Posts
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It's been a strange week
read moreIt really has been a strange week.
It all started the
week before last week on Wednesday, when I received the mail from
Reykjavík
University. Right the
next day, Thursday, I went to Wil Linders, the international programme
coordinator of the faculty. He confirmed that an agreement had been made
and that it was initiated by Jan Friso Groote, faculty director of
study-related matters.Knowing that he can be very busy at times I sent him an E-mail on Sunday (I
don’t know why didn’t do that earlier) and got a reply back within one
hour: Luca Aceto, a professor at RU was in Eindhoven for a symposium and he
would have a talk at 9:30 on Monday. I went there and in the coffee break
we discussed about the possibilities of an internship at RU. Jan Friso and
he had talked about me the night before and basically he was very
enthousiastic that I was learning Icelandic and that I was interested in
Iceland altogether. If I would sort out which research areas I find
interesting, then he could get me in touch with the right people.That was Monday, Tuesday I watched Ring of the
Nibelungs, unknowingly that it is not
only based on the Nibelungenlied, but that it is mixed together with the
Volsunga saga. And of course, the main character, Siegfried must follow his
love to Iceland…Wednesday, there was a lecture on Internships and Study Abroad. I had a
question, stating ‘Reykjavík’ only briefly, but it was enough for an
international programme coordinator of another faculty to give me a name of
someone in Iceland. That this afterwards turned out to be a mistake is a
bit irrelevant, I think.Thorsday… uh… Thursday, in Coupling
Jane makes a reference to Thor… I know, it is far fetched, but the series
hadn’t had any religious theme so far. Funny episode though.In the meantime, my parents are already checking out when they can come
over… Hell, I don’t even have a project yet! -
An internship in Iceland?
read moreMy day couldn’t be better when I received this E-mail:
Komdu sæll Christian
Hvernig gengur þér að læra Íslensku? Það er gaman að þú viljir læra Íslensku og viljir koma að læra á Háskólanum í Reykjavík.
I will now switch to English to prevent misunderstanding. We have just set up an Erasmus/Socrates exchange agreement with Eindhoven University of Technology so you could come as part of that agreement. We do offer an MSc. programme in Computer Science and it would be great if you could join in and use your period of academic intership to do some research work here. Would that be an option?
Kærar kveðjur frá Reykjavík,
Wheeee, an opening. Now I just have to find out what to do here in Eindhoven. Oh yeah, and wait for about a year.
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Utopia 7 Years Meeting
read moreI almost cannot believe I am the only one posting about this…
Last weekend we went with Utopia on a meeting in the Drenthean village Drouwen, in the bungalow parc Drouwenerzand, right in between Emmen, Groningen and Assen (that’s in the North of the Netherlands).
My compliments go to the organization: Paul, Lotte, Sjoerd and Lise, you did a great job, we had three great days!
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More sightseeing
read moreSome more nice places:
- BolungarvÃk is where they shot Nói AlbÃnói. You most probably cannot get any further away from the European continent (except for Greenland) within Europe.
- Aletschgletscher (the largest gletscher of the Alpes) compared to Vatnajökull (yes, that is the same scale!). It is truly an enormous ice mass! Now you see why I’m fascinated by Iceland? ;-)
- I wonder what Akranes looks like from the ground. Are these rocks above or below the surface? Edit: They are above the surface, seems a friendly town to me.
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Google Sightseeing Berlin
read moreWhat do you do on a Sunday? You embark on a trip to your favorite places :-)
- Warschauer Strasse: The border was exactly through the Spree river, thus cutting the last station of the track. For 36 years, it was a pointless piece of track. Along the River, if you’re coming of the bridge to the west is a piece of Wall of about one kilometer long preserved. This, however is not historically accurate, as it was the Eastern side of the Wall and thus no grafitti could be found on it. Consequently, it gives an impression of how the wall looked at the Western side.
- Alexanderplatz: You can see the Fernsehturm, the train station. While this was an important place for Socialism and Communism, now big firms like Kaufhof and Saturn have their biggest stores of Berlin here.
- Platz der Vereinten Nationen: This is where I stayed with the exchange student in 1998. Formerly, this place was called Leninplatz and the round pavement in the grass with the dots is where the Lenin statue used to stand.
- Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse: The border crossing place for West-Berlin inhabitants. The track of the West-Berlin S-Bahn went straight through East-Berlin and all stations were closed down during the Wall-period, except for this one. There is also a U-Bahn track from West to West through East near Under den Linden. These stations were also closed and barricaded. It is this madness which I find intriguing of the whole situation.
- Lehrter Stadtbahnhof: The future Hauptbahnhof. Currently all trains stop at Berlin-Zoo and Berlin-Ostbahnhof (which was called Hauptbahnhof in DDR-times). When this station is finished, the legendary Zoo station will become a insignificant one.
- Tempelhof: The airport where the Rosinenbomber landed during the Soviet barricade of West-Berlin in 1948. A monument was erected in the circular park to symbolise the three air corridors from West-Germany to West-Berlin. The barricade was a direct response on the currency reforms the west-allies carried out in West-Berlin on 23 june 1948. In order to prevent hyperinflation in the east by flooding of worthless Reichsmarks coming from the west, DDR carried out currency reforms, too. That same night, power lines to the west part of the city were cut off and all transit streets were closed (while the air corridors were secured in a treaty, securing the transit roads was ignored by the west-allies). Basically, it was the first step of real division of West and East Germany (and yes, it was America who took that first step, thank them for it).
- AVUS: Automobil-Verkehrs- und ÜbungsStrasse, probably the first Autobahn in the world. First plans dated from 1909, finished in 1921. It was in use as a test track and during races. It is basically a 10 km long straight highway with two U-turns at the end. When no testing or training were carried out, the road was open for private traffic between Berlin and Potsdam. The road was a success and would lay the foundation for the very good Autobahn-network in Germany.
- Potsdamer Platz: The hippest place to be in Berlin currently was ironically the most dangerous place to be in Cold War times. Standing here was equal to signing your own death certificate. S-Bahnhof Potsdamer Platz was the subject of many illustrations of the division of Berlin.
Potsdamer PlatzOh, it is fun to go back to Berlin this way :-)
