2012 - A review of a year of experiences

The Berliner Dome lighting up in the Berlin Festival of Lights - October 2012

Another year has passed. Time flies - Die Zeit verliert wie im Flug. Looking back at the year, I will focus in this entry about the major events and journeys that have happened.

2012 has been an eventful year! From the beginning of the year, I have set for myself a number of goals. Although not all have been accomplished, or strickly speaking, still little has been achieved to the level that I have truly aimed for, but there has probably never been a year that I have got that many experiences. When I think experiences can be also considered as a reward, as they always re-shape the person who I am today and contribute to my self-improvement, I allow myself to be a little proud of the year 2012 - a year of experiences!

2012 did have a good start, in which I finally received a working place at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung, i.e. BAM.) in Berlin. The research work is always challenging, and to have a work place at BAM was promising for my project. During the first few months of the year, intensive meetings were organised, sometimes also with the head of the department 7.2 - Buildings and Structures at BAM. I have had plenty of chances to improve my personal presentation skills. Only until June 2012, the schedule was more or less not as tight and therefore, I have had for myself some time to participate into two international summer schools. One was organised in Brussels - the capital of Europe and the other one was in a small town named Rot an der Rot in the West of Germany, where I could truly enjoy a life within beautiful nature. The two summer schools marked special events, as I have been able to recognise once again my ability and potential as well as develop my skills among young international students and friends with high spirit. 2012 was also a year in which I feel like I have been showered with conferences and educational events (which I would cut down in the next year 2013). In total, I have attended in English language one summer school and two international conferences, and another summer school and a more specialised conference in German. Talking about some little achievements, I have won for myself a first prize in a poster competition at the BAM and a first prize in the "BuFAS Nachwuchsinnovation award" for my Master's thesis that I have performed in Portugal. In personal life, I have also visited my family, together with Dustin for the first time, in November. Home sweet home, my twin nephews are already growing so fast and cute! This hometown visit was happily also the right time to be part of a special event - the Big Day of one of my loveliest girlfriends, Minh Hang. It was really great that we could meet in this special occasion. Wish Hang and Su a lifetime of happiness; wish that the New Year 2013 will bring much more good health and happiness to my whole family and friends, as well as bring you the fulfillments that your heart desires...

The below are some photos relating to several achievements in the year 2012.

It was a remarkabke day meeting Dr. Philipp Rösler - at that time Vice Chancellor, National Chairman of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Federal Minister of Economics and Technology of Germany (Budesvorsitzender der FDP und Bundesminister für Wirtschaft und Technologie). He was born in Vietnam and then was adopted by a German family. (Schade, dass er kein Vietnamesisch kann).

Dustin received Ernst and Young's prize (German: Nachwuchs Förderpreis) in civil engineering for his third Master's thesis at the BTU Cottbus; the awarding ceremony was carried out at the BAM with Prof. Lorenz, Prof. Pasternack (BTU Cottbus) and Prof. Rogger (the boss of the department 7 at the BAM).

First prize in the poster competition at the BAM

Quoted from the BAM-Info magazine: "Nach dem erfolgreichen Doktorandentag 2011 wurde auch das diesjährige Treffen des wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses von den Doktoranden selbst auf die Beine gestellt. Der Doktorandentag 2012 fand am 20. Juni statt. Ca. 100 wissbegierige Doktoranden und Gäste fanden sich dazu im Ludwig-Erhard-Saal ein.
......
Die Vortragsreihe wurde durch den ersten Teil einer Postersession aufgelockert. Im Vorfeld des Doktoranden- tages konnten die Doktoranden Posterpräsentationen zu ihrer Arbeit einreichen. Es wurde angeregt untereinander diskutiert, denn jeder Teilnehmer hatte die Möglichkeit über das beste Poster abzustimmen. Nach dem zweiten Teil der Postersession am Nachmittag wurde schließlich das Siegerposter prämiert. Frau Thi Mai Hoa Luong (FB 7.2) durfte sich über einen Büchergutschein und ein BAM-Geschenkset freuen. ....."

First prize in the BuFAS young research award in Heringsdorf, of course with the kind help of Dustin during the translation from English to German.

Featured shortly in two German magazines

One of the challenges was that I needed to deliver a presentation in German about my Master's thesis. With much practice, I have accomplished that mission, not as well as I wished but hopefully it was acceptable to the native German audience.

The more details of each event are given in their respective links below. And this is what I have written as a status update on my facebook page at the end of August 2012: "Back to current home city Berlin (with headaching main work load) after wandering through Lübeck, Flensburg, Brussels, Antwerp, München, Neuschwanstein, Memmingen, Rot an der Rot, Lindau, Bregenz and Zürich this summer (11 places)! Counting in Amsterdam in April (the only destination that was designated purely as Urlaub, i.e. holiday), what a year!!!!! Even only Brussels and Zürich alone are already 'accountable' to me. Worthy that I have opened my eyes more, in a variety of meanings. And what's else? The year not even ends yet ;-)."

• 05. - 07. Apr. 12:  Amsterdam - a short holiday
• 01. May 12:         Berlin FDP party - meeting Dr. Rösler
• 27. May 12:         Berlin Karneval Festival
• 09. Jun. 12:         Berlin - Family celebration at Dong Xuan Markt: Jugendweihe Vu Ha Quang
• 20. Jun. 12:         Berlin BAM - Dokteranden Tag, poster competition
• 15. - 17. Jun. 12:  Lübeck - DAAD welcoming event
• 23. - 24. Jun. 12:  Flensburg - a weekend trip to a friend's wedding
• 21. Jul. - 05. Aug. 12:  Brussels - summer school CH.ESS'2012
• 13. - 25. Aug. 12:  Rot an der Rot - German summer school
• 25. - 27. Aug. 12:  Zürich - a short visit
• 19 - 23. Sep. 12:   Wandlitz - Graduiertenakademie DAAD (follow-up academy in Heidelberg)
• 03. - 13. Oct. 12:  Berlin: Festival of Lights 2012
• 14. - 18. Oct. 12:  Wroclaw - the SAHC conference
• 01. - 03. Nov. 12:  Heringsdorf - Hanseatische Sanierungstage/ building habilitation conference
• 08. - 12. Nov. 12:  Taipei - the ISEM conference
• 13. - 25. Nov. 12:  Hanoi - home sweet home

Happy New Year 2013!

Although it seems like I have got some achievements in the year 2012, frankly speaking, most of them still relate to my work in the past not the present. The current reality is much more challenging and perhaps I have not shown enough the difficult sides of it. My research work at the current state still not progress further. My German is getting worse. There are still so many aspects that I should improve, to say to be able to find a place in the Germany with high demanding requirements and standard. So let's just look shortly at the past in the year 2012 only for some self-motivation and try to focus on the unhappy present, to make the present better each day!