The first year of the rest of my life

I've been slow on the updates here. I'm wandering too much on philosophical blah-blah-blah's which never got posted, and in between edits, I forgot to update with the latest happenings. Minus the coffee machine story, the last informational post dates from the end of August, so it's best to rewind just a bit and take it from there.
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Taking part in the Mecklemburg Rundfahrt was as much fun as I hadn't had in a long time racing in Germany; not that the races aren't great, but it's usually a one-day business. Racing over the course of 4 or 5 days really puts a whole different emphasis on the team. Sharing a bungalow with Björn, Ivo, Jan, Jens, Michael, and of course the Puschmann's Mom, despite the adversities, was a lot of fun.

Three days after returning from the race (with a blitz visit to Ulm in between), I got a ride from Raffaele to the train station for the traditional Erlangen-Porto Alegre rail-air-bridge. Spent the weekend down South before heading to Paraty for a week-long workshop in Quantum Information and Communication, where I presented a poster summarizing mostly everything I had been working with for the past half-year or so. Back in Porto Alegre, between spetacular bike rides, beer nights, and even some quite productive scientific discussions back at my alma matter, I had a great time with family, friends and some I hadn't seen in quite some time.

I came back to Erlangen still in time to catch the last summer days, and contrary to what I had initially planned, decided on racing one more weekend, travelling to Rheinland with Jens for two nice races. The cycling season then being oficially over, I finally managed to study a bit for the theoretical driving school test, which I had to take as part of the process to have my brazilian license validated (with that now behind me, the only remaining requirement is the practical exam, scheduled for the 19th of this month). I also signed myself to another table-tennis course (having already taken the 'advanced techniques' course last semester), and another round of 'Upper Level' German class. And, of course, ever since I have been investing a (greater) number of hours on the different research fronts I'm currently investigating - it's amazing just how much time one gains, when all of a sudden the 2 or 3 hours commited to an activity everyday are made available...
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It's already two weeks since I marked, mostly silently, the passing of one year in Germany as a PhD student. A sometimes oscillating ride, the lows keeping me in perspective, but the highs more than making up for that - most exciting times, indeed. Cheers to the coming year!