"'Cause all you really need are a few good friends."

While almost all of my days in Germany have been very good, yesterday was unexpectedly and especially great. I was nearing the completion of my first test of the day when all of the sudden the machine I was working with made a loud and sudden "REEEEEER". As I had never heard that noise before, and since was extremely startling/scary, I immediately shut down the test. Apparently the steel specimen I was testing had snapped, so I knew that I had done the right thing in shutting down the test immediately, but I was still worried that I had done something to damage the machine. In the end, after checking things over with my advisor, I had done everything right and nothing was damaged. Actually, this development was very exciting for the overall research for two reasons: one, the important part of the steel specimen was not damaged in the breaking so the molecular characteristics could still be studied; and two, since the goal of this research is to reevaluate, and if necessary improve, the existing European fire code for buildings, the premature failure of this steel brings up a number of issues which will need to be addressed.

Yesterday afternoon I was invited to a celebration by one of the PhD students at the office with whom I get along well. He turned in his PhD dissertation yesterday and also signed a contract for a good job in Darmstadt yesterday, so he and his coworker friends were going out for dinner and drinks that night. We went to Grohe, a place here in town that makes its own beer, apparently the best in all of Hessen, and sat in a courtyard next to the brewery. The weather was very nice, and the food and drink were quite good, but the company was even better. Here, here, here, here, and here are some pictures I took of the group throughout the evening. The young man in the second picture was the one for whom we were celebrating. He has been really nice to me during my time here and I was honored to be invited. I should remember to do likewise.

As an example of how random and interesting things are here, as I was typing this post out in my office, a student stopped by looking for the German with whom I share an office, and we ended up introducing ourselves for a few minutes. Sasha is originally from Uzbekistan but has been living in Germany for the last twelve years and has gained German citizenship. He is studying civil engineering. His great grandfather was a civil engineer, but his grandfather and his parents are teachers, so he has it in his "blood, but far removed." We wished each other luck and parted ways.

And among other things, this evening Germany is playing Turkey in the semifinals of the European Championships. Since Germany has such a large Turkish population, and since this is such an important match, everyone is very excited. I think that I will head down to the city center tonight and catch a little of the spirit.

UPDATE: I can't believe that I forgot to mention that throughout the night I spoke almost exclusively Spanish with two of the people at the celebration. (This never ceases to surprise me.) One was from Bolivia and the other was from Frankfurt, Germany. I must admit that I got a little pleasure knowing that I could speak a language most at the table could not. It was a nice change from the usual situation. Plus, I think I got props from my coworkers for speaking a language other than English. Anyway, I am off to the city center to get dinner and experience the spirit of the match. I hope the weather turns out alright. It looks like it could be pretty nasty.