Conference in Knoxville

This is what a plate of bacteria look like after being infected with a water sample containing bacteriophages (viruses which exclusively infect their host bacteria). The clear spots (plaques) are where at least one bacteriophage has landed and started an infection which has grown to neighbouring cells.

Lab bench in Waterloo where I did column experiments on the attenuation of viruses and microspheres in sand.


Last week there was a conference in Knoxville, Tennessee for the Geological Society of America, southeastern division. I presented my masters research there and I had some good feedback from other grad students, professors and consultants as far away as New Hampshire and Ohio. It was quite difficult to discuss three years of research in 15 minutes, but with the help of my new supervisor (Dr. Larry McKay) I think we pulled it off.

I don't want to bog down this blog by posting the whole presentation but I will attach a few of the highlights.

Weekend in Atlanta with ex-U Waterloo-exchange Student Carine

I'll take two of those!

Downtown Atlanta, a very big, clean and beautiful City!

Stone Mountain

This is a huge Granitic Outcrop (also called a Pluton, an Intrusive Igneous Rock) several hundred metres high and over 2 km long. It jutts erratically out of the relatively flat terrain around Atlanta. It has been fully developed as a tourist attraction, complete with a pioneer village, Arial Tram and petting farm.

Hiking up the Pluton.

That's downtown Atlanta behind us.

Muskoka, Canada and the Trip to Knoxville, Tennessee

Brothers Brian and Graydon

I had to dig my car out of the snow!

Canyon in West Virginia

Downtown Knoxville along the Tennessee River

Baptist Hospital along the Tennessee River, Knoxville (I live behind the hospital)

London, England

Going into the London Ungerground

Museum of Natural History

London on the Thames River

Friends from Stuttgart

Parliment House, Big Ben and the London Eye

Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221B Baker Street

Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

"I'm on my way to London Engaland"

Leipzig City Hall

Old Communist Style Architecture in Leipzig

My good friend Kurt who is a Missionary in Leipzig

(http://www.calvarychapelleipzig.de/index.htm)

Castle Wartburg in Eisenach (eastern Germany) where Martin Luther first translated the bible into every day language (from Latin) around 1530 ad. That room with the window is where he worked for two years on the project while being protected from the Pope's armies by local Royalty.

And that's my friend Rebecca who showed me a great time over Christmas with her family near Eisenach (the exciting village of Langula).

Typical landscape in eastern Germany. Flat, green and open.

If a Thesis was a home.

If a thesis was a home then the executive summary would be the door and the front of the house, with everything looking orderly and presentable. The introduction would be the front hall where the company (reader) takes off their coats and shoes to stay a while. The background chapter would be the living room where the host (author) makes the company feel at home and where they can see all the interesting books the host has read and nice pictures on the walls. The methods section is like the kitchen where one can see how everything is being done and the Results chapter is the dinner. The discussion and conclusions might be the bedrooms, since this is where the company must linger overnight to really get to know the home and the host better. The Appendix is definately the closets throughout the house where you are NOT SUPPOSE TO LOOK!

More musings about writing a thesis...I told you I lived in it these days!

Last Blog-cast from Stuttgart!

After going through 10,000 hurdles of red tape to get to stay here (University of Stuttgart, Township of Vaihingen, State of Baden-Württemberg, German Federal Government, Student Coopertative Residence, German National Pension Fund, University of Waterloo to name a few...). Today I had to go through some red tape to leave! Apparently my rental agreement stated that I was staying until the end of August, 2006. When I arrived in September I apparently signed a contract that I didn't look over very carefully...must have been the jet lag or the fact that I DIDN'T SPEAK GERMAN VERY WELL!

So they told me "You can't go".
I said "I'm going".
They said "Ok, but it's going to cost you 325 Euros".
I said "Fine, I'll argue another day when I don't have to submit a report to my supervisor while writing my thesis and travelling to Karlsruhe".

Jetzt auf Deutsch...
Sie haben gesagt "Du kannst nicht gehen".
Ich habe gesagt "Ich gehe".
Sie haben gesagt "Ok, aber es wird dich 325 Euros kosten".
Ich habe gesagt "Klar, ich werde mit der Hausmeister sprechen ein andere Tag wann ich müß nicht so viel erledigen wie heute."

So I guess they love me here, because they didn't want me to leave!

As my family and friends back in Canada know already, what's there not to love!

Pictures from the Last week in Stuttgart

Looking South West Towards Stuttgart from the Tower in Schwäbisch Hall

Sabine

Schwäbisch Hall nestled in a limestone Canyon in North east Baden-Würtemberg

The Last Days of Life in Stuttgart....

Well, time is winding down here in Stugitown. As I reflect on the last 3 months it feels more like a year as I sometimes have experienced or learned more things in a minute than an hour of life at home. I think the famous German pop singer Julie said it best "Sekunde werden Stunden" (seconds become hours). I love Stuttgart for its uniqueness, its hills and forests and their pride in the Mercedes Benz (a very good car) and Fantasische Vier (the fantastic 4) a crazy German Hip Hop band.

Inspite of some difficulties wrapping up my masters Thesis, I have come to fully appreciate the input (ok it's called criticism in the real world) of the Professors at U of Waterloo. The work has kept me on a tight leash here, but also made me focus and discipline myself, which is not bad, and made me really appreciate my friends here who make efforts to rescue me from my "arbeiters Gefängniss" (worker's prison). I have come to always more (immer mehr... I can't remember how to translate into English?) appreciate my family in Muskoka, Canada, who have looked out for me in many ways.

It is true that it is often in the hard times that we learn to have a sense of humor, the importance of friends and family, and make the greatest memories of all! If this sounds meloncholic I blame my Russian and Polish friends here for influencing me. For me, it is also in hard times that I learn to pray to God. So I thank Him for giving me such a great place to stay for a while and friends that have invited me into their homes and villages, introduced me to their families, and made great meals. To the people (in Hamburg and in France mostly) that I didn't get to visit this time, thank you for your invitations, I would have loved to visit every one of you for a week each (by then you might kick me out)!

Merry Christmas!

Cheers from the Canadian!

What do I do at the University of Stuttgart?

It has been asked several times "what am I doing in Germany anyway?" Other than travelling around and visiting friends and working of my thesis corrections this fall, I also have a day job. This is working on part of a big EU project called GLOWA (they love the acronyms here). I am responsible for incorporating huge (200,000 + lines !) amounts of data from Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Austria into one database and creating useful and attractive maps of certain "nutrients" in the groundwater of the Danube River. Very exciting! At the end of the project now, it is much more interesting at the beginning. I have found my travels around southern Germany have helped me understand the geology and societal uses of the land, which in turn helps in understanding why certain chemistry patterns persist in the groundwater of certain regions.

And you thought I was just playing here!

ROAD TRIP to Strasbourg II!

When one goes to France you have to where one of these hats.

This is what Jen looked like when she saw me again.

But things settled down after a few cups of Glühwein at the Noel de Marche.

Life around Baden-Württemberg, Thanksgiving, and Jutta's Birthday in Tennenbronn

Chilling out at my favourite bar in Stuttgart, Encheladas.

For a look at another of my roomates from Glen Forrest in Waterloo check out http://jendrik.blogspot.com/. This is a very high quality, professional blog, like everything Jendrik does.

House in Tübingen

Bebenhausen monestary near Tübingen

More monestary, I think this place is about 500 years old or so

Hiking in the nature reserve park behind the monestary. The sign says "Glaube mir, Du wirst mehr in Wäldern finden, als in Büchern. Bäume und Tiere werden Dich lehren, was kein Lehrmeister Dir zu hören gibt." or "Believe me, you will find more in forests than in books. Trees and animals will teach you, what no schoolmaster will tell you". They guy that said that was Bernhard von Clairaux in 1153.

Ken and Holly, our hosts for an awesome American Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie!

It was a very multicultural night with 20 or so people from the international masters program (WAREM) here at Uni Stuttgart. People in this picture are from England, Mexico, Poland, Germany and me, Canada.

Philip and Elawise

Molly the Bulldog

Strasbourg by night

Wolfgang and Katerina. We had some drinks in a several hundred year old pub.

Christian

Part of the Christmas Market in Stuttgart involves an extensive model train set up.

Tennenbronn. (sounds like "Tannenbaum" which is the word for Christmas Tree).

Jutta's home village.

Topfschlag is a popular kids game that we played. I felt like an idiot looking around for a tin pot somewhere under peoples chairs.

Jutta is trying to find a pot somewhere in the room where presents are hid underneath.

Hurray she found it!

Santa Claus visits Tennenbronn early this year.

Schamberg Castle near Tennenbronn where we did some climbing in the rain.