Activities of a week, Reflections on a life

New Arrivals

We have had a sudden influx of new arrivals this week, and have had the chance to meet each of them more or less on an individual basis. This should make for an exciting weekend, as I hope we should finally all have a chance to go out together and have some fun. Our first new arrival was Jess. In America, she is a student at the University of Delaware. Unfortunately, she has extremely long working hours and is still suffering from jet lag, a combination which makes it quite hard for her to enjoy our company as much as we would like. We also met Rae yesterday. Her parents actually live in Dresden, and she goes to school in America at Duke University. This is interesting, as it is an exact reversal of roles compared to what the rest of us are experiencing. Today we finally had the pleasure of meeting Navin, who has unfortunately been cut off from us due to lack of internet connection. We did the usual "new arrivals welcome" routine, which is sitting on the biergarted on the Elbe which overlooks the pretty stuff in Altstadt. He seems to be making a lot of the same observations I have with regards to the stark contrasts between the culture back home and here, such as the land use patterns and benefits of a more socialist society.

Emily's Wish Comes True

This is great, because Emily reads my blog from time to time, and will be either flattered or creeped out that she gets an entire bold heading to herself. That's a bold heading, Emily, not a measly italics heading. You should feel special. The "wish" I'm referring to is not the bold heading, but a GDR-era bicycle. It is actually my supervisor, Reimund, who is lending this piece of history to her. When we got to his place (which is in a very nice part of the city, by the way) he led us down to the cellar where the bicycle was being stored. We were then put into one of those awkward moments when somebody is working very hard on your behalf, and you have no real way to repay them. That is, he put much effort into making the bicycle ridable (adjusting the seat, putting air in the tires, etc.). After the commie-bike was deemed road-worthy, Reimund invited us in to his apartment to have a few drinks, which we graciously accepted. This was especially nice for me, as we had never really gotten to socializing outside of work. The only time I ever got the whole "we work together so this is awkward" feel was when Emily mentioned one of her twelve-hour work days. Needless to say, this is a stark contrast to my 10:00 - 15:00 leave-when-I-get-bored type of schedule. We had a nice evening, one of the highlights being the bus ride home. I knew I was looking for some slot to punch my ticket in, I just didn't know which one. I still wonder what that slot at the front of the bus was for. Luckily I did not end up having to press any buttons, which was a huge relief. All in all, a very successful bus ride.

Accio "Deathly Hallows"!

Damnit, I really hate being a Muggle. Fine. If a summoning charm won't work, then I guess we'll just have to fly to London, England on the weekend of July 21 for the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book! Yes, I know airplanes are lame, but unfortunately, not all of us have passed our Apparation tests. There aren't any Portkeys in Dresden, and we can be sure that the Floo Network will be jammed on this particular weekend. So yes, we're just going to have to get there like the bunch of Muggles we are. Please take a moment for this to sink in. Those of you, such as my parents, who do not read Harry Potter or otherwise fail to understand what an international cultural phenomenon the series is cannot possibly share my excitement. London. Book seven release. Freaking wow.

Our core travelling group for this particular excursion will be me, Teri, Emily, and Julie. For you regulars, those are the people I spent the majority of last weekend with, which is when the trip was planned. However, with the internet (gotta love that internet) we are linked with the other RISE scholars all throughout Germany, and there is considerable interest. Hopefully we will have a big ol' group of Harry Potter nerds from all over Germany.

Reflection Paper

The rest of today's entry is mostly personal reflection. I have warned my readers several times that since this blog is my only journal, there will be many entries which are not very interesting for readers, and are just a way for me to get my thoughts on “paper.” This is the epitome of one of those entires.

A Crisis Point

I have reached a crisis as to how I am to spend my time here. My main goal in coming over was to really experience life in a foreign city—wake up every day, go to work, perform mundane activities—but in a different environment. In addition to this previously determined goal, I am also coming to terms with the fact that if I am going to see the rest of Europe the way I want to see it, I am just going to have to come back next summer or something and do several months of straight-up traveling. On the other hand, however, the core of western civilization is at my fingertips.

So do I spend the majority of my weekends here in Dresden, going out to Neustadt at night, hanging out in the park during the day, etc.; or do I need to feel hyper-motivated to travel and experience as much of Europe as possible? Dresden or Europe—that is the question. No matter which state of mind I settle into, I will still do some level of weekend traveling—mostly the cities that are very convenient (i.e. Berlin and Prague) and the “no-brainers” (i.e. London and Amsterdam). I am almost completely decided that I want to live life in Dresden, not act like I'm on vacation and constantly feel guilty for not making the most of my time.

City Life

Living in Blacksburg alerted me to the differences between cities, suburbs, and small towns, and ever since I became aware of this distinction, I have wanted nothing more than to live in a real city. Well, here I am, and I must say that it's everything I ever thought it could be and so much more. It feels more authentic, more human. I want to keep this paragraph short, because I realize that my distaste for the suburbs of North America is sprinkled throughout the rest of my blog entries. But there is a reason for this—looking at the places where the average American lives these days, I have always felt that there had to be a better way. When I go home to visit my parents, I complain that our entire days seem to consist of driving from parking lot to parking lot, to which they retort, “Well, that's life.” Living here has shown me that I was right and they are wrong—there is a better way.

(Side Note—Congratulations to my parents who have finally sold their house in the suburbs to live in Downtown Baltimore!)

Open Social Atmosphere

This is one of those things which illustrates what I meant by “indirectly” related to being in Germany. So far, I feel like I am batting 1.000 as far as the percentage of people I have met that I have gotten along with to the point that I feel comfortable spending time together. I suppose I touched on this a bit in my last post, about the unity of displaced English speakers. Walking around an American college campus, why on Earth would you choose to befriend any particular one of the thousands of Americans walking around you? You already have your own friends—there doesn't seem to be much of a reason to get to know this hypothetical random person. This usual social behavior goes out the window when we are removed from our usual comfort zone. Maybe this is why I like youth hostels so much: “Hey, you're a human? That's awesome! Let's go out drinking!”

Academics, Career, and the Future

I must admit that especially after a certain unpleasant work experience in Roanoke, VA, I nearly regretted my choice of university major. I felt like I had given up my chance to receive a real education and was on the fast-track to becoming a corporate slave for life. Any dreams I had as a high school senior about what being an engineer could be were blinded by cubical walls. The Math Emporium shed some light of hope as I began seriously considering a career in academia. The only problem was that I could not resolve my interests in teaching and mathematics with my education in computer engineering.

My experience in the research environment here at TU Dresden has blown away any doubts I may have had about whether I am in the right major. I believe I mentioned before that the gap between my passion for mathematics and computer engineering has finally been bridged. I am also gaining a feel for what this whole university research thing is all about. I am implementing a SQRD algorithm and find that there are quirks in the architecture that make things less efficient than they could be: Make changes to the architecture, of course! I find gaps in my background knowledge of whatever it is I may be trying to do: Step back and learn! Learn, explore, and improve—that sounds worthwhile to me.

So I now have a resume with two academic jobs, one teaching and one research, from two respectable institutions. Sprinkle in some German words, top it off with a solid GPA, and the future is looking as bright as could be.

Conclusions and Farewell

If any of you who made it down this far actually found any of the above paragraphs worth reading, then I thank you for taking an interest in my life to a level I would have never expected. For whatever reason I have more recently felt very comfortable sharing writing such as this, as evidenced by the sharing of the essay “Red Cups and Revelations” with my entire English class. Perhaps this blog entry would make a good sequel.