A typical day at AEI

The last several posts have contained lots of pictures from my adventures. But of course, I don't spend all my time taking trips to Berlin or riding my bike through the park. So today I'll run you through a typical day at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) - yes, that's the full name. Whew.

Today had a bit of an unusual beginning as I had an 8:30am appointment in Potsdam to view an apartment (or flat, as they say here). Typically, however I have breakfast here in the Guesthouse and then wander over to the Institute where I make a cup of coffee. Europeans have a funny way about coffee. They have access to, and appreciate, good coffee. But they are willing to put up with really bad coffee. Instant coffee abounds. And many of the people here take their daily coffee from the vending machine. This despite the fact that on each floor of the institute there is a mini kitchen with water-boiler, coffee-maker, sink, etc. I keep a cone, some filters, and some good coffee from the store in my office and make a decent cup. Anyhow, I digress.

The institute is pretty quiet until about 9:30 when the people who commute from Berlin tend to arrive. So I get a nice amount of quiet time in the morning in which to get some work done. At 10:30am, there is often a talk. Today, for example, the director of the Geometric Analysis & Gravitation Division (of which I am a part) gave a talk about what he has been thinking about recently. The talk and subsequent discussion usually lasts until roughly noon, at which point we all head over to the cafeteria in the next building to have lunch.

After lunch, we tend to sit and chat in the atrium - most people with their machine coffee - until 1:00pm, at which point people tend to disperse to their offices. The afternoon time is when people who are collaborating in smaller groups meet. On Thursdays, for example, people interested in Wave Equations have a meeting at 2:00pm. Otherwise, the time is spent on research in the office, or in the library.

People tend to work until just after 6:30, at which many people start to wind things down in order to catch the 7:00pm train - there is a small train station about 15 minutes walk from the Institute which a limited number of direct trains to Berlin; one can also take a train to Potsdam main station and catch a train to Berlin from there.

Since I'm living "on campus" right now, I usually wander over to the Guest house at this point and cook dinner. If I need to go into town for shopping, I have to go earlier, as many shops close at 6pm. After dinner I do some reading, call Iva, or - for the time being - look at apartment listings on the internet.

Yup, that's a day in the life at the institute.