PHinisheD

One of the graduate students Udo defended his PhD today. I was expecting the candidate and the examiners dressed up in their academic regalia. After all, one formally addresses professors as 'Herr Prof. Dr.', or 'Herr Prof. Dr. Dr.' for those with an honorary degree or multiple doctorates. And the university here is the oldest technical university in Germany (and where Heinrich Hertz discovered the electromagnetic waves, Fritz Haber 'made' ammonia, and Edward Teller was an engineering student). But no, unlike Oxbridge, there was no regalia.

After Udo successfully defended his thesis, there was a celebration in an adjacent seminar room. Electric stoves were set up, sausages were grilled, champagne was uncorked, Udo's home brew was served and laughters were plenty.

As you can see here, Udo's advisor Johannes bestowed a mortarboard (branded Rathaus Pils, complete with a beam tube with flashing LEDs) on him.

ESK kindergarten Christmas party

Jocelyn's kindergarten class at Europäische Schule had their Christmas party this afternoon. I have been missing her school Christmas parties since her pre-school years, but not this time. (It is so nice that I haven't been on an airplane, bar the ones at the Technik Museum Speyer, since we moved to Germany). Glenda and I arrived at the school right on time. Jocelyn dressed up as an angel, and she was so adorable. You can find a few more pictures from the party here. The children performed a few songs and a dance, and the videos are here.

Christmas atmosphere

It is quite an experience to see how the Christmas atmosphere being built up in Karlsruhe in the past couple of weeks. Since the opening of the Christmas market, there seems to be more people gathering around town center as the days go by. Of course, most people have a bratwurst mit brötchen (German 'hotdog'), or a schupfnudeln mit sauerkraut (potato pasta with sauerkraut), or a lango mit rahm und/oder käse (fried dough with cream and/or cheese) on one hand and a hot, spicy glühwein in the other.

Speaking of glühwein...I snapped this picture this evening. This three-storey high structure was put up a few weeks ago. Since the opening of the Christmas market, this is 'the' place to get glühwein for 2€ a mug.

der Nussknacker

The junior classes at Europäische Schule Karlsruhe held their Weihnachtskonzert (Christmas concert) on Monday night. The carols were sung in Deutsch, Français, and English. The highlight was the performance of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. You will find the videos of the performance here, and some pictures here. Gabriel was ballet-dancing in 'scene 7' and almost fell off stage in one of his wild spins.

Preparing for the return to California

Less than 4 months into my sabbatical and still over 7 months to go, the planning for the return has begun! Yes, the Oakland school district has begun the enrollment process for 2009/10 school year. Application deadline is ~first work week of January. So we spent some time in the last couple of weeks collecting documents (proof of our residency in Oakland such as utility bills for our house, proof of our children's academic level such as report cards from the school here which won't be officially released until February...). We are supposed to bring the application with these supporting documents to the Oakland school district office or one of its public schools for certification of their authenticity. This is obviously a 7000-mile problem for us. Under the advices of the school district's enrollment office, I mailed them the documents today. Fingers crossed.

The Guinness experiment...again

After our failed Guinness experiment, my friend Peter found a video from Stanford on the explanation of the sinking bubbles in Guinness.

Riding on an antique tram

Glenda took Jocelyn to her classmate's birthday party today. So Gabriel and I went to the Christmas market for lunch. It was a local fare: "lange bratwurst mit brotchen" (long sausage with bun - i.e. German "hotdog"), followed by "lango mit nutella" (nutella on a deep fried dough). I felt so guilty about the grease and sugar intake that I hit the gym later in the day.

The local tram company ran a special service with some of its retired trams between the market and Hauptbahnhof (main train station) today. Gabriel and I hopped on one of these (see pic). It was fun riding on hot seats - the heaters were located under the wooden seats. These antique trams reminded me of the old trams that are still in operation in Hong Kong.

More on Guinness

This is a Guinness-full week...Besides the failed Guinness bubble experiment, I discussed the Student's t distribution in my statistics lecture today. William Sealy Gosset worked out this distribution while serving as a statistician at Guinness Brewery.

The Guinness experiment

My friend Peter D. came to Karlsruhe for a funding agency review. He gave Gabriel a puzzle to solve when he came in October: "Why do bubbles in Guinness sink?"

He came to our place for dinner, and carried out the Guinness experiment (another excuse to drink) with Gabriel. Well, the bubbles did not sink, perhaps because the glass was too short. But he did explain the physics to Gabriel. In return, Gabriel drew him a picture of the ICE train, which Peter promised to post on his office door in Seattle.

Karlsruher Christkindlesmarkt

It's Christmas market time in Germany; Karlsruhe opened its Christmas market several days ago.

Our family went to the Christkindlesmarkt last Saturday. There were stalls after stalls selling merchandises, sweets, wursts, wursts, wursts and glühwein. Glühwein is cinnamon-spiced wine, served hot in a mug. Although it is not that cold outside (Glenda would disagree with me on this...temperature around the freezing point is not cold), it was quite a sensation to enjoy a mug of hot wine outdoors. But Glenda did not like it. The kids had a kinderpunsch (children punch), and they did not complain.

We strolled around the Christmas market near Markplatz for more than an hour before heading towards the outdoor ice rink. There were many people on a very small rink. The ice was perhaps not in the best shape, given the outside temperature and the amount of traffic on it. So we opted not to skate.

But our kids found the train....This was a tiny coal-powered locomotive. On its second lap, the train derailed and stalled. The conductor fixed it in no time and gave the kids an extra lap. You will find more pictures from the Christmas market here.

Thanksgiving dinner

It is not easy to find turkeys in Germany; in fact, I haven't seen one at supermarkets yet. But Glenda did. She made us a Thanksgiving feast last night, which was delicious.

Great Fire of London

Jocelyn learned her "Row, Row, Row your Boat" and her class performed the Great Fire of London. Glenda recorded the performance, and here is the 30-min long clip (approx. 60 MB).