You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'factoid' tag.
As I walked to work today (leisurely, since I’m actually listening to my alarm again), I passed the cutest little girl. In the field that lines my path and is behind the Kinderhaus, they were cutting the grass. But with thing I had never seen before, where the blade is like a weed-wacker, but spins vertically like a plane propeller. And this little girl, all decked out in pink (shoes, socks, shirt, hair ties), a pink, bright blue & green skirt, covered in some kind of cartoon character was just amazed.
She would tip-toe over the line to pass and watch the man cut the grass, and when he turned around, she would hop back. The entire time, her eyes were just huge, in that fascinated yet bewildered way. And as she walked, she came up on where the guy was cutting, and surprise! got sprayed with some grass. At which point she clearly decided that although neat, she was going to have no more of this, and continued walking with her lollipop.
Other than that, typical day, but I got another new roommate. Phillip, professor of Economics History from France, and he seems really nice.
Random German Fact of the Day:
Men’s wallets have these cute little internal coin purses. The rest of the wallet looks completely normal, but since €1 & €2 along with normal cents are in coins, they’re a necessity. A cute necessity.
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.
I love lunch here, nice and relaxed. And today it mainly revolved around a discussion of stereotypes after Andrea (Italian Ph.D., had been on vacation) aired his grievances about a commercial he saw portraying Italians as ‘Latin lovers’. Christian mentioned that he thought one of the stereotypes about Germans was that great hair travesty, the mullet – or at the very least the rat tail. Sarah mentioned the hairy (no shaving legs and armpits) stereotype about Europeans. I agreed with that, but specified that I thought that Americans at least, really focus that one on the French and Spanish. All of them were quick to clarify that “no, no, no” this was something that the older generation did/does.*
It was cool getting to know Sandra better today, since she is working on everything except pgl3, and all of that is the focus of my proposal here. So we are going to be working on a lot of the same stuff, and we coordinated what lines we were each going to plant and perform assays on.
OMG, the bread I bought today was amazing. I stopped by the bakery that is just off the path from my walk to and from the lab, and randomly chose one of the dark loafs. I also went to the butcher/cheese store in the same plaza, but I haven’t had the chance to try what I bought yet. Back to the bread, OMG. It was crisp on the outside, and soo moist on the inside. Covered in different seeds, from pumpkin to sesame. Just sooo good. As I walked home, I was hungry, and ripped a chunk off as I walked, but I just wanted more. OMG. I can’t really tell you what about it made it so special, but the dough was no simple wheat, or multigrain. It was airy and dense, and tasty. Details next time, maybe.
Things I love about Germany:
People walk everywhere. With groceries, with groceries and children. They just do – and it’s fabulous. The unfortunate thing about this is that when I get home, my feet are going to look like shit. Pedicure to the max time.
Random German Fact of the Day:
German mayonnaise comes in tubes akin to those that toothpaste comes in. And you can buy a dozen beers, or you can just buy them by the bottle.
*Note – Tomorrow I need to ask about the stereotypes they have about Americans.
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.
I was aware of the fact that there is an public consumption/public drunkness laws in Arizona, and in the States at large. But it never phased me, I never noticed it. Until I was walking back from my walk around town and went through the park. People were just chilling, drinking beers. Walking around drinking beer. Crossing the street drinking beer. And I just about died. Honest to God first thought was, ‘Where did all the alkies come from’, and then I realized that these were just normal people, enjoying a beer on a warm day. And then I wanted to change our laws, because it was sooo neat.
