Scandinavia - 31.10.12

For Halloween, I dressed up like an Eskimo.  I put 5 layers on the top and 3 layers on the bottom and got on the train to Sweden, the land of Volvo, Ikea, H&M, and many other thriving socialist success stories.  I just went across the really long Øresund Bridge to Malmö, walked around, had lunch, and went back.  It's a lot like Denmark.  There are, however, many interesting statues in Malmö:

When I got back to Copenhagen, I had a few hours until the next train to Hamburg left, so I walked around the city some more.  I've always been a big fan of Hans Christian Andersen (ever since I was about 2 years old), so I decided to go see the little mermaid in the harbor.

She looked quite cold out on that rock on a breezy October afternoon.  I offered her my jacket, but she didn't even acknowledge me.

On the ferry ride I was inside eating pickled herring instead of exposing my face to the Baltic winds.  After a long train ride, I'm back in the middle of nowhere.

Linux - 30.10.12

This morning I walked to Bella Center in Copenhagen just in time for the Ubuntu Enterprise Summit.

It's the business conference of Canonical, the supporters of the Ubuntu Linux distribution.  There were various lectures all day.  It was aimed to the business side of open source software (not an oxymoron), but I got a lot out of it.  I learned that Windows XP support is ending and Windows 8 is "jarring and bizarre," so of course they hope that everyone will make the switch to Linux now.  I learned that every day more than 570 man-years are spent playing angry birds.  They also demoed some of their new server management tools, but I think the most valuable thing for me was to get a better glimpse into the modern cloud computing architecture.
There were a lot of businessmen in suits who took themselves a little too seriously, and a lot of hackers in XKCD T-shirts, so I fit in well with my Einstein T-shirt.  If I had a Bohr T-shirt, I would've worn it.
At lunch I saw one of my personal heroes, Mark Shuttleworth, who gives tens of millions of his own British pounds to support open-source software development.  I want to do that someday.  At lunch I talked to him a little about Webkit (because I wanted something intelligent to say), and asked if I could take our picture for my blog.

In the afternoon there were some more lectures, a Q&A panel with some of the leaders, and some fancy Danish hors d'oeuvres, which aren't quite as French as the French hors d'oeuvres I had a few weeks ago.  I rode the train back.  There are a lot of interesting conversations on the train going away from a Linux developer conference.  I ended up going to a late but delicious dinner with some graphics card driver developers.  I fit in quite well: they were talking about the Planck's constant, and I had Max Planck's biography in my pocket.

The Copenhagen Interpretation - 29.10.12

It was the longest day. It was the shortest day.
I awoke from my nap a little earlier than anticipated.  I got to skype with my mom from outside the church on the temple grounds.  I'd never done a video call from outside before.

I got on the train at 11:30 with a ticket that wasn't valid until the 29th and I got my ticket checked twice, but neither time was anything said.  I took a train through the Rhine river valley to Cologne then Hamburg.  I kind of slept most of the time in the train.  Then I got on a little train to Copenhagen.  I wondered why it was so short until we went slowly into a well-lit tunnel, everybody got out of the train, and we went up an elevator.  We were on a train in a big boat!
I didn't want to have my first experience with the Baltic sea be tainted by heating and windows, so I sat out on the deck for the whole ferry ride, mostly by myself.

After the ferry ride, we got back into the train in the boat and the train took us into Denmark.  I said "Hi" to Thorvaldsen's Christus:

I went and stood where my great great grandmother stood:

There are a lot more cars and bikes than there were back then:

Now I'm exhausted.  I'm going to sleep in my little hostel.

Friederichsdorf - 28.10.12

This morning was the time shift. I thought my cell phone would update automatically, so I set my alarm for 8:45, since I took a shower last night. When it rang, I got up, turned it off, and said, "viertel vor neun," to which everybody jumped out of bed and was about to quickly get ready when someone said that it was quarter to eight. We all slept for another half hour.
We sang in the Friederichsdorf ward's sacrament meeting, ate lunch, then sang for the Usingen ward. We had a bit more practice, then everybody said goodbye and left. My train to Copenhagen leaves at 1:00 in the morning, so I'm going to take a long nap before I turn in my key.

Vorsingen - 27.10.12

I don't think I've ever sung so much in my life.  We pretty much had choir practice all day, except for a few breaks to eat.  I had to try out at noon, and I was actually a little bit nervous, which is quite atypical for me.  I sang "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" from Haydn's Heiligmesse and the first half of "O Magnum Mysterium" by Tomas Luis de Victoria with a soprano, an alto, and a tenor.  Then I sang the melody and bass lines of "Seht, der Herr ist auferstanden", and explained why I am here.  It wasn't so bad since I was quite prepared, but unfortunately not everybody that tried out made it.
My voice hurts.  They try to cram in as much choir practice into one weekend as possible, since people come from all over German-speaking Europe to sing.  Everyone else had already practiced this music one weekend, but I caught on quickly.  The Christmas music we're preparing includes some German and English songs, but most of it is classical Latin.  I spent a good portion of the day singing, "Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax, pax hominibus, bonae voluntatis.  Laudamus te." et cetera.
Today was the first snow of the year in Frankfurt:

ProWo - 26.10.12

This morning I awoke in Quickborn as usual, but it was no ordinary day.  First of all, the first frost of the year was on the freshly fallen oak leaves:

I got on the train to Hamburg, and I had almost an hour before my bullet train left, so I went and said hi to Ralf's wife Anke and his son's girlfriend Morganne (a confusing name in German), who was taking a test at the Goethe Institut not far from the train station.  Then off to Frankfurt.  There was a policeman and an older lady in the train with me, and we all talked.  Germans almost never talk to strangers in the train.
I got to Frankfurt and went to the church about 2 hours early.  This weekend is ProWo, Probe Wochenende.  That's what they call the practice weekend for Vocalis, a German-area choir.  It's probably not a coincidence that ProWo is a homonym of Provo, since it was named by a bunch of German mormons.  After a few hours of waiting, people came, we sang, a few of us went to McDonalds, and now I'm going to go to sleep in the little hostel next to the temple.

Break a leg - 25.10.12

Today my blog passed the 1000 views mark!  If this many people had read my homework in high school, I probably would've done better in English class.
I got a lot of work done today.  I also did some more paperwork for the German government.  I am insured through the employment of my dad.  I could also have been insured through my own employment in Utah, but I thought it would be a waste of company money to do so since I'm already insured.  The BYU study abroad program requires its own additional insurance, so I had to be doubly insured when I came over to Germany.  The German government, however, doesn't care.  It mandates that each employee who is paid more than 400 euros per month must also be given insurance.  They also said that I could not be paid less than 400 euros per month in order to get my visa.  So I am about to be triply covered by insurance.

"The trade of insurance gives great security to the fortunes of private people, and, by dividing among a great many that loss which would ruin an individual, makes it fall light and easy upon the whole society." - Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

Even so, Adam, I still don't think anyone needs as much insurance as I have.

Arbeit - 24.10.12

Today wasn't too exciting.  I overslept a little and was late to work, which isn't much of a problem since it's quite flexible here.  I worked mostly on projects in English.  I'm surprised how much programming and programming words are in English, even in Germany.  After work I went directly to institute in Hamburg, where people are beginning to say things like "Ah, I remember you from last week," or actually more like "achso, letzte Woche warst du auch da."  A couple drove me to Eidelstedt, where I can take a train directly to Quickborn.  It's nice to interact with people my age once in a while.

Languages - 23.10.12

This morning I really got started with my project with Fraunhofer.  It includes a few C# programs.  I've never programmed in C# before, but I didn't have any problems.   It feels like a mixture of C++ and Java.  I still don't think I'd use it by choice, though.
After lunch I went to do some research at the library, then I went to my class at the Goethe Institut.  We used sentences about learning languages as examples for learning grammar.  Kind of recursive, don't you think?

Ausländerbehörde - 22.10.12

Imagine a DMV that is only open for four hours each of the three days it is open each week.  Now imagine it without anybody speaking the same language, literally.  Welcome to my morning.
Last week I got a letter informing me that my visa had arrived in Pinneberg.  Hooray!  So I just got pick it up, right?  Wrong!  The letter contained more paperwork I needed to fill out which contained the same information as my application, a checkbox to verify I'm not a terrorist, etc.  The office I needed to bring it to, the Ausländerbehörde for the Pinneberg county, is in Elmshorn.  I got up very early and took 3 trains to the town hall in Elmshorn and asked where the office was.  Nobody knew exactly.  After finding out by calling Ralf, I walked the 5 kilometers to the outskirts of town where the Ausländerbehörde is in a little office building. and began the waiting process.  A few hours later, I had the temporary visa in my hand:

It's a beautiful document covered in stamps and signatures with a cool pattern in the background about as detailed as the curvy pattern in the background of a dollar bill.  It's nice to have, but I still don't have my official visa.  At least I have deep fried cheese covered in jam in my mouth right now.

Gemeinsames Essen - 21.10.12

I rode my bike to church today.  There's something about riding a bike across freshly harvested German fields while wearing a suit, tie, and backpack that feels very familiar.  I'm not sure why.
I did Türdienst during the sacrament at church.  For some reason German wards have priesthood standing at each door during the sacrament.  It feels kind of like I'm guarding the chapel.
The last session of General Conference was broadcast in the middle of the night here, so while the rest of the wards watched the last session, I watched President Monson's speech in Frankfurt with the other people who couldn't go see him in Hamburg last week.
After church, we had a potluck lunch.  The ward from Elmshorn was also in Pinneberg.  There was plenty of yummy homemade German foods.  I brought two round loaves of my pumpkin bread from yesterday in my backpack.

Planten un Blomen - 20.10.12

Today was probably the most beautiful day I've seen since I got to Hamburg. I slept in, donned my shorts, and rode the train to Hamburg Hbf. My adventure started at the crack of noon. I rode my bike around the city for a few hours and listened to nice music, and what a beautiful city it is:

I listened to some Beatles where they got their start:

I went to the botanical gardens at Planten un Blomen ("plants and flowers" in Plattdeutsch, a park in Hamburg). The first greenhouse was a little rainforest, and each greenhouse was noticeably less humid until the end, where I felt quite at home:

On the long bike ride back, I bough ingredients for pumpkin bread.  I'm pretty sure the recipe comes directly from William Bradford, because it still uses archaic units like "cups" and "teaspoons", but I made a pretty good historical reenactment with my 1 Liter measuring cup:

While it was baking, I actually got started on the long paper I've been procrastinating.

Not much to report - 19.10.12

Today at work I got started on my PLC project with Fraunhofer.  I found a few bugs and organized a few things.  I went home a little early, did my laundry, read a little about the industrial revolution, watched some TV, and now I need to clean up my room.  Happy Friday.  I need to actually start writing my big paper.

Work - 18.10.12

I finished translating my training materials today at work.  Ralf is going to look it over soon.  I worked a little late today and rode my bike home.  I asked the guy in the same place with the orange vest and the shotgun what he was doing, and he said he was hunting foxes.  I got home and I'm half listening to the second debate.  Obama mentioned that Germany and China are making some kind of energy investments.  There sure are a lot of windmills here.  Kind of a boring blog post today.  Sorry, readers.

Schleswig-Holstein - 17.10.12

Mail takes 5 days to get from Holland to Hamburg.  It takes 7 days to get from Hamburg to Utah.  Why does it take 22 days to get from Utah to Hamburg?
Today for lunch we had a really good roast with potatoes and gravy, green beans, peas and carrots.  Yum!
I rode my bike home from work.  It took 50 minutes.  I got to see a bit more of Schleswig-Holstein:

There was a guy with a double-barreled shotgun guarding the tractor. I didn't ask him why. Guns are hard to get in Germany, though.
I went to institute this evening. Our teacher is an older gentleman who obviously loves the New Testament. He tells stories as if he is just talking to his grandchildren, and I'm following along in the Bible, and he mentions almost every detail. It's a good class, but it takes a good while to get there and back.

Having fun isn't hard - 16.10.12

Guess what I've got!

That's right.  I'm cleverly covering up my number so you can't steal it and browse the Hamburg library system's extensive e-book collection online.  I can finally check out books to research for my capstone paper!  I figured since I have absolutely no social life in Quickborn I may as well not put it off any longer.  I also finished my novel I've been reading in the train.  I certainly recommend "Die Vermessung der Welt" for all of you German math fanatics out there.
I was looking through the library, and I found a book that stood out.  I flipped through it, and something about it was quite strange.  It took me a moment to realize that it was in English.
I also went to work and went to my class in Hamburg.  It's going well.  I've sat at a different table every class.  This week I sat with the Latvian, Tunisian, and Russian.  We're all foreigners, otherwise we wouldn't be taking an evening German class.

Even less of a social life than usual - 15.10.12

Last night I had to tell my roommate to leave the door unlocked.  It requires a key to go in and out, and I left my keys in Holland.  They're being sent by post, but they're not here yet.  I guess it's my own fault.

I got up and went to work in Kaltenkirchen.  I finished my training materials more or less, and so now I'm translating them into German.  It's stretching my technical vocabulary.  We had some frickin' Frickadellen for lunch.  There was another nice sunset on the way home.  The days are quite short up here.  Hamburg is further north than Edmonton, Alberta.

It seems like everything is happening in America.  Friends are getting married in Utah.  Austrians are jumping out of balloons and breaking the sound barrier in New Mexico.  Did you know that Red Bull is Austrian?

Quiet Sunday - 14.10.12

I took the bus to church.  Church was quite uplifting.  A guy from the ward is going on a mission and this week was his last week.  Elder Stank.  His family came to visit, some of whom are from Bonn, came to visit.  On top of that, President Monson spoke in Hamburg yesterday, so everyone had something to day.
I left my keys in Holland.  They're being sent by post, but I had to ring the doorbell.  I couldn't ride by bike, because it's locked.  So I watched Indiana Jones in German on TV, and had a restful Sunday in my apartment.  It's kind of lonely, but I had a video call with my mom, niece, and nephew.

Maintal, Darmstadt, Hamburg - 13.10.12

This morning I got up at the Kleins and went to have breakfast with the entire Klein family, except for Peter (the grandfather) who wasn't feeling well.  It was a lot of fun.  I'm glad I got to see them all.

This afternoon I went to Darmstadt to see my friend Joachim.  We had some really good pineapple juice and walked around the city a bit.  Once again, I'm glad I got to do that.
I took another long train ride from Darmstadt to Quickborn, changing trains in Frankfurt and Hamburg.  I read a whole bunch of my book, then I listened to the radio a bit in Hamburg.  I think Deutschland has disco fever.

Miracle in Maintal - 12.10.12

I had some time to work some more with Talumis before my train came, so I went and set up a web server, did some programming, and answered some questions.  Then Steven took me to the Utrecht train station and put me on a train.  It wasn't long until I was in Frankfurt, as you can see by the train display.  We were going too fast to take a picture of the glorious sunset over the German autumn.

I made my way to Frankfurt Ostbahnhof, which is in the scary abandoned part of Frankfurt.  I waited for the little train, which is the only way to get to my destination in Maintal.  One train was canceled, and they don't come very often.  The next train was also canceled.  I was starting to get a little worried when a woman came to the train station I was at, also wanting to go to Maintal.  We talked a little bit.  She works at a publisher in Stuttgart, so she's in Frankfurt for the Buchmesse, and wanted to visit her parents in Maintal.  So there we were: two well dressed businesspeople stuck in the run-down part of Frankfurt.  She called her father, and we took a streetcar to where her father picked us up by car and took us to his house, which is right around the corner from the family at whose house I will sleep, the Kleins.  It was simply a miracle that the only person I saw was the only way to get right where I needed to go.
So now I'm going to sleep at the Kleins' house.  They're like my German surrogate grandparents.  Talking with them is quite nostalgic.  I visited them a lot on my mission.

Utrecht - 11.10.12

I spent this morning describing, showing features of, and showing how to customize the new web widgets and my web server interface with Talumis, our dutch colleagues' company.  I've never felt like such an expert before, and almost everything worked.  We all had lunch together in their lunch room--breads and spreads.  I was well fed.  Much was said.  The fish I ate was already dead, and, don't worry, I didn't eat the head.
I spent the afternoon getting started on a deep customization example, then we went downtown for dinner.  We met with Brenna Fearey, one of my friends from high school who happens to be studying neuroscience here.  It was quite a nice evening.

To Holland - 10.10.12

This morning I got up early and took a series of trains to Utrecht, The Netherlands.  I passed through Bremen, so now I've been to 15 of the 16 states of Germany.  I haven't been to Sachsen-Anhalt yet.

I walked to the wrong exit in the train station, and finally met Steven Hamoen, one of my colleagues from Holland.  He took me to his office, which happens to be near the LDS church in Utrecht.  He and his coworker DJ showed me some of their development work, including a worldwide natural gas production model that uses the grandchild of a program I wrote in 2008.  It was pretty nifty to see what my work has become.
DJ and I rode bikes through the town to meet his coworker Esther, with whom we went to an Argentinian restaurant and had some steaks.  Then DJ and I biked through the tunnel in the Gothic cathedral tower that is not connected to a cathedral anymore.  History.

Class week two - 9.10.12

Long day. Got up. Did some work. Went to libraries. Read some books. Went to class. Got home late.
The Stadtsbibliothek let's you just go in and read books, but the university library has a complicated system where books can only be ordered and picked up the next day, so I'll be doing my research for my paper in the Stadtsbibliothek.

Autostadt - 8.10.12

We dropped little Sam off at kindergarten and I was dropped off at the Autostadt in Wolfsburg.  It's like going to car heaven.  I started by riding the car lift up about 30 layers into the car storage tower to look around.  Then I went to the little car museum and saw, among many other classic German cars, a vintage 1899 Benz Velo.  There were also a few more modern cars to look at:

The best part by far was the factory tour.  We took a boat over to the factory, then we were taken around the factory by bus while the tour guide pointed out the Nazi architectural features, some of which have been removed, and mentioned which sovereign countries are the size of the different buildings of the factory.  It is simply gigantic.  We went inside and looked from an observation deck down at the army of 6-axis industrial robots quickly welding car frames together.  That is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, but we weren't allowed to take pictures.  I think every engineering student ought to go to Wolfsburg personally.
On the way home, I sang a little Haydn in the train to get ready for my choir tryout in a few weeks. This evening and tomorrow I've got a little bit of work to do to get ready for my trip to Holland.

Spargelpizza und Generalkonferenz - 7.10.12

Last night we stayed up late and watched the second session of General Conference.  I couldn't help but think of my girls back home during Elder Ballard's talk, but my honey will still be there when I get back.  I'm not sure how much, though, because this year was kind of dry and there weren't as many flowers as usual.
This morning we got up and went to Priesthood session in the Braunschweig ward, then went to some of the Luschins' friends' house to watch the Sunday morning session.  There I had a pizza with hollandaise sauce, gouda cheese, ham, and yes, asparagus.  It was actually quite good.  You should try it.

Wolfsburg - 6.10.12

I got up early again and took the train to Wolfsburg, the hometown of Volkswagen.  Their factory is quite impressive.

My friend Arnold Luschin picked me up from the train station, and we went to his apartment. We finished up an amazing smoked beef and chicken dinner, went on a little walk, and watched President Thomas S. Monson tell most of my dating pool that they are now able to go on missions.  It's for a good cause.

Reading make fun! - 5.10.12

The book I'm reading in the train doesn't use any quotation marks for its dialog.  Instead, it conjugates the third person verbs that should be in quotation marks in the first subjunctive case, which is often identical to the first person verb conjugation.  So instead of writing "He said, 'I have done it,'" the author writes basically "He have done it."  It take a little getting used to.
I went to work this morning, and Ralf and his family are getting ready for a trip to Denmark tomorrow, so I left work early, took another short bike ride, and did a little more work from home.  I'm still preparing training materials, so it's not too exciting, but it should be a good weekend.

Politik - 4.10.12

I'm writing my training materials at work in English first, then I'll translate them into German. Ralf said he'd help me with some of the technical translation. That'll be fun. I actually got a lot done.
After work, I watched the presidential debate on youtube. I was quite surprised that about 90% of it was about money. Is there really nothing else going on in America? My friend Pathos made a few appearances: Obama's teacher in Las Vegas with students sitting on the floor and Romney's wife's encounter with a woman with a baby asking for help. I don't think it swayed me either way. I don't feel like I learned anything more about the election.
So I turned to the official Democratic and Republican party platforms and read the introductions. I swear they're identical: America's not doing so hot right now, but with this party we can somehow restore her glory. Oh, and by the way, God. God indeed.

Tag der Deutschen Einheit - 3.10.12

Today is Tag der Deutschen Einheit, the 22nd anniversary of the unification of Germany.  I'm turning 23 in a few weeks, so that means I have more history than Germany, right?
After doing my laundry, I went on an epic bike ride.  I just rode wherever I felt like going until 3:00, when I got to the Stadtpark Hamburg, then I turned around and headed back.

Along the way I saw many fields with corn, cows, and horses. Immediately over the border from Schleswig-Holstein to Hamburg is city.  I traced the route I rode online, and it was about 56 km.  That's 34.7 miles, for those of you who prefer archaic units.  Here's a little trick: if anyone ever tells you a distance in kilometers that's close to a Fibonacci number, like 55, the distance in miles is close to the previous Fibonacci number, in this case 34.  I knew there was a reason to memorize Fibonacci numbers.

First day of class - 2.10.12

I finally bought a bike. I've been looking for a while, and the bike shop in Kaltenkirchen had a used one my size, it it needed repairs last week. I went and picked it up after work for 100 euros.
I went to the library in Hamburg to look for books for my research paper. They're all in German. It'll be a tiny bit harder, but I think I can do it.
and this evening was my first day of class at the Goethe Institut. We introduced each other, and we did some exercises and learned some phrases. "Die Weichen fuer die Zukunft zu stellen" apparently has nothing to do with the word "weich."

Back home to Hamburg - 1.10.12

There's something going on in Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof. None of the long distance trains go there, so I saw a little bit of Stuttgart for the first time this morning, then I did some work in the train.  It's nice being able to work anywhere.

I've seen a lot of Germany from the train this weekend. I've driven through Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Chemnitz, Zwickau, Nuremberg, Munich, Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Worms, Mainz, Bonn, Cologne, Wuppertal, Bielefeld, and Hannover, and now I'm back in the middle of nowhere north of Hamburg.
I found a picture online of the accident that shut down Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof for at least three days.

Plochingen - 30.9.12

This morning I borrowed a shirt and tie and went to church in Esslingen.  When we got home we had some noodles for lunch and played some board games, which I won.  Then we played some video games, which I didn't win.  We watched a movie.  All in all it was a nice calm day with the Wengs.  It's a lot happier to see friends than to see cities by myself.

Teetotaling at Oktoberfest - 29.9.12

My Eurorail pass allows me to ride as many trains as I want in a limited number of days, but it doesn't have a limit on how early I can use it.  I got up at 5:00 AM and took a train to Munich.  There aren't many high-speed trains that go through Dresden, so it took a while.  When I got there I walked to the big tall Frauenkirche, then took the train to Oktoberfest.  Never before had I seen so many carnival rides, booths, and drunk Germans wearing silly outfits.  I got a great steak sandwich and got on the train to Stuttgart.

I had the weekend free, so I decided to go see my friend Matthias Weng and his wife.  The missionaries from his ward came over to finish planning the details of their lesson tomorrow, we watched some TV, and now we're going to bed.  He has a really nice couch :)