Villanova Campus

Today just a few word about the University and its campus. According to Wikipedia:

Named for Saint Thomas of Villanova, the school is the oldest Catholic university in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.^[3]
Founded in 1842 by the Order of Saint Augustine, the university traces its roots to old Saint Augustine's Church, Philadelphia, which the Augustinian friars founded in 1796, and to its parish school, Saint Augustine's Academy, which was established in 1811.

The campus and the buildings do look quite impressive. Even the newly-built ones are made to fit into the general look and feel. There is plenty of space, nice greenery, squares and trees. I'm looking forward to wander trough the campus when spring really kicks in here.

The pictures show the university chapel, the monastery (!) and lastly Tolentine Hall (where my Prof's office is) and the CEER building (where my lab is). The pics were taken on that doomed morning... By that time everything looked still calm and pristine... well yeah. But I still like to see those places, when I go to lab everyday.

So long, tmr I'm up for some sight seeing in Philly down town. Be prepared for some more imagery.

It's got Electrolytes!

I already gave you a clue that the second day at university didn't pass that great. And it was for a very profane reason: Something upset my stomach and I felt terribly sick. :-(
It started already in the morning, but I waved it off and tried to ignore it. But it was getting worse and worse as noon was approaching. Finally, after my lunch (which was a cup of tea) I had to call god on the big white telephone... (guess you know what I mean...) Thanks to spring break, the campus clinic was closed, so my host drove my to a pharmacy close-by. If not for my terrible condition this would have been really hilarious.

Fist of all the stomach relieving stuff they gave me is some bright pink, slimy fluid. I guess you all watched the Ghost Busters movie one time. Remember the slime? That pink stuff? Yep, thats exactly the color and texture of this medicine. And it tastes like tooth paste. I mean what did the guys think, when they were designing this drug? Something like: "Okay when I feel really sick, I'm just craving for some pink, slimy, bubbling stuff to swallow." I donno, I'll probably never find out...

The next funny thing happened when I was asking for something to rehydrate me. I good ol' Germany (and even in Singapore) we have some soluble stuff you can drink. It doesn't taste great either, but I have the minerals you probably need. Guess what they were offering me in the pharmacy? Gatorade!!! And they were completely serious about it! I was just waiting for the sentence: "Its got electrolytes." (Have you watched Idiocracy? No? Its a must see!). Just too bad that I wasn't in the mood for laughing.

Well eventually we head back for university. I decided to stay for the afternoon meeting. Maybe it was a bad idea, cause I couldn't really concentrate and I was constantly fighting nausea. In the end I gracefully sustained it and my Prof even offered my a lift. First I declined, but in the end I was glad that he insisted. He even stopped at a super market and bought some soup, bread and fruits for me! I really have to thank him very much for that.

The end of this story? I somehow survived the night without throwing up again. Passed most of the next day in bed to recover. The day after (which is today) I was again alive and kicking - I could go back to work and finally present some ideas about my work. So it could have been worse.

At this point: Thank you for all the nice wishes you sent me. Feels much better when you know that somebody cares.

Arrival in Ardmore, PA

So this seems to be the first posting literally in years. I guess I have to go through the usual preliminaries first.

As I already hinted in my mail, I will be in the US for a bit more than 8 weeks. I was sent to Villanova University on a research assignment related to my PhD project. In fact my host, Prof. Amin, is our cooperation partner here in the US. He actually has the expertise, an experimental setup and many cooperations with industry and government. So I'm looking forward to a fruitful and interesting stay here.

The flight and arrival were fine and smooth. I am staying in a house in Ardmore (it seems that the name of the town changes ever mile here, but you can't tell the difference) with Zack, who is Villanova staff. He is a very friendly guy and he lets me stay in one of his rooms. The house is in one of these 100% stereotype American neighbourhoods. I almost felt like in one of the sitcoms like Alf or the Bundies. Everybody seems to have a small American-style house, surrounded by a small garden and has at least two big cars in front of the house. Quite funny is actually the electricity and telephony supply. Everything is connected through a big bunch of wires that run along some old, half-rotten, wooden poles. Quite like in China! :-) No wonder that the American power grid has the reputation of being unreliable...

I spent the weekend mainly with recovering from my jet-lag (it wasn't too bad) and getting familiar with the neighbourhood. I guess I walked further on that weekend than an average American in a whole year... :-)

The first day at University was fine. Everybody is very friendly and helpful there. I was given a small campus tour and I was equipped with everything I shall need for my stay. I got to know some of my colleagues already, who are mostly foreigners too. Most of them, however, have already finished their Phd degree. So Its gonna be challenging for me...

The second day at University was not as fine unfortunately. But this will have to wait for the next posting.

Back in Germany

Finally after 10 month adventure in South-East Asia I'm back in Good ol' Germany. The flight was uneventful and very smooth (Qatar Airways is great). They even allowed me in total 9kg overweight without charging me! Just the Deutsche Bahn was of course delayed, so that I missed my connecting train in Mannheim. I have to admit that it feels a bit strange to be back in Germany. On the one hand everything seems to have remained the same, but I guess due to the fact that I have changed it feels not quite familiar. I will see how I can adopt in the next days. At least the weather was very welcoming with around 30°C and sunshine. And eating real bread, sausage and cheese was definitely great! :-D

A big thanks to all my friends in Singapore and all over the World. You made the stay a very memorable one and I hope to keep in touch with all of you. If you ever want to visit Germany let me know and I try to meet up with you. As soon as I have an own room again (I'm staying in my parents' flat for now) there will always be a free mattress for you! Special thanks to Hari, Naren, Vijay, Arul, Devi, Deepthi, Safi and Klein. It was so cool that you were so spontaneous and you could meet up with me on my last day in Singapore. I appreciated it very much.

Only one issue left... There are still the trips to Vietnam, Borneo, India and Laos which are not yet reflected here. If I get enough votes in the comments I will write a short wrap-up with pictures for them. So its up to you! ;-)

Exams are finished!!!

This was actually a short exam time. Today I had both my exams, Financial management and Array Signal Processing. Both of there were quite okay, ASP was actually rather easy. There have been much worse exam papers in the past. I hope I can celebrate with some (exchange) students in the next few days.

On Thursday and Friday I have already planned a short trip to Malaysia. We (four of us) will rent some bikes and take a ferry across the Malaysia River. Then we want to cycle some 60km the first day, stay in Tanjung Balau for one night and then come back to Singapore the next day. Just a little bike trip, but it should be nice!

Apart from that I want to finish writing up my thesis by the end of this month. The minimum goal is to finish a final draft and make maybe a few changes when I'm back to Germany. So I won't be bored the last 9 (!) days in Singapore...

Exam time

Its about time for a posting related to my studies in Singapore. This week was the last week of lectures here at NTU. By last Tuesday I was finished with all my lectures as well as with my assignments. But of course there are still the final exams. Funnily I have both my finals on the same day (yeah I'm only taking two, because I'm writing a Thesis/"Studienarbeit"). The exams are scheduled 21st April, so it is still enough time, but I should get started with seriuos studying... Well, up to know I'm still a bit lazy, but I'm confident that it is getting better when the exams are approaching. :-)

I hope that I find some time to finish the postings about my last trips. I'm always kind of lagging behind... For the Singaporeans (or other NTU students) among my readers: Good luck for your exams!

Thailand: The South

We finished our Thailand trip with some island hopping in the South. The first island on the list was Ko Samui. The trip there (night bus) was quite painful and took around 18 hours in total... But in the end we arrived in a nice chalet at the beach. The sea and the beach were nice, just the weather could have been better. We didn't actually do much there. We had to relax from the strenuous stay in Bangkok. On the beach was a big firework every evening. All the tourists couldn't wait until New Year's eve and bought the fireworks from the merchants.

I guess you know me good enough to know that I can't stay at the beach for the whole day. Thus I did a slightly adventurous jungle hike one afternoon. There was a little hill quite close to our chalet and I pictured that you have a nice view from up there. So I aimed for one big boulder you could spot from the bottom. Of course there was no trail up this hill - I rather had to fight my way through the jungle. It wasn't very dense though, but the slope was quite steep. But having climbed the boulder finally I was rewarded for my efforts (see pictures). The next challenge was to find the way back (passing some wild animals...) - but I managed that finally, too.

The next island was Ko Phangan - famous for the monthly Full Moon Party. Since there is an extra New Year party we went there to catch this one. You can describe the whole thing in just one word: CRAZY.
The whole island was almost fully booked - we could only find a one-bed-room for the three of us, one hour away from the party beach. On the party itself there were only Europeans/Westerners on the beach - you could hardly find any Asians. It was a great party though. And alcohol in this place is damn cheap... Unfortunately I still had to recover from a fish poisoning a got on Ko Samui. But I enjoyed myself anyway - even if I couldn't party as hard as the others.

After having cured our hang overs we went on to Krabi - the bus ride: no comment (I really started hating Thai travel agencies). Krabi is definitely my favourite place in Southern Thailand. The limestone formation look just incredible - especially Rayleigh Beach is breathtaking. The first challenge we faced, however, were the fried insects on the local market in Krabi town. The girls were very eager to try them - so they finally convinced me too. We tried silk worms, bamboo worms, grasshoppers and crickets. They looked more scary than they actually tasted. It won't get my favourite snack, but it was not too bad - much better than Durian for sure...

The next day my travel mates went on to Ko Phi Phi. Since I had only two days left I stayed in Krabi and I didn't regret it! Rayleigh beach was really awesome. You could climb one of those giant limestone rocks and have a great view from up there. On one of the surrounding islands, the James Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" was actually shot. I haven't been to that particular island but the others were equally amazing. The beach and the sea were really great as well - unfortunately it was very touristy. The beach was quite crowded...

In the last morning in Krabi I went kayaking in the mangrove forest. The whole thing was a bit short, but the area was really beautiful. We went along the forest and paddled up a canyon. In the canyon there were a lot of monkeys. And some of them even jumped in the water and swam over to the boats! They knew of course that the guides alway bring some fruits for lunch.

After that it was already time to leave. I had to get to Phuket to be able to catch my plane back to Singapore the next morning. This time I took the public bus - not better than the private ones, but at least nobody tries to scam you. I didn't see much of Phuket though. I just spend one evening in Phuket town, walking a bit around, getting a nice last dinner and a Thai massage. The restaurant was a very nice place, it rather resembled a gallery than a restaurant. The Thai massage was totally amazing. I wasn't exactly gentle, but you felt totally relaxed after it. She squeezed every single muscle of my body for more than two hours - and that, if I remember right, for a price of 200 Bath (<5 Eur).
Like that the last evening in Phuket was a great conclusion for the Thailand trip. Thailand is definitely a great place to visit - I just think that everything is a bit too touristy already. But I have probably been only to the major tourist spots. When I come back I will try to go to the less famous and popular places - I think the you can enjoy it even more.