Great German Research Internship -- Highlights

This summer has been an epic summer for me -- as I spent the entirety of it in Germany, which I didn't even had the slightest clue on going there a year ago.

It all started when my supervisor had to take her maternity leave (congrats again) this summer, and figured that it would be a good idea for me to go for some sort of internship, instead of idling in the lab.  Coincidentally my lab is part of an exchange partnership program, and it was a natural outcome that I could benefit from this arrangement. So I began with arranging my flight, travelling documents, accommodation, finance -- all sorts of things, and was grateful that I had received enough help from the contact over Magdeburg.

So on 14 Mar 2012 I travelled all the way from Waterloo across the North Atlantic Ocean to Magdeburg.

It was my first time setting foot on Europe and the experience was really different from other places that I've been to. The train ride was really great as I could see a lot of crop fields (and even cows!) during the ride.

The people at U of Magdeburg were very friendly and decided to show me around the city from time to time (special thanks to Martin and Jens). One thing I was particularly grateful to was the fact that many locals there didn't speak English, so my friends often accompanied me to various offices for paper work.

The first highlight was my brother came to visit me during Easter. I was extremely glad that he came by and we met up in a foreign country. I'd say that was the best 2.5 days during my stay.

The second highlight was I met up with my colleague in Munich for another 2.5 days. It was my first time taking such a long train ride with 1 connection. I was quite nervous but was glad that I made it.

The third highlight was a good friend of mine came and visit me with her family for a day during their big Europe trip. This time I was well prepared and became the host to show them around.

The fourth highlight was a PhD student here had his defense done and showed me the Magdeburg way of celebrating it. It was very original.

Though not a fan of travelling, I did manage to get around Germany from time to time. It was quite an experience and I was constantly amazed by the reachability of the train system -- essentially you can get to any places, including neighboring countries by train.

Of course I didn't forget my main job here was to do research.

I've worked with a few people here and I have to say I've learned a lot. Not just from them but from the way things were being done. There were times when it was very dreadful and tension everywhere. But I did appreciate that people were very responsible for what they have promised.

Overall I'm glad that I did this internship. More things could have been done if the hosting professor wasn't moving and I was more agressive. But the conversation and interaction I made there definitely inspired me in many ways.

The little green man/woman that leads your way

In any city around the world with streets and roads, they will be there. They work non-stop day and night telling pedestrians when to walk and when to stop. I'm talking about the little persons that appears on the traffic lights for pedestrians.

For cars the traffic lights are just plain circles filled with red, yellow or green. But for pedestrians they are often little silhouettes of actual human beings. This by itself is pretty interesting. But more interestingly, this iconic shaping of a red person standing straight for stop and a green person in a walking pose for walk has been universal. No one really notices or asks why they are illustrated that way.

However, apart from those "generic" icons, here in Germany there is an entirely different set of pedestrian lights:

These little fellows are called Ampelmann (English: traffic light man) and are commonly found in east Germany. They are designed in Berlin and were quite sensational when they were first introduced. People treated it as a mascot and merchandises were made. Recently they even have a souvenir shop in Berlin dedicated to it.

But the most interesting this, at a certain point of time, someone designed a set of pedestrian lights which uses little girls as the icons, and called them, naturally, Ampelfrau (English: traffic light woman). Only a few of them are being used in Dresden, and one being used in Magdeburg (according to Wikipedia). So today I set off to locate this unique traffic light and I found it at the junction of Ernst-Reuter-Allee and Breiter Weg, and they look like this:

Essentially they are Ameplmann with dress and pony tails. I think they are pretty cute.

I don't know why no one has mentioned that but I think it's a very interesting point of interest for anyone who visits Germany, and in particular Magdeburg. A little gem I'd say.

Discovering Magdeburg

Some people like to hop from place to place to see as many places as possible. I on the other hand prefer staying in one place and explore within.

Having been staying in Magdeburg for a bit over 4 months, I'm getting used to the city. But apart from the last time Jens showing me along the River Elbe, I haven't done much exploration. Knowing that my friends are coming to visit me I decided to explore the city a bit and scout the place around.

It was a Sunday and the weather was gorgeous. My first stop was the town hall (Rathaus). It's at a plaza and was basically empty. Because of that I got a chance to take a really awesome panorama with my phone app: Photosynth.

Panorama taken in the plaza in front of the Rathaus (the building with statue in its front).

After that I walked towards the river and checked out a number of churches. It's amazing that there were quite a few churches just within a 500m radius.

St. John's Church, the oldest parish church in Magdeburg (first mentioned in 941).
Typical twin tower design with one used as a clock.

St. Petri Parish Church, built in around 1150, need to go north a bit and towards the river to find it.

The famous Magdeburg Cathedral, locals call it "the Dom".  Destroyed in a city fire in 1207,  reconstructed in 1209. Used to be a palatine and residence of the governor as well.

To conclude this wonderful little exploration, I went back to the plaza and ordered a coffee at a coffee house right next to it. It's a place I was planning to go for a long time. The coffee was great and relatively cheap for a place at the city centre (1.5 euro).

Not complete without a good cup of coffee at the cafe named after the town hall.

 I was very glad that I had this chance to discover the city a bit more. It's peaceful and enjoyable.

Haarschnitt

When you are in a place for sometime, sooner or later you'll have to deal with the haircut (Haarschnitt) problem.

I have mine cut really short before I left for Germany, but after about 3 months it had grown to a point that I couldn't stand it anymore. My hair was poking my eyes and ears, and it was especially uncomfortable during summer time. But the problem was it's very hard to find a hairdresser who are willing to speak English.

For guys like me I didn't have to describe a lot on what I want, but I certainly didn't want to have it shaved or dyed. So Martin kindly agreed to take me to his usual spot and help me describing what I want. To our surprise, however, the place was full, and even we tried another 4 places nearby they were all full.

On the next day, I decided to go on an adventure without Martin. With some help from Ricardo I got this piece of paper:

Cheat sheet for "Short haircut", with illustrative figure.

I went to the place Martin took me to, and waited in line. When my turn came, I thought I'd simply walk up and show the lady the cheat sheet. But she told me something that I'm pretty sure wasn't "please go over there" in German. The only word I understood was "moment", which means "wait".

So I waited for something I didn't really know for another 10 minutes. Turns out it was for an available spot so my hair can be washed. 

Then the rest was pretty easy, I just showed her the cheat sheet, she looked at it and grinned.

Eventually, only two words were used for the whole cutting process:

Hairdresser: OK?

Me: Perfect.

And this is how I look:

Me after haircut, with Photo Booth's effect.

It's really not bad, and with 11euro you get a hair wash and cut. So I'm happy.

O, in case you want to know, the place is called "Cutman".

Awesome PhD defense in U of Magdeburg

26 June was Mathias' PhD defense. And I can tell you this was the most awesome defense I've ever attended.

The first round was just like any other defense would look like: candidate gave a presentation, followed by comments from the defense committee. Then the Q&A and closed door discussion.

But the best part, which my colleagues told me as the unique tradition here in U of Magdeburg, began shortly after that.

To begin with, the now PhD was presented with a number of items symbolizing his responsibility. This included a gown, a heavy medal on a necklace made of heavy chains, and a custom-made hat related to his thesis topic.

Then he was put onto a barrel, which was dragged backwards all the way to the city centre. During this 20min trip, he was accompanied by the guests of his defense, his thesis committee (who were crazy enough to follow), and a few of us dressed in medieval costumes. To ensure a "smooth ride", we actually blocked the traffic for the barrel to be dragged non-stop.

Another announcement was made in the city centre in front of the Otto-von-Guerick statue, in public.

Then the PhD had to drink a special drink made by us.

And we all drank beer and champagne to congratulate him.

The new PhD, his custom-made hat had a pen and a pen on it, as he was doing pen and touch interaction research.

But that wasn't it.

In the evening Mathias invited us to a restaurant to celebrate, and we had games staring him and his supervisor. We called this "the real PhD defense".

Overall a very great experience, and thanks Mathais for graduating this time so I could get a taste of the tradition (right after a paper deadline).

From what I heard, the custom-made hat tradition has been adopted by the U of Calgary guys. We'll see what we U of Waterloo people can do.  

Nice afternoon along Elbe River

17 May was a holiday in Germany.

It was very nice of Jens to take me on a nice bike tour around Magdeburg. Along the way he told me about the history of Magdeburg and where some of the buildings came from. One particular interesting story he told me was a "rock-bed" in the Elbe River: 

A huge cathedral called "Dom" was built about 200m away from the Elbe River >800 years ago, and sometime later the locals wanted to make the river deeper so bigger and more ships could sail through. But when they tried to dig into the "rock-bed", they found out the entire cathedral was shaking! Turns out that the cathedral was built on a huge and stable rock which extended all the way to the river. So only half of the river could be deepened. What a story!

Later we stopped at a nice cafe with a great view of the river and an old bridge.

Nice coffee spot (the cake tasted like ice cream!)

Afterwards we biked to the island and saw a lot of youngsters and police. There seemed to have a concert happening but we didn't see any stage or band... perhaps we were too early. Later we went to a restaurant and I finally got a chance to try out a Bavarian dinner:

Small Schweinshaxe, and a brown beer.

We had a nice talk about our experiences in other countries and thoughts about technology. I was happy that we shared common views on a lot of things.

Really appreciate the tour and the dinner! Thanks man!

Best Easter Weekend Ever

I was really surprised that my brother told me he would be coming over to Germany during my research stay, during his vacation. I mean, what are the odds that we can meet at the other half of the Earth? But it all happened between 7Apr and 9Apr, 2012.

I went to the station to pick him up, and we walked to my place. It was pretty cold but bearable. After settling down I was planning to show him around the city by bike. I did all the planning to register a phone number, which was required to register for a bike rental service. The rental service sounded very convenient: you go to a certain spot, read the number on one of the bikes there, call them and they text you the combination of the lock. But it all went down when the combination didn't work at all!! Me and my brother stood in the cold and tried everything we could, but the lock didn't open... we gave up and went to the closest coffee shop.

We also had the strangest weather on that day. We saw clear sky, which went to shower, then went to hail, followed by snow, and ended with clear sky again in the evening. We were actually glad that the bike thing didn't work out, otherwise we would have to bike in snow...

On the next day the weather was gorgeous. Some how my brother found a place called Millenium Tower which was inside a park. It was within a 30 minutes of walk so we decided to go.

Collage of activities with Bro on 8Apr morning and noon.

The tower had been closed for winter until 6Apr so we were fortunate enough to see it open. But there weren't a lot of visitors. The tower looked like a drill coming out from the ground and got stuck. It was hollow inside showcasing some of the important discoveries through history. Starting with fundamental maths and Egyptian translations, to electricity and space travel, as we walked up the stairs. And once we got close to the top of the tower, we went out and walked down the spiral.

We stayed there for a quick lunch and we decided to order some German food. And so we got the Currywurst mit Brot. Food was good and the weather made it better.

In the evening I decided to take him to a landmark of the city: The Green Citadel of Magdeburg. It was designed by the architect Friedensreich Hundertwesser. 

(http://www.gruene-zitadelle.de/englisch/)

Die Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg: The Green Citadel of Magdeburg

It was a strange building, to me it looked like a cake -- colorful (all the pillars were painted in multiple colors) and puffy. What's more interesting was although it was named "Green", it's actually pink. Only the roof was green in color.

After that we tried to find a place for dinner but most places were closed. We eventually stopped by a place called The Flair. A nice little restaurant close to the central station. The waitress was kind enough to give us an English menu but we tried to order in German. The food was great. I did not expect orange and tomato would go so well with chicken and pasta.

--

After spending a few years overseas all by myself I come to realize the importance of staying connected to who you truly care, and nothing, nothing beats being in the same space together. And I had this chance with my one and only brother here in Magdeburg.

It was my best Easter ever.

Kinder surprise

I guess most of us would have had one of these at a certain point of our lives: The Kinder Surprise chocolate egg. The word "Kinder" actually means "Children" in German and it was indeed from its German origin. With some digging of history (well, from wikipedia...), it seems that although the toy-in-egg concept was from Italy, the chocolate itself was originated from Germany.

As Easter is coming, I thought it would be a good idea to have one of those at its birth-country (at least for the chocolate part).

Kinder Überraschung: Children Surprise

The listed price was 0.69euro but for some reasons it was on sale for 0.49euro. I just picked it while I was in the line at the cashier, and interestingly, the lady in front of me got two right after seeing me getting one.

I don't know if it's just me, but I find the toys inside getting less and less exciting than before. There were cars and planes, but now I can only see jigsaw puzzles and some lame plastic animals. Nevertheless, the milk chocolate is still good. Perhaps I should buy the milk chocolate only.

A very German meal

I've been told that sausage is one of the "traditional" dishes in Germany, but this is the first time I actually see it being served in a campus canteen. So I had it and it was pretty good.

That's for lunch.

What's interesting is there was a container with curry powder next to it, and you are supposed to sprinkle on it. According to a friend, there is actually a name for this way to have a sausage: currywurst.

The accompanying fries are not very healthy, but for some reasons they went amazingly well with the whole currywurst thing.

Guten Appetit!

"Big Mac" is the international word.

Go to anywhere in the world and you'll likely still find a McDonald's. I personally don't go there often, but on Saturday I wanted to bike around and have dinner outside. Not fully capable of ordering a full meal in a German restaurant yet I decided to settle it with McDonald's. No surprisingly I quickly found one on Google map (there were actually 2 McDonald's around, the other one was at the train station) and planned my route so that I could stop by in the middle for dinner.

I didn't even had to use an German at all... just "Big Mac meal" and it worked.

All you need to say is "Big Mac meal".

It's basically the same thing I have in other countries. And the big mac is not big at all. I was expecting bigger portions, given that it costed me 5.99euro.

As a comparison, if I buy the same meal in Hong Kong (this would be a Big Mac meal with a fries and drink upgrade), this would cost me around 30hkd, which is about 2.9euro.

They say Hong Kong's Big Mac meal is amongst the cheapest around the world. This is TRUE. So don't forget to get one when you travel to Hong Kong!!

I was also trying to learn how to say "for here" or "to go". And later on I was taught: "für hier" or "zum mitnehmen".

Coffee outside with plaza view, check.

I always look forward to having a nice cup of coffee at a patio, preferably in an European country. Yesterday I got the chance.

I had been searching the internet for "cafe near Magdeburg", turns out I had been using the wrong keyword... I should have used "Kaffeehaus" (coffee house). And this one turned up.

View Larger Map

This place is called "Kaffeehaus Köhler" and is near a plaza. Jens, Martin and I rode our respective bikes (yeah, I got my bike! More on this later) there in a sunny afternoon after a long day's work.

We each ordered a cake and a coffee, all different flavors. For myself I got a Mozart cake, and a plain coffee. Jens was very kind to treat me this time.

Coffee and cake at Kaffeehaus Köhler

Cake was ok, Coffee was good, company was the best. I also liked the stone table which enhanced the whole experience.

Some say that going to a coffee place is not always about the coffee. I agree. Sometimes you just want to sit and chill; sometimes you just want to hang out with people. I do have a list of having coffee at different venues and with different people (and I will repeat anytime):

Inside:

-Coffee by myself -- check

-Coffee with good company -- check
-Coffee with a super cute girl -- working on it

Outside with plaza/city view:
-Coffee by myself  -- working on it
-Coffee with good company -- check

-Coffee with a super cute girl -- working on it

Outside with harbor view:

-Coffee by myself  -- working on it

-Coffee with good company -- working on it

-Coffee with a super cute girl -- working on it

Let's see when I can complete the list!

Ubiquitous vending machines

As we all know vending machines are everywhere. Next to classrooms, inside airports, outside a store... etc. What's more interesting is they sell all kinds of things. Apart from typical snacks and drinks, you can also find electronics (in airports, by Bestbuy), special promotional drinks (Coke that becomes slush when shaken), and even gold (see: http://www.gold-to-go.com/en/the-gold-vending-machine/the-gold-vending-machine/).

The interesting one I saw was from the on-campus cafeteria.

A vending machine selling drinks, except the last one.

Looks normal, right? Look closer... the last item was actually Maggi sauce!

As cautioned by Jens, never press that button unless you knew you were looking for sauce, instead of a drink. But why would someone include this in a vending machine which is supposed to be selling drinks?

Anyway, now I know where to get sauce if I need it. But it costs the same as a Nescafe drink... guess it's only for those who need it badly.

Zum Geburtstag viel Glück

The other day I was working my office, Martin told me there were cakes. Turned out it was someone's birthday and she made a lot of cakes. I don't know if it's a German tradition or not, but everyone should do that.

Chocolate birthday cake made by the birthdayee.

So we all went to the common area and grabbed a cake for each of ourselves. Of course it would be rude if you just go, grab a cake and head back to your own office. Therefore I asked Martin how would I say "Happy Birthday" in German.

He pronounced a whole bunch of words and I couldn't even follow it... I asked if there was a simpler way and he gave me this, slightly less complicated and I could somehow work out the meaning:

Zum Geburtstag viel Glück.

This means... "Good luck for your birthday". I guess being good luck would become happy =D

Google Translate told me this:

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag.

And the internet told me this is the way I should say:

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag.

... I guess I'll skip the last one.

Ich möchte eine tasse doppio Cappuccino

Most of my friends know I'm fond of good coffee. And I'll look for a coffee place wherever I go. So when I was learning a few essential German, ordering coffee was on my list. Interestingly the second chapter of the German language book I bought already was teaching that, though it's to ask if someone wants to have a coffee (probably they expect the next thing after greeting a person would be to ask him/her out for a coffee):

Drinken Sie eine tasse Kaffee?

But what if I just want to order a coffee for myself? A few chapters later it taught me how to order things. So I combined that and got this:

Ich möchte eine tasse Kaffee.

Equipped with this know-how I boldly went to a coffee shop today (with Martin and Jens) and ordered my first cup of coffee in Germany. To my surprise, there wasn't any coffee! All they had was those Expresso, Mochaccino, Americano (closed to regular coffee), Cappuccino ...etc. And they had difference sizes (for sure...)!

So I improvised:

Ich möchte eine tasse doppio Cappuccino.

Here "doppio" is "double" in Italian, which means medium in this context.

And it was a SUCCESS!

Successfully ordered a medium-size Cappuccino in German. Ah, the taste of achievement!

The lady making the coffee was smiling, so were the 2 guys in the front and the lady at the back. I could only hope they were appreciating my effort =D

And the coffee was grrrrreat! Will go again and order in German with more confidence next time.

A very German dinner

Before I left for Germany, people told me Germany was famous for sausages and beer, and sooner or later I'll get a taste of that. Well, I did on my second night.

Martin has kindly invited me to his place for a BBQ dinner with his family and some of his friends. It was a nice house with a great backyard. In the backyard there was a table, a few chairs, and of course the BBQ stove. I wanted to help but apparently he had everything covered, all I could do was lighting some candles (yeah, it's very cozy along with the ambient music).

The way they barbecued was different from the typical Canadian gas-tank way, it was also different from our proud Hong Kong everyone-gather-around-the-brick-built-stove way. It's the old fashioned (yet effective) charcoal way.

So what did I have? Look.

My dinner. Sorry for the image quality, it's my phone and it was dark outside (perhaps they should invent a candle-mode).

On the left, is a bottle of beer made in Germany. Then the mustard, ketchup, sausage, and bread. So here you are, sausage and beer.

However, there is a misconception about Germans being beer-lovers. From what I heard and people I've talked to so far, very few Germans actually drink lots of beer. Most of them prefer wine instead, though a typical beer bottle is half a litre.

It was a great experience and I cannot thank Martin enough for inviting me over. For a person who just came here for the first time for the first few days, this was a very friendly gesture.

But that's not the end of my first taste of Germany. You might have heard that Germany is a place where bicycle is very popular. 

And that's how I got back. A ride at the night that was chilly outside, but with a warmed heart inside by the great hospitality.

Destination Magdeburg

The central station of Magdeburg, to my understanding, Hbf is short for Hauptbahnhof, which means Central Station.

My destination was a city called Magdeburg, which was the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. In 2010 its population reached about 230k, which made the city having the largest number of inhabitants.

(source: http://www.halleforum.de/nachrichten/aktuelles/28918/Einwohner-Magdeburg-ueberholt-Halle.html)

Frontal view of the Magdeburg Hbf, it's a mall with a train station. I was standing at the plaza area.

A PhD student, Martin, came and picked me up at the station. He asked me if I wanted to take the railway, or just walk to the campus. Noticing the nice weather I decided to walk... with my 50lbs suitcase. It wasn't that bad except the road wasn't made for rollers. Fortunately my suitcase was strong enough to withstand the 30min bumpy ride.

A monument in memory of a soldier saving a girl.

During the walk, Martin showed me this monument facing a 5-story building. According to him, it was in memory of a Russian solider who used his coat to catch a little girl who fell from the 3rd floor of the building. Both were safe in the end. A marking of bravery and wisdom.

At night I was taken out back to the neighborhood of the central station (I took it as the downtown area) for dinner with Martin and his friend, Rene. The place we went was called Kucaf (http://www.kucaf-md.de/). It's a nice cozy place with very good atmosphere. Dim lighting with candles at the table, and some ambient music.

The menu, of course, was in German. Because of that Martin was ordering for me, and he ordered the big portion instead of regular. I had a turkey pasta (Pute Pasta in German)and it took me a while to finish all (I usually don't leave anything behind). Price-wise it was pretty good, costing only about 7euro, and it tasted really good.

Martin had to run for some work, while Rene took me for a walk back to the campus (where I was staying). We walked along the River Elbe and it was nice. I would say it would be a nice and romantic walk if I was walking with a girl.

But that wasn't the end of the night. I had to get some grocery or I would have nothing to eat. Fortunately there was a 24-hour grocery store within 10mins walk from my place. The counter lady said something super quick in German, and I could only work out the last word as "karte", so I assumed she was asking if I was paying with credit card. I just said "cash" and handed her a 20euro bill. Over there they kept saying "bitte schön", from Google translate it means something like "here you are". All I could say was "Danke", for now.

After that I just crashed because of the exhausting flight.