berlin highlights

1. Wandering around Neukolln, where our couchsurfing hosts lived




2. Seeing the epic Germany vs. England with 350,000 other fans at the Tiergarten







3. Visiting the East Side Gallery








4. Eating yummy doner kebabs

language barriers + new places = mishaps and misunderstandings -> me feeling like an idiot

Some mishaps & misunderstandings during my time so far… at least no permanent injuries yet!

My first real day in Stuttgart I was supposed to meet Jen (my pHd student advisor) and her husband around 3pm so we could go downtown and watch the Germany game. I had only gotten like 6 hours of sleep in the past couple days because of final exams, packing, and the plane, so I had no idea how long I was going to sleep. I wake up Sunday morning, glance at my watch, and see that it’s 3:30. It was light out but kind of cloudy so obviously it wasn’t 3:30 a.m. I felt terrible that I was late to meet them, so I rushed out… 20 minutes later I get to her house and Jen is in her pajamas looking very confused. I guess something happened with my watch, and it was actually 8:30 a.m.! They were really nice about it and stuff but maaaan did I feel like an idiot.

Earlier this week I went out with a guy alex, and he told me that he knew a garden nearby we could go to. So I pictured a nice flower garden with grass or something like that and thought ‘Oh, I don’t remember seeing any gardens like that on campus but I’m sure I just missed it.’ Turns out he meant a biergarten (should’ve known!!). Needless to say I did not admit this misunderstanding to him.

Last Friday we were trying to meet up with my friend Weronika from work. She said that she was at the Stadtmitte station (city center), but the station is huge and has 5 different exits! At first she said that she was at an intersection, near 2 döner shops. But of course, javascript:void(0)döner shops are everywhere here. About 15 minutes and 6 phone calls later, we finally met up with her down on the platform.

final birthday tally

Number of trains taken total (Deutsche Bahn and S-Bahn): 7

Buses: 3

Beers: 2

Gelato scoops: 2

Hours awake: 19

Years completed: 20 !

my camera ran out of battery, so photos to come later

tentative travel plans

let me know if you:
a) are in the area
b) have suggestions

June 25-27: berlin

Jul 2-4: munich

Jul 9-11: heidelberg & another city in germany (??)

Jul 16-18: maybe salzburg with rise interns or maybe germanwings surprise flight weekend

Jul 23-25: maybe paris weekend

Jul 30-aug1: cern and switzerland

Aug 6-8: benelux with mom

Aug 13-15: prague with mom

Aug 20-22: mom leaves sat

Aug 27-29: koln, bonn, essen?

not exactly the most PC...

my co-worker luis (who's mexican) just got a twitter and his new thing is tweeting "sufro como precious". soooo terrible. the example he gave me was "ay, mexico no juega bien. sufro como precious."

some food so far

A maultaschen (very large ravioli) in Stuttgart

Baklava from the Turkish neighborhood in Mannheim
Delicious fish soup from the marktplatz in Freiburg

a bit about my project here and the phosphate crisis

We constantly hear about the depleting supplies of petroleum, natural gas, coal, etc., but there are other important resources that are running out, one of which is phosphorus. And unlike hydrocarbons, which can be replaced by other sources of energy, phosphorus cannot be produced or replaced.

So, why phosphorus? And who cares? This is an element that is essential for all life and is a key component in fertilizers to help increase crop yields. Since the world´s population is increasing, and the amount of farmland is decreasing, fertilizers are important in increasing crop yields. There are also environmental, economic, and political issues that are associated with this: Phosphate mining is incredibly energy intensive and fertilizer runoff can ruin aquatic ecosystem, the depletion of phosphate reserves are causing higher fertilizer prices, and only 4 countries in the world control 80% of reserves.

How do we fix this? By closing the ´loop´ of the phosphorus cycle. Currently phosphate is mined, processed, combined with other chemicals to produce fertilizer, taken up by plants, eaten by humans and livestock, and sent to sewage treatment plants. From there, phosphorus ends up in wastewater effluent (which gets sent to various water bodies) and sludge (which may be buried in landfills). In either case, the phosphate is lost forever.

As we realize that phosphate reserves will soon run out, we are looking at various ways to recover the nutrients. From the internet research I´ve done so far, it really seems like EU countries like Sweden and Germany are making a greater effort for phosphate recovery from sewage. On top of this (or probably because of this), there is a lot of research conducted on the subject in the EU as well.

Another interesting thing I realized was the importance of fertilizers. I feel like fertilizers get a bad rap in the U.S. because they are associated with environmental damage, yet there would be no way to feed the world without them. I think this photo made me realize (the wilted, nutrient deficient plant just looks so sad!):

Sooo after that long post, you must be wondering exactly what all this has to do with my project here in Germany. I am working on a phosphate recovery process that produces struvite, a mineral that precipitates and that can be used directly in fertilizer. The ph.d student I´m working with gave me the talk about not disclosing anything specific because of patent reasons, so that´s pretty much all I can say.

Pfaffenhof Sommerfest

Posters were plastered all over campus for the Sommerfest parties. Basically each dorm area puts on its own sommerfest, where they organize live music, a disco area, and food and drinks for sale. There was this huge beer truck and small tents selling mixed drinks. Preeeeetty awesome. Also, they charge you a deposit for the beer mugs/glasses that they'll give back to you once you finish the beer, which is so much better than using plastic cups.

Obviously, there is no concept of a dry campus like the U.S. But why would there be?

Deutschland v. Australia

Second night here, went to downtown Stuttgart to watch the Germany v. Australia game. There were lots of public showings in the garden, where projectors were set up and, of course, beer and food were sold.

The game... was awesome! Of course, it's always more fun when the team you're cheering for not only wins, but scores 4 goals. They also played 80s music during the breaks, and the drunk soccer fans were all singing and dancing. There seems to be a consensus that Germans are much more fun drunk than sober.

Food... the biergarten serves traditional German cuisine, which consists of lots of pork, cheese, cream, and potatoes. Not much flavor. Unfortunately, not really my thing. The most appetizing item seemed to be this flatbread pizza thing, which isn't German at all, or the ice cream.

I'm heeeeere

Wow, the last few days have been a rollercoaster. After getting 3-4 hours of sleep each night starting Tuesday, it's amazing that I'm still conscious.

Arrived in Stuttgart on Saturday evening, and Jen was at the airport to pick me up. We took the S-bahn to Vaihingen and the campus. I didn't expect the stop to be literally in the middle of campus! The dorm area is not too bad, although my building is one of many tall white buildings and may prove difficult to find. I have a single in the fifth floor, and it's really quite spacious compared to the triples and double I've had at UCLA. I met some of the students living in my building too, most of whom are international students. Apparently only a couple German students live here! So after cleaning up for a bit Jen invited me to watch the England v. USA game at her friend's place. It was really nice- we watched on a projector and brought stuff to barbecue. Later I went to the kitchen birthday party in my building. Pretty much everybody there was from Erasmus, the Euroepan student exchange program. I met people from Spain, France, Brazil, Finland, Switzerland, and Iraq.