I have to admit that I had quite an excellent Monday this week. Very surprising, seeing as how Mondays suck in general.
My boss was out of town so I only had 3 hours of work to do. It did, however, involve putting soil into little bottles, which is not fun, but I got done at 1pm so I'm not complaining.
I've been recycling clothes since I'm out of laundry coins, so after getting out of work early I headed to go buy some more from the Hausmeister. He was busy so I waited outside. A guy and a girl came looking for him and it turns out they were speaking Spanish. I got excited and tried to tell them that the Hausmeister was "there" in another room, but I'm pretty sure I got my prepositions confused and said "here" instead. I was thinking in Spanish, and then it came to me how to say it in German, but that's not what I wanted so I thought really quickly in Spanish and just spit something out. My brain cannot handle switching between languages that fast. They knew what I meant and smiled really politely. The Hausmeister came out and saw me waiting and told me "one minute" in German, but then chuckled and said it in English. So he does speak some English! Ha! This made me happy because up until this point I thought he loathed me. After I purchased my laundry coins I decided to redeem myself with the Spanish speaking people, so I knocked on their apartment door, and in Español perfecto, I told them that the Hausmeister wasn't busy anymore. The guy smiled and thanked me. I was happy.
So my German isn't that great, but I can certainly get by over here. My Spanish is definitely lacking in comparison with my German, but I am impressed that I remember all that I do, having not had any classes for 4 years. Language is still the one thing that I'm the most impressed about over here. I've watched people laugh and joke about a song the like in Polish, and then continue their conversation in German, and then turn to me and tell me what happened in English. I love it! Like I've said before, I really want to continue German classes when I get back to school, but I know that at this rate I will never graduate with all the extra classes I'm taking. We'll see.
Does anyone know if you capitalize the names of languages? Huh.
I found a little coffee shop in the Altstadt that I've been going to every now and then. It's good coffee. The prices are a little expensive, but now that I'm not eating out anymore I can afford good coffee. The same girl always takes me order. The first time apparently she told me "wait over there by the counter" but I had no idea what she said, so I had to give in and admit that my German isn't too hot. I hate when that happens - I do well and then I have to admit defeat in the end.
One thing that I will miss once I get home is all the bakeries around town. I had never gone into them until recently, but now I'm hooked. Ah, there's so many tasty things and just about anything you buy goes excellent with a little Nutella. Yum. I will definitely miss the smell of fresh break where ever I walk and all the yummy pastries that I've discovered in the last few days.
So they have this one liquor (mostly beer, though) store here that has a van called the "Getränke Taxi" (Drink Taxi). It's exactly what it sounds like. If you are too lazy (or too drunk, for that matter) to get in a car or walk down to the store to buy some more beer while you're watching your soccer game, you can just call the Getränke Taxi and they will deliver a case or two to your front door. I've seen it pulled up in front of my apartment building a few times - I find it pretty comical. I'm sure it costs a bit, but when you're running out of your favorite beer you have to get it somehow...
Apparently Germans don't like stick deodorant. Figured that out today when I went shopping for some because I ran out. They like body spray - a lot - and the little roll-on kind. I've always kind of detested body spray. I think it's the memories of the middle school boy's locker room where you could hardly breathe because everyone wanted to smell like a man and sprayed their can of Axe far too much. Yup. That's definitely where it comes from. Well, I sucked it up and smelled up about every bottle on the shelf (most smelled strongly of rubbing alcohol - gross) until I found one that was decent.
It's hot today and I have no AC. Ugh. It would be nice to get back to the apartment and relax in the cool, but no. But I guess we're saving energy over here so it's okay.
Well, I leave for Heidelburg tomorrow morning at 7am and get to enjoy a 7 hour train ride there. But I'm really excited because I will get to meet a lot of people, hang out with the girls I met back in Berlin, and I'll get to see my Uncle Mac and Aunt Melody. Eeek! They're hilarious - definitely the cool relatives. Can't wait. And I got an email saying that on Friday for the "company visits" the environmental students get to go to some really cool site (sorry, but I have no idea what it is - I tried to look it up and don't remember what I found) and then we get to go WINE TASTING! Yeees. I'm pumped. This will be an excellent weekend.
Plus I bought my ticket to Amsterdam for next weekend. Sweet.
Okay - tons of stuff to do to get ready for tomorrow morning.
Happy 4th of July!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
A quiet, but relaxing, weekend in Cottbus
Well, this weekend turned out to be nothing like I expected, but at the same time it wasn't disappointing either.
A few days ago Paul called and told me that he caught a really bad cold and he probably wouldn't be able to make it to Berlin with me for Christopher Street Day. I got updates from him everyday hoping to hear that he got better, but he never did. I think he works too much on his thesis, but that's just me : P I now know that I never want to write one of those... Saturday evening he called again (after calling once that morning to say that he wasn't going to be able to go) saying that he was feeling better and he could go. The plan was to jump on a train at 8pm, arrive in Berlin at 10pm, party until we caught a train home at 5am, and arrive back in Cottbus at 7am. The plan was completely crazy (although really spontaneous and awesome sounding at the same time) but I wasn't wanting to go partying that bad to give in. We both agreed that it would be too much trouble to go (also because Paul's first train back to Hannover wasn't until 7.30am) so I spend this weekend in Cottbus.
I got to sleep in, which was really nice. During the week I never get to and with all the traveling I've done on the weekends, sleeping in doesn't happen much.
I finished "Twilight", the book I was reading. It's amazing. At the end I found out that there are 2 more books in the series so I set off to find them at the bookstore that I've been frequenting. Turns out they have the 3rd book and not the 1st or 2nd one. Weird. But, for only having a bookshelf the size of one you might have at home full of English books, I was impressed. I know that it is completely wrong, unethical, and despicable in the world of literature to skip ahead in a series, but I consider this a drastic situation. I ended up buying the 3rd book. I figure I'll read the 2nd one eventually, perhaps when I get home. I know I ruined a lot of surprises and I'm lacking a lot of information, but the plot and story line is still there so it's fine. I know I'll read quite a few books before even starting the 2nd book, so I know I'll forget most of the spoilers anyways. All is well.
It rained a bit on Saturday. It poured actually right when I was on my way to the grocery store. Luckily I packed an umbrella but it didn't help much. I ended up getting soaked, but I didn't really mind. It was quite refreshing. I miss not having anyone to play in the rain with.
Saturday was a big day for me, as I reached my running goal for the summer! My goal for the summer was to be able to run 5 miles continuously. I did that Saturday night! I'm very proud of myself. At the beginning of summer I didn't really see it happening, but I worked my way up and finally did it. Unfortunately, now that I know I can do it, I will be forced to do it over and over again. Running, despite the fact that it has become an almost daily routine, is definitely not my favorite thing to do. It is, however, something I feel I need to do. Most of the time the two do not coincide, but what can you do?
Saturday night I fixed myself a very German dinner: potatoes, bratwurst, and beer. It was pretty tasty. Nothing special, but it was better than the turkey sandwiches I typically eat.
Sunday I slept in a good deal. Didn't even set my alarm - that was nice. The weather was really nice outside so I decided to pack my bag and head out for the day. I found this great little green space behind the town theatre that has a giant fountain in the middle. I brought a blanket and my book and read for a while under the sun. It was nice. Then I explored more of Cottbus that I haven't been to yet. I found this nice trail to walk down that led me between all of these houses and gardens. It's a residential area, I guess, but there's no access by car. The path was for biking and walking, and it let through this residential part where every inch of space is covered with small huts/houses, greenhouses, or gardens. It was really cute. I didn't reach the end of the trail so I'll have to go back one day and see where it takes me. It was such a beautiful day outside today that walking along it was very relaxing and I enjoyed myself.
Upon returning to my apartment I realized that I left my key in my room. Ugh. I attach my key to my water bottle when I go running. Last night after running I got online to talk to some people and after that I took a shower and immediately went to bed. I didn't clean up after dinner and didn't reattach my key to my keychain. This morning it didn't cross my mind to make sure my key was on my keychain, so I ended up leaving it behind. I found a girl and asked her if there was a number I could call to get my door opened. We called the number and the line was disconnected. Great. Then I saw a boy entering my building so I followed him in and asked if he knew how I could open my door. He showed me where the "Hausmeister" has a bulletin board with all of the maintenance numbers that I could call. I found a number that had the German word for key ("Schlüssel" - a favorite Germany word of mine) in it (Germans like to make up words by squishing 3 or 4 words together that all describe one specific thing) so I called it. The guy didn't speak English, but I managed to get him to my door to open it for me. Having my door opened cost me 30€! $45! Outrageous. Especially since all he did was pick the lock. I figured I could find a neighbor with a wire coat hanger and manage to open the door myself (plus I would also probably make a friend by asking for the hanger) but I was too lazy. Whatever. I'm impressed that I lasted so long without locking myself out. I always think to myself "Damn, I haven't locked myself out yet - go me!" but it had to happen sometime. Now I will be more careful.
The European Cup final was tonight between Germany and Spain. Spain ended up winning (damnit). I wasn't really in the mood to go watch the game so I chilled at home. No biggie. Soccer isn't really my thing and I didn't have anyone to watch it with so I chose not to be the awkward kid in the corner all night long.
I leave Thursday morning for Heidelberg! I'm really excited. The program I am in is having a conference there for all of the participants. I'm excited to celebrate the 4th of July with the rest of the Americans - Germany won't know what hit them... I've heard that Heidelberg is a really beautiful city filled with tons of culture, art, etc. I'm excited to check it out. Plus the program is sending us on a tour of the city, so that will be cool actually getting to learn about it. Plus I'm planning on visiting my Uncle Mac and Aunt Melody while they are in town. Hopefully I will have a few hours to eat dinner and hang out with them.
That about wraps it up. I'll update the Cottbus photo album with the pictures that I took today. Check it out.
28 more days.
A few days ago Paul called and told me that he caught a really bad cold and he probably wouldn't be able to make it to Berlin with me for Christopher Street Day. I got updates from him everyday hoping to hear that he got better, but he never did. I think he works too much on his thesis, but that's just me : P I now know that I never want to write one of those... Saturday evening he called again (after calling once that morning to say that he wasn't going to be able to go) saying that he was feeling better and he could go. The plan was to jump on a train at 8pm, arrive in Berlin at 10pm, party until we caught a train home at 5am, and arrive back in Cottbus at 7am. The plan was completely crazy (although really spontaneous and awesome sounding at the same time) but I wasn't wanting to go partying that bad to give in. We both agreed that it would be too much trouble to go (also because Paul's first train back to Hannover wasn't until 7.30am) so I spend this weekend in Cottbus.
I got to sleep in, which was really nice. During the week I never get to and with all the traveling I've done on the weekends, sleeping in doesn't happen much.
I finished "Twilight", the book I was reading. It's amazing. At the end I found out that there are 2 more books in the series so I set off to find them at the bookstore that I've been frequenting. Turns out they have the 3rd book and not the 1st or 2nd one. Weird. But, for only having a bookshelf the size of one you might have at home full of English books, I was impressed. I know that it is completely wrong, unethical, and despicable in the world of literature to skip ahead in a series, but I consider this a drastic situation. I ended up buying the 3rd book. I figure I'll read the 2nd one eventually, perhaps when I get home. I know I ruined a lot of surprises and I'm lacking a lot of information, but the plot and story line is still there so it's fine. I know I'll read quite a few books before even starting the 2nd book, so I know I'll forget most of the spoilers anyways. All is well.
It rained a bit on Saturday. It poured actually right when I was on my way to the grocery store. Luckily I packed an umbrella but it didn't help much. I ended up getting soaked, but I didn't really mind. It was quite refreshing. I miss not having anyone to play in the rain with.
Saturday was a big day for me, as I reached my running goal for the summer! My goal for the summer was to be able to run 5 miles continuously. I did that Saturday night! I'm very proud of myself. At the beginning of summer I didn't really see it happening, but I worked my way up and finally did it. Unfortunately, now that I know I can do it, I will be forced to do it over and over again. Running, despite the fact that it has become an almost daily routine, is definitely not my favorite thing to do. It is, however, something I feel I need to do. Most of the time the two do not coincide, but what can you do?
Saturday night I fixed myself a very German dinner: potatoes, bratwurst, and beer. It was pretty tasty. Nothing special, but it was better than the turkey sandwiches I typically eat.
Sunday I slept in a good deal. Didn't even set my alarm - that was nice. The weather was really nice outside so I decided to pack my bag and head out for the day. I found this great little green space behind the town theatre that has a giant fountain in the middle. I brought a blanket and my book and read for a while under the sun. It was nice. Then I explored more of Cottbus that I haven't been to yet. I found this nice trail to walk down that led me between all of these houses and gardens. It's a residential area, I guess, but there's no access by car. The path was for biking and walking, and it let through this residential part where every inch of space is covered with small huts/houses, greenhouses, or gardens. It was really cute. I didn't reach the end of the trail so I'll have to go back one day and see where it takes me. It was such a beautiful day outside today that walking along it was very relaxing and I enjoyed myself.
Upon returning to my apartment I realized that I left my key in my room. Ugh. I attach my key to my water bottle when I go running. Last night after running I got online to talk to some people and after that I took a shower and immediately went to bed. I didn't clean up after dinner and didn't reattach my key to my keychain. This morning it didn't cross my mind to make sure my key was on my keychain, so I ended up leaving it behind. I found a girl and asked her if there was a number I could call to get my door opened. We called the number and the line was disconnected. Great. Then I saw a boy entering my building so I followed him in and asked if he knew how I could open my door. He showed me where the "Hausmeister" has a bulletin board with all of the maintenance numbers that I could call. I found a number that had the German word for key ("Schlüssel" - a favorite Germany word of mine) in it (Germans like to make up words by squishing 3 or 4 words together that all describe one specific thing) so I called it. The guy didn't speak English, but I managed to get him to my door to open it for me. Having my door opened cost me 30€! $45! Outrageous. Especially since all he did was pick the lock. I figured I could find a neighbor with a wire coat hanger and manage to open the door myself (plus I would also probably make a friend by asking for the hanger) but I was too lazy. Whatever. I'm impressed that I lasted so long without locking myself out. I always think to myself "Damn, I haven't locked myself out yet - go me!" but it had to happen sometime. Now I will be more careful.
The European Cup final was tonight between Germany and Spain. Spain ended up winning (damnit). I wasn't really in the mood to go watch the game so I chilled at home. No biggie. Soccer isn't really my thing and I didn't have anyone to watch it with so I chose not to be the awkward kid in the corner all night long.
I leave Thursday morning for Heidelberg! I'm really excited. The program I am in is having a conference there for all of the participants. I'm excited to celebrate the 4th of July with the rest of the Americans - Germany won't know what hit them... I've heard that Heidelberg is a really beautiful city filled with tons of culture, art, etc. I'm excited to check it out. Plus the program is sending us on a tour of the city, so that will be cool actually getting to learn about it. Plus I'm planning on visiting my Uncle Mac and Aunt Melody while they are in town. Hopefully I will have a few hours to eat dinner and hang out with them.
That about wraps it up. I'll update the Cottbus photo album with the pictures that I took today. Check it out.
28 more days.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
London Pictures Are Up!
So, I finished uploading pictures from London and you can see them by clicking on the link on the right hand side. Enjoy!
Now it's time to go to bed - probably shouldn't have taken that nap at 8pm. If only it didn't get dark until 10pm, then I wouldn't be taking naps so late.
Off to Berlin tomorrow to check out Christopher Street Day festivities. Should be quite interesting.
Less than a month until I'm home : )
See you guys soon.
Now it's time to go to bed - probably shouldn't have taken that nap at 8pm. If only it didn't get dark until 10pm, then I wouldn't be taking naps so late.
Off to Berlin tomorrow to check out Christopher Street Day festivities. Should be quite interesting.
Less than a month until I'm home : )
See you guys soon.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Dresden and London
So, it has been a while. But no worries, I'll update you.
Last week we go to go to the field twice for work. Tuesday we went and helped this other PhD student, Ute, fill in 5 of her soil pits. She finished all of her research so we filled in the pits in order to try and leave nature the way we found it. It was hot and that was a lot of work. The pits are 2 meters deep and probably 1 meter across both ways. Oh, and Annika and I took about 6 soil samples - woot. Thursday we went out again to a different mining site than what I've been to previously. It was cool. New pictures from the site are in the Cottbus album. The site is completely artificial but it's cool because they can monitor just about everything because they know all the initial conditions. We also drove to a look out point so I could see the brown coal mine. It was huuuge. They explained how they mine for the brown coal and it was pretty interesting. I had planned on workin' on my hot tan during this trip, but it was cold overcast and windy and I decided to wear shorts. Poor decision, but next time I"ll know better...
Lately I've been running 4 miles each time I run. I'm very impressed with myself. My goal for this summer is to be able to run 5 miles without any problems. First I thought it wasn't going to happen, but now I think I'll get there in the next 2 weeks. Schweet.
Oh, I fell the other day while running. Damn piece of crap eastern European sidewalks. Infrastructure infrastructure INFRASTRUCTURE! Oh, well, I'll give them a break because they are still recovering from that war. What was it called? Oh yes, WWII.
...
Okay, so I just got back from London at 3am this morning. I know it has been a while since my last post, but I've been "busy" and it takes so much time to type all this stuff up. Really, I just have too many stories that go untold so in the end it's my fault. Oh well.
Dresden was awesome. I was there 2 weekends ago. It was my first Couchsurfing experience and I'm happy to report that everything went very well. I found a host, Susanne, on the Couchsurfing website and she was awesome. She picked me up at the train station, introduced me to friends, and most importantly let me sleep on her couch for two nights. Luckily for me there was an annual music festival going on in Dresden that weekend so we went to that every day. It was pretty awesome. She also took me around the touristy part of Dresden and I was very impressed with all the stuff she knew. My own personal tour guide. Overall I had a great time. You can check out the pictures by clicking on the link to the right. I think they basically sum up my weekend.
I only worked 3 days last week, which was really nice. I've been having to measure out hundreds of 10.0000g samples of soil with an error of only .0002g. It sucks. I can do about 30 samples in an hour, but doing that for 3 consecutive hours is not fun in the slightest. I really want to listen to my iPod while doing it, but I still haven't decided if that's appropriate or not.
I flew out of Berlin Schönefeld airport Wednesday night and landed in London around 10.40pm. The flight was only an hour and 40 minutes. I flew Ryan Air, which was interesting. They are the low fare airline - and it shows. The whole inside of the plane is covered in advertisements and every now and then a radio ad comes on over the speakers. Lovely. No free drinks or anything - it all costs a ton of money. Whatever, it was a cheap flight. I got to walk on the tarmac when boarding the airplane, which was cool - I've never done that before. They lead from the front and back of the plane and there are no assigned seats - it's a free for all. Pretty crazy, but I guess it doesn't work too bad. Certainly no Delta.
When I got to London I was thoroughly questioned by customs and was finally allowed to enter the UK. Woohoo! Traveling was a lot easier because I could speak their language fluently, hah. I was so excited to be able to express myself freely in English without having to slow down or choose smaller words. I felt smart and capable - a weird feeling to have when speaking your own language. On the train to the Tube station I sat in a cab with Austrian people who were part of a private english class. They were taking a field trip to London to practice their english. The average age for the group was about 45 or so - it was interesting. They were taking pictures and I asked, in German, if they wanted me to take their picture then they got excited that I could speak German so we talked the whole ride. They were very nice and oh so excited to speak English with me. It made me happy. I ended up running through the Tube station with the rest of the people to catch the last train to the stop I needed. Lucky for me since cabs there are so expensive. That night I met up with KATIE and me, her, and Mario went out to the Mango Lounge and enjoyed some really really expensive cocktails. Curse the continuously lowering power of the US dollar! Everything in London looks reasonably priced, but then you remember that you need to multiply it by two in order to figure out how much it is in US dollars. Then your jaw drops and you kick a rock.
Thursday night we saw Alanis Morrisette in concert! Ahhh! She is absolutely amazing. She played all of her famous songs and it felt like they just kept coming and coming - you forget she has so many hits until the next song starts and it's your "favorite Alanis song". Then she plays another and the same feeling comes over you that it's your "favorite". A lot of fun. We are all pretty sure she was on some sort of drugs the whole concert. She would spin around the stage and jump everywhere - exactly like in Little Miss Sunshine at the beauty pageant. It was funny, but also freaky. Oh well, if she needs some jagged little pills to write such great songs then so be it.
We did so much, all the days seem to run together. I know I'll leave a lot of stuff out, but I'll try my best.
Katie's Mom and brother arrived in London the same time I did. Friday (I think?) we met up with them for lunch and then I hung out with Mrs. Craft while Katie was at rehearsal. Her and Mrs. Barnes are my favorite foster mothers ever. So easy to talk to and lots of fun. I can't quite remember what we ended up doing that night. Mostly it was hanging around the flat that they live in. All the people that are on the study abroad trip with Kate are really cool and I had a fun time with them all.
One night we went to a VIP party that the study abroad professor got everyone into. I pretended to be a kid named Jake Cooper - he was in Paris at the time so I took his spot. The club was okay, but it was more of just a bar with bands playing. We watched one rapper and that was that. We left to go to another club but Katie and I headed off to go gambling instead. Hehe. You only have to be 18 to play at the casinos in London - sweet. The people Katie ordered the Alanis tickets from accidently sent us 2 sets of 3 tickets. We scalped the 2nd set of tickets at the door for 55£. $110. Awesome. We decided because that was free money, we would gamble it all. Seemed like a perfectly logical thing to do. We went around and played slots at all the casinos. Went into a few cheap ones, went into a few really nice ones. I had to register a few of them so I got a membership card and my picture was taken. At one place we decided to use up 10£ each. The slots were 50p or 1£. I used up all my pounds so Katie gave me one of hers. I really wanted to play this shark/fish slot machine so I went over and put my coin in. Within 5 minutes I turned that 1£ into 77£! Ballah! I won 20 free spins, and with those spins I won 20 more free spins. I think that happened a few more times until I got 80 spins total. It was awesome. We had a crowd around us and all the old women were in shock, haha. After the big win we left because we figured our luck at that place had run out. We went to Katie's favorite casino, got a few cocktails, and used up the rest of the original 55£ there. It was funny to think that us drinking cocktails and playing at slot machines is illegal in America. We laughed at the fact that nobody died that night, we ended up doubling our money, and we both got home safe and sound. No harm done, right? Silly America.
Saturday I was adopted into the Craft family and Mama Craft took all of us on a bus tour of London. You hop on the bus, it makes stops around London and you can choose to either stay on and ride, or hop off and stay at the site for a while. Once you're done at one place you just go back to the bus stop and wait for the next bus to come, pick you up, and take you to the next place. It was really awesome. We saw Big Ben, the Parliment, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern Art Museum, the Tower Bridge, the London Bridge, and probably one or two things I'm forgetting. It was really cool. I should have pictures up by the end of the week so check them out : )
On Sunday, my last day in London, Katie and I hit the shops to spend our gambling money. We spend it on a few things throughout the week, but we both got 35£ to play with as we wished. We checked out H&M, Top Shop (for Katie), and finally headed to Urban Outfitters. Don't know why we thought it would be less expensive that it is in America, but we figured we had money to blow so why not. I ended up getting a cool tweed messenger bag/murse/what have you. Katie didn't find anything desirable so we took the money and decided to save it for later. With only a few hours to go, we rushed to a pub so I could try Pims - a traditional British drink. It was pretty good. Then we stopped at this awesome frozen yogurt place I found, called Snogger. It was delicious. We then took the tube to King's Cross train station and visited the infamous platform 9 3/4. They already had a cart there that was halfway into the wall so we both took pictures pushing it. Hehe.
Overall, my time in London was amazing. I got to see my best friend in the entire world and have her take me around a city that she has been exploring for 6 weeks. I couldn't have asked for a better hostess. I love you, Katie!
My flight home was just fine. I got back later than I originally thought, but it wasn't too bad. At the airport waiting for a train to the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin, I met these two girls that are also doing the same research internship program that I'm doing. They are really cool and I hung out with them all the way until my train to Cottbus left. I ended up decided to skip the first one because I only had 5 minutes to get to it and I wanted to chat more with them and grab a bite for dinner. We hung out for a few hours and talked about our experiences in Germany. I had a lot of fun. They invited me on their trip to Amsterdam in a few weeks which I will probably go on. We will also see each other in Heidelburg in two weeks for our programs conference. I'm excited that I will already know people when I get there.
I ended up getting back to my apartment at 3am. Ugh. I slept for a few hours, went to work, and filled more bottles with 10.0000g of soil. I'm getting sick of soil, but hey, it's paying for me to be here so I guess I shouldn't complain.
I think that roughly covers everything at the moment. I'll work on getting London pictures up in the next few days. Until then check out the Dresden pictures.
I'm home in 34 days. It's going by faster, which is nice. Can't wait to see you all soon.
Until next time.
Last week we go to go to the field twice for work. Tuesday we went and helped this other PhD student, Ute, fill in 5 of her soil pits. She finished all of her research so we filled in the pits in order to try and leave nature the way we found it. It was hot and that was a lot of work. The pits are 2 meters deep and probably 1 meter across both ways. Oh, and Annika and I took about 6 soil samples - woot. Thursday we went out again to a different mining site than what I've been to previously. It was cool. New pictures from the site are in the Cottbus album. The site is completely artificial but it's cool because they can monitor just about everything because they know all the initial conditions. We also drove to a look out point so I could see the brown coal mine. It was huuuge. They explained how they mine for the brown coal and it was pretty interesting. I had planned on workin' on my hot tan during this trip, but it was cold overcast and windy and I decided to wear shorts. Poor decision, but next time I"ll know better...
Lately I've been running 4 miles each time I run. I'm very impressed with myself. My goal for this summer is to be able to run 5 miles without any problems. First I thought it wasn't going to happen, but now I think I'll get there in the next 2 weeks. Schweet.
Oh, I fell the other day while running. Damn piece of crap eastern European sidewalks. Infrastructure infrastructure INFRASTRUCTURE! Oh, well, I'll give them a break because they are still recovering from that war. What was it called? Oh yes, WWII.
...
Okay, so I just got back from London at 3am this morning. I know it has been a while since my last post, but I've been "busy" and it takes so much time to type all this stuff up. Really, I just have too many stories that go untold so in the end it's my fault. Oh well.
Dresden was awesome. I was there 2 weekends ago. It was my first Couchsurfing experience and I'm happy to report that everything went very well. I found a host, Susanne, on the Couchsurfing website and she was awesome. She picked me up at the train station, introduced me to friends, and most importantly let me sleep on her couch for two nights. Luckily for me there was an annual music festival going on in Dresden that weekend so we went to that every day. It was pretty awesome. She also took me around the touristy part of Dresden and I was very impressed with all the stuff she knew. My own personal tour guide. Overall I had a great time. You can check out the pictures by clicking on the link to the right. I think they basically sum up my weekend.
I only worked 3 days last week, which was really nice. I've been having to measure out hundreds of 10.0000g samples of soil with an error of only .0002g. It sucks. I can do about 30 samples in an hour, but doing that for 3 consecutive hours is not fun in the slightest. I really want to listen to my iPod while doing it, but I still haven't decided if that's appropriate or not.
I flew out of Berlin Schönefeld airport Wednesday night and landed in London around 10.40pm. The flight was only an hour and 40 minutes. I flew Ryan Air, which was interesting. They are the low fare airline - and it shows. The whole inside of the plane is covered in advertisements and every now and then a radio ad comes on over the speakers. Lovely. No free drinks or anything - it all costs a ton of money. Whatever, it was a cheap flight. I got to walk on the tarmac when boarding the airplane, which was cool - I've never done that before. They lead from the front and back of the plane and there are no assigned seats - it's a free for all. Pretty crazy, but I guess it doesn't work too bad. Certainly no Delta.
When I got to London I was thoroughly questioned by customs and was finally allowed to enter the UK. Woohoo! Traveling was a lot easier because I could speak their language fluently, hah. I was so excited to be able to express myself freely in English without having to slow down or choose smaller words. I felt smart and capable - a weird feeling to have when speaking your own language. On the train to the Tube station I sat in a cab with Austrian people who were part of a private english class. They were taking a field trip to London to practice their english. The average age for the group was about 45 or so - it was interesting. They were taking pictures and I asked, in German, if they wanted me to take their picture then they got excited that I could speak German so we talked the whole ride. They were very nice and oh so excited to speak English with me. It made me happy. I ended up running through the Tube station with the rest of the people to catch the last train to the stop I needed. Lucky for me since cabs there are so expensive. That night I met up with KATIE and me, her, and Mario went out to the Mango Lounge and enjoyed some really really expensive cocktails. Curse the continuously lowering power of the US dollar! Everything in London looks reasonably priced, but then you remember that you need to multiply it by two in order to figure out how much it is in US dollars. Then your jaw drops and you kick a rock.
Thursday night we saw Alanis Morrisette in concert! Ahhh! She is absolutely amazing. She played all of her famous songs and it felt like they just kept coming and coming - you forget she has so many hits until the next song starts and it's your "favorite Alanis song". Then she plays another and the same feeling comes over you that it's your "favorite". A lot of fun. We are all pretty sure she was on some sort of drugs the whole concert. She would spin around the stage and jump everywhere - exactly like in Little Miss Sunshine at the beauty pageant. It was funny, but also freaky. Oh well, if she needs some jagged little pills to write such great songs then so be it.
We did so much, all the days seem to run together. I know I'll leave a lot of stuff out, but I'll try my best.
Katie's Mom and brother arrived in London the same time I did. Friday (I think?) we met up with them for lunch and then I hung out with Mrs. Craft while Katie was at rehearsal. Her and Mrs. Barnes are my favorite foster mothers ever. So easy to talk to and lots of fun. I can't quite remember what we ended up doing that night. Mostly it was hanging around the flat that they live in. All the people that are on the study abroad trip with Kate are really cool and I had a fun time with them all.
One night we went to a VIP party that the study abroad professor got everyone into. I pretended to be a kid named Jake Cooper - he was in Paris at the time so I took his spot. The club was okay, but it was more of just a bar with bands playing. We watched one rapper and that was that. We left to go to another club but Katie and I headed off to go gambling instead. Hehe. You only have to be 18 to play at the casinos in London - sweet. The people Katie ordered the Alanis tickets from accidently sent us 2 sets of 3 tickets. We scalped the 2nd set of tickets at the door for 55£. $110. Awesome. We decided because that was free money, we would gamble it all. Seemed like a perfectly logical thing to do. We went around and played slots at all the casinos. Went into a few cheap ones, went into a few really nice ones. I had to register a few of them so I got a membership card and my picture was taken. At one place we decided to use up 10£ each. The slots were 50p or 1£. I used up all my pounds so Katie gave me one of hers. I really wanted to play this shark/fish slot machine so I went over and put my coin in. Within 5 minutes I turned that 1£ into 77£! Ballah! I won 20 free spins, and with those spins I won 20 more free spins. I think that happened a few more times until I got 80 spins total. It was awesome. We had a crowd around us and all the old women were in shock, haha. After the big win we left because we figured our luck at that place had run out. We went to Katie's favorite casino, got a few cocktails, and used up the rest of the original 55£ there. It was funny to think that us drinking cocktails and playing at slot machines is illegal in America. We laughed at the fact that nobody died that night, we ended up doubling our money, and we both got home safe and sound. No harm done, right? Silly America.
Saturday I was adopted into the Craft family and Mama Craft took all of us on a bus tour of London. You hop on the bus, it makes stops around London and you can choose to either stay on and ride, or hop off and stay at the site for a while. Once you're done at one place you just go back to the bus stop and wait for the next bus to come, pick you up, and take you to the next place. It was really awesome. We saw Big Ben, the Parliment, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern Art Museum, the Tower Bridge, the London Bridge, and probably one or two things I'm forgetting. It was really cool. I should have pictures up by the end of the week so check them out : )
On Sunday, my last day in London, Katie and I hit the shops to spend our gambling money. We spend it on a few things throughout the week, but we both got 35£ to play with as we wished. We checked out H&M, Top Shop (for Katie), and finally headed to Urban Outfitters. Don't know why we thought it would be less expensive that it is in America, but we figured we had money to blow so why not. I ended up getting a cool tweed messenger bag/murse/what have you. Katie didn't find anything desirable so we took the money and decided to save it for later. With only a few hours to go, we rushed to a pub so I could try Pims - a traditional British drink. It was pretty good. Then we stopped at this awesome frozen yogurt place I found, called Snogger. It was delicious. We then took the tube to King's Cross train station and visited the infamous platform 9 3/4. They already had a cart there that was halfway into the wall so we both took pictures pushing it. Hehe.
Overall, my time in London was amazing. I got to see my best friend in the entire world and have her take me around a city that she has been exploring for 6 weeks. I couldn't have asked for a better hostess. I love you, Katie!
My flight home was just fine. I got back later than I originally thought, but it wasn't too bad. At the airport waiting for a train to the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin, I met these two girls that are also doing the same research internship program that I'm doing. They are really cool and I hung out with them all the way until my train to Cottbus left. I ended up decided to skip the first one because I only had 5 minutes to get to it and I wanted to chat more with them and grab a bite for dinner. We hung out for a few hours and talked about our experiences in Germany. I had a lot of fun. They invited me on their trip to Amsterdam in a few weeks which I will probably go on. We will also see each other in Heidelburg in two weeks for our programs conference. I'm excited that I will already know people when I get there.
I ended up getting back to my apartment at 3am. Ugh. I slept for a few hours, went to work, and filled more bottles with 10.0000g of soil. I'm getting sick of soil, but hey, it's paying for me to be here so I guess I shouldn't complain.
I think that roughly covers everything at the moment. I'll work on getting London pictures up in the next few days. Until then check out the Dresden pictures.
I'm home in 34 days. It's going by faster, which is nice. Can't wait to see you all soon.
Until next time.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Hannover
My weekend in Hannover was by far the most amazing time that I have had in Germany so far. Probably because it was the most social I have been so far, hah.
I left for Hannover Friday after work and arrived at the Hannover Hauptbahnhof at 11pm. Paul picked me up from the train station and we both went back to his apartment and talked for a really long time. Having never met Paul, I was nervous that the whole weekend might be awkward or we wouldn't have that much in common, etc., but it was exactly the opposite of my fears the whole time. Turns out we have a lot more in common that we both would have ever thought and he's a really cool guy.
Friday I woke up and met Tobi, Paul's roommate and best friend of 16 years. Tobi is just as awesome as Paul is and we got along great (which is good because we spent the whole day together). Paul let me borrow his bike so Tobi took me on a biking tour of the city of Hannover. We went to the Rathaus (city hall) where you can go on the roof and see the whole city - that was really cool. For lunch we met up with Paul and some of his graduate school friends that he is writing his thesis with. We ate at the Mensa (student cafeteria) and, like all other student cafeterias, the food wasn't the best. After eating Tobi and I headed off to the Herrenhausen Gardens - these huge gardens that the city owns. We walk around them for an hour or so - they were so beautiful. Hannover is a really green city, which is nice. After the gardens we stopped at a small restaurant and grabbed a Döner. Döners are these amazing thing they have in Germany. It reminded me of a falafel, but with more meat and no cabbage. Very delicious - it definitely made up for the not so appetizing lunch. After eating again we decided to take the scenic route back home, where Tobi ended up getting a flat tire. We still took the long way home and everything went well.
I can't really recall the last time I rode a bike. It must be in late elementary school or early middle school. I don't know. Either way, my biking skills were definitely lacking, hah. I only almost hit a few people. A few different times. Whatever. It was a lot of fun though. After the first day riding my bike with Tobi my ass was so sore. Ridiculously sore. Saturday sucked riding the bike, but I managed somehow.
Friday night Paul took me to a Biergarten. It was really cool. It was a giant outdoor place packed with people chilling at tables and a small "hut" where you go up and order your drink. Paul introduced me to Weißbier - it was definitely the best stuff I've had thus far. It's a Bavarian (southern Germany) thing, but hopefully I'll come across it again. The beer naturally has hints of banana in it due to the ethers that are produced when they brew it, but they also add some banana juice in it which makes it taste even better. I hope I can find some in Cottbus. Else I will just have to suck it up and take the 8 hour train ride to Münich in July and visit the friends I have that are studying there for the summer : P It would be worth it to drink some Weißbier once again.
After the Biergarten we stopped a café that is famous for its cake. Paul was right - it was delicious. We also stopped by his mom's apartment so we could pick up a map for me so I could find my way around the city on Saturday. His mom was oh so nice. She used to be an English teacher so we could both talk to each other. She was also recently diagnosed with type II diabetes, which is really sad. After we were introduced and we talked about how much I liked Hannover and much I disliked Cottbus, she immediately asked me if I like Barack Obama. I told her I was a Hillary fan, but now that she lost I'll be supporting Obama. She told me to "Please help end the war. It's so bad." I wanted to hug her.
Saturday I ate lunch with Paul and his friends at the university then set off by myself to do a little exploring. I found a few great places to read my book (A Thousand Splendid Suns) which was nice. I also took some more time to walk around downtown and stuff. Tobi and I walked around really quick so I took it slower and went in a few book stores and found some traditional dancers and bands performing.
Once Paul go done working on his thesis, Paul, Tobi, and I headed off to the river. Both Paul and Tobi are in a rowing club and they are both really active. We got out a three person boat and they taught me to row. We went up and down the river that goes through the city. At first it was really difficult to get the hang of it - it's definitely not as easy as it looks, hah - but after a few beers I found that it got better (surprisingly). By the end I was a rowing beast ; )
We had steak and potatoes at the house that night. Paul is a great cook so we all ate well anytime we stayed in for food. Friday's dinner was three different chinese dishes. Amazing! Paul lived in China for 6 months and can speak cantonese fluently (very impressive). He also learned to cook over there, which is a blessing to anyone who stays over for dinner.
While Paul got a nap in (he was tired from being in the library all day) Tobi and I hung out and talked for an hour or so. He's a great guy and we both learned a lot about each other. We promised each other that he would come to Atlanta and I will host him, so I can't wait until that day comes. After that we all headed off to check out some clubs downtown. I had a great time. Most of the places played music from the 90's or earlier, hah - it was awesome! I love that music and I'm glad that Europe still does too. We got back at around 3.30am and Paul and I stayed up and talked til 5.30am or so.
Sunday morning came and Paul, Tobi, Tobi's brother Andy, and I went out to a delicious brunch buffet. We all ate a ton. Very good food. After brunch Paul and I were too tired to do anything so we both took naps before Paul took me to the train station at 4pm. My train came at 5pm and I got back to Cottbus at 9pm.
This weekend was absolutely amazing. I'll be seeing Paul in Berlin later this month and he has many friends in other cities that have offered to let me stay with them while I'm about traveling. I'm really excited. I'll see Tobi again, too, when he comes to Atlanta in a few year. I'm glad we'll all cross paths again.
Thanks Kathy for getting in touch with Paul for me! Without your help I wouldn't have had such an amazing weekend!
Next weekend I'm off to Dresden, which I'm excited about. I need to find a person to stay with - I begin looking for a Couchsurfer tonight. Every weekend from now until the end is planned out so I think that my time here in Germany will definitely be more enjoyable. I'm excited.
Random side note: I really want my boss to shave her armpits. They gross me out. Really. That is all.
I posted the pictures from this weekend on the link to the right - check them out! I also updated the Cottbus album as well with pictures from researching in the field.
Until next time.
I left for Hannover Friday after work and arrived at the Hannover Hauptbahnhof at 11pm. Paul picked me up from the train station and we both went back to his apartment and talked for a really long time. Having never met Paul, I was nervous that the whole weekend might be awkward or we wouldn't have that much in common, etc., but it was exactly the opposite of my fears the whole time. Turns out we have a lot more in common that we both would have ever thought and he's a really cool guy.
Friday I woke up and met Tobi, Paul's roommate and best friend of 16 years. Tobi is just as awesome as Paul is and we got along great (which is good because we spent the whole day together). Paul let me borrow his bike so Tobi took me on a biking tour of the city of Hannover. We went to the Rathaus (city hall) where you can go on the roof and see the whole city - that was really cool. For lunch we met up with Paul and some of his graduate school friends that he is writing his thesis with. We ate at the Mensa (student cafeteria) and, like all other student cafeterias, the food wasn't the best. After eating Tobi and I headed off to the Herrenhausen Gardens - these huge gardens that the city owns. We walk around them for an hour or so - they were so beautiful. Hannover is a really green city, which is nice. After the gardens we stopped at a small restaurant and grabbed a Döner. Döners are these amazing thing they have in Germany. It reminded me of a falafel, but with more meat and no cabbage. Very delicious - it definitely made up for the not so appetizing lunch. After eating again we decided to take the scenic route back home, where Tobi ended up getting a flat tire. We still took the long way home and everything went well.
I can't really recall the last time I rode a bike. It must be in late elementary school or early middle school. I don't know. Either way, my biking skills were definitely lacking, hah. I only almost hit a few people. A few different times. Whatever. It was a lot of fun though. After the first day riding my bike with Tobi my ass was so sore. Ridiculously sore. Saturday sucked riding the bike, but I managed somehow.
Friday night Paul took me to a Biergarten. It was really cool. It was a giant outdoor place packed with people chilling at tables and a small "hut" where you go up and order your drink. Paul introduced me to Weißbier - it was definitely the best stuff I've had thus far. It's a Bavarian (southern Germany) thing, but hopefully I'll come across it again. The beer naturally has hints of banana in it due to the ethers that are produced when they brew it, but they also add some banana juice in it which makes it taste even better. I hope I can find some in Cottbus. Else I will just have to suck it up and take the 8 hour train ride to Münich in July and visit the friends I have that are studying there for the summer : P It would be worth it to drink some Weißbier once again.
After the Biergarten we stopped a café that is famous for its cake. Paul was right - it was delicious. We also stopped by his mom's apartment so we could pick up a map for me so I could find my way around the city on Saturday. His mom was oh so nice. She used to be an English teacher so we could both talk to each other. She was also recently diagnosed with type II diabetes, which is really sad. After we were introduced and we talked about how much I liked Hannover and much I disliked Cottbus, she immediately asked me if I like Barack Obama. I told her I was a Hillary fan, but now that she lost I'll be supporting Obama. She told me to "Please help end the war. It's so bad." I wanted to hug her.
Saturday I ate lunch with Paul and his friends at the university then set off by myself to do a little exploring. I found a few great places to read my book (A Thousand Splendid Suns) which was nice. I also took some more time to walk around downtown and stuff. Tobi and I walked around really quick so I took it slower and went in a few book stores and found some traditional dancers and bands performing.
Once Paul go done working on his thesis, Paul, Tobi, and I headed off to the river. Both Paul and Tobi are in a rowing club and they are both really active. We got out a three person boat and they taught me to row. We went up and down the river that goes through the city. At first it was really difficult to get the hang of it - it's definitely not as easy as it looks, hah - but after a few beers I found that it got better (surprisingly). By the end I was a rowing beast ; )
We had steak and potatoes at the house that night. Paul is a great cook so we all ate well anytime we stayed in for food. Friday's dinner was three different chinese dishes. Amazing! Paul lived in China for 6 months and can speak cantonese fluently (very impressive). He also learned to cook over there, which is a blessing to anyone who stays over for dinner.
While Paul got a nap in (he was tired from being in the library all day) Tobi and I hung out and talked for an hour or so. He's a great guy and we both learned a lot about each other. We promised each other that he would come to Atlanta and I will host him, so I can't wait until that day comes. After that we all headed off to check out some clubs downtown. I had a great time. Most of the places played music from the 90's or earlier, hah - it was awesome! I love that music and I'm glad that Europe still does too. We got back at around 3.30am and Paul and I stayed up and talked til 5.30am or so.
Sunday morning came and Paul, Tobi, Tobi's brother Andy, and I went out to a delicious brunch buffet. We all ate a ton. Very good food. After brunch Paul and I were too tired to do anything so we both took naps before Paul took me to the train station at 4pm. My train came at 5pm and I got back to Cottbus at 9pm.
This weekend was absolutely amazing. I'll be seeing Paul in Berlin later this month and he has many friends in other cities that have offered to let me stay with them while I'm about traveling. I'm really excited. I'll see Tobi again, too, when he comes to Atlanta in a few year. I'm glad we'll all cross paths again.
Thanks Kathy for getting in touch with Paul for me! Without your help I wouldn't have had such an amazing weekend!
Next weekend I'm off to Dresden, which I'm excited about. I need to find a person to stay with - I begin looking for a Couchsurfer tonight. Every weekend from now until the end is planned out so I think that my time here in Germany will definitely be more enjoyable. I'm excited.
Random side note: I really want my boss to shave her armpits. They gross me out. Really. That is all.
I posted the pictures from this weekend on the link to the right - check them out! I also updated the Cottbus album as well with pictures from researching in the field.
Until next time.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Week of the Burn
So, another week has passed. It has been rather quiet without my roommate here, although I never saw him much to begin with. It’s just different being guaranteed that when I leave in the morning, when I come back for lunch, when I come home from work, when I come home from running, etc. the apartment will be empty. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.
Coming home from Paris on Monday gave me a short week this week, so that was nice. I don’t mind work, but hey – who wants to go all five days a week? Psh.
Tuesday afternoon Annika, my boss, took me to one of her research sites to show me how to take soil samples. Four other people came alone with us – two other PhD students, one other undergraduate assistant, and one of the PhD student’s sisters. The site is about 25 minutes away driving. After driving some way on the highway (a small one, not the autobahn) we traveled about 5 more minutes on a dirt road that led to the fenced in area where all of the research sites are. It is a rather large plot and hold maybe 5 different sites. The plot is on a piece of land that has already been mined for brown coal. All of the studies done there are to look at what effects mining has on the soil and the development of a new ecosystem after the mining takes place. After the brown coal is mined, the mining company fills in the mine with a mixed up form of all the dirt that the dug out to create the mine. All of the soil in the area is man made so that is what makes it so different.
Annika and I specifically study how the soil will continue to develop and also how new plants will grow in the weird soil. While we were there we took some soil samples from a soil pit that was dug up earlier. Taking samples involves me hammering a 3 inch tall metal cylinder into the ground and then carefully removing it from the soil and leveling off the top and the bottom of the cylinder while trying to keep the soil within undisturbed. Not too difficult, but when there are large pieces of clay in the soil it’s hard to level them off without ripping a large chunk out – that means I have to start all over.
Another PhD student that uses the site is studying root formation of plants in the man-made soil. To do this she dug a huge hole in the ground and built a shed inside of the hole. The roof lies even with the top of the soil and you can enter by lifting up a flap in the roof. Along the walls of the underground shed there are 180 clear plexiglass pipes (about 2.5 inches in diameter) that go through the walls and into the surrounding soil. She then takes a very tiny camera and slides the camera along the pipes, taking a 180º picture every 5 cm or so. Around the shed she has planted a few different types of plants that are native to the area. She hopes to be able to see the roots growing around the pipes and learn how they form in the soil and how fast they form. So cool! She took me down into the underground shed to check it out. Very interesting.
The weather here in Cottbus is perfect for working in the field. The highs earlier this week were in the low 70’s and the site always has a nice breeze going on.
We went back to the site on Thursday to finish soil sampling. We only stayed for 3 hours the first day, but this time we were going for the whole day (8 hours). Not thinking, I didn’t wear or bring any sunscreen with me that day. Half of me thought it wasn’t that hot outside and I had a nice tan going so I didn’t really need it, while the other half of me decided to bring it in the end but forgot about it. Halfway through the day I could tell that I had made a bad decision. By the end of the day I was fried crispy. I rolled up my sleeves in hopes of decreasing the size of my amazing farmer’s tan, but that just hurt worse in the end. Where I had already got sun I became very dark and sunburned, but where I was originally white on my upper arms, I am now scarlet. Crap. I have a nice 2nd degree burn going on (blisters and all) which makes sleeping in any position but on my back very difficult. It’s getting better, but too slow for my taste. Next time I’ll wear sunscreen…
I went to the Apotheke (pharmacy) to ask if they had anything for sunburns. The pharmacies here you just go in, tell the doctor what is wrong with you, and then they give you something for it. Very different from the states. She ended up selling me this spray to put on my sunburn. It was next to a giant advertisement in front of the store and cost me 10€. Pretty sure she was paid by a company to promote it, but she said it worked the best. It works okay, but I keep thinking that Aloe Vera would feel even better. They didn’t have that at the pharmacy, so oh well. Next time I will just be certain to bring suncreen.
Note: I’ve fixed the picture link and updated the Cottbus photo album with pictures from the field. Paris pictures are still in the works. Should be up sometime this week.
Sometime this week I messaged a Couchsurfer that lives in Cottbus asking if she wanted to grab coffee or something sometime. She had posted on her profile that she was available for coffee and stuff so I figured why not. Knowing someone in this city would make things a lot easier. Not having anyone to hangout with has put a damper on things. She said that she would call sometime this weekend but I got an email earlier today saying that she had to cancel because she has to meet up with her parents. No worries – she said that we could meet up sometime next week instead. She invited me to an electronic music party on Thursday, but I figured I should meet her first and not just go crash a party where I knew absolutely nobody, hah. Maybe next time.
Anne, an undergrad student that also works for Annika, asked me on Friday if I was doing anything for the weekend. I told her no so she gave me her phone number and email address so I could call Saturday and we could hang out. I was really excited about this because she’s really nice and I figured we would have fun. I called Saturday afternoon and she invited me to make dinner with her and a friend of hers, Regina, that night. I went over around 7pm to her flat down the road and we made chicken fajitas. Well, I sat and watched while they made chicken fajitas. Her roommate joined us as well – he was nice. Most everything they said was in German, but her male roommate (Gah, I forget his name) made it a point to translate every now and then and talk to me a bit. Mostly we talked about how Germany and the US differ in a lot of ways and how he wants to visit the US because he loves basketball so much.
After dinner another one of Anna’s friends, Inga, came over. We hung out for a while and drank wine. There was a festival down in a park south of the city and they were shooting off fireworks at about 10.30pm so we climbed up to the top of the roof with a bottle of wine and enjoyed them from a distance. It was nice. It was one of those things where I was glad to be doing it but wished I were in the presence of other people.
Just about the whole time I was there everyone spoke German. Now, I speak very little German and understand much less, so it made understanding what was going on difficult. All of them were fluent in English (which I still find more impressive than anything else here) but only said something to me every now and then. At one time they asked me if I understood anything they were saying and I explained that I could pick up some stuff if it was slow, but for the most part, no. Regina proposed that perhaps they could just switch to English, but it sounded reluctant so I said it was fine. I ended up leaving early, about midnight, because I was kind of tired of just sitting around not understanding anything. I admit it was nice to hang out with people (this being the first time in 3 weeks since I’ve done so), but it was slightly disappointing at the same time. Baby steps, I guess.
On a brighter note, I just talked to Paul, my mom’s roommate’s old foreign exchange student, who will be hosting me in Hannover this weekend. I’m so excited to go! At first I thought it might be strange asking him to let me stay with him, but now I’ve found that he’s just as excited as me. I was originally going to take a train over on Friday and leave Sunday, but I think he convinced me to head over Thursday night instead (hopefully Annika won’t mind) because he said I shouldn’t be stuck any longer in Cottbus doing nothing. So true. He told me how he has friends that can show me the city on Friday, and then they can take me out partying on Saturday night and also how he rows and wants to show me the river and take me rowing sometime as well! I couldn’t be more excited! He also mentioned that his friend in Hamburg is very excited to host me at her apartment one weekend. I thought that I might not travel to Hamburg because it’s rather far, but now I figured I really should because it sounds like a lot of fun. I can’t wait!
The way it seems now, next weekend should out-do this weekend by far. Good.
I still haven’t had much luck with good food here. Everything I seem to buy at the store seems to suck. Perhaps it’s because I’m shopping at the equivalent to an Aldi and everything is off brand, but perhaps not. I would be able to cook more dinners if I had a freezer to store meat and stuff, but I just eat out for dinner every night. I’m most disappointed with the bread here. German Brot just isn’t that great. It seems when I buy a loaf at the store I buy it already stale. I thought that was just the white bread, so I bought another type and it turned out to be rubbery and nasty. Annika suggested I buy it at the bakery outside the store. I bought a load of white bread but the crust is so thick and hard and every time I cut a slice the end just gets hard because I have no way to store it. Oh well. I plan on going to the other grocery store tomorrow and trying my luck.
Funny thing: on weekends most of the street lights are out so cars and people just have to cross at their own risk. A way to conserve energy? Perhaps.
I’ve finished the His Dark Materials series (Golden Compass books). Loved them. But now I don’t have anything to read. Not cool. I’ll have to find a place that sells books in English or wait until London to get some new ones. We’ll see.
I think that’s all for now.
Until next time.
Coming home from Paris on Monday gave me a short week this week, so that was nice. I don’t mind work, but hey – who wants to go all five days a week? Psh.
Tuesday afternoon Annika, my boss, took me to one of her research sites to show me how to take soil samples. Four other people came alone with us – two other PhD students, one other undergraduate assistant, and one of the PhD student’s sisters. The site is about 25 minutes away driving. After driving some way on the highway (a small one, not the autobahn) we traveled about 5 more minutes on a dirt road that led to the fenced in area where all of the research sites are. It is a rather large plot and hold maybe 5 different sites. The plot is on a piece of land that has already been mined for brown coal. All of the studies done there are to look at what effects mining has on the soil and the development of a new ecosystem after the mining takes place. After the brown coal is mined, the mining company fills in the mine with a mixed up form of all the dirt that the dug out to create the mine. All of the soil in the area is man made so that is what makes it so different.
Annika and I specifically study how the soil will continue to develop and also how new plants will grow in the weird soil. While we were there we took some soil samples from a soil pit that was dug up earlier. Taking samples involves me hammering a 3 inch tall metal cylinder into the ground and then carefully removing it from the soil and leveling off the top and the bottom of the cylinder while trying to keep the soil within undisturbed. Not too difficult, but when there are large pieces of clay in the soil it’s hard to level them off without ripping a large chunk out – that means I have to start all over.
Another PhD student that uses the site is studying root formation of plants in the man-made soil. To do this she dug a huge hole in the ground and built a shed inside of the hole. The roof lies even with the top of the soil and you can enter by lifting up a flap in the roof. Along the walls of the underground shed there are 180 clear plexiglass pipes (about 2.5 inches in diameter) that go through the walls and into the surrounding soil. She then takes a very tiny camera and slides the camera along the pipes, taking a 180º picture every 5 cm or so. Around the shed she has planted a few different types of plants that are native to the area. She hopes to be able to see the roots growing around the pipes and learn how they form in the soil and how fast they form. So cool! She took me down into the underground shed to check it out. Very interesting.
The weather here in Cottbus is perfect for working in the field. The highs earlier this week were in the low 70’s and the site always has a nice breeze going on.
We went back to the site on Thursday to finish soil sampling. We only stayed for 3 hours the first day, but this time we were going for the whole day (8 hours). Not thinking, I didn’t wear or bring any sunscreen with me that day. Half of me thought it wasn’t that hot outside and I had a nice tan going so I didn’t really need it, while the other half of me decided to bring it in the end but forgot about it. Halfway through the day I could tell that I had made a bad decision. By the end of the day I was fried crispy. I rolled up my sleeves in hopes of decreasing the size of my amazing farmer’s tan, but that just hurt worse in the end. Where I had already got sun I became very dark and sunburned, but where I was originally white on my upper arms, I am now scarlet. Crap. I have a nice 2nd degree burn going on (blisters and all) which makes sleeping in any position but on my back very difficult. It’s getting better, but too slow for my taste. Next time I’ll wear sunscreen…
I went to the Apotheke (pharmacy) to ask if they had anything for sunburns. The pharmacies here you just go in, tell the doctor what is wrong with you, and then they give you something for it. Very different from the states. She ended up selling me this spray to put on my sunburn. It was next to a giant advertisement in front of the store and cost me 10€. Pretty sure she was paid by a company to promote it, but she said it worked the best. It works okay, but I keep thinking that Aloe Vera would feel even better. They didn’t have that at the pharmacy, so oh well. Next time I will just be certain to bring suncreen.
Note: I’ve fixed the picture link and updated the Cottbus photo album with pictures from the field. Paris pictures are still in the works. Should be up sometime this week.
Sometime this week I messaged a Couchsurfer that lives in Cottbus asking if she wanted to grab coffee or something sometime. She had posted on her profile that she was available for coffee and stuff so I figured why not. Knowing someone in this city would make things a lot easier. Not having anyone to hangout with has put a damper on things. She said that she would call sometime this weekend but I got an email earlier today saying that she had to cancel because she has to meet up with her parents. No worries – she said that we could meet up sometime next week instead. She invited me to an electronic music party on Thursday, but I figured I should meet her first and not just go crash a party where I knew absolutely nobody, hah. Maybe next time.
Anne, an undergrad student that also works for Annika, asked me on Friday if I was doing anything for the weekend. I told her no so she gave me her phone number and email address so I could call Saturday and we could hang out. I was really excited about this because she’s really nice and I figured we would have fun. I called Saturday afternoon and she invited me to make dinner with her and a friend of hers, Regina, that night. I went over around 7pm to her flat down the road and we made chicken fajitas. Well, I sat and watched while they made chicken fajitas. Her roommate joined us as well – he was nice. Most everything they said was in German, but her male roommate (Gah, I forget his name) made it a point to translate every now and then and talk to me a bit. Mostly we talked about how Germany and the US differ in a lot of ways and how he wants to visit the US because he loves basketball so much.
After dinner another one of Anna’s friends, Inga, came over. We hung out for a while and drank wine. There was a festival down in a park south of the city and they were shooting off fireworks at about 10.30pm so we climbed up to the top of the roof with a bottle of wine and enjoyed them from a distance. It was nice. It was one of those things where I was glad to be doing it but wished I were in the presence of other people.
Just about the whole time I was there everyone spoke German. Now, I speak very little German and understand much less, so it made understanding what was going on difficult. All of them were fluent in English (which I still find more impressive than anything else here) but only said something to me every now and then. At one time they asked me if I understood anything they were saying and I explained that I could pick up some stuff if it was slow, but for the most part, no. Regina proposed that perhaps they could just switch to English, but it sounded reluctant so I said it was fine. I ended up leaving early, about midnight, because I was kind of tired of just sitting around not understanding anything. I admit it was nice to hang out with people (this being the first time in 3 weeks since I’ve done so), but it was slightly disappointing at the same time. Baby steps, I guess.
On a brighter note, I just talked to Paul, my mom’s roommate’s old foreign exchange student, who will be hosting me in Hannover this weekend. I’m so excited to go! At first I thought it might be strange asking him to let me stay with him, but now I’ve found that he’s just as excited as me. I was originally going to take a train over on Friday and leave Sunday, but I think he convinced me to head over Thursday night instead (hopefully Annika won’t mind) because he said I shouldn’t be stuck any longer in Cottbus doing nothing. So true. He told me how he has friends that can show me the city on Friday, and then they can take me out partying on Saturday night and also how he rows and wants to show me the river and take me rowing sometime as well! I couldn’t be more excited! He also mentioned that his friend in Hamburg is very excited to host me at her apartment one weekend. I thought that I might not travel to Hamburg because it’s rather far, but now I figured I really should because it sounds like a lot of fun. I can’t wait!
The way it seems now, next weekend should out-do this weekend by far. Good.
I still haven’t had much luck with good food here. Everything I seem to buy at the store seems to suck. Perhaps it’s because I’m shopping at the equivalent to an Aldi and everything is off brand, but perhaps not. I would be able to cook more dinners if I had a freezer to store meat and stuff, but I just eat out for dinner every night. I’m most disappointed with the bread here. German Brot just isn’t that great. It seems when I buy a loaf at the store I buy it already stale. I thought that was just the white bread, so I bought another type and it turned out to be rubbery and nasty. Annika suggested I buy it at the bakery outside the store. I bought a load of white bread but the crust is so thick and hard and every time I cut a slice the end just gets hard because I have no way to store it. Oh well. I plan on going to the other grocery store tomorrow and trying my luck.
Funny thing: on weekends most of the street lights are out so cars and people just have to cross at their own risk. A way to conserve energy? Perhaps.
I’ve finished the His Dark Materials series (Golden Compass books). Loved them. But now I don’t have anything to read. Not cool. I’ll have to find a place that sells books in English or wait until London to get some new ones. We’ll see.
I think that’s all for now.
Until next time.
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