"...unless you sing."

Since all of my coworkers are going to be in Austria on a working vacation from today until Sunday, I finished work for the week yesterday and am now in the first day of a four day weekend. Leading up to this weekend, I saw this four day period as a tremendous opportunity to travel. I looked into a number of options, but for one reason or another it appeared that my best option would be to see all of the major landmarks in Darmstadt on Thursday, visit and explore Frankfurt on Friday, take a day trip to somewhere else (still to be determined) on Saturday, and see what happens on Sunday.

Because I would not be traveling very early in the morning today, I was able to play six on six soccer with a few of my coworkers and some of their friends last night. Not having played a competitive team sport since the spring of 2006, and not having played competitive soccer for a few years before that, my soccer skills were a little rusty, but things went well overall. I was definitely rusty and made a number of silly mistakes including a hard collision with an opponent (probably still closer to football mode), but I was eventually able to get into the groove and even score a goal. Everyone took the game seriously, but everyone was kind and patient with me and others. I had a lot of fun and look forward to doing this regularly for the duration of my stay.

A few weeks ago on one of my first trips to the city center, I picked up a free guide to the city, "Sights of Darmstadt", which had an indexed map of the city which marked and described in German and English the major landmarks in Darmstadt. My plan was to see as many as time and energy permitted. I ended up walking to around twenty landmarks and took a good number of pictures, so I will try to be as brief as possible.

I started off mid-morning with perfect weather at the Luisenplatz (here), which is considered the center of the city. I then checked out the Hessian State Museum (here and here), but couldn't get in. Next, I went to Herrngarten (here), which was laid out as garden in the 16th century. Right next to the Herrngarten was the Porcelain Collection in Prince Georg Palace, but I did not go inside and instead enjoyed the amazing view (here and here).

After that, it was a fairly long walk to the Waldenspirale, but it was well worth the effort. The Waldenspiral is one of the weirdest buildings I have ever seen and apparently contains 105 apartments. Here, here, and here are a few pictures of the building, the last of which was taken from a nearby parking garage. For a while I tried to find a way onto the roof of the building as it looked like a continuous garden from afar and would provide an excellent view of the city. Eventually, I found one, but I don't believe it was the intended path as it required jumping over two short fences and walking through thick brush (here). Needless to say, after I getting a decent picture from the roof (here), I departed as quickly (and safely) as I could.

I then took a long walk to the Technical University of Darmstadt (here) where I ate lunch in the cafeteria (here). On my way to the House of History (here) which I explored briefly, I snapped a picture of the Darmstatium building (here) where I attended a conference last week. My next stop was the Market Square (here) where I also took a picture of the White Tower (here) which is apparently the landmark of the city center. After that, I checked out the City Church, which is the big red building in this picture. Inside, I chanced across an orchestra practicing (here) and listened out of site for a while. They were very good.

While I had explored many of the cites previously mentioned (I've tried to cut out the details for the sake of brevity), at this point I was losing steam so for the remainder of the sites that will be mentioned, I merely appreciated them from the outside. After the City Church, I went to the Pedagogy (here), and then I checked out the Old City Museum (here) which was neat. Afterward, I stopped by the Jugendstilbad (here) and then the Church of St. Ludwig (here). Keeping with the religious sites, I checked out the New Synagogue (here) which was finished the year I was born. My last stop for exploring the city was the State Theater (here).

On the way home, I stopped by the grocery store in the mall and was pretty much exhausted. My feet hurt, my back and right knee were sore from soccer, and I was hungry. As I was slowly walking through the isles, a song came on the store's loudspeaker, one that I knew very well. It was "Sing" by Travis, and it literally stopped me in my tracks. As I stood there, frozen, listening to the lyrics, a line really struck me. It read, "For the love you bring won't mean a thing unless you sing."The point it made to me was that no matter where I go and no matter how many neat things I see, they will mean nothing if I cannot share them. While I don't know if that was what the singer was going for, I do know that it was a very powerful experience and that I hope to be able to share my experience as much as possible.

"They will see us waving from such great heights."

My day of travel to Köln (Cologne) began at 6:40 AM last Saturday. I ate some breakfast (peanut butter and banana sandwiches), met up with Ola (from the Schlossgrabenfest a few posts ago) at the trolley stop by our apartments, and went to the train station where we were to meet two other North American students who are also participating in the RISE program in Darmstadt. Adam is an electrical engineering student from John Brown University in Arkansas, and Peter is a mechanical engineering student from Mississippi State University. Here is a picture that Ola took later in the day (from left to right) of Adam, myself, and Peter. Since we had time before our first train departed, I walked around the station and took a few pictures. Here, here, and here are pictures of the hauptbahnhof (train station) in Darmstadt.

The train ride was not at all what I expected. In order to get cheap tickets, we agreed to travel on only "local" (or short distance) trains with multiple stops and two transfers along the way. This ended up turneing out nicely as we were able to see, at least briefly, a number of cities along the way. On the way to and from Köln, we transferred trains in Mainz and Koblenz and made a stop in Bonn among other cities. Since we had some (a little) time in Mainz, I ran out into the plaza in front of the hauptbahnhof in order to get some good pictures of the city. Here and here are a couple. Our train was delayed in between Mainz and Koblenz, so we ended up having a window of only a few minutes to find and get to our next train at the Koblenz Hauptbahnhof. Naturally, a dramatic dash through the train station (straight out of Hollywood) ensued, complete with a jump over two girls to the bottom of an escalator (earning an awed "Whoa!" from both) followed by a sprint to the train doors as they were closing. [Don't worry. No animals (or humans) were harmed (or ever in danger) in the making of this adventure.] I had a good laugh when, after several minutes of being in the train and a few past the departure time (still with an accelerated heartbeat), we hadn't yet left the station. Apparently, that train also had delays, so the rush was unnecessary.

The highlight of my trip, perhaps even more than Köln itself which I will get to later, was the German countryside. As our train paralleled the Rhein for much of the trip, I was able to see a number of breathtaking river valleys, beautiful river towns, and impressive castles and monuments. Here, here, and here are pictures of some of the communities we passed along the way. [As a side note, the German government is shutting down a lot of their nuclear reactors which has brought both lavish praise and stern condemnation, making it a big issue in their upcoming elections.] But the castles! Oh the castles! Here, here, here, still here, here, and here are a few of the many pictures I took of them along the Rhein. It would be interesting to learn about the history of each of them and thoroughly explore them, but one can only do so much. I think that I will make a conscious effort to explore at least one castle extensively while I am here. Oh, and did you notice that they farm even on the steep banks of the river valley? Also, is the symbol on this flag on our family crest? In any case, here is a picture of my three companions. They were all very easy to talk to.

When we finally reached Köln (thanks for being a good sport and reading all this), one of the first things we noticed was the Dom, which dominated the skyline (here). Honestly, when I exited the train station (which was right next to the Dom) and first cast my eyes upon the Dom, I was short of breath at the shear immensity of it. Here, here, and here are few pictures. As a little history, the Dom was finished in 1880, and at 157 meters tall, was the tallest building in the world until the Washington Monument surpassed it in 1884. According to Let's Go: Germany, "Today, construction continues to repair the damage wrought by WWII and centuries of pollution, pigeons, and acid rain." So, in honor of the historical nature of the Dom, I had my friends take this picture, so that I could ask the question, "Where's Michael?" in honor of the Where's Waldo? series that I really enjoyed as a child. Were you able to find me?

We toured the inside of the church, and while I did not want to take many inside, here and here are two. Apparently, the Dom houses the remains of the Three Kings (of the Bible), so I definitely took a picture at Shrine of the Magi here. But, perhaps the highlight (no pun intended) of touring the Dom was the 509 stair trip to the top of the south tower and look down at the town below. The stairs were very narrow with no railing on the way up and unfortunately, there was writing all over the walls (here, here, and here). I am really surprised how close they let us get to the edge (here, here, and here)...

In all seriousness, here is a picture of the barrier. The view from the top was great and the weather was perfect. On the way down we stopped in the belfry (here).

After seeing all of the Dom, we traveled to a few other sites in the city: an excavated Roman barracks (here, here, and here) and an excavated Jewish settlement that is one of the oldest in Germany (here). We also walked down to the Rhein and took a few pictures. Here, here, and here are a few.

Eventually, we began our return journey to Darmstadt after a very long day. But, I did manage to take some more photos of the journey, some of which I will share with you here, here, and here; still here, here, and here; and finally here, here, and here. Finally, here and here are some pictures of Mainz, the city where I had my Hollywood adventure.

I am so glad that I was able to visit Köln. More importantly, I am glad that I was able to make a few friends. We will be seeing each other over the summer and going on a lot more adventures. I will forever remember my first serious excursion during my summer in Germany.

"It's a rare condition, this day and age..."

Guten tag!

As I mentioned before, the events of Sunday were definitely the highlight of my weekend. I went to Mass in the morning at Liebfrauen, a Catholic Church here within walking distance of my apartment. Here is a view of the entrance to the church, here is a view of the side of the church, and here is a view of the altar. I ate some lunch on the way back to the room where I messed around for a couple of hours until I left in the mid afternoon for dinner with Regine and her family at her home. As her house is at the opposite end of Darmstadt, it was about a thirty minute trolley ride and fifteen minute walk away which allowed me to see much of the city.

When I arrived, Regine's parents and one of her brothers were approaching the house. Here is a picture of them arriving. After I made my presence known, I was led to the back yard, where I met Regine's husband and their 22 month old son. The whole backyard area was really cool. They had their own well and garden, and the grass was like that of a golf course. Here is a picture of the backyard from the back of the house, and here is a picture of the back of the house from the backyard. Notice the sleepwalking gnome on the roof.

The food they served was wonderful (here and here), but even more so were the people. They were more than willing to share their stories with me and were genuinely interested in my thoughts and opinions. Being around such a warm family at dinner was definitely a taste of home. Both Regine, who is from Germany, and her husband, who is from the Czech Republic, are structural engineers with specialties in steel construction. Her father has been an engineering technician most of his life. Her mother is and expert gardener, but works in a different profession. Regine's brother Frank is in the final year of his "diploma" studies, which is the equivalent to our master's degree. As it turns out, Frank, who is about my age, spent the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 semesters at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, my freshman year! Perhaps he and I may have passed each other on the Quad and not even known it. What a small world!

Here is a picture (from left to right) of Regine's mother, Regine herself, Regine's husband, and Frank, her brother. Here is a picture of Regine's father and her son with the shed for the well in the background. There had been some heavy rain and wind a few days before, so I helped move the shed back into it's original place. Here is a picture of the whole group plus a neighbor girl who spoke Spanish and German. Once again, I got to use Spanish. Perhaps the pervasiveness of Spanish (or any language for that matter) is only visible if one is open to finding and using it. For me, who doesn't speak very much German, Spanish is a welcome respite. And just to share a few more photos, here is a picture of the neighbors' houses, and here is another picture of Regine's son, who by the end finally warmed up to me.

After dinner, I was offered to be dropped off at a trolley station near my apartment. Regine's father drove while Regine's mother, Frank, and myself rode. [As a side note, his experience as an engineering technician has granted him the ability to drive the same Mercedes Benz car for over thirty years, and it is now considered a "historical" vehicle, earning it a special license plate. Here is a picture of it.] And to top things off, Frank showed me which trolley to take back to my apartment and also offered to hang out during while I in Darmstadt.

The whole family was so nice. I am extremely grateful for their generosity and openness. I will be sure to do the same if someone, especially one from another culture or country, visits me. Like I said before, my experience this Sunday has been, on a personal level, the highlight of my trip.

Among other things, it appears that I will be visiting the city of Köln tommorow with a few of the North American students who are also working in Darmstadt through the RISE program. As this will be my first trip within Germany, I am very excited to see how this goes. I'll be sure to keep you posted!

"The boulevard is not that bad."

Hello everyone.

Last Friday after work I went to the Schlossgrabenfest, a free music festival here in Darmstadt. Since I went so early in the evening, there wasn't yet much of a crowd so it wasn't all that interesting, but on the upside I was able to take some pictures (of a really cool building here, for example), eat dinner, and pick up groceries.

After sleeping in on Saturday, I went running in the forest which is right next to campus (seen in the distance here). As it had rained a few hours earlier and was nice and cool, I was flying. For better or worse, I did not bring a watch or a compass with me, so after a while (although I still felt good), I realized that I had lost my sense of direction and had no idea how long I had been running. So, I stopped in order to get my bearings, only to realize that I still had no idea where I was and that I was actually pretty tired. But, I had no choice but to keep moving (albeit at a slower pace) in the hopes of running into someone who could give me directions. Eventually, I chanced across an elderly German couple and was able to ascertain the general direction of campus. I made it back to my room, ate some lunch, and did my laundry.

By the time I had finished those activities, the time was drawing near for me to head to the trolley stop at Schloss where I was to meet another North American student (who is working in Darmstadt through the RISE program) and her coworkers and go once again to the Schlossgrabenfest. While I was waiting for the others to arrive, I ate dinner a place called "Ye Babam Ye", but I am not really sure of what ethnicity it was. For my meal, I ordered something (I can't remember the name exactly, but the picture of it is here) and it was delicious! Here is a picture of one of the workers preparing it for me.

Unlike the department I am working in where everyone is German and therefore primarily speaks German, Ola's (my North American counterpart's) department has individuals from Italy, France, Iran, and China in addition to Germany. Because of their diversity, the common language was English, which was extremely convenient for me. Here is a shot of some of the group. I failed to get one of everybody, but you live and learn, I guess. In any case, they were warm to me and were and fun group to be around despite the short period of rain (here and here). We listened to a few bands, the best of which was a German-Reggae group that played a number of fun songs including covers of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal", U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday", Bob Marley, and The Killers. Also, I had my first Mojito (in honor of my days as a vice cop in Miami) from a Brazilian beverage hut, and once again needed to use Spanish to sort things out.

Overall, I had a very good Saturday, but the highlight of my weekend occurred on Sunday which will be described in the following post. Until then, tschüs!

"Asking only workman's wages..."

Hallo damen und herren!

As I have now finished my first week in Germany, I thought that I'd get you up to speed with what has been happening thus far and what will be happening in the near future. First of all, the people at the Institute for Steel Construction and Materials Mechanics are great. Throughout the learning process, they have been nothing but patient and kind to me.

It just so happens that the lead professor at the Institute turned 50 the previous weekend, so he put on a lunch for all the members of the department on Monday. Here is a picture of the food spread (in honor of you, Mom), and here is a picture of some of people in the department at the party. While I am at it, here is a picture of an office that I share with an especially nice individual in the department.

And the research itself is going well. I can now do the entire testing without assistance. I work in two different buildings: the main building which houses the department (here), and the lab (here) where I do my testing. My lab is the room to the right of the door. Here is a picture of me at work in the lab, and here, here, and here are some shots of the equipment with which I am working.

This weekend there is a big (and free) music festival here in Darmstadt. Tomorrow night I will be meeting up with one of my North American counterparts and her friends, so that should be pretty fun. On Sunday I will be going to a barbecue at the house of the PhD student for whom I do research. Much of her family will be there. I wonder how it will compare to a Hubbard reunion! I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Life is good.

“The Atlantic was born today and I’ll tell you how.” - Part II

After talking with Regine (who speaks very good English) on the payphone, she picked me up in about fifteen minutes and drove me to my dormitory apartment, which is very near to my place of work (on the campus of TU Darmstadt) and a trolley station. Also near my apartment are a swimming pool, stadium, and some open fields. Regine had warned me via email that the apartment would be small (and indeed it is), but upon entering and seeing it for myself, I tried to keep a positive attitude despite the small quarters in addition to the dirt, dust, hair, and insects (dead and alive) that were on the floor, in the cabinets, in the sink, and on the wall. One of the first things I did was to check the Internet to see if it worked but it did not, and as I had arrived on a Saturday, I would be unable to seek help with it until Monday. At that, we left together so that Regine could show me how to get to the trolley and to the city center, where to buy groceries, and how (and when) to get to Church. Despite being with someone who could understand what I was saying and was there to help me out, walking through the city under the bright sun, already emotionally and physically exhausted, was pretty overwhelming, and my upset stomach hadn’t yet left me.

After about an hour of being shown about the city, we parted ways at a mall in the city center. If Regine and her family wouldn’t have had a very important party to go to shortly thereafter, I wouldn’t have been left so soon. But, circumstances were what they were, and there were a few things I had to take care of before I could return to my room. It was now Saturday afternoon in Darmstadt, and my last substantial meal had been on Thursday night at Sam and Marcy’s, so I was extremely hungry. I found a Chinese place in the mall and ordered the only thing on the menu with the German word for chicken on it that looked remotely good. Apparently, I agreed to purchase an alcoholic beverage with my meal which probably served to dehydrate me more. In any case, after eating my less than satisfying meal, I went to the grocery store (also in the mall) and tried to purchase enough bread, peanut butter (made in the USA!), jelly, and bananas to provide dinner for that night and breakfast for the next morning. I also bought a few newspapers for the construction of my curtains.

So I left the mall, and went to the trolley stop carrying my awkward grocery bag. I tried to purchase a trolley ticket from a machine, but as this machine was different from what I was shown earlier and as it was entirely in German, I had no idea which ticket to buy or how to buy one. When a line would build up behind me, I would act finished and casually linger until there was no one else working on the machine only to resume my increasingly frustrating efforts. But, eventually I made it back to the room only to be confronted by the difficulties that awaited me there.

When I arrived, I cleaned off all the shelves and put away all my things. For some reason, when I found that my power adapter for my laptop, shaver, and camera would not work in the room, all of the emotion that I had been holding back the entire time came forth, so I heavily cried. It didn’t take too long, however, to distract myself in the work of creating my curtains. After that was completed, I took a warm shower (which felt awesome) and proceed to make myself dinner. Between the time I took a shower and the time when I went to bed, at various times for different reasons my emotional composure would break down and I would heavily cry. None of these breakdowns lasted more than thirty seconds at a time, but with every breakdown I knew that it was more and more important for me to get to sleep as I was in no state to fully consider what lay behind or before me.

I went to sleep somewhat hungry at 6:00 PM local time while it was still daylight and slept until 8:00 AM the next morning. I ate breakfast and began to write about transition from the United States to Germany. Perhaps because I was still tired or perhaps it was too soon to a traumatic experience, but I almost lost my emotional composure as I had done the day earlier. So I distracted myself in my search for the church and found it in due time, praying for the virtues necessary to get me through everything all the while. After Mass, I headed to the city center (which came with its own set of difficulties) to find a substantial meal and chanced across a Chicken House. Even though I am sure now that the meal was terrible, it was one of the best I had tasted in a while. After getting a solid meal in me, things really started turning themselves around. I wouldn’t say that I was a completely different person or that there haven’t been further difficulties, but things would from that point only get better. The sights and sounds weren’t quite so daunting and my challenges weren’t nearly as difficult. I was able to walk through the city without any plan to where I was going. Eventually, I made it back to my apartment and ate the last of my bananas (for peanut butter sandwiches) and went to sleep again early. My first weekend in Germany was over.

I know that this post and the one prior to it have mostly been doom and gloom, but for the first 48 hours in Germany, my experience was mostly and significantly negative. I don’t want you to think that things haven’t improved at all – they absolutely have. Seriously, things are going amazingly well right now. After experiencing my first couple of days of work, meeting my excellent coworkers, getting a regular eating and sleeping schedule, and walking through the city on my own, I can honestly say that I now have complete comfort getting to everywhere in the city that I need to go. But I hope that my current comfort and happiness is due to more than simply knowing how to go everywhere in the city that I need to, because in life you can never know everywhere that you need to go. I hope that my experiences the last few days, the good and the bad, will have helped me to grow and to learn about myself and the world around me. I know that things won’t always be easy from here on out and that that I will face hardships and shortcomings further down the road, but I can honestly say that I am now better prepared to face them. I look forward to seeing where my experiences take me. Now, it is “full speed ahead!”

“The Atlantic was born today and I’ll tell you how.” - Part I

[NOTE: I am very sorry about the delayed post regarding my arrival in Germany. I have had loads of Internet / computer problems which should (hopefully) soon be done for good. Pictures will be added when time is available.]

Where to begin? I guess where I left off. Mom, Dad, and I made it to Chicago in plenty of time despite the bad weather. After checking in my luggage, the line to get past security was rapidly growing, so it was time for me to depart from my parents. I tried not to show any outward sadness at our departure, but when my parents started to cry, so did I. After quickly gaining my composure, I made it through the rest of the events at O’Hare uneventfully and boarded the plane, which left at 3:45 PM CST. My plans for the flight were to listen to music, study German, and sleep. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do much at all of the latter two, but the flight still went relatively quickly. Surprisingly, although I felt some excitement listening to various songs and thinking about what was ahead of me, my primary sensation for much of the flight was an upset stomach which actually wasn’t that bad. I am not sure if I lacked emotion because I was numbing myself in preparation for things to come or because I felt that things would work out one way or another.

In any case, I arrived in Frankfurt at 11:55 PM CST. My plans for Frankfurt were as follows: pick up my luggage, find the bus station, and take a bus to Darmstadt.

Having landed in Germany, without a cell phone and not really knowing any of the language, I was pretty tense, and every step I took brought me further away from my family and friends and further into the uncomfortable unknown. I found and picked up my luggage with no problem and proceeded to find the bus station also with no problem. Finding the correct bus was a different story entirely, however. There was no central information desk or attendant at the bus station, and the bus station was almost completely empty, so it up to me to read the signs and figure things out. But, since I was unable to do this even with the help of a German-English dictionary, I sought the help of a young German family, some of the only people around, but they didn’t speak any English whatsoever. They were, after much effort, able to tell me to wait for a certain bus that would arrive in several minutes and take me where I needed to go. Upon boarding the bus, I asked the Greek bus driver (just to be safe) if this bus would take me to Darmstadt, and he informed me that I had boarded the wrong bus (although I had followed the family’s instructions accurately). The driver told me to look for a specific bus at a different stop, so I set out in search of the new stop.

As I was unable to find this new stop, I sought the assistance of a nearby (and different) bus driver and got absolutely nowhere with him. Prior to my not-really-a-conversation with the second bus driver, I felt that I had achieved at least the illusion of understanding in each of my previous conversations. After several failed attempts to make my needs known to the second bus driver, he left me abruptly in frustration. I was completely alone. Throughout all of my previous encounters at the bus station, my nervousness had been building, so eventually I was cursing myself for not having the discipline to learn at least the most basic of German before I arrived, the government for not having a better organized transportation system, and the German people for not knowing English. I wanted to go home but knew that I shouldn’t. I couldn’t let myself fail so completely this early in the journey. I mostly just wanted to escape, from my situation, from my feelings, and from my inadequacies, but I couldn’t.

So I just kept moving forward and happened across the place I believed that I was supposed to be, but I could never be too sure. There was no bus to be seen and no visible markings denoting Darmstadt but I waited anyway, sitting on a bench at an empty outdoor McDonalds. An old man sat on a bench next to me and I (vainly, I thought) asked him if he knew where the bus was going in my best German (after my English failed) and he told me that the bus went to Darmstadt. I was very relieved and put a lot of faith that the old man understood me and knew what was going on. I don’t know how I would have felt or what I would have done if he had not been completely right, but he was (and thank God). All told, my search for the correct bus took an hour and a half.

The bus ride from Frankfurt to Darmstadt was obviously encouraging, and I took the thirty minute bus ride to snap pictures of the countryside. The plan for once I had arrived in Darmstadt was to call Regine Schneider, my PhD supervisor from the transit station, from where she would pick me up in fifteen minutes after my call. Luckily, the bus had taken me to the desired place and luckily the facility had a central information desk. While the attendant did not speak any English, one of her friend coworkers did speak Spanish, so I was able to get the information I needed to get to right place in the facility and use the payphone correctly. Who would have thought that I would have used Spanish in Germany for information? Based upon that short exchange, I decided that working in a Spanish-speaking country would have been a hell of a lot easier for me, but it was a little late for that. Mostly I was thankful to be able to get a hold of Regine. The whole day thus far seemed to be an exhausting, emotional roller coaster of highs and lows, but my day was far from over and many more set-backs and triumphs would follow....