Elevators

This post is about elevators. The picture shows the two in the Science and Engineering South (SES) building at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), which is where I work. More precisely, it is where my office is, as my lab is actually in the basement of the adjacent Research Resources Center (RRC). I am mentioning that because I run back and forth between my lab and my office several times per day, and the latter is on the top (fifth) floor. Unfortunately, these two elevators are not exactly reliable. A few months ago two students got stuck in the one with the small door, and for a while it was switched on only intermittently. Now, people are anyways supposed to take only the small one, and the big one requires a swipecard; yet in case one is down it makes sense, at least to me, to open the other one to everyone. This is possible, as it has occurred already, but often the people who switch off the small elevator for another repairment/maintenance/whatever forget to make the big one available for us humble non-swipecard-holders. Although I have to admit that taking the stairs once in a while would do me good (check out my recent confession when I bought a new suit), the lack of elevator service does take my swearing abilities to another level! (Did you note the pun?)
The other elevator, however, is much more pleasant. It is located at The Water Tower Place, a shopping mall in downtown Chicago (on the Magnificent Mile, or Michigan Avenue). The mall has eight floors, and the elevator takes you from ground via two straight to seven, in almost no time. Macy's, where I bought my suit a week ago, is just next door and can be reached from any level of the Water Tower Place. Oh, and by the way, mischievous me published this little clip specifically for my friend Dominik, who is afraid of heights.

Revolving Door

This post bodes both ill and good news. The former is that my colleague (referring to the previous post, my "associate") Jing is leaving the group, because her boyfriend has transferred from Chicago to Michigan. I am quite sad that she is quitting, because she is both a good scientist and fun to talk to. Yet the good news is that there is already a replacement, which I also enjoy training and working with. Hence the title of this post ...
The new student's name is Zhu, a former undergraduate from Peking University in Beijing, China. According to her, "you can call it the Harvard of China". That is of course an ambitious statement, but Zhu is quite fast in picking up whatever I teach her, even considering that she has some background in our technique already. She is also very friendly - she gave me a box of cookies, so I can sustain the work in the lab better. She is a graduate freshman (freshwoman? freshperson?), so she is currently quite busy with her own teaching duties and taking classes, but we still manage to make noteworthy progress in her training on the equipment. She is quite tough: tonight I gave up at around 9:30pm, and she returned to her office to continue her preparation for the next upcoming test. Suddenly I feel old!

Graduates Past, Present and Future

Good news from the graduation front! The three girls on the pictures have all passed their PhD defense. Congratulations (from left to right) to Dr. Panchatapa "Tapa" Jash, Dr. Aashani Tillekaratne and Dr. Jelena Jelic (from India, Sri Lanka and Serbia, respectively). Tapa had actually graduated in July, Aashani yesterday, and Jelena today. However, the photo was taken yesterday, at Aashani's celebration (that's why she is the only one dressed formally), and therefore the image is entitled "Graduates Past, Present and Future". Note that Aashani and Jelena are inclined toward Tapa - does that mean that they lean toward the past, and hence the PhD is actually elusive? In other words, citing the high school graduation motto of a college friend of mine, you are "King (Queen) for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime"? Well, I may contribute my own experience: although I don't go by "Dr. Alex" myself, this is how I am typically introduced to scientific guests to our lab and also potential new members of our group. Then new graduate students do treat me respectful, and for undergraduates I am already part of the academic establishment and hence to be ignored. Hence, welcome to my world, Dr. Tapa, Dr. Aashani and Dr. Jelena, but don't worry - I think it's definitely worth it!

Anniversary (Happy New Gear)

As of today, I have been in the United States of America for exactly one year. So, how did the U.S. of A. and I celebrate our anniversary? Well, I am a rather thrifty person (in my humble opinion, that is), but today I did spent a lot (and I mean: a LOT) of money just on a new outfit. Benefiting from the stores being open on sundays on this side of the Atlantic, I set out to grab myself some new gear for the conference I will attend in the near future. Shopping on Sundays is generally impossible in Germany, as it is considered unfair to mothers and fathers, who would be deprived of precious family time otherwise. For the same kind of attitude, people are much more prone to ride mass transit instead of driving that here. As for myself, I actually owned a car once, but could not afford to maintain it eventually, so I have been a pedestrian and customer of public transportation ever since. Even in Chicago ...
As I said, I went out to buy a new outfit, which means: a suit (jacket and pants plus belt), a shirt, a tie, and a pair of new shoes. One place to get all these things is Macy's, a department store chain (much like Kaufhof in Germany). One Macy's branch is located just next to the Water Tower Place, one of the local malls. I quickly found everything I needed, which pleased me - in Germany it is much harder to find the right size for me. That has to do with the fact that I am 5 ft. 10 ", and I weigh about 220 lbs. At this point a statement of my colleague Jing crossed my mind; she said: "When I came to the U.S. I realized that I am not fat." Check an earlier post for a picture, so you can make up your own mind. I believe she was being silly, but I am still a bit impressed that even a guy of my, well, physical presence can find the right clothes in almost no time.
Yet a make-over does not come for free. I don't think my choice was unreasonable or particularly luxurious, and yet it all adds up to about the same as the air fare for coming to Chicago from Germany. A malicious person might say, so much for those Euros all being - once they get the chance they turn into mindless shop-a-holics. But at least I bought my things at a place that has a five-pointed red star in its logo, didn't I?
Oh, and if you want to see the new outfit, please wait for the conference pictures. It is the Fall Meeting of the American Vacuum Society, which is going to be held in San José, CA, and I have made arrangements to spend the weekend after in San Francisco. In other words, stay tuned for a whole bunch of pics to come!

Atlanta

October 2-4, 2009, mark a change for me. On these days I have left the area commonly referred to as Chicagoland for the first time since my arrival. This means that until then I had experienced the United States as a piece of land that extends from Lake Michigan to Naperville (a western suburb of Chicago, where I attended a small meeting in May 2009) from East to West, and from O'Hare airport to Chicago's Chinatown from North to South. Rumor has it that there is more to this country ...
This first trip of mine within the U.S. (I am confused: is that a "domestic" trip, despite my being German?) merges two special occasions. First, my friends Heather and Jon have returned home and settled down in Atlanta. And second, the date we chose for our reunion comprises the German national holiday (October 3), which commemorates the reunification of the German Democratic Republic ("East Germany") and the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") in 1990, after the downfall of the Berlin Wall (and the Iron Curtain) about a year before.
By the way, the date of the Reunifcation Day was actually chosen randomly, because the naturaly choice, the first anniversary of the downfall of the Berlin wall on November 9, 1989, was considered inappropriate. Why? Because by some evil coincidence this day also marks the anniversary of the Reichspogromnacht in 1938, a night of excessive violence against Jewish institutions and shops commissioned by the Nazi government. And nobody wants to see inconvincible neo-nazis abusing the German national holiday for remembering the wrong thing. (Yes, history is that complicated back home!) By the way, the pogroms were originally called Reichskristallnacht, but for reasons of political correctness it is now considered inappropriate to use a term like "crystal" for a night of violence.
I seemed to me a good idea to meet my friends on a day that is historically very important for my home country, which had also hosted them for a good two years. Indeed, it continued our tradition of celebrating this day together, because Heather and Jon were in Germany at the two preceeding installments.
While for some reason the celebrations in Berlin were a bit bigger than in Atlanta, we still had a terrific time together. Ultimately, I can only speak for myself, of course, but I am under the impression that Heather is pleased that she could show me so much of her second home. (By another coincidence, she also went to college in Atlanta.)
When I arrived Friday night, Heather picked me up at the airport, which is actually the busiest in the world, because it is the main hub of Delta Airlines. She made an attempt of showing me the skyline by taking the city highway, which was more than successful: traffic in Atlanta is so bad that there is stop-and-go any time of the day and even night! But we hadn't seen each other for a while, and we are both quite chatty, so it did not matter at all. We did make it home, after getting some (local) beer from a grocery store, whose alcohol licence ended at 11:54pm (sic!) that day. Then we continued to chat until 2am, when we finally decided to hit the sack for a bit.
The next morning I also said hi to Jon, who had to grade homework papers of his students (Jon is now a professor) the night before, and usually doesn't stay up late. While Heather was making pancakes (yum yum!) for the three of us, I got the chance to take a picture of Fermi the cat. It is quite funny that he is named after Enrico Fermi, a physics Nobel laureate, because the energetically highest occupied electron states in an atom are called the Fermi edge in his honor, and really this cat is living on the edge, as you can see from the photo! We then watched Heather play pick-up soccer, before going downtown to see the Atlanta Braves vs. the Washington Nationals. The Braves are the local baseball team, who play at Turner Field, which is named after their former owner, (former) media tycoon Ted Turner, and is also the stadium where the Summer Olympics were held in 1996. Mr. Turner had negotiated a deal with the city of Atlanta, that he would pay the lion part of the Olympic Stadium, if the city paid for the tranformation into a baseball stadium. Indeed, the site does not resemble a former Olympic Stadium at all. - After an exciting baseball game, in which the Braves lost in the eleventh inning (the game was tied after nine and ten), we went out for dinner. Keeping the faith to Mr. Turner, we went to Ted's Montana Grill , where I had bison meat for the first time in my life (yum yum again!), and where I also took that photo of Heather and Jon (center left). And eventually we had a few beer on Germany in a nearby bar. Eventually I became as round as the giant Braves ball outside Turner field (top right photo).
Sunday morning marked an early start for Heather, because she is much more devoted to Catholicism than her name suggests. Meanwhile, I managed at least to have a shower. This time we had a Southern breakfast at a local diner. Lesson learned: southern food is rich and plenty! Definitely my cup of (sweet) tea! Then Jon and I had to say goodbye already, because his professional duties were occupying him again. (This workload is one of the reassons why I will refrain from continuing my career in Academia.) But Heather and I went on with sightseeing: we visited the Georgia Aquarium, the biggest aquarium in the world, where we found Nemo (bottom left photo); and we completed our tour at the World of Coca Cola (bottom right photo - I picked a soccer motif). Then we got back to the car, and Heather dropped me off at the airport. I was back home at midnight, completely exhausted, ready for a weekend break. And yet very, very happy!
As I mentioned at the outset of this post, the trip to Atlanta marked a change for me, but October 3, 1990, marked a much bigger change for Germany. You could say that Germany was rebooted - hence the photo of my shoes (I had to take them off for airport security), which are (almost) in German colors.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

I have come to Chicago on October 25, 2008. While my original assigment was just for one year, I have made an effort to acquire some funding for an extension of my time here. Fortunately, it turned out successful: the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) has granted me a fellowship from 09/01/2009 thru 31/08/2010. Yay! This is actually a bit surprising, because I specifically indicated in the application that I have no intentions of pursuing a life-long academic career, which I thought had been the knock-out criterion for my other application with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
The only drawback I see in this is that I will have to watch the 2010 soccer World Cup (held in South Africa) while being in the US. It's not that soccer isn't any popular here, it is actually the fastest growing sport around - in the group phase at the beginning the matches usually start at around 3pm local time, which is in the morning in Chicago. Hence, it will be harder to keep track of the events than the last time (in 2006, when it was held in Germany).
But of course I can cope with that, as long as I can continue my work. In fact, just last week we had a breakthrough with the experiments, which demonstrated that the work I am being paid for now is actually possible ...

Birthday Outings

Like any other human (and non-human) being, I have my birthday coming up pretty much each and every year. I am not going to announce the exact date, nor how old I turned this year, as I assume that anyone who bothers reading this blog knows these facts anyways. However, I can give a small hint: it was between the previous and the current post. (And yes, the two months in between are exactly how often I am capable of updating this blog ...) The reason why I mention my birthday at all is because I was fortunate to celebrate it even twice this year. It was not my idea - I am blessed with formidable friends who just don't know each other well enough to hang out together. Hence, on the eve of my birthday my friend Carolina (top image, right), and her friends Jorge (left) and Tatiana (center) (all Colombian students at the University of Illinois at Chicago) took me out to the Beer Bistro. Nomen est omen, they have an as large as international variety of beer, which cured me from the condition of thinking that Germany is the epicenter of beer brewing. In the words of a former scientific advisor of mine (a Londoner turned faculty at the University of Glasgow): "It was quite a hoot!" This particularly applies to the dish that Tatiana ordered later on, which was decorated with a bunch of flaming hot peppers, and we made eating them a dare ...
The second (and, to date, last) night out to celebrate my 2009 (but not 2009th) birthday was actually two weeks late. That is because the person in charge, James (bottom image, left), is currently writing his dissertation, as to take his defense before the end of the year. Having completed a similar task not too long ago, I know all too well how time-consuming and tedious this is. Yet we did agree on a date, and James and his fiancee Jenn(y) took me out to Coalfire, a pizza place famous for its coalfire-prepared pizza. Now, in order to fully appreciate the importance of pizza to Chicagoans, you are invited to read about Deep Dish Pizza Chicago Style on Wikipedia. I have tried deep dish pizza myself, and despite my (in all modesty) noteworthy abilities in food intake, I usually surrender after half a medium-sized deep dish pizza. Considering that it is actually a kind of cheese pie, I still do pretty okay ... At Coalfire, however, the pizza is thin crust, which is a lot closer to the Italian original. The owner has experimented with superhot ovens, and he came up with a way of making a pizza within five (or so) minutes of placing the order. Although the pizza was a bit burned on a few spots, it was just purely delicious! I was quite sad that the place was closed when we went for a second time, when I was repaying the favor on the occasion of James' birthday, just a few weeks after mine. But we had deep dish instead at a place I hadn't tried before, so it was still a success.
By the way, Chicago is famous for three kinds of food: deep dish pizza, Italian beef, and Chicago style hot dogs. I am still waiting for a good opportunity to try the last, but as I will outline in the following post, I still have some time left.