Dies mal hab's geschafft

Last night I cashed in the Karma I earned in Munich when I just missed getting a ticket to the rehearsal of the Munich Philharmonic in the form of a ticket to a Vienna Philharmonic concert in Köln. With my experience in Munich still fresh my recollection, I arrived at the concert hall one hour before the tickets went on sale to find a line, but not so long of a line that my hopes were dashed. So I stood there, read a book, and prayed it wouldn't start to rain. I ended up with one of the last five standing places. In Europe it's actually fairly common for concert halls to offer standing places. Basically I ended up standing behind the last row of chairs way in the back. Actually the worst part being so far back. The three hours of standing on my feet I could handle.
On the program were Beethoven's 6th symphony (the one from Fantasia) and Schumann's 1st Symphony, both good works. I was particularly excited to hear Beethoven's 6th since I know it so well. As expected the symphony orchestra was amazing. The musicians played flawlessly and each section was absolutely clean. The violin section didn't sound like 12 violinists playing together, but rather the players were so perfectly in sync with each other that it sounded like one person playing 12 violins. And each section was like that. Including the basses. The bass section consisted of 8 men, all of whom played German bow. There's nothing quite like hearing 8 basses pizzicato perfectly together. (It sounds simple. But believe me, getting a bass section to pluck simultaniously is a challenge.) I was not as impressed with the wind sections, but the french horns and bassoons were very good. (For the benefit of my sisters.)
What the group had in terms of technical brillence, it lacked somewhat in gusto and musicality. At the beginning of the concert, I had the feeling that they holding back and was waiting for them to let it out so to speak. As the concert progressed the music began to have a bit more umph in it. I may have a different perspective if I'd had better seats. Way in the back I never really felt inundated in sound. Next year I'll have to go to a New York Symphony concert and see how it compares.
Otherwise work is about to drive me absolutely crazy. Now that I've figured out why my FFT's looked like Quatsch, the next step is to be able to reliably read out the FFT's from the spectrometer. You might be asking yourself why I didn't have this solved before hand, and I really don't have a good answer for you. But I really don't have a good answer for anything that has to do with this thing. Why didn't I just stick with observational astronomy?
On a happier note the weather has now been "warm" for a week. I hope to be able to make another trip to the Siebengebirge this weekend for a bit more wandering.
All for now. Have a good weekend everyone!

Warm weekend

That's right. We've finally got some warm weather this weekend. But first I'll start with an update of the week's activities.
Wednesday evening was a friendly game between the German and American national soccer teams. I was totally psyched for the Americans to win so I could give my colleagues a hard time about it the next day. Sadly it was not to be. It didn't take long before I realized the American team was going to have a hard time beating Germany, but at half time the score was 0:0 and I had hope. Sadly 30 seconds into the second half my hopes started to vanish. Within the first 20 minutes of the second half Germany scored 3 goals. Then a fourth. Finally in the last 5 minutes America scored a goal but only because one of the American players crashed into the German goalie and the ball rolled in. Afterward I read that most of the good American players were not there, so we may still have a chance to make it out of the preliminary rounds in the World Cup. Not that Americans actually care about soccer, but it's so much a part of things here, I have to be somewhat into it.
Work actually took a big step forward this week. As you may remember, I've been trying to figure out for weeks now why it is that my FFT makes no sense. Well a post doc who's more or less associated with my lab plotted up my FFT's, and they looked more or less perfect. In the end I finally figured out that it was a problem with data types and lengths and in fact it had been working all this time. Annoying, but at least I understand what's going on.
Like I mentioned, the weather this weekend was great. It was the first truly spring-like weather we've had. It was a little cloudy and rained a bit, but the temperatures reached the lower 60's. Today my roommate and I drove down to the Siebengebirge, which is a smallish mountain range on the east side of the Rhine and a little south of Bonn. We found a pleasant trail that lead to the remains of an old castle on top of one of the mountains. From the "Drachenfels" you could see for miles. We had an amazing view of Bonn and the surrounding area as well as the mountains to the South. I think we could even see the skyline from Köln. It was so good to be outside. Unfortunetly I didn't have my camera with me, but I hope to go back sometime and take some pic's.
Otherwise I'm doing really well. This the last week of vacation. I've enrolled in a extracuricular Irish Dance class for this semester through the University of Bonn. The days are now noticibly longer, and the weather's starting to turn springlike.
Also, for those of you how keep track of such things, we sprang into Daylight Saving Time this week, so it's currently 8 hours between here in Iowa until you also spring ahead.
Anyho! It's getting late. Have a good week!

Epic of Munich

Gruess Gott!
This past week I took a little vacation to Bavaria. On Monday I took a train to Munich. It was a very pleasant trip and an excellent opportunity to see some more of Germany's landscape. Monday afternoon I arrived in my youth hostel. It's called "Euro Youth Hostel", and I highly recommend it if you go to Munich. It's in a pretty old building and not far from the main train station. On the ground floor there's a big lounge with a bar, TV, and lots of couches and chairs where the other backpackers hangout, drink beer, and chat. There happened to be a lot of Americans there because of Spring Break.
It was already pretty late on Monday when I got there, so I just wondered around the center of town an bit and grabbed a bite to eat. That evening I met some cool (and not so cool) people in the hostel, including Mike, one of the few major annoyances of my trip. For example he's the sort who will ask if you want another beer, and when you say no, he asks why not and pesters you every five minutes until you just give in and say yes. I hate people like that. Anyho!
Tuesday I decided to start my adventures in Munich with the Alte Pinakothek, which housed alot of european art from the 14th to early 18th centuries. It was interesting, but after the three hours I was getting a little sick of looking at paintings with Christian themes. Apparently there was nohing else to paint back then, or probably more likely, there was no one else to pay for the paintings. I'm exagerating a bit, but not by a much. I did find a new artist that I rather enjoy: Jan Brueghal der Aelter.
After I'd had my fill of high culture, I had lunch and headed to the Nymphenburger Castle. I really don't know the history of this castle, but gardens in front and behind it were pretty even though they were covered in snow. The weather on Tuesday was actually somewhat agreeable, so I decided I'd best do all the outdoor stuff on that day in case the rest of the week was cold (and I was right). My next stop was then the English Garden, which is a massive park with a great view of the Munich skyline. Sadly I couldn't stay long because it was already late afternoon, but it was still pretty despite of the deadness of winter. At that point I headed back to the hostel to rest my feet.
Wednesday morning I waited around in the cold to watch the famous Glockenspiel on the front of the city court house. Basically there are two tracks with life-size figures that move around in a circle to music played by bells inside the towner. It was actually not all that exciting. I don't know why it's famous. The rest of the afternoon I explored the Deutsches Museum (creatively "German Musuem" in English). It is an absolutely massive museum of science, technology, and industry. It is absolutely impossible to see it all in one afternoon. I was there for close to five hours and saw maybe a fourth of it. Not only was the museum huge (effectively five stories), the material presented was also very detailed and at an impressively high level. For example in the physics section they explained experiments such as the Stern-Gerlach (probably missspelled), ESR, and other quantum experiments at a level that I learned in my first four semesters of physics courses. Some displays even had equations! The evening I spent chatting with a student from Mexico. It was interesting to be in Munich but end up speaking so much English.
Thursday was another grey, cold day. In the morning I went to the Residenz museum and treasury. The Residenz was the residence for the Bavarian dukes, electors, and eventually kings from the middle ages to 1918. I should probably stop and mention that within Germany, like the US, there are several distinct regions, namely west-non Bavaria, Bavaria, and east Germany. The reason for this is that for much of the history of the region that is now Germany, Bavaria was its own state. That means it has its own culture and the mentality of the people are different. True Bavarian German is different enough from High German that Germans who didn't grow up with it often can't understand it. The thickness of dialect varies, so I could understand the people who spoke with a Bavarian accent, but the really thick Bavarian was like another language. It's actually quite fascinating. Anyho, I digress. The Residenz was built over time in stages and was therefore an interesting mix of various architectural styles. Later in the afternoon I climbed the tower of St. Peter's church, which offered a great view of the city, and probably the Alps as well if the weather had been clearer.
After three days of wandering around, I was rather tired and headed back to the hostel early. I also waited on a call from my sister because it was her 18th birthday. I'm still trying to figure out how she got to be so old. Craziness.
Thursday evening also ended up being rather frustrating. I planned on going to an open rehearsal of the Muenchener Philharmoniker (Munich Symphony). The tickets go on sale one hour before the rehearsal begins. I figured there wouldn't be so many people there and arrived half an hour before the ticket counters opened. Big mistake. I show up to find a REALLY long line of people waiting. When the ticket counters opened I was so far back in the line I didn't even know where it led. Though I'm awful at estimating such things, I'd say there had to be at least 200 people in front of me. Maybe more. There was also a second line with exactly as many people. During the first 45 minutes of the wait the line didn't move at all. Eventually things started to pick up, and the end was in sight. Then came the dreaded announcement. Only 20 tickets left. At this point there were only 30 people in front of me, but still too many. It's extremely frustrating to be one of the last 30 of 200 people. Just as the ticket counters closed there curtains a woman walked by offering an extra ticket, but the woman next to me was quicker. It was not my night. Frustrated that it didn't work out, I decided to swing by the Hofbraeuhaus, the famous Munich tourist trap, I mean beer hall. I decided not to stay because the beer was expensive and really not so exciting. I've been in Germany long enough that it wasn't really anything special. Just big. It was my first (and only) opportunity to see Lederhosen though. Oddly enough most of the sterotypical German things that we know of in the US are really more sterotypical Bavarian. I'm still trying to figure that one out.
Friday was my last day in Muenchen. I spent the morning and early afternoon in the Neue Pinakothek. Also interesting. There were a couple paintings from Casper David Friedrick and Schinkel, as well as some impressionists and expressionists. At this point I was tired and decided to just go to the train station, eat some lunch, and wait until my train left. The trip from Munich to Regensburg was not particularly eventful. Tobias picked me up, and I got my first view of the small city of Regensburg. Regensburg is probably the most picturesque German city I've seen. It's not too big (pop. 150,000), the Danube flows through it, and was not bombed during World War II so all of the old buildings are still intact. It's history goes back to Roman times and was the residence of many important people, not least of all Johannes Kepler. Because of this fact the city is remarkably well maintained and clean. There are also a lot of bars, and I saw a good number of them. Friday evening Tobias and I did some pretty hardcore bar hopping. We started in a local brewery, hit a pub with Koelsch and played a game of foosball for old times sake, discovered an irish pub with both Guiness and Beamish (it was St. Patrick's Day after all), and went to a couple really cool underground bars. The bars also closed at 2 am just like in Iowa. It was silly, though in this case good for our state of being the next day.
Saturday we slept late, drank lots of coffee and whatnot. In the afternoon we went on a wonderful walk through the city and on a mountain next to the city. That evening we went to see "Walk the Line" about the country singer Johnny Cash. I really enjoyed it. Particularly impressive was that the actors sang the songs themselves. I wouldn't've thought Reece Witherspoon had it in her, but she did a wonderful job. A well deserved Oscar.
Sunday I headed back to Bonn around lunch time. The weather was warm and sunny. Sunshine always makes traveling by train better.
Tobias also introduced me to a new religious movement. It's called FSM. I highly recommend you wikipedia it. (Is wikipedia a verb yet like "google"? If not it's going to be, and I'm setting a trend.) A hint regarding the disabiguation of "FSM": what I'm refering to has something to do with pasta.
I'm having problems at the moment with the photos. I'll try again later.
Enjoy!

Monday after München

I just wanted to make a quick post saying I made it back from Bavaria safe and sound and had a good time. Last night I began writing up my adventures but didn't have time to finish before heading to bed, so I'll post it in the next few days. Not that it's really all that exciting to begin with.
I'm Iowan, so I have to make a comment about the weather. Apparently I managed to live through the coldest winter in Germany in something like 150 years. Normally for this time of year it's in the 60's, but we're lucky if we make it into the 40's. Sigh.
More later. Tschüss!

Bergfest

Hallo,
First off, another update on my activities. Friday evening I met up with a friend and we went to the movie "The Constant Gardner". It was really good. Not a light movie, but if you're in the mood for some good social commentary, I recommend it.
Friday afternoon I also got a new roommate. He's from Spain but can speak perfect German. Unfortuntely he's only here for four weeks. Saturday and Sunday were spent by me showing him around Bonn. Nothing terribly exciting.
Tuesday my roommate and I watched the Barcelona-Chelsea soccer game. Very exciting game. Chelsea had to score at least two goals to stay in the Champions League, which they did not succeed in doing.
Otherwise I'm preparing for my trip to Munich next week. :-)
In the title of my blog, I've once again envoked the German concept of "Bergfest", only this time it refers to the fact that I am now half finished with my time in Germany. Craziness. Time flies when you're having fun.
Anyho! That's all for now folks.

Rosenmontag

Alaaf!
So I'm way slow in getting this post up but that's life.
Anyho! Monday (Rosenmontag) was the peak of Karneval in this part of Germany, and the pinnical of all Karneval parades (Umzug auf Deutsch) is the Rosenmontag parade in Koeln. It starts at 11:11, the parade route is about 5 miles long, ends at the Dom (cathedral), and goes on for hours. I traveled up to Koeln in the morning with Susanna. We arrived about the time the parade started but decided to wait for it near the Dom because it was a convenient place to meet two of her friends who were traveling up from Stuttgart. Unfortunetly it was cold and snowed on and off, and we quickly froze. We waited on a pedestrian bridge overlooking the street. It was a great spot because the parade came straight at us and then had to turn before reaching the bridge, and we were in the front row. We paid for this great spot by having to wait 3 hours before the parade reached us. The wait wasn't so bad because every person who traveled through the main train station had to go by us, and there was a stage just up the street with a commentator and Karneval music. By this point I'd started to pick up on some of the songs and could mumble along with. Eventually the Umzug reached us. Just like the "krewes" in New Orleans, there are many groups in Germany whose sole purpose is to prepare floats for Karneval. Each group had at least one float and a band wearing traditional (and silly looking) costumes.
Susanna and I only managed to make it through the first hour and a half or so before we were so cold and hungry we had to surrender our spots and go into the main train station. I grabbed a bit to eat, and we headed back out. We saw another 30 minutes or so before her friends were fed up with the parade, and we headed into a pub. It was of course completely full of happy people singing Karneval songs and drinking Koelsch. Meanwhile I got my first taste of trying to understand the dialects from southern Germany (Bayerisch and Schwaebisch) with little success. It was fun. We headed back to Bonn pretty early and looked for another party, but Bonn was pretty much quiet. So ended Rosenmontag.




Otherwise things are going ok. Work is unfortunetly going no where. I'm still having problems with my FFT and have no idea where to start to debug the thing. But I finally booked my trip to Bavaria. A week from Monday I'm going to Munich for four days and then going to Regensburg to visit a friend. I'm really looking forward to a vacation.
The weather's also turned cold here again. Spring can't come soon enough.