Eislaufen

Wow, das Wetter ist kalt. Last week I got up early on Thursday to get to the Stadhaus to apply for a residents permit.

Walking to the U-Bahn station near my apartment, it was very foggy around seven.

I don't remember if this was once I was finished with registration around eleven or before I got in line.

Good news is I have submitted all the paperwork and I should be able to pick up my resident registration card in mid-January. Because I have a scholarship, I did not even have to pay for the application or visa extension. YYYAAAAA!!!!

And then last Friday the eleventh, Will Reiser came to visit. He had entered into a competition in Holland for a greenhouse run-off water storage system, and, of course, being the creative and precise engineer that he is, he won first prize, for which they gave him a travel stipend to come to their conference. He used extra money from the stipend to travel around Europe some, visiting Natasha and me.

The date being elf elf elf (11.11.11) it was both Christmassy and nerdy; a perfect day to have Will visit. We went to the Mitte and saw the preperations for the Weihnachsmarkt. It is now open, so I will have to visit soon.

Then we rented some bikes and rode to the Universität.

Stopping on a bridge, we were able to take some pictures.

I do not remember the name for these little gardens, maybe Heydon would know.

Here you can see the stadion, Westfallenparkturm, und die Autobahn.

Will posing with his oscillo-scarf, because no trip to campus would be complete without a ride on the H-Bahn (TU Dortmund's hanging monorail system, designed and built by doctoral students in 1984).

The most important part of Will's trip was back at my apartment were he gave me a care package of used-to-be-frozen green chile, Frontier tortillas, and some red chile powder.

THANK YOU MOLLY, ALYSSA, AND HEYDON!!! Breakfast burritos and quesadillas have been delicious.

Sunday I went eislaufen in the afternoon, instead of working on the control theory assignment, which I did not yet know about having missed Friday's class for Will's visit, but which many used as an excuse not to come.

The ice rink we went to had two circle areas joined with paths tangentially. The larger circle was a meter or so lower in elevation, so you could pick up some speed coming into it, if there was not a traffic jam. In the empty area between the circles was a small snack stand, with the usual sort of overpriced food (Bretzel, pommes, currywurst,...) and drink (kakao, tee, bier,...).

I don't remember all of the names, but Pavel is in the middle (he is in the same language course as I), Gabriela (another student in the A&R program) is to the right of him, and Hector(a friend of Miguel) is to the left of him.

Taking pictures while skating backwards did not work, too blurry, but taking slightly turned worked. It was Miguel's first time ice skating, so he was shaky and fell a lot, but by the end he was doing much better. It did not help to have so many people crowding the rink, and lots of little kids weaving in and out. I am not sure how they turn like that. Lots of practice.

And this week has been less eventful, except for the cold.

Nic

Alles in Butter

So, one might not at first think that writing once a week would be such a daunting task, but here I am again, finally getting myself sat down and I am wondering "what should I write about?" Nachtflohmarkt? Salsa? Iserlohn? Medieval Markt?

Well, I can start out with Halloween. It being such a major holiday in my life{,} I was reminded of it at the end of the previous week. So, Alex and I decided we would dress up as Batman and Robin if we could find the costumes. Well, we didn't find a costume store on Friday or Saturday, but we did find somethings at the Nachtflohmarkt (midnight flea market).

Alex claimed Batman, and they had no Robin, so I went as Spiderman! It drew a few laughs, and then, as I kept on my costume during class, Dr. Furlan commented "So, you have brought a friend to class today?" Having left it on, what could I say but "Yes"? And since I was sitting in the back of class, what would happen but fifty or sixty faces should turn and look. That seemed to give me two choices: shrink down and be embarrassed or sit and smile. Guess what I did? :-p

Fun times for Halloween. I finished the day not with a party, but with going to Salsa lessons for the first time. I am so glad that I did go. I did not realize how much I have missed dancing this past month, but hearing some music and learning some basics set me in the mood. Different from swing dance, yet some of the turns and hand motions I see are exactly the same. I can't wait to learn more.

Most girls who have danced with me will attest that I constantly make sound effects as I dance. What is better a spin or a spin with a "sshhhuuuoooo" or "zoooofff"? The world is better with sound effects. Anyways, I rarely notice that make sound effects any more, until it happens, like last night, that a girl comments on it. So, I just had to laugh at myself, and explain how much better the world is with sound effect and how any boy uses sound effects when he plays.

What be these glowing lights on a Halloween night? The same lights that give light to campus on any other night.


That brings me to November 1st, or All Saints' Day, a regional holiday, so in Nord-Rhine Westphalia we had no school and the shops were closed, but the DAAD scholars from Berlin still had school. Alex and I ventured down to Iserlohn were Anna had done her Bachelors and she showed us around.

Off we went into the forest in search of wild pigs.

(Oooooooo!!! Look! Look! FACES!)
Unfortunately we found no wild pigs, but we did see some small deer.

And we found a lookout tower. Quite the view of town. It is good to know there is a forest I can get away.

This was a neat looking house we walked by. I love the curvy stone drive.

Leaves.

They had a Medieval Market in Dortmund Mitte (City center) most of last week, and I finally went on Sunday. It was fun to see a real steam engine, my first Flea-circus, and a mock sword fight.

This is probably the best picture I took. "Man of God distracted by Little Red Riding Hood"

And here they are! They wild pigs we searched for in Iserlohn were at the Medieval Markt in Dortmund all along.

Oh, and I am learning some German phrases. My favorite so far is "Alles in Butter" which literally means "all in butter" but idiomatically means "all is good". If all is in butter then of course all is good. :-)

Yesterday my bed from Ikea (visiting that store is a whole 'nother story) was delivered. I have a meeting with a professor on Thursday.

Alles in Butter.

Nic

Paine si "unt"

So two quick visits to Bonn and what did I see? Not much.

My first trip was last Sunday with a group organized with the Erasmus program (inter-european exchange). Mostly I met Turks. ... Oh and two Americans. And a Romanian. The first thing we did was go to the Haus der Geschichte, which contains a history of Germany from right after WWII to the present, and then we were loosed on the town.

 This is a picture of what I get the impression was a government building. Without a guide it is really rather hard to tell what buildings have significance and what buildings are just old. Thomas (the Romanian) and I stopped at a Currywurst stand in this square for a bite to eat. Then we went hunting for the Alter Zoll beer garden, where the other five or so people in our group were planning on eating.

 

 We reached the Rhine and turned right as the signage signified. We followed along the waterfront until we reached another sign pointing back the direction we had come with a distance marking of 700m.

 Back we went. Past this bridge, which has solar panels on this southern side (look for the blueish strip). On-and-on. Finally we Thomas asked a man sitting by the edge. He directed us to a beer garden 100m further north. There we went only to find it was the wrong one. THEN the girls in the group mysteriously produced maps, which had been asked for previously. Consultation concluded we never should have started north. South it is! Back almost to the sign post directing us north, we collided with another group of students from our trip and decided  to make our way inland. Tummies grumbling (well not mine), legs tired (but who cares on a full tummy), one more questioning finally led us to the "famous" Alter Zoll.  Rather unimpressive in Herbst. It would probably be quite nice in a crowded summer time.

 After a beer, we made our way back towards the Hauptbahnhof. The University was in between the two locations, providing this cool picture of a tree lined ally, University building in the background, large lawn to the left.

 And then this was just too neat of a picture to pass up. No idea what that building is.

 And what did I find in the Haptbahnhof? A person carrying a harp? I need one. It has come up with some different people that I play, but no one knows where I might find one. :-(

 We had a while until our train, so we wandered, and I saw these blue sheep.

 And here is some of the group: Cagri, Thomas, Miguel, Bura, Ali, and .... someday I may even get peoples faces in the picture, but for know I am happy with the knowledge that I have upgraded to including people in pictures.

My second trip this past week was for the DAAD North American Scholarship Holder Orientation. Aka, time wasting with a side of meeting people (well I learned a little bit more about DAAD, but most of the bureaucratic stuff they talked about was in the booklet they gave us). Off I went, missing two days of classes, but then again if they are going to give me money and they insist I come to a city for free food and a place to stay the night, who am I to refuse? After all the first rule of being a college student is "If there is free food you have to be there."

 And who should I expect to see there? BUTTERS (hence the title), or Keith Thomas, a fellow Techie, pie baker, and crazy rock-climber  I had forgotten Dr. Burleigh saying he was over here on a DAAD scholarship too, until I saw him during picture time.

Well after dinner, the people at my table sat around discussing various topics, which with the help of a pre-law philosophy major became very interesting. We learned from the waiter that there was no where really to go on a Thursday night, so we talked some more and then went for a midnight walk, were we found this amazing bridge (notice the people in it? In the future: FACES!).

Friday was breakfast, checkout, and a trip to Haus der Geschichte, with a guide who talked of what had happened more from a political standpoint than the personal what-people-lived-through standpoint of the previous guide. Then off to the city again.

 Obligatory picture of statue in square. (Note: this is Beethoven)

 Obligatory picture of Church.

 Pretty cool wall remnants with archway, circle tower on right, and remote controlled mobile advertisement display center. At first we just saw the display, and I could not figure out its behavior if it were autonomous, but then the man with the remote came up.

Here is a better picture of the University of Bonn as we make our way to the infamous Alter Zoll (different group of people). Really neat looking building. TU Dortmund is a new University, so on the plus side all the buildings are in one spot and are functional, but they don't have this old look.

I was trying to get a picture of some of the ornate figures. There is a road below and this passage over it.

So that was Bonn. Not too exciting, though I am given to understand that there is a Castle I failed to see either time, but historically significant in surviving the second World War intact enough to be a seat of government for West Germany.

In other news, I have an apartment I am sharing with an Iranian student in the same program as me. It is unrenovated and unfurnished, but after weeks of searching I just needed a place to settle in and use for registration formalities. With some cleaning and installation of lights it is getting better. I did go ahead and buy the most important thing for an apartment. A stove with oven. I mean I have a sleeping bag and pad, so I take my time finding a bed, and while a refrigerator is nice, the store is only a three minute walk, but how can I cook without an oven?

Exactly I can't.

Freunden

"The Math-Fairy appears and says 'Your wish is fulfilled'; you have a '1'." -Dr. Furlan

So, last week began with the usual 8:15 morning classes on Monday and Tuesday. Ehhh. I can stay awake for Controls on Monday, but only Dr. Furlans wit can keep me paying attention through his class directly afterwards. And Tuesday mornings would be sleep worthy, but I think I will have to pay attention for more quotes.

This week Ali (from Pakistan) , Cagri (pronounced more like sharay; from Turkey), and I went looking for the Hochschulsport to get a semester sports pass and maybe register for a class. We walked down to the building with the workout gym and basketball courts, but could not find the correct door number there. After asking, we were sent back across campus to the same building as the International Office. Upstairs, down-a-level, untergeschoss. Finally we found. Communicating in our broken German we learned that everything we wanted to do had to be done online.

Or travels back and forth did give me a good chance to take a picture though. Blute Spende, or blood donation, they had it going on all week long. I thought about giving, but then decided I did not want to back up the line as I tried to stumble through questioning, or I assume they would have a similar process to the process in the US.

Here Ali, Alex (from Romania), and I were standing in line to get free BVB tickets.

Quite a long line. Some of our classmates, Andres and Miguel (both from Mexico and among the few who do not mistake New Mexico), skipped class and were ahead in line. We learned from them that the BVB tickets were only for Bachelors students. Harumf. Well only a half hour wasted, and we did get decide to go around back to double check and got information to get free theater tickets. So not all bad.

Friday night I went bowling with a group from SMD. Bad picture, but you can still see the American flag painted on the wall. Dominik (from Germany) is standing on the left with his wife Luiza (from Romania) sitting on the far left. The others are even harder to see, but Plamen (from Bulgaria), sitting on Dominik's left, is a great help in learning German. He speaks no English, so I am forced to use what German I know. Great fun and a friendly guy.
Surprisingly, it turns out I know a lot about bowling from those years in the YMCA league. Not something I noticed before, but it was Plamen's first time and some of the others had bowled very little. I tried to help some. My bowling was not too great a 51 in the 6th, but I finished the game with a 123.

Sunday I went with an Erasmus group to Bonn, and met a whole 'nother load of international students. But I am going there again this week for scholarship orientation, so I will write about it after that.


When speaking about producing an orthonormal basis in an infinite vector space (aka performing infinitely many tasks):
"Do the first one in an hour. The second in half an hour. The third in one quarter hour. You will be done in two hours" -Dr. Furlan

Ah so! Schreiben...

Writing, writing, writing. That's what I was going to do.

So, the end of Orientation week included a tour of Dortmund on Friday and a visit to a mining museum on Saturday. The City Tour started at the Stadthaus (the main city government building).

 

 This is a picture looking at the glass ceiling of the central area (gallery?) when you first get in.

 The building is mostly used for meetings, thought state weddings (versus a church wedding) and grand announcements happen here.

 A scale model of Dortmund. The City center is at the top left of the table and Signal Iduna Stadium (promised you a picture) is on the left side above the green.

 This tapestry apparently shows Dortmund during the middle ages. It was an imperial city, which gave all sorts of benefits like minting money, holding a market, and answering only to the Emperor.

 Here I got to sit in the spot of one of the deputies in the representatives room (:-). In the red sweater is our tour guide.

And I just wanted to see how a spiral staircase would look from the middle. I like it.

Here is an example of part of the mystery that has plagued me since my first visit to Dortmund. Why are there sculptures of rhinoceroses with wings with all sorts of different paintings and advertisements all over Dortmund?

 Now for a riddle: How does a Rhino get on a balcony?

 Simple. He flies there.

And the answer to the mystery lies in the new Concerthall. Apparently the architect or designer chose a winged rhinoceros as the symbol.
 Why? Well Rhinoceroses have extremely good hearing, with an audible range far exceeding humans, and their ears can swivel independently, allowing for focused listening.
 But winged Rhinoceroses? Well when you listen to music it lifts you up as if you had wings.
About one hundred of the statues were made as a marketing scheme for the new concerthall. People, companies, or schools could adopt them and paint them as they liked and place them around the city center. Now it has become common for the rhinoceroses to be bought from the adopted parents, so you may see them in any part of Dortmund, not just the middle.
 So, that mystery is finally solved.

We also got to see Reinoldikirche.

 Aside from being one of the city center's U-bahn stops, Reinoldikirche is this Church in this picture. Named for Saint Reinold, the patron saint and credited founder of Dortmund.

 One of the miracles connected with this church is that during World War 2, when 95% of the city center was leveled by Allied bombings, the archway with the cross hanging in it was one of the only parts of the church to remain standing. The church was rebuilt after the war using much of the same stone.

And there was an organ in it. I did not get a clear understanding if it is still used for church services, but they did say it was often used for concerts, recitals, etc. While the guide was trying to relay all of the information about the history of the church to us, there was a pianist practicing.

Also, for those who don't know from my family yet. I met a German man through the international orientation who was part of Intervarsity in his year abroad in Iowa and is now active in SMD (Studentenmission in Deutschland), the German counterpart with IFES. So, I have gone to Church, a Baptist Church with contemporary and organ-led hymnal songs, with him and his new wife, and I will be going to the first SMD event tomorrow.

The last week was finding classes and settling back into learning. This week is more learning and finding a place to live...

O-Phase

Well between long periods of waiting and times when I was rushing to get something finished, I am finally registered, or matriculated, as a student at TU Dortmund.
 Wednesday: Try to enroll; need proof of health insurance.
 Thursday: Wait for insurance to be mailed.
 Friday: Get insurance; get enrolled; International Office is closed.
Weekend: Thumb twiddling.
Monday: It is Unification Day! (everything is closed)
Tuesday: Wait 2.5 hours in the international office; find I need another paper related to health insurance; get the paper; get enrolled; Go to O-phase!


O-phase is short for Orientierungs-Phase. An orientation session mainly for freshmen, but also (some what) for the Masters program I am in. The first part was in a lecture hall. What does it remind you of?

Jan on the far right evokes INTENSE beard envy.

 So they introduced the team, all fifth semester (from the talks I have had, school is measured more by semester than by year) students who are a "support" group. Then they had us take write a test in ten minutes. The beginning was simple math, but then I was not sure if they wanted the derivatives and integrals. The final questions (there were only about ten) had too much written down for me to know what I should solve for (think a signals and systems question). This, of course, was to show how all the freshmen would need help during the semester (or so was my understanding afterwards). 
 Then I sat on the hard bench for an hour or two while a man talked through the in-and-outs of the Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik. The different programs they had and were to go for such...........


 Then the fun began. The hundred or so students split into groups and went on a scavenger hunt around campus (YYYYYAAAAAA!!!! Not a familiar activity at all{.}). And they had games for the groups to compete in once a group finished the scavenger hunt. The prize was beer. I bobbed for an apple in less than ten seconds and had a snack to go with my beer. Other games included getting the rest of your group to guess the song you are singing while gurgling (water provided as a substitute for gurgling), getting your group through a "net" (each hole only used by one person), and playing "lava" across a parking lot using empty beer crates (kind of like milk crates, but with more internal dividers for bottles) as platforms. I also got the activity I had seen earlier in the day explained to me.

 Apparently the O-Phase for a different department was happening earlier, and they had their games going, one of which I happened upon, it being in a high traffic middle area. The point of the games was to see who could make the longest chain of clothing. The man in the picture was starting to measure it.  

 Measurements beginning did not stop the group of students from adding to it, and they did end up with a longer chain then the previous group I had seen. Notice the boys, in the background left, stripped to socks and underwear asking girls for they jacket or scarf. The girls were not as dedicated.


 Well after the games was Grillen, a barbecue, in the Physik courtyard. Reminded me in many ways of Tech, long wait in line for little food (bread and a sausage), but there was more beer. I stayed and talked with different people for a long time, and then I headed off to an appointment to see a flatshare (will hear back from them this weekend). What a LONG day.


And today I got up early again, because there was breakfast for the O-Phase. And, as everyone should know, the number one rule of being a college student is if there is free food you have to be there. Lots of waiting, which included teaching poker, texas holdem, to Yisu, a Chinese student in the program with me. We finally got to setup a computer account with the Electrotechnik department, lunch in Mensa, and International Student Orientation (more of this tomorrow).

 This was a fun display in the Physik building near the courtyard and were breakfast was today. My first thought was "Vector Field". Maybe. Maybe not. It really purpose was to show the interaction of magnets in a field of magnets. Quite entertaining for me. 


Ciao,
Nic