The adventure begins...with jetlag. Four hours of sleep in the last 48 hours has not helped negotiating the über-complicated German beaurocracy to get settled in here. Turns out I even need to register as a citizen of Stuttgart to stay here for the summer.

I'll spare you all the details of the 17 hours of travel. It all went smoothly except delays in and out of London/Heathrow AP. I arrived in Stuttgart around 20:00 Tuesday evening and was met by Mani, a student who works in my lab. After a short trip on the S-bahn (underground train), we popped up right in the center of campus. He took some time to show me around the lab and to my room. Universität Stuttgart (University of Stuttgart) is a large university (25,000 students) with emphasis on the technical side of things. The Mechanical Engineering department is huge and very well-equipped.

My room is nice enough. Certainly big enough for the one piece of luggage I brought. Here is a satellite view of my residence. (Google maps link). I am in the last cluster of 4 buildings at the center of the view. To the north is Pfaffenwald, a fairly extensive forest laced with hiking and biking trials... and some history. More on this later.


View of Pfaffenwald from my room

Enough for now. Time for a nap.