The Big Day

On Tuesday, October 25th, I finally gave my talk in the theory seminar after only few hours of sleep because -as always- there was so much to do in the last minute. I must really learn to finish my work some more time in advance. However, at the end everything went so amazingly well! During the preparation I had been quite nervous because my talk had been announced officially on the seminar homepage http://scipp.ucsc.edu/seminars/index.html, with a notice on the pin board and by email. Luckily I knew that this seminar has a very friendly atmosphere.
I was surprised how many people had come and I felt honored that also the experimentalists from the ATLAS group showed up so that additional chairs had to be squeezed into the seminar room. Stefano helped me with the beamer and Howie gave a very nice introduction and explained how this exchange had started. Then I talked 30min about physics and the audience asked quite many questions during and after the talk so that we had interesting discussions. In addition to my physics part, I spoke about the opportunity of an exchange, trying to advertise Göttingen and Hamburg. Not only students, but also professors seemed indeed interested.
After the talk I was really relieved and tired. But the big day was not over yet since I had a meeting with one professor from the media department who had been in Göttingen as the exchange program coordinator for a while. Unfortunately, this program between Göttingen and the University of California had been canceled due to the financial crisis. So we discussed new more or less formal exchange options. Regarding the stay abroad during my master thesis, I was extremlely lucky because I did not need to pay tuition fees since I did not take any classes or exams. Thus, my exchange was rather uncomplicated. Such a short-term visit for research purposes should be extendable in both exchange directions.

In the afternoon I was so exhausted that I decided not to work but to go mountainbiking on Upper Campus, in the woods where mountain lions live. It is really idyllic there, especially considering that it is in fact on campus. However, the signs about the mountain lion habitat worried me a bit...