Biking in Germany

I am so happy for the weekend this week! The last four or five weekends I've had to work and this weekend I feel like I have earned every last drop of relaxation and doing nice things for myself. I went to a games night last night with 6/7 people- I was still feeling exhausted from the week, but I had a great time just watching them interact and laughing at them. They didn't seem to mind that I'm so weird- and sometimes I can be really socially awkward. For example when I'm nervous around someone I just try to get out of the conversation as fast as possible and I hate that--- because I'm usually so nice to people.

Anyway, today I woke up pretty early despite not going to sleep until 1am or so. I got the flat cleaned, some laundry started and I biked downtown to get some groceries. Monday is a holiday, so all the groceries until tuesday need to be bought today. Wednesday I fly home to the states to see my family! My baby big bro is getting married! It is amazing, I'm telling you! I always knew he'd get married and to a girl he was madly in love with--- he's got a lot of principles and is a dreamer like some of the other Mohler's so- I knew he'd settle for no less. But that he has found it and that they are gonna start their life together a week from today--- just hard to adjust to without feeling ancient!! Steven will always be my little brother who I could boss around and he would mostly take it. Boy- it got bossed around from both sides, from Becky & me. It must have been hard on him growing up. However, Katy, if you ever read this--- you should know that you owe me and Becky for both the easy things-- like how easy it is to boss steve around for some things--- and the hard things-- like how tricky he became in order to not do what he doesn't want to!! :) He was always very good at being sneaky and it makes me laugh to think about his annoying, then immediately fading to super cute laugh when he knows he did something mischeaveous.

I am so excited to see Lisa, Deb and their families too. I'm only sad that I can't meet the twins. It makes me think that I'm gonna need to see what I can do about getting a flight back early in July to go to our family outing this summer. Oscar encouraged me the other day to really think about it- and he was right. I should think more about how I can get to Tennessee with my family.

Anyway, I started the title of this blog with while Oscar is away I get to bike ride. I'm so excited about it too. I have a friend who is coming to my apartment in 30 minutes to borrow my bike. I'm gonna assume that Oscar is okay with me borrowing his- so that one more girl can join us on the bike ride. There will be 8 of us or so and I haven't ever ridden into the forest for a barbeque, but it is fairly common here in Germany!! I'm getting so excited for Oscar's family to come here. I just think that he will be relieved when he can hug his mom, dad and sister again. It is awesome travelling and living in Germany--- but it sure can be one of the loneliest and scariest things for country folk like Oscar and me. Surely, I could live here for a long time- but not without going home every six months and not without making better friends than I currently have here. In academics it seems hard to make friends- because people are always shifting to a new position. Also, in Germany I am always left wondering how I could fit in more and why I can't just learn Germany more easily. I have been doing the lessons on-line with BBC and they are fun- but still I am not doing so well with deutsch.

So today- we are biking into the schoenbuch forest- there is a photograph above that Oscar took in the fall of Bebenhausen- which is in the schoenbuch:). Bebenhausen is just a 10-15 minute bike ride form our place.

Then tomorrow 5/6 of us are going to take the train from Tuebingen to Ulm and then bike 50-80km. My friend Frank, who also was my partner in crime for the grant that I was just working on- will be going and a colleague from work who is super cool-- is also attending. His name is Reinhard (and he celebrated his 60th birthday this past year!) and he plans a 80-90 km bike trip each year for the our work outing- which I might miss (the bike trip, not the work outing) this year, because I will want to be with Oscar and his family for his last few days here in Europe before he heads home to go sailing with his dad.

Then.... I am so excited because after a long day of bike riding tomorrow I will catch the bus to the airport and meet Oscar because he will be back from his travels!!! and.. he doesn't go on any more long vacations without me until... June- when his parents will be here and his buddy Brian might be coming over the big pond to see his best buddy and some other friends here in Europe.

Okay- I better get going. I decided to be super nice and push the my bike and O's bike up the hill so that my friend doesn't have to come down and get it. Don't worry- it will be good for me and just help me to get back into shape! :)

I am so happy and excited to see my family this week!

working too hard and now taking a long vacation with a little bit of work throughout

Lately I have been extremely busy. I now have four students. Two of them only work 10-20 hours a week, but still I feel like I have to make sure they are progressing so that they can learn some stuff and also so that they can help out with experiments and move towards a point where they will get their masters if that is their plan/path. My friend who went with me to IEEEVR in Reno and who has been here a lot of the last 18 months I have been here- will be leaving for Pittsburgh, PA in late July. I will be super sad when she leaves here. She is really sweet and takes good care of me by listening and giving feedback. Oscar is travelling right now. It feels like he has been travelling a lot lately- and I think he has. I'm so happy for him that he can get some travelling in- but I think by the end of this coming summer some normalcy would be nice for both of us. Travelling makes you tired sometimes- even if it is really exciting!

Anyway, today I finished a project that I have been working on since mid-January. My boss decided he wanted a grant written on a really cool topic and I volunteered to help out. I sure hope that the grant gets funded as I haven't seen him more excited about an idea and I think he's had a lot of good ones. I also think he chose some really good Universities and Industry partners to help get the work done.

Just like my work and how crazy futuristic some of it is- virtual realities training people for everything!! and evaluating all human activity at the lowest level, well this idea for the grant is even much more futuristic.

The basic idea is one that has been in many science fiction books, movies and cartoons; and from what I've learned over the last three months it really may be come a reality in my lifetime. One day a normal person should be able to fly a private vehicle. What that vehicle will look like is unclear, however it is pretty clear that a lot of flight will have to be autonomous and that it would have to be pretty appealing and comfortable for people to make a huge jump to flying vehicles.

I'll add two photographs in here which I think are really interesting. One is from a company in Israel, Urban Aeronautics, and the other is the Jetsons! :) I loved that show when I was a kid. Lets all keep our fingers crossed that this grant gets funded, because it will likely mean that I get to go flying a bit- if not in real aerial vehicles (helicopters, planes) definitely more in simulators! :)

Though I'm always so sad that I'm so far from my family and where I feel at home-- I am so glad that i like my job and I'm so grateful that Oscar came to Germany to be with me for the last 5 months. It has been a lot nicer with him around!!

He is really sweet and I can't wait to see him this coming weekend and introduce him to my family next week at my younger brother's wedding.

Grant Writing

Hey all,

Well for the last month I've been just barely staying afloat with work and a crazy over-committed schedule. I guess I didn't realize how easy it is for a post-doc to get overloaded with work. I'm writing this really exciting grant and I'm organizing two conferences- and they are both good for my career. However, sometimes I wonder why anyone would do such things for their career. I guess they are in some ways intrinsically a lot of fun- but mostly it is a lot of hard work and humility.

I am really excited for May 8th when my schedule decreases and I can take off some days to go for some bike rides and enjoy myself. Also, May 14th I leave for the states to go to my brother's wedding. It should be a lot of fun, though, like usual I wish I was going longer.

Oscar is in London right now- hopefully enjoying his time with our friends. He leaves tomorrow morning for a really cool sailing trip. I'm excited to see some photographs and I hope I get to sail with him this summer on the bodensee. It would be great! :)

Anyway, I better get this deadline finished. Here is a photo of me in Venice that I wanted to post on-line for a while. I was thinking of my mom when I took it- as I thought she would like to see how happy I was. ;)