Like
a Ms. understanding, i suppose
No job. They have all of their bases covered. The airport is equipped with a wastewater treatment system design to treat basically all of the water onsite, including rainwater. The Erdinger moos watershed is monitored for water table stability and the groundwater chemical composition.
It was a nice exercise but I must admit it isn’t fun when you aren’t needed. At least I have a suit.*
Somehow I also find myself with a head cold giving to me by man of germ-attracting steel. I’ve decided to make some mint tea with fresh leaves out of my 4th floor garden. That I can be proud of today.
*I found a nice selection at the Karstadt at Stachus and if you are on a budget H&M has a some goods too, although sizes are limited.
some shine and some don’t
Last night I went to the second mentoring lecture for 00054 on the TUM campus. I like the mentor (i.e., to the point, readable handwriting) but I get the impression the others do not.
At the end of the lecture they didn’t knock on the ancient wooden desks. The ones that have a line of built-in wooden flip seats, which make an acrid clap against the flat wood if you don’t take them into account when you stand up. The echo in the lecture room only helps to amplify the fact that there are a lot of uncoordinated students in this course and my misfortune in attempting to correct smudge marks in my notes after being startled too many times.
I asked Alex what that meant, to knock. He told me the audience knocks as a sign of being satisfied with the speaker. It’s very rare that the students don’t knock after a lecture. Perhaps the students felt a little lambasted.
Mr. Mentor did stop the lecture twice to pick out a few students for being rude and speaking over people trying to ask questions. I thought hooray! It was true the class was noisy and I gave up most of the time trying to decipher the conversation through the Deutsche-babble.
Well maybe he did go overboard by tossing a 1-cm piece of chalk at the annoying guy with the white and black checkered glasses. Finally karma has struck! So far I’ve tried three times to sit away from this yammer kid but still he and his female cackling brude vex me.
I must say I’m very please with myself that the gears that work out linear algebra in my brain are turning once again. There was a period or so in the last years when I looked at a derivative or an integral and felt amnesia and nausea. I guess all wasn’t lost. I just needed a refresher.
So after the class let out and a visit to the bathroom, I discovered that I was locked in the building. All doors are locked after 9pm except for the one on Arcis Street, another block away from the subway stop I wanted to take. Mist!
I looked for another way to exit the maze, maybe a door ajar, but found myself several times alone in pitch black hallways. It was the first time in awhile I felt my imagination take hold of me. Don’t ask me why, but I was reminded of Stephen King’s, The Shining. Thank god for modern technology. I called Alex for moral support until I reached some sort of random hall party. geesus. more movie parallels? just keep going. All I wanted was to get home.
There was some relief when I found the library and people that actually looked like students again. I managed my way outside of the building and ran across the Pinakothek museum lawn to the tram stop and sat next to a nicotine addicted lady who ignored the no smoking law at public transportation stops.
Whatever. I’m outside and on my way home, I thought. I pulled out The Gordian Knot by Bernhard Schlink (in German) and sunk into another world until the tram and subway took me home.
Virginia Jetzt, Album: Anfanger, Anfänger, Title: Das Ganz Normale Leben
Knee update, CV stress, & Bonestock
I haven’t really been up to posting as of late. Although I’ve been working on my Süd Tirol slideshow (should be done today or tomorrow), and I’ve got a few ideas how to condense my thoughts on Tirol but I’ve been motivated to do other things.
I saw the Orthopedist on Monday. He jerked both knees around and maybe over emphasized the fact that my right knee has the snappy rubberband effect and my left does not. The drawer test revealed that my muscle training (mainly from last week’s bike excursions) have significantly reduced the forward motion of the tibia, but there is a 4 mm difference with the left leg. Docs says I could do more muscle training, but that would mean I’d have to subscribe to Schwarzenegger style I’ll-pump-you-up workouts. Not gonna happen.
If I don’t have surgery, I’ll likely have a knee replacement at 50. Ugh! So my surgery will take place sometime the first week of October (right after Oktoberfest) at OCM (Orthopädische Chirugie München) in Sendling. The surgeons will be Dr. Mayr or Dr. Wasmer, who perform around 240 ACL surgeries per year. I’ll be in good hands. After last weeks incredible sport adventure, just the thought of starting this handicap all over gives me the willies. Gotta keep in mind I’ll be better, though in 6 months. Easy.
Other things that preoccupy me: converting my English resume/CV into a discriminatory, german-style Lebenslauf. I got my stinkin’ picture from Sauter for 18 Euro, I’ll tell you my marital status, and I’ll tell you how many kids I don’t have. Luckily, these days it isn’t necessary to tell you what religion I belief in or where my parents come from. Well in my case, the parent question will be asked with a glance at the application photo. Aside from all that bloody red tape, the real challenge is describing what I did throughout my career, especially describing what I did as a Staff Engineer. The German style is different, if not terse. I just can’t leave it to major assuming that the interviewer has a clue. It’s been hard finding anything equivalent in German because much of lingo is specific only to civil and environmental engineering in Florida. Still. Must search deeper…
In between all this I’m learning to cook stock, fond, or jus. Oh my! Most jarred or canned stock I’ve found has MSG and no matter how hard I try, my various sauces tend to be boringly similar, with an after taste of this powdered organic vegetable stock I use. I want to bring my cooking up a notch and because it isn’t blistering hot here like in Florida, I can finally afford to make the supreme cooking commitment. Here are some websites I found helpful:
- Lucy’s Kitchen Notebook: Fond de Volaille
- Tigers & Strawberries: Making Stock
- Butter Pig’s Stock 101
My first attempt is a beef stock. Wish me luck.
Studying in a Foreign Country
Autobahn 44 to Kassel, wind turbines everywhereI give major kudos to all those who have studied at a University in a foreign speaking country. It really takes some resourcefulness and the courage not to beat yourself up that you don’t understand everything. At times I think I don’t have it in me but then another day starts and eventually the plummeting feeling becomes a gradual fall. Because I study at a distance learning University, I rarely have the opportunity to attend regular lectures. Two of my subjects are learn on your own with a practical at the University. The other two have required lectures covering all the material for the exam in three days and practicals, those of which I attended these past two weeks. Read more
