Nur drei Tage!

Today marked the end of my sophomore year at Penn, as I slogged my way through two finals and a take-home test. Ugh. The important thing is that that's over, and I can focus on getting ready for Deutschland. Big shoutouts are owed to the following for making this spring easily the most awesome I've had at Penn to date: first, the men of 1911- I'll buy you all a draaank. best roomies ever. To all of Penn IV, without you I'd (seriously) be lost. You are my rock. To my UMC family, you are my inspiration, and we will do great things next semester. hollaaa! To the quintet and orchestra, you give me joy through music and friendship. And to all others, who know who they are, I wish you much love and luck in the summer to come!

So yeah, this blog is supposed to be about me in Germany. As you can see, right now it's mostly about me wanting to be there. So take a look at the list at right and let me know where you would go, if you had a few weekends to travel in Europe. Some of them are obvious, but others I've listed on recommendation. Comments are free and welcomed, of course.

For those who I haven't gotten to tell yet, I'll be working at the Rheinische-Westphaelische Technische Hochschule (RWTH from here on out) in Aachen. (http://www.rwth-aachen.de/go/id/bdz/) You can see the Universitaetsklinikum where I'll be working at top left. The Ph.D. I'm working for, Andreas Finkelmeyer, plans to look at how humans respond emotionally to a combination of visual stimuli (faces) and various odors, using fMRI brain imaging technology- more on that later.

Aachen is just east of the 3-way intersection of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, and was also the political center of Charlamagne's Holy Roman Empire. His remains rest in the impressive Aachener Dom (sometimes called the Kaiserdom) in the old center of Aachen that's also famous for it's Schatzkammer, a separate annex devoted to a collection of fantastic religious artifacts. (http://www.aachendom.de/index195-0.aspx)

But Aachen's got more than just Karl der Grosse, as the Germans call him. It's also famous for it's hot springs, and Germans have congregated here for years to "take the cure" at local spas. It has a football club called Alemannia Aachen that recently distinguished itself by breaking to Germany's Bundesliga I football league, not an easy feat for a team from a smaller city. There's also a special treat that's only made here called Aachener Printen, gingerbread-like cookies sweetened with sugar beets and a secret blend of spices, and pressed into little log-like shapes.

Very nearby to the northeast are Cologne and Duesseldorf, two Rheinland industrial centers and perpetrators of a fierce intercity rivalry that most often shows up today in ice hockey and their native beer varieties, Koelsch (Cologne) and Altbier (Duesseldorf). Don't bother asking for an "Alt" in Cologne, unless you want to get strange looks from your new friends at the local Kneipe. Also withing short travel distance by train are Brussels, the capital of both the EU and the Belgians, and the ever (in)famous Amsterdam, both of which I plan to visit.

More history/culture/etc. to come, right now I've got to get ready to move out, which will most likely end up being made into a monumental task by my inability to quickly organize myself. To those heading home from Penn and other schools today, safe travels!