Oberwolfach

I am currently in the heart of the Black Forest in Germany, in a little town called Oberwolfach at a place called the MFO (www.mfo.de for those who are curious). It is beautiful. I'm attending a conference on "Geometric Topology with Applications to Physics". It has nothing to do with anything I actually work on, but I was invited and many of my friends and adviser are here. Plus there is little to do around here besides work. I've already worked out the details for something that had been troubling me for a while, and I plan to next work on my thesis project for a time. If what's happened so far is any indication, I'll get a good bit done. Wish me luck!

One of the really neat things about this place is that meals have assigned seating. I would have probably just sat with the other MIT kids and the Notre Dame kids. Instead, I've sat with different people each meal, meaning that I've met a lot of quite famous people in my field (none of whom anyone outside of it would know, but still, big names to me). Since it's lunch or dinner, we have the option of not talking math, so often we just end up talking about people's families or hobbies or whatnot. Quite a nice way to make things more personable.

My room is fantastic. The MFO is situated at a sort of high point in this valley, and it overlooks the rest of the valley. You can see for miles, and all around are little farms with cows or little churches. Surrounding everything is of course the Black Forest, so it's this really cute little oasis in the dense woods. Anyway, my room has a single bed, a large desk, and huge windows that open out onto a very large porch. I can also see two dairy farms from my window, so that's fun. I awoke this morning to the sound of cows!

This evening I went for a long hike with my friend from ND C. R. We walked up a trail behind the MFO, climbing the large mountain there. Well, this is a great little trip, and a great workout. We were sweating by the time we reached the top, and people who've see me after the gym know that this takes a good bit of effort. On the other hand, we left the MFO at 9 PM, so we reached the top of the mountain at about 10. It stays very light here until quite late, but by 10 PM it is getting quite dark. It is even darker in a forest, let alone the Black one, so we were almost unable to see the trail coming down!

Luckily, it wasn't so dark that I missed my new little friend: a tiny German toad! It was about 2 to 3 inches long and covered with the dry knobby skin that toads have (this is how I knew it wasn't a frog. Well, this and the fact that it was quite far from a water source). I picked it up to show C. R., but he wasn't as excited in it as I, so I just put him down. I managed to get it out of my hands (safely for it) before it peed on me (as they are want to do), so I considered it "win-win".

I've three more days here, then I am going to another conference in Mainz. I'll meet up with even more friends there, plus it'll give me a chance to show the stuff I've been working on to some people interested in it. All told, this has been a great time so far. I'll take pictures and put them up when I get home, since this place is really one people just have to see.