Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Dear readers of my blog,
I would like to wish all of you a (belated) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope your celebrations were joyful, and you were having a good time amongst your dear ones. Well, as things are the way they are this year, I was not able to reunite with my own family, but at least I could watch them celebrate via Skype. (What an ingenious invention, by the way!) Later on Christmas eve I had the pleasure and honor to be with the family of my landlords. More precisely, I was invited to celebrate with the family of the sister of the mother of my landlord family, and those of my landlords' family who were not sick ... fortunately I have been spared by this virus so far. I also spent Christmas day with them. Quite an experience for me, as the ceremony with my parents is very different.
Yesterday I went downtown to do some (window and real) shopping. I took a picture on the way: the building that disappears in the fog/clouds in the center of the photo in the upper left is the Hancock Tower. It is the fourth-tallest building in Chicago, after the Sears Tower, the Trump Tower (which has topped out this year), and the Aon Center, respectively. I will take a picture from up there another time!
I had been to the Water Tower Place before to buy presents for my Christmas hosts. This mall is located in a building that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It used to be home to the fire brigade of Chicago, but is now an eight-floor shopping mall. It is quite small by comparison, yet pretty nice inside, and you can find high quality prducts (mostly fashion) inside. You may deduce the level of poshness from the fact that the next McDonald's is several blocks away ... I could not resist and bought a Chicago Bulls hat (by the way, I was at the United Center when the Bulls defeated Utah Jazz!), two warm sweatshirts (with hoods) and some more items. At the floor that is second to the top there is a small shop called Auntie Anne's (upper right photo), which sells soft pretzels ("Brezeln"). Actually the dough is not 100% as it is in Germany, and they sell it in varieties that you don't get over there, but it was a very tasty experience nevertheless! I went for a garlic pretzel (for $2.99!), which was in fact so garlicky that I am now afraid I will never ever date anyone again for the rest of my life ... but sooo good! I also had a "traditional lemonade", which I also liked. Still, I normally don't bother having breakfast even when I work, so a little pretzel didn't fill my tummy for a long time. So I went to the said McDonald's on the way back to the L. As you can see (lower left photo), the service time is very fast! And I finally stuffed myself ... On the way home I felt quite warm. This was confirmed by the thermometer at Oak Park station, which displayed +50°F (some +10°C, lower right photo). According to my Firefox plugin we had even some +15°C (some 60°F) earlier on today. That is really impressive, as we had -1°F (some -20°C) just a week ago. I kid you not, we have temperature fluctuations of 35°C in one week! That is the full temperature span between the average summer and winter temperatures in Germany ... Speaking of the weather, I would like to share with you a really cool song about a guy who is fed up with the rain in Berlin, and has a leave for an indefinite time. It is something I can relate to ... My sister and her boyfriend gave me the album as a Christmas present.
Closing the circle on this topic I would like to say that I am well aware of the fact that it does not comply with political correctness in the US to wish Merry Christmas - instead one should say Happy Holidays, as there is also Hanukah, the jewish Festival of Lights at around the same time. Jewish people believe that Jesus is not the promised Messiah, and hence Christmas as the celebration of His advent makes no sense for them. Anyways, I am a very secular person, and hence Happy Holidays is probably what comes the closest to what this time of the year means to me: being reunited with the family, and wishing well for mankind.
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to everyone! Be it a healthy and happy time for all of you!

Daily Routine ... Interruped

I told you my days are becoming a routine more and more. The two top pictures (again) show you the house I am living in. They are just two days apart, marking the transition from fall to winter. I might have mentioned on an earlier occasion, but winter is to be taken serious here. And traditionally January is the coldest month of the year. Obviously the best is still to come. - I don't mean it sarcastically, it is an interesting experience for a change, yet I am not sure if I could stand it a lifetime long.
The next two images are related to my daily train ride. On the left one there is the train I've just missed ... that occurred quite a few times. I approach the L from my street (S Wesley Ave), and at the end of the street I can overlook quite a bit of the tracks and also the Eisenhower Expressway (see earlier entries on the "Ike"). Often I see the train arriving just when I arrive at the tracks, but I have to walk two blocks to the bridge across the tracks and the expressway, where the entrance to the station is. That means if I see the train I will have to wait for the next one ... That is exactly what I did, when I took the right picture, out of the train, just at the next station in the direction to "downtown and O'Hare", as it is announced. I took this one, because it reminds me of an article I had read recently. It is about the experiences of a German living in a suburb of an American city. He says that the suburbs are built so fast that infrastructure is often neglected in those areas. In addition the houses are all the same model, because variety would just cost time. The latter statement seems to hold true for the area depicted. I guess this is a valid indicator for the "sprawl" phenomenon.
The next two photos respectively show the skyline (Sears Tower), cloaked in heavy fog, and the door to my office, which I share with Thomas and Xioafeng. Thomas is really Toma, which is the transliteration of the French pronunciation of this name. While he is from Japan, his father liked to give him a French name. I must admit I have never heard of something like this. Anyways, Toma is a very hard-working person, yet also a very pleasant presence, and I am a bit sad that he will return home for good on Monday. Xiaofeng, by the way, is the senior postdoc of Dr. Trenary's group, and he is from China. - I am wondering if I will ever be as motivated as Mickey.
The bottom left photo is an inscription in the concrete pavement that someone seems to have left behind during the recent campaigning time. Remember president-elect Obama is a Chicagoan, and both the City of Chicago and the state of Illinois are strongholds of the Democrats.
So much for the daily routine; now I have to come to the part where it was interrupted. The last photo depicts the sitting governor of Illinois, Milorad "Rod" Blagojevic. Now guess what - he has been arrested for abusing the powers of his office. Among others he is charged for trying to sell (!) the vacated seat in the US Senate formerly occupied by Obama. Also, it seems he has tried to blackmail a children's hospital (!!!) to get some $50,000 for himself in exchange for providing financial support from his office. - Man, I really have to get my proper Chicago outfit! (The "Chicago Outfit" was the gang of Al Capone.)
PS: If you are no native speaker of English, you might want to click on the word "blag" (as short for Blagojevic) for LEO's translation to German. It's too good to be true!

More Recurring Sights

As I have been in Chicago for six weeks (as of yesterday), my life is growing into a routine more and more. Hence, the title I choosed seemed most proximate to me for this entry. More and more sights are becoming familiar, and I would like to share them with you. On the top left you see the house of my landlords. My two flatmates and I occupy the basement, with a separate entrance to the right of the front patio. The center left picture shows you one of the squirrels I sometimes encounter on the way to the L. Actually squirrels have a special meaning for me: when I was about to leave Kaiserslautern, where I obtained the degree of Diplomchemiker (i.e., the German equivalent of an M.Sc. in Chemistry), I told my mom that the only potential disadvantage of Berlin is that I would not have the chance to see cute squirrels in such an urban area. It turned out, however, that my office at the Fritz Haber Institute was facing a vast garden area with quite many a squirrel around. Very entertaining and very helpful in the art of procratination! Now, after leavin Berlin for good, I still encounter some squirrels on the way to work. I am aware of the fact that they have the potential of becoming a scourge, as they are quite smart and adoptive to urban lifestyle, just like rats. Yet I still consider seeing them as an enlightment. But I assume soon enough the squirrels will begin their hibernation and be seen only now and then for a while ... actually for quite a while! As you will see from the top right picture, the temperature has dropped dramatically! While we were enjoying mid-seventies (almost 20°C) on the day of the election, Chicago has been recently infested by the winter. And a winter here is a real one! Temperatures considered extreme in Germany (i.e., occuring only every fifteen years or so) are seen here on a regular basis. Today it was as cold as -14°C! That was quite some experience when I was waiting at the L station in Chinatown for the arrival of my friend and former colleague Junling, and his wife, Guifang. Junling was a collaborator of mine in Berlin, and by coincidence he is also in Chicago (he is actually at Northwestern University, on the Evanston campus, which is slightly outside the strict city limits of Chicago). He has been here for about 1.5 years, which means he was a bit faster with finishing his doctorate ... Recently his wife has come here also. They had been a couple before Junling had come to Berlin (where he stayed for two years), and they got married right after he got back. After his departure for Chicago they had been separated for another one year. Still they seem happier than ever together, which gives me hope that "long distance relationships" are not alsways doomed to fail ... But I meant to tell you about our afternoon in Chinatown, depicted in the three remaining photos. I was of course very happy to meet Junling again, and also to finally get introduced to his wife, who is a bit shy, but obviously a very gentle person. We then had lunch together in a very nice Chinese restaurant. We feasted on beef, duck, fish and beans for about two hours. (I was thinking I had decent skills with the chopsticks, but still people felt like they should provide me with tips and suggestions. But I managed to eat myself full.) Then we left that place for a short walk, inlcuding some sightseeing, but it was really cold and going home soon appeared as an attractive choice. But I have fallen for the area already, and once the weather becomes milder again, I will return there for more sightseeing. I plan on posting the best pictures here of course.
Since I have not posted anything for a few weeks, I would like to add my experience of the recent Thanksgiving holidays. Thanksgiving is always on the last thursday in November, which happened to be 11/27 this year. The tradition goes back to the earliest colonialization in the New World, when the settlers could not grow the local crops in the first place, but finally succeeded after some assistance by the natives. As you all certainly know, the principal dish is Turkey, a bird unbeknownst to the colonialists, and hence named after the islamic country Turkey, as it was custom in the occident in those days for anything unfamiliar. Now, that day I had the pleasure of being invited not only once, but twice, for a Thanksgiving meal. I spent a few hours in the afternoon with my landlords and their host of guests (get it?), but certainly long enough to get my share of the turkey and the side dishes, including my new favorite, sweet potatoes. Later I was invited for dinner at the house of my boss, Mike. So I had more Turkey and more sweet potatoes, and now even a share of the dessert, pumpkin pie and apple pie, à la mode (i.e., with ice cream). I also learned that apple pie is a genuine American dish, as can be derived from the expression, "as American as apple pie" (which I learned from Mike that night). - Yet I hope I will never be called "as German as brat". All in all I had two very enjoyable Thanksgivings on one day, which allowed me to gain insight into the American way of Life ... even though Mike and his family do not seem to cling to that canon very strictly. Most members of his family appear to be quite fluent in Japanese, as Mike returns to Japan on a regular basis, in order to maintain a fruitful collaboration with the very renowned RIKEN institute in Tokyo. His family often joins him; in fact, they will be there for Christmas.
That is it for today. The posts might become less frequent from now on, as my occupation here is growing into a real work. But I will try to be as good as possible, as I have learned that I have more readers than the few people who dare to leave a comment. The latter is still more than welcome, but if you would just like to catch up with my most recent undertakings, then you are also wholeheartily invited to do so!