One Week Down

But plently left to go. I'm definitely in full swing here, already doing enough to keep me more busy than I should be. Between work, getting a visa AFTER starting work (Nate, how's that for lack of communication), learning German, emailing people, organizing pics, ...... I think I have to enact a policy to work no more than 40 hours and never take work home. I hope MIT didn't screw me up and make me a workaholic. That's another goal of mine here, to get into the relaxed lifestyle. For example, nothing except resaraunts are open on Sunday. Absolutely nothing. Kind of like a legally enforced Shabbat (for those non-Jews, that mean day of rest).

Before I go further, I got some questions about signing up for the blog. I;m not sure if I said that, and I'm not sure if you have to. All I ask is to write me here and there by adding a comment to a post. If you can do that without signing up for anything, than forget I ever mentioned signing up.

Okay, now where was I. Ya somehow I manage to always stress myself out, for absolutely no reason. I think it's slightly hereditary :) But that should be fixed by my recently planned vacation to Paris starting tomorrow night. Starting in style and spending the weekend visiting a friend. Of course, I'll let you know how it goes.

Not sure what else to say. Work is very interesting, still learning the basics of the project (lit. review) but it seems like it will good stuff. Very serious operation. The first shunt was invented like in the 50s and there are countless versions now (something like 2000 companies make them). I'll be working on the first electronic one (read expensive) and I think my prof. has good reason to investigate it. Plus it's more fun.

Socially, I went to some grill last night for international students. I will be meeting up with a friend every week to have dinner and practice german. Really though until my german improves I will continue to have problems fitting in. Slang and sarcasm is totally lost on me, and the fun of socializing (at least for native germans) is lost too. But in a few weeks we shall see.

If there is anything you are particularly interested in knowing, MAKE A COMMENT. Really can't stress that enough. If you are curious about the reaction germans have to an American given the current political situation in the world, I can give you my first impressions. I haven't had a single like attack or sense of aggression. Once someone asked who I voted for, "Bush or the other guy." It took him a while to remember the other guy's name. Which is really not surprising, a prize for whomever can guess the projected future chancellor of germany. Anyway, I would characterize the response so far by curiosity or apathy. Most people are just happy to meet an American and maybe practice their English. I haven't met any other Americans who are LIVING here (plenty of tourists), and there are more visitors from Cameroon, Turkey, Asia, other parts of Europe. If things do get political, they usually have so little information about american politics, that things don't progress very far. A very weird thing was I went to this bar last weekend that was decked out in american crap (flag hanging from the wall, license plates, posters of american rock bands, american ads, etc.). One of the guys I met there, who was very nice and taught me how to play a very old German drinking game, said that the owner didn't like America (in a way that sort of made me feel he didn't either), but that the owner had never been there. So therefore, there's all this stuff from America but no real sense what it symbolizes. I'm still sort of confused about that one. But in general, so far no trouble being an american at all. I'll let you know more when I learn german! Oh and one last thing, for everyone who's first language is english, be very thankful - it is so useful. When struggling with german, more than once another foreigner has asked if I spoke English (not realizing I am American). More than once I have said a little, but not much. :)

Ok. Now for the fun stuff. If you look under my links section, you will find a link to my first set of pics. They are from my trip with my parents and my time here so far. You will be brought to a site that asks you to View Spencer's Photos. YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIGN IT. In very small print, under "Forgot your password" you can see my pics without signing in. So enjoy!