Gute Erntedankfest! (Happy Thanksgiving!)

While D recovers a bit from his jet lag (he seems to be about a day behind me in this), I will update you all a little bit. Today we went to register with the Foreigners Registration Authority, who - surprisingly - are not very accommodating to foreigners. It would seem that a good way to run a place like that would be to hire people who at least speak fluent English, since it is often a common language among Ausländer, but apparently the German government does not agree with me. After some verbal abuse from the woman who "helped" me and a couple of phone calls from the administration guy from work, we are now legal foreign employees. Yay!

The registration office was in the old part of town, and on the way home, we wandered around a bit and found a quaint cafe and stopped in for a coffee. We even attempted ordering in German for the first time!


We've only been here about two days, but I already feel like we are starting to settle in. We've more or less mastered the bus route that goes by our apartment. We've found our way to our local grocery store and our neighborhood pub (which we have yet to check out). Perhaps most important, we found a store that sells tofu, seitan, and vegetarian "sausages"! We will not starve in Germany...horray!

Our current apartment here, which is only temporary while we find a more permanent place, is quite lovely. It's in an area of town known as Lustnau and is about a 30 minute walk from the downtown area.

The neighborhood is very quiet, which is a nice change from what we were used to on Carrillo.

Inside, we have a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen, and all the furnishings are Ikea-style and wonderful! I will put up some pictures of the inside once we actually unpack.

i am now a doctor, please address me as such.*

I have my PhD! It is such a great feeling to have all of that stress behind me, and to be able to start looking forward. Oh yeah, and emails from faculty members that begin "Dear Dr. DeLeeuw" are pretty great, too.
















My dissertation focused on the cognitive load that learners experience during learning from computer-based multimedia lessons. In two studies, I tested whether extraneous cognitive load, such as unnecessary text on the screen, affects processing in working memory or whether it affects perceptual processing. Using a paradigm that has been able to distinguish between working memory load and perceptual load (Lavie, 2005), I tested these two possibilities via two different measurement technologies -- eye tracking and EEG (electroencephalogram). What did I find? Extraneous cognitive load in the form of unnecessary text on the screen tends to mainly affect perceptual processing rather than working memory processing. Kinda cool -- nobody has shown this distinction before.

So, enough with the jargon and smart-talk. It's time to celebrate!


*Quote stolen from D's facebook status on the day he earned his PhD. =)