Discoveries

Saw the results of my first gels today, and was told that I have a natural talent. I suspect that good teachers and patience honed in biopsychology labs (motto: if the rats didn't have a mind of their own, we wouldn't be studying them) more than accounts for the success. Luckily, all my rookie mistakes were decently benign. I am not stained silver, Gott sei Dank. Okay, next time I won't drop the membrane on the floor... but apparently the five-second rule totally applies in biology.

In other news, look what I found today! Just goes to show you that sometimes, when you're searching for something at a German website of a German school, you should use the English word. No idea why this is the case, but hey, auditions are next Monday already! Just in the nick of time! Rehearsals are only once a week, but that's once a week more than I'm getting right now.

Also, if you know any German at all, enjoy the writings of Mark Twain, and haven't read his treatise on the tongue yet, then you haven't lived. I read lots of Twain when I was a kid, but can't remember having come across this little gem before. I definitely have to start using "haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein" in conversation whenever possible.

Random thought: What if O. Henry had been a German? Or Faulkner? *involuntary shudder*

On the other hand, I could definitely read Hemingway auf Deutsch.

Total stream of consciousness... other amusing thing of the day: click here.

*****

Back to reality! I had a surprise trip to Berlin this weekend. Host-brother Martin is in the process of setting up his new apartment in Prenzlauer Berg. It's reassuring to me that young people all over the world require more than one car-load to get all their crap from one place to the next... Christina and Wolfgang and I tagged along for the second mini-bus load and to drive the bus (a 4 hour trip) back to Göttingen. The first day in Berlin I saw Ikea and Martin's new apartment, especially the stairwell as we unloaded all his stuff. We went out to dinner at a local Greek restaurant with lots of "frescoes" on the wall that literally looked like poster shots from some bad 1960's movie about ancient Greece... or cover art from equally bad historical romance novels.

Sunday was better. Christina and I ditched the work and took the train to downtown Berlin. I saw the Brandenburger Tor (from both sides,) the train station, and the Regierungsviertel... the day before Merkel's chancellorship was officially announced. I saw only one press van camped outside the Bundestag building Sunday afternoon, but the place must have been a zoo Monday night. I'll see more of the city at Thanksgiving, and hopefully bring my bike this time!

Better go eat something before Mike calls! (Yay!)