More culture!

Impressive on the inside ...

 From Lund home to France back home back to Lund - before I get back to Lund soon, yesterday we went to visit Metz which lies around an hour from here. Metz has quite a lot to offer but as it was only a day trip we did not have time for a lot of sightseeing. On the other hand a summary of all of it fits into one blog entry. I will let the pictures speak.

... as well as the outside.
The pitch black areas are windows ...

We started - as usual ;) - with the cathedral. It is one of the largest gothic cathedrals in France and because of its large glass windows (6500 m² in total - largest in France) it is called "God's lantern". At the time of our arrival a mass was supposed to take place but just when we stepped onto the square in front of the church, a parade of veterans left and the mass was over. So we did not have to wait and entered. Inside it was - dark. Not quite what I expected from God's lantern but the "outside" picture to the right should explain the darkness ... Still Metz cathedral is an impressive building and definitely worth a visit.

Centre Pompidou in Metz.

With a museum as interstation as last main attraction we went to visit the Centre Pompidou. Not the one in Paris. There is one in Metz as well. It lies at the "Human Rights Square". The square is neither especially large nor considerable. It is undermined by a car park and next to it a shopping centre is under construction. Just an ironic sidemark ...

Picasso should not be missing!

Concerning the Centre Pompidou, however, the building itself is already a piece of art. (See left.) Out of four exhibition floors two were close. Nobody cared to tell us before paying the entrance fee. Why should anybody?

A piece of modern art.
It was interesting.

One of the two floors that were not closed showed modern art. There were not many people there. The other floor held an exhibition about paparazzi. I found it very boring. On this floor, however, there were many, many people. More irony?

Before driving back home again we stopped by the "Gate of the Germans". It was a gate against Germans rather than for Germans. Blessedly, there is no need for it anymore as Germans and French are good friends nowadays. :)

Sweden, home, Finland

When I decided to go home over Easter my father told me that on 24 April the Trier Philharmonic Orchestra's Sixth Symphony Concerto will take place - so the first Easter break evening programme was fixed, especially as they played Sibelius! They also played Rautavaara's (a Finn like Sibelius) "Lintukoto" and Chopin's fist piano concerto and according the local newspaper Chopin was the main reason for many of the visitors to come but for me of course Sibelius was the absolute highlight. Sibelius' second symphony was the first I played in an orchestra and Sibelius' violin concerto was the first solo concerto I played in an orchestra. (Of course, I played the solo violin! ;) )

So I listened interestedly (does this word even exist?) to Rautavaara and Chopin which both were nice but lacked something. Lintukoto was well played but somehow too uniform in dynamics (no, although I am a drummer I do not mean too quiet) and in structure so Rautavaara did not really catapult himself on my must-listen list. Similar with Chopin: Very well played and already with this piece the orchestra proved that the missing dynamics in the first piece was a compositional issue rather than an "orchestral" issue. The soloist Miao Huang's skill is unquestionable as the piano concerto as well as her encore showed. Only once again I was not fully convinced by the piece itself. "Too many notes" for my taste. Maybe you see what I mean when you listen to the concerto linked below: For my taste there is too little melody in it, too much swirling up and down the claviature. Besides - despite her skill - the soloist's interpretation (for me) seemed to lack ... feeling. Too many notes. ;) For piano music lovers and romanticism fans this might sound like blasphemy but "De gustibus non est disputandum." ;)

Then after the break finally the highlight! It is not only that Sibelius was the first composer I played in an orchestra! Sibelius always creates a very unique sound and a very unique atmosphere. After listening to several of his works I begin to suspect that the sound comes from the use of very distinct harmonies and - from bassoons.^^ I might be wrong though ... Listening to Sibelius brings you immediately to Finland. The music is a little melancholic, dreamy but still energetic and idiosyncratic (I hope this is the right word for it ...) - especially concerning its rhythmic. As I am (unfortunately :( ) definitely not a music expert, for a more accurate description and analysis I recommend the music guide or internet of your choice. ;)

For German readers here is a (slightly exuberant) newspaper review and - of course - recordings of the pieces performed:

For Rautavaara - Lintukoto I could not really find a good  recroding ...

Back home, back in the mountains

Yesterday I had to go to our neighbouring metropolis to get a 'certificate of residence' or however you might translate this masterpiece of German bureaucracy. A certificate that states what is stated on my ID card anyway? A certificate that states that I am alive and registered where I am registered? Seems legit. In addition to flowing over with meaningfulness it costs 5 EUR. Printing out a piece of paper, signing it and hammering a stamp on top of the signature. One minute of work. 5 EUR. I do not quite understand why administration officials are not paid as well as bankers - 5 EUR / min results in a quite formidable creation of 'value'. At least the young lady in the office was exceptionally nice and good-humoured compared to administration officials I had the pleasure to meet several times before. Not all clichés are true. The trainee sitting beside her, however, shows a facial expression that you would rather expect from someone who did this job for around 75 years and is denied pension because of outstanding friendliness ...

The more interesting part of this journey between the two 1500 inhabitants metropolises, however, was the way there. I thought it would be a good idea to go to this office by bike for exercise. So I excavated my part-time retired bike from our garage, inflated the tires, borrowed a lock, reanimated my old helmet and was good to go. Or rather semi-good: The gear changing worked ... ok, the handlebar needed some getting used to and the breaks worked like solid walls compared to the old bike I am currently using in Lund. So the old computer game racing credo had to hold: If you break, you loose. ;) The quest of the journey was exercise anyway so on I rode, already looking forward to the nice slopes - the two villages lie on two different sides of a hill.

A real Bauernpfad.

The way there was perfectly nice, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, ... The way back was the interesting part as physics demands that for a closed integral in a conservative potential the total energy is zero. That means that you have to give all the energy back that you gained, or simpler: It is exhausting to get back up the hill. So I really got some exercise. Struggling with the lowest gear, breakneck pace, to the right the snails rush by, my mp3 player softly tootles Dave Matthews Band. (Where are Machine Head and Trivium when I need them?) Pushing instead of pedaling seems even more exhausting so I continue struggling ... At the top of the hill a police car is waiting for ingenuous drivers who used a forbidden shortcut that is blocked by a gate which is always open. (I guess it is a trap!) I think about smiling innocently and friendly when passing by

but decide that after the recent effort it might rather result in a very suspicious grimace and so I just get home - enough exercise for the rest of the break. ;)

Another account of a journey part II

After a short pre-easter break now here comes the second part of the account of a journey. First, however - although usually one should not do that - I have to allude to a three language pun. ;) I called this blog entry "Another account ...". Translated to German this would mean "Ein weiterer ..." or - here starts the pun ;) - "Ein anderer ...". In Swedish, however, "andra" means "second". And this is the second (pair of) entries that I called "Account of a journey". Very funny, I know. :D At least you learned some Swedish. :P

A very exciting view from the train -
without velocity aberration.

Ok so last time I ended with a pioneering physical observation and with a pretty girl, so I will restart with the latter. After some time my pretty vis-a-vis left the train. :( A few minutes later, however, another pretty girl entered our compartment. :) Only she did not want to retake the now empty seat. :( At least she did not want to take any seat in the compartment and left the same direction as she entered. ;) As you can see, it is true: Sweden is full of beautiful girls! One does not only notice this when leaving Sweden so I look forward to another one and a half years of living in this likewise beautiful country. And not only the far future but also the near future (on the train) should become even better! At the next station again, a whole bunch of - as it seamed - future models entered the train and marched along all the compartments in a parade of high heels and make-up. So I did not need to worry about headaches from the train window's velocity aberration anymore. ;)

Besides enlightening moments as these, however, (sorry for today's frequent use of this word ...) you should also expect a clear example of why Scandinavia is often perceived as a rather dark area compared to more southern parts of the worlds if you decide to enter Sweden by train. It is not about the weather and it certainly has nothing to do with the fact that even in southern Lund some times in winter you cannot see the sun for weeks due to grey sky. Actually this impression of dark and cold only and exclusively originates from the train stations! (It is always the trains, of course - in any country.) Every single of the train stations between Lund and Kastrup made a really dark impression: Underground, connected with several tunnel route sections, not really old but not explicitly modern either. (At least not all of them.) So do not let a train station expression influence you!

During the rest of the train journey, apart from a slow train before us, two porters confusedly running up and down the train but never actually checking our tickets and the occasional brightening appearance of beautiful Swedish girls not much happened.

The way from the airport train station to my terminal did not seem as long as it did last time I went home as this time I knew the way and did not have to follow the roofed way along the building due to heavy rain as last time either. So the rest of the time I spent at the gate wondering about all kinds of different people like when I started my trip at the train station in Lund. Most of the people were rather boring except for a small child, barely able to walk but already ambitiously exploring the airport. Doing so it did not even care for passing indoor-airport-cars and definitely made clear who's assignment is to be ranked most important when it made the car violently break while crossing the gate corridor. Mother and car-driver seemed equally impressed by the little explorer's determination and did not even complain.

After that I myself was mostly impressed by not being recognised as German by the stewardess, and by how little is going on at my destination airport at night. Probably there is not much more action during day time either ... But this is exactly what you want for a break so all in all it was a very pleasant journey. :)

Another account of a journey part I

"Wenn einer eine Reise tut, dann kann er was erzählen." is the beginning of a small verse of Matthias Claudius, a German poet and journalist. In free translation it means "If someone does a travel, he can tell something." - in German it sounds equally awkward but this formulation keeps the metre and allows the rhyme with the second part "Drum nähm' ich meinen Stock und Hut und tät das Reisen wählen." - "So I would take my stick and hat and would chose travelling."

This is exactly what I once again did yesterday when flying from Lund to Germany. And indeed there are a few small stories to tell. The first thing one always notices when travelling with public transport are the people. Especially at train stations there are a lot of different - sometimes interesting - people. Hounded people, annoyed people, people with beaming smiles, people with excitement and wonder in their eyes. Business people, free riders, poor people. While I was waiting for the train (I scheduled rather generous time slots to make sure I get my plane) one of the latter approached me at the train platform and involved me in an ... interesting conversation. He tried to convince me to give him some small coins in a mumbling Skånish Swedish and I tryed to convince him to speak more slowly so that I could understand him. Eventually we established a kind of mutual agreement and he wandered his ways wondering at a few euros as I did not have any crowns with me anymore.

View from the train from the Öresundsbron.

After waiting for around 15 minutes I finally entered the train and searched for a place to sit. All of the suites were already occupied to with more or less sated amount of people so I chose one of the few places opposite to the prettiest girl in sight. ;) Unfortunately she was busy with her phone all of the time - as many people are nowadays. (Einstein ...) So I let my sight wander out of the window. Unfortunately this was not as pleasant as I thought as the Swedish train windows seem to have a grinding that distort view even worse than German train windows do so I could not stand the sight for long. So I looked for another highlight to make time pass faster (the train was going unpleasantly slowly as another train in front of ours had some trouble - the generous schedule already paid off) and as soon as he entered our compartment I noticed that guy. The guy with the phone who lets the whole train participate in his conversation - this in Arab or something like that. The highlight however, was, when - he was still talking on his phone - his phone rang. Well, his second phone. At this point at the latest I could not hide a smile anymore.

Just in case I turned my attention back to the window, briefly passing the pretty girl opposite to me. She actually smiled back! :) However, after she returned to her phone I made a scientifically quite impressive observation! By now the train was going so slowly that it almost came to a hold and I noticed that the distortion by the window was not as severe as before anymore when we were moving faster! Thus - besides chromatic and spherical aberration - this phenomenon shall henceforth be calleth velocity aberration! ;)

Concluding with this rather impressive scientific revolution a shall continue this account of a journey another time with the supermodel youth parade, the reason why Scandinavia is perceived a region of cold and dark and small children enthusiastically exploring the extents of an airport terminal.

Digital sightseeing

As I learned today the (freely translated) German saying "In April weather does what it wants" does not seem to exist in Swedish. However, this is exactly what the weather here currently does: It changes from sunny to grey to rain to sunny to stormy several times a day. Before I leave Sweden now for a short time I leave a few impressions of how my chosen home for the running two years looks like during the sunny part of weather chaos.

We start with a view down one of the roads of the inner city. To the very left there the entrance of the cinema, called "bio" in Swedish. To the right there is the Swede's sacred temple of alcohol, the "Systembolaget" of Lund. Systembolaget is a federal institution that sells beverages with more than 3,5 % alcohol. Except for these shops you cannot get alcoholic beverages in Sweden. The state does this to guarantee an even distribution of the same quality of alcoholic beverages throughout the whole country. As far as I know this system was established in a time when Swedes still fulfilled the cliche of heavy drinking because of the dark. ;) I am sure it had nothing to do with money.

These are two views of "Stortorget" - "large square". Besides, this is probably the largest crowd ever counted in Lund. Though I am sure it will be topped during Lunda-karnevalen in May which only takes place every fourth year. This year will be one of those. If I remeber correctly the immense crowd visible in the picture to the right was demonstrating for an establishment called "Projekt 6" which exactly promotes what the name implies. (No, it is not a club of panderers but it quite contraryly promotes education, safety and that stuff.) To the left is a picture of the rest of Stortorget.

The second but last image shows a small scene from the "botanisk trädgården" - the botanical garden in Lund. As the trädgården is still in hibernation there is not much to be shown except the ever resistant stone garden - which is already very nice, I think. There are even some early flowers where my exceptional botanical knowledge (exceptional implying more exceptions than anything else in this case) leaves me without much clue what they are called. I would go with "crocus" if I had to guess ... When in summer the trädgården is filled with more life stan stones again I will post some more and some really (as I think) impressive pictures. :)

Now with this flower I would guess some kind of water lily ... Might as well be completely off. It lives in the greenhouse so it survives winter as well as the stones in the stone garden. There are numerous other flowers, trees, cactuses and whatever else the botanist and tourist heart desires but Lund does not only consist of flowers. ;)

Feuerzangenbowle

How do Germans achieve Gemütlichkeit? With fire! :) On Friday we started in the easter break with a decent Feuerzangenbowle - there really is no translation for this. My favourite online dictionary gave me "mulled wine with a rum-soaked sugarloaf lit above it". Although this is correct it is of course not a proper translation and by far not a proper description of what Feuerzangenbowle is.

First, the ingredients - the bowle: Mulled wine: Yeah ok ... Mulled wine is what is sold at the Christmas market and the main ingredient of Feuerzangenbowle is very similar: Red wine and orange juice with spices. More wine, of course.

All is heated up and then second, the "Feuerzangen"part! A sugarloaf is placed on top of a special device (the people here already declared this as my standard description of everything - I think it really is very appropriate in almost every setting) on top of the pot with the "mulled wine", soaked with rum (I do not know if the rum we used is even legal in Sweden) and lit on fire. The melting sugar then drops into the mulled wine. Of course it is also ok to pour some rum immediately into the mulled wine so that the whole pot is on fire.
Third, the show and the Gemütlichkeit (another of these typical German things and one of the best ever!)! From time to time rum is poured onto the burning sugarloaf. You can imagine what happens. All this together is a very sacred German tradition that is characterised by - as the English wikipedia very accurately describes - a notion of Gemütlichkeit!

However, fourth and last, the most important ingredient are of course the people around and they were awesome so it was an awesome evening!

"Feuerzangenbowle is like a nuclear reactor - you cannot stop it."

A notion of Gemütlichkeit.

Swedish course deluxe

This semester I finally could start a Swedich course. Before it was usual "be nice and you do not get anything": When I asked several people and skimmed through the internet to find a Swedish course I could attend right from the beginning of my time in Sweden all the time I was told / I read that the university courses are only for exchange students - which I am not. So I applied at Komvux, something like "Volkshochschule" for a free "Swedish for immigrants" course. Took a few months but finally I got in. Only to learn afterwards from some of the people here that there are many students in the university courses which are not exchange students ... Just because they bugged the ones responsible long enough until they were accepted in the course. Should I now start annoying people everytime I need something?!

Well whatever, now I am in this SFI course and at least there are probably more interesting people than in a university course. Of course there are also many students but also household helps, researchers, farmers, chefs, IT experts ... And they come from all over the world: Poland, Slovenia, Kroatia, The Philippines, France, Japan, Scottland, England ... and as always Germany. Some of them speak more Swedish than English which makes it interesting to communicate - hands and feet included of course.

So far I have to admit that the course progresses a little slowly and does not require much work but at least it motivates to speak more Swedish. For Germans I think learning Swedish is significantly easier than for others as there are indeed many similarities between German and Swedish. So reading Swedish works ok already, only understanding Swedes talking is hard - especially here in Skåne as the Swedish here sounds like gibberish - even according to the Skånish people themselves ... At least sometimes I get them to speak a little slower which makes it already much easier to understand them. So far I am still convinced that I will learn some proper Swedish until my master ends! :)

Away from the world

The last month was more or less busy with studying for exams, doing project work and being sick. So I did not do much on this blog but now I give it a new try. For the next week or so I plan on presenting the project that kept me busy for two weeks and give a small insight in real nanoscience magic! Until then I will sum up a few stories about studying in Sweden, a new semester and running from bureaucracy. The word alone is already a reason to run ...

But although bureaucracy is always a good topic for agitation it is probably not such a good topic to revive a blog. Instead I will postpone this and just give a short summary about the last month which I will further elaborate in the next week(s). (I hope.)

So in the upcoming week(s) you will be able to read about highly critical and cutting edge nanoscience processing with space suits and everything, about past and future courses, the last real physics, upcoming master theses revolutionising science (of course) and the usual physics madness.

And here is a picture of a ballon parking place
because a physics buildings needs something like this.

Suspicious signs that your physics class might be rather engineery

I did not expect that I would ever say this but sometimes the lectures nowadays are a little too little physical. On Tuesday we had another lecture about transistors. A short adventure report:

Simulation of a two-dimensional electric field in a transistor.

Instead of the usual one-dimensional electric field this time we assume the channel (important thing in a transistor!) to be influenced by a two-dimensional electric field. This means: 2D Poisson equation. So our professor writes it on the board and the happy little physicist starts trying to remeber how you solve this. Experimental physics method of mathematically ruthless integration? Theoretical physics method of crazy bad-ass algebra with several variable substitutions and sh*t? More important: Logical evaluation first! *spared because of danger of boredom for not-physicists*

First comment on the equation by the professor: "Now we are not really good at solving equations like this." My thought: Well I am certainly not but you should be? So you solve and I will marvel. :) Next he says something about a temperature flow equivalent to electron movement ... Ok very intuitive, now solve. :)

Nope, still not. He tells some more descriptive stories that I do not quite remember as my fellow German zombie-state (his own term; adding coffee to "zombie" results in "robot" btw) physicist awakens from his lecture-following sub-processes and whispers "Ah, theo 2" (meaning theoretical physics 2 course in Germany) and I just answer "Theo 3 for us." Meanwhile, our professor talks about linear superpositions of potentials and I start to doubt that he will solve the equation. He shows some graphics from a numerical simulation programme and I am certain that he will not solve it. He just gives the solution on a slide.

It looks utterly ugly and I remember the times when I was glad if we just got the solution. That was short before with a heavy heart I decided to leave Heidelberg. To do something more engineery. ;)

Achievement unlocked - Master Chef

You might remember that in the last semester I worked at Hallands Nation quite often - mostly at the pub. Apart from the pub the nations also organise brunches and lunches. At the former I worked at one sunny Sunday. Getting started at eight on a Sunday, standing in the vapour of boiling kale for several hours ... It was an exciting experience just as working at the night club with time extrema in the other direction - getting to bed at eight. (Not quite but it felt just like this. ;) )

Sehr, sehr geiles Kuskus. :D

Still missing in the Hallands work collection was the lunch on Mondays. As one of the new förman ("responsible for work" ;) ) is my adorable flatmate and I did not have a lecture last Monday this was the perfect opportunity. So on Monday morning on time at nine o'clock I arrived at Halland's mega-kitchen to burn some (72) meatballs. To fry, I meant! (No I did not burn them.) The recipe for the minced meat ("KÖTTFÄRS" in Swedish and the following text and "HACKFLEISCH" (you alwys have to angrily shout it!) in German) our förman chose was quite interesting as usually I prepared KÖTTFÄRS with several different spices and ingredients - which takes some time and a lot of spices as KÖTTFÄRS needs a lot of them before it adopts the taste. The KÖTTFÄRS we prepared just needed sun-dried tomatoes, feta-cheese, egg, pepper and salt (which you might spare as the feta-cheese is already salty) and it tasted quite intense. I will remember for next time! (Which means that the food was good.)

Besides, the day was even more successful as I laid down my animosity with couscous. The last time I tried it was ten years ago in Tunisia where they managed to thoroughly deter me from couscous for at leat ten years. On Monday I was cured and now I even like it - drastic changes unsettle earth!

In addititon to new recipes and the culinary disclosure the often observed "too-much-food-effect" occured which means that I invariably lived on meatballs and white chocolate mousse this week. Besides being supplied with sugar in rough amounts by the chocolate mousse and thus being able to work nonstop on the recent lab report the KÖTTFÄRS probably saved me from the disease currently being rampant in Sweden ... Something about listeria. Some say it is in the sausages, some say it is in the milk, some say it is everywhere ... Simplest cure seems to be: Don't eat food!

Feeling like a political administrator

Not that I want to offend anybody but what is going on in politics sometimes gives the impression that some of the people working "there" do not really know what they do all day. Today we experienced the same while trying to write a lab report. Still strengthened by a collective eating session yesterday evening (and sweating out everything bad that might have entered our immune system in the last months as we ate Indian food) we met in the physics building (yes, on a Sunday ... :/ ) and tried to figure out what to do for this report. We understood that the lab was about something really unintuitive when you hear it for the first time and especially when you did not treat it in a lecture before so the afternoon mainly consisted of - how one of the attendees put it - "f*ck ups" and "screw ups".

Bad data format is a reason for physicists to
become "hackers" - or to engage
nerd rage mode. ;)

Actually we did quite a lot! Like writing the most pointless python scripts ever to convert the data we received from our supervisor into a format that allowed us to actually use the data, then plotting it and wondering if it makes any sense what we see. Especially as all our results looked different from each other ... At least we enjoyed ourselves when everytime we succeeded in removing one more space or tab another one appeared where we did not expect it. For some "mind cinema" you can imagine the scenery as three physicists sitting in a circle around their laptops in a probably rather unhealthy position, hacking on their keyboards and occasionally making a resigned "mmmh" sound, sometimes disrupted by an outburst of nerd rage violence like "AAAAARGH NOT AN INTEGER?!? OF COURSE NOT, I GAVE YOU A COMPLEX NUMBER YOU LITTLE PIECE OF ****!!"

Ok that was maybe a little too much of clichees but do not worry about our mental health, we sat in a room with big windows flooded with sunlight and most of the time we engaged in very friendly and high-class conversation. ;) Only still we do not know what to do with our data ...

Rechtschreibreform - auf Du und Du mit Sprachfälschern

This post deals with German grammar so it is in German.

Seit längerer Zeit gab es jetzt mal wieder nichts zu hören. Es gibt keine Entschuldigung dafür, außer, dass nicht viel Aufregendes passiert ist. Heute jedoch habe ich mich ein wenig aufgeregt. Über Facebook. Aber nicht, weil wieder einmal die Datenverkaufs- - Verzeihung - Datenschutzrichtlinien geändert wurden oder die Seitengestaltung, sondern eines kleinen Satzes auf der ersten Seite wegen, noch bevor man sich anmeldet: "Dank dir werden wir 10 Jahre alt". Mal davon abgesehen, dass ich so lange noch nicht bei Facebook angemeldet bin, mal abgesehen davon, dass ich auch auf die bedeutend geringere Zeit nicht sonderlich stolz bin und mal davon abgesehen, dass der Satz keinen Punkt am Ende hat, stört mich an diesem Satz ein einzelnes Wort. Es ist "dir".

Bild entliehen von der großartigen Seite knowyourmeme.

An diesem Satz wiederum und am letzten "dass-Satz" des vorherigen Satzes können diejenigen, die mich kennen, wahrscheinlich schon erkennen, worum es in diesem Artikel gehen wird. Jaja, ich mache meinem Ruf als "grammar nazi" mal wieder alle Ehre. Und nein, das hat nichts mit Rechtsradikalen zu tun, sondern hat andere Ursprünge. Ich komme nämlich aus dem Internet und da ist dies ein (zugegebenermaßen) eher abfälliger Begriff für Menschen, die noch ein wenig Wert auf Rechtschreibung und Ausdruck legen. Zu diesen zähle ich mich, obwohl ich aus dem Internet komme, noch immer. Vielleicht wäre es angebracht, an dieser Stelle kurz auszuholen, warum ich zumindest Sprache wertschätze, doch das würde sicher schon alleine mindestens einen Artikel füllen. (An andere Stelle werde ich dem sicher einmal Raum gewähren ...) Belassen wir es also dabei, dass ich ein Freund der Sprache bin und jedes Mal heimlich weine, wenn ein weiteres deutsches Wort durch einen Anglizismus ersetzt wird, wenn ein englisches Wort Opfer einer weiteren Abkürzung wird oder wenn mal wieder jemand egal in welchem Land eine als Rechtschreibreform getarnte Sprachfälschung durchführt. Aber genug der unnützen Worte und zurück zu "dir". (Und auch zurück zu Dir/Ihnen, lieber Leser.)

Es geht nicht darum, dass ich mich gerne über Internetschreibweise aufrege - was nebenbei eine ganze Menge vergeudeter Energie mit sich bringen würde (oder diese eher abführen würde) - sondern es geht darum, dass "dir" in diesem oben erwähnten Satz völlig falsch ist und der Satz keinen Sinn macht. Linguistisch gesehen zumindest. Tatsächlich geht es also natürlich auch nicht um Facebook, sondern um Rechtschreibung. Viele werden sich (hoffentlich) noch erinnern, dass vor diversen Rechtschreibreformen in Briefen (das sind quasi E-Mails auf Papier, für die, die wie ich aus dem Internet kommen) einmal die Regel galt, die direkte Anrede GROß zu schreiben. Also "Du", "Dir", "Ihr", "Sie" und so weiter. Das sieht man heutzutage leider nur noch sehr selten. Naja, Briefe sieht man heutzutage nur noch selten. Es geht aber nicht um die Art des Schriftstückes, auch nicht um Höflihckeit oder Ehrerbietung, sondern um die Wortart. Es geht nicht um persönlichen Geschmack, wie man sein Gegenüber ansprechen möchte, sondern um eindeutig richtig und eindeutig falsch. Vor diesen ominösen Rechtschreibreformen also wurde unterschieden zwischen "Du" und "du". "Du" war/ist eine persönliche, definite Anrede. "du" hingegen war/ist eine unpersönliche, indefinite Anrede. So wie "man".

Ein Beispiel: Angenommen, der Freund rät dem Freunde in einem Brief (oder in einer E-Mail ...), seiner Angebeteten (so hieß das früher) einen Liebesbrief zu schreiben (Ihr merkt, ein fiktives Beispiel) und malt ihm aus, was passieren würde, wenn sich die beiden schließlich träfen. Nehmen wir folgenden Satz aus diesem Briefe: "Und dann wird sie Dir tief in die Augen blicken ..." - Ihm allein. Das ist nämlich, was dieser Satz aussagt. Ist das romantisch ... Ok, Spaß bei Seite. "Und dann wird sie dir tief in die Augen blicken." hingegen würde bedeuten, dass sie jedem tief in die Augen blicken würde, der da gerade vorbeigelaufen käme. Ziemlich trübe Aussicht, oder? "Du" meint nur den Adressaten allein, "du" kann man wie oben erwähnt auch durch "man" ersetzen. Macht schon einen nicht zu unterschätzenden Unterschied, oder?

Zusammengefasst ist "Du" statt "du" in persönlicher Anrede also auch nach jeglicher Sprachverfälschung  daher sicher die bessere Wahl. Und auch, wenn der Urpsrung dieses Unterschiedes eigentlich nichts mit Höflichkeit zu tun hat, empfinde ich zumindest eine E-Mail oder einen seltenen Brief trotzdem als ungleich höflicher, wenn "Du" statt "du" darin zu lesen steht.

Ich wünsche Euch allen einen schönen Abend.

Thoughts while returning to Sweden

Thoughts "while returning to Sweden" is meant literally in this case. Thoughts during the four hour journey from home to home. Leaving home, coming home - strange thing, two homes barely connected to each other at all. Two different worlds.

The journey stars at the airport in Luxembourg. Tannoy announcements in English, German and Luxembourgian. Luxembourgian will always sound strange. Even stranger than Dutch. Even stranger than Danish. (No offense in both cases ...) Actually, Danish sounds not as strange as many people (especially in Sweden ...) say. Actually, it does not really sound strange at all. Unfamiliar, yes, but not strange. This I realise on the bus from the terminal to the plane. Two elderly gentlemen with only hand luggage who seemed to return home from a business trip are talking Danish. And they are quietly laughing all the time. Friendly people, the Danish ... (No, of course you cannot deduce this from two friendly gentlemen. But I like to believe that the Danish as well as the Swedes are friendly people.)

On the way to our plane I see the already described turboprops which I do not want to fly with. (See a few articles before.) We arrive at our plane - no turboprops, "normal" machine - greeting in Luxembourgian. ("Moien.") Security briefing in English and French. No Luxembourgian this time. Maybe not too unreasonable on a flight from Luxembourg to Copenhagen. The stewardess speaks French now. I scrape all my French together to successfully accept a sandwich and a coke. Maybe not too successful though as later on the stewardess will address me in English ...

We arrive in Copenhagen. The same people (stewardess and captain) who spoke French and English before speak Danish and English now. It even could have been Swedish but it strikes me every time that in a few hundred thousand Euro airplane the speakers still sound as if they are from the 19th century ... (Same in railway sattions by the way ...)

Four countries in four hours. Almost as good as Europe in ten days.

We get out of the plane. Kastrup is slightly larger than Luxembourg and so we have to run through the ehole building to get our luggage. The advantage is that our luggage is already running circles when we arrive. The railway station is very close now as well. I rumble down the staircase and enter the quite dark station. The next train arrives in six minutes. Then the mad part of the journey begins. Where is the ticket machine? Nowhere to be seen. I rumble further down the rail. Finally. A dark room, two strange guys inside, two ticket machines. I hack my desired destination into the machine. Time is running, it gets hectic. The machine asks me onehundredthousand extraneous question, does not accept my traffic card which usually makes buying tickets very easy and quick. Not this time, not in Denmark as it seems. Next card, 20 crowns more than on the way from Lund to Copenhagen. Does not matter, must go fast. Another onehundredthousand extraneous questions, the train is already waiting, the porter blows his whistle. I rip my ticket from the machine and badger towards the closest train door. "Out of order." Wtf?! Next door, I fight my way through 20 Indians (exchange students I suppose somewhere at the edge of my train stricken mind) and finally reach a seat.

"Seems to be the same with all train companies, no difference in other countries.", I think before I realise that a friendly gentleman in one of the suites is trying to talk to me. That is unexpected. Everybody in Sweden told me that you do not talk to people on the bus or the train. Never. As he shows me where to put my suitcase I do not bother and sit opposed to him. Still confused by Luxembourgians talking Danish and Danish talking French I thank him in always working English before I realise that I can do better. The Indians are discussing with the porter where to put there 45 suitcases and start to rearrange the whole train. I do not mind, they do not need help, so I concentrate on nothing in particular.

We cross the Öresund Bridge. Next station, Hyllie. Half of the women outside are already blonde (not kidding). The tannoy announcement is in Swedish. I even understand what the train conductor is trying to tell us. "Utgång till vänster." I am back in Sweden. Four hours after leaving home I am home again.

APH and Mahler

After the two accounts of the journey to Heidelberg this blog stays there for one more day. During my studies in Heidelberg I had the pleasure to play in the Akademische Philharmonie Heidelberg, a notedly excellent "laymen" orchestra. As on January 24 they play their semester concert I wrote this short article about the one piece they will play so those of you living in Heidelberg will consider attending the concert. :)

Yes, there really will be only one piece in the whole concert: Mahler's sixth symphony. If you look at the embedded video further down you will see why there is only this one piece: It lasts almost one and a half hours. So why should you listen to a single piece of music that lasts one and a half hours? In this case very simple: There is a hammer in the symphony! :D Yes, a hammer, a big, wooden hammer. The blows of fate. Or simply the horror of whoever sits in front of the percussionists ... Already without playing the symphony it grieves me that I cannot be there to see my colleague play the hammer. (I would not want to take it away from him - he was born to play the hammer. :D )

Ok, enough kidding. (Thoug the hammer IS real!) This symphony very impressively demonstrates what music can "do to you". Often Mahler's sixth symphony is called the "tragic" symphony although he himself did not use this title. Nevertheless, the title fits the music so if you let yourself get into the music you might well be taken away with it. Should you listen to the video further down or listen at least to the beginning and the end you will notice how long it takes the audience until they applaude. This might happen in the concert next week as well. The beginning already will show you what to expect from the symphony and give you an impression why it is called "the tragic". The end proves it again. Although it is sometimes problematic to take pieces out of a whole but only listening to the end (if you have only little time to spare, even for great music ;) ) from 1:19:33 on you will again get a good proof of the title, especially at 1:20:16 (needs a few seconds in advance) and from 1:21:04 to the end ...

Mahler - Symphony No. 6 a-moll conducted by Paavo Järvi, recorded in Kloster Eberbach. (What a coincidence, we played there with the Akademische Philharmonie not too long ago. ;) )

The account of a journey part II

Heidelberg Castle from the Kornmarkt.

The second day of my short trip to Heidelberg mostly consisted of sightseeing. Finally I got to know the tourist side of Heidelberg. The most obvious location to visit is probably the "fate stricken castle, hanging deep down into the dale, torn apart by the weathers" ... (free translation after "Heidelberg" by Hölderlin ;) ) Not without good reason it is the town's landmark. So I made my way up the over 300 steps (I lost count somewhere in between when considering if it would really be so nice to live in one of the villas populating the hill side. ;) )

After a few minutes I reached the top of the world (or at least of the town) and there I was. Back again on the first day of my studies. Actually, a few days before but back then climbing up to the castle was one of the first things I did as well. The view always pays off and if you would go up there every day.

Heidelberg Castle from the back.

As I had plenty of time I made my way to the back of the castle, further than ever before. If you ever come to Heidelberg or live there - go there! The less familiar back face is at least as impressive as the front face. After dreaming away in grey fog and slight rain I took the not-stair-way down and wandered aimlessly around in the city.
Before heading to the evening highlight(s) of the day I tried to find my bachelor thesis supervisor and the rest of the research group but at that particular time they seemed to have vanished somewhere in the secret passages of the KIP - the temple of physics.

The two temples of wisdom: Left - "My" department, Kirchhoff Institut für Physik. Right - University Library.

The adventures of a physicist not trusting in his own science

Yesterday I made my way back to Sweden. First a standard side blow towards Deutsche Bahn: For the 1000 km from home to Sweden it took me four hours and 15 minutes. That is less than it took me from Heidelberg to home with Deutsche Bahn ...

Now the journey. Generally everything went smoothely. The only negative thing was that I constantly doubted "my own" science - physics. Actually I did not doubt the science but I rather missed some statistical data. Yes, sitting in a plane something like that will probably only come from a physicist ... How much electromagnetic radiation does it take to confuse an airplane's control electronics? (Of course some workaholic want-to-be-top-managers had to keep working during approach for landing despite several requests to switch their tablet off.) What happens if a bird or hailstone crashes into the propellers of a propeller machine? (There were several machines with strangely large propellers instead of the "usual" jet engines at the airport and somehow I hoped that we would not fly with one of those.) Why does the airplane we are on make such noises? (I never heard something like this before: Howling, buzzing, vibrating and whistling in concert.) ...

So even as a physicist (or maybe even more?) a plane flight holds a whole bunch of mysteries to keep you busy ... It is about time that we invent teleportation.

Meet & Beat

What do drummers of a symphonic orchestra do when they get bored? They arrange a drums only concert where they can play something more difficult. Usually ridiculously difficult. Like the concert we went to yesterday organised by the local solo timpanist and some colleagues. After teething troubles (more people and less places available than we thought) we managed to get some of the last tickets and distributed ourselves to the last single seats that were not already occupied. Xylophones, Marimbaphones, Vibraphones, Percussion lorrywise were already set up. Soon the concert started.

Simply said: It was breathtaking. Technically challenging, perfectly played. A Swiss clockwork would have become green with envy. As drummers always tend to make fun of a lot of things (e.g. themselves ...) of course it was funny as well. Drumming with cooking spoons on tables, wearing self-made cooking heads, lamentations who forgot to clean the pots while playing included ...

Apart from the enthusiasm evolving when watching the colleagues play the comments in the breaks from the other visitors around were very interesting as well. "How can they play so perfectly?!" Ok that I do not know. Practice I would guess. Some years ... After all they are full time musicians. "Did you notice that they always wear a poker-face while playing?!" Yeah, I have been told that I do this as well. Most drummers do. :D Why? Well the answer to that is the next comment: "I would be hopelessly overstrained ..." The reason for drummer poker-faces (at least in this genre - in rock music "drummer face" is a well known term) is simple: It requires concentration. A lot of concentration. Just take a look at the two following clips. ;) (Both were in the concert, only different players of course.)

The first one is some minimal music by Steve Reich and shows how different rhythms work together (and one reason why you have to concentrate ...) - admittedly a little boring if you do not see it live but the first two or three minutes give already a fairly good insight. The second one is a Toccata for Vibra- and Marimbaphone. The catchy part starts at 3:13 ;)

Where it began - back to the roots

Eponym of the best pub in the world.

Just a few minutes ago I listened to a German song with a line - if you translate it - "Where it begins!". For me all the "madness" began after leaving a sheltered home after twelve and a half years of pleasant school and high-school time. With the possibility given by a prolonged Christmas break of course I just had to return to where it began and so I did at the beginning of the now already passed week. This is a short account of this travel.

The sky is grey, it looks like it is about to start raining. Feels more like my new home in Sweden than the sunniest city in Germany. And yet it feels right. Few hours to go till "we" meet in the city centre to haunt the pubs. "We" of course are all the physicist football players from "good old times" and my best friend where I stay for the two days in Heidelberg. It is even all right that he is not a physicist. ;) Using the time I inflate my air matress in my friend's kitchen/living room, throw the sleeping bag on top and we dive into profound conversations. Well, more or less ...

19:45 - we start to walk to University Square. Over the bridge, Bismarck Square, Main Street, ... this is just right, this is where it began, feels like coming home. University Square, we meet the others and start off to Hardrock Café Heidelberg. Beer for 1,- cocktails for 4,- - the usual start of a good evening. Only it is crowded as a rock concert. Surprise, surprise with beer prices like this. As soon as we captured one of the tables a waitress arrives and asks if she already should brink us a whole crate. We pretend good manners and refuse kindly, everybody ordering only one beer instead.

The reason is that afterwards we decide to go on in direction of - what else - BRASS MONKEY!!! :) The only interruption on our way there is a vicious call for food: "WEEEE EAT A SUB NOW!" Only problem: The store is closed. The sign says "open" but the door which even resists the food-craving attack of a hungry physicist proves the opposite.

Third wonder of the world in Heidelberg:
Brass Monkey Menu Tower.
The blurry image has nothing
to do with alcohol (except the menus ...).
It is just to keep people out of the picture in
case they want to stay anonymous.

So we continue our way slightly disillusioned about Subway as this was not the first time that this happened at this very same store ... However, the disillusion does not last for long as we soon enter Brass Monkey. Rustic interior, dim light, a counter filling half of the room, rows and rows of Whisky and other stuff, kicker, darts, ... - no doubt: still the best pub in the world - by far. We occupy the largest table and order food - a few "house burgers" and a "bacon burger". This is worth mentioning as after a few minutes one of the waitresses (still the same as always :) ) approaches our table to silently disclose that there is no bacon left. How is this even possible? There is always bacon! If nothing else is left then there is bacon! And beer of course ... We cannot believe it and after some time the incident shows to be a disaccord - the waitress returns and conveys the relieving message: Of course there is bacon left. And even better: Tonight is Bingo night!

So after one of the other waitresses manages to explain the rules and the layout of the unfamiliar looking Bingo sheets to nine stubborn physicists and a chemist without going completely mad we join the game. In the course of the evening we win free drinks for approximately everybody plus two bottles of sparkling wine. Phew ...

After hours and hours of burgers, Bingo, Guinness (Brass Monkey is an Irish Pub) and kicker this first wonderful evening in Heidelberg draws to an end ... almost. After leaving our second home in Heidelberg and diffusing into different cardinal directions two of us cross the Old Bridge to make our way home. Immediately at the northern point of the Old Bridge starts the "Snake Path" leading to the Philosopher's Path ... Easy, straight forward way along the Neckar on the left hand, steep, winding, hellish Snake Path (the name does not come without good reason) straight ahead. Well, the decision is easy so we make our way up the "Hallow's Mountain" towards Philosopher's Path. It is some climbing to do but even at night the view over Heidelberg is spectacular.

Snake Path in the middle of the night.

Further adventures we leave for other days to come and make it home afterwards. Only to find: The air mattress looses air ... dadum. At least the sleeping bag I borrowed from my brother is warm enough. Actually, the broken air mattress is not even annoying as I dream away in fond memories of rock hard physics exercises and panic slowly setting in a few days before exams ... Well, of course these are not really the fond memories but they are as well part of the madness that began in Heidelberg - the madness of becoming a physicist and most of all the madness of a new life. :) (Just to make sure: Madness is not a purely negatively connoted word. ;) )

Part two is to follow soon.