Saturday, January 12, 2013

The Pope Does Not Tweet in Latin


Happy (late) New Year! Whooooo! I hope this last year was pretty great for you all, and I hope this coming year will be just fine also. As usual, I'm super busy. I spent my Friday night writing a lab report about the power level of an acoustic source in a semi-anechoic chamber. I did this while drinking a bottle of Spanish wine. I'm pretty sure it's the greatest lab report of all time.

I spent my New Year in Prague. Prague is probably one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. It felt like everywhere you looked, there was a a big castle or something made out of gold or something with a lot of history. For instance, I went to Prague Castle and saw the exact window where defenestrations would occur. A local made a really great pun about it. There were some people that survived their fall by hitting something soft before hitting the ground. The Czechs bounced, as it were.

Some friends and I had a nice New Years Eve dinner with lots of food and drink. At the stroke of midnight, we went out to the restaurant balcony with a bottle of champagne and watched fireworks go off. And good God, did fireworks go off! On every street in Prague, there was something exploding. It was pretty amazing.

Next up was Munich. I want to live in Munich. I stayed at a hostel and met a guy from Hong Kong, and another guy from Seoul. We went to the world famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus (Mozart was rumored to frequent this place quite a bit) and ordered liters of beer, bratwurst, and pig knuckle (it tastes better than it sounds). It was honestly some of the best beer of my life. We were joined by an Italian couple. They were dressed all in black with random metal bands on their clothing. They were Italian metalheads. They didn't speak much English, so I tried speaking a strange Spanish/French hybrid with them. It worked out pretty well, and we spoke about things like religion, bunga bunga, and how horrible Italian beer is. We all ended up spending the night chatting and drinking liter after liter of delicious beer until closing time. It was such an amazing experience just connecting with random people from different backgrounds like that. It almost sounds like a joke: a Mexican, a Chinaman, a Korean, and Italian metalheads walk into a bar...

My last stop was Zürich. Zürich is a wonderful place! It felt like a very clock-themed city. There are clock towers everywhere, and Switzerland is known for their fancy watches. Although the city seems to be very time-themed, the people of Zürich are very laid-back people who just go with the flow. Maybe it was just the people I was hanging out with. I explored the city, bought some Swiss chocolate, and went to see an Italian physicist rock out with his band. I was also introduced to the magic that is Toss My Body

Prague Castle off in the distance.

Astronomical clock in Prague.

Rathaus-Glockenspeil in Munich.

Hofbräuhaus in Munich, the happiest place on Earth.

Clock towers in Zürich.

Along the river in Zürich.