Since it was my second time at the MPII and because many its people’s research areas are very much related to mine, I already new many MPII researchers personally. Moreover, one of the current post-docs there is a former Ph.D. student of my research advisor, so in general I had a lot of personal interaction in the after-hours.

It was interesting to see how the work was organized at the MPII. Surprisingly for me, the Technion and the MPII have many common features and problems. It was also interesting to learn about some technical differences, like the preferred OS for the personal workstations.

This kind of visit, when you are not as a tourist, but actually work for a short while, gives a much better idea about what it would be like to live and work in this place, for example if I were planning to go for a post-doc or any other kind of employment there.