On Monday, I dragged the shapecam over to that pretty yellow building you saw in my previous post, in order to photograph some Upper Paleolithic skulls & the collection of Mesolithic crania from the Ofnet site. That's where I met up with George, an American from Santa Barbara, CA. George has lived in Munich for years now, and he was the one in charge of my visit (showing me around, telling me where the skulls were, etc.) It turns out that the skulls aren't actually housed in that pretty yellow building, but in the cellar of the math department at the university. (Odd location? No?)

Before George took me over to their cellar, I met some of the other anatomists & anthropologists who get to work in the pretty yellow building with all the windows. A couple of them drove over to the cellar with us, and before I started photographing, I showed them how the shapecam worked. That's when I learned the German word for "cool" (I don't know how to spell it, but it sounds like, "klasse!")

It took 2 days in the cellar to shapecam everything. I wasn't alone the whole time; there was one man there who would come by every so often & show me a really cool-looking pathological skull. George would stop by to check up on things & we traded stories of getting injured and/or sick while traveling. He told me a story about his cousin who went scuba diving in the Philippine Sea, which was part Open Water, part Jaws, and part In Harm's Way. (I will never go scuba diving in the Philippine Sea.) George also told me scary stories of getting mugged in Italy, so I'm now convinced that I'm going to get gassed & robbed on the train the second it enters the country. Thanks, George. (Kidding, a little. George was actaully a really klasse guy, in case some of you are planning on visiting the Dept. of Anthropology here in the future.)

When I returned to my hotel today after finishing up with the skulls, I had a lovely surprise waiting for me! Well, ok, it wasn't really a surprise since I was expecting it. But I was happy that it finally arrived. Dan and Ben at the ITG in the Beckman Institute at UIUC sent me a digital camera to use for the rest of my trip! How great are they?! They do have an ulterior motive, as I promised to give a talk after I return about what it was like to shapecam my way around Europe, and when I do so, they'd like to be able to see some pictures. But still -- they sent me a camera! They rock. Thanks Dan & Ben! I'm giving this computer a thank-you hug right now. (But just a quick one. I'm in an internet cafe & who knows what was going on at this computer before I got to it. I really don't want to touch it any more than I have to.) Everybody: hug your computer and thank Dan & Ben!

Because of them, I have some Munich photos for you. Here's a statue that somebody gave some real flowers to hold:



Here's the Viktualienmarkt on a cold Tuesday evening. Not too cold for beer, though:



And here's the fish fountain in the Marienplatz:



I have a few free days before heading off to get gassed & robbed in Italy. Laundry is necessary at this point, but since I'm so close, I'd also like to go spend a day in Salzburg. I'll also go see Dachau too. The weather's been changing here every 30 minutes or so (rain, sun, wind, hail, warm, cold, etc.) I hope I get a couple of nice days!