Real-time avatar is looking pretty good :)

Oscar and I went to Austria again last weekend for skiing. It was great. Today I got the real-time avatar working at work. This is my colleague waving to me and the "avatar dude" isn't the greatest- but by next week we will have a really cool program setup and we should be able to do whatever we want with the avatar. I'm really excited for how great the setup is and for how much progress we've made with the avatar. The latency-- meaning the delay between actual movement and the movement of the dude you see on the screen-- is really small. I shook my colleagues "virtual" hand a few times and it felt really natural.

I like my job.

German Halfmarathon

So, this morning I woke up and ran a halfmarathon. I haven't ran that far since way pre-dissertation, so I was really happy that my body remembers how to run so far!!! Oscar and some friends from work came to cheer me on. Then a colleague of ours at work made brunch for a bunch of us! He is from Ireland and is extremely funny. His girlfriend recently moved here and she is really cool.

So, the halfmarathon was called Nikolauslauf Tuebingen Halbmaraton http://www.nikolauslauf-tuebingen.de/. I was aiming for getting under 2 hours and I got 1:59:59. Well- that is without the 30 seconds subtraction that I would get-- because with all the people that is how long it took me to get to the starting line. ;)

I've ran one other half marathon here in Germany (Berlin, 2005), however this one was quite interesting. It was less people and the people were a lot quieter. Perhaps it was because we were all so out of shape! I'm not sure.

Anyway-- oscar took photos so I will post them soon. But now it is time for dinner. Yummy mac and cheese (the recipe is from Oscar's mom) and salad.

Oscar treats me really well! :) This might have been one of my best birthday weekends EVER!! :)

Mein Geburtstag ist heutiger Tag

Today is my birthday. I'm recovering (almost completely recovered) from a cold and Oscar is right now making me breakfast! :) I slept in until 10 o'clock and now we are going to go shopping downtown and to one of my favorite coffee shops. Then we have an apartment to look at today. I hope we get it. I am going to say in german that today is my birthday and then say PLEASE!!! :) Just kidding. I'm taking a friend of mine, Mirko, to translate for me.

I have been wanting to post some photographs of the trip Oscar and I took to Austria last week. Also, next weekend we are going to travel with Joerg again skiing. He is very kind to let us travel with him. He is definately one of my favorite german's that I've met while I've been abroad. He finishes defending his PhD sometime this coming winter. That is really exciting- except for that it means that he will ultimately leave MPI.

Anyway, so let me dig up some photographs of Oscar and I skiing. The first one is of Oscar, Manuel (Joerg's roommate who is from Spain originally) and Joerg. :) They are silly. This was, I think, our first day of skiing and the skiing was so beautiful, as were the austrian alps. The second one is of me in Oscar's ski goggles. I know- I am beautiful. Hey, it is my birthday I can say super nice things about myself. ;) Finally, there is one of me in all my ski gear. :) This is my brand new ski gear. New helmet, new skis, and new ski boots. Also, my jacket, pants and fleece sweater are thanks to my brother's Daniel and Robert. :) Thanks guys! You are sweet and helping me go skiing in the most amazing mountains! :) Also, everytime I go skiing and get in another gondola- I think of my grandparents and mom and uncle Marvin and how they came to visit me and took a gondola up to the top of the Snowbird resort in Utah. It was so great to show them the mountains during my graduation last May. And it was also so great- since Oscar and I were just starting to date when I graduated. I think that was a really happy time in my life, in general.