I bet the turkey was real good.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I didn't have a dinner. the intl' office put together a little gathering with cookies and stuff. how was everything back in the states? just as normal, or something worth mentioning. if so, let me know.

nothing really new. visited another medical device company last week. this one sells minimally invasive ventricle assist devices. basically that means they stick a tube into your leg, thread it up your femoral artery to your heart, put a pump into you heart and take some strain off of your heart in case you've had a heart attack or are waiting for surgery. In any case, I got a tour (in german) understood most of what they were saying, and it was all very cool. They're basically a start-up company that got off the ground with some Venture Capital funding about 3 years ago, based on a miniture pump developed here in my institute.

Last weekend I visited Janine (my girlfriend, no longer "new") at her place in Deidesheim. We had quite a good time. This and that......Christmas market, salsa dancing, went back to heidelberg and walking around the old castle ruins, saw a movie totally in german without subtitles and understood most of what was happening. Es war wirklich schoen, Schatz. Met hwe parents and ate dinner with them. That was also very nice actually. They were very nice and warm people, and we talked about a lot together. They grew up in the GDR, which was the communist part of Germany, and they described what that was like. Not a bad life, everyone had a job, everyone could provide for their family and live with a reasonabe amount of luxury. But you couldn't get many consumer products - ex. you had to sign onto a waiting list to buy a car. Not just any car, the only car that was sold in the entire "country". We talked about WWII, what kosher food is, their trip through the mediteranean.

Now I am working like crazy so that I can get enough done before a party tomorrow, an ice hockey tournament on thursday and my trip to Paris on Friday. So until next time. I am coming home in three weeks by the way. Really excited actually. Be good.

Right finally back in business

PICS PICS PICS PICS PICS!!!!!!!!!

CHECK OUT LINKS FOR NEW PICS!

So god damn...no time anymore to write on this thing. I think I am going to try and write more frequently but not so thoroughly. This way you guys can see what I am up to more often (and at least not stop looking) and I can record my time her a bit better. I guess it's a good sign that I no longer have time to sit around my comp and write emails or posts. I'm really starting to settle in here. It no longer feels like a foreign land so much, and life is pretty normal...about as normal as it would be in the US.

So lot's has been up. A mean a shit load. Starting from the surgery. My new gf came up to visit. I've got pics of her too now, so check it out (that applies to the aussie too). The following week was quite normal. Then on friday I walked around the clean room facilities here, which was cool. That's were they make all those micro-robots, that is big in pop science right now. It's called a clean room cause the air is purified of dust particles and you have to wear another get-up like the one in the surgery room. No pics sorry. Then later on friday I went to a chemistry lecture for kids in aachen from 8 - 12. It was dope. A chemistry prof talked about water and chemistry in front of about 300 kids and their parents. The experiments were sick. The guy blew up an iron hollowed out ball by freezing ice inside it. Showed that a string can pas through a block of ice without cutting it. Blew up some balloons with hydrogen in them (Germans still playing with hydrogen - crazy bastards). The kids loved it.

After that they had some guy talking about the history of Jewish-German Film and the effects of the expulsion and exile of about 3,000 jews from the industry. Interesting discussion. There were about 150 people there, mostly kids my age.

Let's see. Last tuesday (Dienstag - I will start writing days in German, so you barbarians can learn something) I took a tour of the Philips Research Lab in Aachen. Dope. Got to see all the shit in a CT scanner and some of the new stuff going on there. On Wednesday I was in Duesseldorf for the largest medical and biomedical trade show/exhibition in the world. That was cool. They had a fucking ton of medical stuff, from the latest 3-d ultrasound devices to basic surgical equipment, and human dummies for medical training to the latest food being offered in hospitals. Also no pics, I forgot my cam. But I did get to play with a surgical training device for laprascopic surgery (which my grandmother will probably be having in the coming months). I got to see what a person's liver, beating heart looks like and how you image blood flow through the artery in your neck - all with an ultrasound machine. They had people being paid to sit there and let you image their bodies - good, but boring, job.

Yeserday, I learned and finally fully understand all of Maxwell's eqns. Today I went to a workshop for intercultural communication. That is terrific. I recommend it to everyone now in Aachen. Truly great. You learn so much about not only other cultures, and the behavior and perspectives of people from all over, but also about your own country. I've realized shit I never even thought about before, even about myself. For example, most people in the US and in other western cultures have a vague idea that asians can be very smart, but not that creative - that is, when doing research, they require a lot of attention from the prof and would like him to tell them what to do. After talking about some aspects of North American, South American and European, especially German culture, I realized that Americans behave similiar to Asians, as far as Germans are concerned. We meet much more regularly with our profs, not only sometimes require it but also feel very awkward without it. This is a really simplified, superficial example of a deeper more complex cultural perspective and logic for all countries involved, but it showed me one very cool thing. I can understand the asian perspective a whole lot better. Again, totally recommended to all students, faculty, professionals in aachen. it's run by these guys here. http://www.aspetersen.de/home_e.html

Tomorrow I have another day of it. Plus the Christmas Market has started in Aachen. that's it for now. At least y'all are caught up. PICS PICS DON'T FORGET

Brief Recap, More to Come - It's been wild

So I am back from Budapest. I had a really good time, and Budapest was a very pretty city. Mostly I did sightseeing, no really special activities. Walking around the city, seeing this and that, eating good food, and repeat. Very nice and relaxing. Pics will be posted soon.

Other news: I have a Deutsche girlfriend! Amazing I know. Her name is Janine and we met about 3 weeks ago. Very sweet girl and fun to be around. Plus she's really patient with my barbaric German. She doesn't live in Aachen but about 2.5 hours south, which is sort of a problem. But she's come up to visit and I will go down to see her later this month. Not such a big deal. We met through the girlfriend of my roomate. Janine came along for the ride up to Aachen with her, and that was about it. I'll have pics of her also.

Lastly, yesterday I saw two operations. It was very interesting. I drove down to a hospital to visit a neurosurgeon and talk about my project. While I was there, we got to see another doctor implant a valve system into the body/head of a 10 day old baby. I put on the whole surgeon gown stuff, with mask and everything, and was standing about 10 feet from the operating table. Plus, after that was over, I checked out some man, about 50, who was having a rather large brain tumor removed. That was eerie and sad. I saw him before the operation, peacefully lying on the table, being prepped. He looked like a totally normal father, with grey chest hair, just like anyone his age. Then I left to see the baby op, and when I came back about 45 later, the guy was hardly recognizeable. The skin on his head had been cut and pushed away to both sides. That scrunched up all the skin on his face so he looked like one of those dogs with all those wrinkles. Then there was a large hole in his skull, maybe 1 inch in diameter, and they were digging around trying to separate the tumor from the brain. But,just like any of those surgery shows, they were not being gentle. The brain tissue was pushed away with forceps to either side and they were pulling and pushing their way through. There was always blood of course that needed to be removed and it didn't seem like a very clean business. They had said that the guy, although he could live maybe another year instead of 2 weeks, would not be all there afterwards.

So all in a all, an exciting last week or so. By the way, I am coming back to the US on dec 17 and will be there for the next month, so set aside some time to get together. and check back on the blog
peace