IRES at Emory University: Reasons why I love Germany

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Reasons why I love Germany

1. People don't stop. Ever. I can go outside at anytime of the day and find tons of young people hanging out in the streets or on the Spree, drinking beer and being merry. I'm never lonely here.

Church in Berlin

2. Beer. It's magical, I swear. Not only does it taste good, but people here drink so much yet are ridiculously thin and fit. The beer must have negative calories or something.

3. Breakfast. Breakfast. Breakfast. With fresh bread, cheese, marmalade, nutella, fruit, coffee, tea and fruit juice. My word. Cereal is never going to suffice again.

4. The Robert Koch Institute. They do such great work there, the people are so fun and there are so many interesting projects going on! My project still hasn't turned out any positive results for pathogens, but that in itself is interesting because gorillas in neighboring populations have these pathogens. The idea that it somehow hasn't reached this area yet is intriguing indeed..
to be continued in my thesis paper.

Lab buddies in Berlin, Mitte

5. Mario Gómez. And the German football team in general. They're ballin' hard right now and I love the energy here during the Eurocup.You can't help but be a fan when you're in the midst of all of these people dressed in the German colors and screaming at the top of their lungs.

Where the wall used to be... crazy, no?

7. The architecture. I love walking through modern, industrial Berlin and then stumbling across a beautiful, 400 year old church. The history here is fascinating. A friend from lab took me on a tour through Berlin and I got an overview of all the cool places, like Checkpoint Charlie, where you could cross from West to East Berlin (but not the reverse) and the Musueminsel, which is filled with some of the most spectacular museums I have ever seen

German government building

8. The mentality. People in Germany are so sustainable and active! They really care about recycling and composting and eating bio (organic) foods. I'm so at home here :)

Quarkkuchen..a saxon specialty

9. The cultural exchange. People here are always so interested to hear about my life in America and I love hearing about the life here as well. Today I am bringing a key lime to a picnik to show them a bit of my favorite American sweet. In turn, they have introduced me to quark, which is like yogurt but way more tasty and healthy. We don't have it in the States sadly, so I am eating as much as I can while I am here!

10. The music. Almost every week I have been here, there is some kind of music festival or open air market. I went shopping for vinyls with a friend from lab this past Saturday at this awesome flea market only 10 minutes from my flat. This city is never boring.

The weekend before last, I went to Dresden to visit an old family friend and she took me on an awesome tour of the Alt-Stadt (old city). It was so beautiful. Really.

Altstadt, Dresden

Then we picked fresh strawberries from a field for breakfast the next morning. There are fruit trees everywhere in Dresden and you can just stop and grab some cherries on your ride back from town.
The weather here is nice at the moment (it's usually a bit cold), so I'm headed out to a picnic with some lab friends!