A visit from Michigan

Last Sunday I enjoyed a visit from Troy, MI. That's right, even though it is still my first trip outside the borders of Good Old Europe, I am having friends in the US, which don't live in Chicago. The ones I am talking about here I met in Berlin. Stefan used to be a PhD student colleague at the Fritz Haber Institute. Since he is married to an American (Liz), he has made his way to the US even before me. Lucky him was offered a position at a company called RHK, which manufactures scanning tunneling microscopes. Since Stefan actually built his own machine as part of his research, for which RHK electronics were used, he is very familiar with this equipment. When he attended a scientific meeting in Berlin, the people from RHK approached him with a job offer, which he eventually accepted. I am very happy for him and his family, because it seems that they are enjoying themselves very much in Michigan. Stefan and I are really good friends, and so I was very pleased when he announced that his wife, his two sons Max(imilian) and Alex(ander) (guess why I call them the "X-men" ...), and himself would be in town for the weekend. And despite their tight schedule they made it happen to meet me on the way home. Yay! While Liz was watching over the little ones, Stefan and I had a really good chat, just like back home. Of course it was all too short, but I enjoyed their visit very much, and I am planning (among other things) to repay the favor before going back to Germany for good. - As you may have noticed, Stefan and Liz named their (second) son Alexander, just like me. While they probably didn't name him after me, they didn't have any objections that I am their son's namesake, which makes me proud, you bet!