Sausage Fest

So last night after work, I went to Bad Dükheim, to the Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt, aka the biggest wine festival in the world! And indeed, it was really big, and there were lots of people, but not too great after a rather tiring weekend in Amsterdam and just wandering around aimlessly on my own. So I left quite early.

Today, I went for coffee in the morning with one of my neighbours. She is so inspirational, I actually want to be her when I'm older. Later in the evening, I went round for some magical tea, and then we headed to a library for a discussion on "Why are people capable of cruelty", after which she took me out for dinner. She is absolutely amazing. I invited her to come to visit Cambridge and her response was, "if the wind should take me there..."

Oops

Got a little distracted. So the week leading up to Amsterdam, I spent a lot of time with some family friends from Austria, and then an evening out with the new Erasmus students in Heidelberg.

My presentation was on Thursday, and afterwards, went to see my colleague's horse and it was generally just a very lovely week.

Not as lovely as Amsterdam though.

AMSTERDAM

Best weekend, ever.

KABOOM

DAVID-weekend! OH YEAH.

After yet another shitty week at the lab, I was (almost) literally bursting with excitement on Friday morning! I arrived in Mannheim and bought some yellow socks. This is clearly the sign of an excellent weekend, clearly.

I first met Justin, from Freiburg. We then had the best Eiskafee, ever. Met CC next, and then we did our epic fan-girl-style run towards David as he alighted his train. We are just so cool. At Catherine’s, we had the most phenomenal cake ever. I knew there was a reason I was friends with these guys…

Through Skyping Prioty across the pond and meeting Yuliya later in the evening, the gang was finally back together again! And then ensured a plentiful of eating and drinking and a little more drinking. Naturally, this was followed by crazy dancing in a not-so-crazy German club. Stumbling home at 4.30am, we stayed up and nattered all the way up until when David had to leave for his train. An emotional “Tschussy”, and then at 7.30am, we crashed.

The following day was my 6^th tour of Heidelberg. Quite the professional tour guide by now, I like to think. Fireworks by the castle/old bridge in the evening, and then of course the drinking continued. Missing the last bus home wasn’t too great – another 5am-half-hour-walk home.

Lucky for me, I had a meeting with my supervisor scheduled for 9am. Subsequently canceled, but it meant we made it to Merlin, the pub with the awesome breakfasts!

Another Tschussy for Justin, and then it was just Catherine and myself. We nattered and nattered in the botanical gardens and found some exploding plants! I’m pretty sure we weren’t hallucinating…

In the evening, I had another dinner out with family friends from Germany/Colombia who now live in Austria come to visit. A little exhausted and all beer’d out.

Monday was shopping duty. Six whole hours as this lady’s personal shopping assistant. We had a lovely lunch and coffee out in town though! Monday was a sad day though – Monica (& Dana)’s last night in Heidelberg! So of course, another goodbye dinner!

Tonight, another dinner out.

So sad that all my friends have now left Heidelberg.

But it’s okay. I’ll see them again. Somewhere in the world. We’ll make it happen!

Fishfail

Two weeks in a row now, someone has been sabotaging my fish. Not happy.

So now I have to do my overnight incubation during the day. Which means... Shopping! Yay! Silver lining I guess. Just not so much for my bank balance.

So nothing happens on a Sunday. Apparently you're not even allowed to mow your own lawn in case it disturbs the neighbours! BUT, it's a Tuesday morning and I can't believe how dead it is. I started work at 7am. Apparently shops (or coffee shops) don't open till 10am! What is going on? Does anybody do anything around here except for kill my fish?!

KölNO

Very almost went to Cologne this weekend, but transportation difficulties and general exhaustion meant that home was the better choice.

Well, that's what I thought on Friday.

This weekend's been a bit jumbly. I don't really know what I'm doing any more. My to-do list is growing rapidly, but I haven't even thought about working on it yet. Odd.

I went to the local market on Saturday! I thought it never existed, as every other time I've gone past there, there's never been anything there. Apparently it only appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays for select hours.

Oh did I mention, I managed to lose my bike lock last week. Bike LOCK. I didn't think that was humanly possible, but apparently it is! Luckily I had a friend who could come with me to buy a new one, and afterwards, we ate at the most amazing Chinese restaurant, ever, and of course had a nice beer at Bellini's. Bellini's manager is awesome. Such a flirt, he gives us free drinks.

I guess it's nice to integrate with the local community!

Also, my supervisor bought me some bread!!! It was just the sweetest thing ever! It was a few weeks ago, I'd just asked about grocery shopping in general, and explained to them my woes. And then last week, she turned up and presented me with a loaf of her favourite bread from her local bakery! So nice!

That's all for this weekend. Weather is much cooler, perhaps too cool. I'm really cold now! Heat stroke last week, shivers this week. I miss predictable England!

I killed the awkwardness monster

So win.

We first went to Bellini's and had an awkward dinner where again, everybody was talking to German. I somehow understood the sentence when my supervisor said that she'd left me with the morpholino injections because they're bloody difficult to do.

Afterwards, my lunch group (so supervisor, technician and PhD student) then went to the Neckarwiese and we actually had fun...!

Volleyball and badminton, it was mental! Probably the first time I've understood them whilst having fun, in a mixture of German and English.

Lab ist nicht so gut. The crazy temperatures and making the oocytes go crazy, and the fish aren't in the mood for making babies either.

I'm also sleeping 13 hours a day and still feeling tired. I guess I just can't deal with heat at all.

OH, big news - I've adopted a new mum. It's amazing. She cooks me Chinese food, and is the loveliest ever. YAY!

Colleagues

It's just difficult. Especially with the language barrier. Everone can speak English, everyone still chooses to speak German.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I raised the point to one of my colleagues about whether or not all groups are like ours, as in lab is lab, personal is personal, and no one says anything unless it is totally lab related.

She said no, it's just ours.

Afterwards, we decided we should try and start some "social activities" for the group. Today is the first. The very first, ever, for this lab. I just can't believe it's taken a PhD student and a weird British girl to finally motivate people to actually hang out. Now my issue is, it'll all be in German, as always. Anyway, if it's good for them, it's good for me.

We'll see how this goes...

Every cloud...

...seems to be followed by another cloud.

The most useless week at the lab was followed by the most unluckiest weekend ever imaginable. I mean, it started with a tree obstructing the tracks, obstructing Matt and Liz getting to Stansted. I didn't think it could get much worse than that... I guess you learn something new every day.

We did the usual Heidelberg tour and Philosopher's walk on Saturday. Only, I decided to get heatstroke.

On Sunday we went swimming in a lake... Much needed in 40 degree heat.

Long days again at the lab this week. Melting still. And the temperature is really messing up the results.

I need to find my silver lining.

Christopher Street Day

Christopher Street Day on Saturday! I headed to Mannheim to do some shopping (fail) and check out the parade (win).

Plenty of free condoms and stickers - the perfect souvenir.

On Sunday, I toured around Heidelberg again with some sort of Oxbridge meet-up, although we only met at the Dresden conference. Small world, eh?

Forgot to buy food though, so got home and realised I was dinner-less. Finished lab at 10pm on Monday, so again was dinner-less. Finished lab at 8pm on Tuesday, so dinner was pizza. Not cool.

Today, I went to the supermarket and paid 99 cents in 1, 2 and 10 cent coins (with only about 5x 10 cent coins.) There was a massive queue behind me. I got so much hate.

Karma soon came around when the next cashier gave me 98 cents in change.

So I have new Haribo stock. These two new packs are shaped as rats and frogs... Just need some zebrafish to complete a science experiment!

I'll let you know how the results go next time.

Phone-no-more

After being caught in a storm, my phone got totally soaked, and then I dropped it on a lot of concrete. Not cool. When it finally woke up, it was 1980, the SD card was dead, I couldn't receive calls or texts, and the screen looked like this:

I then got a piece of broken glass in my thumb and it hurt.

So not cool.

The 72hpf embryos weren't as bad as I expected actually! However, they did take a good few minutes to die properly though. What was more off-putting was the fact that they actually smelled fishy.

I bought some new shoes today! Yay! But, not having a bank account here meant that I had to take two shopping trips as no way did I have enough monies for food or drink. I also have a tonne of 1 and 2 cent coins which I have no idea what to do with - I don't think any machines accept them... I guess I can just make lots of wishes. Oh no, they don't do that in the fountains here, they go paddling instead.

Never mind. I'm clearly just rubbish at being continental!

Matt and Liz are coming to visit next week. SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zebrafish Cruelty

So I just did the most horriblest thing to my little baby zebrafish, ever.

We're working with embryos that are 24, 48 and 72 hours post-fertilisation. On Monday, I paired a male and female fish but of course kept them separated by a clear screen to build up the sexual tension. On Tuesday, I removed the screen and they made lots of babies which I collected and incubated. Yesterday, I took some of them, used pronase to digest the chorion, fixed them in PFA and then put them at -20C in MeOH.

That was all fine.

It was today that was horrible. This morning, it was time for the 48hpf. As only some of them still had a chorion, I had to use tweezers to physically tear it apart as using pronase on all of them would kill the ones without a chorion. As soon as you release them from the chorion, they spaz and swim like crazy. Even when I took them out of the incubator, some of them were already trying to swim for freedom! Anyway, I then used a pipette to choose 30 of the best looking ones. That wasn't easy at all. They instinctively try to swim away from the pipette, as if they already knew what was coming...

So I had 30 reasonably calm fish in my eppendorf tube. I then added the paraformaldehyde, and seriously, they wriggled like crazy. It was like a fishy death camp. After about 10s, the wriggling ceased and they were again just flaccid fish embryos that I'd been working with for the last few weeks.

I think it was the wriggling that got to me. Even yesterday's 24hpf embryos were fine - they weren't quite developed enough to wriggle for freedom. I guess they were totally innocent and helpless. Tomorrow's 72hpfs should be interesting. They must hate me so much!

Lablablabla

After spending the weekend at the lab, I now have no clue what day of the week it is. It's felt like Friday for about 5 days now! I seem to have replaced library with lab though. This week, I'd be lucky to finish at 7pm, which compared to my 2pm finishes last few weeks is a little bit ridic. Anyway, I've made my RNA now and the results are looking good! Hooray! Unfortunately though, with my in situ hybridisation, the sense probe negative control is still giving very positive staining, if not better stained even than the antisense probe. Two absent supervisors isn't really helping this situation.

So anyway, even though lab hours are building up, I still managed to go to the Zoo in Heidelberg on Saturday and then Mannheim in the evening. Sunday was then an evening out in Heidelberg and of course our weekly barbeque on Monday nights. Pretty reasonable weather for about an hour or so, and then the most dedicated storm blew our way and decided to drench us all for about another hour. As I didn't have time to bring any food for the barbeque, I ended up spending the rest of the evening in an Italian restaurant and had the most international medic chat you could imagine. Perfect!

Travels

Berlin

Hamburg

Dresden

Photos Galore!

Schwetzingen

Heidelberg

Strasbourg

Mannheim

Worms

...More to come!

Berlin & Hamburg

So much traveling! I like to think I am quite the expert at German train stations now.

Berlin was genuinely really cool (and hipster-ish). I was visiting two of my Fulbright friends and it was so lovely to catch up with them! I think I managed to see most of the tourist-y things even though it was such a short visit. This city literally never sleeps. We were walking around up until 5am and it was as if it was just mid-afternoon. Perhaps not the safest of cities though.

Whilst I was in Berlin, I found out that another friend was in Hamburg, and that Hamburg was super far from Heidelberg but relatively close to Berlin! So then I took a totally impromptu trip to visit her in Hamburg. Lovely to hear a proper British accent at last! (No offence, yanks...) Hamburg was also a lovely city, but totally opposite feel to Berlin. Very prim and proper

So I had to take a night train home as it was a 6-7-hour journey. However, it was 3 night trains as opposed to one, and included a 1.5 hour stop in Cologne. If it wasn't 3am, I would've so ventured out and done some wandering! Anyway, arrived at Heidelberg at 7am, got home, showered, unpacked, and got to work at 8.30am. Left the lab at 7.30pm for a mad rush to Mannheim but unfortunately, was too late to see Batman! Had a nice wander around Mannheim anyway, and then returned to Heidelberg for a house party, ending up in a club. After being up and about for over 40 hours, I don't think my judgement was too good by that point.

The rest of this week has been super long at the lab. Got to go swimming on Wednesday though. Rookie error - nicest weather we've had all week and so should've known that the pool would be absolutely packed.

4 days after returning from the epic weekend of traveling, I finally feel slightly better rested and settled back to Heidelberg life. I cannot wait to start traveling again though!

Photos are on facebook now. I try put some on here in a slightly presentable way soon.

Drrrresden

By far, the best two days of the Summer. Hottest too, but also the best. Because I met the bestest people, the very best.

Cheesy as it might sound, I feel like I've grown so much as a person just these last two days. The actual conference itself involved a lot of sitting still in a stuffy room, listening to lots of not-so-relevant talks. I really enjoyed the guided tour of the Altstadt though. Dresden is definitely not what I expected at all - the reconstructions are absolutely incredible, but what surprised me the most was the timescale! Asking the tour guide how old some random building was, the answer was often just 1 month.

In the evening, we went to the Neustadt and again, not what I expected at all. Where all the nightlife of Dresden was at, I was expecting the typical pub/bar/club layout. Rather, they had beer gardens served by trailers, and just hoards of people sat drinking on the street and in the road. Everyone was perfect drunk yet perfect civilised. So cool.

So the people I met in Dresden, I've only known for say 48 hours max, but somehow I have a feeling that these are going to become some very special friendships indeed. I feel so, so blessed to have met these people. I'm excited!

So many pictures. I'll do a picture post once I get back to Heidelberg and recover from this crazy week of traveling!

Travels

Worms today, Dresden tomorrow, and Berlin on Saturday. Ciao!

Adventures to Franceland

So right now, I am both internet and computer-less. Useless, I know. This weekend was absolutely beautiful though! Strasbourg on Saturday, so finally understood what was going on and also got to buy lots of French food. On Sunday I went to Mannheim. Very difficult to distinguish from Heidelberg, just not as pretty, but still a good day though!
My parents are now here to visit... Totally destroyed my Zen. Still, a very lovely walk around Heidelberg yesterday. Pharmacy museum was definitely the highlight!
Started on my own channel today! So exciting, so good! The very first pcr gave the most beautiful bands, ever! Currently digesting. So good.

Fishies

My beautiful fish baby:

Thanks to some sort of Olympus microscope

Very exciting day at the lab today - I finally got a lab book! Only 3 weeks too late...

These Haribos are the most amazing sweets I have ever bought. I am genuinely quite sad that I won't find them in the UK!

Thanks to HTC Wildfire Camera

PICO-BALLA - doesn't that mean tiny balls or something? Maybe that's what I'm into...

I feel like here in Heidelberg, I have lots of time to think. I'm starting to have lots of conversations with myself, especially when everyone around me is talking in German. Before, I found it really frustrating that I couldn't understand anything that was going on. Now, it's just a perfect daydreaming opportunity!

Today, I went on a church tour - I went to all the churches that were pointed out on the tourist map. Cos I'm cool like that. Photos to come...

Haribo!

Two and half weeks in, I have finally found a proper grocery store! (Rather than just Aldi/Lidl...) It was amazing. So much food, so much choice. It was even smaller than the Sainsbury's in Cambridge but I literally spent an hour and a half wandering around the store just looking at all the food in awe. They have so many different types of Haribo, it's actually incredible. I even took a photo, but for some reason it didn't save. Not to worry, I will be back there soon enough, I'm sure. Difficulty though now lies in the fact that I have absolutely no cooking utensils at all. I ended up buying chocolate, Haribos, and milkshake. Such a fail.

Last night, I tried blackcurrent, strawberry and umquat (?) wine...

Thanks to HTC Wildfire Camera

Protokol

I have the protocol for my own project. I am so excited. So excited. It may as well be Friday!

(Clearly I'm also quite sad.)

I've ordered my DNA primers, so hopefully I can start cloning my K2P channel next week. SO. EXCITED.

I've spent this week doing in-situ hybridisation of my zebrafish babies. Today, I finally got to see the fruits of my labour! So much pipetting, my extensor pollicis muscles must be super toned by now. They're so worth it though - they are the most beautiful fish embryos you will ever come across. Hopefully I can have some pictures by the end of the week!

Currently making travel plans. Lined up for the next few weekends: Dresden, Berlin, Warsaw, Amsterdam and Vichy. More suggestions welcome, although what would be more appreciated is if anyone explains this whole reservation malarky to me.

SO EXCITED.

Zebrafish Porn

So good. Mating zebrafish today.

Schlossbeleuchtung & Schwetzingen

Saturday evening was the "Schlossbeleuchtung" - fireworks at the castle/old bridge. Bigged up massively by the Germans, but it was an even more massive disappointment. Even Robinson May Ball did better.

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

On Sunday, I went to Schwetzingen and visited the only place that seemed to exist in the entire town. The palace was basically a summer residency for the royal family and aristocrats, so it was a pretty chilled place to be!

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

The only interesting thing I did find in this town were these cigarette vending machines on random streets! These can't still be legal?!

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

At the lab today, started in-situ hybridisation of my zebrafish. I think I've fallen in love - I want to adopt them. They're so little!! If I managed to will myself to read a 58-page paper on the embryonic development of Zebrafish, I think I must be in love.

Grocery Shopping

I just had the most traumatic shopping trip ever. My bike chain came off in the middle of the road, and then I realised I had a flat tyre. This is whilst being severely lost and doing the third lap of the same wrong street. Eventually I got to the shop and bought so, so, so many carbs. I think my food crisis should be sorted out for a good while!

Last night after work, I met up with some of the other interns. Again, a wonderful night:

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

At the lab this morning, I put our DNA sequence into the pMax vector. I'd like to think I'm quite a pipetting pro now! Anyway, I then went to find my supervisor who basically said I could just go home and enjoy the city! So chilled.

Unfortunately the weather here is absolutely awful, and if I didn't have to cycle on the right, you could almost imagine we were in England. There's definitely better beer here though.

"Master Mix"

So again I don't have internet. 

Monday was an absolutely crazy day at the lab. We were Western Blotting and PCR-ing. After work, I went with a colleague who has very kindly lent me her old bike. We managed to fix it up, more or less. I do have a feeling I will eventually die on this bike though. It doesn't really do any sort of an incline at all - the chain just jumps off. I also have to lean backwards when I cycle, otherwise the gears slip. Anyway, it was very nice of her and finally I can get around now!

In the evening, we had our first DAAD RISE barbeque by the river:

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

A lovely evening, and it was great to finally meet the others!

Tuesday was much more quieter at the lab, as neither my supervisors nor my usual lab partner were there. Nevertheless, an interesting day with reverse transcription and the other girls in the lab. Using the "Nano-drop" was quite a novelty!

I think my favourite word in the lab is currently "Master Mix".

Went for a swim in the outdoor pool after work. Apparently I'm a weirdo for doing laps instead of "frolicking". We then went for Thai food, but my bike didn't quite make it. Big mistake.

Wednesday had an awful start - I was expecting an 8am lie-in but instead, my supervisor texts me at 7.45 asking to meet at 8.30am. Not cool. Another dragging day at the lab, although today I met lots of lab pigs! 

I then went to the city council place to register as an inhabitant of Heidelberg! Not nearly as exciting as they could've made it. I was expecting some beer-drinking initiation ceremony. Anyway, from there, I had to walk all the way along the river again to retrieve my bike. So much walking!

Anyway, in the Urz (computer room) so I finally have internet and can finally reply to messages and emails and BLOG! Woohoo!

How a Sunday should be

Pouring down with rain this morning, but nevertheless, went for a run along the riverside. Then I met with a friend/colleague for the most amazing breakfast, ever:

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

I had the "Lord of the Rings", but also on the menu was "Harry Potter" - it was actually amazing! I literally will not need to eat until tomorrow.


Last night, I met some RISE interns and we had an amble down the river again. So picturesque!

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

I promise I'll stop posting pictures of bridges and castles one day. Last night I also had two RISE people from another city stay on my floor in order to take a train the following morning, cos I'm nice like that!

Oh, I totally forgot to mention last week, I performed my first ever echocardiogram! So cool!

Anyway, after that amazing breafast/lunch/dinner, I came back home and had like a 3 hour siesta, and now I'm sitting in the sun by a pool. I like Sundays!

Ah yes, on my way back, saw/heard this:

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

I genuinely don't think I can ever escape the boaties.

University Library

Today, I walked into town and took some more touristy photos. I then went to the University Library. I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but it's so much nicer than Cambridge!

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

A view from the bridge. (The one by where I live)

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

Sommerfest

Had my camera with me this time. Another nice pub and the old bridge at night:

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

On Friday, I sneaked into the guided tour of Heidelberg that was for the Heidelberg RISE conference. The tour guide was so enthusiastic about Heidelberg, it was absolutely fantastic when I got to say to everyone who I met: I go here!! Met a fair share of Americans and Brits but no Canadians. Here are some touristy photos of the castle etc:

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

This meant that it was a pretty short day at the lab though. I measured some RNA today using gel electrophoresis and photospectrometry again. I made my own agarose gel! Hooray! We had some really cool results, but unfortunately, none were saved on the computer so it literally all disappeared.

In the evening was the Sommerfest. Like a may ball, but bigger and more beer. It was absolutely crazy! Around 5000 German medics: students, researchers and doctors, all super drunk and singing German pop. I have never seen anything like it. Caius Medsoc Garden Party can do with an awful lot of improvement!!

Thanks to HTC Wildfire Camera

I think I'd quite like to be a German medic.

Konichiwa

Some random German men shouted "Konichiwa!" at me just now. Great!

Finally left the campus last night! We went to Destille and had literally the best melon liqueur ever imaginable. I didn't think anything could compete with Midori, but this was just on another level! A great atmosphere too:

Thanks to HTC Wildfire Camera

Next was Brass Monkey, run by the craziest Irish guy in Germany. Afterwards, we went onto the old bridge and there was just the most magnificent view of the castle, ever. So magnificent that I forgot my phone had a camera function.

Today at the lab, I did some more measurements of membrane potentials and also helped with the oocyte preparations. I have never seen so many frogs all together in my whole ever life!

Stairs

After a half hour jog, coming to back to find two broken lifts is possibly the worst thing that could've happened this morning. Me trying to somehow climb up 11 flights of stairs in such a state could not have been a pretty sight at all.

At least I didn't die.

Early start at the lab today - we were doing maxiprep for most of the day, although unfortunately it was rather unsuccessful. Gel electrophoresis plates showed pretty much nothing, and photospectrometry results gave a concentration less than half of what was expected. Never mind - such is lab work!

Afterwards, we dissected a few rats and took samples of various bits of cardiac and CNS tissue. What was really sad was the fact that there were mice kept in the same room, watching the rats being killed and dissected.

Clearly, no way can I post pictures, and seeing as I'm living in the lab, there's nothing else pretty here to show you, although this is where I'm sitting right now:

Thanks to Webcam

Red Tape

So much red tape, it makes me sad. Seriously though, I've had to get about 10 signatures for 5 different forms in order to get 3 accounts, or something silly like that. It's mostly sorted now, I think, and it's actually quite cool - I'll have both a normal student card as well as a clinical student card!

I'm finding it very warm and humid, although everyone is saying that this is surprisingly cool for Heidelberg at this time of the year. They say that it was me, the Brit, who brought all the rain here. Probably.

Today was my first proper day in the lab: 9am-6pm, so not too bad at all. So far I've been working with Xenopus oocytes and have managed to do voltage clamp, RNA injections, changing the bath solution as well as make my own set of tips (possibly the most frustrating thing to do, ever, although apparently patch clamp is even worse!) Very much enjoying the lab so far - everyone is so kind and friendly and willing to help, even though I'm the idiot Brit who couldn't even bother to learn their language! Also, the Xenopus oocytes are so cute! Injections are like dinner time in Oliver Twist, because you can see them grow a little bit as you feed them, and they all wait in line. Moving them around is pretty much like playing hockey with them! (But on a slightly smaller scale with a slightly smaller hockey stick...) I think I may be a bit too much of a nerd.

So last time, I wrote about how cool my apartment was. I sort of take that back now. The lift broke. When you're up on 11th floor, that's really not so cool at all. It's a pretty long way to go:

Thanks to HTC Wildfire Camera

 However, what is cool is that on the first day I arrived, even though I had neither paid nor signed anything, I already had this on my letterbox! 

Thanks to HTC Wildfire Camera

That's German efficiency for you!!

Train-ing it

Having missed both the train and the tube in the morning, it wasn't a particularly great start. Luckily though, I managed to catch all three trains in good time and so the rest of the day was more or less stress-free. The only two wobbly parts of the journey were: one at Bruxelles-Midi Station, where my original plan was to have a wander. Instead, I decided it was too scary, and my luggage was too heavy. Second was on the Brussels-Frankfurt train. Because I hadn't reserved a seat, I think I had to change seats about 4 times (on a 3 hour journey!) and at one point, was definitely sat on the floor for a bit.

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11 (though clearly not the best-stitched panorama)

Anyway, this is my new room for the next 12 weeks, and more impressively, its view. It's on the top (11th) floor, and even has an en suite! And there I was anticipating third-world standards. 

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

In the evening, I went for some drinks with my supervisor and watched some of the Euro final. I think I could get used to this...!

Auf Wiedersehn!

So I may have left it quite late to pack for the next 22 weeks of my life (Heidelberg & Michaelmas!). Slight panic this morning when none of the places we could find had any Euros left to sell! The internship is paid, but I have no idea how/when I'm getting the monies. After some last minute shopping, we had a lovely and surprisingly civilised barbecue:

Thanks to Canon Powershot G11

The rest of the evening was spent trying to stuff as much of my wardrobe into the tiniest suitcase ever imaginable. I'm actually traveling by train tomorrow, so instead of silly airline restrictions, my baggage is basically limited by what I can carry myself. Unfortunately, that's a rather pathetic amount. I find it very odd though that I've managed to fit 12 weeks worth of stuff into one small suitcase and a rucksack, whereas the stuff I bring for a 10 week Cambridge term takes up an entire car! Anyway, hopefully I won't get too lost on my travels tomorrow and still manage to blog somehow. I am pretty certain though that the place I'm staying doesn't have internet, so it may well have to wait till I manage to find some...

British School of Osteopathy

Another early morning today in order to do more PfPC at the British School of Osteopathy. I have no idea how I managed to blag my way from starting off being declined outright to ending up seeing lots of patients and chatting to lots of future bone-crackers, but thank goodness I did. I don't think I'd be able to do any of this in Germany. Like yesterday, very interesting, but this time. I am sure that I don't want to become an osteopath. Nor work in private healthcare for that matter. It's just not for me.

Afterwards, I went for a wander and ended up having a nap on the Southbank:

Thanks to HTC Wildfire Camera

And then was a long-overdue, but unfortunately brief, catch-up with Layla and Shiran. It's quite scary to think I won't be back home until December!

St Francis Hospice

Technically not in Deutschland yet, but this is still somewhere on my Summer to-do list! I spent a morning with the staff of St Francis Hospice today as part of PfP C. It was an absolutely horrendous 1.5 hour journey there, and an even longer trip back as I somehow got lost! On my travels though, I came across this very pretty house:

Thanks to HTC Wildfire Camera

Okay so I admit, the original photo wasn't that pretty, but Photoshop exists for a reason!

Anyway, my visit to the hospice was absolutely fantastic. I can totally see myself going into palliative care - everyone is so nice! It definitely was not what I expected at all - at one point, one of the patients started teaching me how to waltz. Even though she was receiving end of life treatment, her dancing was still a trillion times better than mine. Overall a very lovely morning.