semester.  I haven't actually gotten into the EM class but that kind of thing happens all the time at UW too.  In the meantime, if our calculations are correct, we will be needing a third class and I am hesitantly thinking of trying for a masters level nuclear astrophysics course, which covers the beginnings of the universe through the formation and death of stars.  Relativity, thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics are key players.  I'm scared but it's the only astronomy related class.  So in the meantime, I'm going to read a quantum mechanics textbook I brought along.  I'll learn it myself dangit!

Additionally, I sure hope to find the motivation to learn a programming language on my own this semester.  What I really need is a project (like homework) to focus on, otherwise I'm just learning the language and never using it in practice.  When I took a computer science class, they had us doing projects every week and gradually increasing our abilities.  So, it sounds like I need another text book with homework problems in the back. ;)  I'll just keep you posted I guess.  

I have to admit, I'm nervous about taking classes in German.  Yesterday we went to the department's meet-and-greet which turned out to be more like "let's go over the schedules and what's coming up just so you all know."  Naturally it was in German and I understood less than none.  This is probably going to be very bad.  I can only hope the homeworks are straightforward and not word problems. 

The Real Oktoberfest...

...was absolute chaos. Our journey began in Gießen around 5:40a when Jeff, Rachel and myself walked to the Bahnhof (train station) in order to catch a 6:20a train to Frankfurt am Main. Once there, we changed trains to go to Würzburg. Once there, we again exchanged trains for one that was going to Nürnberg. And finally, there we decided the next thing to do was to change trains for one going to München. At last, we made it to the Bahnhof in München after about 7 or 8 hours of traveling. The reason it took so long was because we wanted cheap tickets and on the weekend, a "happy weekend" ticket is good for up to 5 people and costs only 37 euros. The catch, is that you can only take the regional, i.e. slow, trains. Regardless, we got there. And now let the madness begin.

Being an introvert, I have a hard enough time with groups of people exceeding 10 persons, even if they are my friends. So when I heard that weekends at Oktoberfest draw in millions (please note the plural) of people, I naturally grew nervous. But not to worry! The recent announcement by terrorists about possibly attacking Oktoberfest the weekend I was going helped to shy away many of the masses. Only 2.4 million people showed up. HA! (sorry for the histerics.) We weasled our way through the fair grounds, deftly avoiding medical personnel as they rushed to some poor soul lying on the ground and narrowly missing the hordes who didn't know which way was left or right. After seeing the main sites and popular, old tents (which as an aside are not 'tents' but are in fact solidly built wood structures), we took a chance on getting close to a table in an outdoor beer garden adjacent to a particular tent. 40 minutes later, after standing and watching more people than I thought existed pass by me, the beers had not arrived. We cut our losses and moved to other feeding grounds. By now all 3 of us were just wanting to have a beer in our hands. We didn't care if we were actually sitting at a table. Plenty of other people were wandering the fair grounds with their beers, why can't we?

Victory came when we arrived a second beer garden, this time we squirmed through the masses to a table on the outskirts of another outdoor beer garden. Jeff leans over and in German, which I will translate to English, gets this far -- "Hello, my German is not so good, but could you..." -- before they were sliding over and inviting us to sit down. Jeff's intention was only to ask if they would order us beers but an invitation to sit was not something we could refuse. For the next 3 or 4 hours, we sat with the individuals from northern Germany, specifically the Köln area.

We practiced our German and they practiced their English as litre after litre passed us by. People came and went at the surrounding tables. I believe a con artist was also in the area. Sounded British when he spoke English and had some underlying dislike of Americans which only alcohol would bring out. I was scared yet terribly amused at the same time.

Anyway, after wandering a bit more when I was confident in my legs again, Rachel went off and rode the Ferris Wheel and ate some Ox. Yes, ox. It was getting late and the tents and fair were closing down. We made our way back to the Bahnhof with the knowledge we had come and seen the real McCoy. The next 5 hours would involve waiting in the Bahnhof for the 5:04a train that would mirror our trip here. The Bahnhof was filled with people doing the same thing we were doing, that is waiting. Jeff and Rae were pretty tired and I seemed to be on my second wind so we all sat down and I watched over their bodies. I'm laughing just remembering back to the scene. I should also mention that we got Burger King at about 12:30 or 1:00a along with more people that were dead on their feet. The next four hours passed slowly and steadily and we eventually got on the train and headed for home. We arrived in Gießen around 11:30 and were back in our dorm rooms by noon. All in all an exciting 30 hour day.

I just want to say that I will never go again unless I have a reservation at a table that has at least a meter clearance on every side. I have gone and seen. I'm afraid it kicked my ass. But at least I've been. Prost!

Oktoberfest

Tomorrow I'm going to Oktoberfest and I have nearly no idea what I'm about to get into.  Saturday morning, at a time I like to call bright and early, we are leaving for a 3 leg, 6 hour trip.  Upon arrival we will spend the rest of the day at the festival grounds until the tents close up around 11p.  Then we will stay up all night for our return train at 5:45a PDT+9, which also happens to be a 3 leg and 6 hour trip.  It's going to be a little crazy I expect and I will keep you posted....

Stuck in Wonder

Last night was a birthday party for a friend that I've made here.  She is from France and turned 21 yesterday.  I was under the impression that we were throwing her a surprise party.  Rachel and I helped our other friend from France to make her a cake from scratch (which I never saw again at the party which makes me think it didn't turn out).  I should also preface this little story by saying that the dormitories at JLU are spread out and each one leads somewhat to segregation in the student population.  Obviously my dorm has the coolest people in it and the others can just live with that.  See what I mean.  Anyway, surprise party, right?  No.  

Rachel and I show up to Jeff's dorm area and in the common area are already more people than I thought I knew and more and more people from the summer course kept coming through the door.  Turns out this wasn't a surprise anymore and that about 35, maybe more, out of 55 summer course students plus 4 of out mentors made the trek to come to our dorm building.  Not being very good with large groups of people, I promptly placed myself outside with Victor where we could have pleasany discourse and smoke a pipe.  Topics included The Doors, spirits, pipes, karaoke, Romanian drinking practices, beer and more.  

The real point of my story is the following.  While standing outside watching the people inside talking, I realized that I was in Germany listening to conversations around me in English.  Then I noticed that our mentors and some Russian students were talking in German, while the other Russian students were speaking Russian.  Looking in I saw the kids from Spain speaking Spanish or Catalonian.  I also knew we had several people here from Poland that were gathered together at that moment and I'm sure the birthday girl and the other girls from France happened to be speaking their native tongue at that moment.  It was just a very interesting revelation of what a diverse... I don't know... thing I'm doing.  There were more that 6 languages being spoken in an area no larger than 30 or 40 square meters.  It was cool and gave me pause for a moment.

Second Week Down

I've been in Germany now for 2 weeks.  I'm not sure if I've fully acclimated yet or not since I had my first "I want to go home" moments today.  I think I did pretty good by making it to 2 weeks.  Last time I mentioned I'd finally been to the Lahn river which goes through Gießen and I was getting ready to do laundry.  Well, I went with Rachel and together, with some knowledge from friends who had done laundry already, we managed to each get a load of laundry done and dried.  I don't think I'm going to look forward to laundry day ever.  I have to go to a different building in my complex, down a flight of stairs and into a scary room with only 6 machines.  My predication is that it will be absolute chaos in there when the buildings are actually full of students instead of a quarter full for the summer.  

It's been really hard to be motivated to do anything the past week.  The 9 week intensive course of German I took before coming here pretty much wiped me out.  The 5 days after the class and before I flew here went by in a blur of packing and making sure I had everything.  Then this international summer course started and at the end of the second week, it's just like it is the 11th week of the intensive course.  I need a vacation because I'm completely burned out.  That and a nearly complete lack of money means that I am getting some good reading time in since I can't afford to go out.  

We go to Heidelberg tomorrow and it is probably a 1.5 hour to 2 hour bus ride down.  I hear from multiple sources that it is the most beautiful place in Germany.  I guess we'll see and I will get pictures out hopefully on Sunday or Monday.  No other news I guess at the moment except I'm still working on getting a link set up to pictures so everyone can see.  Until later...

Welche Sprache sprichst du?

Okay, finally done with one whole week.  It's astonishing how long it feels it's been when it's only been 8 days or so.  So much has happened that it feels like a month has gone by already.  The summer course goes well.  Quickly, here is the way my week will go for the next 3 weeks.  Everyday there are language tutorials/classes for 1.5 hours followed by a half hour coffee break.  Then another 1.5 hours of tutorials followed by lunch.  On Monday and Wednesday lunch is 1 hour followed by 2 hours of instruction that focuses more on culture and what not (still in German though).  On Tuesday and Thursday lunch is 2 hours followed by 2 hours of a workshop.  I picked the Zeitung, or newspaper, and will be writing a short article on the history of Gießen.  On Fridays classes end at lunch.  Yay!

I've wandered much of Gießen now and must say it is a very interesting city.  The combination of rural and urban is extreme.  I live on the outskirts of town, give or take, and have two giant fields and a forest (nearly) to walk between on my way to a major street with a McDonalds, Burger King, gas station and 3 large stores plus many smaller stores.  There is a large river, the Lahn, flowing through the upper part of the city which I finally went and saw on Thursday I think, maybe it was Wednesday... I just don't know.  

Today I need to figure out where and how to do laundry since I used my last pair of socks on my Frankfurt excursion yesterday.  There, I had my first Starbucks since getting to this country and it was also the largest cup of coffee I'd seen yet.  Folks, just be prepared when you get here for nothing bigger than a tall when you order coffee.  I've been around this town and every place has the same kind of automatic (but freshly ground) coffee machines and the largest cup is a stinking coffee cup size.  I want something bigger!!  Anyhoo.  I'm still working on getting a Picassa thing going so non-Facebookers can see all the pics.  I'll figure it out soon enough.  In the meantime, go here and select the Gießen album or any album name from the places we'll go.  Hope the link works.  Let me know if it doesn't.  Until later....ciao!

Willkommen: Deutschland

Well, the big day finally came.  I am sitting in my apartment/dorm room in Gießen, Germany...finally.  After all the buildup and anticipation for coming here since winning a spot in this exchange program, I have made my way at least by plane and by train to this medium sized university city.  I AM TIRED.  15 or so hours of flying with 2 connections but no break (our planes landed, we ran, the next plane took off), made for a very rough travel day.  But, because we flew into and through the night, our arrival plus lack of sleep made us think that only a normal 9 or 10 hour day had gone by instead of the 17 or 18 hours from first take off to arrival in Gießen.  Thus, I slept just fine Thursday night and awoke refreshed Friday morning.  There is much that happened just on the way here but I merely include pictures that hopefully will reveal what has gone on.  But I'll come back to those. :)

So, first full day in Gießen! What happens?  To start, I haven't had the internet and have really been aching for it, which just goes to show how much I must be addicted.  Secondly, since this is a summer LANGUAGE course, we had to take a test first thing (before Coffee!!) to determine which level group we should be in.  They are trying to make sure that beginners aren't stuck with more advanced speakers of German and vice versa.  I won't find out my results ever but will be told what group I'm in on Monday.  It was interesting and just like the tests I recently was taking at UW, but there were words that I didn't understand.  Moving on and please forgive the length, I want to say a bit.

After the test, we had a Kaffeepause or Coffee break.  I met some new people there and would like to say a few words.  Victor, or as he is called at home Calin, is from Romania and does not know Germany very well, possibly at all.  He is here to learn.  His English is great and is an example of how messed up our country is when it comes to languages, but I digress.  Victor is a slow talker, not because he doesn't know how to say anything, but because he doesn't like to repeat himself.  Awesome.  Then I met two guys from Estonia (don't know where that is? look it up).  Pritt and Sander are interesting guys who also don't know German and have a thicker accent than Victor when they speak English.  On the train with Rachel, Jeff and I was a exchange student who will be here all year too named Yasmin.  She is from Turkey and has difficulty with German and English.  It has been interesting trying to talk with her.  Today, I tried to describe what 'humid' was.  It was difficult!  

After we were done with being introduced to the itinerary of the course, we were set loose for the day.  Rachel and I both didn't have internet in our rooms so we decided to head downtown and find an electronic store to get some CAT5 cabling and Victor, Pritt and Sander came along.  I will have to tell more about downtown on my subsequent blogs so be ready for them.  But I will tell you that outside the store we found our cabling in was a Biergarten.  Yes, I had a beer with Rachel, Pritt and Victor.  I had a dunkel or dark half-liter beer on my first full day in Germany.  It was right I think.  It was amazing sitting in an actual German beer garden drinking German beer and thinking, "Oh my gosh, I'm actually in Germany which is in Europe.  What am I doing!?"  So, pictures ensue since I don't want to talk too much.  Love you all out there and if you're one of the anonymous readers, I thank you.  

Pic1: Rae and I after 10 hours or so of flying.

Pic2: Jeff and I after 10 hours or so of flying. (Honestly, no clue what the Icelandic flight attendant was doing.)

Pic3: A view of the building I'm in (it's the middle one in the back).  I have a view to a wooded area.  It's nicer than the courtyard and the room is nice too.

Pic4: My first beer in Germany with new friends Pritt (left) and Victor (middle).

Rediscovery

With only 8 days until the great grand adventure, my panic attacks have begun to come more frequently and even while I sleep.  The intensive language class is ending this week and since it has slowed down considerably (i.e. all homework is now completed, 3 days ahead of schedule), I have discovered something amazing.  Well its actually a rediscovery.  

I like science.  I mean REALLY like science.

It's like a festering scab wound thing that you just have to itch and it makes it worse but it feels so good and you just have to itch it one more time because of some weird feeling it gives that makes it feel better than when it is festering, scabbing... i think you get the idea.  I just read the two latest issues of Discover and Astronomy magazine and I'm borrowing the May issue of Science (very fancy) from the Physics department.  And I'm reading almost every article.  Geography, Chemistry, Biology, Psychology, Physics, and yes Astronomy.  I can't get enough.  Just one quarter without taking any kind of science class and I find that I can barely contain myself.  I want to be doing two research projects and learning how to present my work with new computer programs.  I can't wait for these plane rides so I can just sit and read magazines.  If only I could get my hands on the Astrophysical Journal I'd be set.  Alas, that costs quite a bit.  

Anyway, this just makes me feel better about the choice I made in picking the Sciences. Even though it is really hard at times, I enjoy it and just need to find that special niche where everything clicks for me.  I know that I'm not going to be a super genius, but I still love reading up on everything.  Jack of all trades, master of some - that's what I'm aiming for.  Prost!

Holy Cow!

So there are only 16 more days that I'll be in this country and then I'm gone for more than 11 months. I feel like there is so much to do and Rachel has even more that she has to get done. We're scrambling trying to finish our intensive German class, I'm praying that I haven't forgotten some important paperwork, and we're both still trying to get our crap organized and/or stored. In fact, I must be back to my homework. Prost!

Lernen Sie Deutsch!

We're in the fifth week of intensive German now. Tomorrow will be the halfway mark and will also signal that only five weeks remain until my journey to Giessen. Hoo boy! I admit to being in a state of disbelief still. I also think my subconscious is secretly panicking. Who honestly signs up to be away from everything and everybody they love for a whole year? I must have been slightly crazy that morning when I decided to put in my application. I'm sure that when I'm dropped off at the airport it will finally hit me that I won't see (insert person(s) who dropped me off) or anybody for more than a year. I might cry, honest. And then when I land in Frankfurt...oh my. Nobody speaking English, all the signs pointing this way and that saying things that I have to think about first...oi! Thanks goodness Rachel will be there. Of course, I think I'd be pissed if I got there and I heard English in the first five minutes. It's an airport. I left surrounded by English speakers. I'd like to arrive surrounded by German speakers.

In other news, there is no other news because intensive German is occupying my life.

Rachel and I are watching the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica from miniseries to finish right now. We're only 6 or 7 episodes in but watching it, for me, the second time only serves to increase my appreciation for how well done the show was done. Yes, there were times when it seemed the stories sucked or that it was drifting away from it's original concept and yes, there was the ending but it was still a great show and I'm happy Rachel likes it and I get to watch it again with somebody. I love knowing everything and catching the hints and rumors of what's to come. Additionally, the new Stargate series will be starting in October. I still don't know what to make of this addition to the series. No matter what the producers of SG-1, then Atlantis, and now Universe have to say, I think they intentionally canceled Atlantis because they wanted to throw all their money into Universe. It pisses me off because for 2 years they ran two shows at once. If they really wanted Universe, they could have kept Atlantis and finished it off decently. Instead, we got hack writers for the last two seasons who didn't know a story from their dirty laundry. I could rant for a while but nobody wants to read that. In fact, I'm astonished you got to this sentence. Thank you.

Cheers for now!

How quickly can you learn German?

Hi everyone.

I've started my third week of summer intensive German (the whole first year of German in 9 weeks), which means that at the end of this week I will have completed the first quarter, equivalent to German 101. Wow. There have been five chapters worth of vocabulary each with about 100+ adjectives, prepositions, nouns, verbs, seperable verbs, and other kinds of words. Once again, I'm thankful for my better than average memory recall. It's incredible how much we cover every class period. We meet Monday through Friday for three hours each day and the time flies by. It's nothing short of astonishing and Rachel and I often wonder how slow normal 101 must be since we're not entirely overwhelmed with the amount we're learning.

(I believe that since I last wrote my social status has changed. Rachel is my beautiful girlfriend and we have been together for 2 months. Yay! Here is a picture of us at my Mom's house in Oregon next to the Columbia River. The land behind us and on the other side of the river is Washington.)Anywhoo, plans are continuing to come together for our year long physics exchange to Justus Liebig Universität in Giessen, Germany. We have our plane tickets (complete with connection in Reykjavik, Iceland) and our acceptance letters. That's about it so far. No worries though because I'm sure we won't forget too much if both of us are thinking about what to bring. Unfortunately, Rachel and I think alike probably 90% of the time. Problem? Possibly but I'm not going to worry about it.

And now I must needs be getting back to meine Hausaufgaben (homework). Until next time....

Prost!

Wold Update

Oh mercy! It's been over two months! Why did nobody say anything?! I just got done with my first legitimate all-nighter at school. I stayed up the whole night sitting at a table surrounded by friends and munchies and homework. I napped from 10-12:15 today after getting up at 6 yesterday. I begin with that so I can explain why I even have the time to blog right now. I still had homework that is due tomorrow that I just got done doing...at least for tonight. And since I still have a little bit of life left in me before I crash for (what I hope will be) restful sleep, I decided to come here and share as much of what I think is important that's happened in the past 2 months.

Where to begin? I've been accepted into a exchange program through the University of Washington to go and study physics (and other things) for 11 months in Giessen, Germany at the Justus-Leibig Universitat-Giessen. Wow, huh? A very good friend of mine is going along and we're going to pretty much have the most rockin' good time I think either of us may have ever had. I know I speak for myself at least. She's traveled off this continent before and is much more outgoing so she may not have as much of a shock as I do. I'm looking forward to sampling all the different foods...and beers. We're making plans for traveling around all of Europe, both together and on solo adventures. Now I can handle myself pretty well in a city like San Francisco or Seattle if I just get dumped in the middle of it somewhere. I could probably handle New York if I really concentrated. But a city in another country is I think going to be a lot different. Quite the learning curve.

This of course leads into a discussion of school. Summer courses will consist of one intensive German language class. It's the entire first year of German packed into 7 or 8 weeks. Needless to say, that'll be the only class I'm taking. Right now I'm taking 4 classes;

1. Astronomy 323 - Galaxies, Cosmology
2. Astronomy 480 - Observing
3. Physics 226 - Particles and Symmetries
4. Physics 321 - Electromagnetism 1

These classes are destroying my existence. Luckily there have been developments socially that balance the force of school (physics reference there if you caught it). Going out at least once a week for beers, doing homework away from the school with friends, and reading books not for school are just some of the ways I maintain sanity at the moment.

I've recently discovered the awesomeness of Pandora.com. If you put 2 or 3 artists in a playlist, you're going to get a pretty decent spread of similar music and I find it remarkable for finding all these songs I used to listen to on the radio when I was a kid. It's amazing. I put in Journey and Queen as my artists and I'm getting all sorts of other songs I recognize and new ones that I really enjoy. Same goes for my Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Brian Setzer Orchestra combo. Anyway, that was kind of random.

And with that sentence, I must say farewell again. I apologize but I am now crashing. I promise to blog more even though more and more events get added to my schedule book (which happens to be a moleskin(R)).

Cheers.

p.s. upcoming events I'm interested in:

1. Third Day Concert May 7th
   
2. Seattle Beer Week May 7th-17th
3. UW Undergraduate Symposium May 15th (I'm presenting. More on that later)
4. Visiting Momma May 22nd-25th
   

Saturday Morning Musings

I'm at a local independent coffee shop right now called Gretchen's Place. Their Americanos aren't bad and I would recommend you come early when there aren't a lot of people. The table I'm typing on right now is single stem style with four base protrusions and it's wobbling, making my screen bobble with every slam of my fingers on the keyboard. Thus why I always prefer three legged or three-legged-protrusion-single-stem tables. And if you can't figure out why that makes a difference, then we have a problem.

I just collected 15 hours worth of data on the hour on 2 separate days for 13 different asteroids. So that comes out to (15*2*13) lines I put onto my computer and organized in a neat orderly fashion so that later today, after orchestra and Battlestar Galactica, I can convert some of the data into other units and do some easy math to find out some cool stuff that I'll use later on to do more cool stuff. But honestly, I fear I may be over my head this semester. But that's another story. Tests may be next week in all three of my primary classes, but today it's all research (since I haven't done any in about 10 days and that's bad of me).

I'm planning on using some of the portions of my tax return to buy a good size whiteboard. A wha? Yes, you read right. I'm going to buy a whiteboard and hang it on the wall in my room over my bed. I want to be able to do practice problems of math and physics without having to look for paper and pencil. I mean, it'll save the environment and I'll feel like a BA while writing there. There is something special about doing homework or practice on a large board. You can step back, hold the pen in your mouth or something, stare at the board and just think. It's great and I recommend it. Trev, that goes for you. Try translating Greek on a chalkboard and tell me it isn't fun.

Well, I finished my Americano and now have to head off to play Horn. It's sectionals today and so you're more exposed. I hope I don't suck. Until next time everyone. Cheers!

Monday Night

No, not football
But tax filing

with people by the giga-score

since the internets seem so slow.

While drinking Chai tea with sugar and milk

because I have so much to do

Along the lines of homework,
Planning the week and then....

Just wondering if I should plan "my-time?"
You know, when you sit and do something

you want to do?

I don't have that. There's no time.
Gosh, has that screen loaded yet?
Typical. I'm just as impatient as everyone else.

lame.

Oh, and then I'm listening to Dave Matthews

while working through integrals

of the type regular, triple, and contour.

And now I'm just talking.

Back to it!

As Promised...

So I promised a story last time and as I took a brief restroom break from my homework, I chanced to read in the magazine Astronomy a brief article regarding "dark flow." Dark flow is a term coined by a researcher whose team discovered something I think is one of the coolest things ever. Alexander Kashlinsky, an astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, and his team discovered that at least 700 massive galaxy clusters (a large number of galaxies relatively close together) are all moving as groups towards a single point in the sky!

Let me use a different example in case you didn't follow that. Imagine if 700 million people on Earth were all inexplicably pulled 20ft towards the Space Needle here in Seattle. It's something like that, only they keep moving. Can you imagine how crazy this is? At least 700 individual galactic clusters are all moving towards one point! It's hypothesized that there is a concentration of mass beyond the observable universe that is exercising a force on these clusters. It's rather beyond me the size of this mass you would have to have to be able to do all this. My mind is blown.

Kashlinsky named this phenomenon dark flow to reference dark energy and dark matter, two other great mysteries. Obviously of course, there is much research to do still and this might be a ginourmous coincidence. So, don't quote me. I just wanted to share an article.

Source: Astronomy January 2009 p.31

Sed-a-give!!

Welcome everyone. I hate writing 9's so this year is already tainted. So it goes.

School is starting on Monday. Have I even purchased my books? No. Have I been keeping up with my studying? No. Am I totally doomed? Quite possibly. But I'm not worrying about it because it will work itself out. I need to take it easy while I still can. This quarter is gonna be hard. I'm taking two upper math classes, an astro computing class, and the second astro 300 level class on galaxies, of which I have no clue what things we'll learn there. Also, I'm continuing my research project on asteroids and will be devoting a minimum of three hours a week to that along with my orchestra commitments on Saturday. It's a good thing I'm getting up at 6 already.

Wow, but did you really want to know all that? Probably not but that's what a blog is for: to tell you all these wonderful things about me. Me me me. I feel so soiled right now with my presumtuous arrogance. I apologize. I will now entertain you with a story so you feel better about the time you've spent reading here.

...........um.........

How about I promise to tell a story next time? I can't think of one right now. I promise it'll be fantastic.