At last, finally, and after months of searching and much hand-wringing, we have a plan for the summer. Thanks to an introduction from James, I have an invitation to visit Marc Alexa‘s group at the Technical University, Berlin. Yay! I’ll be there, getting to know people, doing some of my work, hopefully collaborating some with people there. The position should offer plenty of flexibility about when I’m in the office, which should be great for all of our plans to explore Germany and the rest of The Continent as much as our budgets will allow.
TU is nicely situated at the west end of Tiergarten, a huge park in the middle of Berlin. We’ll probably live in Mitte (“midtown”), which seems to be the cultural heart of the city. Here’s a cheesy little map I stole from Lonely Planet to give you an idea:
I very excited that we ended up with a big city. Hopefully, this will give us a taste of what life in Germany could be like for a longer stay, and also serve as just a cool adventure. Coincidentally, we also just finished the final lesson (90 total) of our German tapes. Hopefully by the end of the summer we’ll be making some real progress on that front, too.
You know the Tiergarten has a few naked sunbathing spots. Might be a nice way to relax on a sunny July afternoon. 🙂