Originally the whole team stayed at Grand Hotel in Chungju. But then a few incidents concerning the sanitary facilities were reported … for example, this one toilet that stopped working – and got “fixed” in the wrong room which from then on had problmes with leakage. Continue reading
Korea here I come!
On 1st September I boarded the aircraft at Zurich Airport, heading for Incheon International Airport in Korea, stopping in Dubai. Roughly 15 hours aboard the plane, followed by a three hours Bus ride to Chungju and another five minutes by taxi. Final destination: Grand Hotel Chungju. That was the plan, and despite some communication issues it worked quite well – there I went straight to bed just before midnight, exhausted but excited. Continue reading
The blog is still alive …
For quite some time blog.felixsalomon.net has been rather quiet – a change is in sight, though! Main reason is my new engagement at GP Solar in Konstanz as a Process Engineer | Cell Technology. The first official day of work I spent on a plane to South Korea where I’ll be staying until the end of the month. Frequent trips like this into different corners of the world lie ahead which means there will be stories to be told and photos to be shown. Stay tuned …
Job als Chance – Bewerbungstraining für Akademiker
Zwei Wochen Seminar. Zwei Wochen Gruppenarbeit. Zwei Wochen lang lernen, wie man eine Bewerbung schreibt? Zwei Wochen lang lernen wie man sich auf ein Vorstellungsgespräch vorbereitet?
Ein ganz klein bisschen skeptisch war ich anfangs ja schon. Aber nach der Einführungsrunde war dann eigentlich klar: das kann eine sehr spannende Sache werden. Und nachdem die letzten Formalitäten geregelt waren, gings dann los. Mit 13 wildfremden, mehr oder weniger frischen Hochschulabsolventen, die alle das gleiche Ziel hatten: Wie finde ich möglichst bald einen Job, der möglichst gut zu mir passt? Continue reading
Buschfeuer toben in Victoria
Sorry, but this post is not available in English
Julie T. Heller Immigration
A couple of weeks ago Julie’s new hompage it went online! I programmed and designed the page, trying to incorporate Julie’s thoughts and expectations. And even though Internet Explorer kept driving me cazy (if only the different versions were equally uncapable but they actually exceed each other) it was a lot of fun to play around with the site. Pay the page a visit if you feel like it and let me know what you think of it or what you don’t like!
Diplomarbeit zum Download
It has already been a little while but you can now download my Diploma Thesis here.
Refractive index modifications in glass play an important role in fibre optic communications. One of the more challenging issues in fibre optics has been how to process the light in optical systems while avoiding the losses which are inherent in the process of coupling light out of fibres. Using bulk optics to perform reflection, difraction and filtering, inevitably increases the system complexity and at the same time decreases its performance. Hence there is great interest in developing in-fibre equivalents of devices such as beam splitters, filters or optical mirrors as they would potentially perform this processing more efficiently. Moreover, ‘fiberised’ devices would increase the stability, reliability and simplicity of fibre optic communications.
To date, the common method used to write refractive index structures into glass involves the use of a UV laser source. This method is constrained by a number of restrictions which could possibly be avoided by using the high energy X-ray light of a synchrotron to produce in-fibre devices. Mid last century, researchers performed experiments on the exposure of glass to synchrotron light. This diploma thesis expands on these initial results with the benefit of modern experimental facilities, to investigate the effects of synchrotron radiation on different glass samples and intends to thereby gain a more coherent, fundamental understanding of the effects of synchrotron light.
In order to produce appropriate samples, various optical glasses and fibres were taken to the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and irradiated with synchrotron light with an energy above 500 eV and a peak energy of 7.8 keV. Tests were subsequently performed to measure the compaction (densification) of the material and possible changes in the refractive index. By means of surface analysis, evidence has been found that compaction occurred and this densification has been quantified. A model for the refractive index modification has been developed and, using ellipsometry, initial measurements have been performed to prove the model.
Am 25. Dezember bin ich dann also in den Flieger gestiegen, nachdem ich noch zwei Wochen zuvor Abschied genommen hatte von Melbourne und meinen Freunden dort. Außerdem mußten noch 85(!) Kilogramm Übergepäck verschifft werden – hab mich für den Anbieter JettaExpress entschieden, da kostet das so etwa 8 Dollar pro Kilo. Gerechnet hatte ich ja so mit um die 30 Kilo, und klar, alleine das Fahrrad wiegt 16. Aber dass dann doch soo viel draus wurde? Naja, nach einigem Hin und Her sieht es jetzt sogar so aus als könnte ich die Sachen morgen von München abholen Daumen-drück!
Am Flughafen ging auch nichtalles so ganz reibungslos, obwohl ich schon sieben Kartons verschickt hatte, war ich trotzdem noch einige Kilos zu schwer … um genau zu sein ungefähr 15. Zum Glück war die Dame am Schalter wohl in Weihnachtsstimmung und hat mir einfach kurzerhand mein Handgepäck eingecheckt – für umme! Der restliche Flug verlief gut – konnte viel schlafen, hatte traumhafte Ausblicke auf die russische Tundra, unter einer dicken Schneeschicht begraben und kam schließlich gegen Mitternacht in München an.
Jetzt bin ich krank – die Kälte war wohl doch ein zu großer Schock. Immerhin gings von etwa +30 Grad auf -7 runter – brrr!
Also jedenfalls freu ich mich schon sehr, einige von Euch mal wieder zu Gesicht zu bekommen und werd mich im neuen Jahr mit aller Frische auf dem Arbeitsmarkt anbieten.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Hervey Bay – Byron Bay – Brisbane – Sydney
When we’d got the van in Cairns there had only been a three seater available. So we gave Karin a lift down to Brisbane, stopping at Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay on the way where we watched some dolphins having breakfast at the beach. We spent one night in Brisbane in a dark back alley and caught up with the Belgians from Fraser Island before driving on to Byron Bay the next day. A relaxed little town with a nice atmosphere. We also visitied Nimbin, a town full of hippies and drug dealers. Quite a trip! We almost got totally lost on windy roads through dark forest. But we eventually managed to arrive at this quite different place …
The next day we dropped the car off in Brisbane and caught a plain to Sydney – or we rather tried I should say. First the inbound flight was late and then the whole airport ceased operation due to heavy thunderstorms – I wonder how they’d survive snow!
But we made it to Sydney in the end and met my friend Tom who let us stay at his place in Bondi Beach for a night. After that we moved to a hostel nearby where we lucky enough to find two beds – really every place is fully booked around this time of the year!
One day I went climbing in the blue Mountains, where I met up with a local for the day. And while Claudia stayed in Sydney I took a train down to Melbourne to prepare my journey back to Germany …
Fraser Island via Town of 1770 and Agnes Water
A very short night in Airlie Beach was followed by a very long drive to Turkey Beach near the Town of 1770 (named after the year James Cook set foot on land – how inventive!). On the way we actually had to stop at the side of the road for a bit because of heavy hail and rain.
Town of 1770 and Agnes Water are two little towns with a beach and a backpackers – that’s pretty much it. The waves are rather moderate and attract many first-time surfers. Claudia gave it a go, too, while I went for a swim and took some action shots. Between there and Hervey Bay lies Bundaberg, famous for rum. We tried to visit a turtle tour where you can watch turtles crawl up the beach, laying their eggs and then crawl back into the sea. But it would have taken too long so we drove on to Hervey Bay, departure point for our Fraser Island trip.
At 7am we had to attend the briefing and 30 people were split into three groups. We were in a group with Karin who we knew already from the Whitsundays and then there were the Belgian squad Jorn, Stijn, Peter and Mattias; Catherine from England and Eimear and Stephen from Ireland.
After a quick shopping tour the barge brought us to the worlds largest sand island! I made the start to drive along sandy tracks and through deep potholes, trying not to make the passangers sea sick. It rained most of the day but that didn’t really bother us too much when we stopped at Central Station for a short walk through the rainforest and Lake Wabby one of the many perched lakes of the island. When we hit the east coast we set up camp and had a big BBQ dinner. An amazing sunset welcomed us and promised better weather for the next day. Later that night a dingo had a closer look at the tents and caused a rush of people equipped with cameras running down to the beach, hoping to get a good shot of the wild dog. Not sure if anyone was actually successful…
I spent the night on the roof of our car and woke up with the rising sun at 4.30am (bloody Queensland doesn’t have daylight saving time!) but luckily managed to get some more sleep before breakfast at 7am. We had to start driving up 72 Mile Beach around 8 to catch the few hours before and after low tide. Just when we were about to leave, we were lucky to see another dingo walk right up to the cars and pose for some shots!
Driving on the beach was pretty cool! Some parts allowed to go 80kph whereas in others I had to slow down to get across little wash-outs and creeks. We stopped at Indian Head to walk up to the lookout and enjoy the view before chilling at Champagne Pools for quite a while.
On the way back we stopped at the Pinnacles and the Maheno wreck and put up camp near Ellis Creek.
On our last day on Fraser we headed inland again to Lake Mckenzie Amazing! Crystal-clear water, white sand … simply stunning! Probably my personal highlight of the trip although the whole island is just unbelievably awesome. And with ‘the best group ever’ it was probably one of ‘the best trips ever’!
