Travelling a lot in Europe (now the UK)

Hello everyone,

So- Oscar and I are the travelling experts lately. For the last almost two weeks he has been in Italy, Austria and even Lichtenstein (I think). This past weekend I flew down to Venice to spend 24 hours with him and his friends. It was great and relatively inexpesive too! :) So that was good. Now today (in an hour) I leave for the UK. We are flying to Manchester for business. This is my first time to the UK. I'm pretty happy about that- we are going to see some one's lab at the University of Liverpool. My colleague Frank has asserted that we have to go out to get a drink at the very least- because we will only be there for less than 24 hours and I guess he is hoping to get some enjoyment out of being in the UK. Mostly- it will be business as usual.

In the next month I still have very little travel plans. I'm happy about that. I will travel to my brother's wedding for a week and then after that I have to travel a lot.

I'm excited for Oscar to get back! :) He is really great and I miss hanging out with him.

Happy Easter

I really can't believe it is already Easter weekend. It is great to have some relaxing time and recover from jetlag. This seems to be the story of my life recently, but I'm pretty happy that I won't have to travel over the ocean until May and then again after that until early August.

:) I'm going to make myself some quesadillas now for lunch- but first wanted to say Happy Easter to all my family and friends.

I thought also that I would post some photographs on line. I haven't posted much on my blog for some time- so now that i have some time to relax- here goes. The first photo is of the two mohler's that have yet to be married (me and my baby bro- Daniel). Then you can see below my brother steven who is getting married this summer to his fiance Katy. I'm really looking forward to their wedding and to see their married life begin! :)

Long time.. no blogging.

It has certainly been a long time since I have written anything on this page. It isn't because I haven't wanted to, but mostly because I've been extremely busy. I am right now in Salt Lake City getting ready to make the flight back over the ocean. I visited the states for a research conference, IEEE-Virtual Reality. The conference was really enjoyable and I met a lot of fascinating people. Also, a student I have been working with presented a research paper and it was her first big presentation. I was impressed- she did a great job. She is the same student/friend I visited in Romania this past summer. She is back in Tuebingen enjoying the German life.

My trip to Salt Lake City went really well. I got to see a lot of people this time and I felt like I really got to talk to a few people in great depth. It is nice to be among really good friends and people that I just really admire a lot. Also, I have had some great food while I was here. I went for mexican food, vegan food, japanese food twice and well- other than that I guess I can still say I ate very well.

I also got a lot of work done. I'm helping to organize two conferences right now. For one I feel as if the work is picking up the pace and the conference is the end of May. For the other- the work is really just getting started and that conference will be in LA in August.

I miss my family. I thought I'd post a photograph of Oscar and me on-line though for those of you who actually check this page still and would like to see a photograph of Oscar and I when we recently visited the tallest mountain in all of the European Union. Oscar is great at planning trips and we have managed pretty well to see some cool places without spending a ton of money. ;) This specific photograph I am posting is of Oscar and I in Italy with Mt Blanc behind us.

Working on a paper submission and conference work

I feel like it has been a while since I posted. I am working on a conference deadline for a conference which I am helping to organize. It will be in late May in the Netherlands. It has been fun so far to work on organizing it, but it is amazing how much time organizing things (I'm also organizing another conference, and I've taken on two students) takes from your research. It is a major juggling act. I am happy to be gaining experience though, since very soon I would like to move on to become a faculty member where there are a lot more tasks/topics to juggle.

I have some cool photographs from my recent research. I'm working on wrapping up the avatar work so that I can move on to using the avatar for psychophysical experiment. Here are some photographs that my research assistant helped gather for my current experiment:



These two images are when you are looking down at your left hand and right foot, respectively. :) In these images you see a visual representation of yourself within a virtual world.

Scuba Diving in January

While i was home in PA my brother Robert and his wife Jen took me scuba diving. We finished all the book work to be scuba-diving certified. We also went diving twice. So for me, now I have gone diving three times with them and we had a great time. Jen is an excellent and patient teacher- and Rob is also really good at teaching. I felt really happy to have them both teaching me and it was great to spend that time with them. I am working on a sunday and should really get back to work so that this coming week is not so stressful for me- but I wanted to post a photograph of me under water. You can see that I have my new subscription mask and I am not using the water tank, but instead I'm practicing continuously blowing bubbles. It was quite fun! :)

Back in Germany... Home Sweet Home?

I made it back to Deutschland today. Wow the last three weeks were a whirlwind of people, work, and travel. I first went to PA where I was so happy to see my family and catch up with them before going to spend Christmas with Oscar and his family in Oregon. Oregon is such a beautiful place and it was really nice to get to know Oscar's family more and see them when they are together for the holidays. They did a great job of making me feel at home and O's parents can really cook well- so that was also really enjoyable. Mostly, I thought it was great to get to know O's sister better and to see how happy Oscar's father is because he found out that Oscar will return this coming July to sail with him in an annual sailboat race. Christmas was really nice to spend with them. Then I went to Salt Lake City where I was able to catch up with some of my friends- some of my good friends were out of town for the holidays. However, my friend Kristi who we just learned a bit over a year ago had Luekemia- is doing remarkably well and I'm so happy for her and her, now, fiance! :)

Then I returned to Pennsylvania, just in time to celebrate my brother's birthday and the new year! ;) I also returned to PA just in time for the newest edition of our family to come into the world. William, my baby sister's first child, was born early afternoon on January 1st. ;) I was so happy to meet him when he was just a few hours old. Becky and Ryan seem to be settling in to being mom and dad really well. ;) I am also glad to know that she has my mom nearby. My mom has got to be the most amazing and practiced!! mother ever- so I think Becky will get some good advice over the next coming years. ;) Then the week seemed to fly by right up until my grandmother and grandfather's wedding celebration. My grandfather, or PopPop as we say it, surprised my Nanny on her 80th birthday with a huge party and he planned an entire wedding for her (well, for this he had the help of all his children and their children). It was definitely the most romantic thing I ever saw. It is really cool that they have been together for so long and that they look after one another so well.

Then I traveled to Washington DC to visit my friends Milan, Bettina, Mendel and Melushka. That was really nice- though I wish I had been there longer. Then I had to rush back to PA to spend some time with the family and now I'm awake in the middle of the night due to jetlag. ;)

I'll post a few photographs from my trip. I thought I'd say thank you to all the people who made my christmas holidays so enjoyable!!! Also, I'm so glad to be back in my apartment, at home in ways, but being back in Germany makes me realize that Home Sweet Home will always be where my mom and dad are living. :)

I miss all of my brothers, sisters, grandparents, and especially my parents already!

Last days in Lancaster County, PA

I am sitting here with my grandfather and I just got back from DC where I was visiting some university friends. I'll post a picture of them as soon as they send it my way. My christmas and new year's holidays were a lot of fun. I went out to Oregon to be with Oscar's family for Christmas, stopped in Salt Lake City to see my friends from Utah, played poker with my brothers on New Year's Eve. Then the big event occurred. My nanny and pop pop got remarried. I made a movie and I bought my mom and nanny some nice clothes for the event. It was one of the most romantic events of my life. :) They really love each other and my mom is a really good role model. I wish I was as good of a daughter as she is to her parents!! :)

I'm not too ready to leave PA, but I sure am ready to see Oscar. We both fly back to Germany this coming weekend.

:) The photo is me when I was a baby. Also, that reminds me, my sister Rebecca had her little baby. Some photos of them will be posted soon.