Two weeks ago...

Two weeks ago I had just arrived in Germany, roughly. I got here in a Wed. afternoon and today is Thursday. So far things have been going really well. Everyone here is laidback and the research is moving along at a nice pace. The work fluctuates back and forth between waiting for certain pieces of equipment to arrive, and once they arrive working very quickly to get them adjusted for our experiments and installed. I basically work with someone working on his doctorate. His name is Stefan, we basically are taking different crystalized substances and seeing what kinds of properties they have under extreme conditions. That's why almost every week we order or build new devices to test the different properties of our samples. It's really cool because I get a lot of hands on experience. I don't just sit at a desk all day and do calculations. Stefan works in a group of about 5 or so. A couple of them are kind of like undergrads, like me and the other three are also working on their doctorates. Also apparently two other students in the DAAD program are coming to work with our group too. Here in Garching we're just one of 22 departments that work on various areas of physics. The technical university also has technology departments, mechanics departments, biochem departments, math departments and everything here. There's also a Max Planck institute located on this sight as well as a couple small particle accelerators and a Nuclear Reactor that they use to do Neutron scattering experiments. The amount of research that goes on here is unbelievable!

So as far as work goes, things are great. As far as life goes, it's ok. I rent a room in a small town near the Institute, and supposedly I have roommates, but I really haven't actually seen them yet. I haven't made any friends outside my research group because I live in a small town so far away from where anyone else my age lives. Apparently most college students live in a part of munich that, when translated from german, is called Student City. I have become pretty well acquainted with all the people working on my team, and they all usually go out to the beergarten about once a week. Also last weekend there was a music festival in Student City that I went to. It was actually pretty fun. I actually don't mind that much that I haven't made too many new friends because I was hoping to do quite a bit of travelling on the weekends because there's still a lot of Europe that I'd like to see. As for what to do during the week... I've brought a lot of books and I'm looking into what theater organizations there are at the University here to see if I can get involved with them. So until next time Tchüss