Getting Into The Home Stretch

Hi! Update time!

So last weekend I was going to go to the North Sea but i think i turned my alarm off in my sleep and therefore woke up at like 10 going BISCUITS! but its not that big of a deal.  The guys that did go only stayed for 3 hours and its a 5 hour train ride one way.  So yeah, not terriably disappointed but life goes on.  So yesterday we had a boat tour planned at like 730pm and when we all met up to go over there it started to rain.  So we all were like eh whatever we will try it.  Needless to say sitting on an open boat in the pouring rain, not one of the better decisions I've made hahaha.  It was fun though, a "shared experience" some would call it im sure haha.  Anyways this weekend I hope to go over the the Schnee Dome in Bisping and snowboard! Yes i said snowboard and its august haha  The Schnee Dome is the only indoor snow place in Germany and its pretty close and fairly cheap.  Only 29E for a day pass and then 16.50E for rental of board, boots, pants, and a jacket. Not a bad deal in my mind.  I don't know if anyone will go with me but I'm fine with that, most people here don't know how to board or ski so it would be me teaching them the whole time haha.  Anyways, not a whole lot happening, just wrapping things up, Next week I will be HOME! Woot Woot! haha here are some random pics from this week.

 Oh, we also had an international dinner this week too! So much food!

Most the stuff i have made here! haha

 Bacteria climbing!

 Bacteria growing without oxygen! and still climbing!

 Just some random dishes

The electrophoresis machine! We have become good friends. :D

Random Things:
1. Was walking to the Mensa today and realized I was walking behind a girl that wasn't wearing pants! just a button up shirt.  crazy!
2.  I'm running out of random things cause nothing seems random anymore! ahhhh! haha

Picture of the day!

So unassuming, but yet so dangerous.  These are the baths you put a gel in after you have run it on the above machine.  The one on the right causes cancer, not maybe, not kinda, but does.  Literally the only thing that im kinda worried about while working...the other? the damn bunsen burner!

Better Late Than Never, Right?

Guten Abend!  Es hat ein lange Zeit seit ich schrieben hier, Ja?  So, hier wir gehen! (nicht auf Deutsch ;) )
Good Evening! Is has been a long time since i have written here, yes? So, here we go! (not in German)

Well I last left off with my weekend in Prague and the start of my research.  Man that feels like yesterday but that was almost two weeks ago!  The halfway point has come and gone and we are approaching the two weeks mark.  Crazy stuff man.  Anyways, last weekend I didn't go anywhere.  I was actually getting over a head cold I have had since last wednesday and it just started to clear up yesterday.  Needless to say the combination of traveling and lack of sleep probably caused it but I'm better now so no worries!  Nothing really that interesting happening here, wake up at 830ish and get to the lab around 10am work till 15-17, then depending on when I get out from the lab I'll go back to Schunter for an hour or two then its off to class for two hours starting at 18.  after that I make dinner, yes i know i have dinner at 20 but dinner here is more like lunch.  After making dinner I either hang out in the kitchen talking with friends or talking to friends back home.  Thats really all my life has been since research started haha.  Kinda boring.  Oh and here are a few pictures of research:

My Laboratory! Well I share it with like 3 other students.  My mentor, Sebastian, is a phD student and so is Reinhilde and Matios is a masters student if i remember right.  As you can see its a rather small space and lacking in many things.  Well to you it may look like a normal lab but to me its rather different.  Like the balance room and chemical room are wayyyy down the hall along with all of the lab equipment (like flasks, graduated cylinders, etc).  Also we typically make the media (things cells live in/on) in here or do some transfer of bacteria.  Sidenote: Working sterile means working about 2 inches from a Bunsen Burner (somewhere around like 900 degrees C!!!), suprisingly enough I have yet to burn myself...keyword being yet haha.  But yeah, our lab is fun and we typically always have music playing : D. 

PCR! aka Polymerase Chain Reaction, is an experiment we do to get DNA separated from the cells and what not.  What you see is actually the product (the little vials in the pink/red/whatever color that is dish on ice) and we are going to test it using electrophoresis.  Basically create a gel (the clear looking thing with the white "bar" going across with the black ends) and put a marker and the DNA you got in it and run electrical current through it.  This separates the different DNA strands based on how big they are.  The farther they are from the start the shorter they are.  This is just one of the things ive been doing the past 2ish weeks.

So plans for weekend and next week:
Weekend, we are planning to head up to the Nordsee (North Sea) and spend Saturday just going around, no real plan haha.  I think on Monday we are going to try and have an international potluck, and I will try my hand at making pasties haha.

Next week Sebastian says that I will be getting my own personal project to work on for the week so I will learn more about that on Friday of this weekend and Monday of next.

Well thats all i have for now hopefully I will give an update on Sunday or Monday! Bis Dann!

Random Things:
1. So you know when you get weeds that grow through cracks in the sidewalk? normally you would get the weed killer or the spade and dig them out.  Not here, while they do have the spade crew I saw yesterday a dude with a FLAMETHROWER on the median of the road just torching weeds. Epic!
2.  So many languages! This past week during class we had a random guy come in asking where something was or a person was on campus...in french.  Ok let me tell you, in my class we have obviously German covered, we also have Japanese, Portuguese, Arabic, Spanish, Polish and English.  Now this dude doesn't know German, knows Spanish and French only.  So the guys from Brazil try what spanish they know but it doesn't help. Our teacher know a little french but that didn't help either.  Now your asking where is the dude that knows spanish? he was late and missed the guy by like 5 mins.  But thats beside the point, we had almost every language covered in one room of 11 people!!!
3.  A bus actually waited for me? yeah, exactly. Ok to set the scene we have to cross the street to get the the bus stop which is right to the right of the light.  So as I'm waiting to cross the road the bus comes and I can't cross becuase the traffic is to heavy.  Then as the bus driver pulls away from the bus stop he looks at me and does the motion of "you want on?" and im like "yeah!" so he crosses the light then PULLS OFF THE ROAD FOR ME.  I told this to Sebastian and he was like wait, what? and I was like yea! haha crazyness!

Pictures of the Days:

 Ok out of this mess, the only things of importance are the 4 flasks in the white box and the four tin foil top covered flasks in the middle.  We did this cause Sebastian wanted to create a slanted media in the media.  Needless to say good thing I was there with my engineering skills or he would have broken something haha.

Ok as proof of horrible hairstyles here, here is a picture.  This isn't bad, I've seen dreaded mullets, a single dread on the back of the neck and much more random things, i just couldn't get pictures then

For a good German Song listen to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2DHiyFdaSk

Between here and there, I have been everywhere!

Hoooookay, Zo, dis is de earthd.....if you don't get that look up "Ende of Ze World" on youtube.

Anyways! Crazy past 4 days! So lets break it down into 2 parts here.  Part A: Prague-ness-ness, Part B: Research-ness-ness.

Part A: Prague!

Is fricken HUGGEEEEEE.

This is just one direction! It is like this for miles and miles all around me (in this picture)

We rented a car and drove over to Prague on Friday, it is about a 4.5 hour trip in car.  On our way the GPS took on a very scenic route through the country side haha.  The girls were a little freaked out, always saying we are lost and will never get back to the main road even when we are following the GPS....geez haha.  Anyways, we make it to Prague and check into our hostel/hotel.  The digs are pretty nice but not as good as in Berlin.

Really funny part was CW (guy from Purdue) is like 6'2 and these beds were a little short, like his ankles were off the bed short.  Really funny, Jazmin got a picture of it haha.  Anyways, beds like cardboard and cheap white pine all around haha typical cheap hostel.  We also had our own bathroom.  So Friday we walk into town.  Now mind you, when i said huge, i ment huge. It took us 40 mins to walk from our hostel to where the main tourist destinations are.  Now you say where didn't you get one closer? my answer, im a cheap college student, id rather walk than pay the 40E a night haha.  So we walk around town getting our bearings and seeing the best routes for the next day are and such.  Funny story, we were walking down a street right as we got into Old Town and we see this group of guys messing around and shadow boxing and being general tourists.  As we walk up behind them they hear us talking in English and they start talking to us about this great pub they were just at (mind you its about 2 or 3 in the afternoon on a friday) and how they had the best food ever just down the road.  It was pretty amusing, though i couldn't tell if their accent was British or Aussie.  Anyways, we walk around and take in a few sites nothing big, we were all tired from the car ride and waking up really early so we head back to the hostel and Peter (our driver) passes out at like 8pm haha we eventually all follow at 10ish.

Saturday we wake up bright and early to get a good start to the day, and i mean early like 615 we wake up.  We didn't leave till like 9 30 cause of the girls getting ready but we were up! haha Free breakfast in the hostel and we were off! We decided to get a 24 hour tram ticket so we wouldn't have to walk all the way into town and to go different places.  So we get to town and the night before while in town we got info on free tours and different things like that so we get a free tour of the Old Town, New Town, and Jewish Quarter.

 Old Town Hall

 Picture from top of Old Town Hall

 One of the first automatic clocks in Europe.  Top one is your "normal" clock, the bottom is a name clock.  In Cezch you have a birthday and a name day so each day celebrates a different name.  So around the edge of the bottom clock are 365 different names.  Don't ask me how they do leap years haha.

 Roman clock and a Jewish clock!

 The Metronome, built after the fall of communism it signifies the backwards motion of communism and the forward motion of democracy.  

 Now thats a bank.

New Town Square (had some Cezch name i can't remember).  Lot of stuff went down here.  The end is actually a museum not a capital building haha

So then after the tour we decided to head up and see the castle and the things around there.  You can hit up my facebook for those photos if you want to see them.  After that we headed back to the hostel for a cheap dinner and a good nights sleep.  Sunday was much of the same, hitting the last few places we wanted to see, though what i wanted to see were either to expensive to go in or close : ( but oh well.  Oh! side note: everything in Prague is cheap but the food.  Like we saw 90% cashmere 10% silk scarf thingys for 150 to 200 Crowns, which is like less than 12 bucks! it was crazy but the food was like 15-20 bucks a meal if you were in the tourist areas.  But that was my Prague trip in a nutshell!

Part B: Research!

This is a long post! holy cow! So today was my first day of research and needless to say it will be interesting. My mentor is a phD student named Sebastian, he is a pretty cool guy and speaks pretty good English.  We are going to be working on a bacteria that works aerobically and anaerobically.  For those without science backgrounds, with and without oxygen in their environment.  The main reason this bacteria is important is that it degenerates NO4 down into N.  This is like 6 steps and no other natural thing we know of does this.  So we are working on what they thinking is the gene for the NO4 to NO3 degeneration (the only one scientists don't know for sure) so we will be creating mutant strains of them without this gene and see what happens.  Today we got the mediums ready for the most part and sterilized them in the autoclave.  Tomorrow I will be completeing the medium (by medium i mean where the bacteria will grow), growing the bacteria and replicating DNA sequences.  Yay! haha Basically I will be in the lab 9-5 with an hourish break for lunch then german class 6-8 at night.  Yay no time for dinner!...not.  That is the kinda sucky thing but at least I'm use to the big meal at lunch and small thing for dinner. haha Anyways tomorrow is a busy day! Sorry for the long post! Questions, comments, and concerns can be asked at masterckd@comcast.net! Bis Dann!

Random Things:
1. Today witnessed someone try to steal food from the supermakt.  They failed when the 6'3, 230 lb cashier came out and started to chase them.
2. Everyone smokes here! My mentor took like 3 smoke breaks haha He asked me if i drank coffee and i said no and he asked me if i smoked and i said no.  He was amazed haha
3. VW Gulfs are nice cars.
4. Thinking about doing an International Masters.

Picture of the Day! (well two)

 This one is for Uncle Fred and Uncle Ed.  If you can't make it out they are salt and pepper shakers.

My German Stein!  I got this in Berlin last week but didn't take pictures of it till just now.  It is one of only 5000 made.

Berlin!

Hope this post finds you all healthy and in good spirits! Not a whole lot going down right now in the SENSE program.  We are in our last week of 6 hour a day German classes and next week we get to start the real reasons why we came here! WOOO, 8 hours a day in a research lab! haha I don't know, it will be interesting to say the least.  We don't even know where our labs are or who we are under so I get the feeling Sunday we will get an email or a facebook post saying that all the bio kids gather on Monday morning so we can show you were to go haha.  Hopefully it will be fun : D .

Anyways, the biggest thing this weekend was that almost all of us went to Berlin for the weekend.  Note to self: Never travel in that large of a group ever again.  So many people! but anyways we head out from the Braunschweig Hauptbahnhoff at around 7 am and roll into Berlin around 11.  Now for the next hour we walk around trying to find our hostel, well I should say it that way, we knew where it was we just missed the street so it took us longer to get there haha.  So we get there and drop off our stuff and head out on the town.  Now if you have ever tried walking with 30 people you know not everyone walks at the same speed.  Well the Robidou family breeds true in me cause we eventually split off into groups and i was with the speed walkers haha.  It was like point and shoot, but more like keep walking point and shoot hha.

This is the Hauptbahnhoff in Berlin! It is almost all glass, its crazy!

Made it to the Hostel! haha It was really hot this weekend like upper 80s without a cloud in the sky.  Needless to say even the Texas people were complain haha

 The room in the hostel! There were another two sets of bunks behind me, plus our own shower and toilet.

 Ok, All around Berlin are these bears and they are painted differently, so I had to get a picture rubbing the belly of at least one haha.

 Fishing in the sewers of Berlin?

 On the left, a really old museum, and on the right is an really old cathedral that there was a wedding in!  One of the SENSE people went in and it was actually a Spanish wedding presided over by a German priest with translation being done during the ceremony haha

 So much construction!

 The US and Columbia playing Frisbee in front of the Brandenburg Gate? oh the USSR joined later too hahaha.

 The Holocost Memorial in Berlin.  It is a really cool place.

 The first thing you see when you walk into the museum under the memorial pictured above.

 Original Berlin Wall.

 These stones represent where the Wall stood, they run exactly where the Wall stood throughout Berlin.

 At the East Side Galley artists were given parts of the wall to paint.

One of the original paints from when the wall was actually being torn down.

So that was my trip to Berlin in a nutshell! Also a side note is that I am really glad i took the earlier train back to Braunschweig casue the later train, people got kicked off the train for some reason like 25 miles before Braunschweig and had to get cabs back and didn't get back till 2am.  Did I mention they had class at 830? haha.  Good times this past weekend and more to come!  A group of us are driving to Prague, Czech Republic for a 3 day weekend there! ROAD TRIP! haha Needless to say it will be interesting and yes we will have GPS in the car haha.  That's all for now folks! Bis Dann!

Random Things:
1. Cashiers at the supermarkets get chairs! I'm jealous!
2. So bikes are big, so is smoking, though I will never get over people smoking while riding a bike....or drinking a beer why riding a bike haha.
3. I actually have a lot of random things i want to say but i can never remember them!!!!

Picture of the Day!

A police charter bus? Confused? very much so....

Ready, Set, Be a Tourist!

Oh....why hello there...do we know each other?....you say that I wrote in you last week and never came back?....Well lets make up for some lost time then! haha Sorry for not writing for a while!

Honestly there isn't much to write about this week.  No touristy trips or anything, I didn't even head out to the pub or bar this week haha.  Been pretty dry in more ways than on haha.  Well Monday, as many of you know I'm sure, was the fourth of July.  We wanted to shot some fireworks off in the city but A) didn't know where to get fireworks and B) probably would get arrested so we did the next best thing! Party! haha A bunch of us gathered in a kitchen for a little get together.  Notice I said "us", I mean us as in SENSE as a whole, we had some Saudis, Brazilians, Egyptians, Brits (kinda ironic eh?) and more all partying on the birthday of America haha.  It was fun

By the way, the Brits got the flag for us haha.

But thats really it for excitment here.  Now as I say that the fire alarm is going off because someone on second floor burned somthing in the microwave.  Ohhhh people. haha But yeah, as for plans like 30 or so of us are heading to Berlin to be tourists for the weekend and then the week after that we are trying to go to Prague so those are my next two weekends.  Hope everything is well at home! Bis Dann!

Random Things:

1. Curry isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be

2. Sundays here are worse than in a religious town, EVERYTHING is shut down but for gas stations.

3. All my ads on facebook are in German.

Picture of The Day!

Aiman trying to calm the fire alarm down. hahahahahaha

Getting in Rhythm.

Hm, well its been a few days since my last post so I figure I should give an update haha.  Wednesday, nothing big, I don't quite remember cause it was so long ago haha.  Just a chill night hanging out with some friends from Saudi and Egypt, watching crazy youtube videos and showing them broomball haha.  Thursday was the Sommerfest but i forgot to sign up on the sheet that got us free tickets so I went down withe the group but when they didn't have any extras me and CW (friend from Purdue University) went back and looked at different places to go and how to get there haha.  We are doing Berlin next weekend and hopefully Prag the next haha.  Thursday night we headed over the Wild Geese, an irish pub we all like, and had a few drinks with friends and found some Michigan Tech people! It was crazy! I was wearing my Citidal shirt and on the back it says stuff about winter carnival and broomball and i get this tap on my shoulder and its a '99 grad and his friend a '00 grad and they were just as amazed that I was they saw a Michigan Tech student in Germany! haha They work for volkwagen and was going to give me a card as a contact but they didn't have any on them haha That would be sweet to work for VW in Germany! haha.

Anyways today Omar, Shoko, and CW went into the city to the market that is held every saturday and either tuesday or wednesday, we can't rememeber haha and i got some cherries and dried fruit! haha It's really weird cause they sell fresh meat at it and I don't think I've ever really seen that before.  Then we went around being tourists and taking pictures of the city and stuff. haha It's really funny cause half the time I have my camera on my I don't want to take a picture of something cause i don't want to be your typical "american tourist" so a few of us wait and do it all on one day together haha.  So then we got back and I took a nap, well more like a nights sleep cause it was for 6 hours haha.  Now just hangin out might go see some friends but all in all a good Saturday : D.  Hope everyone that reads this is well and good! Bis Dann!

Random Things:
1. Mercedes does make UPS trucks.
2. My new nickname from Omar is Broomball.
3. You can find Michigan Tech people EVERWHERE!

Picture of the Day!

Kebap or Donner! A Turkish sandwich thing that is sooooo good!.  Beef strips with lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, and some good sauce all on this giant toasted bread wedge thing. SOOOO GOOOOD!

Ein Tage im Wolfsburg!

Hallo! Little early for the posting but I am tired from the day and might go to bed early or just hangout with some friends.  No crazy nights tonight, everyone is too tired haha.  So today started out the same as every other, alarm going off and me going "already?!"  But today was worth it because class was shorter.  So I get up and get ready, head off to the bus, grab a bun/donut and get to class.  Nothing really new in class, we went over past perfect and past conversational verbs and thats all we had time for because it was time to head to Wolfsburg for the Volkswagen tour!  So we all hop on a bus, now keep in mind ALL of us went, like 34 of us, so we take up a bus purdy good, kinda like this:

and as I post this i realize I got Jordan (in the foreground) at a really good time eh? haha and yes these are two part buses that swivel when they turn haha.  The majority of people on the bus are SENSE folks, only like the man in the red and like half the front car are natives haha.  Anyways, we take the bus to the Hauptbahnhof (train station) and get on my first ever train ride!

Excitment! ahaha and no Mom im not slouching i didn't want the sleep pad in my face for the picture haha.  So we get to Wolfsburg and head over to the VW factory.  Now the factory is behind the Haupbahnhof in Wolfsburg so we have to go into a tunnel under the tracks to get to where we need to go haha.  This is what we go down into.

Purdy neat, ya? haha so you head over the the factory and you can't take anything that has a camera past the sercuity post right outside the tunnel so the last shot for the tour was this, the front of the VW factory.

If i remember right thats the new VW Gulf or Golf sitting in front there.  Anyways, the tour itself was alright, I'm not a big car guy but I can appreciate a good machine and 50-60ton press if need be haha.  Honestly the only thing I wanted to take a picture of was how we got around on the tour.  We didn't walk at all we were pulled on a trolly ish thing by a VW car with the top sawed off through the plant! haha it was epic! Anyways afterwords we headed over the Autostadt (car city).  It is so nice! There are a lot more pictures on facebook but here are a few of my favorites.

Pretty cool ya? Check out facebook for some more! They are under "SENSE 2001 Braunschweig, Germany".  Thats about it for today, a whole lot of walking and seeing and I finally got my camera! haha I think this weekend or the next we will head up to Berlin for the day but we shall see, it was just suggested about an hour ago so yeah.  Hope to hear from you! Bis Dann!

Random Things:
1. Holly, one of our interns, is scared of birds but not ducks
2. Getting spun on the keyhole thing (like the girl is above) is really disorienting.
3. Trains are trains, not very exciting.
4. Remember to put jelly into the fridge.

Picture of the Day!
-pick any of the above! haha