And we're off!

As of yesterday I survived my two month stint in the CPI group at Imtek. It was a fun time and great to meet and work with everyone there! Now I'm off to Venice (and have arrived in Venice!), Florence and Nice. Back to the states on the 7th.

As a going away party I made/brought some traditional American food for the group.
-Made brownies (Very well enjoyed)
-Made PB&J (Somewhat enjoyed)
-Brought marshmallows (Almost enjoyed)
-Brought Oreos (Not enjoyed)

Freiburg Movies

The CPI (Chemistry and Physics of Interfaces) group, my group, at Imtek decided to go see the highly acclaimed movie Inception. As some of the group does not speak German we decided to see it in its original version, English. After making dinner with Pandi, I decided we would have brinner (Breakfast/Dinner) with hashbrowns and one eyed sailors we made our way to the movie theater. After meeting everyone and buying tickets we had time to spare and did what any German does with spare time, went to drink a beer. We went to the BierHaus, which is the first place I have been that has a large selection of beers. They had ales, lagers, stouts, porters, pils, weissbier and more from all over the world! I had a lager from Munich which was quite tasty. We then went to the movie. After sitting through the German previews, something that made a few of us quite nervous about the language of the movie, it began. For those of you who haven't seen the movie, the first scene is in Chinese with subtitles. In this showing of the "original" version, those subtitles were in German... A few of us got very nervous. However once the movie began the dialogue was in the original English. It's quite interesting that even in its supposedly original state in a showing for people who must speak English, the subtitles were German. It was also interesting to discuss with Pandi that most American movies shown in Germany will be dubbed, while when foreign films come to the US they are very often just subtitled to keep the original feeling and voices. I suppose since so many movies come from the US it makes some sense but I wonder how much changes with the out of sync lips and different voices. The movie was excellent and we all had a very good time.

Frankfurt

I had my first day off of work! At Paly, my high school, during my junior year we had 3 German students at our school. After the first semester one of them left as her program was over but the other 2, Annika and Jeannette, were in a different program and stayed for the year and became friends with me and my group of friends. So I decided that I would take Friday off and go to visit them. We met Thursday night in Annika's home town of Frankfurt. They met me at the train station in Frankfurt and after hugs and lots of smiles we went to the store and bought and made dinner. After a late dinner (it was almost midnight by the time we were done) we went pretty much straight to bed. The entire weekend was very relaxed, I don't think we left the house before 11 any day. Friday we spent the afternoon lounging around next to the Mine river and then ventured into downtown. We met one of Annika's friends dads who owned an Italian wine and vinegar store and got to try some incredible vinegar. I was also informed that I look Italian to go along with American and German. We then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at a cafe. In the evening the three of us and Annika's older sister went to a park overlooking the incredible Frankfurt skyline. Saturday we went to Hessenpark, an outdoor museum of old buildings from the region and had a very relaxed day wandering and having multiple picnics. One of the most interesting buildings for me was an old synagogue that had been rebuilt. That evening we went again to downtown and had some traditional Frankfurt food. Annika was peer pressured into having pig knuckle and the rest of us had apple beer and pork with green sauce. After dinner we had an interesting conversation with a drunk guy who was having his bachelor party. For the party they walk around and sell small things like alcohol to raise money for the wedding. He informed me I looked Greek, nationality 4, and was all around hilarious and drunk. Later that night we met Annika's friends at a cocktail bar, I had my first martini, dry, and spent the evening at her place. Sunday was spent at a botanical garden and Annika's grandmother's house with Annika's friend Clara. After a very fast dinner and some sad goodbyes I caught a late train home after one of the best weekends so far in Germany.

Basel

One of the things I wanted to do before I left Germany was visit Switzerland. As it's only an hour away this was fairly feasible and so I got to visit the 3rd country of this trip. Here are some highlights of our slightly rainy but nonetheless fun trip.

1) Old Buildings, Old Streets- The buildings in Basel are all very old and very impressive. On top of this they are all fit into streets that are very narrow (except for the main streets). Most of these streets are not made for cars and often are steep enough to even have stairs between the buildings. I am somewhat interested in how they made it work inside the buildings or if inside everyone's house is just slanted...

2) Stuff Is Expensive- Before we arrived I had been warned by the Pruckers that everything in Basel, and Switzerland in general, is very expensive. I did not find this to be the case overall so much. Most stuff was possibly a bit more expensive than in Germany, and this was compounded by the Swiss Franc being roughly equal to the US Dollar and therefore a bigger number than in Euros. However some things were very expensive. For example at the doll house museum there was a teddy bear, a very small teddy bear, maybe 4 inches tall, that was even raggedy looking, that cost $500. I don't know what this teddy bear could do, presumably make me breakfast and do my homework, but for 500 bucks it better be damn impressive. Similarly, there were some very impressively priced watches as is expected in Switzerland. And then there were some incomprhensibly priced watches. The most expensive one I found (and yes I did quite a bit of window hunting) was listed at $13999. And no that's not a typo. This watch cost more than some new cars!?!? How could this be. It looked cool I guess, and expensive and classy and all that, but it tells time, and thats all! I don't even know if it was waterproof... Maybe the trick is that it opens up into a transformer and can save the world from bad guys I don't know but there must be something quite stupendous going on with this watch and one day I'm going to find out what!

3) The Bathrooms Look Like Banks- After touring the cathedral we took a quick family pit stop. One of the things Switzerland is famous for other than chocolate, watches and knives is their banks. Apparently they model their public bathrooms after their banks as well. After showing proper identification (a Franc) the door to the vault/bathroom unlocks and you may enter. The door to this vault appears to be solid metal 3 inches thick with a steel handle. The inside as well looked somewhat like a vault with much of it being made of steel. Despite all of these security features we found a way to break in, simply by pulling on the handle... The door opened and the entire family was able to use the bathroom free of charge. Hopefully though similar in looks the banks would have somewhat better security.

Beer List

I figure I should document all of the different beers I have tried over my time here.
Mom don't read this one!

-Rothaus Pils
-Fürstenburg Pils
-Fürstenburg Wheat Beer
-Freiburger Pils
-Waldhaus Pils
-Waldhaus Wheat Beer
-Becks Pils


Radler (Lemonade and Pils)
Wheat Beer and Coke
Also I have had various flavored beers including lemon, orange, and grapefruit.

Wutach

After a very fun road ride with the Merdingen guys on Saturday the Prucker family and I spent Sunday hiking through the Wutach area of the Schwarzwald. The plan was to drive to a special bus stop and take a bus to the far end of this 10ish mile trail and then hike back to the car. It rained on and off on the drive to the bus stop. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 10:30 and we arrived at 10:31 (the next bus was not until 11:30), but luck was on our side and the bus was still around. Claudia jumped out of the car and ran to the bus as the driver was closing the doors and then an odd phenomenon occured, the driver actually opened the doors, let us on, and even gave me the family discount as part of the Prucker family. As it had been raining, it was a very muddy hike. We were constantly slipping, sliding, and even climbing the sides of cliffs to avoid the mud. We lunched at an old chapel along the way which conveniently coincided with one of the two geocaches we found that day. Turns out Ossi has a built in GPS and didn't even need the coordinates to quickly find the cache. Towards the end of the hike it began to rain, after a brief spell it dried itself out and our hike ended with one more geocache and a Rothaus pils.

The 3rd B

Turns out this blog has been misnamed. I have missed the 3rd B, Bikes! So far after 1 month in Germany I am now up to 3 bikes and am working on my 4th. All of these have been borrowed. The first bike is my commuter, a mid 90's black Cannondale road bike with beefy tires that was borrowed and fixed up from the neighbors basement. The second is my "racing bike" something old and red with Campy shifters and what look like some of the early attempts of aero wheels. This bike was borrowed from a different neighbor, the coach of a local youth team, who in 1990 used it as a state of the art racing machine, and now uses it as his rain bike. The third bike that I have is borrowed from a friend of Ossi's friend. It is a much newer Cannondale road bike and would be my nicer bike, but is just too big for me and so it sits in the garage looking sad. The final bike is a mountain bike that I borrowed from one of the other people here at the University while I was riding with him. It is a titanium Kona, something fairly rare.
Over the past month I have done many different rides by myself and with a group as well as the Schauinslandkönig race.
-My first few rides were by myself in the Tuniberg, a small hill (or huge mountain if you ask Ossi) of about 300m between Merdingen and Freiburg. My Tuniberg ride usually involves starting at the bottom and riding up to the top surprisingly enough. The tricky part of this is that I do it multiple times. Generally I start in Merdingen and to the top of the Tuniberg. I then continue through the vineyards attempting to get hopelessly lost until I come to a junction that leads down the the foot of the mountain. I ride down, check out a bit of the town that I have just entered and then ride back up. By repeating this multiple times I get to see many different villages along with sections of beautiful country roads and vineyards. Generally this is a fun way to relax for a quick ride. However, one day I was riding along the crest of the Tuniberg when someone from one of the vineyards yelled something at me and waved me over. He began speaking at me in German and I gave him probably one of the blankest stares I have ever given. He continued on ever faster until he asked a question. I of course could not respond and asked him if he spoke English. He did not and continued talking at me a little slower. After some time he finally gave up and we parted ways. It wasn't until a few minutes later that the translation clicked and I realized that he was explaining to me when the local group rides were (something I already knew). So a very friendly act turned into a very stressful situation.
-Group Ride 1: In Merdingen every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday there is a group ride of people from Merdingen and surrounding villages. I have joined on a couple of these rides, though I generally can't make it back in time for the weekday rides in time to join. The first Saturday I joined in it was a scorching hot day. We started with 6 people (down from the usual 10-15), none of whom spoke English, and by the time we were done all but 3 of us had turned back early. With their limited English and my limited German we had a bit of conversation about where I was from and how old I was. One of the riders then commented that he was old enough to be my father! The ride went through beautiful sections of Germany, through many small villages and up some hills as well as past a castle ruins. On the way back we passed a sign with the temperature, 40 C... It was brutal. Another Saturday I joined in on a grey, almost rainy day. This time there was someone who spoke English! The son of one of the guys from Merdingen who was only 10-15 years older than me. We rode a similar but slightly different route with a bit more hills. Some of those guys can climb! I was barely able to keep up with the father who was probably over 3 times my age, and when the son attacked I had nothing left to go with him.
Group Ride 2: Each week the people from the department of engineering at Uni Freiburg go for a ride after work alternating between road and mountain. For the last ride before they broke for summer I was invited to join. Though I didn't know anyone on the ride everyone one there was either a prof. or a student of some sort and so spoke English! We went out into the Black Forest and almost immediately began climbing. After about 1/2 an hour of climbing through a forest we broke through the trees and out onto the top of a grassy hill. After a while of riding along the crest of the hill we descended into what is apparently one of the most beautiful valleys in the Black Forest. It was along a narrow winding slightly downhill road surrounded by trees and following a creek every once in a while it would travel next to an old village. We took one break to stop by a 300 year old restaurant. After the valley we got into a town and a paceline started. The road had a slight downward slope and so everyone started hammering. For around 15 minutes we flew through village after village pulling as hard as possible. It was incredible.
Mountain bike ride: By the end of my 4th week of work I had given up on the idea of getting to go for a mountain bike ride. I couldn't find anyone with an extra bike that would fit me. But one day at work I was talking to one of the guys in the group Johannes, and he mentioned that his old bike was a bit small for him and so might be the right size for me. The next weekend we met up and sure enough the bike fit! After struggling to change out his SPD pedals for my pedals with toe clips as I hadn't brought my mt. biking shoes we finally started our ride. We went up and up and up climbing up to the top of the Schlosberg, a hill in the Black Forest near Freiburg, and then over to the Kandel, another large hill. Along the way we got lost, and then found, stopped for an ice cream, and saw tons of paragliders, a popular sport on the Kandel. While we were climbing we'd be on a main trail, slightly smaller than a fire road, and all of the sudden would turn onto a tiny path that was barely noticeable. These paths were frequently very steep for a short ways and incredibly overgrown due to the recent rains. After fighting up the incline we'd then descend, attempting not to lose the trail under all the branches, and then drop back onto another main trail. After getting to the top of the Kandel, the descent began. It was technical, rocky, and exciting. I rode horribly, falling a couple of times (partly due to the toe clips keeping my foot stuck in the pedal), but made it down through the rock gardens fairly successfully. After 60 km we arrived back at Johannes house in Freiburg, changed out my pedals (after finding a pedal wrench to buy) and I rode the 15 km back to Merdingen to eat dinner and pass out.
For the future I am hoping to ride in a road race in a pack not in a time trial like the Schauinslandkönig, go on more group rides, explore some riding in France, and go mountain biking at least once more.

Europapark

Oma and Opa (Claudia's parents) came to visit last week. On Saturday they took me and Oliver to a place called Europapark. I had no idea what it was, but Oli and Isabel both got very excited when it was mentioned, so I figured it was worth checking out. As we were on our way there i learned that it was, as the name suggests, a Europe themed amusement park and apparently quite popular throughout much of Europe as Disneyland is in the US.

Just as it was described each section of the park was in the theme of a different country. Each country had rides that were named for the country and decorated for the country. The employees were dressed in clothes matching the ride and country, the food was specialized in each "country" and even the languages matched, though German and often French and English translations were also provided. There were even shows loosely themed from each of the countries (often featuring good looking women) and Opa always insisted we stop and watch. In Germany there was a biergarten, in Russia they featured the Mir space-station training module, and in England they had the Globe Theater. Some of the rides were pretty cool as well including one whose cars spin while it travels the roller coaster track.

The only downside was that all of Europe was there. As it was a weekend during the summer, it seems that everyone else in Europe decided to show up to the park. Luckily we had Oli along to motivate us (or force us) to wait in the lines that were up to an hour long. We rode both of the big coasters with big lines 3 times. Everyone except Oli came home quite tired but very happy.

Schauinslandkönig

In English Schauinslandkönig means the most expensive t-shirt you've ever bought. That's not quite true. It's actually a charity race from the bottom to the top of the Schauinsland, an 11.5 km 800 m climb. I had considered competing a number of times but wasn't even sure when it was. The night before the race, Ossi saw on some website mention that the race was on Sunday. We discussed it and decided it was worth a shot if the timing worked out. So the next morning Ossi, my team manager, drove me through Freiburg to the Schauinsland. Registration was incredibly simple consisting of no liability forms or countless signatures like in the US, and came with yet one more cycling t-shirt to bring the count to 8-2 of cycling vs non cycling t-shirts. My team manager then left and I settled in to wait a couple hours till my start time.
There were a wide range of people getting ready from those who looked semi-professional to a team all in yellow who all had yellow balloons. After sending my bag to the top via gondola, I slowly started warming up. When it was close to my start time I got in line and waited through the large crowd. They weighed my bike, presumably to make sure it was over the 6.8 kg limit which it was by far, and I got closer to the start house. When I reached the front, they had a platform with a small start ramp. Two people held my bike as I got clipped in and gave me a countdown and then I was on my way! It started off at around 12% and then dropped down to average around 8% for the rest of the way. All kinds of people were participating ranging from inline skaters, roller skiers, people on tandems, people on 5dems (one driver and two sets of two next to each other), unicyclers, and apparently someone in a wheelchair. After passing a bunch of people and being passed by a few as well a guy who looked about my age caught up to me a little bit after the 4 km to go sign. I decided to stick with him, and after he mumbled something in German we stayed together until 1km to go at which point he dropped me saying something in German that I'd assume meant hurry up.
I made it to the top shortly after him and after getting some to drink and eat we talked for a bit. It was his 4th time doing this race, and he was from a town about 80 km away. As I was recovering another person came up to me and asked if I was from SLO, referring to my Cal Poly jersey. We talked for a while and it turns out that his family used to live in Palo Alto. He is in Germany to write some sort of history book. After enjoying the festivities for a while and deciding that this would be a bad time for a beer, as tempting as it was, I got back on my bike and rode home.
By the evening they had already posted results which is quite impressive as this race had almost 1000 participants! I completed the hill climb in 42 minutes putting me at 64th out of 118 in the open men's category. The winning time was around 31 minutes, a time I'm sure I will beat when I race next year. This was an excellent first race in Europe and I'm planning on doing more before I leave.

España

Friday was the last day at Uni Freiburg for one of the two people from Spain in our group. Because of this the 2 Spanish people decided to throw a spain party. So after spending the morning doing one of the biannual lab cleanups, we all were met with a delicious lunch of Spanish food. We had Spanish omelet, jamon serrano (Spanish prosciutto), different kinds of spanish sausage, rolls, sangria, and beer. Everyone very much enjoyed all of the different food and drink. It turns out that for insurance reasons after drinking, doing lab work is not allowed. This caused the afternoon to be much less productive than usual. Some people did work on their computers, some sat out on the front lawn, and some just disappeared. I think I could learn to deal with this kind of life. Oh, there's still beer in the fridge for next week!

Rain!

So after a long 90F day of working with no airconditioning in long pants, a lab coat, and gloves coating tube after tube and then testing them to make sure the polymer had adhered it was finally time to go home. I got changed into shorts ready for a hot ride home and walked outside into pouring rain. I considered my options: Call Ossi and hope he could pick me up, take the train and then be stranded at the train station, or ride home like usual. As my mother taught me I made a list of the pros and cons of each and decided that I would ride home as usual (the final pro being saving Claudia and Ossi from having to pay the water bill on my shower for that evening). Within seconds I was drenched and the rain, thunder and lightning held out all the way home keeping me nice and cool.

Now we're done with the biomed

This is what Ossi said to me Tuesday after a much less stressful and more successful day at the lab coating tubes. I looked at him confused and he said if we're not doing biomed then it's time for beer! And with that we settled in to watch the Netherlands beat Uruguay!

Wednesday was a big day! It was Germany vs Spain to see who would be going to the world cup finals. As was tradition the whole neighborhood turned out for a pre game barbecue. So far when they'd had a barbecue Germany had won so they couldn't stop now. Everyone was quite nervous since Paul the Octopus Oracle had predicted Spain to take the win. As it turned out Paul was quite right as Spain played much stronger than Germany, and recipes for barbecued octopus began being discussed. Fussball is probably the only thing that can make all of Germany cheer or groan in unison.

Day 1

Monday. 6:30 AM. Time for day 1 of work. After a tasty breakfast of rolls, jam, wurst (German lunch meat), and cheese, the standard breakfast in the house. Ossi and I got on our bikes and took the long way through the woods to the train station. Though Ossi has a monthly pass for the train, I had to buy my ticket. There are machines on the train that sell tickets. On the machines they suggest you use exact change. Of course for my 3.60 train ticket I only had a 5 and so i put it in the machine and not only did it give me my ticket but I hit the jackpot. It just rained coins into the dispenser slot for 15 or twenty minutes. When I took them all out and counted I found that it had given me my 1.40 change in 10 cent pieces. After a short trip we arrived at the campus and the day began. First we had a group meeting during which general announcements for the group are made and a couple of the PhD Students present where they are in their research. The first of these presentations was done by a man named DingDing. Here is what I can tell you about the presentation: HydrogelscaptureandreleasevitaminD3. Now this may sound very complicated, I think it was as it lasted for 76 slides, but the combination of the technical language, the accent, my complete lack of chemistry knowledge and a hint of jetlag had me completely boggled and nodding off within the first half hour of my first day at work. A great way to start. (I came to find out later that even the other chemistry PhD students were bored to tears by it.) The next presentation by Nico was much more interesting and straightforward involving creating flaps that could be controlled to mix very small amounts of substances on a chip on the nanometer scale. At the end of the meeting Ossi introduced me to Pandi, the PhD student who I was assisting. Ossi left shortly thereafter to go to a meeting and when I looked around Pandi was nowhere to be found. Luckily by following others I was able to track him down. The rest of the day was somewhat of a whirlwind. Not only was there a lot that I was told and shown, but combining my lack of chemistry knowledge, and the speed and accent that Pandi speaks at I was struggling. I was given a tour of the different labs in the department and shown all of the very expensive equipment that I could only imagine the uses for. Pandi then told me about our project. We were coating tubes with a polymer that would hopefully prevent thrombolytics by sticking to the tubing and repelling cells that normally get stuck and cause blockages. The current problem with this coating was the actual coating process. We needed a way to prevent air bubbles from forming to ensure an even and thorough coating.

At the end of the day, Ossi and I took the train home (I actually received a 1 Euro coin in change this time), had dinner and I promptly fell asleep after a long and stressful first day.

The first adventure

Today started rather early (amazingly at my request). I suppose it started extra early if the thunder storm waking me for a brief moment counts. But apparently there was to be some sort of rather large chemistry apparatus moved from the nearest port Rhine where it had been shipped to all the way up to Freiburg. Something this size would be impressive in the US, however the road that connects these two cities was 1 lane in each direction... barely. To allow this rather large apparatus to pass they essentially dismantled this entire section of Germany. They moved road blockades, cut down trees, and took down power lines. To go watch this phenomenon pass Claudia woke me at 6:30. We ran, with me in flip flops, to the street where it was supposed to go and we were already too late. So we piled into the car and drove to the next town and were able to witness the entire convoy rolling by. Quite a way to start a Sunday morning!

After the excitement from the morning it was decided that for the afternoon adventure we would bike to get Eis [cream] (In traditional Marcum 4th of July celebration). After a very relaxing ride we made it to our destination. After enjoying our food, Claudia and Ossi decided that we might as well swing by France. I'm still in shock that just like that we rode across a bridge and were in a different country with a different language and culture. There was not passport check, just a bridge over the Rhine river. we made it home, I fought sleep for another few hours and passed out with thoughts of my first day at work.

How I got to the beer

A number of months ago I was looking for a internship in biomedical engineering. Having only completed two years of college and with no experience in the field, internships were not particularly easy to come by. Add to this my desire to stay in the Bay Area for the summer and my options were very limited. Figuring that I would try to use all available networking opportunities I posted to Facebook that I was looking for an internship. Low and behold it worked, but not quite where I had expected.

Our family friend Ossi sent me a message asking if I would be interested in interning in his lab in Freiburg, Germany testing biomaterials. After discussing this idea it was decided that this is how I would spend my summer.

So tickets were bought, plans were made, bags were packed (eventually) and on the evening of July 2nd I was delivered to San Fransisco to attempt to make my way to Freiburg where I would be met by one of my hosts. After checking in, mother and I spent a delightful few minutes stalling by looking at antique German china that I couldn't differentiate from plates from a garage sale. She then sent me away and next thing I knew I was on the plane on the way to Germany. I had a very enjoyable flight that included dinner just after takeoff. a roll with something resembling meat and a slice of plastic and yogurt posing as breakfast just before landing, but by the time I disembarked I had already missed out on lunch.

I then meandered towards the train station. After negotiating the ticket machine which seemed to want to know everything about my plan for the train ride right down to how many trips to the WC I'd need, it gave me a ticket and I continued to the proper platform and settled in. A bit before 15:54, the arrival time, my train's information showed up on the display board and by 15:56 the information from the next train had replaced it. Now if I had been on the train I would not have known when it's information would have disappeared but of course the train did not show up. The next train came and went as did the one after that. Being somewhat worried that I had misunderstood the German train system I did what any logical person would do when his train does not show up, I continued sitting there. My train did show up however, a mere half hour later and I along with the rest of Germany squeezed on to the train. Immediately numerous laptops were opened and connected to the train's wifi to attempt to watch Germany destroy Argentina. Despite the miserable connection due to so many people trying to stream the game, I was able to at least keep up with the score thanks to the conductor announcing the score frequently over the loudspeaker.

After a fast (upwards of 250 km/hr) train ride I arrived in Freiburg and was greeted by Claudia. As we drove towards Merdingen, all of Germany was out in the streets yelling, honking horns, and generally celebrating the utter destruction of Argentina. When we finally reached the house, I was greeted much to Claudia's chagrin with the bier that I had traveled so far to get to. And that is how I got to the bier.