Family Vay-K

My Family plus Lisa (which is what I wrote on my google calender that my wife Lisa has access to...not my best choice of words) came out all the way from the US to visit me in Germany.  I took the week off from work and we did a road trip around Germany and dabbled in a little Austria.  I'll just try to highlight some of the sights we saw and throw in a few comments about the cities we visited.

Marburg

We started our trip in Marburg, where I live, and saw the few attractions that Marburg has to offer.  Don't get me wrong, Marburg is very nice.  But most of its charm is the small quaint feel of the town, so you run out of stuff after half a day.  The first day everyone just recovered from jet lag, so just drove up to Rapunzel's tower for a view of the city.

• Bottom Left: Check out the sweet VW van we rented.  9 passenger diesel, ohh yeah!

The next day, we actually toured Marburg.

• House pictures: Marburg truly has some awesome houses.


• Bottom right: On the walk to the castle there are 7 goats and a wolf coming out of the ivy (some fairy tale I don't know) so naturally we took a picture with them.


• Top right: The river and the castle.  Best view in Marburg.

Next we hit up Cologne to see their cathedral and to go to the chocolate museum.

• Top left: Obviously the builders of this church subscribe to my philosophy that "Anything worth doing, is worth overdoing."


• Bottom middle-right: Yes, that is a chocolate fountain.  Yes, they give samples.  Yes, that feeling you have is jealousy.

The next day we made our way over to Heidelberg.

• Top left: Nice castle, actually seems to have practical military use (you would be surprised what they call a "castle" in europe, often they are palaces).


• Top right: Looks like a fun slide, right?


• Middle right: It is actually the slide from hell.  It is so steep (or I weigh far too much) that you fly off the end and land on your butt in mud.


• Bottom right: The girls bypassed the slide.  Very wise.

Next, Rothenburg.

• Top left and middle: The cool thing about Rothenburg is they still have their town surrounded with a wall.


• Middle left: We traded in the VW for a Benz.  Nothing against the VW, but it was 2.1 m tall and most parking garages were 2.0 m tall.  The Benz was 1,9 m tall, which made it just right.  The Benz also was a six speed, which made it just right for the Autobahn.

Then, we traveled to Austria.  Why Salzburg Austria?  That is where they filmed the musical movie The Sound of Music.  What can I say, my family is musical people (for people who love musicals so much, aside from my dad and wife, it is amazing how little musical talent my family has...but we live by the philosophy that "if you can't sing good, sing loud"...and we are quite loud).  Also, since we were in Austria...as Jim Carrey says in Dumb and Dumber, G'day mate.

• Middle Left: Yes, they had a cow painted with The Sound of Music scenes.


• Middle center-right: Yes, they have a bused painted with scenes from The Sound of Music.


• Top left: The gazebo from the movie.


• Bottom left: The fountain from the movie.


• Bottom middle-left: Another movie scene (notice my "being a good sport" has worn off and I am no longer participating in reenacting the movie...honestly, you're lucky you got the fountain shot).


• Top left to mid left: When we finished in Salzburg we went to our Munich hotel and tried to eat at the famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus, but it was so packed we left and went to the place I ate at the last time I was in Munich.  I did not remember what it was called, but I remembered the boar statue.

Next, Neuschwanstein.  So nice, it gets two collages.  I must say that between the waterfall and the castle, Neuschwanstein is one of the best views in Europe.  Ludwig II may have been crazy, but he had excellent taste.

• Bottom right: It looked like a Bob Ross painting, so Lisa drew some happy trees.


• Bottom middle-left: The water was unbelievably clear.

• Top left: Here you can see the bridge above the waterfall where the top-right picture of the other collage was taken.


• Bottom left: There was an old saw mill.  My dad and I are very happy to see trees being harvested.

Finally, the trip ended in Munich.  I did not take a ton of pictures because I have been there before.

• Top left: The clock that is totally not worth seeing.


• Bottom left: Frankie (best tour guide ever) from Mike's Bike Tours.  This was my second Munich tour with him and it was totally worth it.  He is just awesome.


• Bottom right: Bear dogs don't need leashes in Germany.

Overall, the trip was fantastic.  Germany has been a great place to live and an even better place to visit.

Stuttgart, beer, and drinking songs

This past weekend we had an LGO Europe gathering in Stuttgart for an Octoberfest-esc festival called Cannstatter Wasen.  We headed out to the festival on Friday night but just walked around...we did not enter any of the tents.



Saturday was the big day for our group.  We walked around until I located an appropriate hat.  I've been looking for an old-fashion German hat for quite some time, and I finally found what I was looking for (pictured below).  After that, we wandered into our tent but it was getting to the end of the morning session and everyone inside the tent was hammered.  Its pretty intense to walk into a party of "can't stand up" drunk people so we walked out to wait until our reservation started.  At 4:30, we were allowed in and started partying.

• Bottom right: Notice how many people are dressed in traditional clothing, I would say close to 25%

• I was excited about the size of my coke


• And very upset that they put mayo in my ketchup, yuck!

• Top middle-left: One of many times security came by to make people get off the tables...which really did not make sense since the tables were much more sturdy than the benches that we were allowed to stand on


• Top middle-right: Our friend seems surprised to have found something in his pants...and Becca seems surprised that he is looking while at the table


• Bottom right: Our first attempt at spelling MIT...Becca and her friend Jen did not understand what we were doing


• Bottom left: One of ze Germans crashing our table with us.  We had twice the room that we needed so we made friends with people who just sat at our table (or would not leave when we showed up and proved that we had a reservation, but it worked out because they were fun!

• Top left: Spelling MIT attempt #2 - not a bad effort all things considered...it was hard to explain to a drunk person that they would need to get off the bench and step back to get us all in the picture...so we settled for this one.


• Top middle: My German friend who was REALLY upset by the fact that I don't drink.  He spent 8 Euros on a beer even though I told him I would not drink it.  When they brought me my beer and I still would not drink it, this upset him even more.  Lots of cursing in English with a thick German accent.  Luckily (like it was hard) I found someone to drink my beer for me.


• Top right: This guy was partied out...again (Wayne's World quote)


• Bottom left: Another pass by security


• Bottom middle: Our server, he was a good sport

/cry, they stole my Fiesta

So I have been wondering when the oil gets changed on a long term rental and I unfortunately got the answer this past week.  Someone from the office area tracked me down in the lab area and said I needed to call Sixt (the car rental company).  When I called them, they said they needed to swap cars so we set up a parking lot meeting just before lunch.  After a little confusion, I found the Sixt man and saw the new vehicle.  I'm not sure I want to call it a car, it's more like an egg.  It's very egg shaped...and orange...and not classy orange, like my Gator pants orange

[caption id="attachment_1527" align="alignnone" width="169" caption="These pants are classy because they are a classy color...orange"][/caption]

It's burnt orange, like Texas orange.



Don't get me wrong, it's not a terrible car and it's still free...but it's not fun to drive like the Fiesta was...and it's not a Ford.  We had a couple of Fords growing up (I remember a bright blue Explorer, a forest green Taurus wagon, and there may have been one more) and the first car I bought with my own money (a car not from my parents) was a Ford Expedition (I bought it because I hate the environment and I needed a large vehicle for driving the UF hockey team on long road trips...it seats 8 you know).

Ohh well, it's not a terrible car...it's just not as fun...maybe they'll come swap it out for another one before I leave.

[caption id="attachment_1532" align="alignnone" width="252" caption="I keep forgetting to take a few pics of the car so this image I found on Google will have to do for now"][/caption]

Hiking in Switzerland makes you sing

I took a journey this past weekend to Switzerland for some time in the Alps.  I met up with all of the LGOs late on Friday night before heading out.  It was late because I tried to get to Basel without a GPS device.  This should have been no problem.  I am led to believe that people used to travel without maps and I have heard it hinted that people even went places that had not been mapped.

Still looking for that Northwest passage?  Give Global Warming a chance.  According to all of the hippies I know, the whole planet will be flooded making lots of new trade routes.  Sounds like a good thing for trade if you ask me.

Anywho, back to my story of getting lost.  So in Germany (and this is not the first time this has happened, just the worst) they like to close roads without putting up signs.  So I got off of A5 going south (notice I did not say A5S, Germany does not do the logical and label their roads by direction) to get onto A6 going south.  Should have been easy except that it was not until after I had gotten onto the A6 exit and past the point of no return that the indicated that A6 south was closed and I could only go North.  Oh well, time to pull over and look at the trusty map.

Problem with the map is it did not show me that the next place to turn south was actually through a BASF plant (large chemical plant).  It was cool but frustrating.  this highway ran right through a plant and all of the exits were labeled by the BASF location that they led to and there were houses and city building mixed throughout this road.  This little excursion led me astray for quite a while until i got past the BASF plant and through Manheim.   I would say I lost about an hour.

Then when I got to Basel i took a wrong turn which cost me about 45 minutes since this wrong turn led me into a tunnel that dumped me in France.  After turning around, getting back into Switzerland, back to the turn I missed, and then lost in the back roads I called the Basel LGOs.  They got me pointed in the right direction and I arrived only 2 hours late.  After some chit chat it was time for bed because we had an early morning train.

Since Cal is a much more experienced hiker than I am and he knows Switzerland, I asked him to plan an overnight trip but something far less challenging than the 26 mile Presidential Range trip with over 2,500 m of elevation gain that we did with some other LGOs last year.  Cal selected a trip over Surenenpass with about 20 km of hiking and 1,600 m of elevation gain.

Cal, Angela, and I took a train to a small town called Altdorf and from there we walked up to Brusti, over Surenpass, and down to Engelburg.  Overall, it was a very pleasant weekend and the views were absolutely spectacular.  I had never been to the Alps before and it was well worth the trip.  I've included some pictures and comments about some of the highlights of the trip.

Altdorf, 462 m, to Brusti, 1,520 m (up 1,100 m and down 0 m)

• We start the day bright and early on the train and get a glimps of what is to come

• Top left: Look how lean the cows are, no room for fat when you have to climb the Alps everyday


• Bottom left: The path wound through people's yards and were well maintained


• Bottom right: Uphill is tough!

The hotel at Brusti, 1,520 m

• Top left: We passed a small cable car close to the hotel


• Middle left: Notice the lack of guardrails on the platform


• Bottom left: They made us take our boots off but provided us with slippers


• Right: As you can tell by the picture of our hotel on top of the mountain, we were "roughin" it

• The view from the non-hotel side of Brusti back down on Altdorf

• The hotel also came with a children's playground and since we're in college we count as kids

• Top left: We started dinner outside to enjoy the sunset


• Top right: Must have water before Coke


• Bottom middle and right: Dinner and Swiss friends (their English is better than my German, they were 4 and 6)

Up to the Surenenpass, 2,291 m (path from Brusti to Engelberg up 820 m to 1,350 m)

• Don't let the cold weather cloths fool you, they came off within 20 minutes of uphill walking


• Bottom left: Our first glimps of the pass (the low point in the middle)

• Top left: We came across a small waterfall


• Top right: A sheet of ice, so naturally I skated down it


• Bottom middle: Looks like a little hole in the ice right?


• Bottom right: Until you see that it is a cave big enough for the snow monster on Hoth (Star Wars nerd reference!)

• Not quite a panoramic from the pass, but the best I could do without a tripod

Down to the lift, 1,850 m

• Top left: Cal fords the river


• Bottom middle: People were actually biking this stuff!

• Left: A legitimate waterfall


• Right: Just wait until the snow is melting, then you'll need the bridge

Taking the lift down, 1,084 m

• This lift was incredible!  Quite scary when you past the last support and are heading straight down.  It was so long and steep it was hard to capture the details on the camera so MS Paint was brought in to help.

• Same pictures without MS Paint

Middle Time

So everyone is giving me crap for not blogging recently, but to be honest with you I just have not felt like it.  I think it is because I don't have any homework to avoid.  I love avoiding homework and I can think of no better way than to blog.  I can even convince myself that my blogs are school related, and thus it is productive.  The same thing happens when I have long toenails or fingernails and I try to start studying or reading something for school.  There is no chance that any work is getting done until those nails get clipped down to the skin (I cut my nails short, real short).  I love distractions.  Eww look, a kitty.

So, on to the blog that I have now avoided for a paragraph.  Two weeks ago we had our mid-stream-review.  This is a week long extravaganza where all of the on-cycle interns come back from their internship to report on how things are going, do a little recruiting, catch up with their class and the new LGO class (which probably does not appreciate being called new since they have been around for a couple of months now).  Overall it was a great time.  I really just appreciated being back in the US.  It's all the little things you miss such as hearing people speaking English, TV, having a clothes dryer, wearing my orange pants (football Saturday) and having people look at me like that is NOT normal, etc.

School was pretty good.  The first couple days are a mix of poster sessions (where every LGO student gives an 8 minute presentation on their project), Career Development Office session (apparently we are expected to get real jobs at some point), and an event where we discussed internships with the LGO 11s.  My presentation went pretty well.  As expected, I believe I had the most technical project but I tried to keep the scientific terms to a minimum and just give everyone a high level overview of what I was working on.

[caption id="attachment_1495" align="alignnone" width="180" caption="I was like Bill Nye with my Science, only less interesting"][/caption]

I also had to present my project to the senior leadership of the company I am working for (Novartis V&D for those of you who have been following along but forgotten since my last post was a month ago).  This presentation was 20 minutes long and a little more technical.  My bosses had me obsessing over my slides so I could have done them from memory and I had more appendix slides than actual presentation slides in case I got any technical questions.  Overall, that presentation also went well.  My project was a little too technical for most of the senior leadership team to care about the details, but I appreciate them taking the time to listen.  It shows their commitment to the LGO process and our internships.

[caption id="attachment_1496" align="alignnone" width="194" caption="They made me feel special"][/caption]

We rounded out the week with a two-class camping trip where we finally got to mingle with the 11s.  I would take my hat off to the people who arranged the trip, but it was just too dang cold out in the woods and I am worried that my ears would freeze.  Basically we drove to New Hampshire and hung out at a campsite, but for some crazy reason it decided to be in the 30s that night (it was 10 degrees warmer the next night) so needless to say, we kept multiple large fires going all night.  Really the event was awesome.  When you get that many LGO students together with that much booze, shenanigans happen.  Details will not be discussed, but a good time was had by all and in classic LGO fashion, the cops were called to regulate our event.

[caption id="attachment_1498" align="alignnone" width="227" caption="No one was tazed, but thinking about cops reminded me of this classic moment in University of Florida history"][/caption]

After mid-stream, some other interns working for Novartis had the wonderful opportunity to visit a Novartis V&D facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina (near Raleigh).  The trip was pretty much a recruiting trip and the five of us were very well treated by Novartis.  I was thrilled to be back in the south and the south was thrilled to have me back.  The five of us shared a car for the trip and as we were driving around Raleigh on the first night we had to stop at a crosswalk to allow someone carrying the front bumper of a car to walk by us (and not the small metal bumper from an old fasion car, I'm talking the entire front section from wheel to wheel and up to the hood...I could not catch the model but I know it was green).  I love the south!

[caption id="attachment_1500" align="alignnone" width="252" caption="It was like this, only night time. And instead of cleaning up the highway in a safety vest like the guy in the picture is doing, this person was walking around Raleigh"][/caption]

Our first night also included a drive halfway across Raleigh to go to a Chipotle.  Don't get me wrong, I like them...but I would not drive 30 minutes for it.  We were looking for a Buffalo Wild Wings so we could enjoy good food and watch NFL football, but the Garmin led us astray and eventually our hunger got the better of us.  We've been told that there is a Buffalo Wild Wings near where we were driving circles, and this may be true, but Garmin must have had the wrong address.

The trip included a tour of the facility (which is incredible), a number of discussion sessions with some key people at the plant, and also a number of 1 on 1 sessions with people from the facility to discuss our projects and potential future employment.  We also got the wine and dine session at a fancy steakhouse.  I had meat with a side of meat.  People kept trying to give me appetizers and salad and I'm just like "no thanks, that space in my belly is reserved for steak."

On the final night, we were on our way to a BBQ place and we passed a Buffalo Wild Wings and naturally we did a u-turn and pulled on in.  Follow that up with Dairy Queen, and I remember why I love the USA so much more than Europe.

After some computer caused delays, I made it back to Marburg and then back to work.  Friday was a short day though cause I had to make my way to my next weekend trip.  The trip blog should be available tomorrow (two blogs in as many days, maybe I am back!).