...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.