Dream experience?

So I'm safe in the US now, back in the same house I've lived in for 4 years. Walking to front door, my hands began shaking, not because I was nervous about how things had changed since I left, but because so little has changed that I'm afraid the past 2 months will turn out to be a dream. I walked into my apartment, turned the key the wrong way like I always have, opened the door, and smelled the mustiness that I've grown accustomed to in the last year. My bathroom towel still hung in the same place I left it 10 weeks ago.

As I walked through the door, scenes from the summer flashed through my mind. Watching the Hungarian symphony in a a gilded opera house, watching the alps zoom past the train window in the superfast train, walking through the streets of Goslar with my long lost German sister. I have to wonder, did all of this really happen? Did I really spend 10 amazing weeks roaming the streets of 7 European countries? Did I really meet people from 30 different countries? Well, this blog, unless I can write blog entries in my sleep, proves that I did in fact do all these amazing things, and much more.

I still have so much to write about. So much happened on this trip that the blog hasn't even begun to explain all the memories in my mind. Hopefully I can catch up on some of the amazing experiences later this week as I wake up 2-3 hours before everyone else (I made it to 5:30am this morning. But until I can write again, I leave you with the last picture I took in Marbug, which really makes me think that this trip was a dream.

MIA for a while

Just so you know, I will probably be MIA for the next few days as I travel from Marburg to Frankfurt to Geneva to Amsterdam to Chicago and finally Champaign. Pray that no air traffic controllers strike in Switzerland, the Netherlands, or Chicago and that I make all my trains (I have 4 tomorrow alone) :-/

As much as Reuti wants me to have an eventful trip...I hope its plain boring.

Tata for now!

Caught unawares....but at least I had my towel

I leave for the US on Wednesday but I had to check out of my dorm today. However, I didn't know that I had to check out of my dorm today. I got up around 8:45...headed to the shower. I share a shower with 15 other people...which you might think is gross, but people keep the shower clean so its really not that bad. But I have to walk down the hall to use the shower.

Anyways, I'm down the hall, taking a shower, shampooing my hair, when someone bangs really loud on the door. I wonder if the door is going to crash in. Then I hear a female voice yelling "drei hundert neunzehn"....which is my room number. I turn off the shower, get soap in my eyes and yell back. "Ya, drei hundert neunzehn" . She then bangs on the door again and yells something in German...I have no idea what she said....I listen...I pause...and I reply "Ich verstehe nicht"....(I don't understand) to which she says another 30 words in German of which the only part I understand is "aus".....which ussually comes paired with questions that ask about travel. I then realize that someone was coming to see me....and apparantly they wanted to know when I'm leaving. I reply...with my very limited German "Dienstag!" (Tuesday)....she then says .aa/s.mdf/.amdsf;lasjksdf;ljsa or something....I have no idea....and walks away. Thinking that the exchange was over...I finish my shower....get the soap out of my eyes...and wrap up in a towel for the 5 meter walk back to my room.

I step into the hallway, wearing just a towel (I time my escape so no one sees me) and rush to my door...only to be blocked by a large woman dressed in white with hair the color of a coke bottle. She clutched what looked to be 2 folders, one with my name emblazoned across the top. Before letting me into my room, she proceeds to pester me with questions in very fast german....questions that I only catch one or two words of before becoming completely lost. I listen and listen..and eventually figure out that she wanted to know when I was leaving and if I paid my deposit. I say yes, and then say that I'm going to pay my rent that very day. During this time she grabs a tall Arabic guy and asks him to translate for us....even though I'm standing in the hallway wearing nothing but a towel!!!!

We then finish our conversation outside, after which she explains that she needs to see my room, but she doesn't give me the option to dress beforehand. So I open the door to my room, dreading her expression. I had just started packing and entire closet now lay between my floor and bed...sorted into piles that only I understood. I had not cleaned the sink (a task I saved for tonight) and my desk was covered in piles of dead moths (another task for this evening). She quickly walked through the room, with me hurriedly throwing things into a suitcase with one hand and grasping my towel with the other. She then told me that I would be charged a cleaning fee....(not surprised considering the state of my room). And then she left, leaving the door open so everyone could see me in my towel. :-/

I closed the door, quickly dressed, and then began cleaning the room. However, damage had been done, I would now be charged a cleaning fee, all because I had no idea that I had to check out one day before I left. :-/

Thus ends my story.

The Moral: Never leave without your towel.

Success!!!`

As the title suggests...I achieved success today as the 11th person in Marburg to obtain a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The evening started around 10pm when Amir and I walked to the city center (busses stopped running so we had to walk.


After wandering around for a bit, we finally found the bookstore that sold the book at this hour.

Around 12:30, a line began to form, so we decided to get in line.

By 1am, the line stretched around the block.

But at 1:01, the doors opened and we all walked in to obtain our copy of the book, which was even gift wrapped for us. :-)


So here I am with the bag...and the book...



I'm happy to report that the ending is...........

addendum to Harry Potter post

I should also add that I was able to watch the fourth movie in Germany this week...in English even. I'm beginning to wonder why I need to go back to the states...I can get all the books and watch all the movies I want.

Exciting plans for the weekend

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the last year, you know that Harry Potter book 7 is released at midnight tonight. Well, the book is released at midnight in great Britain, which means it will be released at 1am in central Europe. Even so, 1am in Germany is still 5 hours ahead of midnight in the states, so if I go to a book store at 1am, I will have my hands on a copy at least 4 hours before my friends in the states. :-) But I will also have the original British version instead of the "translated" American version.

I figure, I'm in Europe, I might as well take advantage of the timezone change. :-) Yesterday Reuti, a labmate, found the only bookstore in Marburg that will actually open at 1am to sell the book. So this morning I set out to the Altstadt (old marburg) to reserve my own copy of the book.

Thanks to Reuti's excellent map, I quickly found the bookstore and went in to order my copy. The bookstore owner laughed when he heard my american accent and said "you traveled a long way to get one book!" I successfully ordered my own copy of the book, so keep you eyes open for an exciting picture to appear around 1:30am my time, (6:30pm CST). Perhaps I'll even open the last page for you. :-)

Highlights from Krakow

This past weekend I traveled to Poland, specifically Warsaw and Krakow, to meet with CESRI fellows and IIE staff for a debrief.

If I had to pick out my favorite thing about Krakow, I would pick hanging out with all the CESRI fellows and IIE staff. It was really nice to see everyone again after 7 weeks in our seperate countries and to hear all about the various projects and experiences of each of the other scholars. It was also great to see Chris and Agi from Budapest and to meet Vijay (with whom I had many phone conversations with) and Mark, the creator of the CESRI program. Chris had impeccable dining taste (he really should write a guidebook) and took us to the most fantastic restaurants in Krakow where we tried dishes such as roast duck, grilled pheasant, blueberry peirogies, and delightful borsh (beet soup). We also took advantage of the large number of people (one table for one shot means just trying a sip of each drink) to sample a large variety of polish vodkas including the incredibly smooth Zubrowka, herbal Wodka Zoladkow Gorzka, and hot honey vodka. We also tried freshly squeezed bison grass (green but rather tasty) and mint apple juice. Needless to say, the weekend was a culinary treat.

But I also experienced a lovely culture and two beautiful cities. Since it was cheaper to fly to Warsaw than Krakow, Cau (CESRI scholar in Marburg) and I flew to Warsaw to stay with Mike, another CESRI fellow who studied in Warsaw this summer. Mike lived in Warsaw until he was 14, so he spoke fluent Polish and could show us around town. We visited the palace of culture and discovered yummy polish pastries. We then took the express train from Warsaw to Krakow (under 3 hours on a track devoted to high speed trains, excellent). In Krakow, we stayed in a hotel jut outside the Floridian gate of the old city. Since we were so close we spent time exploring the lovely inner city. In my own opinion, Krakow ranks far above Prague. Prague was lovely but incredibly crowded and seemed quite dirty (unwashed buildings, dirty streets, etc). Krakow on the other hand contained a lot of tourists, but the wide medievel walkways and large marketplace could handle the large crowd of tourists (one guidebook said that restaurants on the main square could easily hold over 1000 people at one time, which I think was a low number). The main square contained the cloth hall which still served as a marketplace where shopkeepers sold traditional Polish boxes, amber, embroidery, and leathergoods in stalls over 500 years old. Krakow also seemed to host more street entertainment with Polish quartets, Klesmer bands, marionette puppets, and even an elaborate puppet opera could be found on evenings. One never tired of things to see in Krakow. Even after three solid days of touring, including a guided tour of the Nicolas Copernicus Museum with our Polish guide, I found myself yearning for a monthlong stay.

On Sunday, after Chris and Agi left and we finished our powerpoint presentations, we had to fend for ourself gastonomically. However, since krakow is the culinary capital of Poland, we had no trouble finding lovely cafes for a sit down meal and even found yummy snacks on the main square. I tasted my first sheep cheese (squeaky) and fried apple pancakes. We even found restaurants with complimentary pig lard (no joke). To get out of the city on a hot day, we traveled to the Weiczocka salt mines, where 600 years of rock salt mining and artists produced spectacular caves full of statues and chapels. The cool salty air helped clear out our lungs to the point that we all began coughing once we emerged from the mine 3 hours later. After the mine, we grabbed some more sheep's cheese and black current juice and headed to a concert in a recently restored Baroque cathedral. After relishing the amazing accoustics and gilded altars, we traveled to a polish cafe where we all "shared a bed" together as we tried the soup parade of traditional polish soups or dined on 10 different types of meat (I didn't know there were that many). After dinner, the night was still young, so we headed off towards the jewish quarter where Eric showed us his superpowers. After a round of drinks, we began a rousing rendition of Big Booty (video here) with small breaks of zoom and piffle. The calm atmosphere of the jewish quarter was a welcome difference to crazy fireworks displays of the city center. Then around 2am in the morning...we finally headed back to the hotel for a short nap, before some of use arose early to visit the state apartments of Wawel castle and cathedral and the ornate cathedral of St. Mary's (no pictures allowed inside but here is a link to the websites).

I finished off Monday with a final visit to the cloth hall and a leather shop down the street. Then Mike and I met at the train station (see previous post) and I returned safely back to Marburg.

I don't have a whole lot of pictures from this trip, but Mike just posted some excellent photos with his blog post.

You can read the post here.


My photos can be seen here

Poland

Navigating trains and making mistakes

After living and traveling in Europe for two months, one would think that I would understand rail travel in Europe. I love traveling by train, and I've spent over 78 hours on various trains in Europe this summer. I've ridden on extremely fast InterCityExpress and the painfully slow local trains. I've ridden in an air-conditioned luxurious sleeping car from Vienna to Frankfurt and over-crowded unair-conditiioned leaky (it started raining mid trip) train from Bratislava to Prague (same for a night train as well). Even my worst train experiences were fun and I couldn't wait to ride the train again. This past weekend...I had some interesting lessons to learn about train tickets. For nearly all my train travel, I used a rail pass or a pass designated for a certain route. This past weekend, I decided to 'go native' and actually purchase point to point tickets.

Most of my travels were uneventful, but my return trips were rather exciting. On Monday, I had a fairly tight travel schedule. I started out in Krakow (southern poland) where I would catch an express train from Krakow to Warsaw around 2pm, then around 6pm catch a bus from Warsaw to the Warsaw airport to catch my flight to Frankfurt. After arriving in frankfurt, I would then have to catch the S-bahn (regional train) from the airport to Frankfurt Main Station, where I would have to catch a train to Marburg, hopefully arriving around 11:30pm at night.

Incident 1: For the Krakow to Warsaw train, Mike (CESRI scholar who lived in Poland for the summer) and I decided to catch the 2pm train. However, we had a slight miscommunication. I thought Mike would buy our tickets in the morning, and then I would meet him on the train station at 1:40pm. I arrived at what I though was the main hall of the train station at 1;35 and became confused when I received a text message from Mike saying that he was running late and needed some extra cash to purchase tickets. I sent Mike a message saying that I could help...and this is where breakdown occured. I assumed that I was waiting just outside the main hall, so I became worried when I still didn't see Mike at 1:50pm. It turns out the the main hall of the train station was 100 meters away from the actual train tracks, so what I thought was a main hall was actually an underground walkway. I race across the tracks, carrying my 30 lb backpack, a large bottle of water in one hand, and fragile souvenirs in another hand while getting smacked with every step by the Kelty compression sack attached to my backpack. I finally find Mike, who is rushing out the station clutching what appears to be two tickets for the express train. We meet, and we run 100 meters back towards the train tracks....arriving just as people began boarding the train. We get on the train, find a sparsely occupied car...and sit down to enjoy the lovely 3 hour train ride to Warsaw, confident in our ticket purchase. However, when the conductor walks by 1 hour later, he looks at Mike's ticket and asks for the real ticket. Mike looks bewildered. We look at the "ticket stubs" and realize that the attendant only gave Mike one ticket...and I was on board with out a ticket. Mike asks (in fluent Polish, btw) if we can buy a ticket...and the conductor assures us that we can. I thankfully have my credit card with me, so I buy ticket on the train...only charged 4 zlotys ($1.30) for the missed ticket. We then arrive in Warsaw without major incident, and even have time to enjoy authentic polish pancakes before I take off for Warsaw airport (which btw, is the most ineffeciently run airport I have encounted to date).

Incident 2: I arrive at Frankfurt airport without incident, board the S-bahn for town and then arrive at the main train station. I've transferred in the train station several times before, so I understand the layout quite well. I also know how to purchase train tickets at the kiosk.... My s-bahn arrives a few minutes late so instead of stopping at the kiosk, I walk straight to the train (taking care to board the car marked Marburg instead of the Dillenburg) and plan on buying my ticket on the train (which had been done previously in Poland and witnessed on several other train trips in Germany). When the conductor came by 30 minutes later, he told me that I couldn't buy my ticket on the train and I had two choices, give him my passport or I pay a 40 Euro fine. Thankfully I still had some Euros, so I could pay the 40 Euro fine...but it still hurt a bit. My actually train ticket was supposed to cost 12 Euro...so I actually only paid 28 Euros extra...but the embarassment of a "smackdown" from a conductor was quite painful. My lab mates then explained to me that you can buy a ticket on express trains...but you can't buy a ticket on regional trains...even though the regional train conductors use the exact same ticket issuing slips as the express train conductors.

So now I can say I've learned my lesson, always double check your ticket, before you board....and then check it again. I'll write more later about my trip to poland...once I edit some pictures.

A first for Charity...a worst for the team

Today I "bonded" with my lab mates through a typical german university experience, the department soccer tournament. I was recruited for the team, despite my lack on soccer skills and knowledge. I only played soccer once in 4th grade and I've only watched 3 soccer games in my entire life. Today I played in 4 games, so I can say I've played in more games than I've seen. :-/ Anyways, I survived the tournament with only a scratch on my leg. (one of the more agressive teams stepped on my ankle). I had a great time but my team did not fair well. We scored one goal against our opponents while our opponents (4 different teams) scored no less than 10 goals against us. Not too bad for a team that never practiced together, at least we scored one goal. :-) I've attached a picture of our team below.
This post will be my last for a while as I leave for Krakow, Poland this weekend. I will return to Marburg on Tuesday. Until then...Tchuss!

pictures from visit with maria

You can see pictures from my visit with Maria here.

Visiting Maria

Also, I hope to post once or twice more before I leave for Krakow, but I forgot that I was recruited for the group soccer team, so I may be too sore to post tomorrow.

a sister in any other country is still a sister

This weekend I got a very special treat. Several years ago, my family hosted a foreign exchange student from Berlin named Maria. Over the course of a year, my family grew very close to Maria. Two years later, Maria came to visit for a summer and then her sister followed to live with us for a year. I consider Maria and her sister Louisa to be family so I was very excited to visit 'meine Schwester' in her home town. Here is a picture of Maria (with her beautiful red hair) at the door to her flat.

Maria lives in a Gottingen, a university town one and a half hours north of Marburg. Most people know Gottingen for the home of the first Max Planck institute and indeed Gottingen reminds you constantly that its a science town. The information booth in the train station looked like an astronomical chart. The city layout also included a 1:2 millionth model of the solar system (I forgot to take pictures).



On friday night, I arrived at the train station, and found Maria immediately. We embraced and then started talking like no time had passed at all. Maria quickly led me through town and then helped me bike the 4 km uphill to her flat in the suburbs of Gottingen. We then stayed up and talked until well past midnight and only stopped talking after we realized we still had two days to talk. :-) Maria made a traditional German breakfast of fresh bread, cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, and tea....but she brought out some jam and honey for me. For some reason the "traditional' german breakfast feels normal when you eat it with a friend. On Saturday, Maria showed me around Gottingen, making sure to point out the school she attends (800 people applied to a school that only accepted 12) and the science buildings. She forgot to take me to the statue of Bunsen (its in Gottingen, not Marburg) but she promised to take a picture and send it to me. :-)

Since neither of us really cared for traditional German lunch (she's vegetarian) but we do care for chocolate, we ate 'lunch' at a chocolate cafe where I dined on a special layer cake and shared a delicious mocca. My cake consisted of several thin layers of dried pineapple, dark chocolate, a creamy torte, and sugar cake. Yum yum yum. Maria told me that these cakes can sometimes grow as tall as 1 meter high! We then walked off our lunch in a botanical garden that was first started over 400 years ago. (Pictures to be posted tomorrow Jenny).

We then visited an African restuarant where I tasted my first green german beir. Yum yum yum.. We then bicycled over to an American style bar to meet up with some of her friends (ooops forgot to take pictures again)...where we won (and then lost dramatically) on a few games of pool. Then...late on Saturday night, we headed uphill again to maria's flat. (we only had to walk for 300 meters this time).

On Sunday, after snapping a lot of photos of Maria and her apartment (don't worry, they will be posted soon too), we headed to the train station to catch a train to Goslar, a UNESCO world heritage site one hour north of Gottingen. However, the train we boarded went east, not north. When the conductor looked at our tickets, he laughed and told us that we boarded the wrong train. hehehe....ooopps.... Maria turned the same shade as her hair, especially when an elderly German couple treated her like an American tourist by slowly explaining how trains work in Germany. After laughing for about 10 minutes, we got off the train in Heilingenstadt, a small German village that was part of the former GDR (communist block) where we discovered that the next train to Gottingen wouldn't leave for an hour. So we took the time to explore the lovely city of Heilingenstadt, home to four lovely churches. We think they are used for pilgramages, but we never really confirmed this fact. Instead, we got to see a lovely restored city.
After returning to Gottingen and boarding the correct train for Goslar, we finally arrived at this lovely medieval city. Goslar is famous for its 800 year old ore mine (didn't have time to explore) and its large and well preserved medieval city. Goslar also served as the summer palace home of early Germanic Emporers and you can still see the original Kaiser throne. Besides visiting the salt mines, the only thing to do in Goslar is walk the old city, which we did for several hours, while talking and catching up on life the entire time. We talked about American politics, German politics, world politics, life, love, relationships, family, struggles, and dreams...all the typical sisterly stuff...while enveloped in a town 600 years old. We finished our day by enjoying ice cream and watching the Glockenspiel, then chatting the entire train ride back to Gottingen. We took the time to enjoy one last meal together at a local indian restaurant, and then I was able to meet Maria's boyfriend Jens, whose train arrived 5 minutes before mine departed. But before I left...I was able to catch one last shot of Maria and her boyfriend and get one last hug. Hopefully we can meet up again sometime....

Homesickness hits....hard

Wow, it took nearly two months for homesickness to hit but it finally hit me this week...I like hanging out with my friends and family in the states. Exploring cities and meeting new people is wonderful, but sometimes you just long to talk to people that you understand and understand you. Marburg has been my primary destination for several weeks now. When I arrived, part of me hoped to make friends quickly and find people to hang out with. I've found one or two people to talk to, but no one that I can call up and say...hey lets go for a picnic today. Making true friends takes time, and I don't have much of that left. So I'm stuck with two choices, try really really hard to make friends that I will only know for 3 more weeks...or just float through the rest of the period with casual acquitances....I'll probably try a mix of the two.

Part of my problem is that I'm not stable on weekends. I also travel to some excited radical state where I hang out with other radicals. However, I don't linger long enough to make long lasting bonds. :-)

sorry...bad chemistry joke

Anyways...I wanted to write more here but the bus got in the way. Instead, I must head off
to catch the bus...I have much to write about ...and lots of experiences to share...perhaps I will catch up on the bus.

Tchuss!

Research goes and goes and goes...

.....And I fill up the server with 30 jobs at a time.....I feel a little bad about taking up all this space except that

1. I need the space because I have a great amount of calculations to run in a short period of time
2. No one else is using it...I submit jobs like everyone else.

But today I took a short break from submitting 20 jobs (I was using up nearly 25% of the group's server) and decided to play around with some of the structures I made. So here is a picture of 3 molecules I "made" last week....just to prove that I have done some work during my travels.