Day 4 - Germany, the land of the small automobile.


3:42 PM

I'm so completely and utterly full right now. I just got back from my first real German meal. I couldn't believe a single plate could hold so much flavor. I'll get to the details in a minute. I'll first talk about what i did today chronologically so I can keep some sort of order to this post.

So I was awake all night and intend to remain so until 1 or 2 AM. I might need a little caffeinetic assitance. Speaking of, my day officially began when i left my hotel room and crossed the street to McDonalds for a cheap, quick breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that fast food over here is hardly like it is over there. The menu's are very different and the quality is beyond what you get at most chain restaurants in the states. I ordered a bacon and cheese mcmuffin and a coffee. The coffee was absolutely magnificent. You know how in the old italian movies they always serve up the perfect cup of joe with the milky way foam at the top? This cup of mcdonalds coffee was nothing short of that. One of the best cups i've had all year. Plus, the food was EXCELLENT. It sounds silly, but i swear it was better than what you get at most restaurants back home. They even deliver the food to your table for you. I just might make mcdonalds my routine morning spot here.

After breakfast i returned to the hotel and got around for the day. I had to dress up a little because today is registration day at the conference. I got ready and began walking toward the conference centre. Of course i got lost on the way to it thinking i knew a shortcut. about 1.5 miles later I find my way back on course. While i was lost i snapped this photo:

Looks cheap, eh? Well, don't jump to conclusions. That's in liters. There are 3.79 liters to a gallon. Which makes it about 4.96 Euros per gallon. And when you convert that to US dollars, it comes to a whopping $7.09/gal!! Makes the current gas prices in the US seem pretty cozy, eh?

This conference is a little different than the others as far as who is attending and the overall atmosphere makes it seem smaller. I have to admit, i don't mind at all! The conference building is really nice. Here's a pic of it:


And here's a pic of the room i'll be giving my presentation in on Friday:


There's actually a pretty strong IU presence here. One of my colleagues said that our school has the most grad students in attendance. That's in the entire world! Not too shaby.

When i registered i noticed my advisor, Annie Lang, had a presentation at noon. I attended this and met up with a few people i know from various colleges. The session was pretty decent. Actually I was proud of our school because our presentation was really good and drew a lot of attention. Most of the people in attendance knew me from previous conferences, so the atmosphere was friendly.

Afterwards I decided to take a stroll around "old town" with two other students at my school, Narine and Sueng-Jo. Here's a picture of one of the buildings in old town:


It's actually the backside of this really big art museum. There a really big courtyard in the middle of the building with a magnificent prospect. I'll take some pics of it when i go to the museum in the next couple days.

Part way through our walk we were serenaded by a huge clap of thunder accompanied by a downpour. Luckily we were near the restaurant Narine was guiding us to where we had the aforementioned lunch. This place was amazing. It had a small cafe/wine bar feel to it. I ordered a half pork knuckle that came with a potato ball, pickled cabbage and bread. Everything was rich and full of flavor. Every bite was savored. I can't even describe how great it tasted. I don't think i'll have to eat for the rest of the day.

After lunch i needed to walk! So I decided to head back to my hotel for a little rest and world cup action. I'm usually not a soccer fan, but it's really exciting to watch all of these countries go crazy. On the way home I snapped a photo of a bombed out building:


I read a little about Dresden in WWII. I guess on February 13-15, 1945 the allied forces carpet bombed the city and demolished 10,000 buildings. Here's a pic of the devastation the firebombing left on the city:

The black areas are total devastation and the striped are partial. My hotel is in one of the total devastation areas.

after the bombings, the germans moved in and occupied the north end of the city and some really heavy fighting happened over the Elbe River which divides Dresden. The city has been making a real effort to restore the buildings to their original form. Some of them are over 800 years old! There are a lot of buildings throughout the town that were just abandoned after the bombings and have remained untouched ever since. In fact i looked through the broken windows of some of them and could see old porcelain tea sets and other stuff just lying on the floor. Some of it wasn't even broken! I think they wanted to leave things as they were as kind of a memorial. I guess there were very heavy civilian casualties. It really feels like you're walking through the set of "The Pianist" in some of the parts here. It never seems real when you're a kid in the US learning about it in grade school. This was definitely a big reality check.

Anyways, I'm back in my hotel room right now for a while. I might write later tonight.

br