You win some, you lose some and when you lose some the whole country is depressed...

    Despite losing the EM, life in Deutschland is still fantastic. We have some students visting from Côte d'Ivoire this week and they are going through some basic training to learn lab skills. They are setting up a lab back in their country, so they will be able to analyze pathogen prevalence in the field instead of having to deal with the hassle of having to convince the German government that it is safe to ship poo contaminated (potentially) with anthrax into the country. They are really interesting to talk to and now I am learning a bit of French, in addition to my daily German lessons. 
     There are also 3 new Ph.D students in the lab, from different parts of Germany. They are all in their mid-twenties and are just as eager to explore Berlin as I am. We have spent many an evening just walking around the city marveling at the variety of colors one can dye their hair... 
    A friend of mine from the US visited Berlin last week through her study abroad program and we were able to meet up a couple of times and I showed her all my favorite hang outs. It was so wonderful to see her and share stories of our travels. We went to a free opera showing at Brandenburger Tor (Don Giovanni) and then stumbled across a street festival on the way home. We perused the stalls, beers in hand, and chatted with the local merchants and musicians. All in all, a very successful weekend.
     In the lab, I am learning so many new techniques. I thought I was well-prepared when I came here, but there is so much that I have still to learn! Everyone is so helpful and they really are brilliant scientists. They keep me on my toes and I love bouncing my questions and ideas off of them. Even though we are a huge group (about 22, last time we counted), it really is a community mind-set and everyone takes care of each other. We all learn from each other's mistakes and all of the projects are so intertwined (I would go into more detail, but I'll wait for their papers to be published first...). Such fascinating work going on. Everyone makes fun of me for being the baby of the lab (the next youngest person is 26) and it makes me realize what a unique and awesome opportunity this is. So just a quick shout-out to Leah and Cathy for making this happen. You guys are awesome :)          Unfortunately, my beloved steed (bicycle) is kaputt so I have had to take the train instead, but I am going to this awesome shop tomorrow where they teach you how to repair it yourself for just a 1 euro donation. It is located at the technical university in Berlin, so it will be really cool to meet some of the students and learn a new trade.
 I haven't been travelling so much on the weekends just because there are always cool things to do and see in Berlin. This place has really become my home and the people here are wunderbar. I had to say goodbye to one of them Friday and it was honestly heartbreaking. I have never had to say goodbye to someone in such a final way. She is going to Africa for a year and then back to her home in Belgium and I will probably never see her again, as we lead such different lives on different continents. I know we will stay in touch and I am so glad I got to spend the last months with her, but it really was such a new a surreal feeling. 
I guess that is all part of this travelling and discovering business. I'll leave you guys with some pictures from my excursions around the city. 


viele Grüße,
Kristen

Lab Picnic :)

Pipetting like a pro

I was told that this was Germany's attempt to one-up our White House. Did they succeed? I'll leave that up to you.