And This Is How We Say Goodbye...In Germany!

Ok, I could not pass up the chance to quote one of the best movies ever (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for those who might not know - Mom!).

I slept in a little today since I thought today was going to be an "off" day. Around 1100 I checked my email and found an email from a retired man who said he could meet with me today for an interview. Of course I said yes!

I quickly learned why, when some of the other men had mentioned that I should talk with him, they asked if I had the next few weeks open. He is quite a talker. I think it took him about 90 minutes to give a long and winding explanation of his work history at ESOC, which was just a fraction of what he could have talked about. It was great to hear him and all of his stories, but slightly difficult to get him to focus and talk about the questions I had. Our conversation when on for almost three hours, at which point he realized that he had another person waiting to meet with him, so we had to part. I think I got some good information from him about some of the early days at ESOC. Overall, I am not complaining about this interview, just wishing I could have learned a little more specifically for my project.

I spent the rest of the afternoon packing and realizing that I have to catch the train at 600 tomorrow morning, which means a (hopefully) early night. For dinner I decided to have a bit of a smorgasbord of German food. There are a number of little food places in the train station, somewhere between a food court (but with fresh food rather than fast food) and a market. I ended up sampling a little from a number of places, including a real German pretzel (I had to get one), a bratwurst sandwich, a mozerella and tomato sauce sandwich (almost a mini-pizza), and a double chocolate muffin as the piece de resistance (or whatever the German equivalent is). It was a good, and quite filling, dinner.

And so I leave Germany. It would be interesting to come back some time to a larger city (Berlin perhaps) so that I could compare the experiences. I doubt Darmstadt is a good example of Germany, but if it is I have to say it was a bit disappointing. I understand why so many ESA people see it as not the best place to work. But that's ok, I got some good information, and my next post should be from Florence! I just hope that my personal hype will not mean that it cannot live up to my expectations. We will see.