The Doktorhut Tradition

Nothing against the US, but Germany does PhD defenses way cooler. Believe it or not it all boils down to a hat: the Doktorhut. For weeks before the PhD defense, co-workers and fellow students feverishly craft a giant morter board hat to surprise you with after your defense, covered in pictures and symbols of your time in grad school. For instance, if I had had one, it might've had: pictures of friends, something to do with the beerathon, a bar of chocolate, an homage to Panera, and a mini thesis titled "wedding planning."

Since our friend Guillaume just graduated this summer, I can show you what his hat looked like. It had a suitcase because he had a saga with lost luggage last year, the Eiffel tower because he's French, a wine bottle with a label from his family's vineyard, pics of friends, images from his research, etc., etc. It was a masterpiece:

Granted, Guillaume's had to be the most complicated Doktorhut ever to grace this green earth. It had two layers, played music, had LED lights, a steel reinforced cylinder....in other words, this thing weighed a ton! Thus the reason that Guillaume needed help to keep the thing on his head during the obligatory picture:

I think the reason that I like the defenses so much more here, is that they make such a big deal out of it. The whole department gets excited. Families come in town to celebrate. Everyone goes to see them give their talk. When the successful candidate passes and comes back upstairs to greet everyone, they are presented with their hat (with the obligation to determine what everything means), followed by a champagne toast and a big party. Of course, you have to pay for the party yourself, but it's a small price to pay for the fun and excitement of the day.

Sweetness

Man, it seems like we've been so busy this summer....and I guess we really have. It all started with our trip to Greece in the spring, then led to trips to the US, Paris, Munich, France, London, and (coming up this weekend) Amsterdam. Busy, busy bees.

Speaking of which, I thought I would show off the super cool ice cream treat I got a few weekends ago at the mall here in Stuttgart. *Technically* it's an item from the kids' menu, but the waiter let me order it anyway. It's three scoops of ice cream, made to look like a bumble bee. Pretty sweet, huh?

Andy also got ice cream, in the form of an enormous berry-tastic Sundae. It was super good. Those of you planning to come visit can have these delectable treats to look forward to. The whole Gelato thing is really big here.

In other random news, I remembered another funny word in German. Hummer = lobster. Kind of makes me giggle now when I see one of those giant tanks driving around. Not that I see them that often here in Europe. I don't even know how you'd park one of those things on these narrow little streets! There's a reason those tiny smart cars are so popular here.

Until we meet again, I'll leave you with one final sweet picture: the lemon cake that I brought to a friend's baby shower last weekend. Lemon sponge cake, with lemon curd filling, and lemon cream cheese frosting. I wish I could take credit for the whole thing, but the lemon-slice border was Andy's idea. :)

Fun in the Sun in Lon Don

Can you believe we returned from London with tans?

So THAT's what you get when you travel somewhere in the high season.. good weather.. whodathunkit. No fear - each day found me with a better tan but much, much poorer. That's a damn expensive place to go, but what you can experience in London beyond makes up for that silly ideology we refer to as fiscal responsibility. I often come back from a trip wishing I had taken more time to learn about the area of visit, but this time I came back interested in learning more about London's history *after* the visiting. This was yet another location where you can't see everything in four long days (which we had at our disposal), and I urge anyone going to London to focus on one or two things a day with time to let it all sink in. If I'm lucky enough to have children some day, they will certainly NOT enjoy going with me on family vacations if it's to historically interesting places. I consider myself more of a Clark Griswold sort of fellow, but I'm destined to be closer to Professor Henry Jones, spending long days observing and learning like your life will someday depend upon it. A fast paced life is for the birds. Or for your reckless, treasure hunting son who calls himself Indiana.

Besides catching up with old and new friends C, J, and S, we sampled a bit of the Bitter Beer which Londoners love more than the Germans love soccer (uh, Fussball for you Deutschers), stared at obscenely decorated wonders such as the Crown Jewels and the Windsor Castle dollhouse, and tooled around the Tower of London (no, it's not really a tower), the Tate Modern art museum, and unsuccessfully tried to spook ourselves by partaking in the Jack the Ripper Night Tour.

Of course, we'd not have this opportunity without S's generosity, providing us company and a comfy bed not even a block away from the London Eye (and thus, across the bridge from Big Ben which was coooooooooooooooooooooool at night). And for those of you who don't know, the London Eye is a massive ferris wheel where each car holds some 16 people and takes 30 minutes from beginning to end! For now I'll leave you with this large London sight, and B's entrance as a great photographer.

Pink boas never fail to draw a crowd

Who says you can't have an "early" bachelorette party? My friend Shravanthi got engaged over Christmas, and even though the wedding won't be until next year, Petra and I wanted to throw her a bash in Germany before she heads back to the US in a couple of weeks. So, we gathered up the girls, made a list of dares, got on a train to Munich, drank some Martini Bianco, donned some pink boas, and headed out for a fun and crazy night. We didn't really get to do any sightseeing...unless you count drinking beer at the Hofbrauhaus...but we definitely took advantage of Munich's laid-back style and plentiful tourists, which, as it turns out, were crucial to Shravanthi checking off all the dares we had planned for her:

-playing hopscotch on the street and getting a child to join you
-challenging someone to a "wheel barrow" race
-doing your make-up in the men's bathroom
-going up to a guy, pretending like he's famous, and asking for his autograph
-ordering something gross from the bar, like a hefeweissen with milk (yuck!)
-...and many, many more...

What made the bachelorette party even cooler was that we incorporated the German tradition of the bride raising money for drinks for the evening. Early in the evening, we hit the streets with a soccer ball and make-shift goal (large piece of cardboard with a hole cut in it) in tote. Players (usually men trying to show off their machismo) got two chances to kick the ball through the goal for a 2 Euro fee. If they got one in, they got a shot of liquor, if not, we simply kept their money. This turned out to be really fun and fairly lucrative. For about 11 Euros worth of alcohol, Shravanthi scored 50 Euros in sales....enough for a round of Maß (liters of beer) for all 8 of us at the Hofbrauhaus. Not too shabby.

Some pictures from the weekend are included below for your amusement. By the way, let me know if any of you are interested in a pink boa of your own...I've got two left. :)

Melanie, Petra, Shravanthi, and Katie on the train to Munich. We actually were in the same train car as a bachelor party, which added to the festivities.

Here's the gang posing at the Augustiner Keller, where we ate a hearty lunch together. It's important to fill your tummy before a night out in Munich!

We did a little pre-partying in our room a the Pension Wombat before heading out. Here's Shravanthi showing off her outfit along with the Coors Light (nostalgia!) that Katie managed to get from the US army base.
Our first successful soccer game customer, picking out his shot of liquor.
Shravanthi playing hopscotch in the street near Marienplatz. It turned out to be a bit difficult to convince parents to let their child play hopscotch with a crazy stranger wearing a pink boa...but eventually Shravanthi managed it.

Our wheel barrow race in the bar at the Pension. Shravanthi and I totally won. The other guy was too drunk and dropped his friend within 2 seconds.

Putting on make-up in the men's bathroom of the Hofbrauhaus. Definitely surprised a few patrons with that one...

Perhaps my favorite dare of the evening, ordering a Hefeweissen with milk. It was worth it just to see the look on the bartenders face. He carefully explained that in all his years of bartending, he had never had anyone request that drink. When Shravanthi told him, "No, I hear it's really good," he told her he thought someone was "pulling her leg". Still, we convinced him to make the drink, and Shravanthi took one brave, "take that" gulp. What an all-star!

Another French Getaway

We're back from the coolest weekend adventure I've had so far: The Wiederhirn Western Wine Weekend! We hopped in Petra's car on Friday afternoon and headed West to France, excited for our highly anticipated weekend visit of the Wiederhirn Family vineyard in Riquewihr, part of the Alsace region of France. Alsace is a popular wine producing region of North Eastern France (very close to the German border) with beautiful country towns. The majority of the wines (as far as I know) are whites, examples including Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Blanc. My pictures don't bring deserved justice to the relaxed life and history of the region we visited, nor the natural beauty of the villages and surrounding land. Take a quick peek from my perspective:

A distant shot of Riquewihr, the nicest country
village we visited this weekend. Note the grape
vines in the foreground as well as behind.

And another..

For perspective..LOTs of grapes

A pic of Riquewihr's "Old City". This
was once a double-fortified city, and
had the chance to see part of the wall
still remaining and completely stable
which was built around 1200 AD.

So many details to list makes it hard to focus on anything in particular. I can, however, say that we were honored to spend the weekend with a fabulous local family, the Wiederhirn Family of Riquewihr. Their generosity was outstanding, and we had a great time sampling the wines they've produced for over four centuries. I'm already planning our next trip.. Can't Wait!!

I would encourage any of you traveling through the Alsace region (and specifically Riquewihr) to take a few hours to explore the beauty of the town and local culture, and especially search out the Wiederhirn Cellar. By the way, the local cuisine was very favorable (and meaty!). To be sure, there's plenty of space for hiking (lightly or otherwise) or biking after you sample a bit too much, be it a local Pinot Blanc, some Flammkuchen, or a nice slice of Rhubarb pie. Until next time..

Only took 8 months to get my 15 seconds...

I guess you may not have heard yet, but I'm totally famous. That's right my friends, I was on the news in Germany. Not like I say anything in the news segment, or even look at the camera, but those phone calls from Hollywood will be coming any day now. I can feel it.

If you wanna check it out, I posted it below. Basically, my boss is leaving MPI to take a job at this Leibniz Institute, and the local news there made a little featurette about him becoming the new director. I happen to be in the background with other co-workers, since we were there taking a tour of the labs when the guy came to film the segment. Oh, I'm special alright. :)

News clip about the Leibniz Institut in Saarbrücken

Another reason to love the Autobahn

Okay. So everyone can agree that the coolest thing about the Autobahn is the "no speed limit" thing. But the second coolest thing is...drum roll please...the Self-Cleaning Toilet! Yep. That's right. Many of the rest areas along the Autobahn have these nifty little toilets installed in the bathrooms... a clear improvement over the pee-on-the-seat alternative found at most US rest stops. And so cool in fact, that many a toilet-goer has recorded his/her very own video, like this one:

Self-Cleaning Toilet in Germany