Things that make the day better

Data analysis has given me the lab time blues, mostly due to the fact that my PI realized that I was not receiving enough guidance and things did not go as swell as they could have. Yes, I just used the word swell. But this is not about that – it’s about the fun.

1. Going to play basketball from some people from the lab, including two Asian guys from the lab. Then getting owned by the two little Asian guys. It was a lot of fun even with my suckiness and it gave me one of those things I love – perspective.
2. Sitting out the pickup game with some other guys so we wouldn’t lose. And getting to watch this incredibly cute German guy play. Perfect build, nice face. Lovely.
3. Having the one my roommates, the wife of the Romanian professor make pancakes (which were between crepes and US pancakes), and leaving some for me. Then, as I ate them, share a story in broken English about her son, who lived in the US for six years. And how he started of in NY, having to commute between two colleges, one of which was in Brooklyn. And how he left because he was uncomfortable/scared of the “the big ones, the ni**ers, you know black?” gesturing up and down. Insane.
4. Receiving an incredibly sweet message from one of the members of my lab who I saw for the last time today. Part of which was as follows:  As I said it was honestly nice meeting you – you really changed my mind concerning the US. And I can´t imagine our lab without you – little Miss Sunshine ;)
   Hopefully we´ll meet each other someday somewhere !

Brrr & BBQ

Before I came to Germany, I joked that by coming here I would get to have my winter during summer. Well, it ends up that I was right. The last week it has been chilly and rainy (but not the summer rain we were getting before), and today it was different. When I woke up, it was cloudy, but not rainy; 11 degrees (~50 F) with an expected high of 15 (~64); and no real jacket since mine ripped in Amsterdam. So, I did something I really didn’t want to do…

I wore my big ol’ UA hoodie. Mike had made fun of it, and joked how I wore it to the carnival. Christoph & Christian told me that this is what they think of as stereotypical, US college clothing – and it definitely is… you know, especially when that hoodie is red, white and blue. LOL.

But it was great today, because it was chilly out, but not raining – perfect weather for a walk. So I strolled to the lab and worked. All day. It was great. I plated more single seeds. I prepared a ton of slides from my Alternaria assays with different staining, which was difficult, because I am totally not used to preparing full size leaves. So great! And in little ten minute gaps between two hour marathon slide sessions I got to blog!

And then there was a BBQ potluck, where we all brought our own meat, but Jorge paid for the two crates of beer (about 24 bottles each), and one crate of bionade (fruit juice and alcohol in a bottle). Tasty

Oh, and I was dinked on a bike . I know, it sounds bad, huh? But just a few days after I learned in Amsterdam that ‘dinking’ is riding double on the back of a bike where the rear rack is, I caught a ride this way back from the ZMDP with Anna. So instead of walking for 30 minutes, or waiting for the bus to take me back way, she offered me a ride on the back. It was terrifying, and fun, with us laughing and giggling half the way as we talked. And fast!

Dinking!

Random German Fact of the Day:

Clothing with university logos on them is super uncommon here. Not only are hoodies like ours not worn, but if they are found, the emblem is much smaller. AKA, I stuck out big time today – but at least I was warm.

German Ph.D. Traditions

Getting a Ph.D. in science (well, I’m sure in all fields) is no small feat. And while in Germany there seems to be a more defined period of time compared to the U of A, I know that Anne has been here that full time. She followed Birgit from where she was here, to finish her Ph.D – and will do her post-doc here. FYI, she’s 30, which is average here.

So after what I would bet is around 25 years of school, and a good 6-7 of them being spent working whatever hours it took to do research in the lab, reading papers, modifying protocols, etc. All of this is similar to the US. Hardcore.

So, as I have found to be true with many things German, they may work hard, but they also know how to party hard – both in drinking, fun, and celebration. After Anne was done with her defense presentation, and the back & forth questioning, in formal German (even though all the scientific talks they do here are in English) with all of us watching, she told us that she had scored in the highest ranking possible on her defense (YAY!). I could tell she was going to – you know, even though I hardly understood the presentation, and was practically biting my nails during the questioning because I had NO clue how it was going. But she rocked it – and then the fun began.

First, a cheers with Sekt for everyone, and the presenting of tradition #1…

German tradition #1: The hat

In the week leading up to Anne’s defense, the members of the lab (including me) were sneaking off to other labs to make her Doctoral Hat. The hat represents that person, and all the work they’ve done to get to this point. So Anne’s had a petri plate labeled Wild Type & Mutant – but instead of bacteria or yeast, it was cutouts of her head either in a normal hue, or a bizarre color. She plays the flute (and has played it for others when they were awarded their Ph.D.), so there was a flute. She’s a big scifi fan, so there was a Photoshopped image of her head in the cast of one of the Star Treks. Loves birds, so there was a plastic bird perched in the area uniting the paper on the back of the hat where all the images were. But the crowning thing was the hat itself – a paper mache turtle, fully painted. As you can guess, Anne loves turtles.

German Tradition #2: The Games

Although the theme may be different depending on who you are, there typically a round of game-show like games before you are truly done. In this case, another lab at the ZMBP made the theme Star Trek, where, now that Anne was a doctor, she was qualified to become and “Intergalactic Doctor of the Federation”. She was assimilated (silly clothes and glasses put on by Birgit), she challenged an emperor to finding a PCR tube to help her in her clonings (Christian running a shell game), and she had to soothe a monster with music (glass tubes filled to different levels – and tuned – it rocked). The games continued with a little drinking, identifying different things (lab things, including bacteria, LOL) by smell, a trivia match, and then, with Jorge’s PAMP [water]Gun, shooting down some tubes.

German Tradition #3: The Car, aka the one we didn’t do

Around the lab, they decided to skip this tradition in lieu of having a big ol’ party afterwards. The tradition is to make/decorate a toy car, place the Ph.D. student inside – with their hat of course, and push them through public places – like the cafeteria cheering, hollering, etc. I’ve seen on before – it’s awesome, silly, and a confusing if you don’t know what’s going on before.

So after Anne finished her challenges, we enjoyed our pot luck and bier! and wine! and normal stuff. So much fun! I still find it odd to drink like 5 beers with my boss, talk, have her call someone she used to work with a chauvinist asshole (and then say, yeah, well, I think that’s completely reasonable – he sounds like an ass), talk about some work, have her talk about how Anne is her first Ph.D (she was SOOOO proud). Just neat

It was a great party, and a great last night for Mike. Who I helped off the next morning, getting his 3 big ol’ bags down to the bus. It’ll be weird without him – but I’ll probably walk more, LOL.