Language Exam/Learning, Work, and a Bicycle

I. Language stuff:

(a) This week, I took the official (online) language-placement exam to determine which German course I can take at the university.  It was 8 pages, each with a paragraph, each sentence rather long but with 5-10 words mostly removed, that you had to fill in something sensible for. That is, something like (if it were in English): 

``When more than half of the w_____ po_______ wakes _____ Thu_____ – the 101st Int______ Wo_____ Day – _____ be hard to k____ whether to c______ or _______ to d_____. A Bri____ woman will f____ the pr_____ of ____ 14 more gen____ ele____ before women _____ men in the C_____. ''
 

[The ''answer'' is the first paragraph here] 

5 minutes per page. It gave me a bit of a headache by the end, and I couldn't believe how hard it was. If you do speak some German, you can try an example version of the test here. 

Result: Level B1: ''Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.'' If interested, you can read the level descriptions here.

(b) Today, I started an intensive German course, 4 ''hours'' a day (where each ''hour'' is an academic hour, meaning 45 minutes) for two weeks. There was a bit of a mixup which caused us (the students) to show up at 9am and the instructor to show up at 9:15, intending to teach at 9:30am. The class ran until 13:00, with a pause of 20 minutes in the middle for a snack or fast lunch from the cafe downstairs.   The makeup of the class is largely female, largely Italian, and largely ''Erasmus'' students, which is an EU study-abroad program (however, not all of the class was female, Italian, and Erasmus; just any one of those categories contains a number of people which is ~half the class). Two other women are also in math, and one also a postdoc. That was neat. Also, I mistake Italian for Spanish when overhearing other people speaking; I mentioned this and was told that it's common. 

We covered various things, some of which I did much better than at than my classmates and others that I am rustier on. At the break, the instructor told me that my level is more like B2, and asked me how long I've been studying German. 


Level B2: ''Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options."






II. Work 
I ''officially'' started work on Thursday, which means that that's when I start being considered as someone they'll pay. Huzzah :). However, I found out on Tuesday that my proof of employment for Illinois was not enough (which I'd had sent months ago, and she could've mentioned then, or when I saw her last), so I had to write a draft and have the correct person send it. Information they needed were exact dates (e.g. starting August 15th, 2004 instead of just August 2004) and salary/year. Also, name of position(s) and associated duties. Now that that is done, either this paycheck or the next will be higher than I originally anticipated -- my 7.5 years in grad school count as work experience for the job and raise my pay grade. 

Here's the building I work in (the Geomatikum):

From Germany 2012-2013

It has 18+2 stories. That's floors EG, TG, 1-18. EG = Erdgeschoss = ground floor, and TG=? Technikgeschoss, maybe? Not sure what's on that floor. I suppose I could go look. There are two banks of elevators, one for only odd floors and one for only evens. Good system.

Here's a view from my office, on a nice day:

From Germany 2012-2013

The other day, I saw the following parked by the Geomatikum, and have seen it around town. Maybe only Americans will find the name funny:

From Germany 2012-2013

On the walk in to the Geomatikum from my (current) corner of Altona, I pass the following weird/creepy and out-of-place photo booth, nestled amidst chain link fence, in front of a rough-hewn fence:

From Germany 2012-2013

III. Bicycle!
Saturday, I went to Flohmarkt Flohschanze, a Flea market (Floh = flea, like in English) a pleasant 1.4km away on the edge of St. Pauli.  I think 'schanze' refers to the street 'Sternschanze', which is trendy and punk, and lies around the corner from where the flea market is held.  I went looking to find a decent bicycle. The very first one I found would've been great, but it had the seat lowered as much as  possible and was still too high for me. After that, I tried about 5 or so different bikes from another guy, all in the 70-90 euro range, and all with some things wrong that I don't feel like dealing with (especially not knowing what it would cost here). Legally here, bikes have to have self-powered lights, which is nice.  I walked around a bit more and through to the sort of back side of the flea market, and there was a set of bikes, clean and looking in good order, including two Peugots (one a women's bike, and one a men's road bike). 2 women were there before me, asking about the bikes and when I was asking after them, yet another person came up to ask about it. I test road it, and they had to play with it a bit (the wires had come a bit loose, so the front light wasn't working), and then I  bought it. Relatively painless, all in all. 


 I then bought a helmet, pump, basket and bike grease from the nice people at RadundTat (play on words: Rad = bicycle, Rat = advice,  ''Rat und Tat'' ~ help and advice). Today, I attached the basket before heading out for German class. I'm considering also buying a basket for the front, for greater carrying capacity. The baskets are very affordable. This giant one I got for the back (with its own kit of mounting hardware and allan wrench) was only 20 euros, and the smaller baskets were 10. 

From Germany 2012-2013

IV. Mexican food!


No, really. Cafe Mexico.  The owners come from Mexico City, I think (so says the review). It's nested by a weird everything-shop where I bought a european-style wallet (it has a coin pouch, which is crucial). I had Chicken Enchiladas with Molé. They make their own corn tortillas, use black (somewhat refried) beans, creme fraiche instead of sour cream, and just-right sized portions. Yum.  

backlog: past two weekends

Time flies, and I'm a bit behind.
I will break this into two posts, one of weekends, and one of the rest.




1. This past weekend I was in Bonn for a bit, and went to an interesting Museum (Haus der Geschichte).

Upon entering the (free) museum, one sees the car (and train car) of the post-WWII German Chancellor, and a video about how he took it everywhere with him, including Moskau

From Germany 2012-2013

Here is the actual signed unconditional surrender document of Germany from WWII:

From Germany 2012-2013

Just to make sure everyone knew about it, the Allies dropped what I might call ''Truth Bombs'' on the public, in the form of missile shells filled with a long scroll of paper. Here's one such:

From Germany 2012-2013

Once the war was over, a large effort was organized, with typical German efficiency, to help people to find missing persons. They posted signs advising people how to proceed. Step 1: Don't just wander around from city to city!

From Germany 2012-2013

And then Stalin turned 70. Oh, wait, I missed some stuff in there. Post war, everything gets divided, and everyone fights over whether to force Germany to regress to a completely agrarian society or not. France and Russia implement programs for this, and the US and Britain did as well, although they changed their minds while France and Russia were flatting factories and telling people to go grow some corn or potatoes or something (when not cleaning up rubble). Russia actually moved entire factories (cut up the building, transported it, re-assembled it and its contents) eastward into well-established soviet bloc areas.

Right, so, the greatest ally of the East German people (heh) turned 70. Hurrah:

From Germany 2012-2013

And Soviet-era Germany would not be complete without a slew of squashed rebellions, from as early as '53 and onwards. A swarm of school children came up and babbled things in German to their teacher, mainly declaring that following is a Panzer:

From Germany 2012-2013

Now we come to my favorite part. JFK's handwritten notes. Yes, those. From that speech. 

From Germany 2012-2013

I would translate them to proper German and then English for you, but for those who know German, I think I'd ruin the fun of trying to figure out it. My favorite is probably ''DOICH-lont''.

Oh, and of course; I am a jelly donut:

From Germany 2012-2013

Anywhere in Germany that is not Berlin, one calls (plum) jelly filled donuts "Berliners''. See here. Berliners like to call them "Pfannkuchen'' (Pancakes) which is what everyone else calls pancakes, confusingly enough.

Wikipedia has a nice explanation:

There is a misconception that Kennedy made a risible error by saying Ich bin ein Berliner (emphasis added): the claim is made that Kennedy referred to himself not as a "citizen of Berlin", but as a "jelly donut" (US) or "jam doughnut" (UK), known in parts of Germany as a "Berliner".^[7][8] Kennedy should, supposedly, have said Ich bin Berliner to mean "I am a person from Berlin", and that adding the indefinite article ein to his statement implied he was a non-human Berliner, thus, "I am a jelly doughnut".^[9] However, the indefinite article ein is omitted when speaking of an individual's profession or residence but is necessary when speaking in a figurative sense as Kennedy did. Since the president was not literally from Berlin but only declaring his solidarity with its citizens, "Ich bin Berliner" would not have been appropriate.

After all that, more red menace and cold war commentary.  My cold-war-era Germany++ history is weak, so I'm not sure who this is:

From Germany 2012-2013

I'll end with the following cheery sign:

Chernobyl is everywhere.

From Germany 2012-2013

2. A week ago, I went to Berlin for the weekend.

I visited a neat park and a museum.


The neat park was made of land formerly used by trains, gone to seed.

E.g. tunnel and former (now covered) tracks making a path:

From Germany 2012-2013

It was full of (sometimes artfully strewn) old railway stuff. Here's a look in one of the buildings:

From Germany 2012-2013

With an artistic statement around the corner: 

Comparative (bigger, better, faster, stronger) is the beginning of every conflict

From Germany 2012-2013

Nearby was a sort of workshop area, and also a round train track-changey thing: 

From Germany 2012-2013

There was also random art strewn around:

From Germany 2012-2013

''Art is the nearest neighbor to wilderness''

From Germany 2012-2013

and an old steam locomotive:

From Germany 2012-2013

The museum (Computer Spiele Museum) was in East Berlin, on formerly-known-as-Stalin-Street (now...Karl Marx Alley, I think).  The street was rebuilt post-war as some kind of poster child for soviet up-and-coming cities. 

Walking to the museum, saw a lot of buildings (and signs explaining the buildings), such as this cinema, with a painted poster for the 'Iron Lady'. 

From Germany 2012-2013

The museum itself explored such deep questions as 'What do old computers do when we no longer need them?' (apparently, play games with each other):

From Germany 2012-2013

They had some neat old hardware there, including these remotes dating back to the 50s:

From Germany 2012-2013

I also had had no idea that Eliza dated back to 1966.  I knew it was present on Bulletin Board Systems, at least.

Here's some misc old hardware from the 70's:

From Germany 2012-2013

I think the museum's main attraction was its collection of arcade console games, which I played some of (e.g. Frogger). Most exhibits involved playing some games. Old consoles plugged into TVs with super mario 3, sonic, legend of zelda. Monkey island. There were also some things that they were trying to preserve, so they would only let people play them once a month or such, like the 'virtual reality' machine (looked like something out of tron-- on this page, listed as 3-D simulator). On the same page as I just linked to, you can look at the weirdest game -- the Pain Station. You have to be an adult to play, and have to specifically ask the staff to unlock the machine for you to play. It's a beefed up version of 'chicken'. Some people played while I was there, and gathered quite a crowd.  The website's description:

How much pain is a victory worth? The PainStation reveals the dark side of our all-too-human craving for games. The game is an adaptation of the classic "Pong". If the player misses a ball, he or she will be subjected to one of three physical penalties (heat, electric shock, whipping), depending on which symbol the ball hits. Instead of hitting the ball in order to attain the highest score, the player has to avoid missing the ball in order to avoid being penalised. Physical punishment is an integral part of the game. The player loses as soon as he or she removes his or her left hand from the related surface.

So, yeah...

Official stuff in Hamburg

Kind of a short post. First, some amusing words:

German/Danish (English):
das Buch/Bog  (the book)
die Buche/Bøg  (beech tree)
der Buchstabe/bogstavet(?) (alphabetic letter, literally 'beech'+ 'stick'(der Stab))

Oh, I think I didn't emphasize this before.
Copenhagen = København (roughly: Coop-in-HOWn, where 'hown' rhymes with 'clown'. You can listen here. ). You can also hear Bog('boo') and Bøg(~Bo), here.


Yesterday, I got up early, managed to just grab a bus and just grab a train to put me in to my appointment with the 'Hamburg Welcome Center' (read: foreigners office for foreigners they like admitting). It went smoothly, and included getting my index fingers fingerprinted. I then took a walk across town to the Finanzamt (Finance Office) in my area (Altona), since it was nice out, and I was feeling a bit cheap (transit's pricey).

From the start of my walk, a view of Hamburg, towards the Alster:

From Germany 2012-2013

I also took a walk towards the Altona Bahnhof (train &bus station), which advertises itself as a big shopping hub. It actually is. The other night I went grocery shopping and ended up wandering around this giant store (probably close in size to a Target), and was a little dazed by all of the choices (maybe reminiscent of Moscow on the Hudson).

Anyway, found all kinds of cool little stores in a small radius of the bahnhof, on either side.

Here's a view from near where I turned around and started walking back:

From Germany 2012-2013

And some rowhouses nearer to where I'm staying:

From Germany 2012-2013

They're nice and brightly colored, but different sort of construction from Copenhagen.
Walking around, there are little head-sized signs on buildings, saying what year they were built, or what year destroyed and rebuilt. Interesting. I've seen ones that were (re)built in the 90's as well as the 50's so far.

Today, I went into the department, got (and cleaned up a bit) my office, adjacent to the professor I'll be working with (who is out of town the entire month) and that was the main accomplishment of the day. The weather was drear, turning to steady rain from late afternoon onwards.

Continuing in my study of 'Homo Sapiens Europeans', German/Hamburg-oddities:

There are no apartment numbers, just house numbers and names. That is, if you moved apartments within the same apartment building, your address would not change. The buzzer and mailboxes are labeled only by name. Interesting.

For the people who are European, and don't know what this is in contrast with --- in the states, the apartments have numbers or letters. E.g. 1234 Sesame Street, Apartment C.  I suppose the apartments here must have *some* kind of number/description attached to it, maybe only on the papers of ownership.

Oh, right. Addresses.  In the States, you say number, then street. Here, it's reversed. Similar for postal code. Also, I don't think the Bundesland (state/region) is used. So,
German-style address: ''Groß Vogel, Sesam Straße 1234, 56789 ImaginaryTown''
American-style address: ''Big Bird, 1234 Sesame St., ImaginaryTown, ImaginaryState 56789''

Here's a Hamburg-specific oddity. Pink trash bags. Not the pinkness, but that they're just sort of lumped around willy-nilly along...bus routes? If I understood what was written on them correctly. Observe:

From Germany 2012-2013

Leaving Copenhagen, gone to Germany

On my last day in Copenhagen, I woke up a bit early to clean a little more and get out early. I hadn't timed things properly to get one last load of laundry in the day before, but I didn't have that much that needed washing, anyway.

Here's a look into my bedroom, denuded of stuff, with a characteristic IKEA lamp and bookshelf-thinger, as well as the washing machine (which was really fantastic to have). Those black curtains were incredibly effective, and only as thick as a few sheets of paper. The thing the lamp by the window is standing on is attached to the wall. Era--70's? Unsure.

From Copenhagen 2012(picasa)

The apartment rental people said they'd be happy to watch my stuff while I went to campus, so I hauled everything down my stairs, up the very slight incline to the Strøget (about 2 blocks or so) and up about 2 more flights of stairs, which impressed them. When I came back, they helped me carry my stuff down, so that I only needed to lug the backpack down myself, which I was okay with.

I went to the university to see a friend give a talk in the seminar that the grad students have been holding on the kind of stuff I work on (Goodwillie Calculus) and to eat lunch.  Said a few goodbyes. Returned the bike and turned in keys.

I feel I should say something about the magical world that is Copenhagen's topology group. Their center is flush with funding, which is an amazing thing to be around, but that's not what drives their approach (as far as I can tell), it just greases the machine, as it were.

1. Plenty of professors around/different viewpoint: the topology group includes something like 9 professors (~4 of whom more homotopy-theoretic among topologists), and is an interesting blend of group theory, topology and some analysis-like topics. This is definitely an advantage for the students, as there is a good variety of people to work with, and their view of what topology is is more broad/inter-disciplinary. 
2. Monthly meetings:  Once a month, the group meets over lunch (hooray for department-provided lunches) for sandwiches and discussion/presentation. I attended the one last month, which started with Jesper Grodal running through some of the papers that the students had posted on the arxiv that month and what they were about. It wrapped up with a discussion of the courses to be held the next few academic units (blocks/n-mesters (where n=tri or quad or something)). This was interesting, as the students put in a request for a subject that they wanted to be taught (stable homotopy theory/spectra) and asked to have a class with as many hours as possible (that is, they were quite serious about wanting to learn this). Clearly, the department cares about it's students; that's the message being sent, at least in my eyes. 
3. Required external work: If you're Danish you must (and if you're foreign, it's optional) go study at another university with another professor for something like 2-6 months of your time as a Ph.D. student, which the department pays for. This is a great idea -- you learn new things, you make new contacts, and you also get a bit of a 'break' from the sprint towards graduation, which might otherwise be a bit monotonous or overwhelming. 
4. External committee members: From what I gathered, it's (effectively?) required for your dissertation defense to have at least one external committee member, who reads your document and flies in for your dissertation. Again, great way to make external contacts, get an external letter writer, make it more likely for you to be able to get a job afterwards. 
5. Dissertation defense party: I think that the defense is totally finalized and approved (including deposit) *before* the defense. This makes the defense more of a formality (or party), which is kind of nice, actually, although weird as well, as you aren't really 'defending' your work. I'm not sure if this is uniformly true, but was true for at least one of the two defenses I saw.
6. Guests, Guest seminars/courses: The department hosts guest professors/postdocs and workshops (''Master Classes''). E.g. Søren Galatius is giving a course with Oscar Randall-Williams over their current work. Bruno Vallette will come from France next month to help run a week-long ''Master Class''. There's hope that Lars Hesselholt will run the Stable Homotopy Theory course that was requested. 
7. Ph.D. position interviews: I think this is a Europe-specific thing. There are a small number of new Ph.D. student slots, and they're interviewed for. More of a personal touch than in the States.
8. Coffee: The department has a nice coffee machine (although I agree with a friend that there's something off about the coffee, despite being fresh-ground and brewed -- not complaining, just observing :) ) that produces coffee/espresso/cappucinos/hot chocolate, located in a nice common area that's on the top floor of the institute, with lots of windows.
9. Food: The department regularly sponsors speaker dinners, paying for a handful of students/guests/professors/postdocs to go to dinner after a seminar talk. There was a similar dinner when prospective Ph.D. students visited.  The ''grown-ups'' (postdocs, profs and seminar speakers or guests) meet for lunch every day and the grad students get together for the same as well, all trekking in their groups across the muddy field to the other building's canteen/cafeteria, which is a nice sense of community. The food at the canteen is government-subsidized, so quite affordable, which is why everyone just eats there every day.  

After leaving the university, I walked around a little bit and took a picture near the Strøget:

From Copenhagen 2012(picasa)

On the way to Germany,  I waited quite a while at the Copenhagen main train station to board the train, and then still managed to board the wrong half. That is, our ICE (InterCityExpress, i.e. fastest) train was comprised of two trains linked together, and I'd gotten on the part that would not go all the way to Hamburg. Thankfully, the train would stop once or twice before disconnecting and give me the chance to switch parts. I had the delightfully odd experience (while waiting for the train attendant, who then told me to switch trains at the next stop) of being asked if I speak English, by a nice German girl who was from ~1hr south of Munich (München).  

Following the train switch, I found good seating and room to store my large amount of luggage, which people were thankfully very patient about. During the trip, I went to the back of the cabin where the cafe/food stand was, and asked to buy some water (in German).  There was a Danish guy there already who was chatting up the cafe employee. The Dane also tried to speak with me in German, but I had some trouble understanding him (some combination of accent and vocabulary) and the switch to English was surprisingly disastrous. I *think* he was saying that he has a daughter who movied to Mississippi and accidentally violated curfew...but there were some phrases in there that didn't make much sense (house arrest,..but, Church,...strong!,...now we know). 

The scenery started bright and lovely and descended into low-lying fog as we approached the ferry and moved into Germany. It was dark when we boarded, so I didn't take any pictures. [This is the same train-on-a-ferry transition as before :)]  I got into Hamburg and to the apartment I'm subletting without incident, although the stairs in the stairwell are the narrowest I've ever seen. I would hate to move any furniture in to or out of the place. 

Yesterday there was some walking back and forth between the apartment and math department and other things in the university area.  Here was a neat building mural I saw:

From Germany 2012-2013

And a view out the stairwell of the building that holds the math department(tinted a bit blue because, well, white on white is a bit drear):

From Germany 2012-2013

The day was quite successful, having lunch with the two students of the professor I'll be working with, and also managing to get my contract signed (which involved me returning to the apartment to fetch some documents and then trekking halfway to the hauptbahnhof).

I never wrote up my travels in August, so here's a little pictoral run through Hamburg for you guys (incomplete, though. I'll throw in some more of my pictures in a later post perhaps):

Two neat buildings along the Reeperbahn (ala the red light district), the first called the dancing towers:

From Hamburg August 2011

From Hamburg August 2011

I went to the museum of erotica there, which was actually really interesting and included a lot of Hamburgish history. The German text was more colorful (and complete) than the English text; there was a comment that when the French took over Hamburg, they brought their 'loose morals' with them, e.g.  They also had a crazy bathroom covered in weird wallpaper. Here's part of the sink: 

From Hamburg August 2011

Here's my rough translation: "Man is a biological catastrophe. The Y-chromosome is an incomplete X-chromosome, meaning that it has an incomplete chromosome-structure. In other words,  Man is an incomplete woman, a mutated miscarriage(?), which is already in (its) Genetic stage(?) shriveled/withered.  Man is to be called broken (?); Mankind is a disease of deficiency, and men are psychological cripples (or maybe 'crippled souls'). ''

The infamous redlight district street. I forget the name:

From Hamburg August 2011

The opera house that is way over budget and never to be finished, maybe: 

From Hamburg August 2011

And maybe a nice summary of Hamburg--- Industry, shipping, new buildings, trains, construction: 

From Hamburg August 2011

Oh, yes, and bleakness. I'm told it's pretty constantly overcast, which you can believe from these photos form August, and I can verify is still true now. Ah, well. 

Some trivia related to Hamburg: The Beatles got their start in Hamburg. Also, the only foreign language songs they ever released were in German. ''Kom gib mir deine Hand''(I wanna hold your hand) and ''Sie liebt dich''(she loves you, yeah yeah).  Speaking some German, I find these songs hilarious and awesome. :) Here's the story behind these recordings.