Jun 08, 2014: Hannover, Germany

Location

Here I am at the Hannover zoo.

: Hannover, Germany

8. You can get around pretty well with a few words that share the same roots, some pointing, and a little bit of English.

9. You’re never too old for the zoo.

So, I keep trying to speak Spanish to the people of Germany. It doesn’t go over very well, and I just end up with a lot of strange looks. Significantly more Germans speak English than speak Spanish, which is to be assumed judging by the amount of people in the world who speak at least some English. When I run into someone who doesn’t speak English, pointing and a few common words usually works pretty well for me. When it doesn’t work, I apologize and find someone else. And, it might sound awful, but I’m alright with that… at least for now. I’m in the process of learning Spanish, and I would like to become semi-fluent in that before I begin to learn a third language. I’m not sure what I want that third language to be, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

The red panda is my favorite animal.

I’ve been in Hannover for nearly a week, now (it will be a week tomorrow), and I am very excited to get started working in the lab. Sadly, however, I have another week before that will happen. This coming week, from Tuesday until Thursday, the department where I am interning is hosting a training seminar for the LISA Pathfinder OMS (Optical Metrology System). This past week was spent preparing for that (I had to learn how to use a set of programming rules on MATLAB that was developed by the people working on the LISA Pathfinder.). This upcoming week will be the seminar (Monday is a public holiday, here). And then NEXT week (and possible even this coming Friday), I will be able to work in the lab! I will say, though, I’m excited for the training seminar, too!

Yesterday was our (I’m here with two other people from the IREU program) first day off from work, and what did we do? We went to the zoo! That’s right, three adults (ages 20, 21, and 21) went to the zoo as our first “activity” outside of work. (*pst* It was totally worth it!). My favorite part of the day, besides seeing the red panda (which is always a favorite), was watching the gorilla feeding. One of the gorillas was feeling particularly dominant before the feeding and kept trying to fight the other males. The weather was beautiful, and it was a great day.