The Texas Presentation

Thursday, I gave a presentation to my lab group. It had been my professor's idea a couple of weeks ago; faced with a group meeting and no presentation, he suggested that “Melody tell us about her university and home.” It's a really good thing I enjoy being in front of people. I started crafting a PowerPoint presentation that was to be about ten to fifteen minutes long.

On Monday, I learned that most presentations were in the 20- to 30-minute range, even 45 minutes. So I started frantically adding the information I'd left out as I feared it was too much.

My professor, who is, I think, the equivalent of the “cool parents,” had informed me that my friends should come. He had also mentioned food, and I decided to make nachos. There a few different definitions of these; what we did is bake tortilla chips with {fake shredded} cheddar cheese on top. Then we topped it off with lettuce, tomatoes, and avocados. Also, I found pickled jalepeno slices! Now that I write this, I think we may have left out the sour cream.

Oops.

Anyway. We had nachos. Thomas, Jesse {a UT friend visiting us from the Netherlands}, and the Opinionated Romanian came to help me cook. And all of our group that could come, came to my presentation. I talked about the six flags and Tex-Mex and American football and the Eyes of Texas the Petawatt laser. Link here.

I'd been working on the presentation for a couple weeks, but, like I said, was in emergency lengthening mode by the time Wednesday came around. Not only that, but after Wednesday's lunch, my laptop decided to stage a dramatic death scene {the sound of ruined ball bearings in your fan are not pretty}. I spent the rest of the day acquiring a desktop from my lab that they'd meant to give me anyway. I did not work on my presentation until that evening in Miquela's room on Miquela's laptop {thanks, Miquela!}.

I was nervous for the talk, not because of the talking, but because I had no idea if people even wanted to hear what I had to say. But I didn't have much time to worry as I made solar cells, cooked nachos, and managed technical difficulties due to not being able to use my own laptop.

And then I was standing there, in front of a group of about 30 people {lab mates and Texas friends}. They knocked on the tables {or bookshelves, or counters} for me and for the Texas friends I introduced.

Time to start. I had intended on a longer introduction, but, having had no time to practice anything further than what I already knew without thinking, I just went for it. "Ich heiße Melody Valadez," I said, "und ich studiere Physik an The University of Texas. Mein Deutsch ist nicht so schön, so I will speak in English."

More congratulatory knocking broke forth. I was not expecting it; I hadn't done it to show off my German {there is very little to show off; even when I do know the right words, my accent is horrible} but to honor my hosts who are so frequently forced into a tongue not their own whenever I'm around. Their unexpected praise melted my heart.

The talk went well. They thought "The Eyes of Texas" could be compared to the NSA {there is very little American news here, but discussion of the NSA's recently exposed practices is prevalent}. And everyone liked the nachos, even though we forgot the sour cream. Also, they want to try fried butter.

I ended the talk with a video of us dropping a watermelon off the roof of RLM. And everyone knocked again.

Julius has alluded to this in a previous post, but it bears elaboration: the people in my lab have been beyond welcoming. They have been, every one of them, so kind. They invite me to group events, they take the time to answer my questions and draw diagrams, they joke with me, they tolerate my dislike of beer, and they sat through {and applauded} an almost 40-minute talk on Texas. They have truly and unconditionally welcomed me into the family. They've shown me such honor and kindness by including me, by speaking English when it would be easier to speak German, by popping into the kitchen to show me their burnt orange shoes, by helping me translate an entire slide dedicated to tex-mex ingredients. These are the people of Germany, y'all.

{If you are wondering about my computer, it has decided that it was entirely too dramatic and that all the death agonies were premature. I've had no problems with it since Thursday evening, but I am being careful not to overtax its poor ball bearings.}

Landstuhl & Worms

On Saturday, I bought an all-Germany pass and headed west. My destination was the town of Landstuhl, which claims very little of interest other than a particularly big U.S. Military base and hospital, and a castle. In fact, when I informed my lab mates of my travel intentions, they were flabbergasted. “Who would want to go to Landstuhl?” the Reigning Coffee Boss asked me. “It's small. It's a village.”

I don't know what it takes for a German to define something as a village, but he was right, it is the smallest town I've been to here. I thought this would make it charming; small-town vibe and all that. But it's not. It is cramped in its smallness, with an excessive amount of traffic that dwarfs its size. Blame the Americans if you want, or theorize that it's a West Germany thing, but Landstuhl has none of the historical or classically beautiful aura that dominates Würzburg and Nürnberg {and Worms}.

view from the hill I climbed.

Even so, I found a hill to climb and was very happy. I'd been looking at these hills—so much bigger than anything I think I've ever seen in the States—as the train brought me nearer to Landstuhl, and I'd been dying to get lost in them and live out a fairy-tale fantasy. Having at least a drop of sensibility, I did not get myself lost. But I found a steep path that sufficed while making sure I return to the States without becoming baked in an oven or pricked with a spinning wheel or various other disasters that can occur in German forests.

I did not visit the castle. Apparently, the best place to put a castle is on the tallest and steepest hill available. If the goal is to dissuade visitors, it succeeds. But I took pictures.

Surely, by now, you are asking why on earth I decided to visit this not-quaint little town.

It is because it is my homeland. At least, that is what my dad always says. He was born there because his military dad was based in Landstuhl at the time. And so I returned and walked the same streets and wondered which of the houses I passed had been his house at one time {I neglected to inquire about an address before going}. Of course, I now remember more of the town than he does, given the fact that he was quite young when they returned to the States. :)

After Landstuhl, I was tired and ready to simply get on the train and head back to Würzburg. But I didn't buy the all-day, all-Germany pass for nothing! Before heading out, I'd looked at what cities might be between Würzburg and Landstuhl, in order to optimize my day. I discovered that the city of Worms {remember, W's make 'v' sounds here} was not too far out of the way. A quick skimming of Wikipedia {less than 5 minutes} reminded me where I'd heard the name before: the Diet of Worms 1521.

This was the city where Martin Luther, Catholic rebel and catalyst of the Reformation, stood before the Diet {a debate or discussion of new ideas in the Church} and said, “Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. Gott hilfe mir. Amen.” {Translation: “Here stand I; I can do nothing else. God help me. Amen.”} Yes, it was quite a moment when I approached the statue, read the plaque {simple words, these}, and realized that these famous words were originally said in German.

If you haven't noticed, Martin Luther is a serious hero of mine.

There is a statue dedicated to the Reformation in the center of Worms—I had no idea how cool it was until I got there. The standing figures on the corners are political and scholarly leaders that promoted the Reformation, the figures beneath Martin are forerunners in the Protestant movement, and the women in the middle of the sides represent certain cities that were particularly influential in the Reformation. And yes, I found all this out while sitting on a park bench and using up my precious 3G data.

After soaking that in, I went walking around a very old church, St. Peter's Cathedral {or Dom St. Peter}. It is undergoing its own reformation, though, and there are lots of places you can't go—and lots of Bond-type security agents to make sure you don't go there. So I just walked around and craned my neck up and wondered why on earth they needed such a big building, and was this the place where the Diet of Worms took place? I was not sure. The internet said there would be a plaque, but I never saw one.

Also occurring that day was the second Germany game in the World Cup {vs. Ghana}. While walking around Worms and taking in both huge churches and people decked in rot, schwarz, und gold, I heard the sound of a sports announcer. {Sports announcers sound the same in all languages, if you didn't know.} Soon I saw the source; they had blocked off a certain section of the city and set up a giant screen. You could hear the announcing a block away from an Italy game {I think}. The more I'm in this sea of World Cup mania, the more I appreciate it.

Twelve Hours, Two Cities

I almost feel obliged to start off every post with an apology for my lack of posts which is partially from being so caught up with everything here, and partially because I feel like I have fallen so behind in updating this blog that I don’t know where to begin anymore. So here’s an apology and somewhat of a promise to get better at this.

I took a day trip to Nürnberg with Annie, Angela, Sophia, and Cristin. Nürnberg is a city in the German state of Bavaria, more commonly known as Nuremberg to us Americans – think Nuremberg trials during World War II!

Left to right: Cristin, Angela, Numa, Sophia, Annie

We spent the entire day on foot, walking everywhere from the old city to the castle to the first Bratwurst house in the world. Despite having a map, we got fairly lost for at least an hour, but I’ve learned that sometimes it’s the best way to see a city. If I had to briefly describe Nürnberg, I would say it looked like a bigger, more touristy Würzburg.

That evening, we made a spontaneous decision to take the train to Erlangen so Cristin and I could attend our very first beer festival. You know what they say – when in Germany, do as the Germans do. Erlangen is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, and much to our convenience, only a 30 minute train ride from Nuremberg! Since we got to Erlangen fairly late, I didn’t get to see much of the city other than the beer festival, but that in itself was worth the trip. I was told that the beer festival in Erlangen was much like Oktoberfest, world’s largest beer festival held annually in Munich. My thoughts upon entering the festival were literally, “is this real life?” It looked like something out of a movie – there was a huge ferris wheel, multiple carnival rides, huge pretzels, live music, people dancing on tables/benches with liter jugs of beer in their hand. Needless to say, it was quite a sight. Germans sure know how to party.

In Annie’s humble opinion, “it was the best day of my entire life.” And I must say, Nuremberg and Erlangen certainly did live up to their expectations.

I have approximately three more blog posts I want to do before I go to Berlin this weekend, and I will hopefully do them all before Friday. Till then, machs gut!a

---

Translation of German words:
a. Take care

Nürnberg

I went to Nürnberg {known to us Americans as Nuremburg} because of the Nürnberg trials. That was all I knew of the city. I went with Alex and Ian, and the latter was willing to serve as tour guide. Very helpful since I'd appeared in this city with very little plan.

Congress Hall across the lake

Our first stop was the Nazi Party grounds. They are outside the city and cover several acres of land. There is the great Congress Hall, which was the first building built in a planned complex that was never completed. The hall currently stands, housing both Nazi museum and the Nürnberg symphony. I still have a hard time understanding why they let it stand. According to Ian, the minds behind the architecture were very aware of the importance of ruins, of their significance long after their empires have diminished. For whatever reason, it has been kept long after the regime has ended. And ruins remain.

Zeppelin Fields, facing the stage from the side,
the fields are to the right

We walked around the lake to the Zeppelinfield {so named before Hitler ever came onto the scene}. It is a rectangular field with bleachers on every side. The stage is designed off an altar {pagan, contrary to Alex's previous claim} and is made of stone bleachers with a door at the back. A giant swastika used to hang above the door, but it was ceremoniously blown up when the Americans arrived. During the annual Nazi party rally, especially during the war, anti-aircraft floodlights would surround the field and point upwards, creating an intimidating Cathedral of Light.

Now, graffiti covers the door and flowers poke through the cracks in the steps. Bands come and play there. A family of swans reside in the lake, and people jog around it for exercise. All in the shadow of ruins.

view from the castle walls

After the Party Grounds, we headed to town. If I had to describe it in one word, I would choose “old.” Not because it is decrepit or in ruins or lacking in modern amenities, but because it is simply true. There is a castle there. And it is not like Würzburg, where the castle is “over there,” a short walk from the city. No. This castle is in the city. The market—now home to a host of shops, including Starbucks—sits right up against it like markets of old. Nothing has changed. You walk from city to castle without blinking. You brush your fingertips against the city wall—tall and deep and long—while sidestepping for Audis and BMWs. This was my impression of the Aldstadt—the Old City.

Palace of Justice

Once we'd walked along the wall, we made up our minds to go to the Palace of Justice, infamous home of Courtroom 600 where Nazi leaders faced prosecution. We walked a long way to get there—every way we take is longer than it should be, due to getting lost—but I was not disappointed, even though we were too late to merit a tour. The building is large and new, compared to the castle, at least. The walls are flat, and there are plenty of solemn carvings and statues that stand for justice. A sobering place, and a fitting end to our day.

A Swedish Midsummer

I don't know yet if I've mentioned yet that I share an office with a cool Swedish guy, who vehemently hates the plant on our windowsill because he thinks it is producing the fruit flies that have recently decided to assault us. That is why the plant is now on the outside windowsill {no screens here, remember?} like a disobedient child. Anyway, you shall know him as the Host of Midsummer. Because on Friday, he and his family threw a Swedish Midsummer party.

I was invited last minute due to the fact that very few people here have my email address, but I was excited to go and experience a holiday that the Host of Midsummer informed me is the most festive in Sweden. It stems from pagan ritual, was influenced by the influx of Christianity, and now serves as a lovely holiday. There were about seven of us from the lab, plus a couple of other Swedish families. Two of my labmates—the Right-Hand-Man and the IT Guy—brought their girlfriend and wife, respectively. We sat at a long table in the backyard of a beautiful, three-family house with a view of Marianberg Fortress in weather that was just a bit too chilly for such a thing.

The solution to this weather factor was Schnapps. Of course, this would have been present even in perfect weather {which, the Swede informed us, never exists on Midsummer}. Schnapps is as vital to the Midsummer as the herring.

The menu consisted of herring from IKEA {we have an IKEA here in Wuerzburg, and the Host of Midsummer told us the products were, if not perfect, pretty decent}, some things like hot dogs that were not hot dogs, smoked salmon, boiled potatoes, bread, cheese, radishes, and crackers. The herring is...interesting. It is in a sugary sauce that almost, but not quite, masks the intense fish flavor. Not being a fan of intense fish flavor, my opinion varied depending on whether it was the beginning of the bite {sweet} or the end {fish}.

Drinks were mineral water, apple juice, beer...and Schnapps. So much Schnapps. Our hosts had printed out the lyrics to a variety of Swedish drinking songs—think Viking—all of which precede a hearty “Skol!” which precedes a heroic downing of a shot of Schnapps. We enjoyed this tradition six or seven times throughout the meal. I, being a lightweight American that dislikes being drunk, managed to make one shot last 3 hours {I am much skilled at the art of sipping} and thus endured no further effect than the significant warming of my ears. {For those unfamiliar with Schnapps, I can only tell you that it tastes like the solution I was given to swish in my mouth before and after wisdom teeth surgery.}

After the meal, the Swedes present invited us to dance around the maypole we unfortunately didn't have. Instead, we placed a vase of flowers in the center of the backyard and danced around with the various words and actions belonging to Swedish folk songs. It is more of a children's thing, but because we were experiencing Swedish culture, and the Swedes present were missing their own, the majority of us joined in. We pretended to be frogs, to wash clothes, to bake, and various other things. It was fun to see my labmates goofing off and having fun. I'm glad the Raman Spectroscopist made me do it.

Conversation was trilingual. Not all the Germans present spoke English, not all the Swedes or Russians spoke German, and there was one hapless American that spoke neither. I was introduced as being from Texas, to which one man{Swedish, I think}, informed me that it was impossible, my head was not big enough. When I introduced myself to others, even just by saying my name, they immediately commented, “Nicht Deutsch (not German).” It was not a question.

Yes, we were made of Swedes, Russians, Germans, and me. Not children of immigrants, but straight-up, this-is-the-country-on-our-passport, internationals. One of the best parts of the night was experiencing another culture—the Swedish culture—and not being alone in my wonder. Now I was with the Germans, trying to understand why the Swedes do the things they do—they don't know—and enjoying a night with friends.

The best German/American moment of the night was when I tried to explain water fountains. Someday you should sit amidst seven Germans, all staring at you intently and in utter seriousness, your heart sinking as you realize that “water fountain” is not going to mean anything close to what you want it to mean. Even with a confirmation from the Right-Hand Man that such things exist—“I've seen them in highschool movies but was never sure how they worked”—describing the process ends with them commenting on the irony of putting a tap outside the bathroom when there is perfectly good water {if you like tap water, which they heartily do not} inside the bathroom.

The German Coffee Experience

If you know me well, you know I have oscillating opinions about coffee. As in, I say I like a nice iced coffee {with milk and caramel} from Starbucks after a late night, but I also have really bad withdrawal symptoms as the caffeine abandons me a few hours later. Basically, I avoid having a regular dependence on coffee and try to keep myself to one a week, two in emergencies. And I also steer clear of situations that involve straight coffee. Why? I don't like the taste, and every time I pour in my desired amount of cream {or, better yet, milk} to balance it out, I get comments like, "Oh, would you like some coffee with your milk, Melody?" So Starbucks it is; I don't even know how to operate a coffee pot.

However, as several of us have noted, post-lunch coffee is practically mandatory here. I do have the option of tea {and some of my labmates are quite particular about their tea, which results in excellence}, but I've had several late nights recently that also demanded an afternoon caffeine boost {and Germans don't like black tea, according to our visitor from the UK}. I slowly began to succumb to the coffee. Besides, we had a cappuccino machine {cappuccino is the only button I know how to use because, um, the machine also speaks German}. Who wouldn't want to use that?

As I observed further--one does a lot of observing when German is spoken over one's head--I noticed that the Right-Hand Man* added a significant amount of milk to his cappuccino. Something I heard in German class was then verified when I went to a convenience store at the Hauptbahnhof: the existence of milchkaffee. Milk coffee. {I ordered coffee in order to be welcome to sit at a table and journal. Tables at which to sit are rare here unless you are at a cafe or other food-oriented establishment.}

It is socially acceptable here to have some coffee with your milk.

Not only this, but the coffee tastes better here. I thought this was only my own theory {it did not seem as bitter}, but then the Opinionated Romanian** informed me of the difference between our coffee and the coffee he had experienced in the Western Hemisphere. "Have you smelled the bag of coffee beans when you open it?" he asked me.

"No. I haven't opened it."

So later, when we had an afternoon coffee break and waited for solution to heat onto glass, he offered me a whiff of the coffee. And yes, it smelled significantly different and significantly amazing. I'm not just saying that. It smelled like an actual plant, like something that grew out of the earth instead of being chemically enhanced.

I've already realized that the German Coffee Experience is something I'm going to miss when I return to Texas. Finding coffee this good is going to be expensive. And even when I find it, I'll once again be forced to answer the question, "Would you like some coffee with your milk?"

I am using nicknames for everyone in my lab to avoid privacy conflicts. Not that there are any, but I'd like to err on the side of caution. {This is also the reason I have not posted much about my specific research, although one of our papers was recently accepted and revealed to the world our work in a particular field.}

* The Right-Hand Man is a PHD student who is in my chain of command. He's very chill and quiet--we do not talk much other than physics--but I like to work with him because he allows me to join the scientific rhythm of whatever it is we're doing.

** The Opinionated Romanian is a bachelor student with whom I work frequently. He is Romanian in origin but German in citizenship, has opinions on everything {especially all things German}, and does not mind sharing...or answering all my questions.

To everyone who is not familiar with the physics world and is surprised at my disproportionate mention of male labmates...welcome to physics. Texas or Germany, it doesn't change the fact that girls are very much in the minority {but always, in my experience, well-treated}.

Life Of An Experimental Physicist: An Overview

I spent most of my first week at work in my office either reading papers or doing calculations. The time I didn’t spend in my office was spent in lab watching other graduate students run experiments in an attempt to learn optical spectroscopy. Then last week, I put on those fancy safety goggles and did some real science with my own two hands.

Random incidents/scattered thoughts:

1. In one of the labs, the gas pipelines are fairly high up on the wall. I’m the only person in lab who can’t reach them, so they had to get a two-step stool for me. If I stand on the two-step stool on my tippy toes, I can barely reach them. Conclusion: Germans are tall; Numa is short.

2. Almost everyone in my lab is German or can speak German fluently so unless they’re specifically talking to me, everyone always constantly talks in German. One of the graduate students apologized to me for constantly talking in German saying “we don’t know how to talk to girls in English.” I want to know if they would speak in English more if I was a guy.

3. Since they primarily talk in German, I have gotten some of the most interesting Physics explanations in English when they can’t remember certain English words. I’ve gotten things explained to me as a “lollipop” and an “airplane.”

4. My lab group loves to eat. Someone brings different snacks every day. I’m kind of okay with them not talking to me much as long as they keep bringing delicious food. Today, we had four different kinds of cake and strawberry pie.

5. I have spent most of my time in lab playing with liquid nitrogen and/or liquid helium, and I literally mean playing. No safety. Much science.

6. Last week when I was using liquid nitrogen and liquid helium to cool quantum dots for spectroscopic measurements, there was a small leak in the liquid helium tank which froze almost everything in lab. It was literally like ice age in there.

7. Universität-Würzburg makes its own liquid helium instead of buying it. Last week, they showed me how to make liquid helium. There are helium boats! HELIUM BOATS!

7. The 2014 FIFA World Cup is a huge deal for my lab group. While talking to one of the graduate students in lab, I expressed my excitement for the World Cup and that was the moment they finally accepted me as a lab member. He then told me a story about how they met some Canadians earlier who didn’t know that the World Cup was happening since it didn’t have anything to do with ice hockey. We are playing an “online betting game” and placing bets on all the matches. Winner gets half the money and the other half is used for a barbecue.

8. All the equipment and all the programs are in German. I spent more time trying to figure out the German program for taking spectroscopic measurements than actually taking spectroscopic measurements.

Till I do more real science, chüs!a

---

Translation of German words:
a. Bye!

Day 23 - Embracing a city of scientists.

"City of young researchers Würzburg"

Everyday as I walk in and out of the Mensa (our cafeteria), I see this inconspicuous wall print on the side of the building. Usually it's just some person's graffiti or something not-important like that, but something just drew me to this. Maybe it was the picture of the child reaching up for some books. Doing some research, the phrase "stadt der jungen forscher würzburg" translates to something along the lines of "City of young researchers Würzburg". It apparently is a science conference for Germany where people come from all around to have a symposium type thing to share with others their own science. I find it fitting that I find a small pull towards something like this. Even when the sign is in a different language, I can feel a connection to it as a young scientist researching for the future.

World Cup: Germany's First Win

So if you’ve known me long, you know that a) I do actually enjoy sitting down and watching sports {i.e. I am not an anti-sports nerd}, and b) I never watch soccer. This stems from deeply rooted familial tradition {i.e. my dad doesn’t really care for it}. So as I’ve grown up, I’ve had no interest in an almost two-hour game where people win 1-0.

It has thus been interesting to be residing in Germany and Europe for the duration of the World Cup. I can’t find anything to compare it to in the States. It is not like our NFL football or NBA basketball. Those are cities against cities, and city pride will never equal national patriotism. Perhaps the Olympics come close, but I feel most of the time {the occasional heated hockey game excepted}, the event hinges more on the aesthetic and and doesn’t include all the raucous passion of NFL or the NBA. The Olympics are a spectacle more than a contest, at least is that how I often feel watching them as an American.

The World Cup combines the passion of Super Bowl fandom with the Olympic patriotism of countries. In that respect, it is one of the coolest things I’ve seen while here, and, well, ever.

{Even their dogs are passionate about soccer. We took this video after church on Sunday. Unfortunately, the best feats of the athletic animal were occurred after I stopped recording.}

Last night, I watched my first game. I wasn’t planning on doing so; I was planning on buying milk and cereal and going home to catch up on much-needed sleep. And then Julius appeared in my hall and informed me that our conference room had become a viewing party for members of both our lab groups. Okay, then. {Viewing parties are as vital to the World Cup in Germany as the game itself.}

Germany won against Portugal, 4-0. A nice way to start the games.

Once it was over, I took the bus back to the Hauptbahnhof/Busbahnhof, which is grand central station when it comes to buses, trains, and trams. I intended to grab a tram immediately to head back to my place, except it wasn’t running as normal. In fact, nothing was normal. There was traffic.

I’ve been here for three weeks and have never once seen anything close to traffic. But this was traffic, and not just traffic, but celebratory traffic. Honking, waving of flags, cheering of people, “Ole! Ole, ole, ole!” I watched a crowd of college-aged guys spill out of a bus at the Busbahnhof and throw a loud firework to the ground, where it proceeded to spark and flame and smoke for a good minute afterward.

I compare the chaos to the night the Longhorns won the National Championship in 2005 {a night I was privileged to be a part of}, but not quite so big. After all, this is just the first game, not the World Cup itself. Not yet, at least. :)

Veitshöchheim

With being in lab all day and watching football games all night, it has been getting harder and harder to keep up with this blog. I apologize for disappearing, but better late than never!

In the short time I’ve been in Würzburg, I have had more long weekends than we have all semester in Texas. Last weekend (June 6th-8th) was yet another long weekend, and we had Monday off. Germans sure love celebratin’ everything.

That Sunday, I took a boat trip to Veitshöchheim with Annie (my roommate – aka my “pride and joy”) and Sophia to see the Rococo Gardens.

Left to right: Annie, Numa, Sophia

Veitshöchheim is a municipality in the district of Würzburg. According to Wikipedia, it’s ~6 km northwest of Würzburg. The city certainly has its charm. It was a tiny touristy town, with colorful houses that look like dollhouses. Veitshöchheim is also home to Schloss Veitshöchheima, which was the summer palace of the prince-bishops of Würzburg.

Street view of the city

Schloss Veitshöchheim

The Rococo Gardens were absolutely beautiful. The best way to describe them would be walking through the Hedge Maze from Harry Potter. I have been more impressed by the Court Gardens in (and around) Würzburg than the palaces themselves.

Fun fact about Veitshöchheim: Gelato is cheaper here in comparison to Würzburg.

Auf Wiedersehen!b

Translation of German words:
a. Castle Veitshöchheim
b. Goodbye

Day 22 - Never go full Pepe.

"D: :D D:"

So I'm in Germany. My department is full of people who are from Germany. The World Cup is on right now, and Germany is playing. It's time for the whole astronomy department to get together for a fun barbecue before watching the game together in our seminar room. Apparently this was common among the different departments in the university, as my friends on the physics side of things also had similar experiences watching the game together. Shown in the picture are the backs of the football-interested astronomers watching intently at the game as Germany was demolishing Portugal. Well, it didn't really help Portugal that Pepe, one of their better players got red-carded in the first half for a headbutt onto Germany. Never go full Pepe. It loses you games. If you're curious about the caption, the blond person featured in this picture is Miquela and Robby's mentor person. His facial expressions were honestly more interesting than the game itself. I could tell the flow of the game simply by watching his face.

Day 21 - Exhaustion.

"Sleeping..."

So after yesterday's adventure Nürnberg, my body was literally telling me not to move. We walked maybe five or six miles in the span of a few hours, and I wasn't wearing the proper shoes for such an adventure. Completely my fault, but I like my Converse. Anyways, today was a day spent to me chilling in my dorm by myself, which honestly hasn't happened very often since coming here to Germany. I actually think it's taken three weeks for me to spend a day by myself here. That's exciting. Anyways, the picture for today may not seem all too interesting, but you are mistaken! It's only slightly uninteresting!

The water here in Germany isn't free. Water from the taps is weird to drink. Everything in Germany from the water to the apple juice to the sports drinks are carbonated. If that wasn't a culture shock for me, I don't know what was since coming here. If someone wanted to get non-carbonated water, one would have to specifically buy still-water. So after three weeks of carbonation, I have actually grown a taste for carbonated drinks after specifically vowing myself off them in the states since new years. Yeah, it was weird. Shown above is the classic mineral water, full of carbonation and added elements, and something we're more familiar with, uncarbonated water. Yeah, I don't blame you if you don't think today was interesting. It wasn't meant to be.

Day 20 - Nürnberg.

"the effect was both solemn and beautiful, like being in a cathedral of ice"

There's not much I can joke about in the adventure had in Nürnberg, a city maybe an hour by train from Wurzburg. For those who don't know, Nürnberg is one of Nazi Germany's central locations to hold rallies and to perform other major acts of Nazi propaganda. This is the door of the Zeppelinfeld part of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. I seriously cannot do the history justice by talking about it in this little blurb of a blog I do. Look up the Cathedral of Light on Wikipedia or something. 130 searchlights surrounded a Christian style altar and created a giant holy ground for the Nazi leader to take advantage of. This is the door that led to the Zeppelinfeld's main tribune, much weathered in the way of time. It's amazing how a building like this stands even today, but even more for graffiti to show history's progression as well. It's extremely hard not to be respectful of such a place, not because I sympathize for the Nazi party, but because this is a place of history. As bad as everything was, it happened and should be a sign for any future human to learn from.

Day 19 - Chillin' on the Beach.

"MUFFINS!"

So I've been doing a lot of thinking the past few days. A lot of personal reflection of the people I'm around, the way I treat people, the way other people treat me, and I've come to a few personal conclusions that I'll spare the fairly uninteresting details about. Tonight was a night where quite a bit was put out on the table, and I'm glad I was able to spend some of this time here. I briefly mentioned it in my last post, but Wurzburg has its own beach! It's a neat little man-made beach running along the edge of the river that runs through the city. It's full of places to sit, things to drink, things to eat, among other common beach-like activities. It became quite cool tonight compared to the horrendous heat wave that struck in the past few days. Sitting by the river, my feet in the sand, the breeze blowing in my face with the audible sound of incomprehensible German around me... It was a fun time to think about the world. 

By the way, if you're wondering about my caption for today, these three young German girls (all looking no older than ten) came up to us and offered balls of wet sand. Apparently they were making muffins. I humored them and accepted their peace offering of cold, sandy foods... even if I didn't know what it was at first.

Days 12- 18: So I've missed a few days. Have a megapost.

First off, I would like to apologize to any daily readers of my APODs. I know there's a few of y'all out there that happily get up every morning to check my posts, and low and behold, they weren't there. There's a bunch that's come up in this past week, and to be completely honest, the blog wasn't that high of a priority on my list. But I'm back now with plenty of pictures and back on a (hopefully) regular schedule!

Day 12:

"I love going home and watching the sunset everyday." 

So this is my walk home. It's a beautiful walk home. On the left you can see a few white buildings. That's where I'm currently living. Because there is an illusion of scale, it looks like it's really far away, but in reality, it's only a minute from where I took this picture. But the sunset is absolutely beautiful as the sun goes down one of Germany's many hills and paints the scenery a bright orange. It doesn't matter where you are in the world: Sunrises and sunsets are two of the most beautiful things ever.

Day 13:

"It's like they care about their food here!"

We found a pizza place right next to the cheapest grocery store in town! It seems to be owned by a married couple, and they spoke in English when serving us. In fact, they even started a conversation and got to know us a little. I came in a few days later to grab lunch, and the owners recognized me and even remembered some things about us. Definitely awesome people. Also, European pizza is good. Definitely try the pizza if you're in Europe. Like Melody said "It's like they care about their food here!" 

Day 14:

"So long and thanks for all the fish"

We had another dinner night, but this time at Melody's place. We decided to bundle up together and watch Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (which surprisingly for a group of physicists, very few people have seen). I remember someone commenting that their parents thought we would all eventually drift away and do our own thing here in Germany and have little to no contact at all with the people we came with. So far, that hasn't really been the case. We've all made connections to people outside our UT circle, be it colleagues in lab or other international students, but I still find it awesome how close us squirrels have got together in these past few weeks. Looking at my day count, this was the second week, and I feel like I already know more about some of these people than I ever would if I just knew them over in Austin. 

 Day 15:

"DO YOU KNOW WHY NO ONE NOTICED THAT JULIUS WAS BEING STRANGLED TO DEATH?"

Please do not be disturbed by the quote. Julius is fine; he just got a little run in with the mafia.

Day 16:

"Are you glad you came?"

Miquela and I's dancing instructor had put us in contact with the Wurzburg Lindy-hop group. To be completely honest, I wasn't really feeling up for dancing, but I went anyways. The dancing scene was on the beach (a man-made beach!) on a small section of the wooden walkway. It was a small place, but out in the open with all the drinking and hookah smoking public to see. And the people there were impressed at our dancing. Miquela and I decided to dance to a song that popped up, and I could just see the faces of the people around us. I could literally feel the stares that they weren't expecting two random people to start dancing, much less dance Lindy-hop fairly respectably. Someone was audibly making a note of the moves I was doing, as if they were making a checklist to see if we could dance properly. The instructor in charge of the group immediately came up to us afterwards and wanted to know where we learned how to dance, obviously impressed. It was a really interesting to dance in a foreign country and actually look impressive doing it. It looked like from what the instructor was telling us that the group was mainly comprised of beginners, so at least I felt right in place. 

And on a side note for the previous day, we were all having a picnic together and played a game called mafia where people unfortunately die in the story. 

Day 17:

"Do you know how to take an integral?"

I actually have somewhat of a project! I can't exactly explain everything right now, but it basically deals with thermonuclear physics and the deflagration of elements inside the core of a star. In layman terms, I'm dealing with theoretical fires. Awesome. The past few days have just been spent reading papers, so actually having something resembling a project is great. Though, having this thing that resembles a project requires more paper reading to properly understand, so there's that caveat. The person helping me out wasn't sure how far along I was with the theory and the physics, so he wanted to at least make sure I knew how to take an integral. I responded that I had Mathematica. 

Day 18:

"So people used to be hanged here..."

Started the week's APOD with me on the walk home, ended it with the actual arrival at my dorm. It's been a long week and many things have happened. Doing these APODs really helped me actually think about the things I've done each day. To be completely honest, that's a scary thought coming from a guy who would be content to sit around all day on a laptop playing some games or killing time on Reddit. Actually doing things is a weird and exciting experience, and I'm glad to be sharing it with whoever is reading. It's been a long week of ups and downs, and I'm glad to be back on a happy note. I won't promise that this won't happen again, but I can promise that I will get something out of each day to share with all of you. 

Thank you, and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Physics Groups Are Like Family

This is my first blog post of the summer and I wanted to focus on something that we as a group have come to enjoy as part of our experience here in Würzburg, Germany. Over the past two weeks we’ve come to explore the town and see some of the historical sites, enjoy the local gelato and food, and found time to get involved in our areas of research across the campus. The one thing that continually comes up in our conversations is the interactions we’ve had with the members of our research groups who have made each of us feel at home here. I personally was feeling anxious about how I would integrate into a group of researchers here for only two and a half months, and possibly some others of our summer group were feeling the same.

To my surprise, from the day I first arrived at the physics building on-campus to meet Experimental Physics VII, the research group I would be working with, I was warmly welcomed by everyone and was soon getting to know each member in the group. It didn’t matter that I was only working with two members (Dr. Thiago Peixoto and Henriette Maaß) out of the entire group of 16 and that I would only be there for the summer. In their eyes I was one of them and in less than a week I felt that I felt completely at home. This included not only me diving into the quantum spectroscopy research I was doing (which I will blog about soon), but also being taken to each member’s lab to learn about their own research and area of physics interest.

It’s sometimes hard to pin down what makes a group of people a family. Some think that it’s purely based on familial ties, and others think that it’s something that can be made with anyone over time. For me, a family is a group of people who value you, trust you, and bring the feeling of inclusion into their daily lives. And that was exactly how I felt after my brief time thus far with EP VII. Each day began with hellos throughout the office, along with inquiries into each others’ weekends, and then at 11:30 one member would go around and knock on everyone’s doors to see if they were ready for lunch. Then as a collective we would walk across campus to the Mensa, our cafeteria, and talk and laugh the whole way there. And this banter would continue throughout the entire lunch with conversations ranging on all topics of life from research and physics news to movies and campus life.

What really stood out to me was the after lunch event, where everyone meets in a conference room and have coffee together while chatting and laughing continuously. This would continue for another half-hour or so and then everyone would go on to work, with each person seeming refreshed and ready to continue their work. Now, there are two things that I want to point out here:

1) Most of the conversations are in German, and I have zero proficiency in the language. So I have NO IDEA what is being said most of the time. However, this never detracted from my experience because I was never left out, with at least one or two people wanting to talk to me and ask about my life in the States and what I thought of Germany, or with one of them translating the group conversation so that I could follow along.

2) There was not a single cell phone present. Everyone was so focused on the general conversation or on talking to someone. There was no division of attention from a human being and everyone was genuinely interested in each others’ lives. It was so refreshing to experience this where in the States so many people can’t put their phone down and give the person they’re with the attention they deserve.

Now I write this from my own perspective, but whenever our summer group gets together to catch up or when we chat on Facebook we continuously talk about what’s going on in our research groups, the people in them, and what food some member brought to the after lunch coffee break for the group to enjoy. It truly has felt like we’ve been accepted into the working lives of the people here at the physics department at Würzburg and I personally feel like I’m part of a physics family here. It’s a stark change from the life of an undergraduate student at UT Austin and I’m glad that this is what awaits me in my future graduate student life.

Today was especially amazing in witnessing the extent of family here. It started with me getting to the office I share with Henriette Maaß and meeting a member that I haven’t seen in the group yet. Her name was Sina Gusenleitner and she was finishing up her Ph.D thesis, which meant that she had been mainly at home writing it up for the past few weeks. And although she had been gone for so long, everyone in the groups came by to say hi and catch up with her, and it was like she had never been gone at all. Next, after lunch we came back to the conference room for coffee to find that one member of the group had group homemade cheesecake, strawberry cake, and cupcakes for everyone to enjoy. We feasted for an additional hour, and then attempted to get back to work, only to find out that due to the exceptionally hot day (even in the building) some members had made liquid nitrogen ice cream! And so we shared delicious, cold, and creamy ice cream together. All in all not much work was done that day, but it was a wonderful day to share with my research group.

And that brings me to my final point of my post, which is that this summer group that I am a part of, the collection of individuals you see posting on this blog writing about our lives in Würzburg, is becoming something very similar to a sort of family and I’m looking forward to our continued adventures in research and exploring Würzburg.
That’s all for now and stay tuned for more blog posts from this group! My next post will be concerning the quantum spectroscopy research I am doing under Dr. Thiago Peixoto and Henriette Maaß. Until then, tschüss!

How Silicon {Most} Solar Cells Work

Once upon a time, there were two pieces of crystal silicon. The negatively charged electrons inside were very happy, snuggled in positively charged “holes.” This made the crystal silicon happy and neutral on all matters electric.

One day, a physicist took the two pieces and “doped” them, which is to say she {my physicists are always girls} coated each of them with a solution of phosphorous and boron, respectively. Now phosphorous has an abundance of electrons, while boron has too few. Suddenly, the crystal silicon pieces were unbalanced and decidedly on opposing sides: the sides of N {negative} and P {positive}.

The physicist then put the two pieces together with a thin wafer of N Type silicon between, creating a junction. The homeless electrons were eager to cross the border and jump into the P Type silicon. There was a mad rush, and the realtors worked overtime as electrons found new holes and moved in. However, the rush had an interesting, and as yet unforeseen, effect. As a metropolis sprung up, something began to occur on the junction: an electric field. A diode, if we are being particularly scientific.

No electron could have said what havoc this diode would cause. No electron foresaw the coming sunlight.

Sunlight is made of energy. Little packets of energy, called photons. They come in varying amounts, but, when the amount is just right, they are particularly adept at shaking electrons out of their little holes. They are hot, bright packets of pure earthquake.

The physicist put the crystal silicon in sunlight. {Well, she actually used a synthetic light. But that is not half as interesting.} The photons arrived.

The electrons could not withstand the shaking and bounced out of their holes. And this was when the effects of the diode were fully felt. The diode grabbed the shaken electrons and pushed them toward the N Type silicon, where all the holes were filled. As for the now-empty holes, the diode slid them toward the P Type silicon. It is safe to say that the real estate market crashed.

But the physicist had a shred of pity--or science--in her heart. She connected the N Type silicon, with its abundance of clamoring, homeless electrons, to a P Type metal. With a cheer, the electrons hurried towards it and all the new holes that awaited them.

Their journey took place on a wire. The physicist monitored it carefully, for the speed of the electrons was something called a Current. This Current was directly related to the number of electrons that passed by per second. And as the electrons left their holes behind, not knowing that the holes were taking a similar journey away from the P Type silicon, the difference between positive and negative charge grew--this was something called Voltage.

Voltage multiplied with Current equals Power.

It would not be quite accurate to say that the physicist attached both wires to a light bulb and filled the room with light. She is not an engineer, she is a resesarch experimentalist, and so she simply connects things to a computer and watches the graph of Current vs. Voltage take shape.

But in the interest of artistic license, she attached the wires to a light bulb, created a closed circuit, and smiled in the soft yellow glow of successful science.

Two week update!

Hello!

Here’s an update from the past nearly two weeks. It’s gone by so quickly, which makes me wonder if the rest of the summer will soon fly by. I suppose I’ll start with a summary of the things I’ve done, learned, and seen, then mention some of the interesting or weird things about being here, and end with some pictures!

We said goodbye to our families in Austin, then flew to New York, then onwards to Frankfurt! After landing in Frankfurt, we took a train to Würzburg, met the international tutor and got settled! While seeing the city for the first time, we also got our first German pretzels, which are quite yummy and available on almost every street. There are bakeries and gelato shops all over town, which usually makes for a delicious day. Interesting note: in Germany, you have to register with the city you take residence in, even if you’re only there for three months. The next days consisted of finding out more about the city/town (not really sure which one it is, since it’s small but has a lot of things in it), learning about campus and the buses, and meeting neighbors. The city closes really early compared to Austin, the stores close by 8pm on weekdays and are closed on Sundays. The buses only run till 11pm at the latest on weekdays but get sparse after 7pm. On weekends, they only run once or twice per hour, so good timing is necessary when planning adventures. We had a group meal on the first Thursday here, which was a public holiday (the Ascension of Christ), since holidays are like Sundays in that buses are minimal and grocery stores are closed. Another day, we stopped by the wine festival, which is a big event here in Würzburg, and walked around the many booths which sold wine and also some really good food.

On the first Friday here, I met my research group! I’m working with a graduate student named Till and two undergraduates named Paul and Johannes. We’re working on analysing extended jets from black holes using data from radio telescope surveys, which is pretty awesome. I realized that the younger version of myself would be so excited to find out that I’m studying black holes, since they’re one of the topics that originally directed me towards astrophysics. The research group that I’m in is really nice and treats its members kind of like an extended family. On the first day of being there, I got keys to my office (my own office! shared with Robby and Fatima) and the building, and was informed that they all (undergrads, grad students, and professors) eat lunch together every day and play soccer together every Tuesday (astrophysicists versus particle physicists). Recently, the department had a barbeque outside of the building and I had a cheese-burger, which is a veggie burger made of cheese and spices (which was actually really good). Note: as a non-drinking vegetarian, people told me it would be hard to fit in here (due to the prevalence of wine and sausage), but it’s actually quite possible to successfully operate here, since these people are willing to respect my choices. The astrophysics department is a pleasantly inviting environment, which was really reassuring. The astrophysics building itself is from the US army base that was recently converted to part of the university. The doors on each of the rooms (including my office!) have full chalkboards on the front and back, which will hopefully be useful for many pretty pictures. Another fun thing about the department is that they have comics on the doors (including xkcd) which is similar to RLM and thus felt faintly of home. I’m quite pleased with my group thus far!

Some of the other things that we’ve done include going to the bridge over the Main River and eating gelato, going to German mass (really pretty, but had no idea what was happening), getting hot soup from a vending machine (which was surprisingly good), eating a spinach hot pocket-like thing that was fresh made and warm, went to a cosmology colloquium, found out that in german university settings people knock on tables instead of applauding speakers, got to watch part of a remote observing night with MAGIC telescopes, went to a campus party that had really awesome fire dancers, and had a picnic.

Something interesting that I noticed here is that personal responsibility is really emphasized here. Even though in America we’re all about the whole “freedom!” thing, the people here are given lots of freedom and responsibility that seems like a lot more than in the States. One of the things that comes to mind is the bus system, in which they trust people to have actually purchased a pass even though you can enter through any of the doors on the bus. In the US, I think it’d be difficult to get people to actually pay for tickets if they knew they could just hop on the bus when it drives up without being asked for proof of payment. Also, the drinking age is much lower here, but it doesn’t seem to be as big of an issue as in the US, since they have a different culture related to alcohol that doesn’t seem to consider “getting totally wasted” as a success, but rather having a few drinks and “getting tipsy with friends” as a success. Another thing is that in my research group, there is no strict structure of when we have to come in and work, and Till told me directly that however much work I choose to do this summer is how much I’ll get out of it, and that I don’t have to do any work if I don’t want to, and that I get to choose my own hours and project. Of course, I’m planning on working a lot on the project because it’s quite interesting, but it rather surprised me how open and flexible, as well as trusting, of me they were. In research groups in the US it usually seems like there is a lot more structure and direction, so being in such a loose environment is interesting. Also, lab members are treated as equals here, which puts all of the undergrads, grad students, and professors at the same level where each person has useful and important information and perspectives, and everyone calls each other by first name, as opposed to the seemingly strict hierarchy in labs in the US.

Overall it’s a very interesting experience here so far, and it’s quite different from the US but also super fun and awesome.

Here are some photos from the trip so far!

Playing bananagrams at ABIA prior to departure!

Our office came with a set of MLP figurines.

My (guest) office! I really like the department logo!

Chalkboard front door of office, I already decorated it with the UniWü and UT astrophysics logos!

Follow the squirrel! We keep seeing white squirrels signs here, which is awesome.

Fire dancing!

Finally got a picture together!!