For SCIENCE!

I went to the Deutsches Museum! It's now probably my favorite museum.

All you need to know about this picture: this guy is a boss.

It has everything. (Especially when they finish renovations and have a planetarium again) It has robots. It has old boats. It has old planes. It has new planes. It has math puzzles. (<3) And model trains, harpsichords, organs (that are played!), a Focalt's pendulum, the solar system (minus Pluto), glass blowing, old computing devices (that they'll turn on), liquid nitrogen demonstrations (never can get enough of that stuff) and, and, and... everything. Basically.

There's surprisingly good wind inside

So you should definitely go if you've ever though about science. (which is everyone.. or should be ¬¬) Probably my favorite exhibit was the mathematical puzzles. It ranged from colored tile patterns, building shapes from specifically shaped blocks, and a bit on knots to trying to Conway's game of life.(unfortunately out of order).

Conveniently next door was the history of computers, starting with the abacus. As I went on a guided tour of the exhibit (in German of course - I was pleasantly surprised with how much I understood. Luckily for CS a lot of the words are the same. gigaflop == gigaflop) I learned how to use a bunch of ancient calculating devices. Want to know my plan for the next no-calculator exam? Bring an abacus. :D

After geeking out all day at the museum, we got a nice dinner at a small restaurant. I admit it. I didn't get German food. After a month and a half of almost exclusively local cuisine, I couldn't stand one more day of Maultaschen or Wurst or some creamy pasta with mushrooms. Instead, I got Thai curry. It was a very welcome difference.

Because the World is Small

You can only stay in one area for so long before you get the urge to travel a bit further. This weekend I caved to that urge (the start of a trend for my weekends to come) and traveled to Munich. (That I knew someone who was going to be there for the weekend probably didn't have anything to do with it either ;P)

To keep costs down as much as possible, I arrived at 7:40 in the morning. On a train that was arriving late. That means I woke up at at actually-way-too-early AM and still managed to kind of almost miss the train. >< Mornings and me are mortal enemies I think.

The good things about early trains: You're not allowed to sleep in, guaranteeing an early start to your day and hopefully maximizing it's productivity. The bad things about early trains: You're not allowed to sleep in.

After meeting up with some friends from back home and snacking on some delicious baked goods (eaten in half of a piece increments, because somehow in the splitting of multiple pieces you end up with less total... ) we headed out for our day around Munich. I actually do mean around Munich. We didn't spend much time actually in the city.

To start off, we visited Dachau. I've seen a number of documentaries, studied it in school and even been to a few sites and museums in Berlin regarding concentration camps, but somehow being on the site was a much more powerful experience than I was really ready for. I don't think anyone could ever really be ready for it. I had thought about taking some photos, but I decided not to as I think it's something you really do have to experience for yourself.

On a happier note, we then traveled through Munich (taking a stop at the Hauptbahnhof to grab some Döner) on to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. As we exited the train talking excitedly about our kind-of-vaguely "planned" hike, we caught the interest of another American traveling abroad. He was in Munich for the summer and happened to be from... MIT. Basically, the world is full of surprises.

Together we took our free map from the tourist info center (just big enough to show us where we want to go, but if we took a wrong turn, we were likely off the map) and set out to tackle the mountain.

I am a sort of hiker. I like the idea of hiking. I know a bit about hiking. I've even been hiking a fair number of times. Just not very intense hikes. Like climbing a mountain hikes. This hike was uphill. (all the way, both ways, in the snow... well it would be in winter at least)


The view though, when we got to the outlook, was well worth all the effort. Just take a look:

I brought my nicer camera. (can you tell?)

You could see for forever. And a half.

There was a cafe at the top. Sadly we couldn't stay to check it out.

So I got up to this point of the post and realized because of stupid things like transfer cables, internet and really short battery lives, I can't actually get the pictures up right now ><

BUT I DON'T WANT TO WAIT ANY LONGER TO POST THIS. So you'll have to check back later for the photos. -.- Sincerest apologies.

EDIT: Photos now included. Fancy that.

New Unit of Measurement: Cubic Trees

Are you confused by the title? You should be. Today I went on a tour of (yet another) University of Stuttgart project: cubic trees. At least that's what was the little, slightly misinformed preconceived notion I had.

There were trees. And they together did form a cube. But that wasn't really the cool part. The cool part was that as the trees grew, they would grow into each other (due to carefully placed screws) and become one organism. Which is cool right? On top of that, supports for entire platform levels are also thrust between branches encouraging the trees to grow around them just the way cable companies in the US don't like branches to grow.

Eventually all these planter boxes will be removed

Since the tree growing around the metal pipes forms such a tight bond (It looks like the pipe is sticking through the middle of a single branch) the tree can serve as the supports for the structure. So when we all come back for our 20 year reunion in 2033, there will be a living structure that you can climb in that's all one tree. A whole different meaning to tree house.

The dates indicate when those pieces will be removed

Growing tree structures takes space, so instead of being on the university's campus, it was out in Nagold, a really pretty little town. In our bit of free time I discovered two of my favorite things: a bookstore (well.. you should know this about me by know hopefully.. I have book-dar) and a church. Not only a church though, a church in which an organist was practicing. (I love the way organs sound in large churches)

Eventually it'll grow over the top to provide shade

To top off an already wonderful day, we went as a group to our self-declared pub in the middle of the forest. We didn't even get lost this time! Better yet, on the way back I saw fireflies for the first time (that I remember at least). Watching them move over the hill underneath the trees was really magical. I really wanted to take a picture, but I think it's one of those things that just can't be expressed unless you're there to see it.

Independence Day

Happy Fourth of July! To keep up our American spirit, we celebrated Independence Day with a yummy, traditional apple pie. Although I do miss seeing the fireworks, eating pie right out of the oven with whipped cream isn't such a bad alternative.

Before

After

Rollin' Sushi on the Second Floor

Today was the second of our group cook nights, and this time we attempted to make sushi. And for all intents and purposes I would say we actually succeeded.  (A rare occurrence, I know)

Using the snazy new asian-certified (but made in US ... ><) products we had bought the day before, we cooked lots (waaay too much) rice in assorted pots, cut up vegetables into strips and rolled them into rolls. One of our groups members channeled his cooking heritage and made surprisingly professional looking rolls, despite the odd ingredients requested. (Like bacon. Seriously, who wants bacon in their sushi?)

Bacon sushi on our pizza box cutting board

And now for something completely different: There are fireworks going off right now, unless I'm mistaken. I'm a bit confused.. the 4th of July isn't for another hour.

Visiting Asia(Markt)

What's similar about Germany and the USA? A lot of things, to be honest- basically everything apart from the language is similar. I mean, they're both modern countries of the western world.

What's exactly the same between Germany and the USA? Asian supermarkets. Well, minus the language. Perhaps you're thinking, 'Why is this so surprising?', which is a good question. Aren't immigrants going to sort of be the same wherever they end up? I guess they could be.

However, I've gotten used to seeing the kind-of-the-same, but still just a bit different. (Like how grocery stores don't have pharmacies attached, and you're expected (most of the time) to seat yourself at restaurants) It's close enough that you think you know what to do, but different enough that you stick out like a foreigner if you operate on auto-pilot like at home.

However, there really wasn't that sort of 'just-a-bit' different feeling at the Asian grocery stores we went to today. There was still stuff packed in really close together. There was still an air of bargain prices (irrelevant if the prices were actually bargains), the onslaught of languages you didn't speak, and a wide selection of food you probably wouldn't eat. (like grass jelly... sorry if that's something you hold dear)

If I had to pick out one thing that was maaaybe a bit different, it would be the shopkeepers' mastery of the native language. Their German was easily better than mine. (I guess that would be me, sticking out as a foreigner again.)  

The Sound of Silence

Yay! It's Monday. Or not. As far as the project goes, I'm having "fun" with parametric equations. :D heh. I was having some issues, so I went to the... drumroll please... library. The library was really different than those at MIT.

For starters, the place actually had people in it looking for books. And reading them :O. (When I first started asking about libraries at MIT, I was recommended to go to the libraries with the comfiest chairs for napping...)

Another major difference was that you weren't allowed to take your backpack into the stacks. If you wanted to bring stuff with you, they had these plastic baskets you could put stuff in. Also, the system for organizing the books was way different. While I was expecting this, it was still difficult (even with a map) to figure out where books were and where I should look for similarly themed books.

What was similar though, was the really good wifi connection. I'm not sure what it is about libraries, but the wifi always seems to get good mojo from being around the books.