Muchisimas gracias por todo

oooo technology in Denia

Random Observation/Comment #207: Christian is a gentleman and a scholar – or in more colloquial terms – he’s freakin’ awesome.  Not only did he act as a tour guide and “couchsurfing-type” host for a week, but he also reminded me of something very important: a summer is not a summer vacation without friends. Yes, I’ve met quite a few random people during my travels of whom I refer to as friends, but it’s not the same. My stay in Denia made me miss my best friends back home and cringe at the fact that I missed another summer that I could have spent growing closer with them. Seeing Christian and his friends reunited in random clubs and local drinking areas was inspiring and it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling of community. As with all observations, I compare it with my life. I’ve realized that I’ve been doing the opposite of what I’ve always wanted – to hopefully be missed and to feel at home somewhere. Of course, this process of growing my contacts around the world is quite important and I really needed this experience to clearly discern my feelings about the matter. This phase of adventures in Europe has been envied by most, but I think they fail to realize the fun within their own country provided by the close friends that make life worth living. It’s not always the history, club scene, night life, or number of museums in your neighborhood – it’s about the interesting people you already know and have the potential to meet. These 6 months of networking have been exhausting, but I’ve developed many new ideas and improved communication skills. If not just to open my eyes to an outside perspective of the US, it has been worth every penny. This is the worldly knowledge that pushes me closer to maturity.

Christian’s countless acts of kindness made me grateful beyond belief. Although we only shared one class at Cooper during my master’s course, we met up in the middle of Spain for a full week. He picked me up from the station by car and welcomed me into his summer house in Denia and apartment in Valencia. The large family of parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews (some applying multiple times) created a lively, warm, and fun-loving house. During the night (or what locals here consider the beginning of the night at 2AM) I was deemed “el Chico Americano” by his friends and spoken to by those who wanted to practice their English (or those drunk enough to tolerate my broken Spanish). The club scenes were legendary to every extent of the word. The club Hacienda was actually a favorite of his brothers’ and parents’ since 40 years ago. Generations of party-ers grew up here jumping walls and stealing shrimps from crazy restaurant owners – I, of course, did my samples of the tradition.

I was welcomed in his house with home-cooked meals and all outside events. Understanding my desire to capture some pictures of scenery, we went up some castles and made a valid attempt to climb the mountain (and we would have done it if we weren’t so drunk and tired). There were even times when I went solo with these new friends without Christian and randomly found my way back to his house at 8AM.

What I’m trying to express is not just the crazy partying and unyielding schedule of this city, but also the friendliness and openness of this summer group. It was incredibly liberating to finally escape. I didn’t feel trapped by work or obligations, but simply ate, siesta’d, beach’d, and fiesta’d only to sleep and repeat the cycle a few more days. In no way could this be enjoyed for more than a week, but it’s definitely a week to look forward to starting from September. The sleeping and eating pattern took some time to adjust to (wake at 1PM, lunch at 3PM, 4PM siesta, 6PM beach, 9PM pool, 10PM dinner, 12AM pregame, 2AM first club, 5AM second club, 7AM sunrise at restaurant, 8AM sleep), but I felt like I just took vacation to the next level of fun (and exhaustion).

By the end of my stay in Denia, I had only washed half my clothes even though I made a pitifully easy to-do list. Even the haircut activity took 5 days before it was completed. Essentials like charging my camera and moving over pictures to my laptop seemed to follow the same procrastination trend. Oddly, without the Internet and the pressure, I found relaxation.

I wish I could have done more to repay this family. My enthusiasm in food made it natural to cook a meal for them. Although it was mostly experimental, I hoped they liked it (I snuck out and left for Valencia before it was finished so I couldn’t see their reactions). It was the least I could do after trying home cooked paella, eggplant, stuffed zucchini, baked chicken with potatoes, Spanish pizza, and much much more. Their cooking made me miss my mother’s and my aunts’, and this large family experience makes me look forward to my next family and friend reunion. Even the little cousins grew to like my presence (well, I took trying to drown me in the pool and always asking to play with my iPhone as growing to like me). I guess it would take me a while to stop wondering what was wrong with the shape of my eyes too.

With the support of a wonderful family and a brilliant mind on his shoulders, I have no doubt that Christian will do well. I can’t guarantee as many beautiful Spanish girls in my group back in NY, but he’s always welcome to chill. Mi casa es tu casa. Salud.

~See Lemons Agradecido

Traveling Han-Style (Solo) vs Wingman’d

traveling alone? then who took the picture?

Random Observation/Comment #202: I consider myself a quiet guy with a lot to say.  It requires a bit of prying, but it’s quite easy to get me on some weird topic rant.  Since I try to gain a little bit of knowledge in everything, I’m sure it won’t take a long time of searching to find something we have in common or something we can just debate about.  With this being said, I guess I play more of a responsive role as a travel partner.  I walk around making observations and enjoy the new environment with open senses, but I’ll put in my two cents when the time arises.  There’s this side of me that gets lost within the moment and feels the need to be secluded, but another one that wants to talk about what I’m seeing and express those sporadic jokes that run through my head (instead of just taking a picture of it to laugh about it later).  I write this entry to answer a question that has been bugging me: Should I fly solo or look for a travel buddy?

I know some people who absolutely hate traveling by themselves.  They feel unsafe in an unfamiliar city and they feel so empty and quiet without a wall to bounce off some ideas.  I, on the other hand, love the solidarity.  I love walking at my own pace and seeing things that interest me.  I feel no need to follow someone else’s schedule and there’s a degree of freedom that brings everything together.  Plus, if I am in a social-type of mood, I can always meet new people at a hostel and jabber away about career ideas and similar topics of conversation with a new perspective.  There’s something about meeting a stranger that adds adrenaline to the equation.  After the first hour of going through the regular chit-chat introductions, there’s just an open slate of questions to keep a conversation rolling into different topics.

If I traveled with a best friend, we would definitely have these sorts of conversations with some inside jokes included, but your best friend’s image in your mind does not become tainted or boosted with any exchange of words.  The words don’t pass through a judgmental barrier, which is great between friends, but a little anti-climatic with my surroundings.  I guess the amount of new things you can learn about a friend (or the new things you want to learn without ruining a friendship) arrive a happy medium that should not be disturbed.  There are many cases where long road trips stuck in a car with someone for 15 hours at a time will drive one of the people crazy – especially if it’s just two people, sometimes you just run out of things to say.  Then you get this awkward silence and glowing evil vibe that makes everything uncomfortable.  There’s always the possibility of strengthening a friendship, but always that danger of mucking it up.  However, in the traveling situation, what are the chances that the person you meet half way around the world would become your best friend?  I’m open to the possibility, but the reputation you exude doesn’t make a difference – what matters more is your character.  I guess you could technically just lie about everything.  That wouldn’t be a bad social experiment…

Anyway, I’ve avoided traveling with someone I know really well to reduce the chance of messing up the relationship that already exists.  The solo traveling is probably not as safe, but it’s definitely much more flexible.  So, my quirky personal interests and weird walking habits have made me choose a solo-traveling solution?  I started to think it was the better choice until I actually found someone I like traveling with.  Maybe I just never gave it a chance or had the opportunity arise, but traveling with Natasha has actually been quite fun.  She enjoys the same activities as I do and we explore each city fulfilling our own role.  The conversations come in small waves, and in between, we just observe and make commentary where necessary.

I guess that’s the best part – the random commentaries that are floating in my head devoured in the moment.  The friend is just there for you to call his/her name and point at that clever little observation.  It’s that feeling of sharing that thought directly to someone – like twittering anywhere you want.  Hmm… it’s like being able to twitter anywhere at any time without any electronic device.  It’s genius.  The only down side is that it’s only with one person, but at least you know when this person is reading your tweet and whether or not he/she is interested.  Luckily, this service provides the visual clues of interest in the topic.  Plus, it has full voice recognition capabilities and responds with a set voice as well.  Brilliant!

So, I guess the key to traveling with a wingman is to have a good wingman.  You have to share the same habits in traveling and the same interests.  For example, a museum go-er would most probably not enjoy a huge hiking scene.  Or a lazy person would not want to explore the whole city by foot.  Frugal travelers may not always agree with the traveling styles of those who want to live luxuriously on their vacation.  There’s just a long list of ground rules that must be followed or else traveling together could just mean sleeping in the same hostel (which is cool too).  I guess the best course of action is to plan the trip together and see the common interests in activities.  If you find an interesting person with a similar taste, then the trip will be that much more enjoyable.  A base familiarity at least helps remind you of home.  When you’ve been traveling as long as I have, you start to miss home. Sigh.

~See Lemons Zusammen

Join Me Backpacking in August!

Looks like planning.

Random Observation/Comment #201: Over the past 6 months, I’ve become a travel guru. I wonder if I have to wear any special attire.  In boy scouts, the badge I sew on would probably be of a guy wearing a backpack with a hiking stick.  In real life, my uniform would probably include sandals and the same badge, but with me also fighting a tiger.  I could always use that huge Europe Lonely Planet guidebook as my weapon – that’s pretty much the only use I have for it anyway.  FYI, everything in a guidebook can be found online.  I think you’re just paying for the binding.

When I first started planning, there were many – well, I guess they can’t be labeled “mistakes,” but I’ll call them “miscalculations.” It was very – what’s the word I used? – Oh yes, Anal.  The way I did it before, I basically saw everything there was to see through other people’s blogs and photographs.  I used Google Earth, Google Maps, and Street view to actually walk through the major cities to the point where I recognized the exits to the underground stations in London.  Everything about the city was mapped out in my mind before even arriving to a detail that made me wonder why I even needed to go.  It was definitely a lot of work, but it was quite comforting for me (but mostly my parents) knowing that every step was planned along the way.  Since then, I have learned a great deal about traveling and created my own refined methodology.  I’ll try to stay on topic this time and write about this travel-planning process with the results for this August.

Knowing the Givens

It’s very difficult to plan a trip without at least some major givens.  For example, it is essential to at least know: 1) Time allotted, 2) Budget, 3) General area of travel (a continent would be nice), and 4) Personal preferences of you and your travel buddies.  The last part is the most important because you will not be able to make any decisions without at least having some opinion about the place.  If you have a list of dislikes towards weather, cultures, or certain parts of the world, then it will be easier to narrow down your travel location.  If you already have a list of must-sees, than that’s even better.

In my case, I have all of August with a tight budget and the general area of Northern Europe.  I bought a Eurailpass for Germany, Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), France, and Spain for this month so I am much restricted.  Although restriction may sound bad, it is necessary for making these tough choices.

The Eurailpass is suggested for non-EU travelers because you’ll save a lot of money and you don’t have to worry about buying and printing tickets ahead of time.  A spontaneous traveler will appreciate this freedom.  I bought a 10-day 4 country select pass for August.  This means that the two months after activation, I can use any 10 days and take any train (including ICE) for free.  Great deal for only 310 EUR considering some one-way tickets can easily cost 125EUR.

Narrowing Down the Location

Based on your personal preferences, your travel time, and budget, the list of locations for your vacation should start to look a little more manageable.  I personally spoke with friends that have been abroad, or who are from these countries, to get a better idea of the sights that are most famous and most “underground.”  To get this advice, I suggest going to parties and bringing up this travel aspiration.  Surprisingly, everyone loves traveling and has their own little suggestions for places to go and things to see.  The guidebooks can give you this historical background and a few good tips, but I think locals and friends with your common interests can give you a little bit more relevant advice. Plus, if these friends live in the area and have a place for you to stay, it’s a little hard to resist adding this to your itinerary.  For people traveling in Europe, you will probably be using the super-efficient railway system.  Planning your route with this based on the travel flight should also give you a good idea of what you can see.  Remember not to be too ambitious and maintain within the area to reduce time spent on overnight trains.

In my case, I felt the need for a change of scenery.  I had visited so many old European museums and German places that the thought of a sunny beach makes me want to weep in joy.  Not only has Germany weather been overcast for most of the days, but I also haven’t gone body surfing for almost two years.  Yeah, there were those times in Japan, but I didn’t count them because the waves were so boring.  I miss those summers with huge waves and constant fear of jelly fish or crabs stinging me or clipping off a toe.  Good times.  Anyway, I will spend the bulk of my time in Spain and pass through Amsterdam, Belgium, and Paris.  This was partially due to my Spanish group of friends at Hamburg passing their advice on the main attractions.  I originally planned 10 days in Spain, but it kept expanding to more cities and more must-see locations.  Now, I’m thinking 20 days will let me see San Sebastian, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, and Ibiza.

Creating a Broad Itinerary

I used to write these itineraries in a word document, but I found that making revisions and seeing multiple overlapping itineraries were quite difficult.  The much easier solution is to keep an excel sheet with the columns: Date, Day of week, IT1: Country/City, IT1: Transportation details, IT1: Activities, IT1: Sleeping location, IT2: Country/City, IT2: (etc.).  With the time available for travel, you could just write out a few different itinerary plans and see which one works best.  To help with this decision, it is important to know exactly the length of the commute and the prices.  If you take all of your desired locations as nodes in a network, you can assign the weight to the line connecting these nodes as the travel time and then use any of the famous algorithms to solve for the best path.  Too complicated?  Just make a circle.  I would suggest flights from major airports like London Heathrow or Paris because the flights are more frequent and therefore cheaper.  Once you’re in the heart of Europe, I would suggest finding an itinerary that maintains the shortest travel times by train.

For example, if you have decided you want to see France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany and your flight is arriving and leaving from France, I would suggest a broad itinerary like: 3 days in Paris, 3 days in Amsterdam, 2 days in Berlin, 4 days in Munich, 2 days Brussels, and 1 day in Paris.  Although Brussels and Amsterdam are close to each other, it makes more sense to have a stop between Munich and Paris to reduce the travel time.  This becomes much more relevant for my particular case because a train from Hamburg to Spain takes around 16 hours. Without a stop in Paris, not only would I spend a whole day on the train (which I will probably have to do anyway), but there would also be a problem with the length of usage for the eurailpass (if the train ride is from 8AM to 4AM the next day, you will need to use two days on the eurailpass).

For my case, I will be starting in Hamburg, going through Spain for 20 days, Paris for 5 days, back to Hamburg for 2 days to get my stuff, Amsterdam for 2 days, and then London to return home.  The cities of San Sebastian, Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia make a weird rhombus on the map of Spain so it’s a little bit difficult to decide which way to go.  I decided to see San Sebastian first because it’s the closest to Hamburg and I really want to jump right into the beautiful beaches and scenery.  After 2 or 3 days there, I’ll go to Barcelona for 4 or 5 days before the locals start their vacation.  Next is Madrid for 4 or 5 days for some culture, museums, and a cheap place to stay.  Lastly is Valencia and Ibiza for some relaxing beaches and party islands for the rest of the time.  This may sound like most of the work is already done, but research on accommodations and activities can change the broad itinerary.

Where to Sleep?

There are loads of cheap hostels in major cities with incredible free tours and maps that tell you all of the major attractions.  I found that, even though I did all my research before hand, I wound up “winging-it” when I arrived because I wanted a local tour guide’s opinion.  I would often arrive to the hostel, walk around for the night to get a feel of the city, and then just go to a free tour the next day to hear some history and ask some questions about places to eat or specific museums to see.  In fact, I think it’s enough to go to Frommers [www.frommers.com] or Wikitravel [www.wikitravel.com] and look at their attractions highlights.  Full-on itineraries are available, but you’ll find that these are completely unrealistic to follow.  Walking around the city with a full path planned and exact places to look makes it seem so robotic. I rather just use my sense of direction to guide my way around the city first.  It’s interesting how getting lost and then looking at the map later after finding your way back makes you more aware of how the city fairs in size.  Anyway, I won’t make generalization because I know some people who are just terrible with directions.

Another option is to use couchsurfing.org.  This is basically a community built on a trust that backpackers and hosts will follow the rules of conduct and provide a place for someone to stay in exchange for some stories and hopes that they will grow their network to allow more couchsurfing opportunities in different countries.  It sounds sketchy, but I can attest that it’s quite safe if you do enough research on the right person and make contact with an open mind and transparent itinerary.

In my case, I know a few people in Spain, so I should be able to save some money on my trip.  To accommodate these people’s time schedules, I also needed to adjust my own itinerary accordingly.  For other cities, I used hostelworld [www.hostelworld.com] to pick the best rating and price.  Since August is peak season for travelers, I would suggest: 1) exchange your money earlier (rates go up in the summer), and 2) make bookings to your hostels earlier (to ensure you get a room).

Refining for the Final Itinerary

To reiterate, the main factors that determine your final itinerary include (but are not limited to): personal preference on weather, festivals/activities in specific places, friends’ accommodations, friends’ preferences, type of transportation (eurailpass), transportation travel times between cities, and whenever you run out of money.  The excel sheet of choices really helps.  Below is my itinerary:

Date	City	Details	Sleeping	Railpass stuff
Sat Aug-1	Hamburg – San Sebastian	16 – 22 hrs need to take day train because eurailpass does not work otherwise	Sleep on train	Railpass3 (3)
Sun Aug-2	San Sebastian		hostel
Mon Aug-3	San Sebastian		hostel
Tue Aug-4	San Sebastian		hostel
Wed Aug-5	San Sebastian – Barcelona	5 hours	Barcelona hostel	Railpass3 (4)
Thu Aug-6	Barcelona		Barcelona hostel
Fri Aug-7	Barcelona
Sat Aug-8	Barcelona
Sun Aug-9	Barcelona
Mon Aug-10	Barcelona – Madrid	3 hours		Railpass3 (5)
Tue Aug-11	Madrid
Wed Aug-12	Madrid
Thu Aug-13	Madrid
Fri Aug-14	Madrid – Valencia	3.5 hours		Railpass3 (6)
Sat Aug-15	Valencia
Sun Aug-16	Valencia
Mon Aug-17	Valencia
Tue Aug-18	Valencia	Take boat to Mallorca or Ibiza
Wed Aug-19	Valencia	15 hrs from Valencia to Paris, 9 hours from Barcelona to Paris – need to take 6AM train
Thu Aug-20	Valencia – Paris	(Natasha will be here)		Railpass3 (7)
Fri Aug-21	Paris	(Natasha will be here)
Sat Aug-22	Paris	(Natasha will be here)
Sun Aug-23	Paris	(Natasha will be here)
Mon Aug-24	Paris
Tue Aug-25	Paris – Hamburg	8.5 hours		Railpass3 (8)
Wed Aug-26	Hamburg
Thu Aug-27	Hamburg
Fri Aug-28	Hamburg – Amsterdam	5 hours		Railpass3 (9)
Sat Aug-29	Amsterdam
Sun Aug-30	Amsterdam – Brussels – London	EUROStar, 5.5 hrs		Railpass3 (10)
Mon Aug-31	London
Tue Sep-1	London – US	LHR – JFK Leave @ 3:35PM, British Airways, Arrive in JFK @ 6:10PM	Plane	Underground

I haven’t booked the hostels yet, but after some feedback from some friends, I can refine this itinerary some more and start making some last minute plans.  It’s important to print out the booking information and relevant maps to get to the hostel.  After that, you can pretty much wing-it.

Many of the anal planning has been left behind.  Based on the research I’ve done, I already know I’ll have an amazing time at each of these places, so I don’t think it’s necessary to list all of the specific activities (and definitely not plan the itinerary down to the hours in a day).  Damn, I was nerdy.

~See Lemons Guru-Travel

My Intermediate Overview of Study Abroad

mystery-desu

Random Observation/Comment #194: It’s interesting how I’ve always saved the overviews of my trips until the trips are finally over when I’m in my pajammy-jams at 3PM while sadly trying to piece my life together for the next phase.  I never actually capture the intermediate stages of feelings when I’m truly happy or sad.  Instead, I’m usually writing it in a stage when I know the whole trip is over and I miss the freedom or I’m scared of moving forward.  I think the reviews I’ve given are true, yet just a little biased.  I could see myself extenuating the good things and overlooking the bad (or at least being less critical about them) because it’s just too sad to combine the two afterwards.  Well, now that I’m in the middle of this adventure, I might as well give the newly arrived Cooper students a truthful overview.

Studying abroad in any country is an injection of two fundamental ideas: Freedom and Responsibility.  The balance of these two ideas will determine the levels in your fun-o-meter, safety-alarm, and craziness-scale.  Okay, so just because the measurement tools are fictional and the scale is relatively arbitrary and distributed for each individual, it doesn’t mean what I advise isn’t useful.  It is important to realize that this is a unique experience with a mix of different cultures, so one should be open-minded to meeting new people and seeing new things.  I would take full advantage of being in Europe and embark on random excursions or exciting adventures with strangers (strangers that you know kinda well).  But, of course, you already knew this before leaving, so let me be more specific about the program and experiences/activities I’ve been involved with.  I’ll separate this into a few major topics: University Responsibilities, Dorm Life, Hamburg Attractions, Nearby Cities, Must-sees in Europe, Useful Resources

University Responsibilities

I am working on a project that involves the application of artificial intelligence algorithms (specifically reinforcement learning) to improving industrial robot movements.  The German professors are extremely nice, although very strict about their meeting start times and deadlines.  If you can produce results, you shouldn’t have a problem.  My personal project does not really involve college credit so the work I put in will determine whether or not I can publish a paper on this material.  The German style of research is very straight forward and everyone works diligently for the directed times.  There will always be the quiet engineering types, but most of them are interested in foreign exchange students, so I’m sure you’ll be able to have lunch groups.  Based on the Cooper study abroad program format, you will have to submit a report of the work you have completed.  Don’t worry about this too much – I just kept a weekly journal of things I did for the project and submitted that (in a more concise form).  I wrote that the specifics to most of the experiments could not be revealed due to a soon-to-be-published paper (which was actually true for my case), but I don’t think it would be that much of a problem.  They really just want to see that you weren’t only there partying.

Dorm Life

The International dorms are incredibly fun.  Leave the university work for the 9 to 5 weekday and do some socializing and self-exploration at night and on weekends.  I haven’t met as many Germans as I’ve wanted to since I’ve been living in this spawning pool for study abroad students.  The interesting thing is that they all want to practice English more than German because they find it more important for their future careers.  I would suggest trying to learn some phrases in German (if not study and take a full course).  The language isn’t easy, but dedicating an hour a day will at least keep you from drinking too often.  Now, I’m not condoning drinking, but I personally know enough different groups to get invited out to a different place every night.  Europeans drink every night.  Although it’s not necessarily until their drunk, they use it as a social lubricant in every sense of the word.  The other great thing about the dorm is the cooking parties at different apartments.  After you host your own cooking party with your roommates and invite a few people, you’ll be invited to their cooking parties within the rest of your stay.  Every country has their specialty meal and there’s always one surprisingly good (or experimental) chef in the dorm room.  My roommates are wonderful and we’ve become a close family with our assigned jobs.  I have somehow become the English homework checker for many of them.  I’m sure you’ll find some interesting shoes to fill.

Hamburg Attractions

I’m a big fan of walking even though we have these free monthly S-/U-bahn tickets provided by the university.  From Berliner Tor, you could walk to the main city area by the Hauptbahnhof and the Rathaus around the Alster Lake in 20 minutes.  When the weather is nice, there’s a huge fountain in the center of the lake and people have the best ice cream in Hamburg at this small Gelato place in Europe Passage.  Many of my university friends take longer lunch breaks for some time away from work.  The port area near Landersbruchen can also offer some great views.  You can take the ferry for free to a few beaches and scenic areas (it’s included in the monthly ticket).  Another great place to visit is this park by Dammtor station.  The park is huge, but was much nicer in May when the flowers were blooming.  It’s still quite nice to have a picnic there over the summer.  Unfortunately, this all requires nice weather, which Hamburg is not that famous for in the summer.  May had some of the sunniest skies, but now June has these high winds and random rain showers (from some climate influences in the surrounding bodies of water).  I think July and August might be better, but we shall see.  No matter the season, Friday and Saturday is famous for St Pauli and Reeperbahn.  The clubs and bars are open until morning and they really are quite incredible.  You haven’t had the full experience until you’ve stayed up for the 6AM FischMarket on Saturday.

Nearby Cities

There is a DB ticket for weekends called a “Happy Weekend ticket” that costs 37EUR for up to 5 people.  You can use this to take any of the local trains starting from 3AM until midnight.  Since the railway system is relatively fast, I would suggest gathering some friends and taking a weekend day-trip to a close city.  The closest popular city is Berlin (which will take around 3 hours by local transportation).  However, there are other cities like Schwerin, Lubeck, Bremen, Rostock, Hannover, Luneburg, and Harburg, which has some pretty interesting sights.  Each of them has their own little day-trip attraction, but I’ve mostly gone as an escape to a different part of Germany.

Traveling in Europe

I would highly suggest buying a 10-day select-country eurailpass.  For 310EUR, you can travel 10 days within a 2 month period to any 3 countries by the express trains in the DB network.  Berlin takes 2 hours, Dresden takes about 6 hours, Munich about 7 hours, Amsterdam about 7 hours, and Prague about 8 hours.  The cost of each a single one-way ticket from Hamburg to Berlin by ICE train costs about 68EUR.  Discounted tickets can be purchased about 4 or 5 days in advance for about 40EUR.  If you’re an amazing planner, I’m sure you could get tickets a month in advice for another 10EUR discount.  However, if you’re spontaneous and always filled with conflicting plans, I would suggest the pass for flexibility.  I just wake up for the schedule and sit down anywhere.  Other methods of transportation include cheap flights or a carpooling website called mitfahrzentrale.de.

Useful Resources

The German railway system is always on time and follows the schedules perfectly.  If you’re planning a trip, you can check www.bahn.de for any of the public transportation time tables (including BUS, S-Bahn, and U-bahn).  Germany is famous for the delicious wurst.  One of my favorite places to go is called MoGriller near the Monckbergstrasse station on the U3.  They somehow have the crunchiest casings – so much better than hotdogs.

Germany has been and continues to be an absolutely incredible place to meet new people and absorb the culture and history within Europe.  It goes without saying that this is not only about conducting research and finishing a project – this study abroad program is about opening your mind to observing the subtle details that make our views of the world different.  The trip is a social psychology class in disguise and your own effort and interest will determine how much you learn and grow from this experience.  Without considering any letter grades, percentages, or standard deviation curves, simply try to have a good time and let the experiences alter or support your current perspective of the world.  If this last paragraph doesn’t make sense, it will when you think read it again after the trip.  Best of luck.

~See Lemons Happy with Germany

Berlin University Buffet

Reichstag fanciness

Random Observation/Comment #190: I can’t believe I’m writing this entry two months later.  It was fresh in my mind, and now it’s like trying to remember the details of a complex dream before you’re able to tell someone (I think there’s an xkcd about this, but I’m too lazy to find it).  Luckily, the abundance of pictures I’ve taken is a great way to relive these days and spark some lost roots that branch into vivid memories.  It’s interesting how much is hidden in the back of our heads, and how we recall these memories.  The particular situation is just pushed to the “viewing deck” by some type of catalyst.  It’s fascinating how these ideas just form through simple triggering events, like walking down a certain hallway, staring at a specific object, or listening to a special song.  Every idea – a feeling, a thought, a reaction – has these underlying meanings stored somewhere as a memory or an inspiration.  Those pictures I took act as that spark.  See? There are an endless number of good reasons to maintain this photography enthusiasm.

This Berlin weekend university trip was the introduction to an incredible group of interesting individuals that I would grow to drink with (and drink heavily with) for the months ahead.  It was through these few days in Berlin that I browsed the collection of personalities like it was my first time at a buffet.  I tried all different types of cuisine and searched for my favorite plate of the right mix.  There needs to be a balance of different meats, sides of vegetables, and base carbs in every good combination.  Each conversation was given that extra swirl in my mouth to evaluate how to spend my future time in Germany.  That spicy attitude or quirky taste was stored in this internal system.  I wondered how they were all prepared and what ingredients had made them taste the way they do.  Each group had their own pinch of spices here and there, but we all had something in common.  I’m not sure what the metaphor is for studying in this buffet-style comparison, but I’m sure there’s one somewhere.

Even after a few tastes, I would always go back for seconds or steal some off of my friend’s plate, but this is just the nature of having a bottomless stomach in a buffet filled with delicious food (I’m not implying that I will eat the people).  As I was introduced to the German Wurst, American Hamburgers, Hungarian Goulash, Sweedish Meatballs, and Finnish – uhhh whatever the Fins eat, I felt my taste in food had expanded to new textures and combinations.  Although the food will never be prepared exactly the same way again, I hope to find people that meet the similar tastes I’ve experienced this trip.

This trip did not only open my network of individuals, but it also helped me escape from my solidarity routine in a different city.  I have often traveled solo and found some random people to chit-chat with at hostels, but I’ve found that this more long-term based connection is comforting.  There are certain constant things about this world that will always give me a smile.  It could be that sound of stepping on freshly fallen snow or the annoying habits of a close friend.  Either way, I feel like I’m growing towards this world of patterns and expectations.  My brain is slowly making sense of this world, and also slowly removing the impossible from my reality.  I feel like if I tried a new sense-altering drug now, the hallucinations would have passed the level of “coolness” and borderline a level of “what the fudge is happening?!?”

What does this have to do with networking?  Well, the more people I meet, the more I gather information about the different stories that have brought people where they are.  In the travel abroad case, most people from America are here the end of their junior year and just traveling Europe while their semester is finishing.  Classes don’t really matter since it’s mostly pass/fail, and their real purpose is to absorb the most out of this world while drinking publically.  Others from European countries have more interesting paths including, taking years off for work or finishing the military and continuing school again.  I see these stories as a funnel that can follow a mind map tree down to a specific personality.  I am aware that each person is their own individual, but I somehow see a combination of my friends in these new acquaintances.  I automatically group them in this higher dimensional space of friendship connections.  I’ve clustered them into little sections within this web of traits that create the individual.  I should really try drawing it.

Anyway, I hope the new people I meet through the rest of my travels introduce this new taste.  With each bite, I refine my ways of sampling these expensive wines and differently flavored beers.  Meeting people has become as interesting to me as trying new and exotic foods.  Everything is worth a taste.  (How is it that I can relate every topic to food?)

~See Lemons with New Friends