All the Amsterdam Things

As my time here in Germany is winding down, things get weird and busy and sad and all that stuff. No excuse for not having a blog post in a looooooong time, but my motivation has been a little lacking. I have done some really cool things in the time I haven’t written, so I really should share them. So hopefully I can do my memories justice. It will be a little brief, though, because I have to fit two weeks into one post and I don’t want to make anyone’s head explode. Alright. Let’s begin.

Street in Amsterdam

The last weekend in July, Varun and I made a last trip out of Germany. He wanted to go to Amsterdam, so that’s exactly what we did. We flew from Stuttgart to Amsterdam, passing through Zurich. On the short flights, we got chocolate and a sandwich. So European airlines > American airlines. When we got to the Amsterdam airport, it took a long time to figure out how to get to the main train station. When we got there, we wandered around trying to figure out how to get the tram we needed to get to the hostel. When we did find it, it was about 10 feet wide. But everything in that city is skinny and small. It was about midnight on Thursday night as we passed through the city and everything was alive and crazy. There were so many people everywhere. We finally made it to the hostel, put our bags down, and left again to get food. We immediately noticed that Amsterdam was not only dirtier than Germany, but also bikes. Everywhere. Locked to every solid fixture, or sitting on the sidewalk. We later learned that there are 1.2 bikes for every person in Amsterdam. Not sure why that’s necessary, but it seems it is. When you cross any and all streets in that city, there are many steps to take. 1. Make sure no bikes are coming in the bike lane in front of you. 2. Make sure no cars are coming in the lane nearest you. 3. Make sure no cars are coming in the opposite lane of travel. 4. Make sure no trams are coming in either direction. And finally 5. Make sure no bikes are on the other side of the road that can run into you. Basically, stop every three feet to make sure you won’t get run over by something bigger than you. That is one of the main lessons of Amsterdam: you move for bikes, they don’t move for you.

Taryn at I amsterdam

Canal cruise by Anne Frank House

Mini tugboat?

National Museum and I amsterdam

Canal cruise

                                                                                    Back at the hostel, we were in a four bedroom, and one of our companions I will affectionately refer to as The Chainsaw. Because that’s what he sounded like when he slept. Which was a lot. When his friends knocked on our door at 6:45 the next morning, he finally stopped. After Varun and I ate, we set out to find a canal cruise to give us our first look at the city in the daylight. We ended up on a little boat with some Swedes and Italians. Our guide was awesome and knew really random things about everything. That was my favorite part of our trip. It started to rain on our open boat, but I was too fascinated by what I was seeing to care at all. When we were finished on the water, we walked by the National Museum and made our way to the I amsterdam letters. There were people everywhere, street performers trying to impress the tourists, people climbing the letters and their friends taking their pictures. From there we walked to the Van Gogh Museum, waited in line, and then entered the craziness that awaited us inside. It’s four stories of one continuous line basically. It took a very long time to get through because there were so many people, but being able to see the evolution of his style was definitely cool. The gift shop was also pretty cool. When we left, it was raining, so we went back to the hostel to grab our jackets. Keep in mind that it’s only about 4 in the afternoon at this point. And who do we hear when we get to our room? You bet. The Chainsaw. We have no idea what he and his friends did in Amsterdam, but it must have been really great to make him sleep so much. From there, we made the half hour trek to the Red Light District. We wanted to see it during the day and also at night. It is the oldest part of the city, so us history buffs wanted to get the full effect of the area. We walked around, not really understanding that we were in the middle of where we wanted to be. The Red Light District is also the green capital of the city. There were coffeeshops everywhere and weed paraphenalia in all the windows. It was so strange to see something so stigmatized in the US be so open and free here. It also started to pour, so the streets emptied out pretty quickly. Eventually, we walked all the way to the main train station. We found a pasta place to eat at. It was conveniently located right next to a sex museum. Such is Amsterdam.

1928 Olympic stadium!

Inside the stadium

Could that be prettier?!

Line for the Anne Frank House

The actual Anne Frank House

Everyone knows we Sissersi are a big track family. Any and all track meets make us feel right at home. This makes the summer Olympics a very big deal to us. This also makes seeing Olympic stadiums one of the coolest things ever ever of all to me. Did you know that Amsterdam hosted an Olympics? Neither did I. Until I got there and saw it on the map. Which meant I had to go find it. I’m collecting stadiums. Unfortunately, I didn’t do my research very well, because it took us two hours to find it. When we got there, a meet was actually happening.                                                                                                                                                                                                    We bought tickets and went inside and it immediately began to rain. Of course. There was even a pole vaulter! We waited for the rain to stop. When it didn’t. they finally ran some races, but there was no more vaulting. Sad. After that fun trip, we walked for an hour back to the main part of the city and went straight to the Anne Frank House. We waited for the requisite 2 hours in line. When we finally got in, though, it was totally worth it. The tour starts in the office building next to the Secret Annex. There are videos and pictures, but no furniture. When her father, Otto, returned to Amsterdam to find he was the only one of his family to survive, he made their hideout a museum. He said there was to be no furniture anywhere in the museum to signify all the lives that were lost during the Holocaust. A noble sentiment, but I wanted to see how everything looked when they were there. Thankfully, there were models of each room. We saw the famed bookcase and climbed the incredibly steep stairs to the apartment. The rooms were small, which I didn’t realize until I was not in them any longer. I also didn’t realize that I was IN FREAKING ANNE FRANK’S HOUSE until I wasn’t in it anymore. Her room that she shared with another person was maybe 10 feet wide, and they had 2 beds in there. Peter’s room was the tiniest. And there was a ladder going directly through it. I am very glad that we waited, because a trip to Amsterdam would not be complete without seeing this incredible place. While I was waiting in line for two hours, I realized that a teenage girl made this kind of impact on people that 10 hours almost every day of the year there was a two hour wait to see an empty building. She was insightful and driven and hopeful. All at fourteen. I also, sadly, realized that her words probably would not have reached as many people as they have if she had survived. She is one of the most widely read people because of her tragic ending. But she wanted to get her experiences out into the world. It is incredibly horrible that it took her death to make that happen, but she deserves all the recognition she gets. That is another lesson I learned in Amsterdam. That Anne Frank is way cooler than I originally thought.

From the profound to the vulgar, we went from the Anne Frank House back to the Red Light District. We finally realized that the naked dancing ladies were not on the main streets, but in the alleys between them. I also discovered that they weren’t naked nor dancing. They were all scantily clad, but most of them would stand in their windows and play on their phones. I guess I got quiet as we walked through the alleys with their red lights and open windows, because Varun asked if I was uncomfortable. Which I was, but not for the reasons he thought. Of course, it is weird to see something you’ve always known to be illegal be out in the open. But what really got me was just the girls doing this as a job. Coming from a family who always told me I could do and be whoever I wanted, seeing women voluntarily choose to sell their bodies was just a concept I don’t understand. I am sure they all have their reasons, but they will never make sense to me. It only seems degrading and base to me. I feel sorry that these women only see themselves in this way and don’t know that they can be something else, anything else. But. That’s just me. It was still an interesting experience, but one I am glad to only be witness to, not a participant in.

Palace in Dam Square

Narrowest house: 1.8 m across

I'm really upset about my life at the moment

The Vondelpark

                                                                                                                                                  The next morning, we checked out of the hostel, put our stuff in a locker, and went on a walking tour. Our tour guide was named Robbert and he was freaking fantastic. He knows so much about the city that he could probably talk for days straight about all the random facts he has in his head. He is also one of the fastest walkers I have ever met. We would start as a group, and in 20 seconds, he would be 50 feet ahead of us. Good thing he was tall, otherwise we would have lost him in the first 10 minutes. The tour took three hours, but we saw and learned so much. From there, we went back to the Anne Frank House and found a restaurant across the canal to eat at. It was a goal to eat on a canal while we were there. Eating on a canal by the Anne Frank House was an added bonus. Varun got a sophisticated sandwich with a grown up glass of wine. Taryn got a milkshake and a pancake with chocolate and bananas on top. But it was so yummy. YOLO. From lunch, we walked back to the hostel, which was conveniently located next to the main park in the city, the Vondelpark. We sat in the grass and watched the many barbeques happening around us. Then it was time to leave the city. We took the tram back to the main station. As we drove, I took my last looks at the crooked city. The houses that not only lean into the street but also to the sides, the hooks on top of all the houses to haul things to the upper floors, the canals and boats that are everywhere, the bikes that were literally in almost every empty space available. I would miss it all, but I was missing Stuttgart. But actually I was missing home. And that is when I started to get homesick. Finally.

Solitude Castle

Ludwigsburg Castle

On the grounds

The next week was hectic. The end of the month meant that many people’s projects were ending and they were packing up to leave. There were many people to say bye to and many things to clean. On Thursday, Marissa and I took Varun to the airport so send him back home. About half of the kids in the program left, so our group activities have become much smaller. After such a weird week, Marissa and I decided to stay in Stuttgart for the weekend. Which actually turned out really great. Our friend Binja, who is really my friend Amy’s friend, came into town on Saturday to visit her aunt, so we went to visit them. We had a good ole American barbeque. There were country fries and hamburgers. Her family is just as entertaining as she is, and I’m glad we had the chance to see her one more time before we left. On Sunday, Marissa, our friend Tiemo, and I took a Castle Day. We went to two castles, the Solitude castle and the Ludwigsburg castle. Both by the same guy, only 20 kilometers apart, but one the vacation home. We started with the smaller one, the Solitude. It was quite dead on a rainy Sunday afternoon, which made it even more beautiful in my opinion. From there we went to the Ludwigsburg castle, which is not small in any way. The front grounds are covered in colorful flowers, the castle itself is massive, and then behind the castle is everything from a petting zoo to a fairy tale garden. We took an hour and a half tour of the castle itself. It was all in German so I had no idea what was going on, but that just gave me a lot of time to look at each room. The walls were covered in velvet and the ceilings all painted with cherubs and angels and whathaveyou. There was going to be a concert in the main square of the castle, so the end of our tour was drowned out by sound testing, but everything was still  incredibly cool. After four hours there, we were tired and ended up leaving for home without exploring every nook and cranny of the grounds. It was still beautiful to see what we did. Definitely glad we went.

Concert time!

At work, we have received the printer we were promised, and so now I am experimenting with it hard core. I have no idea how to do anything, so I make a lot of Skype calls to the company asking questions. we are making progress, but it is hard not to get frustrated after hours trying to get one thing to work. When it does work, and it doesn’t last very long, it is really sweet to watch. I’m hoping to be able to print something I can take home with me. My own handmade souvenir. But we will see how much progress I can make in a week. It is exciting and I am sad that I have so little time to play with it. But such is science.

Printing

Printed pink plasticine

After Amsterdam, where I heard the most English I have heard in the past three months, I started to feel like going home. When one of my best friends here left, that only made me want my mommy even more. While I am stoked that I am actually 3D printing, I am getting excited for when I get on a plane to go home. I am excited to go to Prague this upcoming weekend and then London and Dublin the week after, but seeing the people I care about most sounds real good right about now. The plan is to get off the plane, hug my family, eat mexican food, sleep, eat pancakes, sleep, get a new phone, sleep, eat mac and cheese, and sleep. Then it will be time to go back to school and start my senior year of college. (WHAT THE HELL.)While I have wholeheartedly enjoyed this journey, I’m ready to hold my dog against her will and sleep in my own bed and drive my car and have an enchilada while surrounded by my family. Let the countdown begin!

Forever and always,

Taryn

München = Munich

After the excitement of the World Cup Final, the next week seemed very calm in comparison. I haven’t stayed up that late in a long time, and that’s ok with me. It was a great reason to do something different, but I am glad that isn’t a weekly occurrence. I find myself trying to type on my computer keyboard like it is a German keyboard. They have the “y” and “z” switched and to get an apostrophe you have to use the shift key. This is how well I am integrating here. The tales of my next week may seem pretty tame comparatively, but I’ll give it a go.

The super computer

The colorful super computer

On Tuesday, we all went on another tour. This one was to the 12^th fastest computer in the world. Which doesn’t mean much to me, but most of the boys were thoroughly impressed. We were shown what was used in their computers back in the mid 90s up to now. Again, didn’t make much sense to me, but the boys wanted to know it all and see it and touch it and everything. After that briefing, we were taken into the room where the computer was housed. It was more like a bunker than anything. The room was massive and loud and the walls were covered in metal. There were four big groups of computer towers in the room. The biggest one, the Cray, was the coolest. It is actually the computer that Varun and his partner Greg use to run their simulations for their projects. They spent quite a bit more time around the contraption than the rest of us did. It was probably 30 feet long, with two sides to it. The fronts of each little locker had graphics on them, making it visually appealing, although I’m not sure who for… There were also big metal pipes that looked like they belonged on an 18 wheeler and not a computer. A machine of that size requires quite a bit of cooling it seems. It was hard to hear what our guide was saying, but seeing everything was fun enough for me.

Everyone I talk to thinks I am crazy. And I probably am. But no amount of peer pressure will get to me buy an iPhone. Like I said to Varun and Marissa, I will only use one if it is bought for me. The point of my rambling is that in a year and a half, I have had four replacement phones, always the same model. Something just kept breaking with it. But I always go back to Windows because I actually really like the interface and how it connects to my Skydrive. (Can you tell that this is a well-practiced speech?) Anyway, I dropped my phone and broke it. After figuring out what to do next, it took me a while to remember that I take all my photos on my phone. So, now my pictures are either going to be not so clear or they will be from other people. Also, as soon as I get home, I will be purchasing another Windows phone. Not the same model, but I know where my allegiances lie.

The T's together again!

Parties and festivals and things here tend to start on Thursdays. This Thursday was no exception. Except that I was meeting someone at this festival and we had planned it that way. The festival was called the Hamburg Fish Market. It was an area full of fish vendors and fishy meals and beer and drinks and gelato in the middle of Stuttgart. The best part wasn’t the fish, although it was good. The best part was that I got to see Tasha. I have known this girl since I was 5. She was my first best friend, we were T & T, and she was freaking in Stuttgart. We discovered that, on her way back from a month in India, she was going to visit her family in Germany. The exact part of Germany I happened to be living in for the summer. So we met up. Which was very weird. And awesome. I got to meet part of her family and we all had fun talking and eating. And we can say that we casually met up in Germany over the summer. How many people can say that?

The next day was Friday, and that meant it was time for another trip. Marissa and I caught a bus to Munich while Varun took a train a few hours earlier. Unfortunately, both modes of transportation ended up being an hour late, so it was a pretty long night. We finally got to our destination at about 1230 in the morning. Lucky for us, I have a friend who lives in Munich and offered us a place to stay. When I was a sophomore in high school, my lacrosse team went undeafted. Part of that team was an exchange student from Germany. Her name was Franzi. She and I spent quite a bit of time together since we were both defensive players. When Franzi found out I was in Germany for the summer, she offered me a place to stay if I came to visit. We gladly accepted. And we are SO very glad we did. We had an awesome time. The weekend was actually perfect. Even naked old men and rain couldn’t change the perfection we experienced. We got to sleep on real beds in a real, incredibly wonderful house. We got to walk around a super cool city and basically it was just awesome. Let me tell you.

Church!

When we woke up on Saturday, it took us a very long time to get moving. When we did, we went to the main part of the city. We walked around all the streets and saw lots of shoppers. We got to see the Glockenspiel, which Camille and Megan and I tried to find last time we were in Munich. (Guys, we went in the wrong direction.) It was actually a really cool building. We went into a church and then climbed a tower that afforded some truly awesome pictures of the city. A two minute walk from the tower and we were at the Hofbrauhaus. After some very stereotypically touristy shopping in the gift shop, we sat down and ordered some drinks. Also very touristy of us. We sat and drank and chatted. When everyone had been properly carboloaded, we walked to the university. Unbeknownst to me, directly behind the university, where I had been before, was the English Gardens, with a river running through. This was a very hot day and a cool dip in the river sounded wonderful. When we got there, it was absolutely swarming with people. Most of them were half dressed and lounging. There were others playing games and others swimming in the river. I can attest to the fact that there were a few naked men around. And not the naked men that you want to see. Naked OLD men, who you don’t ever really want to see unclothed in any capacity. It was so European. We found some of Franzi’s friends and sat with them. We went to the river and I found that it was in fact ice cold. I stuck my feet in, splashed my face a little, and called it good. Marissa and Varun went all the way in and were carried downstream by the current. They came back  a few minutes later and were dry in no time. Next, we went to a party on campus. It was still pretty early in the day so it wasn’t very lively. Then we went one block over to an ice cream place. It was the weirdest ice cream store I have ever been to. It was Alice in Wonderland themed because the owner is called the Mad Ice Cream Maker. I saw him. He was wearing an 8 inch tall top hat. I got pretty normal flavors, but there were sausage flavors and other unexpected things. After such a treat, we went back to Franzi’s house to relax a bit.

The freezing river

We sat and napped for a while when we got back. At some point her friend  Felix came over. We went into her backyard and talked with some beers and champagne. At around 11, we left for the city. We we going out! The first place we tried to get into told us either to buy a 500 euro table or only the girls get in. The next place was much less elitist. We went in and danced the night away. They played some German songs, but the majority of them were in English. There were even some I knew. Fancy that. There were a lot of people but everyone was having fun and we really had no problems. It was weird not to be kicked out at 2 like in the US. When I asked Franzi when the clubs close in Germany, all she said was, “When there are no more people there.” Such a strange idea. We stayed until 3:30, when no more trains were running. Luckily, we found a cab that could fit 6, and we snatched it up. By the time we went to bed it was 4:30 in the morning. Which might explain why I got sick when we got back to Stuttgart.

The trio plus one

Sunday morning became Sunday afternoon before we woke up and got moving. Varun went on another short man journey to the concentration camp at Dachau and then to Nuremberg. Us girls went back to the English Gardens and ate at the Biergarten there. Marissa and I bought 25 euros worth of food and devoured it all in 10 minutes. Mercifully, it had begun to cloud over, so eating outside did not mean we ourselves were roasted. Eventually it rained, and we decided we were tired enough that going back to Franzi’s and watching a movie sounded like the best course of action. And that is exactly what we did. And it was wonderful. Our bus back home was on time, and we did not get stranded in the tain station for the second week in a row. All in all a very successful trip.

Franzi and I at the biergarten

It is strange how many connections I have in Germany. Whenever I said anything about my friends in Germany, Marissa and Varun would get confused about who I was talking about because I had so many friends in Germany this summer. One, I have known basically my whole life and can’t believe that even though our lives have diverged a great amount, we were still brought together on the other side of the world for a small amount of time. Another I haven’t seen in a long time and thought I never would again. When I did get to see her, it was so nice, especially since it was on her turf this time. Another friend is a new one, but one I am very glad I got to know. Basically, I just have good friends all over the world. Not a bad problem to have.

Every city I see in Germany makes me fall in love a little bit more. Munich was no exception. It will be very difficult to leave this place.

As always, my loves, thanks for reading.

Forever and always,

Taryn

DEUTSCHLAND DEUTSCHLAND!!!

Well, it’s all over now, folks. There are no more soccer games and no more crazy goals and no more meeting at the bars to hang out with excited fans. But man, what a run.

On Sunday night, us SUPER kids met up with people from my lab at a bar on campus to watch the Germany-Brazil game. We all knew that the home team was missing two of their most valuable players and everyone knew that was going to alter the play of the game. But no one, NO ONE, could have predicted the game that ensued. 11 minutes into the game, we had scored. (Somewhere along the line, I started to to use “we” to describe the relationship I have with the German soccer team.) By the time 30 minutes rolled around, we had four goals. At halftime, the score was 5-0. I kept turning to Marissa asking her if this was real life. After every goal, everyone screamed as if it were the first and most exciting. I learned later that at the city center, there were streamers and confetti. Because no one expected such a high scoring game, there were no more streamers after the fourth goal. When Brazil finally scored late in the second half, no one even noticed. The next day, there were German jerseys with the date of the game and 7:1 on the back. There were other places 7:1 showed up on the Internet, but we don’t need to talk about that. Everyone was happy and dancing and singing and drinking. Our little group of Americans just sat and stared at the craziness. We were going to be in Germany as they played for the World Cup. What?

The tree cube thing

View from the top floor of the tree cube thing

Downtown Nagold

On Wednesday, we took a trip to a town an hour away called Nagold. There, we saw a building made out of metal and trees. It was a cube made of metal, standing three stories tall, with trees sprouting from the bottom and crisscrossing all the way up on all sides of the structure. Built in 2012, the greenery is still young and hasn’t grown to its full potential yet. The idea is to coax the trees into growing together around the whole building to provide its own shading system. The architects who built it hope to use the technology in the future to build houses using trees to shade the house and cut down on costs. The structure was cool to see and the idea is very environmentally friendly, an idea that is much more prominent here than in the US. (We don’t really like to conserve. We are much too materialistic for that.) We were given a presentation about the project and its development and we got to see where the trees had started to grow together. When we were done there, we walked to the center of the town, which took a whole 10 minutes. Of course, it had been raining since 4 days before, so we were getting drizzled on at this point. We were given 30 minutes to roam free before our lunch as a group. Marissa and I, of course, took the opportunity to go shopping. All the boys looked at us like we were crazy. It was fun! Then we ate lunch and got hot cocoa. We got to talk to all the SUPER kids and chat about everything and nothing.

Representing with the Wildcat A

Let me tell you a little bit about where I work. I spend a lot of time in the Fraunhofer now. This is a huge, confusing building that contains labs and offices. It is its own company, but is associated with the University of Stuttgart. Tons of biological research goes on here, and I am a part of that. The lab where the dispenser resides is on the top floor, in the newest part of the building. It is air conditioned (!!!) and is usually very quiet. People walk around the building in white lab coats and goggles. There are posters of past projects everywhere and just looking at the labs makes you feel smart and sciencey. The tiles on the floor look like cells. I’m not sure if that was on purpose or if I am making that up, but I’m going to roll with it anyway. I sit in the little lab and roll around in the chair and print things and feel really cool when it all works. Often, it is frustrating and I don’t know why something doesn’t work, but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how science is supposed to go. I have increased my skillz, moving up from lines to a grid and some circles. Half the time something works, I have no idea why it did and I’m not sure how to replicate it. It’s great fun. But again, such is science. I’ll keep working on making things better and more precise and figuring out how the machine works. It’s fun when I am successful, and still pretty fun when I don’t. I’m happy that I still have a month left to work on this project.

It rained most of the week and was quite cold. When we had a barbeque with the lab again on Thursday, it was pretty chilly to be sitting outside. Thankfully there were enough people that we all stayed pretty warm. We had another BBQ because there was another dorm party, this time at my dorm. On one hand, if you need something, say a bathroom, your bathroom is right there! Awesome! On the other hand, if you need something, say sleep, your bed is right there. Not awesome! It was cold and it started to pour at one point, so overall I was not very into this dorm party. I went home and went to bed early. I woke up at 3 am and could still hear the party going on. I was very thankful to be in bed at that point.

Our boyfriend at the Lindt factory in Zurich

PAELLA. YUM.

On Friday, I dropped Varun off at the train station so he could take a “man journey” as Marissa called it. While Marissa and I went back to Switzerland to see her family one more time, he went to Frankfurt and Cologne. Fun fact! In German, Munich=München and Cologne=Köln. Just so we don’t sound so ignorant. We found out later that in both Frankfurt and Cologne, Varun attracted many Arizona Wildcats. In both hostels, he found U of A shirts and hung out with them around the city. Good job, Wildcats, on getting around the globe. Marissa and I left for Zug early on Saturday morning. After lunch with the family, we were set loose in Zurich, where we spent the next many hours happily shopping. When we got in at 11 am, it was hot and a jacket was not needed. Near the end of our shopping, it started to pour. We had already been on a mission to find some rain boots. After finding some, in the kids section for me of course, we pulled them on and ran through Zurich in rain boots but no jackets. Many people stared and probably muttered “Damn Americans,” under their breath. We went back to Zug and met with the family for yummy, yummy Spanish food. There were 9 of us at the table and we were all hungry. We got paella, and boy was there a lot of it! A pan a meter in diameter was brought out. It was covered in rice and veggies and all sorts of seafood that I didn’t know how to eat. That’s what happens to desert dwellers when placed around seafood. It was delicious and a learning experience and overall I think I need to go back. Yep, definitely. After that, everyone but the parents went back to the Zurich train station to watch the Netherlands-Brazil game. Inside the train station they set up a public viewing, complete with three screens, seats, a VIP section, and sand on the floor. The game wasn’t super interesting, Brazil’s psyche still recovering from their earlier beat down, but it was an interesting place to watch the game. We all went home after and promptly fell asleep.

Public viewing at the Zurich main station

The next morning, I didn’t get up until 10 and then we didn’t get out of the house until almost 1. It was ok though because not only did we get eggs and chorizo for breakfast, but we got handmade tortillas and enchiladas to take home with us. So I wasn’t complaining. Marissa and I got to the Zurich train station again and decided it was time for ice cream. We found some, ate it, and then got Chai lattes for the train ride back home. We had to leave pretty early so that we would actually be in Germany for the Final. When we got back to Stuttgart, we were waiting for the train back to the university when who should I see but Varun. It took him a few glances to realize that he in fact did know this person standing directly in front of him. All of us together again, we all went home and changed and then headed over to the bar on campus. It quickly got very busy. On the trains we had seen public viewings that were full at 6 for a game at 9. This was no laughing matter for the Germans. We bided our time until the big event began. The game was nerve wracking. No one was scoring, even though both teams thought they had at some point. I think when Götze finally scored in extra time, the whole country exploded in cheers. Like it probably was heard in Brazil. It was insane. Jumping and yelling and beer and screaming and everything. Everyone started yelling when the refs didn’t call the game over after the set time was done. As soon as the German coach was put on the screen smiling and hugging an assistant, the whole place went ballistic. The Germans had won the world cup for the first time in 24 years. And I was in Germany when the Germans won the World Cup for the first time in 24 years. We joined in the craziness and then watched until the ceremony was done. From there, we went to the city center to see what was going on there. What we found was...just...Germany winning the World Cup for the first time in 24 years.

People on the light poles

Doing a chant in the middle of the street

Just...Germany

All we saw was people everywhere. People in the streets, people walking, people staggering, people on light poles. There were massive German flags and fireworks and broken bottles everywhere. Everyone was chanting something, sometimes two blending together in the middle. Wherever you were, that was the chant you were screaming. People would start their own cheers and then everyone in the vicinity would join in. We walked around for about an hour, taking in the chaos. Then we were all tired and ready to go home. The subways had a different idea, though. Unbeknownst to us Americans, since we don’t really know what public transportation is, the trains stop running from 1 to 5 am. And it was 1:20 am. We tried walking back, but we realized we would eventually hit forest. We walked as far as we could, and then went into the station and tried to sleep until 5. There were guys working on the station, but we didn’t bug them and they didn’t bug us. When 5 sharp came, so did the train. And it was packed. More than half the crowd got off at the university stop. As we were walking back to our rooms, so were at least 100 other students. It was madness. I went up to my room and was out until 1030.

I haven’t felt home sick for the whole time that I have been here. I’m going to attribute that to my maturity, the accepting attitude of the people around me, and the little family that I have made here. Of course I miss my family and friends, but I have not once thought that I would rather be at home this summer. That being said, there are a few things that I will be happy to come home to. Here they are, in list format.

• Not having to ask for still water. In general, just water. Bubbly water is freaking weird and I will never get used to it. Also, at home there is free water and it is everywhere and it is usually cold. They don’t believe in frozen water here, so most of my drinks are not cold. The water situation at home is one I am excited for.
• Not having to pay to go to the bathroom. I realize .5 isn’t a lot, but why do I need to pay to do a natural bodily function? I do not get it and it makes me sad.
• Air conditioning. It’s true, there are not many days here that it is necessary. But when it gets to be 85 or 90 outside with 50 to 70% humidity, there is no escape from the heat. Buildings are hot, your room is hot, the subway is hotter, and the only moving air is any breeze Mother Nature decides to send. You are pretty much trapped in the hot and sticky. Even if it does get to be 115 at home, at least inside you still may need a blanket.
• Knowing what is going on around me at all times. I recognize that I am in a country that does not speak my language normally, and that I would be a stupid, ignorant American if I expected all conversation around me to always take place in English. But, not laughing when everyone else in the room is howling because you literally have no idea what just happened is not the best feeling in the world. I’m not trying to complain, I’m just excited to not have so much of a language barrier. Stupid and lack of sarcasm is one thing, but general nonunderstanding is something I will be glad to be rid of.
• Having my own bathroom. That’s not a foreign country thing, that’s a dorm living thing. But still.

I would make a list of all the things that I will in fact miss quite terribly, but that would never actually end and ain’t nobody got time fo that.

It was a crazy week, but one that most people don’t get to have. Hopefully I’ll never have to sleep in a subway station again, but it makes for an awesome story. I still can’t believe how lucky I am to be here and experiencing all that I am. I’m in love. Over and out. Oh, and DEUTSCHLAND!

Forever and always,

Taryn

More Adventures That Were Had

Starting this past week, we will be doing tours about once a week until August. Since most of the kids in the SUPER program work for different institutes, there’s a tour of most labs, showcasing all the cool stuff they all have. It’s a little like a bragging contest. But I’m cool with it because we get to see some pretty fantastic stuff. Some are just a few hours long, but others take the whole day. Most of the institutes are very mechanical/robotics/typical engineering stuff. Which is still interesting, but obviously I’d rather see body stuff or chemistry. On the whole, though, I think that what we get to see can get anyone excited about science and the advances that are being made here.

Flight simulator

The wood moving thingy

On Monday, we were taken to the Institute of System Dynamics. The first thing we saw was a flight simulator. This flight simulator was different than other flight simulators because it used pneumatics to power it. When I asked someone what that meant, they told me that they use 7 tanks of pressurized gas to move the partial cockpit around to imitate flight. They let a few of us run a simulation with one of their guys. The screens showed an animated version of the Frankfurt airport, and it was cool to watch the whole contraption move. The rest of us got to sit in the cockpit as a photo op. From there, we trekked to another part of campus. Unfortunately for us, at this point it had decided to completely pour. Marissa and I had hoods, but Varun had to beg for some umbrella room from other people in the group. The next attraction was also outside. It did happen to be such a shape that allowed us to take cover under it. The interesting part about this piece was that it was a 14 mm thick wooden thing that was passively anchored at only one of its corners. The other three were mechanically powered and would move in different directions. The wood moved and changed its shape a bit to conform to the demands being put on it. It was pretty nifty. The last and coolest part of the tour was a robotic arm. It was also powered by pneumatics. This arm was modeled after an elephant’s trunk and is safe to touch. This is apparently new technology, because in the past, robots have been caged and are very dangerous to work around. It was actually controlled by a PS3 controller and it moved in some crazy ways. Marissa took a go at it. When Varun stepped up, it stopped working after 5 seconds. So he broke it. Damn kids. The tour was definitely over at that point.

Varun breaking the robot

The robot Varun broke

Varun not breaking the robot

Tuesday we had another tour. This one was for the Institute of Machine Learning and Robotics. We got a lecture on the basics of machine learning before we got to see anything tangible. Machine learning is exactly what it sounds like: machines are learning about their environment by exploring it. They’re basically big babies, touching things to see what happens, and then being internally rewarded when they discover new information. It’s a super cool concept. And who doesn’t like robots? The guy who talked to us did not seem enthusiastic about his robots being used in a medical or healthcare setting, but whatever. When he had explained what kind of equations are programmed into the robot and how they work and all that jazz, we actually got to see one do stuff. They had built a mock living room where one day, their machine will be able to move and push things around to explore. For now, they are still getting the programming right. They could, however, show us how interactive the robot was. It had a Kinect game console as a head/camera, two arms with grabbers on the ends and a rolly thing as feet. It could be calibrated to someone’s hand and then it would move as the person moved. So that’s exactly what we did. When Varun volunteered, I whispered, “Try not to break this one.” Apparently it wasn’t very quiet, but the robot dudes didn’t seem to hear, which was the most important part. Thankfully, Varun did not continue his streak, and the robot worked just fine. It was actually really cool. He could grab things and move around. The robot even knows where its other parts are because, try as he might, Varun couldn’t get one arm to touch the other. After that successful robot venture, the tour was over and we all went back to work.

The dispenser in my lab

My lines!

After a bit of waiting, I finally got to start working on the project I came here for. The 3D printer that my lab was supposed to have gotten in March still hasn’t arrived, but another lab associated with ours got a dispenser, which we realized will serve approximately the same purpose as our theoretical printer. I got to start using the dispenser, figuring out how it works, where things go, what buttons to push, everything. I probably haven’t made very much progress, but I’m getting there. The goal is to decide which of two different materials is the best to print in a 3D manner. The substance I’ve been using so far can be very viscous. We need to optimize the concentration so that the point that it changes from liquid to gel is at room temperature. Then we need to make sure that the substance stays cold so that we can print with it. It’s a very engineering problem. Finding a solution to a problem that helps solve another problem which will help determine the answer to the original question. So far, all I’ve printed are a few lines. You can judge my 10 mm long lines if you want, but I think they’re fantastic. I’m super excited to get to continue playing with the machine to see what it can do and what I can make with it.

On Friday, Marissa went to watch the German football game with some friends who live a half hour away. With our trio down one member, Varun and I decided to get dinner and watch a bit of the game. Actually, dinner was the important part, and not so much the game. We ate Italian and then got gelato. We took our gelato to the Schlossgarten (surprise!) and sat in the grass. This proved to be quite entertaining because all the German fans who had just watched the game had come out of the public viewing and were quite intoxicated and loud. For some reason, there was a professional drum line somewhere behind us, many tents around us, and drunk, screaming teenagers all about. We went home early because the next day was going to be an early one.

The castle on the hill

Getting closer

At the base of the castle

   With no big trips planned for the weekend, we decided to stay in Germany and explore somewhere we hadn’t been yet. We decided upon the Neuschwanstein Castle. This is a castle built in the 1870s for Ludwig II, modeled after the operatic style of the composer Wagner. It was never actually finished on the inside because Ludwig died a mysterious death before it was completed. It is also commonly known as the “Disney” or “Fairy Tale” castle. The closest town is right on the German-Austrian border, so that we could see the Austrian Alps. We got a regional train ticket that allowed us to have up to 5 people on it. We could go anywhere in Germany in one day for 45 euros. With three of us going on a there-and-back trip, it was an awesome deal. The not awesome part about it was how long it took us to get there. In the morning, our first train left at 7:35 and we finally got to the ticket counter at 1. The next English tour of the castle was at 5:05. For the next few hours, we wandered around the town, bought souvenirs, ate lunch, and then took a bus up to where the castle is. We spent two hours up there, looking at it, eating ice cream, taking pictures of the awesome views around the area.

The front of the castle

Courtyard and surrounding area

View from the castle balcony

                                                                                                                                At 5:05, we lined up and were let into the castle. We were told we weren’t allowed to touch anything or take any pictures. That definitely did not happen. (I touched the butt many times.) Once insides, it was incredibly opulent. There were colors and designs and swans everywhere. Ludwig was known for his love of swans, so they showed up quite a bit in the décor. We were only shown a few rooms because many of them have been left unfinished. The staff runs the tours efficiently. One tour is very shortly followed by the next. Unfortunately, the business-y air took away a bit of the feeling of actually being in a real castle. Extra unfortunately, there were two screaming babies in our tour group. In a hall made of mosaic tiles and marble, it became quite difficult to hear what our guide was saying. It also flustered her a bit. The tour lasted about a half hour. After that, we passed through two gift shops and then saw the kitchen and pantry. We were able to see more of the castle after the real tour ended, which I appreciated. We were even allowed to go out on a balcony and take pictures of the view from many feet up. When we exited the castle, the only way down was to walk, as the buses stop making trips at 3 and it was now almost 6. We walked down, caught another bus, and stopped at the train station. We waited for a while for the train to come. We were anxious, knowing how long the trip back would be. Thankfully, we finally got smart and bought playing cards to bring with us on all our future train rides. We played Go Fish and Varun taught us how to play Poker, kind of. Our return trip had only three switches. On one of the train rides, we were sitting behind a bachelorette party of about 10. For the whole two hour ride, they were all drunkenly singing. Sometimes they would sing in German, and other times unexpected tunes such as the Backstreet Boys were yelled. It would have been more entertaining if they had been better and we wouldn’t have been so tired. On our last leg, the wagon behind us was full of “hooligans” we decided. Shot glasses on necklaces, girls straddling guys, sunglasses inside. Oh, it was great fun. We returned home at 12:30, at which point I promptly put on my pjs and went to bed.

Sunday we all got up whenever we damn well pleased. Which meant about 11 or 12, followed by more lounging. Our big event for the day was making our American breakfast. Just think about it real fast: does anyone actually know how to make pancakes without Bisquik? Because we certainly did not. We attempted and got things that were more like thick crepes. They were still good. And we didn’t find any syrup so we used honey instead. Which has a similar consistency. After we ate this big meal, we were all ready for nap time. The rest of the day was spent lying in bed watching tv and it was glorious. We all greatly enjoyed the relaxing.

Even during a pretty normal week, everything is still so different and fascinating. We can walk around the city center with bottles of beer, or we can go sit in a garden and not see stars until 11 at night, or we can sit in a bar on campus run by students. The pace of life here is slower and has a greater emphasis on human intercourse, as my grandma would say. There are great thinkers here doing incredible research, but these people take time to do other things besides work. They’re encouraged to do so. Travel is a big part of life, and relaxation is important. Meals last for hours, not minutes and drinking is social, not to get hammered. People here are accepting of others’ differences and dare to be different. Fashion is important to men and women. Everyone dresses well, but they don’t dress for others. Name brands aren’t big here, but looking good is. People say hello and goodbye (“Hallo” And “Tschüss”) to everyone all the time. Also note that there is a particular, sing-songy way to say “tschüss.” Being outside is a popular pastime, usually exercising or hanging out with people. All of these things just add to my love of this country and the culture on this side of the pond. I can’t think of any moment since I got here at the end of May where I wasn’t happy to be here, to be experiencing new things, and to be making new friends. I am incredibly thankful to be on this journey. While there are people to thank, I really should remember to thank myself as well. Ok, sappy moment done.

Happy belated ‘Murica day, my fellow ‘Muricans.

Forever and always,

Taryn