Ah, so where did I leave off?

Last Sunday I met with my adviser to practice my seminar talk and I felt like it went horribly.  I think that’s largely due to the fact that it is extremely awkward to give a lecture to an audience of one but act like it’s an audience of 12, especially when you’re self-conscious because you know that that one audience member knows more about the topic than you do.  I’m not a nervous public speaker, but I found myself stumbling over what to say (thinking consciously about what verb or adjective or adverb to use, because I couldn’t find the right word).  Still, I think it was a very useful exercise.  We worked out a few of the kinks and made some changes.

Monday afternoon I gave my talk, which is/was one of the two big goals of this trip.  In spite of the issues on Sunday, I think the real talk went great.  I felt confident and charged and happy after it was over.  I felt like I was clear and thorough, but not too far down into the details.  I think it was roughly the right level for the audience.  One person asked a lot of questions because it had been a long time since they’d dealt with this type of material and I answered them quickly, clearly, and correctly, I think.  After the talk, several audience members complimented me on the talk, but I never know if it’s genuine or just politeness.  The next day I got to ask my adviser what he thought and he gave it a glowing review, so that made me feel even better about it; I know if it was bad he would have told me.  He was probably surprised it went so well, given the outcome of the practice on Sunday, and the fact that the only other talk he’s seen me give was my master’s presentation, which wasn’t my greatest.  This was a much better talk than my master’s presentation because I was much more familiar with the material because it was things I’d actually done and worked through myself, rather than something someone else came up with that I read, learned, and regurgitated.

Tuesday and Wednesday the real work started.  The four of us that have been working on disjoint parts of the problem came together for the first time to talk about it, and to try to come up with ideas about how to finish solving all cases so we can write it up and submit it for publication.  (This is the second of the two big goals of my trip here.)  Throughout the rest of the week, a large piece of the puzzle came into place.  So, mathematically, this visit has already been hugely productive.

Sunday night (my fourth night in Germany) I finally got a full night of sleep.  It still wasn’t quite at the right times (I went to bed earlier than usual and woke up at 6 or 6:30 am), but it was a full night of sleep nonetheless.  By the middle of the week, I was back on a normal sleeping schedule.  So, the first night and first two days were quite jet lagged, but not unbearable.  Within 4 days I was getting enough sleep, and within a week I was on a normal schedule.  Not too bad for my first time travelling internationally!

Most of my cultural observations have been well-documented on Facebook and Twitter blurbs, but I’ll go into more detail with some of them here.  Sorry for the lack of transitions between my stories that follow.

I mentioned in my last entry that I bought Froot Loops at the grocery store.  Unfortunately, I did not realize that they were Froot Loops only in packaging.  It is a completely different product than the US version, and one that I didn’t like too much.  They only come in 3 colors (instead of the whole rainbow!) and they are not coated in sugar.  It’s just sad.

I’ve been out to bars twice now since I got here.  Alcohol is cheap here, much cheaper than in the US.  And unlike at restaurants and university cafeterias, menus are often in English, or in a blend of English and German.  Makes my life easier.

Pizza in Germany is a completely different beast.  First of all, it doesn’t come in slices.  You get a whole pizza and you’re expected to use a fork and knife to cut off bite size pieces, which I found to be really uncomfortable and unnatural.  (They do the same thing with french fries!  Basically there’s no such thing as finger foods here, and whenever I forget and start eating something by grabbing it with my hands and putting it in my mouth, I get weird stares.)  Plus, my appetite is finally back (I was having trouble in the week leading up to the trip), but even with a normal appetite I don’t eat a whole pizza in one sitting.  I thought America was the king of excess and over-sized portions, but I haven’t been able to finish everything on my plate at any meal since I got here.  Also, there’s little or no cheese on the pizza depending on which style you order.  That’s not okay!  The cheese is my favorite part!  Today I saw a random tweet by someone I don’t know about Domino’s pizza and I realized how much I am really craving a good slice of pizza right now.  Not that Domino’s pizza is particularly good, I’m just saying that it reminded me of American style pizza.  I’m definitely having pizza for dinner my first night back in the US.  There were two positive things about my German pizza experience, though.  First, it was free.  It was dinner-with-the-speaker after my talk on Monday, like we have in our department when we have speakers come give talks and the department covers the meal.  Second, the waiter didn’t speak much English, but he referred to me as “beautiful woman” several different times in English so that gave me an ego boost.

One thing I hadn’t heard of and found surprising and annoying is the public bathroom system here.  Sometimes public bathrooms have attendants with tip jars, similar to some places in the US.  But some places have a more complicated system.  In the train station there is a huge floor-to-ceiling turnstile gate that blocks the hallway to the bathroom.  You have to pay one euro to be able to turn through it.  Then you go down the hallway to the bathroom.  When you’re done, you come back up the same hallway (there is no other exit), but it’s not entirely clear how you’re supposed to get back through the gate.  There is a glass door that leads to the outside next to the turnstile (on the same side of the gate as the bathroom hallway), so I tried that, thinking it was an exit-only door.  But apparently it’s an EMERGENCY exit only door.  It wouldn’t open, so don’t worry, I didn’t set off an alarm or get arrested or anything.  But I did look like a moron trying to open the emergency exit door that doesn’t open.  Eventually a guy came through the turnstile to go to the bathroom and saw me fumbling to try to get out and pointed at the turnstile and said something in German, probably to the effect of “just walk back out the way you came, you stupid American.”  Sure enough, the gate requires money to turn inward, but you can walk out (making the gate turn in the opposite direction) for free.  Crisis averted.  I am not stuck in gated German bathroom hallway for all eternity.

The climate here is similar to the area I grew up in in Pennsylvania, but maybe 10-15 degrees colder on average.  (Actually, I just looked it up in terms of latitudes.  Dallas, TX is about 30 degrees north, my hometown is about 40 degrees north, and this town in Germany is about 50 degrees north.)  As a result, there’s no air conditioning anywhere.  This week it was above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for 2-3 days, and it was so uncomfortable.  I would be dripping with sweat soaked through my clothes by the time I walked from my apartment to school (or from school to my apartment).  In PA, most public buildings have AC, but a lot of homes don’t.  In TX, pretty much everywhere has AC.  There is none here.  But now it’s back to “normal” summer weather here, which is between 60 and 75 Fahrenheit and lots of little bouts of rain, so I’m no longer missing the AC.  When I fly back to Texas, the temperature will jump about 30 degrees…  Which reminds me… I’m pretty sure I didn’t turn the thermostat up in my Texas apartment before I left so my electric bill is going to be a lot higher than it should be this month.  Grrrr.

I also got more adventurous with the public transportation here this week.  On Thursday, I went by myself to Cologne to see Tegan & Sara in concert.  I took a local train to the big train station in town, then another train from there to Cologne, then I walked from the train station to the venue.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon in the low-or-mid 70’s so it was perfect for a walk.  The train between here and Cologne was ridiculously boring.  It was an hour long, and I didn’t bring my iPod or my tablet, so I didn’t really have anything to entertain myself with.  I ended up sending out a picture message out to a bunch of my friends to see who would bite.  A couple of people replied and that kept me busy for a few minutes.

The area of Cologne I got to walk through was really adorable.  There were a lot of cute houses.  Here’s one particular structure that I actually stopped to take a photo of (I assume it’s a church, or was at one time).

I made it to the venue with no problems.  I ordered my tickets a week before the show but they never came in the mail, so I was trying all day to get in contact with someone who would assure me I would still be able to get in to the concert.  I contacted the venue first, who gave me the contact info for the company that was promoting the show.  They asked me who I bought my tickets from and I told them.  They contacted the ticketing company, verified my story, and then got me put on the guestlist.  So, yeah, I got to walk up to the doors and say “Hi, I don’t have a ticket.  I’m on the guestlist.”  And it worked.  They asked for my name, I was on the guestlist, and I was waved along.  I felt so cool!

To get home from the concert, I took a taxi back to the train station, then took the hour train ride back to this town, then the local train back to my apartment.  I could have walked to the train station in Cologne from the venue, but I only had 20 minutes from when the concert let out until the next train left.  If I missed it, the next train didn’t come for another whole hour, and it was already pretty late at night.  So, I opted for a taxi.  That taxi driver was CRAZY.  It was about 11:30PM so there wasn’t much traffic on the road, but he was all about efficiency.  Any time there was a car in front of him, he passed them.   He actually managed to avoid all red lights.  He cut someone off once in the process of passing them because he suddenly decided to turn right (I think to avoid a red light). He was speeding and swerving through tiny streets and got me to the station in plenty of time to catch my train.  It was way easier and faster than trying to find my way on my own on foot in the dark, but it still had some adventure and intrigue.

As for the concert itself, it was amazing, of course.  I’ve seen T&S live twice before in Philadelphia.  I already bought tickets to see them in Dallas during the US leg of the current tour, but they aren’t going to be there until September, and I’m pretty sure that they are not the headliner.  So it was nice to get to see them a little earlier than planned, and at a show where they were the main attraction.  I was a farther back from the stage than I would have liked, but by the time I realized I wanted to be closer, it was far enough into the set that I thought it would be rude to push through the crowd.  (The T&S crowd is not like a rock show crowd where it’s typical and acceptable for pushing and shoving.)  None of the people in the crowd around me seemed to be all that familiar with the songs, or, if they were, they weren’t the type of concertgoers who would sing & dance along.  Maybe it’s a European thing?  I don’t know what was going on.  I just know I was the only person that I could see that was dancing and singing.  But I didn’t care.  I was there to enjoy the music, and that’s what I wanted to do.  I have a lot of pent up emotion right now, and I needed a night of release.  It felt great.  This whole trip has been therapeutic and helped me get perspective (and it’s not even over yet!), but a good old-fashioned dancing-it-out was perfect that night.

Also, at the concert venue, there was no liquor.  Only beer.  So, I sucked it up and ordered a local brew (Kölsch).  It was the most tolerable beer I’ve had yet.  It is only the second full glass of beer EVER that I drank.  I’ve had lots of sips of beer.  My friends all really want me to like beer, so from time to time I will try a new one.  They always hope that THAT will be the sip that turns me into a beer lover.  But it never is.  When I was living in Philly I had a glass of Hoegaarden mixed with Framboise (called a Dirty Ho).  I didn’t like it that much, but enough to force the whole glass down eventually.  I actually drank two Kölsch at the concert.  It still had that “beer-y” smell and aftertaste to it that I hate, but not nearly as strong as anything else I’ve had before.  Maybe I’ll try another local beer or two while I’m here in Germany, then take my feedback on what I’ve tried here back to my friends at home and they’ll be able to recommend more beers for me to try.  It took me a while to enjoy coffee but now I largely run on espresso.  Maybe this will be that turning point for me with beer.

So, it’s more than halfway through my visit.  I’m in great spirits.  I have gotten a LOT of work done, which is the primary goal of this trip.  But I’ve also had a LOT of fun, and a lot of new experiences.  Even though I’m not really making an effort to learn any German, I feel more worldly.  The people I’ve met here are great and very welcoming.  I’ve somewhat gotten over myself and my problems and been humbled by this opportunity.  Only five and a half days left, so I’m going to go out and make the most of them!