Training Italians - 29.11.12

I spent all day today talking to Italians about HTTP servers and modules.  Well, that's not entirely true.  We went to the mall and had some tasty bacon-spaghetti for lunch.  The rain had let up, so I could see the fresh snow on the alps.  Here's a view from their parking lot.  Turino is a beautiful place after all.

After I was done at work, Maurizio took me to a nice Italian restaurant for a 4 course dinner.  The restaurant was on a little cobblestone street in a little town high in the Piemonte hills near where he lives.  There were sets of silverware on the table for each course.  The waitress poured a little wine in his glass, had him taste it, and then poured the rest after he said it was good.  We started with slices of meat with a scoop of tuna sauce which we rolled up inside the meat.  Then we had bell peppers with Bagna Couda, a sauce made from ground up anchovies and garlic in oil, which tastes just like garlic.  I had some little potato balls with a local cheese sauce on it, then we had a selection of 14 different cheeses with jam, chestnut honey, and maple honey.  It was one of the fanciest meals I've ever had, and everything was delicious.

Torino - 28.11.12

This morning I got up at 4AM, took a taxi to the airport, and took airplanes to Torino, Italy.  I was picked up at the airport and driven through the rain to Flexcon, our Italian distributors.  We got to know each other and discussed the week, then went to lunch at a pizza place in the style of Napoli.  After the Napoleon pizza, we had some zeppola, which is like a giant cream-stuffed eclair, but somehow much better.  Then the afternoon I started to go through the training materials I had prepared.  This group is much more advanced than I had anticipated.  When I was going to introduce the idea of our browser to them, they showed me some things they have done with the browser that I had never even thought of.  They kept asking questions while I was explaining things, so it was hard to stay on track, but we covered a lot of topics.

For dinner we went to a restaurant called Eataly, which is like an organic foods store with little restaurants in it.  We had some really good ravioli and some gelato.  It was really good, and I saw some interesting vegetables:

Weihnachtsmarkt - 27.11.12

I was really distracted today at work for some reason.  I guess there's a lot going on in my life right now, so there's a lot about which to think, about which that I can't do anything.  I did some tedious code proofreading and formatting that needed to be done anyway, but I couldn't focus enough to debug.  At least I got something done.
I took a few hours this evening and walked around downtown.  It's really pretty.

I brought some pumpkin bread to my German class tonight.  They thought I brought it because of my birthday.  I guess my birthday is coming up, but I had it leftover from Thanksgiving.  It's apparently bad luck to wish someone a happy birthday in Germany before their birthday, but my Latvian classmate had already done the wishing.  Also, I should have thought about this before I brought it, but the bread is halal and vegetarian  so everybody had some.
The class concluded with the teacher asking me a question right at 9:00PM when I had completely zoned out.  I think I need to get away from it all for a few days by doing something completely different, like going  to Italy or something.

I heard two slang words on the way home that I'd heard before.  "Simsen" is the slang verb to send a text message, or SMS (try saying SMS-en) and "Naschi" seems to be a term for junk food, like the verb "naschen".

Theaterstück - 26.11.12

Today I made some progress at work, but it's hard to debug a big project whose behavior is not well defined.  I'm doing my best, though, and I'm trying to have something working and expandable by the time I'm done in a few weeks.
Afterwards I went to the institute center in Hamburg.  Carsten, one of the young single adults, had written a play which he and some of his friends performed on a stage somewhere in Hamburg 2 weeks ago.  He showed us the highlights tonight.  It was professionally filmed, and a DVD of it is being made, so I was expecting good filmography.  Instead he showed us some clips that his mom had filmed, complete with the occasional camera in front of the video camera to take a picture.  It looked like it was a very good play live, but it was hard to hear in the recording I saw, and I couldn't hear what was going on, but I had the commentary of the playwright.  There were some funny moments, especially when one character kidnapped another.  It's always been Carsten's dream to direct a play, and he wants to do it again next year.  I'm glad I saw this little "promotional event".  I think everyone ought to live their dreams like he's doing.

Kiel - 25.11.12

Whenever there's a CES devotional, the Hamburg and Neumünster stakes have a combined young single adult sacrament meeting and watch it.  I was picked up and drove with Tibor and the Richters to Kiel.  We went to the institute center there, which is the old ward building.  We had a sacrament meeting then watched the devotional in English upstairs and German downstairs.  Afterwards we all had some chili and talked for a while with people from all over northern Germany.

I heard a good joke today when disputing who lived in a more boring town:
Two farmers were talking one day.  "My farm is 10000 acres," said one.  The other replied, "My farm is so big that it takes two whole days to drive around the edge," to which the first said, "yeah, I used to have a truck like that, too."

On the way home we saw the Kiel Canal which connects the North and Baltic Seas.  Lots of big boats go through it.
When I got home, I helped my roommate translate his curriculum vitae from English into German.  It says that his German isn't as good as his English or Hindi, but it's important to communicate his incredible technical background.  He wrote his masters thesis on LCD manufacturing (not LSD) and has worked on many advanced electronics development projects.
I watched some TV.  I always feel like I'm wasting time when I watch TV, but in this case I'm practicing my German comprehension skills.

Giving - 24.11.12

It turns out my little village, Quickborn, has produced a somewhat famous star.  Mike Krüger was a German comedian/songwriter in the '70s and '80s.  I listened to some of his songs this morning on youtube.  They're fun to listen to.
I think a good metric for the happiness of a year is the number of Thanksgiving dinners enjoyed.  This is a 2-thanksgiving-dinner year.  This afternoon I went to Ralf's house and joined him and his family for their Thanksgiving celebration.  It was somewhat different.  In addition to the usual, Ralf's son's American girlfriend had prepared her family's traditional Thanksgiving chicken noodle soup and a strange jello/cream cheese/whipped cream/pretzel dessert.  It was certainly worth trying.
Sometimes this trip I've been quite lonely, but this weekend I've had a wealth of family inclusion.

I got home, and my Pakistani roommate Hassan had prepared me biryani, a traditional Pakistani dish.  I felt bad, but I don't think there's any way I can fit it in tonight even though it smells so good.  I'll have it for breakfast.

Elbe - 23.11.12

This morning I was awakened at about 9 to the sound of children playing, which was actually quite nice for a change.  I got up and had a great German breakfast of rolls, cheese, and meats.  I was also introduced to a tasty combination of Nutella and cream cheese.  After a relaxing morning, I hit the road.  Actually I hit the railroad.
On the way home I saw the Müllers, some of my friends from my mission.  It was good to see them again.
When I got to Hamburg, I got out of the train at Landungsbrücken and walked through the old Elbe tunnel, which was built in the days of Emperor Wilhelm II.  They didn't have enough room in the city to make ramps down to the tunnel, so there are four car-sized elevators at both entrances which go straight down to below the river.  As usual, Wikipedia has a better picture than mine, but neither picture can capture the awesomeness of walking down 133 stairs through turn-of-the-20th-century-style heavy steel structures.

My refrigerator space now consists of cheese, cheese for frying, cheesecake, and cake.  I need to go grocery shopping.

Thanks - 23.11.12

I started my day by having a sandwich with cheese that is either medium-aged or from the middle ages, I'm not sure which.  "Mittelalter Käse" is somewhat ambiguous.  Oh, and I'm not sure if "eingetragener Verein" means that the members are registered or that the club is registered.  I've been wrong before, believe it or not.
I got on the train and headed to Cologne.  In Hamburg, I realized that I had packed so lightly that I had forgotten to bring anything to do in the train, so I bought a book to read.  I wasn't the only one in the train reading, though.  There was a man reading Mozart sheet music just like I read words or computer code.  He said he was in the Hamburger orchestra.
I got to Cologne and had a few minutes to look around.  I saw that they're building their Christmas market, too!

 I went to visit my friend Oliver and his family who live not far from Cologne.  He had prepared an amazing American Thanksgiving meal that we enjoyed with several other guests.  I was stuffed AND thankful.

Costly apparel - 21.11.12

Today I got a lot of work done.  I usually have daily goals of what I want to get working, and I finished mine today at 4:00, so I went home.  Sometimes I accomplish my goal at 10AM, but then I need to think of something more to do for the day.

Ralf was working on his German tax forms a little today.  I don't think I'll ever again think that American taxes are too bureaucratic.

I didn't ride my bike to the train station today so I could bring my suit home.  I read online, looked at directions, and watched youtube videos, but I could not figure out how to tie my bow tie.  After enough fussing around I finally figured out where the second loop goes through the knot.

Now I'm baking a surprise for tomorrow that has the same color as the walls surrounding the mirror that helped so much in my adventure this evening.

Here comes the sun - 20.11.12

I saw the sun in Hamburg today!  You desert dwellers may think that's nothing to write home about, but here I am ... writing home about it.  After a typical day at work proofreading German/English/C++, I rode the train to Hamburg and bought a bow tie that I can tie myself.  It was a bit on the pricey side, but I'll probably only buy one in my life.  While I was shopping downtown I saw that they're starting to set up the Weihnachtsmarkt, or Christmas market.  This is about 10 meters tall:

I'm sooooo excited for the Christmas markets.  After I was done with my riotous living I went to my home away from home, the Hamburg library.  I made sure the moon was in the picture:

Here I did the final proofread of my paper, which actually took a few hours.  That's much longer than I thought it would take.  I've spent a long time on the paper, so I feel like a great burden was lifted off my shoulders when I turned it in.  I finished just in time to run upstairs to the Goethe Institut for my class.  We did some sample test exercises, learned about clubs, and practiced formal speaking.  I learned that the abbreviation e.V., which I've seen many times, is short for eingetragener Verein, a club for which you must register.

Fliege - 19.11.12

This morning I went to work a little early.  Ralf flew to Frankfurt, and I wanted to be sure we had time to clarify anything for while he's gone.  Turns out it's just going to be business as usual.  I did get good feedback for my training last week, though.
After lunch we went to pick up my suit.  It looks really good, but more importantly I look really good in it.  That's not too hard, because I think I look good in anything.  I asked the lady at the counter if they sold bow ties.  Of course they do.  It's a men's suit store.  But they didn't have any that I can tie myself.  They were trying to convince me that nobody does that anymore.  I guess their bow tie market consists of classless commoners.  I'll have to look elsewhere.
I got home to a dwindling stock of Swiss chocolate.  I have well under two pounds in my cupboard.  I'll have to stock up before I go home.
I'm going to relax, watch TV, and finalize my capstone paper tonight.  It'll be nice to have that burden off my shoulders.

Musikabend - 18.11.12

Today at church I met the Bast family.  They're an older couple who live practically across the street from me.  Now I have a ride home from church.  They told me all about their temple mission.  I never thought about it before, but I guess if you spent enough time in the Frankfurt temple, you'd get to know people from all over Europe.
After church I ate a big lunch and took a long nap.  I may or may not have been wearing my suit the whole time.
This evening the Basts took me to the Musikabend at the church.  It's an annual event in Pinneberg kind of like the Jensens' recitals, but with singing, guitar, and cello along with the piano music.  A 10-year-old boy played Rondo a Capriccio about 5 times as fast and as well as I can.  An older gentleman had a tremor so bad that he could hardly hold his music, but when he played one of Chopin's Etudes it seemed to disappear.

HSV - 17.11.12

Today I met up with my friends Nicolay and Emmely from Glückstadt and went to the stadium of the Hamburg Sport Verein. After listening to fans singing in the train and being pat down to make sure I don't have any knives or anything I would throw at the players like bottles or batteries, we got into the stadium where we found Aaron from Pinneberg.

We got there about an hour early, so we watched people wave big blue flags and watched the players come in the stadium. Once the game started, most of it looked like this:

The score was 1:0 for Hamburg against Mainz. It was exciting to see a goal.
Afterwards, they invited me to go to the Dom. "Dom" means "cathedral". I like cathedrals, and I haven't seen the Hamburg cathedral yet, so I agreed to go. We didn't actually go to the cathedral, though. We went to a festival near the St. Pauli stadium that is called "Dom":

We met with a few other people, walked around, ate Bratwurst, and rode the roller coaster with 2 loop-de-loops. It was much more exciting than anything I've ever seen in a cathedral.

Procrastination - 16.11.12

Ralf's going on vacation for the weekend, so I worked from home today.  I did some work, then rode my bike through a few snowflakes to get my hair cut.  When I got home, I read a bunch from my book about Ferdinand Porsche.  I've been putting off finishing my paper for too long.  The time is come.
I watched a little TV.  I don't watch TV much.  Among the things I saw was the music video of "Gangnam Style" for the first time.  The German government has different laws about what can be seen on youtube, so I couldn't see it before now.  You in shouldn't take the American government's relatively open internet policies for granted.

Programming - 15.11.12

Today I finished my training class with IMA.  Everything went well.  At lunchtime I walked around the production floor again with Tobias.  On the door is a sign that says "fotografieren verboten".  It's kind of a bummer that I'm not allowed to photograph some of the coolest things I see.
I learned another cool word.  "Der Ruck".  It's the German word for "jerk".  No, not that kind of jerk.  It's what you ought to think about when you hear the word "jerk": the third derivative of position with respect to time.  Position, velocity, acceleration, jerk.  Position, Geschwindigkeit, Beschleunigung, Ruck.
In other news, another contribution of mine was approved for inclusion in WebKit today, which is in turn included in Chrome and Safari.  And it only took 5 months to go through the review process.  Woohoo!

No, I'm not in Lubeck - 14.11.12

This morning I got up early and was picked up by Ralf, who got up even earlier.  We drove down to Lübbecke, a little town by Osnabrück where the furniture manufacturing equipment manufacturer IMA Klessmann has its factory.  We went through some of my training materials all day.  I'm glad I prepared so well.  It's the first technical training I've ever done in German.  My language doesn't seem to be much of a hindrance (I can understand myself, anyways), but it's good to have Ralf dabei.
We took a few breaks, and on one break the engineers I'm training took me on a tour of the factory floor.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  There were people making everything from conveyors to robotic milling machines the size of my entire apartment.  Like the VW factory, I think every engineering student ought to see something like that.
At the end of the day, we went to a little Gasthof, where we'll spend the night.  I had a really hammer Jägerschnitzel.  I'm really tired and ready for bed.  A picture cannot adequately portray just how German this place looks and feels, but here's one anyway:

Vocabulary - 13.11.12

Typical Tuesday.  Traveled to train.  Typed.  Talked.  Trekked to teacher.  Talked.  Traveled to ... apartment. Ok, there's only so much you can say like that.  After lunch with the Grubers I went to my class in Hamburg and now I'm going to bed.
There's a new "German" word that I've heard several times all over Germany.  It's the verb "jailbreaken", most commonly used in its past participle form "gejailbreakt".  It seems to conjugate like other regular verbs.  I'll bet you can guess what it means.  It just sounds kind of goofy to hear someone ask, "Hej, hast du dein neues Smartphone gejailbreakt?"

FHE - 12.11.12

This morning I went to work as usual and spent the whole morning proofreading code.  There is a lot of code in this project, and I want to use what's already been done, but it all needs manual proofreading.  After lunch, though, I went and bought a suit.  I need a black suit for my choir concerts in a few weeks, and I wanted a black suit anyway, so I broke up the monotony of the day by going and buying one.  Ralf's wife Anke came with me.  It was good to have someone with me who knows a little about clothes.
After work I rode my bike to Pinneberg (about 10km away) for family home evening with some of the people in the area.  It was fun.  We ate dinner and talked a lot.  We only have an organized FHE once a month because the young single adults are so sparsely dispersed, and most of them live with their families anyway, but I'm glad I got to go.
I listened to some music as I rode my bike back, and I stopped in the middle of a field in the country to look at the stars, which I haven't noticed since I came to Germany.  I'm not usually in the country at night, and it's usually cloudy anyways.  I would've uploaded a picture, but I don't have a fancy camera, and it would've looked just like it does anywhere else.

Back Home - 11.11.12

I went to church in Friedrichsdorf this morning with the choir.  We had potatoes and salad for lunch, had one last choir practice, then we all got in cars and trains and went home.  We dropped off Simon in Hanover and Jan in Celle, then I was dropped off in Quickborn.  We talked and listened to music on the way.  It seems like everyone in the choir has been the best of friends their entire lives, and that is often literally the case, but I don't feel like an outcast.  I just feel like a new and welcome member of the choir.

Frankfurt - 10.11.12

The choir breakfasted and drove to Frankfurt to practice because a wedding reception kicked us out of the chapel right next to the temple.  We sang, ate, sang, ate, sang, talked, and sang.  We're getting better.  This is our last big practice before our Christmas concerts in December.  I'm really excited.
After practice, we played a little soccer in the gym and drove back to Friedrichsdorf where we'll sleep in the little hostel.  We ate some leftover wedding cake, and now we're talking, and we're about to go to bed.  I'm making a lot of new friends.

Road Trip - 9.11.12

This morning I got up and went to Hamburg.  I got there a few hours early, so I did some research for my paper at the city library.

 I met with my friends Jared and Mildred at the train station, and we drove to Frankfurt where we have choir practice for the Vocalis choir.  On the way we picked up Jan in Celle and Simon in Hannover.  Of course, on our way through Celle we stopped at the Bahlsen and Leibnitz outlet store and got some cheap chocolate and cookies.

In the car we talked about the choir, the election, Les Miserables, and many other things.  We got to Frankfurt in time for the last part of the practice, then we drove to Friedrichsdorf, where we're going to sleep.

Humdrum - 8.11.12

I got a lot of work done on my program today.  I got to the point where I could test a section of it.  Does it work?  Yes.  Am I surprised?  No.
I fixed a "bug" in my server program that caused problems because the version of Internet Explorer 8 distributed in Sweden uploads files differently than the rest of the world's Internet Explorer 8.  That's the world of internet development in a nutshell for you.
It rained today, and it was dark when I got out of the office.  I did my laundry, and the previous user of the laundry machine somehow removed their laundry 20 minutes before the cycle was over, so after I put my clothes and soap in I had to wait for it to "rinse" and spin before I could start.
When I got home, my roommate got mad at me for spilling on the stove he just cleaned.  What did I spill on the stove?  Distilled water.  I wonder how his day was.
I am completely unfazed and happy.  I've got a great weekend before me.

Institutionalization - 7.11.12

Today I got my program to the point where I can start testing it.  It's typically bad form to work on a program for several days without testing it, but I've done it before and I'll probably do it again.
After work I went to institute in Hamburg.  Sometimes I wonder why I spend several hours in the train just to go to institute, but the Hamburg institute is really amazing, as most of them are.  Today's topic: what is heaven like?  It's simple theological question, but it's quite hard to answer.
I rode the train back home.  I got home late, but I did some reading in the train about the development of the mathematical definitions of the lunar month (which has nothing to do with the paper I'm writing).  Those Muslims preserved and developed a lot of math through the dark ages.  And I also read about the computer revolution (which fits quite nicely into my paper).

Wahlkampf fast vorbei - 6.11.12

At work I took another tech support call.  It's remarkably like taking tech support calls in America.  You ask them questions to ask what they did wrong, and if they could answer them informatively they wouldn't be calling tech support.  You end up having them email you an example, you fix the example, and you email it back with an explanation.  In America, however, it's the person on the other end of the line who has a thick foreign accent and limited vocabulary; in Germany that's me.
Today in my German class we covered der/die/das gender determination rules and their exceptions.  I was shocked to find out that the phrase I thought I heard the most from 2009-2011 (by a factor of about 10) is grammatically incorrect.  "Keine Interesse" should indeed be "kein Interesse" because it's das Interesse, even though Interesse ends with an 'e'.
The election is a hot topic here, too.  Almost every European I've ever talked to likes Obama.  My Pakistani roommate says that almost every Pakistani he's talked to hopes that Romney will win the election.  My classmate from Afghanistan doesn't care who wins.  I'm kind of excited to see who wins, but I won't lose sleep tonight.  I voted several weeks ago.

Whole Grains = Healthy, Right? - 5.11.12

I got an incredible amount of work done today on the Fraunhofer project.  Sometimes I think the most productive thing I do as a programmer is take a few days and don't program.  It helps to get a fresh look at a problem, especially when reorganizing large programs.

Ralf is gone for a few days, so I answered the phone a few times.  It's kind of scary to be trying to understand people's technological problems over the phone in German, which is hard enough in English.  One I solved right away.  I told two people just to email Ralf.

It was raining this morning when I went to work, and when 5:00 PM came around it was pitch black.  I face the prospect of only seeing the sun a handful of times the rest of the time I'm here.  But don't worry, I'm far from depressed.  I rediscovered my favorite cereal: Nougat Bits.  Imagine the chocolatiest cereal you could possibly eat while watching cartoons on a Saturday.  Now fill each piece with Nutella.  There, now you have what I'm going to eat for breakfast tomorrow morning.  I tried something similar in America one time, but it didn't compare.

Passah - 4.11.12

I went to church this morning by bus.  The Elders' quorum went to a small room for our lesson.  There was one empty chair.  Someone mentioned that it's like the Passover.  Elijah didn't come, but about halfway through the lesson a guy whom the missionaries had invited came!
It was a nice day, so I walked home from the bus stop.  I made myself a nice lunch.  I discovered that canola honey tastes really good on Leibniz butter cookies.  I watched a little TV, which is pro-Obama news coverage of the election on almost every channel.  I did some reading.
I'm really excited to go to work tomorrow and get something done after I've been home sick all weekend.

Technologiegeschichte - 3.11.12

I'm feeling better, but I'm still sick, and that capstone paper doesn't write itself, so I spent about 90% of the day reading books about technology in Germany, taking notes, and writing my paper.  It's over halfway done!

Krank - 2.11.12

I'm still sick. It's just a cold so I'm not going to die, but it's not much fun, either. So while my body fixes itself, I took the day to read and write for my German capstone paper. I got a lot done, but I still have a LONG way to go. I watched the German news for a few minutes with my roommate (that's all he ever does). It seems like the entire eastern United States has been destroyed.

I figured I'd write something interesting, even though it has nothing to do with anything:
In the USA, if you dig a hole straight down, where will it go? China? Nope. The USA is in the northern hemisphere, and if you dig a hole straight down through the center of the earth, it will go through to the southern hemisphere, around Australia. To dig a hole to China, which is also in the northern hemisphere, you would have to dig a diagonal hole a little under 45° down to the north. Don't believe me? Go dig a hole to Australia.

Husten - 1.11.12

I've got a cold, so got lots of juice at the grocery store, worked some from home, took a nap, worked a little more, took a long shower, called my mom, and did some homework.  It's raining.  What a great day!