Our week in Europe (part II: Jena, at the institute)

From Zurich we took the train with our new tickets (but supposedly the same reservations - see previous post) back to Frankfurt so that we could catch the train to Jena. We had to transfer trains in Stuttgart, which I remembered from my original reservations, but we had 1.5 hours to kill there, which I definitely didn't remember. Still, it gave us time to have a nice picnic in a sunny park near the station. When we went back to the station to board our train, we realized to our horror that he'd actually booked us on a train back to the Frankfurt airport, which would arrive 40 minutes after our train to Jena left the downtown station. We thought of going to the ticket counter right then when we noticed, but we had no idea when the next train from Stuttgart to Frankfurt would be, so we figured it was better to get to the airport station late and go to the office there, hopefully even finding the same guy who'd sold us the wrong ticket last time. We were just hoping that this wouldn't end up with us buying more full price tickets for us to get to Jena.

So we went to the counter and found not the same person, but an incredibly helpful woman, who sent us on the next train heading in that direction, and wrote a note on our tickets that they were still valid despite the fact that we'd missed the train we were supposed to be on. She stressed that the train we were to board was leaving at 19:01, and gave us directions for the fastest way to the tracks. We thanked her profusely, and she rather curtly sent us on our way. We sauntered out, remarking to ourselves how well that had worked out. Then I looked at the clock in the station, and realized that it was already 18:59, and that was why she was trying to rush us out so quickly. This led to our sprint up 5 flights of stairs (the escalator was clogged and too slow), back down 2 flights of stairs, and down several hallways. I had the smaller backpack, but poor Jeremi did all this with our suitcase held over his head. We made it onto the train but then had to spend the next half hour wheezing and sweating in recovery. But at least we made it on the train!

We got to Jena that night later than we'd planned, after 9:00, and we opted to take a cab right to the institute rather than try to figure out the bus system at night. Once we arrived at the institute I had instructions for how to get the key for the guest apartment out of the buzz-board at the entrance. We were told to find the board, press a series of numbers, and then push on the box at the bottom, and the key should pop out. The secretary who sent the instructions mentioned that it could be really tricky, and even provided me with her cell phone number in case we really couldn't get in. I didn't figure we'd have that much trouble, and besides, I didn't want my first impression to be one of incompetence.

So we got out of the cab and headed toward the main entrance. It's a fairly building, maybe about 10 years old, and very modern-looking. I was impressed with the lit polished granite that was inlaid in the bricks in the front sidewalk. Or at least I thought it was polished granite. It was actually a pond, with the water level exactly flush with the rest of the sidewalk. It was a really clear night, and I honestly couldn't tell that it was water, so I walked right into it. Needless to say, I was thankful that only Jeremi and the cab driver witnessed this. Even at the time, after a long day on the train, both of us found this quite funny. We didn't have a camera with us of course, so we tried a couple of days later to reinact the incident for the sake of the blog, and this is what we got:
See? Doesn't that sort of look like it might be some sort of polished stone or glass or something?

And of course, I'm not always the most coordinated, especially after a few beers, so I almost ended up in the pond all over again.

So then we went to try to get the key out of the buzzer-board at the front of the building. We spent about 10 minutes punching in the code and pushing on various parts of the box, all to no avail. There was a button that had a picture of a key on that which we tried pushing before or after, but nothing was working. Then we decided that we might not be at the right entrance after all. We found the stairs that went around to the back door to have a look.

Lo and behold, there was a buzz board there too that seemed like it might have a box at the bottom that could contain a key. It was also right next to a door that said guest apartments on it, so we figured we were in the right place. It was a bit tricky, but it only took 10 minutes or so for us to coax the keys out of the buzz-board. There was one normal-looking key, and one key that came from the future, with grooves and bumps unlike anything we'd seen before, and they were both on a chain with a small plastic tag with the room number and a plain black plastic key chain. The key-from-the-future actually fit in the door to the guest apartments, as well as in the door to the lobby of the institute, but neither of them would open. We tried everything - pushing the door in while turning, pulling it out, wiggling the key, turning the knob in different directions, even trying every other door on the exterior of the building. And nothing.

We could hear some people up above on one of the balconies, and I actually figure out a few phrases in German to yell up and tell them that we couldn't get inside. Unfortunately, they chose that moment to go inside, and no one heard me yelling. While I was screaming in German, Jeremi was looking some more at the buzz-board from which we got the keys. There were two flat panels, one that said "Institute" and one that said "Apartments" (but in German), with a couple of LEDs, and no obvious purpose. It was at this point that the Radiation Hazard Officer applied all of his advanced radio-frequency knowledge, and realized that that plain black plastic keychain was actually an RF tag. When he touched the tag to the flat panel that said "Apartments", the LED changed colour. We tried opening the door then, but it still wasn't working. Fortunately, after a few more tries, we managed to get in the "Institute" door. All in all, it only took us about an hour to get in the building.

We found the room without too much trouble, and it only took us about 5 minutes to figure out how to open the deadbolt on the door, which had two different stages of locking. Once in the room, we found that everything was automated, with a set of switches that controlled not only the lights, but also the exterior shutters on the wall of windows. The room was sort of wedge-shaped, as it was in a round tower which is part of the building. Here you can see part of the room and our view, with Jeremi sitting on the bed reading.

Incidentally, I'm going to be staying in one of these guest apartments when I go over in February, at least for the first month or two until I find an apartment. At least it's good and close to work, though it's about 10 minutes from the city by bus.

The next couple of days were really busy at the institute, as I met with many of the group members to discuss their work, and what I would be doing there. On Friday morning I presented a talk there, which Jeremi attended as well. As such, there are actually a couple of pictures. I brought him along to help me get set up, which was particularly helpful as this room was also fully automated, and it took us some time to figure out how to lower the screen and get the projector working. Here's a picture he took once we were all set up, and waiting for people to arrive.
The talk went well, and they gave me an official job offer. I was also offered the job in Zurich, much to my surprise. We ended up deciding upon Jena, despite the fact that it's much more isolated. At least there we'll definitely get to (or have to) learn German, and I think that it will be a bit easier to get Jeremi a visa in Germany. The pay was much higher in Zurich, but so is the cost of living. European cities are also a lot more crowded than we're used to, so a smaller city might be a bit easier to get used to. And finally, the people in Jena think they might be able to find Jeremi some work there, at least in the short term, doing some hardware engineering on instrumentation. This would be a huge help for us, and not only financially.