...is starting to get into the swing of it.

This week in Regensburg definitely had more ups than downs. Wednesday night I went over to a friend's place for dinner and after we headed downtown to catch a show at one of the bars. I have to admit a bit of nostalgia of Kingston when I was there but I had a great time that evening. The concert was also good.

Friday I was out to dinner with a few people to celebrate Kate (my first language exchange partner here) passing her Masters in Law. She picked a pretty nice Bavarian style place for dinner and they served a kind of Schweinhaxe -- I think it was from a younger pig because they were a bit smaller but we got two of them. Delicious. Dessert was a comedy of errors -- it seems that in reserving the table, Kate had mentioned that she would want dessert. When the waiter came, she was going to order two apple strudels for her and a friend and the waiter was surprised -- he told her that the chef had actually prepared a special dessert. So everyone had a large piece of apple cake, topped with vanilla sauce and whipped cream.

..is sure that Germans celebrate Easter well.

But I wouldn't know. Instead, it was off to Jolly Old England for me to celebrate with the Marks. I was there from Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon and I think I can sum up pretty much every day:

1) Get up and play with Leo.

2) Eat breakfast and have a cup of coffee.

3) Drive somewhere and hike.

4) Eat/return/relax.

5) BBQ something delicious and eat more.

6) Relax with a bottle of wine in the evening.

It's pretty awesome to see the little hosenscheißer grow. He has a super sweet accent and is very conversational. I guess I should fill in the details of step 3) -- first day it was off to the Lakes Districts (snow? seriously? Thanks to Katie for the heads up on the weather). Second day it was Liverpool. (Okay, maybe not hiking so much as walking around but you get it.) Third day was Tatton Castle. And the last day was just around the neighbourhood.

England is one of those places that I can't see myself living in but I love visiting. Maybe it's the Dr Who influence. (Red Dwarf fans -- Leo sounds just like Lister. Evidently I can't tell apart accents from Liverpool and Manchester.)

...is resting this weekend.

The DPG (I'm referring to the week-long conference of the German Physicist's Society) is over. It was rather intense. This wasn't even the entire DPG represented -- only the Condensed Matter (e.g. lasers, surfaces, magnetism, etc.) section -- but the DPG is evidently the world's largest (and longest) Physicist's society, and so maybe it was no surprise that some of the biggest labs in our field were represented. I know I alluded to it last post but it was something else to get to talk with the people who actually perform some of these cutting-edge experiments.

I gave two presentations and one lab tour that I'll mention: one presentation was on my work and one on another fellow's work. My presentation could best be described as making lemonade out of lemons. I think it went well, given that what I really wanted was more data. The other presentation was okay but it's a bit strange to give a presentation you haven't prepared. Things aren't organized as you would have. The lab tour was to the Bennewitz group and that was very helpful. I met Roland when he was a prof in Canada at McGill and it was nice to get a third-party opinion about some of the problems that might be plaguing my current experiment. (It remains to be seen if I can implement these solutions.)

And implement them in a little under four working days. Thanks, Easter! Almost everyone is taking some holidays around this time because we get both the Friday and the Monday off. I'm already looking forward to it but I'll try to be a good postdoc and keep working hard for these four last days...

...needs a pair.

Seriously, that was my second bierfest (second? I think...) and there I was, in jeans. Not cool for someone in Bayern. Even four of the girls at our table were wearing lederhosen! Soon after sitting down, one of them leaned over and warned me that the beer is quite strong. (I told her not to worry -- that I'm Canadian, and thus can hold my drink.) For the beer aficionatos, my wikipedia research has lead me to conclude that starkbier is the same as bockbier. From personal inquiries, bockbier is a type of starkbier. Regardless, go lent go!

This last week was another frustrating one at work. It involved some things at the end of their duty cycle breaking and then some confusing things that inhibited us from cleaning our sample. In theory, the experiment I want to do is quite simple. This just added to the overall frustration. In fact, there's only one thing saving my sanity. For over a year I watched one of my friends, who is a better experimental scientist than I am, wrestle over a similar problem. He ended up solving it and wrote a beautiful thesis. Clearly intelligent people sometimes get screwed over by vacuum systems. But I'll have something ready for this conference. On a brighter note, I'm really looking forward to the conference. Bennewitz et al. will be there, and Leonard Grill is giving an invited talk. :) Good timing too. I need to be reminded why I love it here.

And, in case the picture wasn't telling enough, I took this beautiful day off life to clean my place. While I like my place, I love it when it's clean. And I think I'm going to try to enjoy the last hours of daylight in beautiful Regensburg, walking around the old part of the city. Servus!

...knew the weekend was going to be good Friday evening.

Dinner on Friday night was in a tavern in a small town. I was with Matthias and Tom, who had headed out of Regenburg to visit their hometowns. When we dropped Tom off, his father suggested we grab dinner near their place. There was a group of guys playing cards at the large central table and the waitress, dressed in a typical Bavarian outfit, had come over to get our drink order. Everyone else ordered and I was furiously scanning the beer list, trying to decide which would be best when she piped up, "Bock bier?" Bock beer wasn't on the menu. But with happy eyes I turned to her, "ja, bitte!" She said something that my friends later translated as, "yah, you looked like you wanted the bock." The rest of the weekend followed suit.

I can't really recap the whole weekend. I visited another Bauerndisco (perhaps the most similar English translation would be redneck bar), enjoyed a (n almost) traditional Weisswurst breakfast, saw Salzburg, went skiing in the Austrian alps, drove on an autobahn, and ate wiener schnitzel.

The Alps were definitely the coolest part. I have to admit that I had more adrenaline in my body that day than I have had in months. I have never skiied in anything like them (i.e. Blue Mountain in Ontario is nothing like Saalbach).

And I really have to thank the Emmrich's for their hospitality. Not only was the house really nice, the home cooked food was delicious and the red wine didn't stop.

...has had too much to write about.

And instead of operating like water, in which an increase in pressure differential would cause an increase in velocity through a pipe of a fixed diameter, I have operated more like waste at the bottom of a kitchen sink (clogging and not writing anything).

Last Friday I held another party (A). This one was much more low-key but I still had fun. When it was done (super early -- 1am), one of my friends and I decided to head out to a club -- Suite 15 (B). This place I think I've written about before but in short, it's cool because it's in the basement of what used to be a monastery. From there we met a guy who told us he could take us to an afterparty... which ended up being a bar that was closed (C). :P Okay, not to worry, he took us to another place... which ended up being the shittiest bar in Regensburg (D). Awesome. And I now have a membership there!

This week has been a full week of putting together presentations, volleyball, some climbing, and a fun dinner party on Wednesday. Oh, and I almost forgot my sweetest purchase of the week -- a new washing machine! Not only is this going to revolutionize my lifestyle (no more laundromat), I think it'll have positive benefits on my hygene. Who would have thought I'd be so hyped by a waschmachine, but there you have it. I have to thank Matthias for driving me around AND hauling it up the four flights of stairs (with Toby) to my flat. I don't know how I managed to escape that.

...really enjoyed Nürnberg.

At noon on Saturday, our train stopped again. It had taken off about a half hour late, and wasn't making up lost time very well. This was one of those moments that, back home, would be at least boring and probably very annoying. Here, it was an opportunity for me to reflect on where I was. Briefly, I was on the train to Nürnberg. Thanks to the 28EUR Bayern-Ticket, which is a ticket that covers up to five people anywhere in Bavaria (and a little further), I was loosely affiliated with four others on the train: one girl studying in Munich who was up for the weekend; a second girl, studying in Regensburg, going to play handball near Nürnberg; the fellow who had found us all; and a fourth fellow who was in the nearby section, along with the other healthily-imbibed fans, off to watch the fußball match. (The match ended up being a notable one -- the underdogs, FC Nürnberg, ended a 13 game wining streak of Bayern München.)

I didn't know what to expect but Nürnberg ended up to be a great spot for a day-trip. What struck me most about this city was that it was so unexpectedly pretty -- I mean, mention Nürnberg to anyone outside Germany and the first thing they think of are the trials. I learned that it's also infamous as a favourite city of Hiter, and was the location of some major Nazi parties (or whatever the correct historial term is, propaganda fests?). Most of the city was flattened by Allied bombing, but the old city centre was thankfully spared.

The pedestrian area starts at the train station and leads around up to the river. It's not far to the castle on the north of the river, which itself was conveniently close to a little brewery -- Hausbrauerei Altstadthof. This place makes not only their own beer, but their own beer-liquor as well. The rouge and the wheat beer were my favourites -- the helles was fine, and the dark beer was a dark beer, but nothing to write home about. (A note to beer-drinkers visiting: there is another brewery near the Hauptbahnhof that is much larger and looks more touristy. Beer is worse there.) Needless to say, I have fond memories of olde Euro architecture and beer, so I think I'll end up seeing Nürnberg again.

...finally had one of THOSE nights

You know what I mean. The kind where you go to some shitty ass bar (maybe Grad Club) and see some crazy local band (in Canada, Sleepless Nights or that band from Burlington which I love but can't remember), talk with friends and meet some girl and get her number. When I initially went out tonight, I thought it was to a party. Then I met up with my friend in front of a cinema (what the hell do we call them in Canada... movie theatres?) and she told me that she'd rather go to this bar that's attached to the cinema where her boss is playing a concert. I can't tell you how funny it was -- for one of the songs, I was personally serenaded (that means he sat on my lap and sang to me).

So nice night. And here's the kicker -- we get the morning off tomorrow. How sweet is that? Actually, tomorrow's a half day -- I'll take the morning off, thanks :)

p.s. While the thought has crossed my mind to edit this drunken post, I don't think I'm going to bother. Instead I just want to add this link to it. I do read QC but this one seemed so appropriate for last night.

...already has the second one planned.

Last night I hosted a housewarming party. Things started at 8 and the first guest rolled in soon after that. I had people from my German course, people I work with, and then some people I've met around Regensburg. Franz ended up coming as well for a few hours and I think he, like most guests, had a good time.

It's hard to recap a party but Franz ended up doing a head count at one point. I think there were approximately 25 people who came by at one point in time. 3 cases of beer (20 x 0.5L per case) were consumed, so on average a little under 3 pints per person. One of the guys there had just finished his diploma thesis and, knowing his penchant for Islay, I supplied a bottle of Laphroaig. That was, to my pleasant surprise, enjoyed by quite a few of us. Maybe an average of 1 oz per person? The last three to leave included one who was almost asleep, at the reasonable time of 3:30am.

I have a small stack of dishes to wash, a box of donations from my boss for my new place, and a few new bottles of wine. In the box was a cheese cutter. I'm thinking of a February wine and cheese.

p.s. I have no idea why comments are not working. Perhaps a reason to use blogspot if you're going to create a blog.

...is one step closer to having a real apartment.

Right, so ignoring the multiple objects I seem to have managed to break at work, the week's been going alright. Today I took the monumental step forward of ordering internet for my place. I'm going with a cable company, and they'll have to change my current outlet -- with plugs for TV and radio -- to an outlet with an additional plug for internet. Hopefully it'll go smoothly. I'm sure I'll have to interact with someone who speaks no English for the installation. Otherwise, where would the fun be?

This would leave only a sofa and washing machine left on the list of things to acquire (as part of my New Years Resolutions). I was going to order a sofa from Ikea but it's going to take them 3 weeks to deliver it (yah, right). As for a washing machine, my aunt gave me interesting advice -- don't get one. Paraphrasing her, I need all the help I can meeting girls, and I'm more likely to meet one at a laundromat than I am washing my clothes in my bathroom.

p.s. As of now, I successfully made the appointment for the technician to come next week and do the installation. Seriously, who phones at 8am?

...is back in Bavaria

I was invited to dinner in celebration of a friend's birthday last night. Out of the eight of us, there were two Russians, one Kazakhstanian, one Slovakian, one Czech, one German and one Canadian (I didn't catch where one person was from). The lingua franca was German and I found myself able to understand more than I expected to. An interesting cultural note is that the birthday girl paid for everyone's dinner (including drinks) and supplied cakes.

Back in the lab, I get a few days rest while we wait for parts. Thursday we'll open the chamber again and hopefully next week I'll get to start with the experiments whose results I am to discuss at the annual DPG (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft -- Germany's CAP) meeting in March. Nothing like a little fire under your butt to make time fly. Of course, I say a few days rest but what I really mean is that instead of sitting in front of a microscope, I'm trying to help some of the other projects going on here.

Finally, I've been doing some jogging since I got back. Thanks to my father, I'm prepared for mild-winter jogging conditions like we have here. I'm going to say (unscientifically) that exercise does help getting over jet lag. It also helped me realize how bad my cardio is these day.

...is almost at the end of an intense vacation.

When I was in Prague, one of my friends told me that it seemed I just wanted to experience all that I could of what was around me. I think that was reasonable of me -- at the time, I didn't know when I would be back in Europe and so I went out often, visited as many cities as I could, and tried a lot of different food.

This describes my Christmas vacation here in Canada. I don't know when I'll be back and I've tried to meet up with many of my good friends and family. I think I've single-handedly put over 1500km on the car making multiple trips from Toronto to Kingston and South Dundas county.

Along with an awesome Christmas dinner here at home, my family hosted a euchre tournament over here, celebrated an uncle's birthday, and made it up to one of our aunt's farm to visit family. In Ktown, we had another KRIPES-fest (the nanoPhysics group at Queen's) over at Alastair's house, and rocked New Years Eve at the Grizz. (Thanks to BMD and Kat for putting me up.) Of course, I couldn't be back in Canada and not get some time in the saddle. Somehow I managed to fit in seven rides on Future (yay Leigh) AND even got to try my hand driving a two horse open sleigh (big ups to Alison on that one). It's been a great vacation.