My Adventures in Germany and Beyond!: May 2006

I found the students!

I FOUND THEM!!!! woohoo!!!!!!! Today I had lunch with the elusive group of students! There are 2 from Ireland, 3 from France, and 2 more from I don't remeber. And of course I don't remember any of there names, but that's ok because today during lunch, I could understand the conversation!!!!! To add to my happiness, I had a reaction turn blue today. Barbra calls it my Smurf. So today is a good day! Except that it was like 6 degrees this morning! brrrrrr!

Nuremberg

So short post today because I'm tierd and the pictures are pretty self explanatory. I headed up to Nuremberg for my long weekend. There's so much to see in that town, but since I only had a few days, and it rained most of the time I had to limit my touring. I spent Friday afternoon walking around town (in the rain, thanks for the rain jacket mom!) and then took cover in the German National Musem. Lots of cool stuff to see there. After that I went back to my hostel where I met some canadians! They let me tag along with them up to the castle. It was nice to be around some english for a bit! The castle was nice, but it was still raining so we didn't stay long. Saturday I spent the day at the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. They have a sort of musem set up that tells all the history behind Hitler and the Nazis. It was kinda creapy walking around there, but very interesting. So that's it for the post. The rest is all pictures.

Weird add for ice cream. Is this what Germans think of Canadians?

River in Nuremberg, no idea wich one, but it's pretty!

Fountain outside of a church in the Market. Notice where the water is spurtting out from...

Up at the castle.

Weird exhibt at the German National Musem. Soccer balls?

Monument for the Universal Declaration of Human rights.

Pillers with all the articles inscribed in different languages.

Map of the Nazi Rally Grounds. Most of it was either destroyed in the war or was never actually built.

Entrance to the Documentation Center at the Nazi Rally Grounds.

Courtyard of the Congress Hall (uncompleted)

Outside wall of the Congress Hall

Congress Hall from across Dutzendteich lake.

Great Road. Was supose to be 60m wide and 2000m long, but was only built to 1500m. It's now a car park during fairs.

Model for the German Stadium. It should have held 400 000 people. The foundation was laid in Sept 1937, but construction stoped there. It is now the site of Lake Silbersee.

Zeppelin Grandstand, looking over Zeppelin Feild was the only building ever completed. The Feild was used for Rallies since 1933. After the war in 1945 the giant swastika that stood on top of the grandstand was blown up.

Zepplin Field.

Long weekend, woohoo!

So I just found out today that Thrusday is a day off! Plus, my whole lab is taking Friday off too. And since I'm not allowed to work alone, I also have to take the day off! Now, where should I go...

Here is the church, and here is the steeple... the very tall steeple!

This past Saturday I made my way to Ulm! It's claim to faim is that it is home to the tallest church in Europe (some websites say even the world). And for 2.50euro you can climb to the top! The only thing with climbing up 768 stairs, is that you have to climb back down! My calfs are still killing me! It was worth it though. What an amazing view!

Outside of the Ulm Münster.

First lookout.

Big big bells. Thankfully they didn't go off as I was standing beside them!

Second lookout.

Third lookout. Almost there!

The last stair case! And surprisingly the least closterphobic.

I so feel your pain!

Made it to the very top! Is it ever windy up there.

The Danube River that flows through Ulm. I live that-a-way. I even busted out he compass to make sure!

Inside the cathedral. Very impressive and yet not as over the top as Notre Dame. I think I like gothic architecture better. There's something more peacefull about it.

And last but not least, swans on the Danube. Like 30 of them! (and no Max, I didn't try to pet them)

Second week of work done!

So I'm done my second week of work! YAY! I'm still alive and I haven't broken anything! I think it's safe to say that my first 2 weeks have been a success! I'm starting to know my way around the lab too. I only have to open about 2 drawers insted of all of them to find what I need. One day I'll post a list of all the german chemsitry words I've learned (or rather seen and try to remember). Some of them are pretty funny. Of course I can't remeber any of them now.

I also realise that I haven't talked about my project yet! Well there's not much I can say, because it's very top secret of course. What I can say (I think) is that I'm working on a chronic pain managment program. The chemistry is strait forward enough, but of course it's full of lovely little surprises. And apparently I work too fast. My boss told me the other day to slow down because he couldn't keep strait in his head what I was doing. So this week there was a lot of thumb twirling.

He did however give me one of his synthesises to scale up. I've never worked on a large scale so it was different. One thing I can say about large scale reactions, when something goes wrong, it really goes worng! I started with about 20g of starting material and had to do an oxidation. Well, seemed simple enough, but in the last step, the nice liquid solution turns to mud which then has to be filtered. Now if you think back to when you were a kid and you played with mud outside, what happend when it dried out. Turned to cemement right? Well this is what happend to my reaction! And let me tell you, it's not easy to filter cement! But I got it done! Yay me! Then today I got to use baby Berta to do a flash. So all in all, large scale isn't too bad. The best thing about it, you're never left at the end of a synthesis trying to scrape at least 1mg of product from the bottom of your flash to send for testing!

So besides work, things are going well here in Biberach. I'm still a little lonely (only 84 days till Michael is here!) but I'm starting to get used to it here. Today I even when out to explore! And tomorrow I'm even adventuring out of Biberach and going to Ulm for the day (if it doesn't rain). And then on Sunday I'm going to see The Da Vinci Code with my boss, in ENGLISH! See, I'm starting to come out of my hermit shell... A little.

Anyways, it's late and I'm tierd, so I'll leave you with a few pictures of my lab.

South gate of Boehringer Ingelheim

The BI duck. There is also a cat that hangs around.

My rotavap. Notice the long tubby thing sticking out of the condenser. It's to suck up your fractions so you dont have to pour them all into the flask at once! Laugh if you must, but I think it's the coolest thing ever!

Baby Berta, you should see mama Berta!

My office that I share with Mark, Barbara and Hilda.

My fume hood, probably the cleanest it will ever be.

News from back home

So on a totally different note, got some not so good news today. Marjo didn't get into Ottawa for med school. She did however get into a school in England. So that means come September I'm short one roommate! If anyone out there knows of someone that's looking for a place to live in Ottawa for September 1, 2006 or if anyone knows of a cheap bachelor near campus in Ottawa available in September please let me know!

Biberach an der Riss

Ok, so I've been here a week, and I know I haven't posted any pictures yet! I'm sorry! I've been so busy with work, trying to buy groceries, trying to do laundry (was somewhat succesful), trying to do banking (again, somewhat succesful), trying to get a phone and trying to register with the citizen's office. I got about half way on all of those. We'll see next week. But anyway, today I had the chance to go into town to the Marketplatz where they have a huge market set up on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I thought it would be simillar to the Byward Market in Ottawa. Boy was I wrong! This thing is huge! I've never seen so many people smooshed into one place. I wanted to take pictues, but if I had stoped, I would have gotten run over! I managed to buy a few things, strawberries, rubarb, lemons, eggs, and 3 bunches of radishes. I only wanted one bunch of the radishes but I couldn't get the guy to understand so I left with 3! Now I have to eat all of them to make room in my tiny bar fridge! So anyway, the point of this blog was to show you a few pictures of Biberach. So here we go!

Tower near the Marketplatz. I'm not really sure what it is, but it's really pretty! There's a nice garden below it too, perfect for sitting around and reading.

View from near the tower of Biberach

Weird donkey statue in the Marketplatz. It's made up entierly of people. I have no idea, don't even ask!

Marketplatz

Marketplatz

The Riss in Biberach and der Riss

What I've learned about Germany

Ok, so quick update before I dive into my story. I have internet again! It seems to be intermittent, so I won't freak out anymore when it goes away. Hopefully it'll always come back to me.

So anyway, what happend today. Well today was good! It started off with my getting my internet back so I could talk to Michael. Always a good way to start a morning. When I got to work, I found out that there was a celebration breakfast. One of the compounds made it to pre-devellopment I think. And this brings me to the first thing I learned about Germans today. They eat lots! Oh my God was there ever a lot of food! And good! And boy do they pack it in! It was even better then the wine and cheeses that they had at BI in Montreal. So after stuffing myself with cheeses, meets, bread and fruit, I found out that someone had a bike for me. Even better was that it was free! So I now have a way to get around town.

After work (which ended at 1:00pm, Germans also like to take long weekends) I took my new bike out for a spin. I ventured out to find the Marketplatz where suposedly my bank was. Well the trip was a success! I have money again (3rd thing, Germans don't like credit cards). The Marketplatz is really nice. Tons of little shops, and lots of old buildings. Found out 2 more things about Germans. They love ice cream and shoes! Almost every second store was either a shoe store or an ice cream shop. And none of this Dairy Queen crap, but really good gelato! Sooooo very good. I have a feeling it's going to become an after work ritual. I spent a few hours walking around, mostly trying to find my bank and the tourists office (was successfull on both counts and I now have a map so I wont get lost anymore) before heading back home to my nice 3euro bottle of wine (6th thing, wine here is cheap!) I'm heading out to the Marketplatz again tomorrow, when they'll be an actuall market set up. I'll bring my camera too so you can all see this cute little town. I think it's starting to grow on me, but I'm still really homesick and miss you all lots. I'll try to post picture tomorrow. Good night for now!

Oh, 7th thing about Germany, the bugs here are huge! Like massive beetles! Freaks me right out. I'll take a picutre next time I see one.

I'm Cursed!

So today was horrible! I woke up this morning at 6:00am to find that the wireless network I was using had disappeared! Boooooooooooooo Then I get to work and tell Mark that I need to set up a DSL line, and he said it wasn’t worth it for only 3 months. It seems that in Germany, everyone and everything runs in slow motion. It would apparently take 1 month to set up the connection, and then another month to cancel it, so I would only have it for 1 month! Plus, it’s insanely expensive. About 30€ for the DSL and 15€ for the phone (which you have to set up for the DSL) which come to about 60$CAN or so I think which I can’t afford. So there goes that idea, and I am now without internet! I am however getting a phone and possibly dial up, so we’ll see how that goes.
Things aren’t going too well at work either. Well, it’s not so much that they aren’t going well, but more like I’ve seemed to have brought my curse with me! Most of you know that I am somewhat cursed when it comes to anything electronic. Well, it seems to have followed me to Europe! I broke the HPCL this morning! More like it broke as I was standing in front of it! And of course this is the first time it has ever done anything like this! Thankfully it was fixed at lunch, so it really wasn’t so bad. But my electronic pass still doesn’t work. You use this thing not only as a time-keep for payroll, but also as a sort of depit card for the cafeteria. Mark has been buying my lunch all week! It’s suppose to work tomorrow, but they said that yesterday.
Now, if you think my day is going bad enough already, just wait, it gets better. My chemistry is also not working! I’ve been trying since Monday to do a simple methylation of a secondary amine. NOTHING WORKS! I keep getting the weirdest MSs back, and nobody in the lab can figure out what’s going on. If anyone out there has an idea I can try, please let me know! I did however solve the problem of my 30000% yield. Seems that I had some NaCl in my product, and it all went away with another extraction. Why the first one didn’t work, I have no idea. Story of my life.
On a happier note, Barbara (a girl in my lab) found me a bike! I should get it either tomorrow or next week! This comes at a great time, since I will no longer have my internet TV to keep me occupied after work. Hey, maybe I’ll even get in shape!
No big plans for this weekend. I think I’ll just hang around town and try to find things. And maybe my internet will be working again!

Survived the first day

First day is over! YAY! So here's the scoop. After surviving the blackout (I somehow blew a fuse) I made my way to work, got my picture taken and my id, then we set out to find my boss. So first off the company is huge! It's almost as big as campus and there are over 3000 employees! The HR person I met didn't even know where the chemistry building was! We finaly found that, but she didn't know who my boss was! We did manage to find the chemistry secretary who called my boss (Mark Roos) to come and get me. So a few minutes later I was up in the lab!

Up in the lab Mark set me up on my computer then it was off to work! Problem was, I didn't know where anything was! Still don't. So I blindly set up 2 reactions, asking every 2 seconds where stuff was. By the end of the day I think I had it pretty well figured out. Let's just hope I remeber everything tomorrow. Lunch was very weird. Everyone was speaking german and I didn't understand a thing! I now know how english people feel when they're with a bunch for french people!

After work Mark took me grocery shopping (oh and german stores don't take credit cards, I'm quickly running out of cash!) so that I could't at least have some food in my tiny fridge. He's bring me tomorrow to register at the city so that I can legally live here and to the bank. He even gave me his cell phone until I figure out what I'm going to do for a phone!

So I think I'm slowly getting settled in here. It's starting to sink in that I'm actually here and staying. And I'm really starting to miss everyone back home. Especially Michael who doesn't seem to home right now! Where are you! So I'll leave you with that while I go watch some MTV (the only english channel I get).

First day of work

So a quick update before I run out the door. Things that went wrong this monring:
1- Dollar store alarm slows down at night, so I woke up 20mins late.
2- Iron doesn't actually iron.
3- Hairdryer doesn't work.
4- Somehow blew a fuse so now I can't leave my computer pluged in. (Also possibly why the hair dryer doesn't work)

So I hope my luck turns around cause if not, it's going to be a really horrible day. Oh and did I mention that I don't actually know what time I'm supose to be at work for! grrrrr :@

I made it alive!

I'm in Germany! woohoo!!!! And all in one peice! I've been trying to upload a blog I wrote on the train but it's not working. I'll fiddle around with that later. I just wanted to let you all know that I made it safe and sound to Biberach. I didn't even get lost! How great is that! My apartment is very nice. And very white. And since I got in on a Sunday, very lacking in food! I found a gas station down the street and bought orange juice and what I think is a yogurt drink for my breakfast tomorrow, but that's all they had. That and beer! But none of that tonight. I still need to unpack a bit and check off the inventory list for my apartment to bring to work tomorrow, then it's off to bed. I start work tomorrow, but not sure what time. I think I'll head in at around 8:30am. That should be ok I think. Send lots of good vibes tomorrow morning! (well, it'll be around 2:00am in Canada, so have good vibe dreams for me! G'night!

***edit***
Ok so fixed the train blogs. Everything should be in order. Pictures to come soon!

Grenoble

So I left you last with my train ticket story. Well it turns out that it actually got more complicated! When I got to the station in Grenoble and tried to get my money back, they said that they couldn’t reimburse me there and that they would have to mail me a check or something. So not too bad you think, but then when I went to the bank to get some more cash (I spent what I had left on the 2^nd ticket) I find out that there is still a hold on my account! So now I only have about 100euro left. Hopefully I’ll be ok with my credit card.

I had a wonderful visit with Marc in Grenoble. The city is so beautiful. The streets are mostly stone and the buildings are old and beautiful and almost every street corner has a fountain. And oh the mountains! Even though it rained the whole time I was there so that you couldn’t fully see them, they were still huge and amazing! We took a ride up in a telecar bubble up to an old fort that gave you a wonderful view of the city. The rest of my time there was spent walking around town and meeting his friends. It was a great visit, but way too short.

Marc in the telecabin going up the mountain.

View from the fort on the top of the mountain in Grenoble.

Then we tried to figure out how to get me to Biberach. I was able to buy a ticket from Grenoble to Zurich at the train station, but it turns out if you want to book a German train ticket online you have to do so like a month in advance! So as I’m writing I am on my way through the French Alps towards Zurich where I will have 45mins to find someone that speaks English and buy the rest of my ticket! I hope all goes well or I’ll be stuck in Switzerland and late for work on Monday! Ack!

Swiss Alps, too bad it was cloudy all day.

Swiss cows! Yes Max, I've started a collection... Farm animals from around the world!

What I think is grape vines just outside of Biberach, but I'm not too sure.

Bonjour de PARIS!

Bonjour de PARIS!!!!!!!!! Well, if you want to be technical about it, at the moment I am on a train about half way between Paris and Lyon on my way to visit Marc in Grenoble. And there is a whole story behind this, but I’ll get to that in just a minute. First let me entertain you with my adventures so far.

It all starts Wednesday morning, May 3. After having stayed up most of the night with Michael (finishing his thesis, I swear!) and a tearful good-bye at the OCtranspo bus stop I was off to the train station to catch my 11:10 bus to Montreal, or so I thought… I arrived at the train station with my life in 2 bags trailing behind me to find the place empty. Now I thought to myself, well this is a little weird, but I was an hour early. I made my way to the ticket counter to ask where the Swiss Air bus was. The conversation went a little like this:

Me: Where do I catch the Swiss Air bus?

Ticket Man: It waits out front, but only gets here at 12:30pm.

Me: What do you mean 12:30pm!?!?! My ticket says 11:10am.

Ticket Man: Well yesterday it got here at 12:30pm, and usually always does.

Me: But I’m sure my ticket says 11:10am.

Ticket Man: Can I see your ticket… See right here, departure Ottawa 13:10.

Insert me looking and feeling like a real idiot.

So I managed my first mess up before even leaving the city! The ticket man did take pity on me though, and offered to keep my stuff in an employee room and told me to go have breakfast across the street. This whole time delay thing did allow Michael to see me off at the train station, so I got one more kiss before I left.

The bus to Montreal was uneventful. I got to the airport on time, and even managed to check in on time and without getting lost! The plane took off at around 5pm in the rain, so there are no pictures of me leaving Canada behind. And so the long trip began. One thing I have to say is, if ever any of your go to Europe, fly with Swiss Air! The seats are comfortable, and there’s lots of room, very much unlike my trip to Cuba this winter. After dinner I tried to sleep, but not very much, because even though the seats were comfy, they were not comfy enough for a decent sleep. I did manage to get some sleep, and woke up in time to see Paris (I think) and the landing. From the few short minutes that I was in Zurich it was great! I got a distant view of the Alps as the plane was landing and WOW. Absolutely amazing, I have to go back there before I come home. I had just enough time to transfer planes for the short flight to Paris.

Landing in Zurich

Landing in Paris (I swear the Eiffel Tower is there)

Once in Paris things got interesting. By the time I went through customs (they didn’t stamp my passport L I’ll have to remember to ask next time) and got my bags it was about 9:30. But it took me about 1.5hrs to figure out how to get to the metro! But I did find it and to my horror discovered that, like Montreal, the Paris metro has lots of stairs and no escalators! So it was a repeat of Montreal, with me wrestling with my luggage up and down many, many, many stairs. But I made it, and even managed to find my hostel without getting lost. And after a very refreshing shower I was off to see Paris!

I decided that since it was a nice day I would walk around. It took me about 30mins to get to the Louvre. Since I only had a few hours I just walked around outside and through the tulip garden. I will definitely have to go back in August when I have enough time to dedicate a whole day to it. I also took a boat cruise down the River Siene and got to see most of the big attractions. I set out on foot again to go visit La Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris. Absolutely gorgeous! It does make me wonder a little how much money was spent building it that could have otherwise been spent to help its parishioners. Still, it was quite the sight. Back at my hostel and after a quick nap I met another Canadian to have dinner with. After chatting a bit with other travelers I decided to call it an early night.

Which brings us to today I had a quick breakfast at the hostel (with very good coffee) and then it was off for a quick view of the Eiffel Tower, l’Arch de Triomphe and l’Hotel des Invalide. And when I say quick, I mean quick, like walk by, take a picture and hop on the next bus! Even with my sprinting through Paris, I was still late for the train! I managed to get to the station on time (even 20min early) but I couldn’t retrive my ticket from the automatic teller! It so happens that in France, their credit cards have a “puce”, and this “puce” is what allows automatic tellers and such to read the card. So now there’s like 5mins till my train leaves, I have no ticket and I can’t find anyone to help me! So I hop on the train without my ticket and hope for the best. It turns out that it wasn’t that big a deal. I just had to buy another ticket on the train and I would get reimbursed in Grenoble. So I buy the ticket (pay more for it) and enjoy the train ride to Grenoble. So hopefully that will all work out!