Post 46: Johannisfeier

Today, Friday was a pretty laid back day at work.  Since I've run out of sample plates, I have to wait until the new ones come in, (which they did over lunch time).  Both Flo and Mirko were away for today.  Mirko was home writing his Mastersarbeit, and Flo was somewhere.  So, I spent most of today catching up on the documentation of what I've done (compiling a list of completed tests, importing the raw data into a data analysis program, and analyzing the results that I have, etc.).  Today, Tim came back from his 3 week vacation, so we talked through what I'd done thus far.  When we were done, he was quite impressed, and said that he could go off for another 3 weeks and not have to worry about me.  He also said that I was quite "Vorbildlich" (= having the quality of being a role model, kind of).  Otherwise, not a whole lot happened today.  Tonight was the Johannisfeier or the Sonnwendfeier.  This was the celebration of the switch from days lengthening to days shortening.  It was a nice celebration.  There was bier, bratwurst, semmel, etc.  And a really big fire.  It took a while to light, but it was easily 15m tall at its highest.   I got to talk with several people for a while.  I got several compliments on my german abilities. 

Post 45: US wins into the Achtelfinale

Today was a pretty normal, busy day.  I ran a test on the press, ran three on the Rheometer, and figured out that I'd been doing something wrong with the Press.  I'd forgotten to change the area needed by the sample, so instead of being 25 x 25 cm square, it was programmed in the computer as something else.  I got to use the saw in the next building over to saw the edges of the plate when I was done with the press so that the edges would be clean.  This helps with how the plate sounds when it is hit, and makes it a cleaner tone.  For lunch we went over to the Doener place again.  I was congratulated today several times by people due to the US win last night, and being first place in our group (which unfortunately, means we won't play Germany, but we will be playing Ghana).  Josh and I were asked by Frau Ute Klein (the secretary for T&I) to put together a box cart for her.  I had expected it to take a while, (small parts, assembling a cart etc. ) but it took about 5 minutes because it came shipped in 2 parts, making it really easy to put together. 

Post 44: Biking around the Werk

This was a pretty normal day at work.  Ran some tests on the Rheometer, ran a test with the press.  I took a few minutes to wander the Werk on my bike.  I found where the central boilers are that are then connected to various buildings via large metal pipes supported on concrete colums above the street level similar to a monorail.  I found where the new batch of graphite cathode/anodes was being stored until it cooled.  From about 20 m away, I could see the heat rising from them, and by about 10 m, I could feel it.  They are big cylinders (about 25 cm diameter and 1,5 meters long, solid) completely made out of graphite.  Apparently, they are used to help with the steel industry.  A screw is inserted inside a cylinder (similar to a wine cork) and electricity is sent through it so that it heats up and melts the steel to make it molten.  The pile that I was looking at had probably 200 of these sitting outside on heavy metal racks.  I rode past several buildings that looked like they contained big ovens and had more stacks of cylinders, or fragments of cylinders, or bags of graphite, or parts for heat exchangers, etc.  It was an interesting bike ride. 
The choir rehearsal started at 7 so that we would have time to rehearse and make it home to watch the Fussball game against Ghana.  It was a good game.  In the end both USA, and Deutschland made it into the Achtelfinale (1/8th finals)

Post 43: Rheometer tests

Today was a fairly regular day.  I showed up at work pretty early so I could get the various tests started.  For the rheometer tests, each sample has to be dried for 2 hours prior to the almost 2 hour long test.  So I went, turned on the oven, made the sample, and put it in for two hours.  Just before the two hours are over, I go and make the next sample and set up the Rheometer for the first test.  Then I place the second sample in the oven, the first in the Rheometer, and start the process over.  Just before two hours later, I make the third sample and put it in the oven, the second in the Rheometer, and the first I take out, label, and set out on the table to cool (150°C aluminum is quite hot). Then two hours later the second sample is done, then another two for the third.  If I am feeling particularly ambitious, I do four per day, but not often because that is 10 hours plus about an hours worth of cumulative time between the tests and set up and shut down.  This is all in the attempt to complete 3 or 4 times 28 tests in the course of the internship. 

Post 42: Monday with the Pre-Preg Press

Today, Flo told me that he would be leaving for a work trip for two days.  So, we went and set up a test with the Press.  It is a pretty big machine on the other side of the Werk.  The basic idea is that material can be placed between the two hydrolic and heated plates and pressed at high pressures.  Our use for it was to test the impregnation of a specific type of pre-preg (or pre-impregnated carbon fibers).  Basically turning sheets of carbon fiber weave which has come into contact with a liquid matrix into plates which will be used as light weight high strength material.  These plates will then eventually be placed in an oven for 3 days at 1000°C so that the matrix can be carbonized making the entire piece almost exclusively carbon.  Pretty interesting stuff.  Then after the days worth of Rheometer tests, I was done, and headed home rather late due to the time required by the tests.  After watching some Fußball, I went to sleep.

Post 41: Sunday with a 90 year old birthday

Today, Sunday, I woke up early enough to make it to church for Mass.  After Mass was over, the Männerchor had to head out a bit early to make ti to the Neue Post for the 90th birthday celebration for somebody in Meitingen.  It was a nice lunch.  Wienerschnitzel, kartoffelsalat, pommes fritz, and bier.  We sang a few songs, then I got to meet the Mayor of Meitingen.  It was an interesting conversation.  Other than that, there wasn't anything unique that happened today.

Post 40: Saturday in Augsburg

Today was Saturday, so Joshua and I went to Augsburg because he wanted to make it to a store called Sportscheck in the search for a swiss soccer jersey.  Once we got back, we watched some Fußball, then I went for a walk north of Meitingen through Waltershofen and Ostendorf.  It was a nice long walk. 

Post 39: German Fußball with Germans

Today I went in early to work so I could get a sample in the oven to dry before putting it in the Rheometer.  Unfortunately, the Watch man last night locked the door, so I had to wait for Herr Bistram for the key.  Fortunately, that wasn't all that long of a wait.  I took a few minutes to plan out when I would be starting each test and when I would then need to put the next samples in the oven.  I wanted to make sure that I was on the right schedule so that I would be able to change out the tests during the half time of Deutschland gegen Serbien game.   Frau Ute Klein, the secretary for T&I had booked the conference room next to my desk for an "Internal Meeting" from 12.30 to 16.00.  So, once 12.30 came around practically everybody who was still there stopped working and came down to the conference room to watch the game together.  It was a bad game, (0-1 Serbien), but a good experience to get to watch a game with Germans. 
Before the game though, Flo took me to see the new Prepreg manufacturing thing.  It was quite impressive.  We also saw where they weave the carbon fibers for the Prepreg manufacturing thing. 
After the game, ther wasn't a whole lot of work being done and a lot of people left right after the game.  I was there until about 6.30 finishing up a test, but once it was done, I was out of there.  I came home, had dinner, then went for a walk through Meitingen. 

Post 38: Clucking in German

Today, Thursday, was a fairly normal day.  The Männerchor was set to perform later in the evening, so I was dressed in my best, and ready to leave work at the 5 s I could make it to the Old Post in time to leave.  The event was the 60th birthday celebration of somebody named Helmut in Langereichen.  It was a fun evening.  We sang a version of the Hungarian Dance Nr. 6, it was pretty cool.  We then enjoyed a bavarian dish, but I can't recall what it was called.  Afterward, we sang a song "Von Wachsammen Hahn" (Of the watchful Rooster).  This song calls for individual people during the refrain to cluck like a rooster.  In German, it is (Ki kiKI kiKI).  So for the first two verses, two people had that opportunity, then they wanted an "authentic American rooster" for the 3rd.  So I got to cluck like a rooster during the third refrain.  Half the choir couldn't continue singing because they were laughing so hard.  The choir director almost lost it during the rest of the song.  It was pretty cool.  I got to talking with one of the wives there and as it turns out, the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp summer international Program stopped several times in Meitingen (choir, jazz band, orchestra).  So we got to talk about that for a while. 

Post 37: Conversations with Dr. Gojny, tailgating and choir

Wednesday was a pretty normal day.  Today and tomorrow, Max is going to be away for a while, so I was told to direct any questions to Dr. Florian Gojny, the project leader.  I ran into several problems with the rheometer, namely the temperature control had a mind of its own.  So I went to talk to Dr. Gojny about it  and he said that the repair person would be here next thursday.  During lunch we got to talking about tailgating for American Football.  Tonight at the choir rehearsal, I got the music for the solo for the wedding whenever that is supposed to be. 

Post 36: Tuesday with the WLF Equation

Today was a very normal day.  Other than several tests, I didn't do all that much.  So, for the WLF Equation, I have to do a frequency sweep for each material at 5 different temperatures, and the line fitting the viscosities read by the Rheometer and use that to get the equation constants. 

Post 35: Lots of Time with the WLF Equation

Today was a fairly regular day.  Not a whole lot of stuff going on.  I spent a lot of time researching the theory behind rheology, and the best way to handle my project.  I have to find the Williams-Landy-Ferry Equation constants.  Each material has its own pair of constants, and I get to find them for each one of 28 mixtures. 

Post 34: Germany vs. Australia

Today, the church bells rang again at 8:30.  So I made it off to Church early thinking that the choir would be singing, but they weren't.  In fact, Herbert, the person who first met me to practice Organ, was playing Organ for the mass.  Afterward, he let me practice for a while.  I went back home afterward to grab some music, headed back to the church and continued to practice.  It was fun.  After 2 hours of that, I went to Augsburg again and completed a few more things on the Internet.  After that I came home and watched the Germany v. Australia game.  It was a very good game.  Germany won 4-0.  I felt kinda bad for the Australians. 

Post 33: Rent-a-Trombone

Today I went to Augsburg early to rent a trombone.  The store was pretty narrow, but they had a lot of various brass instruments.  Including a trumpet "kit" where they had one set of valves, a bell out of Brass and rose Brass, as well as various other trumpet parts in both kinds of brass so that the player can change parts of their instruments at will instead of changing the instrument.  On the way back, I got a little bit lost and asked an older couple to point me in the way to the train station.  They did and I made it there and stopped by the BK to check e-mail (and update my blog).  I came back to Meitingen and watched the USA v. England game.  it wasn't as good a game as I had hoped, but it was OK. 

Post 32: Not so much fun at work, WM* openner, and a night at the movies

Fairly annoying day at work.  The Rheometer is repaired, so I started testing again.  My samples got stuck in the sample press 5 times today, meaning that I wasted 5 times 0,6 grams of my 10,0 grams of material.  It wasn't all that much fun.  That and the fact that it was so warm out today all day.  And that one of my tests crashed the computer.  And another provided me with results that my temporary boss (Herr Dr. Max von Bistram) looked at and just started laughing.  No comment like (Hmm, komisch), just started laughing. 

So, on the way home I stopped at the Pfarrheim and practiced piano for a while.  I arrived home, and saw the last 15 minutes of the Mexico v. South Africa opening Fußballspiel of the World Championships.  It ended in a 1:1 tie.  At 19:30 Josua and I went to the Cindarella cinema and watched "Robin Hood".  Joshua and I were two of three people in the theater.  The cashier warned us beforehand that it was likely to be a private showing.  It was a very good film.  It was also completely in German.  After the movie, we went for a short bike ride to and from Herbertshofen discussing various things:  the movie, the difference between "Sie", "euch", and "Du" as used in the movie, and a bit about the history of Meitingen.  (Sie, is a formal form of "you".  For instance,  an employee talking with the president of a company would use Sie.  Euch is a plural form of "you".  Commonly used as the english "y'all".  However, in the context of the film, "euch" was used when talking to the King; the royal plural.  In this case, you is plural because, as the king said, "The kingship was given to him by God."  So when talking with the King or any member of the royal household, the plural is used because you are talking to the person and to God.  Du, is then an informal form of "you" used mostly among friends, or people who you have known for a while. 

I'll write more about the history of Meitingen when I get the chance. 

*WM stands for Weltmeisterschaft which is the German name for the FIFA World Cup Soccer. 

Post 31: Thursday haircut and a new word in Bayrisch

Today the rheometer was repaired.  And I found out that in Bayrish the number Fünfzehn (15) is pronounced  Fuchzehn.  Flo and I set up and ran a test with the Prepreg press on the other side of the plant.  This wasn't all that much fun because the press was 190°C and it was 32°C outside.  For lunch, we went to a Döner place next to the Thai restaurant.  After work, I went and got a haircut.  I was quite impressed.  The person was done in 10 minutes, and it looks really good.  Very impressive.  After this I went to the rehearsal for the Men's Chorus again.  They talked about their trip to Königsee on July 17th, so I'll be joining them for that trip.  Aught to be fun.  Provided the weather is good.

Post 30: Wednesday in choir rehearsal

So today was a very enjoyable day at SGL.  I forget exactly how it all started, but we wound up laughing practically the whole day.  I think it started when I looked over to Bianka and she was pouring 5 packets of sugar in her hot chocolate, and it just went downhill from there.  For lunch we went over to a Thai restaurant for lunch.  It was really good.  I think somebody had duck, so that provided plenty of laughs when we went over to the grocery store next door.  "Poor duck, how are you going to explain that to his family that you ate a family member" and etc.  At that point we had an argument over whether we wanted to buy a box of fruit ice cream, or a box of chocolate ice cream for desert.  two people voted for chocolate, and two for fruit, so everybody turned to me for the deciding vote.  After voting for chocolate, two people were humorously disappointed, and two were quite happy.  It was nice.  It was also a lot of ice cream, but since it was 34°C out, (80 something), nobody really minded.  We got back, and went up to the third floor to give a few Euros for Tim's Fatherhood gift ( I think I heard something about a washer), and to sign his card.  On the way back, Herr Bistram stopped Florian (Flo) and myself for a quick "What are your goals?" interview for a presentation that he was going to give.  That was pretty impromptu but it went well.  Upon getting back to the Diplomanten room, we got talking again, and for one reason Flo made a chicken noise just as somebody walked by.  This person did the typical double take and "What on earth was that?" facial expression.  Flo couldn't breath for the next 5 minutes because he was laughing so hard, but then we all were.  It was spectacular. 

After work, I went to the Church choir practice.  I got there early, and everybody else arrived promptly at 8.  After talking for about 20 minutes, we finally started rehearsal.  The director told us that her brother would be getting married soon and as such, she wanted to prepare a suprise song for him.  She thought it would take a while to learn because it was in English.   Then she realized that I was there, and it dawned on her that it is actually a tenor solo (and because German's singing English never really works, let alone an entire german tenor section singing English,) she asked me if I would be willing to sing it as a solo.  So I'll be singing "Can you feel the love tonight?" (not the Lion King version "And if he falls in love tonight, it can be assumed, his every-days with us are history, in short our pal is dooooooooomed", etc., but the actual version.) for somebody's wedding in a few weeks or so.  That made me feel really good, and aught to be fun.

Post 29: Bayern History and broken doors

Yesterday, I delivered my 24 bottles of powder to Frau Dunja Sailer to run through DSC and TGA (Differential Scanning Calorimetry and ThermoGravitational Analysis, or something like that.*) Other than that, I had very little to do until the Rheometer is repaired.  So today, I wound up browsing Wikipedia for random things.  I landed on a whole category for the Habsburg and the Wittelsbacher families (Ruled practically all of Europe for about 1000 years ending with the First World War.)  It will be interesting to read through a lot of that.  I think I landed on this information while on the search for the history of Meitingen and Bayern for information for my German 351 paper.  Eventually, I'll have to put some of it here.

And for the entire day today until about 4:30 the door was beeping (meaning that it wasn't shut and locked properly) even though it was shut.  At 4:30 they finally fixed it.  We, the other Diplomanten and myself were going crazy hearing it beeping for so long.

*DSC = a test where a reference and a sample are placed on "heaters" (for lack of a better word).  The sample is usually something that has a well defined heat capacity over a wide range of temperatures.  Both samples are heated at the same rate and the computer records how much energy is required per gram of sample to keep the sample at the same temperature as the reference.  In this way it is possible to see where the sample melts (requires more energy to melt), where it crystallizes (requires less energy), where there is a reaction (a peak marking the exothermic, or endothermic reaction, and how much energy is needed), and etc.
*TGA = a test where a sample is heated (from room temperature to 1000°C usually) and the difference in mass is recorded by the computer.  In this way, you can see when solvents and other miscellaneous substances leave the sample, and you can see how much of the sample is left at 1000°C, which is usually mostly carbon.  For me since I am working on a matrix fr Carbon Reinforced Carbon Fibers, this is important, because after 1000°C the matrix should leave behind the maximum possible amount of carbon to bind the carbon fibers together. 

It is also possible to set these two tests over each other, and get more information from them.  Say that a reaction occurs at 150°C (DSC) and there is a large reduction in weight (TGA) you can know that it is an exothermic reaction (because it requires large amounts of heat to release gases from the liquid/solid state to a gaseous state.  etc. 

Post 28: Monday with a broken Rheometer

Today Herr Dr. Max von Bistram and I tried to fix the Rheometer ourselves with a vacuum in the attempt to suck out any carbon fibers (which are quite deadly for electronic equipment, by the way)  It didn't work, so we called the technician to repair it.  As it turns out the power supply was completely shot.  Other than that, there really weren't a whole lot of interesting things that went on.

Post 27: Sunday with a Harmonium

Today I woke up early and made it over to the Johannisheim across the street from the Rewe to meet with Herr Dirr, with whom I had set up an appointment to have a look at the Harmonium there.  So for about an hour, I played the Harmonium.  Frau Bier was quite impressed with my ability to play and asked how long I'd played Harmonium.  So I told her "Well, about 10 minutes."  She said that if I was willing, I could plaz the Harmonium for their masses on Sundays, however that would conflict with singing with the church choir at St. Wolfgang's.  After that, we went to Augsburg and had lunch at a cafe before checking e-mail and such online.  We then made it back to Meitingen around 5.  I decided to take a bike ride to Gersthofen and back.  All in all about 30 km.  It was a very relaxing trip, though I had to turn around a few times and go to the other shore of the Lech, or Lechkanal because the road ended on that side of the water.  It was a fun trip.

Post 26: Saturday in Munich with Josh

Today, Josh and I decided to head to Munich.  We arrived fairly early and I went on the search for the Münchner Blech shop where I rented my trombone from last year.  After searching for about 45 minutes, I finally found it, but they didn't have the trombone from last year.  They had one that would have been twice as much as the one from last year, but that would have been too much.  So, I'm going to try with a brass shop hear in Augsburg.  After this shop, we went to the Biergarten am Chinesischer Turm for lunch.  I had the Schweinerollbraten.  It was really good.  From there, we walked past the University and into the center of town to look around for a while.  Then we went out to Nymphenburg park for a short bit.  I'd almost forgotton just how nice it is in that park.  From there, we headed back to the center of town and, because of the immense amount of walking that we'd done, we headed back to Meitingen. 

Post 25: Day after Frohnleichnam

Today was back to work for me.  I had planned to leave a little earlier than usual so I could head to Munich to see about renting a trombone for the summer.  I started by going to the Rheometer room to start it up for a test.  After loading the sample plates I saw a white flash and heard a snap and the rheometer didn't work after that.  So, in the hopes that somebody would be able to help me get it fixed soon, I sent an e-mail to both Herr Witzke and Her Bistrom (the person that I'm supposed to go to while Tim is on Dad-vacation), but since neither of them were in today, I never got an answer.  So, I spent the bulk of the day making the mixtures that I will be testing over the course of the summer.  Which meant 6 hours of turning pellets of hardener into powder.  (Now, 2 days later, my hand is still sore from grinding those pellets.)  After grinding the pellets, I had to mix another powder in with the first to give it a slightly different composition.  But now they are all made and waiting for testing.  All 28 of them. 

Post 24: Frohnleichnam

Today is Frohnleichnam.  We get the day off from work, so I slept in until 8 then got up.  "Northern Exposure" "Ferien Zu Dritte" (the movie that ends with the bear that is bald on both ends) with John Candy was on in German, so we watched that for a while.  Then "Spies Like Us" "Spionen Wie Wir" was on so we watched that for a bit.  After this we went into Augsburg in the hopes that the rain would let up.  The train was about an hour later than it should have been arriving at Meitingen.  We arrived in Augsburg and went in search of food.  We found the 1516 brewery near the train station so we stopped there to have lunch.  I had schweinebraten and we both had a bier.  It was pretty good; had a hint of sweet to it.  After this we went to check e-mail.  We arrived home around 4, so I sat out on the porch and read for a while. 

Post 23: Wednesday June 3

Today was a very laid back day at work.  A lot of people left early today.  Reason being that since tomorrow is Frohnleichnam we don't have to go to work, and since it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to come back to work for one day, a lot of people will be taking Friday off as well meaning that it is a nice long weekend. 

I had a few Rheology tests during the day, but more than that was nothing.  I had a meeting with Tim and Flo to discuss what will happen in the next few weeks.  (Tim will be a father and will likely have the next 3 weeks off from work.)  After this, I read a little bit more in "The Rheology Handbook" to try to find out what kind of tests are best for determining the WLF equation constants for each powder mixture.  It was "fun". 

Post 22: Tuesday of Week 3: Presentation day

Today was the day for Bianka and Mirko's presentations in English.  They did very well.  After their presentations, we went to a Pizza/Döner joint just outside of Meitingen as a way to "celebrate" the completion of their presentations (they have been fretting over them ever since I arrived at SGL.)  All in all, it was a fairly enjoyable day.  Today was also Josh's day to go and register with the city of Meitingen, and to get the Aufenthaltstitel in Augsburg. 

Post 21: Monday of Week 3

Today was a fairly normal day.  I helped Josh get everything situated with SGL (meeting with the finance people, ID, doctor's appointment, etc.).  Otherwise, it was a pretty normal day.  That evening, I figured out which train I needed to make it to Munich in time to meet with John and caught it.  Unfortunately, there was a 20 minute delay due to a downed powerline.  But the fact that it was fixed within 20 minutes was quite impressive. 
I met up with John and the Leahy's in Munich on Marienplatz.  They asked for a good recommendation for a place to eat, so we went to the Hofbraeuhaus and sat upstairs.  We talked quite a bit and had a very nice dinner.  Afterward, we went down to the gift shop so they could pick up a souvenier.  On our way back to Marienplatz, we stopped at one of the Gelato stores that I frequented when I was there.  We then proceeded to the train station so they could make it back to their hotel (which was located near the stop Harras) and I made my way back to the Hauptbahnhof to catch the train at 23.00.  I arrived back in Meitingen around 00.15 and went to sleep.

Post 20: Sunday of Josh's Ankunft

Today was a rather laid back day.  The church bells rang earlier than normal, signaling that the mass in Meitingen would start at 8:30 instead of 10 like usual.  This meant that I had to miss the 8:30 mass, but rather went to Herbertshofen at 10 for their mass at 10.  It was a nice church, much smaller than the one in Meitingen.  Very pink.  It was fairly richly decorated, though it had a very low roof leaving very little room for the organ. 
After mass, I went back home then left for the cafe in town to see if they had wireless internet.  So I had lunch there:  Kaesespaten mit Salat und Heisse Schokolade.  Since they didn't have internet, I went back to Augsburg to double check when Joshua would arrive.  After reaffirming that he would be arriving around 5, I came back to Meitingen to wait for him.  Due to a delay in Nuernberg, he only arrived around 7, so I brought him back to the Bergmeirs and we dropped his stuff off before making a quick walking tour of Meitingen. 

Post 19: Saturday 29. Mai

Today, Saturday was a relaxing day.  I left fairly early to go into Augsburg.  I had a few things that I needed to take care of on the Internet, and since the Burger King at the trainstation has free wireless, I sat there for a few hours.  I found out that my friend John Leahy is on vacation this week with his family and that on Monday he will be in Munich.  So I sent him an e-mail to try to set up a time to meet there.  Hopefully it works out.