I Have a Bike!

Well yesterday was an interesting day... Went about my morning routine and got out to the train station by 9am to wait for one of the every 7 minute regularly running trams to Darmstadt. The people standing there with me were familiar, I have seen them before, but never for so long. We stood there looking up and down the tracks waiting for a train to come. 30 minutes... no tram, either direction. People started giving up and eventually so did I. Unfortunately where I live is about 10 km away from work, and I don't have a car and there are no taxis nearby. So... I had to walk. Ironically my backpack weighed about 25 pounds with all my excercise gear, in addition to my typical heavy latop equipment. So 10 km walk with a 25 pound pack to get to work... that's dedication.

A little over an hour later I arrive to work, late of course, wondering what happened. I went around asking and it turns out that the public transportation workers decided early this morning to go on a "warning strike" to make everyone see what it is like without them. I'm not sure if they were demanding anything, but I think it was more of a whiney "we're important" message. Shortly after I set up my equipment in my office and got to my emails, the fire alarm in the building goes off... a side effect of kitchen excitement I'm sure. Once outside I met up with one of my coworkers who had offered me a bike a while back and I told him I should probably take up on his offer since I didn't really feel like walking an hour home.

The bike is a ittle old and rusty, but it works... kinda. The gear cable is broken and it permenantly stuck in 3rd gear, but we tried to rig it up with a paper clip to keep it stuck in 2nd instead...


The trip home was an adventure... I haven't ridden a bike in YEARS, and I especially hadn't ridden one in Europe ever. Luckily the trail back to Griesheim is fairly flat and uneventful. The bike goes pretty good, squeaks a little, but once I hit my first hill I think the gear cable slipped a little and put it back in 3rd, which almost killed me. I made it back eventually... cut the travel time in half and got a good workout... if only I had 1st gear... hopefully I won't ever have to do that again.

Let the Fasting Begin

Well here I am... sorry it has been a while but I haven't had internet at home for some time (big surprise!) Also, my life hasn't been that exciting so there hasn't been much to write about. Spent the end of last week basically in meetings and collaborating and such... so much fun. Right now I am writing this in the lobby at work as my office is undergoing some "rennovation"... they like to do this during people's work time, especially mine because I'm just a visiting scientist and it's not like I have anything to do. But anyways, I am back and it's Karneval time!!!

That's right, Germany celebrates this weekend too, much like we do in the US with Mardi Gras, but with more 18th century flair. Yesterday was the culmination of the event with "Rosenmontag", known in English as "running Monday." It is a national holiday so I got the day off from work (with no internet mind you) and basically spent the day watching the parades on TV. The whole event was a mystery to me until someone shared with me the Wikipedia explanation of it here. Turns out the event is based on people wearing "fancy costumes" and drinking heavily... typical of most German celebrations. The whole theme behind it is basically to make fun of political events of the past year with some very outspoken (and sometimes very graphic) floats. I would share some pictures, but I don't want to get yelled at by those who took them (or didn't take them but are using them on their blogs anyways)... so if you want to see some examples, just type in "Rosenmontag floats" into Google images.

Being as I have been to Mardi Gras I wasn't terribly impressed by it all, but it does look like quite the event.

Buffalo Wings

That's right... today they had buffalo wings for lunch, so I decided that I would forgo the guarantee of satisfaction with a 'safe' meal for the experience simply so that I could write about it to all of you...

In the pan under the heat lamp they looked pretty good... just the right color red with some chives and onions and peppers mixed in to suggest that they would be not too spicy, but still have enough flavor and kick to satisfy. He gave me six and then asked me if I wanted sauce with it (in German of course) and I said yes... thinking he would pour more hot sauce on them, but he didn't. Instead I got the same sauce that they used for the pork cordon bleu yesterday... apparently they had some left over and though it would work well with hot wings.

I paid and went to the table and sat down with everyone, with a big grin on my face. I immediately notified them of my intentions to post this on my blog... after all, that is the only reason I was risking my only real meal of the day on buffalo wings in Germany. I wasn't the only person that got them at the table, but I was the only one eating them the correct way... with your hands. Everyone else were using forks and knives to pry the meat off the bones... looked like a lot of work. So I picked up my first piece... got a few funny looks, and went to town...

Surprisingly, they weren't horrible. Good level of spiciness, but not enough flavor... they tasted kind of like boiled chicken with a little salt and paprika on them... which is probably what they were. I managed to finish all six, with no ill effects. I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised for once, but I'm not saying I will ever get them again... unless I have no choice.

My First Snow!

Finally! My first real snow in Germany. Granted, when I first got here back in January there was a good amount of snow on the ground, but that had happened before I got there. A few times in the past month and a half it has teased me, but never had any substance. Last night I went to bed to clear skies, a bit cold, but no snow. I woke up this morning and... surprise! 3 inches. So I took the long way through the forest to work and took some pictures... enjoy!

German Cuisine: Roulade

Well we all know already that German culinary skills are somewhat lacking. You don't often hear someone tell their significant other, "Hey, let's get German tonight." Today I would like to introduce you to one of my least favorite dishes in the German arsenal... Roulade.

Roulade, or also known as "Rouladen" in German, is a dish made up of 5 basic parts... thinly sliced beef, bacon, mustard sauce and a pickle. You take the beef slices and cover them in mustard and lay the pieces of bacon on top. At this point you're thinking... oh that might not be too bad, but wait... To top off the whole shebang you take a intact pickle and roll the meat/mustard around it and put a stick through it to hold it all together as such...

Once it is cooked, top it off with some sort of dark red sauce and pair it up with some boiled potatoes and cabbage... bon apetit!

The thing that makes it horrible is the soft, mushy pickle in the middle that has been thoughly milked of its juices into the meat, which is a flavor combination I had never thought any sane person would have ever thought up. Sometimes you can also use turkey or even fish (as is for today's lunch menu at work) to do this! I don't know how this ever happened, but for some reason this is a very popular dish... especially for at home "cook for your date" events... thoroughly confused.

New "Weather Cam"

Well I got bored and decided that whenever I am at work I will take a picture of what the weather is like and post it on the blog (to your right) for anyone who cares. It may also be updated on the weekend from my apartment if I remember. Enjoy!

New post tomorrow!

"Quinten" - The Great 2009 Wind Storm of Destruction and Carnage

Well recently I discovered that the German Wetterdienst (Weather Service) names every single high and low pressure system that comes their way, much like we name our hurricanes. I guess the Germans felt left out since they don't ever get any hurricanes so they had to be special. They are the only weather service in the world to do this... they say it makes the weather more personal for the general public... frankly I would find it a pain because I would run out of names very quickly... but in 2002 they created the "adopt a vortex" program where, for a fee of course, you can add your own suggestion for a name to their database. You can find out more about the history of it here and check out the current system names here.

Anyways, enough on the background... yesterday vortex "Quinten" came ripping through central Europe, closing the Paris airport and causing mass panic. Frankly "Quinten" was not an intimidating enough name for me so I paid no attention. At the beginning of my work day however the wind was slamming into my side of the building making all kinds of funny banging sounds and what not, so I put in my headphones and paid no attention. A little later I heard this loud crash... soon after a man with extremely yellow teeth (it looked like he had corn for teeth) came in and asked if I noticed one of the antennas fall off... apparently that's now part of my job description. I had no idea there were even antennas on the roof right above me until I went out and took a look:

Turns out there used to be 4 up there... not anymore. Well being as I am on the 4th floor, which is technically the 5th floor since there is a "Gallery" floor, the antenna took a dive off the edge and fell down to the brick walkway next to lake Africa (which has now completely thawed, so no more treks across it anymore) and was completely destroyed:

Gunther the fake plastic bird saw the whole thing go down but told no one... I am very disappointed in him. I mentioned it to co-workers at lunch and apparently it became a big fiasco because shortly after lunch was over and I was settling back into my "work" mode 5 people came in wanting to see the carnage. By then the maintenance people had cleaned the crime scene up and there was no excitement to be had... but apparently this was big news in the office yesterday.

German Hairstyles: The "Gullet"

The "Gullet", as I have so fondly named it, can best be described as the "German Mullet". A hairstyle exclusively worn by teenage punks and guys who touch themselves in the weight room, it embodies the individual's lifestyle of 'business on the side, party all over'. It can only be theorized that the Gullet's popularity originated from soccer players in the mid-90's and has since flourished among those whose aim is to win over the opposite sex with their extreme masculinity.

Satellite Launch

Every so often a new weather satellite gets launched. Most people don't realize this and only ever hear about it when something goes wrong. Luckily, most of the time things go right, which saves us taxpayers millions to billions of dollars from having to build another one. One nice thing about working where I do is that whenever a new satellite goes up with some instrument on it designed, built or run by the organization we get to watch the launch live.

Two days ago the NOAA-N Prime (NOAA-19) satellite was supposed to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Unfortunately there was a problem with the launch vehicle and it had to be delayed until today... good thing too because I totally forgot about it on Wednesday. So I went down right before launch to check it out. Being as this was my second launch I wasn't as excited as before. Last time there was a camera on the actual spacecraft that showed us the actual separation and extension of the solar panels out in space... this time we only got a stupid artist's rendition.


The launch went off without a hitch right before lunch. So while we waited for the satellite to get to it's proper position, which took about an hour or so, we went to lunch and then came back to make sure we didn't miss out on the champagne (as is the tradition). Long story short, all went well and now we have successfully added to the clutter out there orbiting our planet... now the rest of the work day is ruined because everyone is tipsy and I have a headache.

"Everyone, say hello to Germany... Germany, say hello to everyone."

That's right everyone, it's winter in Germany! Where'd the sun go? It'll come back in a few 5 or 6 months.