The Albino Squirrels: 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!