Jeff Stuart - Memoirs of a CPUNERD

Yet another trip to Europe. This time though, I decided to go when it would be all pretty and white. The real reason I was going to Europe again is because my colleague had visa issues. He had a paper accepted to a conference in Meran, Italy, but was not able to go himself. Our adviser also was reluctant to go for obvious reasons. Thus, I did what any noble, chivalrous person might. I selfishly volunteered to go and have all the fun for him. I know, I know, I’m a nice guy.

This trip took me through a lot of countries, including two to which I had yet to visit: Austria and Slovakia. I also got to visit a new city in Italy, Meran. I’ll tell you more about that in a bit.

To start, the path of my journey went through Northern England, Paris, Western Germany, Zürich, Meran, Padova (near Venice), Vienna, and Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia), and Southern England. As mentioned previously, the first priority of the trip was to present my colleague’s research in Meran. The second point was, as opposed to previous trips, to see friends again. Most of the places I visited, I’d been to before. I wanted to take some time, relax, maybe even do a bit of work, and just visit with old friends that I hadn’t seen in quite a while.

All About Food: After proof reading this, I came to realize that the entire point of this trip was not just to see friends, but also to gorge myself on massive quantities of food. Hurray European cuisine!

What the heck was I thinking: As I landed into Heathrow, the pilot made an announcement “Hello all, just wanted to let you know the current weather in London. It’s sunny and a scorchingly hot 5C.” That’s 40F. I left Davis in 22C (68F) weather. What the heck was I thinking coming to Europe in the winter? I’m gonna die.

Trains in England: Inexplicably more expensive than those in the rest of Europe.

When I first arrived to London, I got ahold of my friend Carl and we found a tube stop at which we could meet, then go for lunch. We finished with enough time for me to make it to London Euston station at 14h40. When I got into the station, I went to a self-service ticket station and tried to book a ticket to Preston, England. The first thing I noticed is that the cost was £78. That threw already. Then I noticed that was the cost for “off-peak” travel, whose departure must be at or before 15h15. I had just missed the 14h30 train, and the next train didn’t leave until 15h30. I was a bit concerned, so I went to the ticket office and sure enough, I had to catch an on-peak train. The cost you ask? £130! That’s more than $200!

Oh but the fun doesn’t stop there. No, oh no. So instead of giving the train a track number ahead of time, the station waited for the train to arrive before announcing the platform. This was a train from London to Glasgow (and it was full, more on this later), so there were several hundred people all waiting at the departure board. As soon as the platform was announced, everyone made a mad dash for it. Seriously, it could’ve been a flash mob had it not been for a purpose.

So I fight through the crowds, make my way onto the train, and shortly thereafter discover that the entire thing is booked solid. I hadn’t thought to ask for a reservation, and the ticketer hadn’t though to ask me if I wanted one. I ended up spending £130 to sit next to the restroom, on my luggage, for three hours. Screw you, National Rail services.

Tenenbaum: Rachel knew I was sad that I wouldn’t get to have my Christmas tree festivities back in Davis. So she did what any good friend would, she “made” me put up her tree.

Another Premier League Game: Rachel had thought enough in advance to get some tickets to see Blackburn play Liverpool. It ended 0-0. The first half was quite crap, but the second half was very entertaining to watch. Gerrard played, but Torres was injured, unfortunately.

Käsespätzle: Rachel hosted many people for the night. Me, Sue, Martyn, and Sue’s friend (I’m really sorry, I already forget her name…). As we were planning for dinner the night before, Rachel asked what we would like. I thought “why not something with a lot of cheese” and recommended käsespätzle. Sue was more than happy to jump on that bandwagon. She looked up a recipe (in German), and 2 kilos of Gruyere (and 12,000 calories) later, we were eating fresh made spätzle. Life is good.

I hate European economy lines: But I’ll still use them. Luckily the flight (which was on a propeller plane) from Manchester to Paris was short, only a little more than an hour. I found it funny how as we were taxiing, a lot of people were getting their bags. This happens all the time. However, there was an incredibly indignant flight attendant who kept getting on the speaker and telling people to stay seated until the fasten- seat belt sign was removed. It made me laugh. But still, I hate economy lines in Europe. With the exception of speed of travel, everything about them is crap.

Wine is so cheap in France: After I landed, Sara, Sunny, and I stopped by a corner market to get some things for dinner. This included a bottle of red wine. When the total was shown, I was astonished. The final price was €6 (about $8.50). I asked if the guy forgot to ring up the wine, and Sunny said “no, the bottle was €2,50.” Admittedly it wasn’t a wine you’d have by itself because it’s so awesome, but it was a good dinner wine. I still can’t get over it.

Jetlagged or just recovering from the quarter: I couldn’t tell which it was, but for my first five days in Europe, which included two nights in London and three nights in Paris, I was sleeping in indefinitely. Sara and Rachel had to wake me up between 10 and 11 because I was missing all the fun. And it’s not like I was getting to sleep late. ‘t’was weird.

Getting to the top of Notre Dame de Paris: Sara and I found out why the line is so ridiculous. Only twenty people are admitted every ten minutes. We waiting in line, in the (what, at the time, was to me) cold, for about two hours. However, the view from atop was well worth it.

Fondue pots aren’t always found where you’d expect them: Sara, Sunny, and I went looking for fondue pots in a department store. The cheapest pot for savory fondue was €95. We were taken aback because we figured it would be around €30. We ended up buying two ceramic pots for sweet fondues, which did the trick just fine. Each was €15 so it fit the price point we were looking for perfectly. However, we still were bummed we didn’t get a savory pot. Funny thing though, the next day Suny and I went to a Fromagerie, and right there in the front of the store were decent-quality, savory-fondue pots for €30. Le sigh…

Cheese is also cheap in Paris: Seriously. I forgot how cheap good cheese. I think I spent in total about €10 on cheese for non-fondue consumption while in France. Which, if you do the price conversions for what we pay in the US, would’ve been about $50.

Sunny hates the french postal system: I’ll let her tell the story, but I don’t blame her. It’s pretty awful, especially after dealing with the German, US, and Korean systems. Which, despite all the bitching we do, actually work. More than can be said of the French system sometimes.

Staff Strike = Free Admission: Such was the sign on the entrance to the Musee d’Orsay. Hurray for French people constantly going on strike! Of course, the entire top level of the museum was closed because of the strike. Boo for French people constantly going on strike!

Crepes are still awesome: Though they are a bit expensive, nothing beats a nice, sweet crepe while wandering around an old neighborhood in Paris. I had a nutella (advertised as chocolate, I feel bad for those allergic to hazelnuts) crepe for €3 while wandering around Montmartre. I miss it already…

Spanish tortilla, AKA the devil: Not really the devil, more of a bitch than anything. I don’t know what we did wrong, but it just wouldn’t cook properly. It went from a tortilla to scrambled eggs and potatoes. But still quite good. Oh well, that’s what happens when you try to cook Spanish food in France. The normal laws of cooking go on strike.

I <3 French Dessert: After the tortilla, we enjoyed some wonderful beaufort and a buche de noël, or a yule sweet cake.

I came, I saw, I conquered. It only took three trips to Paris: I don’t know why, but the small statue of liberty took me forever to find. My first two trips to Paris, I hadn’t written down the location, and I couldn’t find it. This time, I knew where it was, but it took forever to make my way to it because it was farther from the Eiffel Tower than I thought. Got my proof though…

Shiny, shiny, shiny: I like how the Eiffel Tower lights up at night. Not quite so happy about the seizure inducing strobe lights that go off every hour though.

Picodon de l’Ardeche: Per Arnaud’s advice, I picked some up. I got the softer, less-matured variety and it was indeed quite tasty. Sad that I left half of it in Saarbrücken.

Good french meals aren’t always easy to find: You can randomly wander into a restaurant, but you don’t always get the best food possible. Luckily, Steffen knew of a great restaurant near St. Michel (I think). The food was good, the company was great, and even the french owner of the place was funny. Who’d'a thunk it?

First class is not always the way to go: Being as I’m now too old to buy a youth-saver ticket from Eurail, I had to buy a first-class ticket. I fully intended to take advantage of the amenities, so when I left from Paris to Saarbrücken, I hopped aboard and enjoyed my first class experience. That was, of course, until was told that a €30 reservation for the train was mandatory. F***!

Germany beats France, again: In terms of Christmas markets, the German regions simply know what they’re doing. Even Saarbrücken, a tiny town of 150,000 people, had a Christmas market three times the size and ten times nicer than the one in Paris.

Manhattan: No, not the city, the bar. After getting dinner in Saarbrücken, I met up with Dawid, Lionel, Robert, Conny, Carsten, Martin, and Boris at a cocktail bar. We went there because Thursday is “Happy Day.” €4 cocktails. Of course, you get what you pay for, they had pretty much no alcohol.

Why I usually set an alarm: Because my friend Dawid said that he’d set his, so I didn’t set mine, and he ended up snoozing for half an hour. I caught my train from Saarbrücken to Zürich, though with literally about forty-five seconds to spare.

Never go to Zürich: The place is just soooo expensive. I forgot how completely ridiculous the prices were. A hot chocolate? $7.50!

Again, the German regions just get it done: Zürich had a really big Christmas market (Christkindlimarkt in Swiss German). And of course, it wouldn’t be Zürich unless something was über-expensive. That would be the three-million CHF christmas tree, so valued because every ornament was a swarovski crystal. It was protected by a three-meter glass barrier.

First snow in Europe: As time progressed, the cold got worse and worse. Unfortunately, the rain washed out our plans to go sledding near Zürich, but we were able to go up to the ETH and see some real snow. We even had snowball fights! I have no aim, so I kept aiming for the branches above the guys to get snow to fall. Of course, that resulted in head shots to Pieter and Matthias. Sorry guys… Oh, but seriously Pieter, that last snowball was Matthias. I swear to whatever diety you propose.

Every heart beats true: Even the foreigners. Frederick bought an extra duvet and pillow for me. ‘t’was… appropraite I guess. = )

Gib mir benzin fondue!: We had fondue the second night in Zürich. Did I suggest it? No. Did I object to it? Hell no! And afterwards, beer pong. This is Matthias and Frederick after all. And now they both know not to turn their back on the double bounce.

Everything Is Illuminated: I finished the book. Adélaïde gave it to me before I left. It was very good, though hard to read at times because of the crazy Ukranian writing.

The Alps by any other name would still look as beautiful: Training through the snow-covered Alps was absolutely spectacular. I’ll miss the sight of the mountain tremendously.

Trains are always late: I forgot that outside of Germany, trains are always late.

Lack of Tact: I love how nerds aren’t known for tact. During the poster session, a guy from MSR came up to me and said that my colleague’s work was addressing a problem that was solved fifteen years ago. He then continued on, saying that his problem domain was obviously (and the only one) worth investigating. Oh well, besides that the poster session and the rest of the conference went great.

Du[ea]l Languages: Meran is a town inhabited by a mix of Germanic (I think more closely related to Austria than Germany or Swissyland) and Italian people. Most people speak both languages, or at least 1.5 languages. It was interesting to see shops with German signs immediately next to shops with Italian signs, immediately next to shops with both. And of course, because it’s a German area, the Christmas market was great.

Prepaid data access in Italy sucks: If all you need is email though, Vodafone is the way to go. Their “mobile internet special” for €3/week works great for email. For everything else, traffic is diverted through their WAP portal, which doesn’t work at all on smart phones.

English-language books are expensive abroad: Since I finished the book Adélaïde gave me, I need to get another one. I bought “A Good Thief’s Guide to Paris” for €10,50. It probably would’ve cost $6.99 in the US.

Conference Banquet: We got taken to Schloss Katzenzungen about forty minutes away from the city. The castle was quite nice, and the dinner was excellent. After dinner (and for some, a lot of drinks), we had a jazz performance, as well as a performance of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” by two of the conference committee members.

Northeast Italy’s Castles: There were a lot of them on the ride from Meran to Padova. It was quite cool to see them. Most weren’t too big, but they looked impressive, sitting up on the hilltops, daring medeival armies to attack it.

Italian graduation celebration: Magda and Chiara explained to me that in Italy, when one graduates with their (equivalent of the U.S. undergraduate) degree, the person goes through a public display of humiliation. First a poster is made that tells stories of the person. On the poster there is a drawing of the person which typically has many phallic symbols. The graduate must, in costume, read the stories from the poster. When the person screws up, they have to drink, as well as get splashed with either water or beer by their friends. The splashing is typically followed by someone throwing flour on the person. Did I mention that this happens in a very public place? So the end result that is everyone is drunk (especially the graduate), laughing, and the graduate is thoroughly inebriated by the end of the session. It was really fun to watch.

Full-day train trips: Padova->Vienna was a “wake up at 05h30, get into Vienna at 18h30″ trip that involved a crazy taxi ride (80 km/h in a 30km/h, awesome), four transfers, and several delays. Ugh… Since I was riding in first class, there really wasn’t anyone to talk to. The cabins were pretty empty. And when there were people on the train, they were typically older (many looked like traveling, retired americans). I did get to see Austria under the snow though. Absolutely spectacular. Especially Salzburg. I wish I could’ve stopped to wander around for a little while.

Early morning delivery: Mohammed and Dawid showed up to Vienna around 03h30. Yes, in the morning. It took them eleven hours to get there from Saarbrücken. After some sleep, we wandered out into the city to see some sights.

Just can’t get enough: of Vienna’s Christmas lights downtown that is. They weren’t too fancy, but just really nice to walk around underneath them.

No such thing as too much: Though some might argue that point. I had four hot chocolates in one day in Vienna. Heavenly.

It’s good you came in Summer, in Winter it can get veeery depressing: After seeing most of the external sights of Vienna on Saturday, the three of us drive to Bratislava on Sunday afternoon for dinner and some sights. I couldn’t help but laugh and think of Eurotrip the entire time.

Oh how I love thee, let me count the ways: I can never get enough of pasties. They’re just so good! And even though I make them myself in the US, they’re different in England and I love not having to cook for an hour and a half.

FAIL!: That would be England’s ability (or complete lack thereof) to deal with the snow in the south. EVERY single train from London going south was either canceled or delayed. Luckily the train to Shoreham-By-Sea was a regular and “delayed” just meant that I caught the next train.

Indian Food in England: Was, I must say, different from Indian food in America. I definitely enjoyed it though. I had it twice, once with Tom, his girlfriend Sammy, and their friend Jasmine. That was in Shoreham-By-Sea and then once with Miles near Brick Lane at the East End. Miles described the East End as a place where posh Londoners go to slum it. I love that description.

The San Francisco of England: Brighton was quite nice I have to say. There were a lot of parallels with San Francisco, and more than just that each city is the gay-culture center of their respective country. The lanes in Brighton reminded me of Haight-Ashbury (I’m going to be going backwards on these analogies, because I saw SF first). The Brighton Pier was pretty much Pier 39. Both are on the sea. Both have milder weather than the inland areas. And both are very nice.

What, this is it?: That was my impression of the Brighton Christmas Market. Tom’s as well actually. It was really small, only seven stalls in total. But the nice was that the wurstchen stall was operated by Germans. Ich will mehr wurstchen. = (

Kenny Boy: I managed to see Ken for a bit as well. He met Tom and I in Brighton for lunch and then showed us this dessert place called “Scoop and Crumb” that was quite good.

Delays, delays, delays: The train I caught from Shoreham to London was absolutely jam packed. That’s because it was only three coaches instead of four, and it was carrying six trains worth of people, because the previous five had been cancelled. So instead of a relaxing train ride for an hour with some light reading, I got to stand shoulder-to-shoulder for two hours by the doors, and thus freeze whenever we stopped at a station.

No Kittie, that’s my pot pie! Bad Kitty!: I got to meet Alex for lunch in London. We went to a great restaurant that served wonderful pies in Covent Garden. I also got to try an Eton Mess, which I have to admit was splendid.

Chef Goes Nanners: But Miles, Jen, Rich, and I went to Banners instead. It was a quaint place near Highgate, where Miles and Jen are living.

Life is better in First Class: The saying is never more true than when I get bumped up to first class on the flight back to the US. God Bless overbooking flights = ) And I figured out why I keep getting bumped. I book premium economy, and I’m a single, foreign passenger. So when economy gets overbooked (which always happens), I’m usually one of the first premium economy passengers to get double-booked. Then, when it comes down to me showing up, and an economy passenger who got bumped to premium economy, they upgrade me since I payed for the more expensive seat. As I said, God Bless overbooking flights!

Yes, I worked on Google Earth for the iPhone this summer. You should check it out at the iPhone app store. It’s free, and I helped with it!

So many things were the same this Summer, but so many things were different. For example of things that were the same, our apartment still wasn’t finished, just like last summer. This time, there was still the smell of paint in the air, and portions of the place weren’t finished being painted. I again had to go to Home Depot to get two to three-prong converters. Most of the cafes at Google were still there. The food was still great. The gyms were still the same, though the locker rooms were different.

If you didn’t know already, I was working on the Earth Client team. I say client because, if again you didn’t know, the team that works on the user interface is completely different from the team that works on the data side. What I did exactly I can’t say yet, but when it’s released, you’ll know I had a part.

The group of people I worked with this Summer was amazing. We meshed really well, and shared a common view on the way my project should unfold. My boss was actually one of the founders of Keyhole (the original Earth project). It was really cool to hear him talk about all the tricks the team uses to get Earth to be performant and do the things it does.

I got to meet up with a lot of friends from last Summer. Besides my roommates, I got to see Katie, as she was starting full time. Roma, a friend from my time at NVIDIA, was working at a place right next to the Google campus. Speaking of NVIDIA, Mafu was back at NVIDIA, this time as a full timer. And of course, Ciderman, Sean, and Lee were all still at NVIDIA. There were few other people from Google last Summer, but actually not as many as I would have though. Most of the friends I had either didn’t get rehired or chose to stay and do research with their adviser.

As opposed to last Summer, I actually took the time and played squash. I originially was going to play with a new friend from Google, and another Google intern that I didn’t really get to know. Turns out that I was a bit better than both of them, so we only ever played once. However, as Mafu was back in town, we played a few times. Not as often as I would’ve liked, but more than last summer. I also took the opportunity and got worked by a sixteen-year old. I’m not exaggerating about either part. I really did get worked (0-9, 3-9, 2-9), and the kid really was sixteen.

I also managed to get in a ton of tennis. At least two times a week, I was either taking a lesson or playing with a friend. My primary opponent was Roma, though I also played in a doubles tournament with a friend from Google named Jenya. The lessons I took were from a recent Stanford graduate. He was actually on both the squash and tennis team, and he offered lessons for both. I was aiming to take a squash lesson, but it never panned out. The tennis lessons worked really well though. My backhand improved tremendously, and I changed my forehand quite a bit. Of course, that still left my serve.

Speaking of serving, that was the one way that Roma kept beating me. It was odd because I was doing so well against her at first, and then I had a slump. Luckily I broke through though, and didn’t get completely worked over by Roma for the remainder of the summer. My serve also improved enough to help me in the doubles tournament. Jenya managed to always get points off her serve, even though it was pretty slow. Me, I was dragging our team down. As the tournament progressed though, the lessons helped and I finally showed her I didn’t completely suck. We ended up winning our last game, though that only took Jenya half way through the tournament. I’m not sure how she finished out.

Something else the Summer brought was a ton of football action. Euro2008 ate away at least thirty hours of my time, and it caused me to spend $180 on Russia jerseys. I also started taking football lessons from this Ex-Chilean goalie. He played for the national team, and he was also a pro on one of the countries teams. My technique improved slightly, and my defense and fitness went up significantly. Also, thanks to him, I finally felt what it was like to have ridiculously sore abs and hamstrings.

It seems that my number of concerts per Summer is slowly dropping. Though perhaps the quality is increasing. I went to see Type O Negative and Mindless Self Indulgence. Both of which were absolutely awesome. I also saw Projekt Revolution. Linkin Park put on another great show, and some of the other bands were also really good. ASHES dIVIDE was incredible, they sounded amazing. Atreyu I thought was good, but Shakeh didn’t really like them live (she loves their albums). It was cool to see Chris Cornell perform some of the Soundgarden songs and do a few songs with Linkin Park, but he wasn’t my favorite.

Obviously it’s hard to summarize an entire Summer into a few-thousand words. I left out so many experiences like the Boat Cruise and picnic. I didn’t get a chance to talk about so many new people and friends, David, Naren, Garrett, Giselle, Valkyrie Savage (yes, her real name), and tons more. But honestly, who wants to read through a daily list of all the boring crap I did?

If you’ve been keeping up, I hurt my wrist a few weeks ago (as of writing this, more than two weeks ago).  So far, I’ve been getting along alright, but I am limited in my activity. I got x-rays the day after it happened, and they turned up negative on fractures. The only thought from there is that I probably have soft tissue damage, as in muscles, tendons, etc. Ugh… last time this happened, I dislocated my shoulder five times and eventually had surgery and was out for more than three months because of it. God I hate in injuries. And this wasn’t even my fault! I didn’t do something stupid like fly off a skateboard or roll an ankle. No, I got tripped by a girl while playing a co-ed game. LAME! Who knows when I’ll feel better, but I do have a doctor’s appointment coming up.

Again, I got up at 0700 on Monday morning, and got straight to work. Shakeh got in at 1000. I had a brief chat with a Microsoft recruiter at 1030, then went back to my place before going to Sacramento. We went to the Elephant Bar for lunch, then saw Bodies Revealed. It was so cool! My favorite part was the exposition where all the blood vessels were extracted from the organs, and then even from a full body. It was just so crazy. I took Shakeh to Jamba Juice once we got back to Davis. We finished out the night with laundry, more work, and then a viewing of Lord of War.

I still didn’t play indoor on Tuesday. Instead, I played three matches of squash with John, then went to tumbling a bit late. My wrist was still bad, but there were a few exercises and spots that I could do. Shakeh came over for lunch, then after that I got right to work. I finished some more stuff before my research meeting. After the meeting, I worked for a bit more, then went to Steve’s Pizza with Shakeh for dinner. I went to the last Salsa lesson, which was good. I got out from that and went to say hi to Antoine. Other people were showing up, so I took the opportunity and left there around 2145, then went home and did some more work before going to sleep. Did I mention that I did some work?

I tried playing volleyball on Wednesday, but it was useless. I couldn’t pass, and I definitely could’t set. I played doubles racquetball with some beginners, then played two matches with the advanced class before Tim and I played a full game. I got it this time… Shakeh and I went to Pluto’s for lunch, then I walked home and did some work while she was in class. We went to Thai Nakorn for dinner, then checked out the lunar eclipse. I went to Sudwerks for an hour or so, but no one brought games so I didn’t stay long.

I finally tried indoor during class on Thursday, and it went alright. I had to hold back though, I didn’t feel comfortable running all out, because my wrist was still hurting. For lunch, I met up with Antoine, Isabel, and Javi. We started at Border’s, then walked to Burgers & Brew. Javi dropped me off at the academic surge after lunch. I talked to Tony for a bit, then installed the new G92 cards in burn-2 and burn-3. At 1630, I met up with Kurt Akeley from MSR, and had a nice chat with him and John. It just so happened that as I was leaving, the Little Bang Banquet was happening. I stuck around for a bit, talked to Dave Wiley, then walked to the ARC. I saw the coed match, which we drew 4-4 after being down 1-2 at the half. Inbetween matches, I went with Tom, Alex, Emma, Jess, and Laura to Yogurt Shack. When we got back, the men’s match just started. Unfortunately we lost (2-1). The worst part was the team was bunch of disrespectful jackasses. We shrugged them off though. After another hour, I went to Little Prague with the gang, then picked Shakeh up around 2300 from her lab.

Randy came into town on Friday. I got some work done beforehand, then we walked to the Mustard Seed and discussed what needed to be done. After lunch, we headed back to my place and worked for awhile. Once we got to an acceptable point, Randy headed back to Reno. I stayed at home until 2100 or so, then went over to Shakeh’s. We ran to In ‘n Out for dinner, then went home, watched some Family Guy, and went to sleep.

I woke up to College Gameday on Saturday and got right to work. Shakeh and I went to Tucos for lunch. Yes, we indulged in cheese and wine again, and I ended up dropping $75…  but it was worth it, damn’t! I watched the Memphis-Tennessee game, then some of the SAP open semis. For dinner, Justin, Ramon, Javi, Verena, and Lee joined us at Thai Recipes. After that, all of us except Lee and Verena went to go see Charlie Bartlett. The movie turned out to be a lot better than I expected. One thing I found hard to swallow though was the lead female role. A seventeen year old girl her age rarely acts the way she does. Still though, it was such a minor blip that I didn’t even think about it until after the movie was over.

Sunday, I didn’t do much of anything besides work. Shakeh and I took a brief expedition to Chipotle for lunch, then watched the SAP-open final match between… Radek (Stepanek) and (Andy) Roddick. After tennis, we tuned in to the Oscars. I would like to say that I’m very happy that Daniel Day-Lewis won for his part in There Will Be Blood, and I’m very happy Atonement didn’t win much. Both were long, but with There Will Be Blood, I didn’t mind and was actually sad to see it over. Anyways, after the show, we went to Bistro 33 for dinner. We got back pretty late, then watched two episodes of Lost before going to bed.

It’s official! I’m going to Europe at the end of the summer. I don’t have exact dates down yet, but most likely it’s going to be from the end of August until mid-September. I face castration and other irreparable harm if I don’t visit England, Spain, Germany, and Italy. The thing is, I’m going to be in Europe for three full weeks, and being as I want to see a lot, I need some advice! Yes, I’ll have friends around as guides, but they have lived in their home countries, and as I know from experience, one rarely visits nearby tourist attractions. So… If you have suggestions for more countries, and better yet, specific cities, buildings (restaurants, bars, museums, gov’t buildings, etc), or natural landmarks (the Alps, the river Seine, etc.), I would really appreciate it = )

Cities so far (far more than I can actually do of course):

England: London, Stonehenge, probably Bath or Brighton.
Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, maybe Granada or Sevilla
Germany: Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich
Italy: Mantova, Venice, Rome (and The Vatican), Sicily
Greece: Athens, Crete
France: Paris, Grenoble, Bordeaux
Scotland: Edinburgh
Czech Republic: Prague
Ireland: Dublin, Cork
Switzerland: Zurich, Lucerne

My wrist was still hurting on Monday, so I couldn’t do more than a few lifts. All the cardio machines were taken, so Justin and I went upstairs. The elliptical machine was strangely hard. I played racquetball instead of volleyball. Later in the advanced class, I lost a game I should’ve won, but so far I’m 2-1. I had a really nice and relaxing lunch at Raja’s with Shakeh. We went to Safeway at night, got some supplies and some brocolli+cheddar soup. The recipe changed, it’s much more oily since last we had it. I had a big sweet tooth that night, so we went to Baskin Robbins later that night.

On Tuesday I was able to do a few more lifts because it was leg day. I played squash and racquetball instead of indoor, and didn’t do anything in tumbling. I went to the MU for lunch, then had a phone interview with Rambus at 1400. It went well. I didn’t get a lot of “do this problem” questions, it was more me explaining what I do for my research. For some reason, our research meeting went really long. I stuck around for a bit , then went to the Google recruitment talk. Later in the night, Shakeh and I went to see Meet the Spartans, which was really bad.

I did ladders for lifting on Wednesday, meaning I started out with a low weight and went up by small increments, but did lots of sets. I think I did seventeen sets of leg press! In racquetball, I actually pushed a guy that usually crushes me to 8-11, whereas 3-11 probably would be more accurate. I went 4-1 today. Shakeh brought chipotle for lunch, which was nice because I had my google phone interview around 1300. I won my last divisional racquetball match, then went to Pluto’s for dinner. Shakeh and I watched Hook to end the night.

A bunch of us went to Cafe Mediteranee for lunch. John had a visiting german Ph.D. student, so I talked with him about research for half an hour or so. I did another phone interview with rambus when I got home, then cooked a wonderful Valentine’s dinner for Shakeh. After we got done, I took her to see Definitely Maybe. The movie was very enjoyable, though definitely a chick flick.

I had a follow-up doctor’s appointment in the morning. Afterwards, I went to the GSA breakfast, then picked up some parts from the ECE office. I went to lunch at the MU, then rode back home and found Tony, Shubho, and Hari on the way home. I sat with them at Chipotle while they ate. Shakeh and I had leftovers for dinner before going to see Jumper. Now I know that many people are going to have problems with this movie. But seriously, I’m so sick of movies trying to over-explain and justify everything. This movie was fun just to sit back and watch. I must say that I was secretly hoping Hayden Christiansen would utter a line about how much he hates sand (Episode II anyone?), but no luck.

On Saturday, I woke up and got a bunch of work done. In the afternoon, I went to the tennis match with Martyn, then walked around downtown and ended up at Zia’s for a late lunch. I went home after that, worked a while more, watched some of the NBA all-star skills challenges, then went to pick up Martyn and Dave for dinner at Thai Nakorn. After we got done there, we went to Cold Stone, which is apparently closed! Not like a store closing would deter us, so we headed over to Ben & Jerry’s. Once we were done with our delectable treats, we dropped by Sophia’s to say hi to Dani, then I dropped the kids off at their place and went home to sleep.

I woke up at 0700 on Sunday and got straight to work. I took an interlude at Konditorei from 1100-1230 with Tina and Mauricio. I went back to work for two hours, then joined Dani, David, and Martyn for some football. After playing for an hour and a half, we went to the ARC, and Martyn and I played some squash. Right after we finished, we went to Burgers & Brew with the guys from football, including all the Italians and a Dutch guy named Taj. I went home and worked for a few more hours, then met Jay and Anna at Ciocolat. Once they finished their wine, I convinced them to go to Crepeville to get a decent sized dessert. Anna and Jay split something as well. Jay and I inadvertantely made Anna snort wine through her nose, which I’m sure burned like hell. Jay and I headed back to my place, then waited for Lindsay and Mauricio to show up so we could watch Sicko.