Sunday, June 30, 2013

Food With (New) Friends

Up to today, I had survived without cooking. Between meals at the cafeteria, sandwiches and trips out of the city, I was never simultaneously hungry, in my room and in possession of that long sought after resource: free time.

To kick off my momentous first use of the kitchen, I made... spaghetti. With sauce from a jar, eaten in a a microwavable mug, with a plastic fort slight deformed from trying to stir noodles in boiling water. Super classy.

Despite my uh.. unique approach to cooking, not one of the neighbors I met commented on it. (Which was really nice) Instead, we all talked about how I could have been living there for basically a month, without having met or seen any of them. (It's actually quite a feat)

In other news, the Tour de France started. (on Saturday) :D

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Hikin' in the Rain

It was raining today. What activity best suits rainy days? Correct! Hiking. (Wrong. This is actually not recommended. That much.)

Since I was feeling a bit guilty for going to an IKEA while in Germany, I decided today I would get in touch with the countryside. Conveniently, there's a beautiful nature preserve right behind the dorms with many beautiful, well kept trails. Inconveniently, it rained today. (I chose to ignore it)

You just have to look reeeeally closely
You can't see it as well as I'd hoped, but it's raining really hard

Hiking:

What rainy days are good for:
-Being Alone. No one else will be around to watch you make a fool of yourself hiking through sheets of water. They correctly translated 'rain' as 'buckets of water falling from the sky', and stayed home.

So all alone/ there is no one here beside me. <3 spamalot
I'm all alone

-Pretty Pictures. Well, the rain has to end sometime, and when the sun comes out it'll be really pretty. If you're lucky you might even see a rainbow. (I didn't have luck today)

It's not an octopus's, underwater, or in the shade, but I'll share it with you anyways
I want this to be my secret garden

-Cleanliness. It never hurts to have an extra shower a day, or cleaner clothes. (The cleanliness comes from the extra shower and washing you have to do once you get back)


What rainy days are not good for:
-Staying dry. Rainproof jackets are not always up to all levels of rain power.
-Getting Directions. (See Being Alone)

I'll let my imaginary friends sit there. The rain today wasn't my imagination, so they should be fine
Would be a good place to rest. They're soaking wet though

-Traction. This is a vital chemical reaction to be aware of: H20 + dirt --> dangerous, slippery slopes + mud (for you to fall into-- at least it's a squishy landing)

not pictured: the giant leap you would need to take to get on the branch
Has nothing to do with traction, but still not a place one should try to walk

Despite the rain, I actually did have a really good time hiking, and only really got lost once. (Right about the time I realized I was a bit lost, I happened across a map... I mean, I totally meant to go this way... ¬.¬)

Friday, June 28, 2013

When Three Wrong Turns Does Not Make a Right

Sometimes knowing the train schedule is useful. I had gotten used to the convenience of being able to ride any train in the direction I wanted to go (one comes every 10 min) so I forgot that if I needed to ride one of the three in particular, there would be 30 minutes between trains. I got to the station just in time to see the train leave. Without me. (Wrong Turn #1)

I was trying to get to, of all places, IKEA. Why? Because they have really good meatballs. And organization solutions that look nice. And comfy, cheap blankets. Thinking about all the nice stuff waiting for me kept me fairly entertained as I waited for the train.

Once I got to Böblingen, I walked away from the tracks to look for IKEA. (Wrong Turn #2) After  trying to see any sort of large blue building, and looking at bus maps without any success, I learned that IKEA was actually closer to one of the stops on a different subway line. As I turned to go back to the trains I saw (for the second time) the train leave. Without me. (This might have been the indication that it was simply not meant to be, but I was determined. I had dreamed of meatballs and lingonberries. I had a mission. I would not fail.)

Waiting for another half hour at a different subway station was not much more interesting than the first. The only thing this particular stop had going for it, was it's nice(ish) view. If you ignored all the construction right in the immediate vicinity, there was actually a beautiful meadow behind the so-new-they're-still-being-built buildings that framed the setting sun. (Setting is used loosely here, as the sun sets for 2+ hours)

Eventually the train came, and I made it to the correct stop. My goal was within two blocks of the train station, to the left. So I turned left (Wrong Turn #3) and walked a block and some undefined distance. It was a really long first block, and I never found a second cross street. I ended up on a frontage type road and walked myself right out of town. (Perhaps another indication, but I ignored it as well) After walking for 20 minutes without finding/seeing the 'end' of the second block, I began to wonder if 'left' two blocks was left facing the tracks or left facing away from the tracks.

Turns out it was facing the tracks. So back I went. (On the upside, the frontage road was really pretty, and since I walked up this giant hill as I left the town, on my way back I saw the giant IKEA sign that wasn't visible from the train station. I felt rather brilliant.) 2 hours after I originally started my journey, I finally made my way to get my hard earned meatballs. They were delicious.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

The Usefulness of Time Turners

There are certain instances where having a time turner would be really useful. They're particularly common when you're in a significantly different time zone than basically everyone else. The time turner could fix all of the conflicts I have between sleeping and talking to people.

There aren't any time turners though (that I've heard of) so I guess I'll just have keep communicating out of phase with everyone else. It's actually remarkable how perfectly my schedule is out of phase. >< Perhaps this is why email was invented.

I can't really imagine being able to come here for a summer without the internet. I mean, if there wasn't any internet, how would I coordinate with MIT to sign up for fall classes, or work with people from my dorm on setting up events for the incoming freshmen? (We're working on a puzzle hunt. I'm super excited!)

It's a teeny bit frightening that I've become so accustomed to and dependent on the internet. We were asked as part of the program, "What are your thoughts on international innovation?" Currently I'm thinking, "thank goodness for the world wide web." (It's either this or we'd need cloning...)

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Getting to Know the Institute

Today I went on a tour of where I worked. Somehow it seems like this maybe should have happened earlier, but better late than never? Turns out, there are a lot of cool projects going on. If you can find them.

We started in a lab that's not really attached to the rest of the offices/space since the projects there are larger. (ie flight simulators- it's also a hexapod! :D well, it's kind of cheating, it has an extra piston in the center for support..so heptapod) In the same lab ,only reachable by this odd second level-balcony that runs around the edge of the room, we visited an elephant's trunk. Not actually, but it looked and moved just like one. A bit uncanny really.

Because the lab wasn't far enough away from the main part of the institute we went even further to visit a free-ish standing shell. It's apparently thinner than the equivalent of an eggshell scaled to that size. Pretty crazy. Instead of being cemented into the ground, three of the four corners are movable by pistons so it can counteract vibrations or uneven load. It also works well as a whisper chamber. (Stand in one corner, and the people kitty-corner can hear you really well)

We finished off the tour in the same room that I work in all the time. Go figure. The large contraption that I had kind of been wondering about (as in what is it? does it work? can I play with it?) turned out to be a model of a crane. It's being used for research with oscillation dampening, but for the demonstration we basically had fun with pendulums and finding resonant frequencies. Who knew there were so many cool projects hidden in all of the rooms? Makes you want to go explore.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Grilling and Chilling

I finally broke down and did it. I grilled something in Germany. Well, tried to. There was a minor setback. It was raining. And the grill was on the roof. In the wind. Yea, it never really started.

It might have worked if we had started like this, but we didn't >< ... that or had lighter fluid
Our attempts at starting a fire were futile
We live in the 21st century, though, which means we have these great inventions: ovens! While it's not quite as much fun to eat kabobs if you're not grilling them, they do end up tasting pretty much the same.
Only 1/4 of what we cooked today. The stuffed mushrooms have already been consumed
Luckily, The dorm has lots of ovens
Which is really tasty. And, "importantly" for us rebellious Americans, not German. (Particularly with the only-found-in-Iowa-seasoning) I guess this might be the closest we get to an American BBQ all summer.

I actually burned my thumb (from trying to light the fire) and now have this awesome neosporin-bandage-mess.. makes typing fun!
Caution: food directly out of the oven is hot
Right about the time we gave up on grilling (ran out of things to start fires with; read: matches, lighters) the sun came out for a glorious sunset. (clearly this "aahhh"ing, heaven-sent sunset that lit up the sky was mocking our attempts at fire)

They're singing nyaaa nyaaaa nyaa nyaaaa nyaaaa in 5 part harmony
I can hear the angelic choir accompanying this sunset


Monday, June 24, 2013

Slow Starts

Sorry for the lateness of the weekend posts. Between internet difficulties, being sick/tired/lazy, and mis-set alarm clocks, I didn't sit down to write them up til today.

As far as my project goes, I'm dragging my feet a liiiitle bit. I figured out a sort-of fundamental flaw in my simulation plan. (Won't be a problem if the whole system works, but will probably break every type of debugger/test case that isn't using the whole system. gah.) I'm still not quite sure what to do about that.

Failing to Speak in Toungues

As a sign of great thanks that we didn't get stranded in Ulm the day before, we went to a church service. Of course, the late night arrival had to be taken into consideration, so instead of going in the morning, we searched for a nice afternoon service. We even found one.

Coming in just as the bells before the service stopped ringing, we were greeted with... something. Unlike everyone else in the room, we were not blessed with any tongues of fire allowing us to hear the gospel in our native language. Our first hypothesis, Latin, (well it wasn't English or German.. so what else would it be?) was proven incorrect when everyone started singing and speaking. No one actually speaks Latin. Further hypotheses included Russian (later proved impossible) and Italian. The church's website, when we went back to look, offered services in: English, French, German, Romanian, Croatian, Italian, Danish, Polish, Czech... and probably something else. Current hypotheses are it was either Croatian or Polish, although your guess is likely as good as ours.

Being a more than a little brain dead, we decided watching old guys correct other old (and probably a bit drunk) guys on how to play chess, sounded like a good idea. It was relaxing and interesting enough to keep us entertained for more than an hour. (To the shock of us all - the passage of time is deceiving here)

We rounded out our lazy day by once again asking for directions to something we were standing in front of. (It's a theme for this weekend) We also conveniently found the DAZ, which has an English language library (yay!) that's only open on weekdays. (nay D:)

Fruit of the Sea

Against better judgement (I claim brain dysfunctionality due to sickness) I decided to go to Boden See. (Lake Constnace?) The first sign that this was a poor idea: having to wake up at 7am. Nothing good ever happens at 7am.

Well, almost never. Our day started out well with a surprisingly nice fast train towards Singen. You had to buy tickets for that train. We had only a regional pass. Which meant that the nice ticket lady didn't fine us, but kicked us out in the middle of nowhere to wait an hour for the regional train. (We were just really happy we didn't get fined)

Following the sort-of plan we had, we immediately crossed the lake by ferry (totally making the ferry man's day by paying in all sorts of loose change) to a small lake side town perfect for renting boats and wading in the water. That is if you could rent the boats (one place was under re-construction, the other - though advertised as "Open on good-weather weekends"- was not open. - We had nice weather.) or go in the water. (The nice beach was a private-pay-lots-of-money-to-enter-here type of beach.)

We were resilient (northern) Americans though, so we carefully picked our own path down to the lake to wade and skip stones. (In my case, sink stones) I hadn't realized how much I'd missed lakes/oceans/rivers until I was wading in the water. Something about standing there (in the basically perfectly temperatured and beautifully clear water) is just so peaceful.

Maybe I'll turn into a mermaid if I stand here long enough
I didn't want to get out of the water

Since standing in awe of nature is rather energy consuming, we next foraged on for food. The cheapest food we came across with lake side seating was a fish restaurant that served pizza. Despite ordering 2 pizzas with seafood (fruit of the sea and shrimp) the vegetarian pizza was the clear favorite. To top off the meal, we picked up some Spagetti Eis (Ice cream served to look like spaghetti) to keep us going on the ~5km walk to the next town over.

Between the ice cream and the view, the short(ish) walk was soon over, and we found ourselves at another marina. This time however, we were able to find a boat rental place that was open (sadly, no sail boats). Taking out the largest paddle boat they had, the 5 of us piled in to the Police paddle boat (complete with kiddy slide) and set off toward the middle of the lake.

We didn't make it very far. Despite turning the steering wheel with all of our might, the boat just wouldn't go in a straight line out of the marina. The dock staff, after watching "those stupid Americans" flounder for a while, eventually came over to help. They also diagnosed our problem: no rudder. Makes steering hard.

For our second try, we took out the Ferrari. (nice, easy-to-see bright red, still with a kiddy slide!) What do ya know. Boats with rudders are waaaay easier to steer. :D We took our little paddle boat out onto the lake and played "please don't hit us we're tiny and have no speed" with all the other boats.

Despite trying my hardest to tan, I only ended up with (more) freckles
Paddling is hard work. It's good to take breaks

And there were a lot of boats. First off the ferries. That go EVERYWHERE. all the time. And then the legit sailors. (With really pretty wooden decks and colorful spinnakers) And the motor boats (with varying levels of BAC in their skippers) And then closer to our size, tiny sailboats. (Like a really cool fleet of tiny catamarans. They went by soooooo fast)

A perfect day for sailing.. sigh
There was actually a good amount of wind

As we learned, there is not only other boats on the water. The lake also provides to it's visitors. As a welcoming present to us foreigners, it bequeathed half a watermelon; A true fruit of the (Boden) See.

Feels just like home <3
Those times when the lake is so big, that it's almost no longer a lake

Since we enjoyed so much time on the water, we quickly moved over the next city down to end up in Sipplingen for dinner. After getting directions to the restaurant that was recommended ("You're standing right in front of it".. yea, we were observant) and discovering we had needed reservations, we chose a different slightly cheaper- definitely more casual dinning location. Here yet another American fell victim to the salat = salad conundrum. I repeat. Wurstsalat != salad. It's just a pile of meat with cheese bits.

At this point we were running a bit late. Which was kind of worrisome since we had been planning on taking the last train from Singen to Stuttgart that night. Luckily, the ticket printer is knowledgeable, and gave us a new plan to follow that would get us back at around the same time. The only catch was that we were running the other way around Baden-Württemberg taking a long hemispherical path starting with the first leg in the opposite direction from Stuttgart. Not at all worrying. Particularly when you add in that all of the connections were only 5 minutes. (And the first train was already running 7 minutes late)

Luckily, all of the trains were delayed so although we looked like idiots running from one train to the next, just to have them sit there for another 5 minutes, we made it back home without getting caught out in the middle of nowhere.


Friday, June 21, 2013

The Grass Is Always Greener

I admit it. I'm beginning to miss home a tiiiiiny bit. Particularly the internet. (Which doesn't default the language to German, and then not let you change it back) and the libraries (with lots of books. In English.) I mean castles, history, exciting cities I've never been to? Please. How could that compare with good old home town suburbia?

Ok, so maybe I'm not actually missing home that much yet. But not having as much instant access to distractions is well, forcing me to think about things. (How terrible. Doesn't the universe recognize summer as brain-is-turned-off time?) Thinking about things is only fun though is something can actually come out of it. Which isn't super likely if you're sick. (yea, I'm back to that again, sorry)

On the bright(er) side though, I think I'm getting better (whoo!) So I should be able to do stuff this weekend (the important part of being in Europe, clearly) I'll get to see lots of great German countryside where the hills truly are greener (especially with all the rain that's been coming through) than at home. :D (CA is known for the golden hills-- translation: brown, possibly dead, certainly dry-- not green grassy meadows)

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Present for Presents and Presentations

The world has it out for me. Normally I don't give in to the depressing, "how can it possibly be worse?" moments. I maybe deviated a bit last night around 3am when I still wasn't asleep due to the never-ending party. (I mean, it's a weekday for goodness' sake. Don't people have class tomorrow?!)

To train me never to think that way again, I was rewarded with oversleeping my alarm, running out with no breakfast to catch an early morning (8 is totally an early morning) bus to the group that's sponsoring us to give a presentation. Oh. Right. I'm still sick. Life's awesome!!! :D :D :D (for the people that don't get it: sarcasm is prevalent here)

Jokes aside though, I am not one for public speaking (even at the best of times). So despite being well prepared on the subject matter (introduce yourself) I was actually quite nervous. Luckily they also were. (Though that might have to do more with the I'm-presenting-in-English-which-isn't-my-native-language type jitters)

After getting introductions out of the way, we got to first hear about, then tour the company. It was really awesome- we got to see their R&D labs as well as one of their smaller production facilities (complete with 3D printer and too-many-axis-to-count mills) There were a lot of industrial robots. :D

Since the visit was 'so hard' and/or the drive was 'so long' we visited a tiny little town to take a break and get ice cream. (Thanks to a misunderstanding between the server and a certain member of our group, we all ended up with ice cream in cups with cones on top. >< oh well)

Munching on ice cream, we got a nice tour of the city marveling at old German 'engineering' solutions (If the wall can't hold back your church from sliding down the hill, use a hemisphere mound instead and then disguise them as (53) stairs... "we totally meant to do that") and calculating the market value of salt, (really high) finishing just in time to miss the rainstorm.

Unfortunately? Fortunately? Either way, the rain followed us back to Stuttgart. At least it'll be colder now. Hopefully my sickness will take the hint and be washed away as well.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Is This All Just a Dream?

Sometimes I can't really believe I actually decided to go abroad for a summer. Normally I think things through (down to really random details- it's inherited behavior. I have engineers for parents) but this was (for the most part) fairly last minute/spontaneous. I never really expected it to actually happen.

Like right now, especially. There's a giant party right outside my dorm. (This is not normal. Probably because at MIT my room's on the top floor of a tall building) I have recently discovered that dorms here hold summer parties over the summer. They have way more food than people can possibly eat, lots of loud music, and are attended in such numbers that having personal space is no longer a conceivable option.

For better or worse, however, I'm sick. At least I'm not totally missing out though. I can hear the bands playing from inside my room.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Temperature's Rising

Apparently taking time off because it's too warm is a thing in Germany. On that note, air conditioning is not a thing. (Which is really quite unfortunate) It's supposed to cool off and rain soon though, so this won't last too long. (hopefully)

With all this "free" time in the afternoon, I probably should have done something exciting, like explore the Freibad, (eventually translated to be something like an outdoor swimming pool- but HUGE) but it was so hot that I lost interest in well doing... anything.

On the data analysis front, my graphs are looking a bit better. For some reason I remain unable to get two supposedly identical frames to produce the same results. At least though, the two systems are now (mostly) internally consistent- as in all angle deflections within one model end up complementing/ cancelling correctly.

I also just finished reading my first German language for fun book. (All previous German language books have been read for classes) I was pleasantly shocked that I didn't need to use the dictionary nearly as much as I had thought. (I did need to concentrate a lot more. I would glaze over sections, realize my brain had wandered, and need to go back a few pages to re-read) While it likely doesn't help too much with my pronunciation (Eichhornchen is proving particularly difficult) I am getting a bit faster at thinking of what to say in German conversations. (yay!)

Since language improvement goes both ways, as part of the summer research, one of the other internationals is being used as an English paper correcter. Looking over professional papers and fixing grammar/spelling/translation mistakes is weird. Looking over your supervisor's paper is really weird. It also tests your own understanding of English. (A lot of the time we came across sentences that were really awkward sounding, but maybe not technically incorrect)

Monday, June 17, 2013

And So the Work Continues

Yea, not much of anything happened today. I spent a lot of time trying to compute rotation matrices in my head. It was not particularly successful. (Pro Tip: Human checking of computer calculations is painful. It should be avoided at all costs)

Another pro tip: German keyboards are weird. (they do silly things like switch the 'y' and 'z' keys, shift ( )s left by one key, and add extra keys for their fancy dotted letters (these dots ¨ in case you didn't know)) Since the keyboard is weird you should find the (probably already installed) software that changes confused German keyboards into English ones. So many less headaches and typos.   

In other news, groceries are still really cheap (compared to the US). Maybe this is why they all have the money to buy water. Unfortunately, books remain a bit expensive. I guess for someone like me, it'll all even out.


Sunday, June 16, 2013

Photo Journal: Zurich

 Zurich is a nice place to walk around and take pictures of. And has a lot of churches (where you can't take pictures in). I'm really tired, so you'll have to do that picture-to-word conversion factor to read the rest of this. (It's easily my longest one yet :P)

and under construction. It's the hip thing to do this summer
Zurich is really pretty


The roses smelled amazing. Not at all fake or overly strong
It also has really nice rose gardens


It's like blue food color dye
I have never seen water this color blue


(clearly not the other way around)
This pathway was positioned purposefully to frame the clock tower


It was difficult not to jump in and go swimming
I still can't believe the water is so clear


It's like venice... but better
Some views I don't think it's possible to get tired of


It was also really, really sunny. I exptended my pseudo-tan (made up of freckles)
They're really hard to see, but there's a whole school of fish


We also went up to the top of this tower. It's a loooong way up
The 'stained glass' windows here are made of geodes


City side view from the church tower


bonus points if you can distinguish Alps from clouds
From this side you can even see the Alps


It was really, really high up


(It's a different chruch than the ones in the previous pictures)
Finally, a church we can take pictures in


Don't worry though, I still have all my fingers and toes
Swans have no fear in swimming right up to you


This was the closest we got to finding a slum of Switzerland
Old city shopping districts are abandoned on Sundays





Saturday, June 15, 2013

The Return of the Roving Internationals

Germany has too many castles. In the US, giving people directions using castles as landmarks would be very clear communication. (though there might not be any useful directions one could give using castles) Here, however, it just serves as more points of confusion.

For example, this morning we were told to meet behind the old castle, where the bus would pick us up for our day trip to Heidelberg. Great. No problem, right? Wrong. We got there half an hour early, and were really glad we did. After walking around 3 different "castles" that bordered bus areas in around a two block area in downtown Stuttgart, we finally found the correct area. (Conveniently distinguished by the massive gathering of international college-age students speaking every language except German)

I had actually already been to Heidelberg once before, when I was here visiting my uncle, but as we walked around the only thing I managed to remember/recognize from the last time I was there, was the student kiss chocolates. That left a good portion of the city open to re-exploration.

The majority of the time was preplanned by the international student program. We started with a nice ferry ride up the river. With our group added to the regular ferry group, we probably almost reached on average the average age of Germany. (ie there were a lot of senior citizens, tiny children but no middle aged adults) Their comments (made oh so secretly in German) ranged from speculating about our purpose on the ferry (we were clearly members of the dangerous"teenage" species they had heard about) to a rather in depth literary discussion which I was, sadly, unable to completely follow.

Arriving in Heidelberg we got to eat lunch (finally- it was almost 1pm) at a popular German-student restaurant. Their entire tables looked like overly graffitied desks in certain ancient lecture halls. There was graffiti on the graffiti.

Because walking after eating comes highly recommended, we then immediately went on a walking tour of Heidelberg seeing such sights as: a monkey statue (simultaneously bringing you luck, dissing some long dead ruler of the north and elevating everyone's education through archaic German poetry), the pedestrian bridge (to be honest, I was distracted by the view and didn't hear anything. I think maybe the river flooded a few times. They blamed some volcano in Iceland) and the student prison (since real prison might've actually worked, they needed to come up with their own system to make sure it didn't).

So was the guy playing the cancan on the violin
The view from the bridge was really distracting

With the little amount of free time left we walked the length of their pedestrian main street (supposedly the longest in Europe) snacking on delicious cake (without forks) and buying gummi bears in new exciting flavors. (but not the spicy ones, because that's just weird)

I liked it even though it was cherry
Local cakes are really tasty


Friday, June 14, 2013

Meeting the Locals

Instead of working at the university today, I had the opportunity to visit (with my pseudo adviser, since my real adviser is absent this week) a small forklift manufacturing company. The project he's consulting with looks at the oscillations of the forklift under load (as in over a ton) at various extended heights (up to 13 meters. That's really really tall in feet)

The base is basically all battery since they needed the extra weight as counterbalance
It was a really big forklift, in a really big room

As a EECS major, I found this fascinating. It had everything shiny - awesome sensors, clean control code, colorful diagrams (they even meant something!), and an impressive looking system. I guess you had to be there to truly appreciate it, since whenever I tried to explain it, people for some reason got this dazed and bored look.

Don't worry no load this time.
It's a looooong way down
Though that might have had more to do with the thinking required on a weekend. Trying to avoid getting lost in a forrest, we opted this weekend to go with a native Stuttgartian into the city. (Though it might not have been as pretty, we didn't get lost and got to see a lot more of the city's culture)

We started at a nice restaurant, but that was really only to eat dinner. Our first "official" stop of the evening was (for me).. a bookstore! We couldn't stay long though- our host for the night was beginning to think we were nerds or something (he had no idea what he was getting into), and a few really wanted beers.

In search of drinks, we ended up at sky beach. It's this 'sandy' (it's really, really fake looking white/blue sand) area on top of a building. Despite being basically nothing like a beach, it was a good place to relax, watch the sun set and wait for the clubs/bars to open.

At this point, the group split. Some people decided since they had to get up 'early' (7:30 isn't thaaaat early.... well maybe it kinda is, but who cares?) so they were going to leave. Or they had to check email. (lame) So it was just the host, one other research intern and me left.

Since it was still a bit too early to go anywhere, we spent time walking around the older parts of Stuttgart until we got hungry again- since we were loosely in the area, we got Döner. Döner is turkish. and amazing. It's probably the one food I'll actually miss when I go back to MIT.

Having finally wasted enough time, we made our way back to a bar where most of the international students hang out. From what I saw tonight, it looked more like it was where basically everyone hangs out. There was no room inside, or by the door outside. People spilled around the pub in a giant mob at least 3-4 times wider than the building itself.

It was a nice night out though, and since everyone was just standing around outside, it was really easy to get to know people. This was good since we got to meet our host's friends and sing a few people happy birthday as they turned a year older at midnight. It was also a bit unfortunate as one guy really wanted to buy one of the group's jackets. (He was fairly persistent. It was almost amusing if it wasn't so bizarre)

I think I've finally experienced Stuttgart like a local. Now all I need to do is magically convince myself to get up tomorrow like a local and not be late.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

On the Merits of Sleep

Turns out, getting sleep is important. When you're rested you don't fall asleep sitting up staring at your computer screen. (Most of the time at least) I didn't think it was possible to sleep sitting up straight. I think I surprised everyone in the room when I sort of fell forward onto the desk. It was maybe time for me to get a nap, and work later. Luckily, my adviser was pretty understanding - as long as I put in the time when I wasn't falling asleep, he didn't care if I worked at the institute or on my laptop later.

Which meant afternoon naps for me. :D yay. I don't know why I haven't done any sort of napping before- I mean, they're so nice, and convenient. Probably because I had something to do. Like classes. Or sailing practice.

I think I might've been able to get through today if I hadn't had to get up so early after the 4am meeting. Throughout the summer, us internationals are invited about once a week to tour some lab or department around the institute.

This morning we toured the applied optics lab. It was actually fairly interesting - they explained how they use the interference between the phases of light waves to determine the thickness of objects and then create holographic images of them, or study minute details of the surface, or grab yeast cells with light and move them around, or rotate them in 3D. It was pretty cool. We even got to go through some of the basement which had exposed piping and cabling on the ceiling. It felt like I was back at MIT.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Hangingout with the USA

Today was a fairly lazy day. Since I was still working through finding the one bug in my.. many.. rotation matrices, I couldn't exactly say I was "enthusiastic" or "excited." I mean, I'm a CS person. I don't really care so much about how to change a vector in the frame of the joint from the position of the base to a vector from the platform in the frame of the world. I mean, I see it's useful, but actually figuring out all the right rotations... (especially when you can only rotate in specific directions depending on the joint - and it matters which order rotating x then y != rotating y then x. Though computer correctly, either can get you to the right place. ><

I have all of the windows. ALL OF THEM
What it looks like to be verifying your model's accuracy

Also my computer is slow. Like reaaaaalllllllllyyyy slow. It's often the case that I'll click something and then get to wait around 30 seconds before something happens. It just sort of sets the mood for it to be a lazy day.


As a group of internationals, we've been trying hard to get a good "German experience." I guess that it was a bit too much though for some of our non-German speakers. So today instead of going to a German restaurant, we went to.... an Asian place. Now I was the one who didn't know what people were talking about. It was a good reminder to take it a bit slower with the people who didn't know the language.

The reason though, that this post is so late/early, is because today there was a meeting to plan Simmons' REX events. (A dorm-recruitment thing that happens before classes start in the fall at MIT) Since people are all split up around the world for the summer, they decided to have the meeting at 10pm. EST. Which works out to be 4am. woooo! (yea, I'm not sleepy at all...)

Unfortunately due to some previously mentioned internet issues (current working hypothesis at least), I wasn't able to join in on the discussion. Maybe next time I'll try from somewhere else on campus. Though going somewhere else on campus seems a little sketch at 4am. (no 24 hour library D: ) 

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Books, Books, Books

I like reading. Probably too much, but I don't believe in such a horrific idea. Hence, I continued (from yesterday) my search for books. First off, I went back to the small probably-not-a-chain book store (hard to tell, but it looked.. smaller?) and checked out... the middle school grade range. woo! By reading the first few pages of different books, I discovered my reading level in German was about that of a 7th graders. I feel so smart. ><

I was also looking for some stuff in English. I was originally going to download books to an eReader, but I've run into this cool I-have-no-interenet problem. So, back to paper. (I'm actually not too upset about this particular side affect). However, the small bookstore didn't have English books, so I tried to follow their directions to a different book store.

However, I know almost nothing about how Stuttgartians? refer to their towns/ surrounding villages, so I went the wrong way. Despite that, I found a book store with a similar sounding name. It was even a bookstore I didn't expect to exist. You see, unlike in American malls where all the shops are listed on every floor, in the Schwaben Galerie, only shops on that floor are listed on the sign. SO WEIRD.

After being directed at that store back to where I had come from, they suggested... the library. It was around the main train station and was a cube. I "couldn't miss it." They clearly hadn't met me.

First I had to decipher "main train station." I was in Vahingen. Which had Vahingen Hauptbahnhof (main station) then there was the Hauptbahnhof in downtown Stuttgart. Then there was Hauptbahnhofs for every other tiny village-town-district thing like Vahingen. After staring at the map for around 5 minutes, I found a station labeled "Stadtbibliothek".. yay libraries!

Taking the instructed route (S Bahn, then U Bahn) seemed way too simple, so I of course decided to walk from the Hauptbahnhof to the library. It was in the area, right? So they couldn't be thaaaat far apart. And they weren't

But I literally almost walked right past it (the giant gray cube and all -- literally a cube. It's surprisingly easy to get lost/confused inside.) In the salesperson's defense, there was quite a bit of construction blocking the way. And it did say LIBRARY (in English even) in big bright shiny letters.

Maybe it's not actually a building site, just crane storage
There were a lot of cranes

The final barrier between me and books and DVDS (in German and English, can be checked out for four weeks) was getting a library card. Just like in the US, you needed proof of residence. You also needed a passport. I had one of the two. (but they were nice and accepted a weird PDF saying some generic things about where I would be living as proof I was living in Stuttgart) So, for 4 euro/ month I can now check out items from the library! (I'm actually really, really, really excited about this :D :D :D :D :D... can you tell? :D :D :D )

Monday, June 10, 2013

If at First You Don't Succeed...

Today was a day of second tries. For the project, I was trying to get was working on Friday morning (but not Friday afternoon) to work again. I'm now ALMOST to where I should've been on Friday. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy debugging? (A whole lot. It's like totally my most favorite thing in the whole wide world. blegh) Currently I can change some of my variables by using some cool functions (very badly/not at all documented) in Matlab. But not all of them. And I can't figure out why. Debugging is great.

Since everything was closed yesterday, I went to get groceries today. So did everyone else. It was a massive pilgrimage to the grocery store. For me though, I got to take a second shot at getting on the bus, after forgetting my bus pass. (getting things right the first time would be too easy).

Safely (though a bit wet- it's raining here. again. I thought it was summer?) arriving in the center of Vahingen, I go first to find a bookstore. I like to read. A lot. I also didn't bring that many books with me. And it's been a WHOLE WEEK. So, I needed to find a bookstore. Unfortunately, unlike American bookstores which stay open fairly late any day of the week, the few ones I had marked on my super deatailed sketched-on-the-back-of-my-hand map closed before I got there. So I'll have to try again.

The grocery store, more importantly perhaps, was open though. Stocking up with enough food for the week, I re-discovered the tiny book section they had. Despite the small selection, they did have a few titles I was interested in. I ended up going for a book I hoped would be at a middle-school range reading level: a translated version of The Host by Stephanie Meyer. If her writing is anything like people complain about, I might actually have a chance of getting though this book.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Going to See the Polar Bears (try 2)

Waking up early in the morning is hard. Waking up early in the morning after hiking all day yesterday and getting back late is really hard. However, if you know there's going to be a brass ensemble at the church service you're waking up for AND waking up before everyone else means you get an actually hot shower, it's almost worth it. (No, I am no longer a morning person)

Since we were all so tired from yesterday's excursion, we decided to take it easy today. Destination: park. Goal: relax. After meeting up with the later risers, we enjoyed some late breakfast-lunchy food in front of a (different) brass ensemble. Apparently Stuttgart is a major jazz city.

Imagine waking up for an outdoor concert on Sunday that ENDS at noon...
The brass ensemble sounded amazing

I guess when I walked around the park last Sunday, I sort of didn't pay too much attention to how far apart everything was. I mean there's the first park, where we saw some really cute little ducklings, and then over a suspension bridge to a slightly larger park- with a river. Then another bridge which will eventually deposit you by the main station. (but not until 2021)

Following that, a rather long stretch of park. This bit is large enough to have some interesting attractions for the easily bored - like cafes and restaurants, playgrounds (with seesaws! and swings!), and giant chess boards. (comes complete with ALL the pieces AND free unsolicited advice from old Germans who have nothing better to do than critique your chess playing non-ability) ((We totally didn't even lose though - after a rather horrific blood bath of pieces we ended up stalemating with only the kings left on the board!))

 Our eventual goal however was the zoo, so we had to keep going... and going.... and going. Unfortunately from the direction we were coming, the entrance was at the further end of the zoo from us. Fortunately, parts of the zoo border along the park, so we could (attempt to) identify the animals as we walked toward the entrance.

Unlike in America, the zoos here aren't free entry or cheap. For an adult it was 14.00! For a student, it was 7, so we were at least considering it. However, because we couldn't prove we were CURRENTLY studying, our student IDs didn't give us any student discount. Since we actually are students (and broke/cheap) we decided to come back later with verification of our summer student status.

Unable to see polar bears, we consoled ourselves with some nice slices of cake- rhubarb, plum and apple. (separate, not all together). Eating them put all of us into a bit of a food coma. Or maybe that was all the hiking yesterday. Either way, we all just sort of sat down. And then didn't get up. For an hour. Luckily, that's not weird in Germany.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Castle #1 (out of 4000)

During cultural training, we took a quiz to test our knowledge of German culture. Among more serious questions, such as what are the major political parties of Germany, we had more basic cultural knowledge questions, like name three German beers. (we all failed that question) Another question we failed, was estimating the number of castles in Germany. We guessed in the order of hundreds. According to wikipedia (the knowledge source of all things) there's more like 4000+. (Though what qualifies as a 'castle' is a bit unclear.)

Anyway, we internationals wanted to go see a castle. (a "real" one). Thus, we traveled to see Hohenzollern. After a fairly short trip by train (we started, but didn't have time to finish a game of monopoly) we arrived in Hechingen. Despite being quite a distance away from the castle, we could see it perched up high on the hills.

Doesn't it look like an awesome day to cloudgaze?
First sighting of the castle on the hill
Getting on the first bus we found (which somewhat luckily actually took us towards the castle), we wound our way through the surrounding towns, before driving about halfway up the ... large hill? small mountain? Since we're young, cheap students, we paid for our tickets at the base and took the originally labeled 15, but then refactored to 25 minute footpath. Straight up. (stairs basically all the way).

Surprsingly, I'm actually not even standign at the lowest point of the castle
Hiking up to the castle made it seem really intimidating
But it was so worth it. Since the castle was built on top of this isolated peak, you can see for a really long way in every direction. It's too bad that it's natural strategic advantage didn't help defend it. The castle has been 3 times, most recently in the 1850s.
If only they would have kept it safe...
This castle has walls inside of walls inside of walls

I think I could just have a shack built with this view, and people would still come to visit
The view was amazing
After touring the castle, (in German, because we liked the challenge -- and we arrived too late for the English tours) we enjoyed some nice french fries in a small Biergarten in the courtyard of the castle. Since it was only 5 (aka the 3rd hour of 2pm -- it looks like it's perpetually 2pm from 2pm - 7 or 8pm) we took the train back to Tübingen, using our nifty travel-wherever you want til 3am tickets.

Unfortuantely, we arrived a bit too late to see the book festival. I mean, if  there was ever a festival made with my name written allll over it....
The river front was popular with both locals and swans
There we found a nice typical micro brewery to round our typically German day. Eating local specialties, like Maultaschen, we watched the river (and all of the boats and swans) drift by. Like true Germans, we walked around (unfortunately, not through a forest - but around the city) after dinner, wandering in whatever direction took our fancy.





Evidence of the now abandoned book fair
We got excited to see traditional-looking houses

Due to our wandering taking us a decent distance from the train station, we ended up on the last train back to Stuttgart - the local train, not the express we had caught coming out in the morning. With all the extra time, we were able to finish our game of monopoly. (I was honestly convinced that no one actually ever finished those games)

Friday, June 7, 2013

Laying Claim to a Pub

Salads are salads. Except in Germany. Where salads are not really salads anymore. There's the obligatory potato salad and sauerkraut (though that's already sort of edging away from salad) and coleslaw (or something like coleslaw). And apparently Wurstsalat. Which is really no longer salad by any standards. It's sausage. (in strips). and cheese. and pickles. maybe some oil. This is not salad.

Also lunch is lunch... Except when it's noodles covered in a sweet vanilla sauce served with applesauce. For lunch. As the main course. Let's just say, as a whole, the whole German food standards has me fairly confused.

On a more work related note, I got my dymola model to take inputs from simulink, which I was supposedly able to input Matlab functions into. This way I could check my functions, and make pretty animations. AT THE SAME TIME.

I was also going to take a picture. However it worked once, then I changed some initial values in the simulink model and the dymola model broke itself. So instead of being done with that this week, I spent a large portion of the afternoon trying to get the model to compile. Eventually, it was fixed by taking exact replicas of the parts causing the issues, and using them instead. Why? I DON'T KNOW.
My adviser and I have a theory that the computer realized it was Friday, and quit early.

Taking the weekends seriously is apparently quite important here. Normally when I leave lab, the center of the campus is full of people, but today there was hardly anyone around. And if they were, they were headed somewhere, not lounging in beach chairs on the grass. (Normally there's so many people you can barely see the grass).

This is because on weekends Germans go to their pubs. You find one you like, you go there every week and you get instant friends or something. As a group of international students, we decided we would also find ourselves such a pub. However, as we are the group that likes to "take the long way," we couldn't just choose any place. No, we had to find one decently far away (by foot), with at least two ways to get there, plenty of opportunities to get lost, and one significantly longer way. (the one we would be taking, of course)

Even though it looks like sunset, the sun won't set for another 2 hours
It was a really pretty hike by the lake

To fit all of our requirements, we found a small restaurant in the middle of a forest by a lake. Like actually though. You have to hike to get there. For us it's by sign 2km, but with our fairly directionally-challenged group we estimated it took more like 3 - 3.5km. On the upside though, it served very traditional German food, and because it was so hard to find, we were likely the only foreigners in the area. (ie not a touristy destination, though totally should be)
This is acutally only half the meal, I took this when I was DONE eating
Lentils, noodles and sausage- a traditional Swaibian dish

Since we got started fairly late, we were battling the fading sunlight.. at 10:20pm. I'm quite suddenly glad I'm here for the summer, and not the winter. Imagine trying to get places if it got dark at 4? Oh wait.. I can actually picture that quite well....

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Partying Partying woo!

Germans like. to. party. For basically any reason (and apparently, quite often, no reason at all) they will celebrate. Which explains why I had such a difficult time finding all the Germans in my dorm. They were all out. At parties.

However, today I managed to find them. Following the invitation of one of my floormates, I climbed up to the roof, to find the largest gathering I have ever seen in the building. Just grilling and chilling on the roof.

Surprisingly for me at least, was that there was such a range of international students. Although the University is international, the dorms are not. I think if we were to count up all the foreign students in the dorm, we'd be about equal with the native Germans.

Naturally, I felt quite unnatural at the beginning. I mean, me, parties, lots of fast German language thrown around.. well I get lost. Probably also didn't help that I hadn't seen anyone before, and there was for some reason a wide spread assumption that I wouldn't be able to speak any German at all.

The nice thing is though, that once you decide this must mean they're more shy than you are (which it took me quite a while to get to), they were very happy to have you initiating the conversation. Once you accidentally butcher some sentence, they'll figure eh, my English is better than your German and switch. But you see, they had to hold back in case you really did speak fluent German, because then it would be wrong or something for them to make a mistake in English.. I dunno. Someone else will have to figure out the psychology behind that.

After the grill and chill on the roof I made to my first college party. Ever. And I'm not even at my own school. I actually think that not speaking the native language made it easier. The loud atmosphere inhibited most conversations even between native speakers, so I didn't feel so bad when I couldn't understand something the first time. Also, since you don't know people and are unlikely to ever see them again, it's a bit easier to stop worrying about looking like a fool or doing something weird. You can totally claim the "I'm a foreigner, I didn't know" or "well, that's how we do it in <insert country>."

The lead singer was the shining member of the band
The live band was local- the members had gone to the university

Along with never haven been to a college party, I don't drink. I don't really have anything against drinking or people who want to (whether before or after legal age), I just personally don't want to. This was not a concept my German floor mates could understand. One guy kept asking all his friends to ask me if I wanted a drink, just to see their reactions. Funnily enough, he seemed to be the one most upset (on behalf of his country, he says).

So besides partying, there's also this thing known as work. Which actually went fairly well today. Dusting off some CADing skills I never had, I worked on creating a model of the hexapod, and correctly psuedocode connecting the parts so that it reacts to forces in a logical way. (I also got to make it look nice.. yay graphics!)

When I first got the model to move like it was supposed to, I'm pretty sure I was grinning like I had just received a 100 on a test for any class at MIT. I was also totally having a party in my head. It wasn't even interesting motion, just elevating the platform. BUT IT MOVED!! Now if I can only get it do that for every single type of directed force... I feel like I'm training a dog.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

More Math

So today I finally (I know, it's only been a week and half, and already it's "finally") got to code something! (In Matlab, which is like well, kind of code. And indexes from one.. who does stuff like that?)

I didn't really know Matlab. like at all.* So it was fun. So was finding all the different ways Germans and Americans describe math. Perhaps I'm not math-literate enough, but I wasn't aware of any numerical mathematics branch. Also turns out we Americans are lazy. You thought Newton method was enough. NO! It's Newton-Rhapson Rhapsid? Rhapsody? Whatever.. support the stereotype and what not.                               *well fine, I used a bit for linear algebra assignments. but it doesn't count

There was also that time when everything's a variable and you don't remember which one your solving for so you pick one and it's the wrong one so all your matrices are singular (or approaching singularities). And that time where the spherical joints were, then weren't, then were again spherical. (don't ask)

And math. Math everywhere. I'm pretty sure I'll be rotating sheep in my dreams. So if the sheep jump in an arch over the fence (that's what my sheep do while I count them.. I mean having them stand in nice grids eating grass would make it waaay too easy), what are the coordinates of sheep n with relation to sheep n+1 at time step n.... yea I'll fall asleep.

However, on the bright side, I do sort of know Matlab programming now. (quite a marketable skill I'm told) and I can convert from target points/orientations to piston lengths and back the other way! It's a miracle (practically).

Right. So the project. We have this hexapod. It does not have six legs. or 5 or 4 or any. well. eh. It's a base platform with 6 pistons going towards the top platform. and because of cool kinematics stuff, it's a sturdy, strong, fast way to move about to points. Unfortunately doing stuff like that (because of not so cool kinematics) is hard. Which is the point (If I understand it correctly) of this research.

Total Product of today: Pretty pictures (that don't show anything useful, but are proof semi-definite(ly) that I have something that will work once I fix the whole joints that are but aren't but are spherical. and the size of triangles. (That's more of a making graphs look pretty thing though))

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

The Ghost of 8.01 Past

I thought I was done with physics, especially mechanics. That was the whole point of going through AP C Physics.. I would get a 5 on the AP Tests and pass out of 8.01 (Physics- Mechanics) at MIT. No more free body diagrams. No more weird vectors and torques...

I was clearly wrong. After correcting my adviser that no, I was not a Mechanical Engineer, I sat down with large, heavy complicated looking books to re-learn physics and mechanics and then tackle kinematics. Luckily mechanics (the basics of it at least) are fairly straigtforward..

Unfortunately, when it comes to robotic manipulators physics gets rather complicated fairly quickly. Like really, really quickly. You thought it was bad when your equation had 4 solutions, 2 extraneous? Try to find the correct solution when there's 40 "solutions", AFTER simplifying the system of equations a whole bunch. (Initially 2^12 theoretically or something..)

So, yea learning about parallel manipulators was a ton of fun today. Also quite mathy. That's one fairly good thing. Math (especially vector calculus/ linear algebra) has been around for so long that despite one of the texts being in German, I was able to at least sort of sort my way through the math.

Which went on forever. They start you out nice with really simple equations, such as the one to figure out how many degrees of freedom there are in a system. One, maybe two variables, no multiplication. If only it stayed like that.

By the end, I had a 3-4 page step by step process to get you to the equation with 16 solutions (8 mirrored pairs) to how you could possibly move the pistons on a Stewart-Gough Platform to get a desired f and m (force and moment vectors for the center of the platform). You know it's getting hairy when you can make words out of single variables: superscript i, v (with a dot over it), superscript (the other side now) T, subscript (bi). Unfortunately I was unable to figure out how to get this to show that so you'll have to use some imagination.

The nice thing though, was despite the hard work, the Germans don't pull long hours here too much. When it's five, it's time to leave (Just like when it's around 8 or 9, it's time to arrive, and 11:45 is the time to eat) and you don't do work doing that time. At all. It's like taboo or something. Maybe MIT has warped my perception of the world, but I was shocked to see so many people up and about on a Tuesday evening. Doing things for fun. Like not activity or sport or school or studying related. But relaxing. It was so weird. I can't decide yet if that's going to make me more or less likely to work hard. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Clear! (Culture) Shock Training

This morning began the first official day of my program in Stuttgart. However, instead of meeting with my project advisor, I got to meet all the other international students and do important student things. Such as learn names, come up with long lists of stereotypes, find the mensa, and fill out mass amounts of paperwork.

Despite it's initial boring sounding nature, I actually found myself enjoying the morning. It was also really nice to get to know a few people at least. (The dorm remains fairly ghost-townish) Upon the conclusion of our Intercultural Training, we do what any International student would do when first arriving: shopping.

woohoo. (I am not interested in shopping, no matter how necessary. I make small exceptions for things like book stores (especially used books) and eletronics... well I am a EECS major after all).
Luckily, one of the first places we went was a Media Markt in search of internet.

Until I got here I wasn't totally aware of how convenient it was to get internet around MIT. I mean, I knew it was easier than most places, but still, I expected at least something in the dorms. Instead, I found out that because Germans have superstitions about wifi cooking their brain (doesn't apply to phones somehow..) there is no wifi in the dorms. On top of that, to get ethernet connectivity you need to have a rental agreement. To have a rental agreement you need to be a registered student, and to be a registered student, you need to have a german bank account, proof of some large amount of funds and german health care.

Yea... so that wasn't really going to happen. Luckily there are these inventions called (creatively) internet sticks. Which are sticks that give you internet. Supposedly. German is hard. Technical German is technically really hard. Despite this, I have purchased what I believe to be a magic stick that gives me internet (comes free with 7 days, and then I have to buy some monthly cards). If I understand it all, I get up to <insert small GB here> at <insert good data rate here> for <insert price here> and then unlimited at 64KB/s. I'm not entirely sure what you can do at 64KB/s but maybe I'm naive.

Unfortunately something was being wonky in the store and none of the cards (that go in the magic sticks) got activated. So no full internet access yet. (Hopefully by tomorrow. I'll think good thoughts toward it as I sleep)

After the Media Markt, we visit the conveniently next-door grocery store. Which you have to pay to use a cart at. But we're young and students and cheap, so we don't. Which means by the time you figure out that Monday is grocery day, and the checkout line is really, really long, you are praying to every lucky star that you don't drop anything and make a giant mess.

The good thing about the grocery store is that the conveyer belt is fairly long, so you have time before the checker begins to scan everything to get your bags out. This is a necessary step for success, as if you don't, then you will be all confused as to why people are glaring at you for holding up the line, while you try to bag everything after you pay.

Having successfully navigated public transit (unlike one unlucky fellow student, who took the S Bahn the wrong way around and got treated to 45 min of nice German countryside) we arrive back in the dorms in time to decide to go out again, but this time back to downtown to find some dinner. Breaking out our varying levels of German skills (from practically fluent, to no German at all) we conquer finding, ordering and paying for food. (For some of us, this was quite the accomplishment)

Although we ended up choosing to eat pasta instead of a more 'traditonally german' type of meal on our first night out, it was a good introduction to the city's center. It was also probably the last time any of us will have free time. It was good while it lasted, right?