Break continues...

Promised an update and here it is!

So as said, I went down to Austria last weekend and we spent all day Sunday on the slopes. I survived and managed not to break any bones, which is also a plus. The weather was nice (well, sunny and not too cold) and the area was absolutely beautiful.

Then I came home Sunday night. Monday I started my first day of researching! I really like Ana, who I'm doing the work for. Their project (to give a hopefully-not-chemical-background-needed-to-understand-what-I'm-saying explanation) works with removing nitrogen and sulfur from gasoline (processes called hydrodenitrogenation and hydrodesulfurization) respectively. This results in less H2S (very toxic gas) being released when the fuel is burned. These elements also corrode the metals put in gas to raise the octane rating, so obviously that's not helpful either. Specifically, she is (and now I am) looking at different catalysts for the reaction and (specifically) the effect of nickel being used in the catalyst. I have my own catalyst that I'm doing all sorts of tests with to fully analyze. It's actually really interesting (or I find it to be, anyway). Technically I need to work 30 hours for 4-6 weeks to get respective 3-4 credit hours. I've got one week in now and should be able to work the next two weeks "full time" as well, so I actually should be almost done by the time classes actually start! Which will be really nice. At the end I get to write a report of my work and present it to the professor.

Speaking of which, turns out classes start on April 20th... a week later than I had thought. Not sure how I missed that one. As far as classes go, I'm much more organized than last semester which is a huge relief. And my schedule might end up being very pretty too, especially if I end up finishing the research up early on. Of course, classes are also going to depend on if I manage to pass linear algebra (by U of IL's standards) the second time around. For those of you who don't know, the passing grade at the TUM is anything about a 5 (as in 4.7, 4.3, 4.0, 3.7, ... 1.3, 1.0). Unfortunately the passing grade on my TUM/UIUC grade conversion is anything above a 4.0. Well, I got a 4.7 on linear. So technically... but yeah. Second try will hopefully go better, though I have my doubts. It appears that they're not so big on the partial credit bit... or so I assume after I compare the answers to the final with what I remember putting. Oh well. We'll see what happens.

Other than that... I've actually been keeping pretty busy. I finished my paper and just emailed it in. Final project is a 17 page (Title, Contents page and Works Cited page inclusive) paper written in German about Muslims in Germany. Quite the accomplishment, I would say. We'll see what he says though. That's the last grade (other than linear) that I'm waiting for. I still have one more to go pick up (professor currently not responding... must keep contacting). Ahh.... Thursday and Friday I went out to dinner with Americans. Thursday Ashley had 5 friends from the States who had come to Munich for spring break, so she invited Hans and I along for dinner. Friday another Fulbrighter (Hans and Ashley's program) from Heidelburg was in Munich for the weekend and had met up with two people she knew from her university (Fulbrighters in Spain and Italy), so Hans invited me to come along too and we went and got dinner again... Then Saturday night I went to Starkbierfest.

Starkbier (yes, "strong beer"...) is a mini-Oktoberfest. Same length, different location, and much smaller. It takes place during Lent because starkbier is what the Monks used to brew to get through the fasting time. It's basically a meal in itself. It's really, really dark. And apparently has an alcohol content of around 8%? Or so one source told me. Anyway, it was basically Oktoberfest all over again. People dressed in Lederhosen with their Liter ("Mass") of beer in hand, dancing on the tables. Basically, a German festival (or Munich, more precisely). And... coincidence of coincidences (I'm running into a lot of these!), I met Jack there! Jack is the student from U of IL who was here last year. He helped me out at the beginning of the year when U of IL was being obnoxious and I finally met him when he came back to Munich for a conference back in December or so. Well, apparently he has a job in Southern Germany now and came up to Munich to to go Starkbierfest! And... he just happened to have sat at the same table as the people we were meeting there. I went with some friends at around 8:30 that night. The other guy had been there since 3, so we were going to join him... and guess who's at the table! Jack! Who I hadn't even known was in Munich! Go figure!

But anyway, back to studying for Linear!

Back in Germany... for a day...

Hey guys,

So I got back to Germany yesterday. My plane left on Wednesday afternoon and I got in Thursday around noon. The first half of the flight was fairly uneventful. The transfer in Frankfort was a little stressful as I almost missed it... I only had an hour layover there and the flight from Charlotte to Frankfort sat at the gate for like half an hour. I finally got off the plane at 11:20 and my next flight was leaving at 11:55... and I had no boarding pass and no idea which gate the flight was leaving from. Thus I did a lot of running. Everyone I kept running into and furiously asking for help kept telling me to calm down, I had plenty of time. Well, they were wrong. I didn't. When I finally got to the counter to print out a boarding pass I was informed that I was already too late, the plan had started boarding at 11:20 and they couldn't print a pass out for me anymore. After I replied that they needed to do something, the ticket counter lady escorted me to the first class security line and pushed me through to the very front without a boarding pass. Of course I beeped with no metal on me and got searched. And then had to run past 16 gates with 15 minutes before the plane took off because I was gate A17, as it turns out, and then I had to beg for a boarding pass at the gate... which she did give me, and told me to relax and then to please board immediately. I got on the plane and asked the nearest flight attendant for a glass of water. Quite the wake up call there. No sleeping on that flight!

Anyway, after that it was uneventful again. I'm back in my dorm, and as I write, actually packing up to leave for Austria, where I'm headed for the weekend. I've been promised another skiing trip. Crossing fingers I stay alive on this one as well. I was back in Germany for a full day before I left the country again. I haven't even finished unpacking. Oh well. There'll be time for that later.

Also got another grade back- I got a 1,0 on my Econ exam! 1,0 is the highest possible grade. Yay! (Okay, not overly surprisingly since those are the essays I wrote in English... but still).

Also also, the religion sociology paper is coming along... I'm over halfway done, which is good because I was planning on having Lisa read it this weekend. I'll be doing a lot of writing on the train ride there... I have till April 1st to turn that in.

I'll give an update sometime after I get back on my plans for the next couple of weeks. Now, I'm off to the train station!