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.