H:
We stayed only one night in Salzburg, but it was fun! S loved the Alps - she had never seen mountains that big before... They are amazing, even when you've seen them before.
We stayed in Hotel Wolf-Dietrich, in the 'romantic suite'. The hotel has two types of these suites: one based on Mozart's 'Magic Flute' and the other based on Mozart's 'Papagai' (I can't figure out which opera that's supposed to be though.) I'll post pictures of the room - it had a free-standing tub (it looked like cast iron but was really plastic), lots of lighting effects, a fake tree, and a giant wooden parrot at the foot of the bed. Romantic!
The hotel also had a channel that continuously looped the movie 'The Sound of Music'. 24-7! All Gretel, all the time! S had never seen the whole thing, and so we watched it.
Of course, the next day, we did the four-hour tour. We have a picture of us in front of the 'I am 16, going on 17' gazebo, shots of the back of the house used in the movie, etc. And, the bus trip was fun, as they played most of the songs from the movie!
You gotta do it!

Anyway, pics will come up this weekend!

C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 6/30/2006 05:02:00 PM

 
Dear all,

First of all, Christoph, glad to hear you are back! I can't wait to hear more about the twip. Note on Alitalia - they need to take lessons from the Japan Air flight attendants. Those ladies leave you little notes if you are asleep during meals to let you know that if you are hungry when you wake up, please just ring for an attendant, and you will instantly receive food. Plus they fixed my little TV immediately when it was on the fritz... HA!

Looking forward to pictures. Plus, the Sound of Music tour! Whose idea was that? am very jealous.

However, I will be doing some international traveling myself - am going up to Canada all next week (leaving tomorrow, Saturday the 1st, returning Sunday the 9th) for our annual kung fu gathering. We will be in Windsor, Canada, which is right across the bridge from Detroit, MI. It should be fun, but exhausting as usual. This year we are flying up though, so there won't be a huge long drive to make things more difficult. Last year we held our gathering near Toronto, and that is a LONG drive.

Work is a little crazy, trying to get a whole bunch of stuff done before the study ends. The week I come back we have a bunch of blood redraws in Indy (will not have to travel), the week after there are redraws in Lancaster, PA (also no traveling involved), but the final week we will hold our 1oth and final session in Indy, and I will be traveling for that one. It's okay though, I get to eat at the wonderful sushi place we found one last time. Plus I can pick up cheap wine at the Trader Joe's there (they sell alcohol at the Trader Joe's in Indiana, but not PA). And of course, a few more miles on my US Air account.

Gavin has been doing a lot of work on the downstairs. Things are really shaping up. He is master of using scrap wood in creative ways.

Oh, yeah, Dad, the 4th person in our Death Valley pics in my friend Aaron Radder (known to many simply as Radder). He is Gavin's bandmate and plays the keyboard, lives a few blocks away, and even owns keys to our house. He often watches Ebony when we are out of town. Good guy, but JP could tell you stories about him in DV.

love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 6/30/2006 01:43:00 PM

 
Back!
The Twip is over! (That's the name S and I gave the trip when we were planning it.)
10 days Italy and 7 days Germany... and no travel nightmares!
The worst part was flying Alitalia: never again! In a nutshell, we were not seated together either going to Italy, or returning to the States - we had to trade places with other passengers on the way there, and after S started crying (she's afraid of flying), an Alitalia agent did manage to seat us next to each other. (On the phone, the day before, we had reserved seats next to each other, and confirmed them, but when we checked in, we were seated apart, again.)
An American girl travelling with her parents became frustrated after: 1) staying an extra day in Milan after being bumped from their flight; 2) being given a vegetarian meal she didn't want because someone else was originally sitting in her seat before a switch (you MUST get the meal assigned to the seat on Alitalia, apparently); and 3) being scolded by the steward for stacking her used meal tray with those of her parents (this is against the rules!!!). That put her over the edge and she loudly asked the steward to leave her alone and not talk to her anymore, saying she wouldn't lower her voice until he kept moving down the aisle. Well, this seemed to offend the Italian pride of the steward, so he escorted her up to the captain, who threatened to arrest her for her complaining.
After we landed, and were being towed to our gate, some people stood up, and others turned on their cell phones. One steward detained the American guy sitting next to us for turning on his cell phone, and threatened to call the police and have him arrested... He kept asking for the guy's boarding pass, probably knowing that consulting the plane's manifest would be useless, with the number of seat switches...
Anyway, Alitalia is by far the worst airline I've ever flown on, no competition.
2nd worst part: the Italian train system:
- Not one single functioning elevator or escalator in any train station.
- Mandatory seat reservations (even for 2nd class) that cost 15 Euros per person per trip! AND they doubled-booked our seats! Same seats, same car, same train, same day! (The reservations are in addition to the tickets - we were using the Eurorail pass.) Daylight robbery, it felt like.
- Tremendously unhelpful staff by both the Italian rail and air systems - no one takes responsibility for anything. Well, the rail was a tiny bit better.

Other than that, it was a great trip! Rome-Pompeii-Sorrento-Capri for an afternoon-Florence-Tuscan countryside and a vinyard-San Gimignano (very cool medieval town)-Sienna-Venice(much cooler than I expected!)-the Alps(S's favorite part)-Salzburg(we did the Sound of Music tour!)-Nuremberg-Lichtenfels-Bamberg-Rothenburg-Munich!

Details and pictures to follow!
C

P.S. Congrats H on the UPenn news; congrats JP on the move; greetings to Dad from everyone, especially the Mueller family at Preussischer Hof, and Matzinger!
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 6/29/2006 03:11:00 PM

 
Doesn't anyone like the pictures I posted??

love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 6/22/2006 09:56:00 PM

 
Dear Family,

Below I posted some pictures from Death Valley. I attempted to put them in some kind of timeline, but that got a little buggered when the picture upload thing proved to not follow a logical sequence.
Click on the pictures to see them bigger!
Hopefully the pics are mostly self-explanatory.

love to all.

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN, CHRISTOPH AND SIOBHAN!!

H
- posted by H @ 6/17/2006 09:52:00 AM

 
In the distance you can see Panamint Springs, where we camped.
Loving it.
There was a bit of an upset on the drive out.
JP waking up in the middle of nowhere.
Cool balancing rock on the hike to the waterfall.
Gavin clowning at the waterfall near our campsite
- posted by H @ 6/17/2006 09:44:00 AM

 
Admiring the beautiful rocks and sky near the waterfall.
walking through mosaic canyon.
Gavin and Radder fighting to the death on a big rock.
The group at Mosaic Canyon. awesome picture. Using the always handy timer and tripod
JP on the other side of a railroad car we found at the ghost town Rhyolite.
Silly!
Gavin standing on JP's shoulders on the big dunes. Classic shot.
- posted by H @ 6/17/2006 09:38:00 AM

 
Some dunes on the northern side of the valley, from very far away. this was a 1 minute walk from our tents.
This is a lookout we stopped at on the drive out. Very high, exciting winds.
This is the valley we were on the ridge of, from above. If you look closely, you can see the road going across the valley. The place we stayed at was called Panamint Springs.
- posted by H @ 6/17/2006 09:34:00 AM

 





Hello all!! Here are a few pictures from Death Valley. More are to come once I get on the computer and alter a few more. From the top, left: Rhyolite, a ghost town on the north eastern side of Death Valley; me at the dunes near Stovepipe Wells; me and JP on the drive out to the campsite - we were so elated by the scenery that we had to stop and take pictures; Gavin and me in the Mosaic canyon - I just really like this picture; the group: on the drive out.

So some news on my end: I got accepted into the Penn post-bac pre health program. I got my packet with the acceptance letter and some info yesterday. It was dated the 8th, and I think that some of our mail was delayed a week or so, because I didn't get my Newsweek from last week until yesterday either. So things are set!!

More pics to come. Love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 6/15/2006 09:13:00 AM

 
C, that's so awesome about work. So what does this new title mean? VP - like the guys in American Psycho were all VPs. I would assume MONEY AND POWWWWWWWWWAAAHH.

kidding. Will call you tonight to wish you happy traveling.

love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 6/09/2006 09:10:00 AM

 
Good news: after 3 years, 2 months and 1 day, I've been hired on at Bear! I've also been given a title, which most people don't get in the beginning: Vice President. Granted, VP is the lowest title here, but it's a title, and it sounds cool!
I'm happy with the money, too! It's some good news before I go on my trip...

Happy day!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 6/08/2006 05:26:00 PM

 
That's too bad about the job H. I've never worked in the world of academia or research, where grant funding is at the edge of everyone's mind. Here's hoping they can keep the wheels on the bus, at least as long as you are there!
I definitely want to see Death Valley pics!

I wanted to post this yesterday, but the blogger.com servers were not working for me. Shangri-La diet results, week 4: I lost another 2 pounds! So it's officially 6 pounds in 4 weeks, which is a healthy and sustainable progression. The appetite suppression side of the "diet" is very noticable to me, and I love the simplicity of the idea (and that it works!).

Dad: I had written down the PIN number for the German bank card, so I have it. It was what I thought it was when I was on the phone with you...

JP: If you have only 99,999 books in print by the end of the year, I'm coming to kick your ass! Just kidding - it's good to see you are writing again.

World Cup kicks off with Germany vs. Costa Rica at noon tomorrow! Go USA! We have tough opponents in Italy and the Czech Republic. And, if we only squeak by and make it to the next round in 2nd place, we would face Brazil, so we really, really need to finish first in our group if we want to make it to the semi-finals!

I should have some good news, job-wise, tomorrow afternoon. I'll let you guys know if this is so.

That's all for now!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 6/08/2006 02:17:00 PM

 
Hello all!

things are a little slow at work today, and I decided to write a quick blog. I should be hearing from Penn about the pre-health program today. At the end of my interview on Monday my interviewer told me 2-3 days. From what I understand, though, they are experiencing a huge influx of applications for this and other programs this year (pre-health applications are up 30-40%!!), so things might take longer than normal.

Still chomping at the bit a little. I mean, who can blame me?

Things have been weird at work. The fund that we pay most of our expenses from, like participant payment and our reimbursement for travel, has been in deficit since early May. Of course no one thought to alert us of the fact officially until last Friday (6/2). So supplies that we requested in order to perform some very fundamental functions of our jobs, like tubes for the blood draws, are almost used up. I actually had to scrounge through some of the tubes already prepared for my Manchester session next Monday in order to have tubes for the remaining 8 women in the session. Now we are using only 5 tubes instead of the usual 6, because I skimmed one from each packet in order to have enough tubes for everyone. Luckily, Dr. Price was able to find some fund to use to pay for our reimbursements and the phone bill. As this study is winding down this summer, it is not a huge surprise that the money is low, but this is kind of ridiculous. Who knows what will happen in the next few weeks. My job is secure until the end of July/beginning of August when I was preparing to quit anyway (secure as far as I know) . I already felt this way before, but now even more so: as many good experiences I have had at this job, I am happy to leave!!

Otherwise things are pretty quiet. The weather has been cool and rainy, but I kind of like it this way. When it's hot it's muggy, and I was spoiled by the weekend of zero humidity in death valley. Which reminds me, I need to post some pictures now that the computer at home is up and running. Like I said, I will be going up to Manchester, NH again this Monday, but it is unknown if I will be making another trip there or anywhere else for this job any time soon.

all from me for now.

love,
H
- posted by H @ 6/08/2006 12:54:00 PM

 
Dad - I'll call you this week!
Please remind me again why a red cake for Pentacost - I can't remember.
Good to hear you are still healthy, Dad - good ol' Roggenkamp/Flicker genes!

Final preparations... laundry and packing and the like.
I got in touch with Matzinger via his work email - it sounds like he has settled down a bit. He told me he is living with his girlfriend and they have a baby due in November! So no more sleeping on a park bench in the middle of Lichtenfels, like JP saw him last!

Here's the itinerary: 6/9 leave NYC (red-eye flight). 6/10 - 6/13 Rome. 6/13 - 6/15 Sorrento. 6/15 - 6/18 Florence (we'll watch the USA vs. Italy game on 6/17 there!). 6/18 - 6/20 Venice. 6/20 - 6/21 Salzburg. 6/21 - 6/23 Nuremberg (6/22 we'll be in the stands for USA vs. Ghana!). 6/23 - 6/25 Lichtenfels. 6/25 - 6/26 Rothenburg o.d.T. 6/26 - 6/28 Munich. 6/28 fly back to NYC.

I'll post more as the week goes by!
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 6/05/2006 02:59:00 PM

 
C, did you mention this diet a little while back? I remember reading an article on it. You might have posted it. I liked the idea behind it, and it would be interested in reading the critique and rebuttal. will check it out.

Good luck. sounds like it's a plan. Plus, during your trip in Europe you will be so active all day, walking and site seeing that you will probably lose some pounds on that trip, even if you can't keep up your strict olive oil and sugar water regimine. I know that when I was traveling with Gavin, not being home near the fridge or in easy-food access areas really made me lose weight.

C, did you get the emails I sent to you about the Chaco sandals? Get 'em while you still can, although it might be too short notice at this point. Also, I will definitely pass consciousness topics on to you. Is there any area you are specifically interested in, like biological perspectives, psychology, neuroscience, pharmacology, genetics, etc?

Dad, have you given any more thought to Father's Day on June 18th? We could go see Wyeth at the Philly art museum, and eat Indian buffet.

JP, hope all is well with you.

love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 6/02/2006 04:10:00 PM

 
Just wanted to let you guys know I'm trying out a new diet. Actually, it's more of an appetite suppression method, really. (It's called the Shangri-La Diet.)

You can read about it at the author's website, www.sethroberts.net. Seth Roberts is a psychologist, and he used self-experimentation and data from rat studies to come up with his theory. A critique (and reasonable description) of the diet is here, and SR rebuts this critique here. Interestingly, SR published his theory in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Briefly, the theory is our bodies have evolved so that in times of plenty, we eat more and gain weight, in anticipation of surviving the times of scarcity.
SR's theory is that when our bodies associate flavor with calories, we eat more and are more hungry. His insight was that if we consume calories with little or no flavor, our bodies lower our hunger level and lower what our body thinks our ideal weight should be. A Shangri-La dieter consumes extra light olive oil (flavorless!) or sugar water (we don't seem to associate "sweet" with calories), or both, and this reduces hunger. When you are less hungry, you don't eat as much...

I've been trying this out for about 3 weeks, and have lost 4 pounds overall. Not a lot, but I really have noticed the decrease in hunger. Normally, when I feel hungry, I really feel hungry! But now I don't feel nearly as hungry, and become full much more quickly. The feeling of fullness lasts longer, too.
The ingredients to the "diet" are not unfamiliar - vegetable oil and sugar - so it's not like you are taking weird drugs or doing strange things...

Another interesting aspect is that SR is using the "new media" to disseminate his message. His forums offer Shangri-La dieters a place to discuss their progress (or lack thereof) with each other. He used quite a few of these forum posts in his book on the diet... SR discusses this in his posting The Ecology of New Ideas.

I'll keep everyone posted. (My weight loss progression was: Week 1 - lost 2 pounds. Week 2 - gained 2 pounds. Week 3 - lost 4 pounds.)

My long term goal is to get down to 225 pounds!

C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 6/02/2006 03:31:00 PM

 
H: A quick response to your post below: 1) Congrats and I'm sure you'll do well! 2) Can I read the 'consciousness' materials when you are done with them? I'm also interested in this stuff. 3) I agree with pretty much everything you say about Africa... Cool.
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 6/01/2006 06:09:00 PM

 
hello all,

Just a quick announcement: I am interviewing for the pre-health program at Penn on Monday. The interview is invitation only, so this means that they think I look good on paper, now they want to see how I appear "in the flesh." I have no anxieties at all about the interview, as that has always been a strong point for me, and am happy to be moving forward with the application process. As far as I know, once the interview is completed it shouldn't take too long to hear about acceptance (or not), so things should definitely be decided by the middle of June. Good thing too - I really want things to be settled.

So that's exciting. Just yesterday, I attended the first meeting of the revived "consciousness discussion group" at Penn. It's run by some neuroscience grad students who are nice guys, but nerdy. looks like a good group. Consciousness studies have become a focus for some of the brightest minds in many different disciplines (ranging from neuroscience to linguistics to psychology), and it is one of my areas of interest. It's also a very sticky topic that not a lot of researchers are usually allowed to talk about, so it's almost like being in secret society. We'll have lecturers, assigned readings, etc. Being interested in the cognitive neuroscience field, consciousness in the brain is a very tricky thing to think about. Looking at people with certain lesions in their brains, and the deficits in functioning that arise from these injuries, many reductionists want to propose one area in the brain that is the area responsible for "consciousness," but it is never that simple. Two people with the same lesions can often have very different levels of functioning, with different impairments. There is always so much inter-individual variability that makes this field so exciting...

C, regarding Darfur. I am for intervention, but that is only my knee-jerk "save the people" reaction. African politics are often corrupt, and to avoid letting many more people die, I would say, intervene. But our method of helping Africa haven't worked in the past, as these sorts of horrible situations are still happening, and this is what we would have done with this kind of situation in the past, so maybe we should try something different. I don't really know. I know plenty of people who are active in the movement here that lobbies congress for funding, etc, and I think their motives are pure. However, the economic and health problems in Africa will never be solved if we keep them suckling on the Western teet. I mean, we need to stop these things from happening permanently,not put a bandaid on a gushing wound. but what we need to do to stop these things from happening permanently? well, obviously the governments need to be run differently (like making sure the African nations who receive healthy oil revenues actually distribute that money to even the poorer citizens), and they need a better infrastructure. But how is this achieved?

I don't know.

This was kind of a rant, but I hope my concerns were made clear.

love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 6/01/2006 03:42:00 PM

 
H:
Cool that you guys had a good time in Death Valley. I've never been there, and I do want to go sometime. When Walter, Matzinger and I took that RV trip in October 2000, we drove 2 1/2 hours north of Las Vegas, before turning west into California (and eventually to Yosemite). We kind of went around Death Valley that time... But I would like to check it out, and your pics would be appreciated!
I talked to JP about the trip, and it sounds like he had a good birthday there!

H and Dad: Regarding the Germany/Islam survey, I don't know if there are comparable surveys in the U.S. But I do find the results interesting, especially the mosque-building question and the "clash of civilizations" question. It might be the case that close to two-thirds (61% or 65% of Germans) of Americans predict greater and greater clashes between Islam and Christianity in the future, or that a strong majority of Americans (56% of Germans) say that no more mosques should be built here until the Saudis allow the building of Christian churches, but I just don't get the feeling that this is the general sentiment here. Maybe living in NYC is skewing my perception of the issue, as NYC is famously left-wing. If you think your communities would agree with the Germans on these issues, that would be interesting.

Dad: Re: anti-Americanism, my feeling is that it has been around for centuries in Europe. During the Cold War, it was suppressed, especially in Germany, as we were the only ones stopping Soviet tanks from rolling into Bonn. But now that the Cold War is long over, anti-Americanism is back on the rise, for all the usual reasons, and perhaps some new ones (and regarding this, one can have interesting arguments on what these new reasons may be...).
Re: Iran - it's funny that you mention "his approach to Iran's desire to build nuclear reactors". After all the cries of "unlateralism" regarding Iraq, the US in recent years has been following a strict multi-lateral approach with Iran. We participate in talks with Iran next to Britain, Germany, France, the UN, etc. But you can never win. What does the administration get for taking a multi-lateral approach? Accusations of "outsourcing" our diplomacy to Europe! In other words, if you deal with another country alone, it's "unilateralism". If you deal with another country in a multi-lateral group, it's "out-sourcing"... Crazy.

On another topic, out of curiosity, if you guys don't mind me asking, what are your (individual and maybe collective) thoughts on Darfur? The U.S. considers what is going on genocide, but the U.N. doesn't, so that's that. Do you think we should intervene in Darfur? If so, uni-laterally, or with allies? And, if so, how is this intervention different that that in Iraq? Of course, if you support leaving the Africans alone to sort out their own messes, that's a valid viewpoint, but then the question is raised, when is intervention ever proper? Was it proper in Bosnia and Kosovo? Would it have been proper in Rwanda in 1994? These are tough questions, and I don't think even high-level policy people in the U.S. have the answers...

Anyway, only 8 days till our trip! Gonna pack this weekend!

Talk to you guys soon! Love you!

C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 6/01/2006 11:44:00 AM