Quantiful Quality

After 11 cytotoxicity assays, hundreds of rubber gloves, dozens of reviewed articles, and spreadsheets upon spreadsheets of juicy data, you could argue it's been an eventful first month at Fraunhofer IBMT St Ingbert. Throw on top of that bags of fresh-baked goods, rounds of fine pilsner, and a plethora of wursts, and you could call that last weekend.

But it's not the quantity that matters in times like these; it's about the qualiteee. That's why I enjoyed the quality time spent with my coworkers in the past few days.

My colleagues at the Department of Biohybrid Systems are just like any other group of fun-loving, grill-loving, and nanoparticle-loving people. That is, except Christian and Impi, who are monstrous. As I went tranieren with them last Wednesday, their go-to phrase was "noch 20 dazu?" after I finished lifting. Apparently there is no such thing as spotting in Germany; instead, it's the person's duty to push down on the bar for added weight...as if kilograms weren't heavy enough.

We waved off the work-week with a more leisurely activity and patronized a Biergarten overlooking the Saar. I hazily recall an interesting discussion about how many Germans mistake Saarland, Germany's smallest state, for a part of France. The suggestion was then posed that Michigan is practically Canada, which I vehemently denied with considerable outrage. Reppin' the Wolverine State with pride, baby.

Saarland custom was observed Sunday with some lecker grilling. The practice is called schwenken in this corner of the country, and what a magical word it is...it is possible to say "Der Schwenker schwenkt Schwenker aufem Schwenker," i.e. "The chef cooks steaks on the grill". This brings my total of German grill-related-sayings up to two. I gave my associates a taste of American culture as well and brought materials for s'mores...of course you can't find Hershey's or graham crackers here, so it was more like a German adaptation...Schmehrs? It was exciting to share that little cultural gem of ours, and also Germans roasting 'shmallows is always good for a laugh.

As if that wasn't enough, I just returned from our competitive weekly pick-up soccer outings. Jan played admirably - the young grasshopper is learning well.

ARD on the IBMT

ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland), the public television broadcaster in Germany, visited the Fraunhofer IBMT (Institut von Biomedizinische Technik) where I work! They reported on future medical technologies as a part of "Science Summer in Saarland"

If you can understand German, you may find these videos interesting. If you cannot understand German, you may find these videos funny/confusing.





Although these videos aren't from the "biohybrid systems" department I work in, they do talk about antibody-laced gold nanoparticles being used in imaging applications...I am going to start testing similar particles next week for cytotoxic FX. Coo'.

The New Guy

The past week offered some fresh perspectives on work, Saarland, dancing, and the Black Forest.

Let's start with work, where a reality check manifested itself in the form of a new intern named Jan (pronounced with a soft J, rhymes with...uhh...electron). Since he's only staying for four weeks, rather than starting up with his own assignment, his job is to follow me around. That's right, I have an intern.

I took the sniffling and clueless lad under my wing and taught him everything I know about passaging cells and running cytotoxicity tests. It was painfully obvious that didn't encompass a large volume of information. Jan caught on quickly, though he still talks funny and spells things wrong. Oh yeah, did I mention he's English?

Jan reminded me of my humble beginnings as a Praktikant at the Institute as well as showed me how far I've come and how far I've yet to go. I plan to delegate him my "busy work" tasks so I can learn new things, design my own tests, and implement special elements in a sensor program I'm (supposed to be) working on. This is pretty much what my boss is doing with me...moving up the food chain, baby!
On Wednesday, the day of my first Salsa lesson, the elevated sketch-factor of the situation aroused apprehension along with my excitement. It may it may have been because the instructor was over-eager to have me join and even organized a ride to some Kuhdorf (cow-village) outside town, or that there was no website or building or anything, but it was only when we pulled over in the middle of nowhere and started driving up a steep, narrow road that I started having premonitions of my death.

And all of a sudden I couldn't breathe. Since I had arrived in Saarland, some obstacle had always stood in between me and the horizon, but the pinnacle of the Erlenbacher Hof at dusk provided a panorama which was both typical German and extremely beautiful (two qualities that, in my opinion, go hand-in-hand!).

The lesson featured a dash of Merengue with a kick of Bachata, and was topped off with a whole lot of Salsa. If that sounds tasty, it may be because at least two of those dances are edible. They were very unlike my previous ballroom dance experiences at UM in both technicality and attitude, but I feel like I can benefit from the looseness of these latin lessons. They are more about having fun than trying to impress adjudicators (but man, those heel-leads everyone was pulling were SO whack).

ACHTUNG: SPANDEX (wawaweewa)

For the weekend, I trained to the Black Forest and visited Onkel Hans-Peter and Tante Monika. The Schwarzwald is really pretty and packed with scenic routes. In addition to a Rad-Tour and hitting up my favorite local waterpark, I ate/drank many local delicacies from the region famous for its cakes. My relatives showed me pictures from their travels in New Zealand and Fiji, but I can think of nothing more spectacular than the train ride back to Saarland through the heart of the Black Forest, between mountains and through tunnels in a bright red train...seriously, that s*** could've been in Polar Express or something.

Things I Miss and Things That Make Me Forget I Miss Things

I've assembled a list of some things I miss and things that make....ok you know the rest.

I decided that no people should appear in these lists, because I don't have enough time to write about all of that. The hardest thing about leaving the States was knowing I would miss out on time with you guys...we will have to do lots of catching up this August!

And without further ado...

Things I Miss
1) TB & J

I know this contradicts what I just wrote, but...I miss you man! One of the reasons why I miss Tyler is that we were so close. At first it was proximity-wise, as we were in an 11'x12' dorm room. Inevitably, we became what I affectionately call "brotha's 2 da ******' grave".

In the WG, I still live in a 132 square foot room, but alone! This has made getting to know my WG-mates a slow process. I miss the bear hugs and intimate bedtime conversations...aren't those supposed to come standard in any room-sharing relationship?

2) Cars
Time to change gears...NOT! Because I don't have a car. I have no bike, no scooter, not even those shoes with little wheels on the bottom! I have to walk everywhere and step by step I am going crazy!

But seriously, a bike would be nice...maybe I'll hit up eBay.

3) Being Busy
Sure, work keeps me busy from 9-17. But after that, my schedule is as clear as the control column of a 96 well-plate running an LDH assay. Jens and Tobias usually aren't back from the Uni yet, so I usually resort to one of my recent hobbies: walking around and getting lost. Slowly I am getting familiar with the town, so even that has lost some of its jazz.

To solve this I am trying to get involved with weekly activities. This is promising, but in a new place it takes a while to get the (soccer) ball rolling. Soon I expect to be playing Fußball twice a week (once with co-workers, once with friends). If I can manage to wake up on time, I'd also like to go to church and maybe join a youth group. Furthermore, I also am contacting local Tanzschulen, which brings me to my last item:

4) Dancing
I love to get my groove on, and even though there are plenty of opportunities around here to funk your trunk, whenever I step off the parquet it beckons me to return.

Thankfully, last month was not a total departure from dancing; i did learn a few steps, and am proud to present...

Discofoxy

Song: "Can't get enough of your love" by Barry White

And now for a pictorial list of items that keep me sane...because I'm not spending all of my time moping around, for the most part I am stoked up on the fact that I'm in Germany and livin' it up!

Things that make me forget I miss things
1)Finished this one already...loved it, and up next is "100 Years of Solitude"
2)Ordered this very guitar off eBay. (It hasn't come yet, so it should actually be in the first list, but it should arrive any day now.)
3)

Döner Kebab...a Berlinish-Turkish delicacy that is sooo good (comparable to a Gyro).

4)
The Fraunhofer Institute of Biomedical Technology in St Ingbert...it's coo'.



That does it for my lists...and by the way, if anyone has cooking or room-decorating tips HELP ME PLEASE!

das Leben tut WG

It was a blissful month of visiting friends and family in Germany, but now it's time to head out on my own and be selbständig. After searching frantically for a place to live (sounds dramatic, doesn't it?), zee Eentehrnet led me to a Wohngemeinschaft (WG) in the quaint town of Sankt Ingbert, just outside of Saarbrücken. It's an apartment just above a bakery, so the habit I developed at Markley Hall of walking downstairs for a fresh(ish) breakfast need not be broken.

My WGmates (wait, that sounded wrong) are Jens and Tobias. They are studying informatics and mechatronics at Uni Saarbrücken and put up with my clueless, foreign self. Very nice guys. Over the next two months, we will endure the independant student life, with its joys (par-tay!) and struggles (Abendessen?), ultimately forging an unbreakable Germanic alliance.

...and the water's just fine.

Getting accustomed to life in Saarland is like entering a cold lake. There are two ways to do so:

1) Take it slow and wade in.

This method might seem easy, but when you hesitate and skeptically analyse every oddity, it can become quite uncomfortable. For instance, you might wonder what language they speak over here. (It's referred to as the local Platt, and just to give you an idea, some of the locals require subtitles to watch movies that are already in German.)

I'm here for three months, but if I would immerse myself in centimeter intervals I still wouldn't get the head-to-toe experience I'm looking for. That's why I instead favor...

2) CANONBALL!

Yeah, that's right. Pile that brownish mush of a local delicacy on. Let's go bolzen, whatever that means (clue: check out the picture!). What's that, we missed the bus? Let's invent a way home...Saarland isn't that big anyway, it's not like we could get lost or anything.

The way to learn a language and a culture is definitely this method...although "cannonball" might be an overly delicate phrase for this approach. A typical day for me could be better likened to being shoved off the 10 meter platform. Of course, there are also the "graceful swan dive with the swimsuit's drawstrings too loose" days as well.

Although I might have been tempted to "wade in", fate has led me to the brink of German life and given a good push. Yesterday I signed some papers, in what appeared to be some sort of ritual one performs upon joining a Wohngemeinschaft, a group of students who live and pay rent together. I was surprised to learn that my landlord is actually a 12-year-old boy named Langerhans who will only accept Bundesliga trading cards as payment. Just kidding, I wasn't that surprised.

Don't erase your bingo cards, the next update will be coming shortly.