The "latest" news - ooops, it's over..

I'm back in Germany, somehow, I still don't quite get it. The flight even amused me with all possible events, except an actual crash ;) (there was a passenger needing a physician, hard turbulences and a baby who was able to cry with a frequency that I enjoyed all the plastic and not glass devices).

Anyway, the last entries:

- It's time to say goodbye and thank-you
- the most delicious goodbye I had so far

- and always interesting: 

Chicago .

A Final Goodbye; my come back ;-) – 09-28-13

That’s boring, sorry. No alarm, no excited officer, not even a word to the whole pharmacy I transported with me (of course, in the pre-scribed squared zip-back, in total not more than 3 oz ;-)). I’d just got a huge grin on my face after leaving the security control. At least my last work day was finished by an emergency alarm in the neighbor building (evacuating that one, including the parking lot). 

And now I’m sitting at the airport waiting for my flight (in four hours…), reading the time I calculated for the police to arrive for checking the medications I wanted to get on the airplane (eye drops for a good friend), me, explaining over and over again, that, yes, indeed, those fifteen pages explained the content of the liquid, but.. no :-)

I’m glad about that and somehow, indeed, it’s sad to leave, but I think the joy to see my family again will outweigh the loss of finishing the project early and to cement new friendships. For sure, Vuk, YoonYoung, Sheng and all the others, we’ll stay in touch! Many thanks again to everybody in our group and the nice time we had together! I enjoyed working with you and getting to know you a lot!

Thus, I leave a report to be proofread and many ideas behind… and a country which has got the potential to be “visited” again! Nevertheless, my whole life... Errr, maybe right now I am still too “European” if this mode exists to imagine the rest of my time in the US; but a great part of me will stay there ;-)

Okay, so far this blog was “funny” to write: Just the rather exciting stuff, something’s always fascinating to report, not the boring things, like my regular getting up, how I’m alone, except Skype-contacts in the evening… There haven’t been any friends or family around (except my colleagues and Benni ;-)) and that was sometimes slightly exhausting. Therefore the additional greatest thanks to my family in Germany who supported me with regular Skype calls, long mails during the week and all possible emotional, immaterial and financial support I could imagine. I can’t express the thanks you deserve in words.  This also concerns my friends in Australia, UK and Germany who (I hope ;-)) survived my spam mails.

Furthermore a great thank-you to the German Academic Exchange Service and to the German National Academic Foundation for sponsoring me. I don’t want to miss the experiences and possibilities I got here – a mile stone and a signpost for the future!

 Thus, Max, my extended luggage will arrive soon :-) See you and everybody else then. Cheers!

Last, but not leat; A First Goodbye and the Last 48 h - 09-26-13

Everything's got an end ... (to almost quote a famous German politician who just left office due to the defeat in the recent governmental election; and just sausage's got two).

Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of a Argonne thermos flask which has been the goodbye-present from my supervisor. But today (my very last day, Friday), I was overwhelmed by the baking skills of one of my new friends, Vuk:

A delicious piece of baking masterpiece saying "Gute Heimreise, Lotta"

It's an unbelievable tasty orange-and-dark-chocolate symbiosis (which needed the whole Thursday evening). Thanks so much!

And, also, thanks to you for proofreading 45 pages of my report so thoroughly ... ;-)

An Oktoberfest, how to "prosit!" in the USA - 09-21-13

Driving innocently to a water park near Chicago we suddenly recognized the typical blue-white pattern at the roadside. Aah, of course, WalMart or Walgreens might have had those table cloths and tent style on offer...

But finally, the German and the Bavarian flag suspicious, so it turned out to be a proper German (or, sorry, rather Bavarian) Oktoberfest, sponsered and initiated by the local bank. We couldn't resist to find out what was going on...

Slowly approaching the small festival our ears confirmed the assumption: The original Oktoberfest-hits were tootled over and over again. I have to admit that I am not the greatest fan of this music, but somehow I felt related to the sound - probably (I hope!) he language is responsible for this effect ;-)

Then one of the bank employees explained the event: The bank had got its 40th anniversary and obviously the had to celebrate their apparently rather small company. When we mentioned that we came from Germany and Bavaria he was really excited and asked us to enjoy a "Bratwurst" and "Sourkraut" in the US-American way (resulting in a nice hotdog with a sausage and sauerkraut). Thus, thanks to everyone for welcoming us! (Even though one could argue about the representativeness of Bavaria for whole Germany, but never mind...)

An Alarm - 09-20-13

In contrary to the unlighted streets in the suburb the Hotel I stay at was flooded with light when we arrived on Thursday night after a friend gave me a ride from a colleague's home where everybody was invited to a great Turkish dinner (many thanks to our hosts (!), I'm still fascinated how you managed to cook so delicious food in such a short time for so many people).

To be honest, I'm not to keen on strolling around alone after dawn, so I didn't know how the Hotel facility looked like during night. Additionally, some lights in some rooms flickered which attracted my friend's attention - they are a part of the fire alarm system. Thus, after a few moments, all guests had gathered themselves in the forecourt. We didn't have to wait  for the firefighters, but they were too relaxed to be alarmed by an actual emergency...

... it turned out, that somebody was not really skilled in microwaving popcorn (hu, it wasn't the wing I stayed in). Finally, we got back to our rooms pretty quickly and my friend, who stayed to see if everything turned out alright, left to drive home. Nevertheless, we saw an original fire engine:

A Collaboration - 09-17-13

Sometimes the relationship to siblings (or overall relatives) can be... okay, let's call it "exciting". But I'm glad that I've got a wonderful sister who spent her time decorating the pattern I had constructed a few weeks ago (What? You can't remember??? Mh, then click here).

And I think the result of our team work will be the logo for my presentation in our group meeting next week:

An Abstract // What Bothers Me ... - 09-13-13

Today I rode down a street just to do it, just to see the US-American flag directly flying above the McDonald's', to see the most well-kept houses left alone and to see the Willis-Tower in a 40 miles distance excelling everything - but with a clarity, authority and superiority I'd never recognized it before.

I think the impression was emphasized by the weather today - after a storm people say it's supposed to be extra-ordinary clear.

But I have to admit, nothing's clear. At a first glance, of course: Yaaay, the supermarket's opened 24/7; I get everything xxl-sized including chocolate muffins; I'm offered iced water for free in a restaurant...
... and I know that there must be people working 24/7 to guarantee this service; xxl-sized burgers won't support my health; there's a reason why we spend a higher tip for waitresses than the one in Europe.

Indeed, maybe "just" 5% of the nation's work force are occupied with two jobs. Officially. Furthermore many (17%) think about taking an additional job to ensure their children's college education, which will require fees in astronomic dimensions (the term educational bubble was born). Thus, the number of jobs per person is likely to increase according to some newspapers...

Just, to have mentioned this topic... I mean, it seems to be quite "efficient" to work at two places since people say that you earn more money because the taxes are lower. And your insurance is your choice, too, great! Somehow, it works, but many things stand on disco legs.

To come back to my non-existing topic: I visited a Catholic church around here attending the church's choir. Hearty and sincere people greeted me and I felt like we knew each other for a long time. One of the singers cared about my sheets, instructed me where our voice began etc. Nevertheless, at the end the surprise was waiting. Someone mentioned Europe or a similar matter and the most welcoming woman took a deep breath to outline her position - probably the greatest nonsense I've heard so far: "The other churches are going to take over in Europe and they will say "multiply!" and then the Christians will be persecuted! The politics in Europe are just too moderate... that's what the percentages tell." Fortunately, her daughter (who fell silent) commented that I'm from Germany and the "conversation" was finished. Later, I noticed the "Pro-Life"-Cap which just fit to the picture forming in my head.

In fact, this could happen in Germany, too. And it's "only" been one person out of twenty - moreover those other nineteen singers were honestly friendly as I haven't experienced that in Germany. You're right, I shouldn't compare, but that's just the impression I perceive.

So let's continue comparing ;-) I switched on the TV (take a guess... CNN) and I made a bet with myself that any topic or advertisement would take longer than two minutes until the "Syria Crisis" took over. I lost: 30 sec ... The daily program consists of several blocks, a three quarters for Syria, an eighth for ads and the rest for other news or maybe a movie which is interrupted every 10 min. to inform you about the latest toothpaste technology (ads again). In some way it's fancy to be up-to-date at any time and the small news line at the bottom of the screen tells you what you should know beside the main channel.
Then some friends asked me, if I followed the political debating duel and the election campaign in Germany. Suddenly, I noticed that it hasn't come up in TV over here at all. Germany might not be the most important country, that's true, but I wouldn't cal it irrelevant since the US-German-relation is not too frozen.
Anyway, just to confirm that the US news channel posts one "breaking news" after another about Syria. A German news magazine annotated that their US partners just launched into the subject.



Mh, basically I hope I could provide you an abstract of what's going on here. If you read it (and if I read it ;-)) it sounds in parts negative, but, no worries, there are many positive events maybe outweighing the experiences above :-)