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But with real Black Forest… and perhaps more importantly, Black Forest Cake (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte). The cake was really great, and I cannot wait to visit the Black Forest again just to another version of it. Unlike the US version, the layers of cake and the cherries are soaked in cherry liquor, and the frosting itself contains it. Tasty! Authentic! Needed more cherries!
The Black Forest was beautiful, but at least in this part, beautiful like any forest. Not like I had imagined. I had always thought of the Black Forest as this very dense woods, like in the movies – or like in the Disney’s ‘The Sword & the Stone’. And yes, I realize that this takes place in England, and that it is indeed a cartoon. And that I really want to see it now. But I digress. The trees weren’t quite as tall and it was not as dark I thought it would be, and it almost felt like I could be in California. It was the same situation as the waterfalls – while they were beautiful, and worth the €2, I have to admit I found myself thinking about Yosemite.
But the hike was great, and we were fortunate enough that the weather was perfect, cool – but not at all necessary to break out a jacket. Now that I’m traveling with Mike I realize how much better it is to travel with someone -We joked a lot, covered each other as we took (or attempted to) take pictures of heinous things, and yes, posed/joked in front of confessionals at the Maria en der Tanner when everyone left. It was a great time. It may have also been blasphemy. oops. I also loved our tag-team picture taking of a goth girl at the station in Triberg. Classic, especially with the old lady next to her. And we both missed the opportunity to get a shot of this bicyclist in a full on jumpsuit – that was better.
It is also great to get to know him as more of a co-worker than a boss. It’ll be interesting to see how that works when I get back, and because I’ll be living with another grad student. And that I’ll be able to go out to drink!
Overall, it was nice to take a trip away from Tübingen and get some more of the German outdoors experience, which is also really nice here in the Schönbuch forest. Also great is that I learned about these tickets that DeutscheBahn offers for any Bundesland (state). You can travel almost anywhere in that state, all day for €18 for one person and €28 for up to five people. If I had known about this, I would have skipped the BahnCard – this is usually (although not always) cheaper than my 50% off.
*I added a picture of man capris…. I’m still searching for a better example.
So, today is my 21st, and last night I was able to celebrate it just as though I was back home.
I was working under the hood, plating and sterilizing some needs when anne and Andrea came in to ask me if I had any plans. And while Christian, Andrea & I had discussed celebrating earlier in the week, I kind of thought the idea had faded away. But nope! They were all prepared.
Yesterday evening happened to be Kulturenacht (Night of Culture), the second occurrence of this annual event in Tübingen where museums are open to all hours, there are performances on the street, and vendors. So, we met at 8, cruised Kulturenacht & the city, and even saw Anne’s boyfriend perform from the top of the church with his brass quintet. This was followed up by some delicious Italian style eis (I had the __, it was delicious), during which Andrea showed that he was the eis master.
Then it was time for the Neckarmüller – this neat restaurant-bar that sits right on the Neckar River that runs through the tow. We had some great Schwabiän food (native to this area), and some equally tasty beer. Christian thought it would be fun if we started at the lightest and transitioned down the list of beers. What I did not expect is how big the beers would be – .5L. OMG.
As you can see from my birthday photostream, it was a lot of fun – Anna from the lab adjacent to us and her boyfriend also came. I tried 4 beers (3 .5L and 1 .3) and at midnight, rang in my ‘American style 21st’ with a glass of sparkling white wine. Perfecto – although you all know I would have loved some shots!
Seminar was very similar to seminar back home. Somewhat interesting, which gradually erodes into boring if you don’t care about the article. Except people really aren’t obligated to go. And they don’t say what the paper is before. So good grad students go – and then often get stuck listening to something they don’t give a shit about. At lunch, on the walk back we discussed this, and the other members of the lab really liked the format of ours – mainly that you had access to the paper before, so if you were interested, you can get more out of it, because there is at least the opportunity to read it before.
Random Fact of the Day:
Bleach does not exist in Germany. Sodium Hypochloride does, but it is not commercially available. So, it’s really only used as a chemical by scientists. And therefore it is disposed of properly – not just down the drain.
