...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.