Getting Ready To Go

So it has been a while since our last post... Dan's computer was sent to Berlin for a new hard-drive, and I've been incredibly busy trying to wrap up some last minute things before I leave for Bonn on Wednesday.

It's been a good month here in Minnesota, and I know Dan has had a very productive time so far in Bonn. Even so, I think we're both ready to be in the same place again.

And I'll be on my way soon enough. My flight leaves on Wednesday afternoon and I'll arrive in Amsterdam at 6 am on Thursday morning. Everybody knows I'm pretty useless anytime before 8 am, so Dan is planning to meet me at the airport, and we'll take the train back together to Bonn.

We've got a lot of different things planned in the next three months, so stay tuned and we'll keep you posted on our day to day lives in Europe.

Much Love,
Deborah

Birthday Shout Out

Things are quiet in Bonn for the past few days. Over the weekend, however, there was big news. My bicycle was stolen from in front of the house! In fact the institute has had over 4 bikes stolen this week, so I'm a little cautious about borrowing another bike.

I hope I'll get my computer back soon, so I can resume posting photos of life here. Before I go, big happy birthday wishes to my big sister, Naomi. Lots of health and happiness this year, love your bro.

No photos...

My macbook recently went on the fritz, so I don't have access to the photos that I've taken over the past week. Hopefully, I'll get it back soon and be ready to post a bit more frequently.

The goal for this week is to get a giant comforter for Deborah.

Action photos

Deborah wanted some math action photos, so here's Christof and Roger working on a problem from micromagnetics.


I jumped in and finished a few things...


Roger left yesterday, but we had a productive week. Today it's very gray and wet in Bonn, so I'll probably mostly stay indoors.

It's Me Again!

I've been trying to wrap up some wedding stuff before I join Daniel in Bonn, and yesterday I went to taste the food at Chowgirls! Naomi and my mom came along, and we had an excellent, AND free exquisite dinner.

The food was really fantastic, and I think we'd all agree that if Daniel and I have them cater our wedding our guests will be quite impressed. The fare was simple yet incredibly tasteful. Chowgirls uses all local and organic ingredients so everything we tried was fresh, healthy, and yummy!

I think Daniel would have enjoyed the tasting, and it would have been nice to have him there with us last night. I kept on deferring some of Heidi's questions, saying, "well, I'll have to ask my fiance about that one." Ha! I liked the sound of that.

So I guess that's all from this part of the world.

Ciao!

Counting Down The Days

20 days to go, and I'll be joining Daniel in Germany. Honestly, I'm no longer nervous about the trip. I just want to be there already with him.

I'm glad though that he's had this month out there on his own. From his limited blog posts we can all assume he's been pretty busy with math, trying to get the most out of this month when everybody in the think tank is in town. Don't ask me what exactly they've been working on... I can only tell you it's applied math and the study of superfluids with drag and harmonic maps that are constrained to lie in the tangent bundle (whatever that means!). The truth is, even an entire life-time with this man won't get me past pre-Calc! It's not his fault, my brain just refuses to compute...

Daniel: you owe us a number of blog posts, and more pictures of the apartment, German doggies, and you and your mathin' team.

xoxoxo,
D.

So Far Away From Me

It's been exactly one week since I dropped Daniel off at the airport and he took off for Deutschland. As we can all see, he is having a great time mathing it out with friends, riding bikes along the Rhine, speaking Deutsch to little Deutsch doggies, and exploring the biergartens that dot the countryside.

I miss Daniel a lot today. Actually, I miss him a lot every day that he is gone, but today it feels like more of a need than a simple desire. Maybe it's because my eye hurts from the surgery I had on Friday, and I wish he were here to keep me company. Or maybe the reality of time is settling in, and I know I won't see him for another three weeks.

I know when I'm up and working again, instead of spending my days resting off the post op. pain, I'll be busy enough that I won't be sitting here pining for him all day. But for now, that's exactly what I'm doing...

And that's not a bad thing, when you know you're going to marry the guy.

Bike ride along the Rhine

After working a bit with Christof in the morning, we decided to go for a bike ride along the Rhine, since the sun came out. It was a really beautiful ride. At the end of the ride, we stopped at a Biergarten and had a Koelsch (the local beer from Cologne - always served in small glasses). You can see a castle on the hill overlooking the Rhine.


While we were sitting there, a little doggy popped up under our table and said "guten tag"


(that was for deborah). We rode back, and I stopped at the Poppelsdorfer Palace and watched a little bit of pick-up soccer

Poppelsdorfer Allee

The institute where I'm working (called the Hausdorf Institute) is located on Poppelsdorfer Allee, which is a long, tree-lined street with castles on both ends.  

One of the nice things that the institute offers is a free bike for the duration of the visit.  Here's my bike with basket in front of the institute.  

If you look closely, you can sort of see my colleague Christof's head in the large bay window...Tschuss!

Room With A View

So I finally had a good night's sleep. Our apartment is located near the central market in Bonn, not too far from the Rhine river. Here's a photo of the street from outside our balcony.

It's been mostly grey here for the past few days, but yesterday the clouds broke and the city was bathed in beautiful fall light...but I forgot my camera. I'll keep it with me from now on.

Big Red

We stuffed Big Red so full of clothes, coats, and shoes that Daniel thought he'd lost our camera. But to his relief, he found the little sucker tucked away between several pairs of socks. So hold on to your hats, pictures of our Bonn pad should be up shortly!

Arrived!

I arrived in Bonn yesterday after a long day trip through Amsterdam. Once I find my camera (yikes!) I'll post some photos of the place. I feel rested and ready to get started!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Dan's in Bonn! I took him to the airport yesterday where he and Big Red (the gigantic suitcase I made him take so I wouldn't have to) caught a flight to Amsterdam, via Chicago. From Amsterdam he hopped on a speedy Euro train and made it to Bonn earlier today.

He's happy but exhausted, and planning on sleeping for at least 12 hours. That's a lot for a guy who usually goes to bed at midnight and gets up at 6.

Daniel, we all miss you! Please write and tell us all about your first day in Deutschland.