First Things First, or What?

The original idea behind this little blog of mine was to keep all of my friends posted during my American adventure from 2008 - 2010. However, a fact I haven't addressed too often here is that Chicago wasn't the first foreign place I have lived in, and today I would like to report a little bit on that. The reason for this is that earlier on today I got word from my former advisor, Dr. David Lennon, (who is a "supervisor" in British English, actually an Englishman, and anyways someone I look up to as a scientist and a person alike) that the work I was involved in finally got accepted for publication. By a funny coincidence, some of the people I later worked with in Berlin are co-authors of this paper as well. So, Chicago didn't mark my first stay in an anglophonic country, even though the accents from Chicago and Glasgow couldn't probably be any more different from each other ... the latter being by far the thickest I have encountered so far. (But in a sense the two cities share being rooted in working class culture.)
I am particularly fond of my Glaswegian experience, because it was there that for the first time I was treated like a real researcher. Ten years back the Anglo-American and the German educational systems were distinctly different from each other, as only more recently Germany and the rest of the EU introduced the three-tier Bachelor / Master / Doctor degrees; formerly the German undergraduate level ended with a Diploma, a Magister, or a Federal Exam, all being almost peers to a Master's degree, and also taking respecively more time. As a student of Chemistry at the TU Kaiserslautern, I was required to do three six-week research projects, one in each of the principal topics of Inorganic, Organic, and Physical Chemistry. I was pleased to learn that my alma mater had signed collaboration treaties with various other universities across Europe to facilitate the mutual exchange of students. (Foreign experience is a much-cherished value over here.) In the Sciences this is particularly easy, as it isn't so important where the lab is located that the student is working in; and the core of the deal was that Kaiserslautern students could substitute one of their three domestic research projects with the one abroad. There were two major benefits for me: I got to gain for the first time some international work experience, and it was handed to me on a silver platter: while it is usually a bureaucratic mess to temporarily leave one's home university to attend another one, this agreement was specifically designed to encourage just that. Oh, and there was even a little bit of money involved to cover my travel expenses. A triple Hooray to the "Erasmus program"!
As a result of this wonderful invention I could go to Glasgow from early April to mid July 2002. As I have hinted above, people from where I completed my doctorate were also involved in the Glasgow project - it so happened that the day I introduced myself to David Lennon in his office, Hajo Freund from Berlin called him to talk about the results ... and since they were confidential, I, as the new guy, actually had to leave the room for the time of their conversation. Still, I added my little share to the progress, and at the end of the day I even earned the second spot on the authors' list. (The person in front of me is Alastair, Scottish for Alexander.) And due to the longer duration of this assignment I got involved more in the science than I could have ever been in the other two undergraduate projects in Germany, which gave me much satisfaction. (Sadly, the other two didn't give me much satisfaction at all, for different reasons.)
However, the highlight of this time clearly was a meeting of all research groups from Scotland that work in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. This meeting has a tradition and takes place every year in May, in a youth-hostel style cabin on the shores of Lake Tay in the Southern Highlands. I retrieved a representative photograph from the depths of the Internet to share with you the beauty of the place. The meeting consumed four days, of which only half were dedicated to science, and the other half to outdoor activities. So it came to pass that I engaged in the Scottish national sport called hillwalking, which is a euphemism for serious uphill hiking in the Highlands. My legs felt like jelly, but I did make it all the way to the peak of the hill, where I saw patches of snow as big as 10x10 m^2 even in late spring. I am a fan of eating, so to speak, but the little snack we had there was especially delicious! - The next day my legs were incredibly sore, but I went on a little bike ride with another student participant, and at night I managed to win the ping-pong tournament. (In the final game I beat David, my boss.) But I guess the fact that we had a ping-pong table in our garage when I was a kid probably gave me a head start ...
By the way, there are two reasons why I had to download someone else's picture to illustrate Lake Tay. Digital cameras were the exception rather than the rule, and hence way beyond my tiny student's budget. And I also relied on my then-girlfriend, a hobby photographer, to take the pictures for me when she came to visit me for two weeks; but we broke up shortly after my return to Germany, so all the pictures stayed with her. As sad as I was at the time, being single granted me the freedom to fully dedicate myself to science ever since. You might say, that ever since this break-up I have been in league, but not in bed, with science ...

Luck Be a Lady Tonight

... that's the title of a classic Frank Sinatra song, which appropriately describes my most recent night out. On Good Friday (yesterday) I received a call from an old friend of mine, Anne, to hang out the same night with herself and our common friends, Cornelia (Conny) and Nicole. It was some sort of a tiny class reunion, since the four of us all graduated in 1996. Nicole did not actually attend Albertus Magnus Gymnasium, but Leibniz Gymnasium, the other secondary school in St. Ingbert from which a graduation grants access to all university studies. However, it is typical that schools in the same town collaborate in the two final years, so as to provide all students their preferred selection of classes. Therefore, Nicole was in my French class, and we took the final written exam called Abitur together at AMG. The Abitur is anyways centralized in our home state, meaning all students in the entire Saarland who selected a specific class at the advanced level (of which each student must pick three) will take the exact same final at the exact same time.
It was a very nice opportunity to reunite with the three, whom I haven't seen in many years. Anne was the one I had seen last - at the wedding of Dominik and Simone, in August 2004. So we had a lot of catching up to do, since Anne (the valedictorian of Albertus Magnus Gymnasium's class of 1996, and now an employee of the local government) and Nicole (a pharmacist) have children, Conny (an MD) recently finished her specialization as a surgeon), and I spent much time on doing scientific research in Berlin and Chicago.
After a tasty dinner Nicole had to leave us, but I seized the day and got the picture that ornates this post. From left to right: Anne, Conny, Nicole. The former two and I went on to a bar to have one more drink, with some more chit-chat being done, until we called it a night.
Afterwards I was forced to admit that there is indeed life outside the science community ...

Celts Exhibition and Vapiano Restaurant ... with Children!

Yesterday I went on a long-planned excursion, together with my friends Simone and Dominik and their children Xavier and Noëlle. Simone, Dominik and I are members of the Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium's "Class of 1996"; a Gymnasium being the type of secondary school that grants university admission. Since our friendship goes back such a long time, I was offered to become the godfather of their first child, an honor I gladly accepted (however, not without pointing out that, being a skeptic, I may not be the prime choice for this duty).
After being away in Berlin (2004-2008) and Chicago (2008-2010) I am quite happy that I am currently able to spend a lot more time with Xavier, and of course also with Noëlle. Often I just pass by their house when I go out, but this time we actually had an appointment - we had planned for a long time to see the Celts exhibition at the nearby town of Völklingen. The top left photo shows the four of them on the train. Taking the train was a prudent choice, since we could have a little walk in our hometown (St. Ingbert) to reach the station, and at Völklingen the exhibition site was right next to the station there. The top right photo shows the outside of the place, which is actually an UNESCO World Heritage in its own right. Decades ago, our region used to be an industrial hotspot, producing tons of charcoal and steel, but having found no worthwile replacement, we currently have significant problems with unemployment. (Ultimately, if there were more high technology companies, I might have found a job myself already.) So, this World Heritage site is a now-defunct steel factory, which you can see on the bottom left photo. Actually, this was a suitable idea, because the Celts were the Iron Age people of Europe. Yet, as I have learned, there was never a coherent Celtic culture, and they didn't perceive themselves as one people, but rather as independent tribes with significant differences among them; the main thing they had in common was actually the ability of making items from iron. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures inside the exhibition, because it didn't appear I was permitted to do so. Anyways, it was worth the money, and I am glad we went there.
Actually, we were accompanied by Maria and Wolfram (friends of Simone's and Dominik's), their son Jannis, and his friend Valeria. That means we were a group with four children, the oldest of which (Xavier) will turn 8 this summer. For the little ones the exhibition maybe wasn't the excitement of their lifetimes, but I don't think they were having an outspokenly bad time, either. Nevertheless, they obviously liked the next stop much better - the Vapiano restaurant at Saarbrücken, which is about half-way back to St. Ingbert. We had some Italian refreshments (pasta, pizza, salad), and even though I would translate Vapiano as "tread lightly", the kids had all the action there that they couldn't have at the Celts exhibition ... The bottom right photo shows everyone at the dinner table.
Anyways, it was a great day, and I would prefer to do more trips of this kind!

Nina's Birthday Party (Merzbach), Porta Nigra (Trier)

Yesterday I went on a day trip to visit my old friend Nina, her husband Jörg and their baby boy, Moritz. Much to my own shame I must confess that I did not attend Nina's and Jörg's wedding, because it took place while I was in Chicago. (Likewise, I skipped another friend's wedding for the same reason, and since she also had a baby boy recently, I may go on another trip soon(ish), and I will then report on that, too ... Ironically, my friend Homa from Chicago is getting married these days, and I was forced to turn down her invitation as well.)
Nina (to the left in the top left photo) and I became friends in college. We both were chemistry majors in Kaiserslautern (which you may find on the map of Germany that shows my travel route a bit to the east of the starting point near Saarbrücken), and so were in fact most people you see on the first photo. Not all of them were in our year, but Britta and Stephanie ("Steffi") were. Britta is the blonde holding Moritz (I apologize for using the wrong shutter setting for this shot), and Steffi is the brunette watching over the snoozing baby.
Nina, Steffi and Britta form an interesting triangle. Nina and Steffi go back a long way, having been even high school class mates. If I remember correctly, chemistry wasn't the first choice for either one, but that's what they ended up with. (In the first two years they were roommates.) Going with chemistry apparently didn't hurt them too much, I guess, since both met their husbands. Britta, on the other hand, was Nina's companion in Glasgow, Scotland, for one semester abroad; an adventure I was also a part of. Steffi and Britta later went on to do a PhD in physical chemistry with the same advisor (I left that group for Berlin after the final undergraduate thesis), while Nina did hers in organic chemistry.
Now, yesterday's journey of mine began as early as 6:30 am, when I left the house to walk to the train station. At around 7, I hopped on the first train, which took me as far as Saarbrücken ... only a 10 mile ride. After a ten minute layover, I hopped on another train to Trier, which took 90 minutes, and where I had a full hour wait until I could continue. From Trier I went on to Euskirchen. There I only had to cross the platform, where the last train to Rheinbach was already preparing for its departure. Since I was a little early for the party, I had a snack at that train station, until I took a bus to Merzbach, where Nina, Jörg and Moritz currently reside. Total duration, one way: seven hours. I stayed at the party for about three hours ... then I had to leave to be home without spending a night at a train station in the goonies. Jörg gave me a ride back to Rheinbach, and guess what? The train I was supposed to take from there was cancelled! That meant an extra 30 min wait before I could ride back to Euskirchen (only 15 min). There I found, much to my relief, that a train to Trier would leave soon, and be there at 8 pm. From there trains depart for Saarbrücken every hour until very late (and more than a few actually go as far as Homburg or Kaiserslautern for which they have to pass through my hometown, St. Ingbert).
In Trier, I was stalled for another hour, so I decided to do a quick sight seeing trip. Trier happens to be the oldest settlement in Germany, being founded more than 2,000 years ago by the Romans. The so-called Porta Nigra (or Black Gate), has been left by them and can be visited. It is located only a few minutes from the train station in Trier (which the Romans used to call Augusta Treverorum), so I decided to seize the day and take a few pictures. (I am sharing my favorite with you on the bottom left.) - Eventually, I rode to Saarbrücken, and since this train does go to Homburg, but not on Saturdays, I had another final layover there.
When you look at the map, you will find my traveling route indicated. I find it a bit ridiculous that was on the train(s) for five hours one way, when the net traveling time was actually only 3.5 hours. But there are two problems: first, I used the so-called Happy Weekend Ticket (39 €), by which you can use all short-distance trains on one weekend day (which must be designated prior to the trip). You may even bring a long a few others, but the ticket must be signed, so the holder must be present and cannot pass the ticket on to someone else when he doesn't need it anymore.
The second problem is that there weren't any long distance trains available that would go, say, from Saarbrücken to Cologne on my route, because (I think) those can't used the existing tracks. Taking long distance trains would have deviated me so much that the trip would have been only (much) more expensive, but not faster.
I wish they would introduce a fast connection from Saarbrücken to Cologne, or at least make the layovers significantly shorter, but another problem is that there are more hills than population between Trier and Euskirchen/Cologne, so this will probably remain wishful thinking in the foreseeable future.
Nevertheless, I had an awesome day, and it was particularly nice to reunite with so many friends, even for just a short time. Additionally, the weather improved a lot throughout yesterday, from rainy-gray to spring-like. I think I have to see them again soon, also because it has just occurred to me that I didn't taste any of Nina's father's products yesterday - the man runs his own vineyard!

Family Reunion

Recently it was my father's birthday. For an appropriate celebration of this event we went to a nice local restaurant. We, meaning my father, my mother, myself, and my sister Katharina (yes, "the Great", just like Alexander "the Great"). I don't get to see my sister very often, as she lives now in Hamburg, at the North Sea, which is about 500 miles north from our town. In fact, this was the first time I saw her in the flesh since I had returned from the United States. (Ironically, she is currently pursuing a degree in psychology, which has more to do with the mind than the flesh ...)
The restaurant we went to is called Die alte Brauerei, or The Old Brewery. I don't have a definitive proof, but it seems very obvious that the building used to house the facilities of the Becker brewery, our local beer brand, which later got merged with a larger competitor (from Homburg, the capital of our county, so it was still a local product) and was eventually discontinued. The newer facilities of the Becker brewery are located just across the main street, which is called Kaiserstraße, or Emperor's road, after Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte; note that the German Kaiser and the Latin Caesar are cognates. The Kaiserstraße is nowadays a second-tier highway (and as such is has a general speed limit of 100 km/h, unlike the German Autobahn), but already back in the 19th century it connected Paris, France, with Mainz, now a state capital in central Germany (next to Frankfurt).
The restaurant itself is above everyday lunch category, at least for my budget, and also my parents'. Nevertheless, the ambient gives it a distinct down-to-earth feel, while on the other hand the French owners and waiters add the right amount of out-of-the-ordinary. As you can see from the top picture, the part that faces Kaiserstraße has an archway through which the yard and the actual restaurant are reached. Note the timber framing (middle picture) - it really is an old building.
Finally (bottom picture), you can see the other three members of my immediate family sitting on one table, waiting for the feast to begin. - My mother suggested that we go there again once I found a new employment.

"Bratäpfel"

The original purpose of the Owl's Nest was to share my American experience with my friends in Europe and elsewhere. However, today I would like to talk a little about my European life; namely I would like to present my parents. The man with the hat and the the headphones is my father; he is having breakfast in the early morning of the second Advent sunday. He likes music a lot, and he was my initial guitar teacher, so he wears the headphones a lot, also when he cleans the house, for instance. The lady below is my mother, sitting on her desk. Note the little web cam on top of the monitor: it was used to chat with me over Skype while I was in the United States. Unfortunately my own web cam and also my headset recently broke, so I got to use theirs to chat with my friends back in Chicago. (This web cam has a built-in microphone, so I only need to use my own headphones in order to avoid feedback effects.)
Finally, the bottom picture displays a special treat my mother prepared for me a few weeks ago: Bratäpfel (fried apples). You know all very well that I like to stress on language topics, and here is another one: "braten" means "to fry", and "Apfel" means "apple". As I have mentioned before, all German nouns are capitalized, and we tend to agglutinate them; also if the second part in English is actually an adjectiv. There are virtually no limits for how many nouns can be glued together. One famous example (that is used to impress those who learn German as a foreign language) is Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänsmütze ... Donau = the river Danube, Dampf = steam, Schifffahrt = ship navigation, Kapitän = captain, Mütze = hat. (Note the additional letter s before Kapitän - in some sense it works as the glue between the enclosing parts.)
Oh, but I got carried away a little, so back to the Bratäpfel. There are also two dots on the letter ä, which changes the pronunciation a bit; from close to the u in "but" to close to the a in "many". While the plural is always indicated by a final s in English, there are more than a handful ways to do it in German, not counting combinations. Adding a letter s works for some nouns, changing a vowel a/o/u to ä/ö/ü, respectively, for others. Unfortunately there are no clear rules, so anyone who dares learn German must memorize the plural forms of all the nouns. Really, I prefer eating Bratäpfel than studying their silly German grammar!

Happy New Year

Dear all,

I would like to wish you a Happy New Year 2011, with good health, good luck, and lots of happiness!

I did not really celebrate the beginning of this new year, but I certainly have great hopes in 2011. It be the year in which I find employment. So, I do not have any photos from the fireworks that welcomed the new year, but I took some on Christmas Eve. Complying with a request from a friend, I give you: our Christmas tree the moment all the candles were lit, the dinner table just before the feast, and the kitchen table with the starters. Our annual ceremony comprises the singing of a few Christmas carols, followed by the wishing well, and the gift giving. It only takes about 20 min, because the candles on the tree are real, so we do not want to let them set the tree on fire. (In fact, I had to ask to have a few of them re-lit, so I could take this picture properly.) I am afraid, though, that my camera was not expensive enough to fully capture the beauty of all the burning candles in an otherwise dark room.
As soon as the candles are extinguished (using a special spoon that only serves this purpose), we switch on the light and proceed to the dinner table (which is just to the right of the tree, but you cannot see it in the top picture). My mother is a very talented cook, and on Christmas Eve she usually outdoes herself! (Hail to the chef!) The shrimp puff pastries you see on the bottom picture, which we had as starters, were outstandingly awesome! (Okay, I just made that up, but it was so good that it does deserve a bit of linguistic creativity.) The ensuing main dish (Beef Stroganoff, Spätzle, and Rotkraut (shredded red cabbage)) did not fall short of it. - It may be a stereotype that Germans eat a lot of kraut, but I see Rotkraut as slightly more sophisticated than Sauerkraut, and it is served as a side dish to meat as fancy as game. (Sauerkraut goes well with simpler dishes such as a sausage.) Anyways, we used to have a different tradition until last year, but this one is healthier. Still, we had a final treat: plums cooked in plum spirit, served with vanilla ice cream. I did have nice Christmas celebrations the two antecedent years, but there ain't no place like home!
You see four chairs on the table - my father sat on the far end, and I was across the table from him. My mother sat to my right, and my only remaining grandparent, my paternal grandmother (who lives in a separate apartment in our house) , to my left.
On Boxing Day, as the British call it (Dec 26), I visited my godson Xavier and his sister Noëlle, whose parents Dominik and Simone invited me over. The parents are high school friends of mine and actually the only people I still keep in touch with on a regular basis from those times. (I exchange notes with other people more randomly, though.)
In total I am quite happy with my gifts. Among other things, I got a painting (hand made by seven-year old Xavier - amazing!), a pretty hefty puzzle cube, and an acoustic bass guitar. The latter has been my wish for some time, so I mentioned it when my mother asked me what I would like Santa to bring for me. I must have been a very good child this past year, or maybe I am just a totally spoiled brat! Either way, I love my new instrument, but it is more difficult than I thought to carry my (anyway rather mediocre) guitar skills over to playing the bass. But I only have it for a bit more than a week, so I need to be patient ... However, do not expect any demonstration before the year 2020!