T--3.5 Days

My takeoff for Germany is quickly approaching! This Sunday at about 11:30 a.m. I will be flying to D.C., from D.C. to London, then from London to Hannover. The PhD student I will be working with this summer, Johannes (apparently he goes by Jo, and sometimes JoJo, pronounced like "Yoyo"), was nice enough to offer to pick me up at the Hannover airport and bring me directly to the place I will be staying in Braunschweig, about a half-hour drive. I will be staying in an all-girls dorm at the university, Braunschweig University of Technology. I found out today that it is the oldest university of technology in Germany! My address, for anyone interested, is:





Hans-Sommer-Str. 25
38106 Braunschweig



By the way, the reason I'll be in Germany this summer, for those who don't know, is to work on a chemistry research project with a PhD student. We will be working on luminescent dyes. I've been talking to him mostly in German but recently in an email he threw in a couple English phrases, first telling me to "chill out" (when I asked him if I would be able to start on the project immediately) then saying we will "work hard, play hard." I told him I wanted him to speak to me in German this summer, but I'm afraid of what I'm getting myself into! My speaking abilities are a bit sketchy. I do, however, look forward to getting much better as the summer progresses.

The city of Braunschweig has about 250,000 people and is filled with history; there are buildings and sculptures that date back to the 12th century. Included in these is the palace of Henry the Lion, a prince who founded Braunschweig as well as Munich. In the city center is a large bronze statue of a lion which was erected in his honor way back when. It was also the first bronze statue north of the Alps (random fact of the day).

Braunschweig also has some pretty cool modern architecture. Check this out:

It's called Happy Rizzi House, designed by James Rizzi, an architect from New York. Visitors are allowed to walk through it, and I certainly plan to! For more pictures click here: http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/the-happiest-house-on-earth.html

I've been hard at work this week trying to find the cheapest ways to visit as many places in Europe as I can! On my list so far for Germany is Hamburg, Berlin, Heidelberg, Dresden, Munich, Cologne, Duesseldorf, and of course the village Schaag. For the rest of Europe I'm hoping for Paris, Copenhagen, Milan, Vienna, Budapest, Amsterdam, and Zurich. Whew! Hopefully I'll have enough time (and $) for all of that, but I'll be there til August 16!

Sorry for the long post, but I hope some of it was interesting! I'll try to post at least once a week when I'm in Germany.

Tchuss!

--Amy