Yuriy's last weekend started on Tuesday

Yuriy is the Ukranian graduate student who could graduate any day now if he didn't have to return to Ukraine for a semester to fulfill his teaching obligations at a university there.  Ya, he's already hired.  The misses will be happy too.

Yuriy and I stayed late 'fixing' an SEM (scanning electron microscope) on Tuesday.  Thirsty and hungry after triumphing over the machine that had perplexed him all afternoon (read with tone of irony), we strolled over to Baron (Bar On), the campus pub nearest our building for a beer (Augustiner Pilsner) and flammkuchen.  Flammkuchen ('flame kitchen') is a flat bread, pretty much a good pizza crust, spread with a thin layer of creamy cheese, onions, and bacon, fired in a brick oven.  My previous experiences with German pizza remind me of Elio's frozen pizza that you'd serve with American beer from a macro-brewery and on occasion the pot coffee reminds me of the cheap stuff brewed served in our petrol stations.  Flammkuchen, however, is balanced with a lightly crispy crust and slightly chewy and delicious thin strips of onions and bacon.

Doesn't Yuriy look scholarly?

How 'bout now?

I agree

A rain storm started and ended between the time we ordered our stuff and it arrived.  We had expertedly chosen a table under a big umbrella.  

Flammkuchen!

Mmmm... flammkuchen after the rain

Wednesday was Ukrainian independence day.  Thursday was Yuriy's brain's independence day from his body.

Wednesday was also bar night in Wallstrasse.  Amaretto mixed with apple juice became appealing when it was on special for 1.5 Euro.  Disclaimer: fruit juices are pretty good here and taste more like fruit than most of our big brands.  Tasty, but zu viel zucker, my brain was also slightly independent on Thursday.

We received encouragement from our advisor to attend the ACS Webinar by Paul Weiss broadcast on Thursday, and I encouraged it because Ich bin ein großer Paul Weiss fan.  2pm Eastern Time in USA means 8pm MST (Mainz Standard Time).  With Sebastian's laptop feeding into the beamer (projector) on the table and a screen on an easel, Yuriy, Sebastian, Janak, and I gathered in their office for the show.  This group can make me laugh until my belly hurts.  The webinar was intended for a general audience and consisted of about 15-20 minutes of Paul presenting and half an hour of questions.  It attracted a wide variety of viewers who asked a lot of thoughtful questions thinking they were sparking debates, but most of us in nanoscience have been in and out of all of these concerns and arguments repeatedly.  Thus, most of our time was spent reading questions from the audience, as the wise moderator picked and chose a handful of questions out of the hundred that came in.  Good thing we had refreshments.

Paul Weiss, you have our undivided attention

Every Friday, a subset of the group goes to Baron, for a drink or three.  This week, the contingent was Yuriy, Irene, Chrissi, and I.  I am effectively Irene's (pronounced ihr-RAY-neh) protege, my project branches from her thesis work, and I help keep her microscope and white light laser properly exercised as she writes her thesis.

  

We know something....

She really knows something

Yuriy agrees

 Irene recently gave me a compliment: I don't speak German with an American accent; my accent is Chinese.
I knew that side of me would manifest itself some day.

On the home stretch of my Saturday roaming in town (see upcoming posting), I walked into a bakery, heard my name, and there was Yuriy, finishing lunch with a friend.  Bon voyage Yuriy, good luck waking up at 5am on Sunday!