well: here begins the germany chapter of my blog.....and my life.
i will be in berlin, germany, doing a 10-week internship at Biotronik and returning around thanksgiving time.
last thursday, dad took me to stroudburg to catch the bus to nyc. i arrived in the city around 1030am, hung out with my friend josh, and had an amazing dinner at il buco at night. on friday, i spent a little time strolling through the city with josh. then i headed to penn station to take nj transit to the newark airport for my flight to berlin via coppenhagen.
flight was fine, but i missed my connecting flight on saturday morning in coppenhagen despite running about a kilometer through the terminal. i had a new flight around noon, and i arrived in berlin shortly thereafter. nick met me at the airport and it took about 2 hours to get to his apartment which is on the other side of the city. i was rather dazed and exhausted after so much travel and confusion, but that's no excuse for staying in and not experiencing a foreign place. so on saturday we toured the city until pretty late. then i slept for about 12 hours and felt that i could have slept a few more haha. we did mostly the same thing on sunday.
monday, i had my first day of work. here's the jist of the day: contract signing, meeting everyone on my floor, learning about my project, lunch with the guys, a little more about my project. i went home early to get moved into my new apartment. and by move in i mean i moved my backpack and my bag across the hallway from nick's apartment.
the apartments and fairly nice and fairly expensive. it's pretty much two rooms: there's the bathroom and then the living room with a sofa/bed and an attached kitchen. the kitchen is pretty much full-size except for the frig. also, it's all furnished including a tv with cable, silverware, coffee maker, water boiler, vaccuum cleaner, and even toilet paper. the sofa/bed thing pretty much sucks, but it's better than the floor.
the bus station is about a five-minute walk away, and it's about a five minute ride on the bus to the subway station. an unlimited public transport pass costs 50 € per month.
i've been studying german every night and getting a little bit better. but it's still pretty much impossible to understand germans when they speak normally, although i can understand nick fairly well (i can at least pick out all the words...).
oh yeah, here's a rough description of the project im going to be working on: Developing an electrode impedance model for implementation in heart
simulation for use in pace maker and defibrillator research and development.
pictures this weekend.
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Monday, 23 August 2010
hamburgers back by popular demand
on saturday, a few friends wanted to have a bbq, and they asked me to make bacon cheeseburgers again. i wanted to propose making bbq'd chicken, but everyone was dead set on hamburgers. this time mariana made the bbq sauce, and i fried the burgers in a pan so we could use our money to buy beer instead of charcoal.
everything went well. boy do people get crazy when they see burgers are almost done. not like black friday, stampede crazy, but you can see the desperation in their eyes.
right now, im trying to plan out everything i need/want to do in my last week in Ilha... i think right now the number of goodbye churrascos stands at three: one with my roommates, one with all my friends, and one with fish only.
it's already hard when i think about all the things i will be leaving behind, but i think im ready. the adventure never ends.
everything went well. boy do people get crazy when they see burgers are almost done. not like black friday, stampede crazy, but you can see the desperation in their eyes.
right now, im trying to plan out everything i need/want to do in my last week in Ilha... i think right now the number of goodbye churrascos stands at three: one with my roommates, one with all my friends, and one with fish only.
it's already hard when i think about all the things i will be leaving behind, but i think im ready. the adventure never ends.
Sunday, 15 August 2010
nearing the end
last weekend, the other american that was here in ilha finished his internship. there was a big goodbye churrasco (bbq) at his place on saturday. there were about 30 people and food and beer for all. daniel and i made cheddar bacon cheeseburgers, and daniel also made bbq sauce to top em off. id say they were a hit... of course, we made them obnoxiously big and garnished them with onions fried in the left over bacon fat.
one guy at the bbq asked, "ou david, can you teach me how to make hamburgers?" so i showed him the hand motions required to form a patty. :-) it reminded me of my roommate asking me to flip his egg for him. or the astonishment on my roommates faces when i told them i knew how to make brownies. yea...not much culinary or gastronomic tradition here. the best thing goin here culinarily speaking is the fish! very fresh fish. and a lot of variety (similar to the fruit scene here). it comes just about any way you want it: fried, baked, raw, grilled. mmmmmmmm. this raises further questions, however, as to why nearly every meal at my house is based on beef. this fish is just begging (might i say, "dying"?) to make it into the republica pulero* diet!!! but not once have i eaten fish here at the republica.
*a republica is a group of friends who get together to rent a house.....republica pulereo is the name of my republica
so there are a whole lot of foreigners here these days. maybe 10 students doing internships through IAESTE, and an additional constituency of foreign students studying here at UNESP. however, i havent met most of them because ive been spending my time with brazilians.
i was sick most of last week, but i made it to work every day. i went to the hospital on thrusday for a free consultation. the doctor gave me one of the most powerful antibiotics available (for a sore throat and achiness, mind you). wikipedia says it's used for severe, life-threatening infections and infections that are resistant to other antibiotics. he also gave me this nice drug coctail of consisting of an anti-piretic, an analgesic, and some others goodies. that got rid of my sore throat and achiness quite nicely.
just two more weeks of internship left. then ill been heading home!
also, i now know my next destination! i will be leaving for Germany on sept 10 to do a three-month internship in Berlin! the position is at a biomedical engineering company called Biotronik. one of my best friends from RIT, Nick, is currently interning at the same company (he was the connection that set me up with the position...thanks, nick). i will be splitting an apartment with him until november, when we will both be returning to the states....nov 21.
até mais
one guy at the bbq asked, "ou david, can you teach me how to make hamburgers?" so i showed him the hand motions required to form a patty. :-) it reminded me of my roommate asking me to flip his egg for him. or the astonishment on my roommates faces when i told them i knew how to make brownies. yea...not much culinary or gastronomic tradition here. the best thing goin here culinarily speaking is the fish! very fresh fish. and a lot of variety (similar to the fruit scene here). it comes just about any way you want it: fried, baked, raw, grilled. mmmmmmmm. this raises further questions, however, as to why nearly every meal at my house is based on beef. this fish is just begging (might i say, "dying"?) to make it into the republica pulero* diet!!! but not once have i eaten fish here at the republica.
*a republica is a group of friends who get together to rent a house.....republica pulereo is the name of my republica
so there are a whole lot of foreigners here these days. maybe 10 students doing internships through IAESTE, and an additional constituency of foreign students studying here at UNESP. however, i havent met most of them because ive been spending my time with brazilians.
i was sick most of last week, but i made it to work every day. i went to the hospital on thrusday for a free consultation. the doctor gave me one of the most powerful antibiotics available (for a sore throat and achiness, mind you). wikipedia says it's used for severe, life-threatening infections and infections that are resistant to other antibiotics. he also gave me this nice drug coctail of consisting of an anti-piretic, an analgesic, and some others goodies. that got rid of my sore throat and achiness quite nicely.
just two more weeks of internship left. then ill been heading home!
also, i now know my next destination! i will be leaving for Germany on sept 10 to do a three-month internship in Berlin! the position is at a biomedical engineering company called Biotronik. one of my best friends from RIT, Nick, is currently interning at the same company (he was the connection that set me up with the position...thanks, nick). i will be splitting an apartment with him until november, when we will both be returning to the states....nov 21.
até mais
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Boat trip on the river and beach -- foto update
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
curitiba
on thursday i left at 330pm for curitiba. i arrived there at 6am where i met up with bharbara at the bus station. bharbara's cousin and grandmother picked us up at the bus station.
during the two full days there, bharbara and i visited a lot of the attractions: jardim botanico, mercado municipal, parque tanguá, ópera de arame, and torre panoramica. the family took really good care of me. it seemed like every time i was done eating there was more food ready. haha. also on sunday there was a churrasco and a lot of the family came to the house. in the afternoon we all watched the final. i was the only one rooting for holland which ended sadly for me.
before i left, bharbara's uncle gave me a bottle of wine and her aunt gave me canned hot peppers!
so that's the short version of the weekend. the pictures tell the rest of the story. enjoy!
last nite i left curitiba at 800pm and arrived back in ilha at 1100am today. i went to the lab this afternoon, but there wasnt much activity there.
during the two full days there, bharbara and i visited a lot of the attractions: jardim botanico, mercado municipal, parque tanguá, ópera de arame, and torre panoramica. the family took really good care of me. it seemed like every time i was done eating there was more food ready. haha. also on sunday there was a churrasco and a lot of the family came to the house. in the afternoon we all watched the final. i was the only one rooting for holland which ended sadly for me.
before i left, bharbara's uncle gave me a bottle of wine and her aunt gave me canned hot peppers!
so that's the short version of the weekend. the pictures tell the rest of the story. enjoy!
last nite i left curitiba at 800pm and arrived back in ilha at 1100am today. i went to the lab this afternoon, but there wasnt much activity there.
fotos of curitiba and UNESP
jardim botânico
cultural space at jardim botânico
church in the praça tiradentes
random building
stuff for the churrasco
meat
family in curitiba
university entrance
entrance
sign
inside the campus
inside the campus
the building where i work
the lab where i work
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