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:
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| "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:
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| "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:
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| "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:
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| "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:
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| "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:
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| "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:
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| "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.
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