Auf zu neuen Ufern!

Hier sind wir im Yellowstone-Nationalpark. Aber das war am Freitag... Kurz zurückspulen: Montagnacht kamen Aaron und ich am Idaho-Falls-Flughafen an und wurden von einem sehr freundlichen Kollegen Aarons abgeholt. Er brachte uns zu unserer Wohnung. Sie ist noch ohne Möbel, aber die Küchenschränke und Kleiderschränke (in der Wand) sind schon da, und das ist eine echte Hilfe! Ansonsten essen wir immer noch auf dem Küchenfußboden, was jetzt nicht mehr so angenehm ist. Ich sehne mich nach einem Tisch und Stühlen! Wir waren hier in einem Möbelgeschäft, aber dort hat mir nichts gefallen. Alles war zu dunkel und zu wuchtig, eben die typische amerikanische Landhaus-Mode. Ich setze jetzt große Hoffnung in unseren Ikea-Besuch, der aber erst in anderthalb Wochen sein wird. Der nächste Ikea liegt nämlich 3 1/2 Stunden entfernt, und wir verbinden den Besuch mit einem Besuch bei den Großeltern Johnson in Kalifornien und Freunden in Bountiful. Nach zwei Nächten auf dem Teppich haben wir uns erstmal eine Luftmatratze geleistet, was meinem Rücken gut tut. Aaron meinte zu mir, er würde es aber doch schätzen, bald ein richtiges Bett zu haben. Beim Umdrehen auf der Luftmatratze spürt nämlich der Andere alles davon, und Aaron meinte, wenn ich mich umdrehe, ist es für ihn wie auf der Achterbahn. Ich habe Tränen gelacht, als er das nachmachte. Tja, es ist doch besser, einen festen Schlaf zu haben, so wie ich. :) Hier ist mal ein Bild von der Küche. Ziemlich großer Kühlschrank. Und es gibt einen Gefrierschrank, das ist toll für uns. Ich habe nie einen gehabt.
Für Freitag waren wir mit Aarons Brüdern Mark und Paul und ihren Familien im Yellowstone-Nationalpark verabredet. Sie machten dort Urlaub, und wir wohnen ca. zwei Stunden davon entfernt. Es war eine wunderschöne Zeit mit ihnen. Der Wald selbst ist natürlich beeindruckend; wir werden zurückkommen. An diesem Tag haben wir die Geysirfelder besucht. In den kleinen Teichen sah das Wasser so klar aus wie in der Karibik. Gerne hätte ich darin ein Bad genommen, aber sie sind kochend heiß. Dann füge ich mal ein Bild von mir vor einem Geysir ein. Das Wetter ist ehrfurchtgebietend, weil die Sonne einen sehr schnell verbrennt (wir benutzen jetzt Sonnencreme mit LSF 50, nachdem ich in einer Woche zweimal Sonnenbrand bekam) und es sehr plötzliche Gewitterstürme gibt. Bis jetzt hatten wir immer Glück und waren drinnen, wenn es so stark geregnet hat.
Ich vermisse Deutschland, besonders wenn es ums Essen geht. Aber noch soll ich nicht jammern, denn ich bin erst eine Woche da und habe noch nicht alles gesehen. Aber es ist wohl kein Geheimnis, dass es einfach kein Brot wie in Deutschland gibt. Auch die erste Joghurt-Erfahrung war enttäuschend. Ansonsten geht es uns aber hervorragend. Ich bin erfolgreich Auto (ein Mietauto, Automatikgetriebe!) gefahren, da Aaron seinen Führerschein noch nicht erneuern konnte. Das wird hoffentlich nächste Woche klappen. Das soll´s für heute gewesen sein. Bleibt dran für mehr Neuigkeiten! ;)

A Family Visit, A Visa, A Defense, An Apartment, and Plane Tickets

Those are five items that had been on our to do list for quite some time, and they all happened this week, the last four in the past two days.

To begin with, Kristina and I had a great visit to see her family last week. We were able to spend three days with her mom, during which time we went to the neighboring town of Bad Muskau, to the beautiful park and castle they have there. We had a great time visiting, and playing games. We took a walk one afternoon with Kristina's dad too. Then we drove with Kristina's mom to Dresden via Görlitz to have

lunch with some friends there. We spent four days in Dresden with Kristina's brothers and their families. We went on some nice long walks and generally justplayed with the kids and stuff. One day we went to a fun playground and started playing tag and hide-and-seek with one of our

nieces, then all the other kids wanted to join in. In the end I was chasing about six kids all over this place. It was cute because German kids have a hard time saying "Aaron", so half the kids are calling me Eric or Erwin. I strained a muscle in my leg at one point, which made chasing the girls a little difficult the next couple days. Victor has grown up a lot and was really cute. On Monday, we came back to Mainz, taking the regional trains. It should have take about 10 hours. It ended up taking more like 12, with a missed connection, a faulty train switch, and a pulled emergency brake. It was really hot towards the end, and Kristina and I agreed, next time, we take the fast direct train.

On Tuesday, Kristina got up really early and went into Frankfurt for her Visa Interview, which she will describe in her own entry. I spent the day giving my group another practice defense talk and then working on their comments. I worked on that all day, and by that evening, I was still taking 48 minutes, but only have 30. After learning that everything was in order for Kristina's Visa, I contacted the BYU-I Travel Office, to let them know we could no book our flight. I sent a few emails back and forth with them, trying to find the best option.

This morning I practiced my defense one last time, and this time did it in 28 minutes, so I was feeling better. We went to the university together, carrying a bunch of food for snacks after the defense, and a fan to keep me cool during the presentation. It was quite hot, and I was in a full suit. I thought Maybe this would be good, because the professors on my committee would be hot too and not want to ask a bunch of questions. My presentation went well, and I hit 30 minutes exactly. The committee, on the other hand, really had to stretch to fill the minimum 30 minutes of questioning. But we all made it through and I passed. And that is when the fun began. German universities don't do graduations, so the celebration immediately follows the defense. To begin with, the graduate is given a custom made hat, with mementos of their work.

Then they stick you on this wagon/throne thing and pull you around campus. There were cans tied on the back making a bunch of noise, just in case someone missed the guy in a suit on this big huge chair. It is kind of embarrassing, kind of awesome.

There were two stops that had to be made. First at the statue of Johannes Gutenberg, for whom the university is named, where I thanked him for letting me study here.

Then at this statue of a horse, where I had to climb on top.

After all that excitement, Kristina and I went home and took a nap. That evening we had a pizza picnic with my group to celebrate, which was a nice time just to be together and think about the fact that I actually did it.

Then came the good news that the plane tickets discussed yesterday were purchased. Then I called the managers of the apartment we had applied for. She had said they had a few questions for me, but basically it was when do you want to move in. She said that we will definitely get a place, and most likely a third floor apartment like we requested. That got Kristina really excited, and rounded out nicely a very full, but productive two days.

Now all that is left is to sell as much of our belongings as we can, pack the rest, and leave. It's a combined huge relief.

Interview!

A quick note, I just received notice that BYU-Idaho wishes to interview me for the open Chemistry professor position. Let's just say, I'm flippin' excited.

Ups and Downs

Sorry it has been a while since either of us has written anything. For those who couldn't quite follow Kristina's post, we're really busy. She's got this organic chemistry lab class where she's supposed to be there from 9 to 6, and in her remaining time write lab reports and prepare procedures for what's next and order chemicals and everything. It's more difficult and time demanding than anything I ever had to do. And while she's doing that, I'm writing my dissertation. And somewhere in there someone is supposed to go grocery shopping and wash dishes and do laundry. Honestly, we do as little of that as possible. We've kind of gotten on a routine of only washing dishes once a week.

Along with all of that, and because of it, we've had a lot of ups and downs over the past few months. Sometimes it can flip really fast too. I go back and forth between thinking all my data is worthless and I'm betting the rest of my life on shoddy conclusions (yesterday), and then realizing I know what's going on and my data is actually pretty good (today). Let me demonstrate.

This graph got me down:

It made for a hard day. On the right axis is what I measured (FOTOS) for iso-pentane concentrations divided by what was measured at the observatory at Hohenpeißenberg (MOHp) as a function of the measured concentration. It basically shows that the values I measured for iso-pentane underestimate the actual value by up to 80%. That's not good. Especially since iso-pentane is one of the three compounds I measured in Finland on which my big chapter is based. It is times like these when I ask myself what I'm doing with my life. Then I remembered what I had done wrong. (Non-science types can now skip to the next picture.) I had the timing of my mass spec ion grouping such that I switched ion groups in the middle of this peak. Not on purpose of course, but because iso-pentane has signal at ions in both groups, the total ion signal looked okay, but the individual mass-to-charge signals contained clipped peaks. I thought about how I could prove that, then realized that if I plot as a function of peak retention time, it should be obvious. The ion grouping switch occurred at 3.0 minutes, so those points near 3.0 minutes would be more clipped, progressing upward until the peak is fully within the ion group window. I made that plot today.

This graph got me back up:

See how beautiful it is. That is such an amazing correlation I had to run around showing everyone. It shows that I can explain the discrepancy, and better yet, that the changes I made before going to Finland should result in highly reliable data. All is once again right in the world.

So lots of ups and downs, but it looks like we'll both end on an up.

I'm getting excited about becoming a teacher again. A couple weeks back, I gave the lesson at the home evening activity for the young single adults. (I'm the member of the Bishopric assigned to the YSAs). I decided to talk about how the rules, laws and commandments we chose to follow shape the kind of person we are. To demonstrate that, I explained how in quantum mechanics, the difference between a particle-in-a-box and a harmonic oscillator is not related to the nature of the particle (the kinetic energy term for both is the same), but rather the boundaries within which it exists (the potential energy term, which varies based on the type of potential well in which the particle is contained). Surprisingly, only one person seemed to follow my reasoning, but she was so excited about the concept that it made it worth it. (Don't worry, in the end I switched to scripture references, and then most everyone got my point.) Yeah, I'm excited to be a teacher. I haven't heard anything from BYU-Idaho yet, and plan to write a follow-up email this weekend if I don't hear from them by then.

Well, that's probably enough for now. Class dismissed. Please leave your quizzes on my desk and remember to read chapter four, sections one and two before our next lesson on Monday.

Mein schwieriges Wintersemester

Dank Thomas´Motivation versuche ich jetzt mal meinen ersten Eintrag. Gerade schone ich mich zu Hause wegen einer fiesen Erkältung. Dabei sollte ich fleißig im Labor arbeiten... Ich habe nämlich ein großes Laborpraktikum mit vielen Synthesen, das über das ganze Wintersemester geht. Jeden Tag von 9 bis 18 Uhr, jede Woche, bis Mitte Februar. Es ist sehr anspruchsvoll, und ich musste im Vorfeld einige Ängste überwinden, um damit anzufangen. Jetzt lerne ich sehr viel Neues kennen und arbeite sehr selbständig. Das macht auch öfters mal Freude, besonders wenn etwas gut funktioniert. Oft funktionieren die Dinge nicht so gut, etwas Ungeplantes passiert oder ich wurde wegen einem Fehler ausgeschimpft. Dann ist es schwer. Aber ich sage mir, ich ziehe das auf jeden Fall durch. In Aaron habe ich den besten Rückhalt und viel Unterstützung.
Wir freuen uns übrigens auch schon auf Weihnachten bei Mutti und darauf, euch alle wiederzusehen! Die Karte mit den vier kleinen Thronis fand ich sehr hübsch. Das Baby schaut noch ein bisschen skeptisch ;), aber sie sehen alle sehr glücklich aus.
Aaron ist derweile fleißig am Arbeiten. Ich muss jetzt mal meinen Mann loben, denn er ist einfach der Beste. :)
Das soll´s für heute gewesen sein. Das Foto unten zeigt uns auf dem Spielplatz, als Dani und Mathias uns im Oktober besucht haben.