And more pictures!

And here's part two!

As promised, here are photos from my trip to Berlin. Was that more than a month ago already?? First and foremost, the Brandenburger Tor, or Brandenburg gate. And yes, I saw it from both sides.

Did I mention that I saw the Regierungsviertel the day before Merkel was officially announced as the next chancellor? Unfortunately I only got to see the outside of the buildings, but it was still a neat time to visit.

From the other side. I'd love to go to the top of the dome! I'm hopefully going back to Berlin next weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with my friends from Kiel, so maybe I can make time to do a little more sightseeing!

And finally: Studentendorf! First and formeost, the window. For whatever reason it is constantly covered in condensation, and when I leave the heater running it gets a little tropical in here... probably should see the administration about that one. Otherwise it's nice.

And the other end of the bed. Not a very big room, but then again I only have so much stuff! Normally this kind of situation would plunge me into full on belongings-accumulation mode, but so far I've tried to show some restraint. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up!

And here is my little sink-nook. It is inhabited currently by my toothbrush, towel, and approximately 180 billion spiders. I have no idea why they like this particular space so much, but at the moment they're staying on the ceiling so we have an uneasy truce going... at least until I find a vaccum cleaner with a hose attachement.

And finally, the other corner, with desk etc. No desk lamp, unfortunately, since I still can't get the one that came with the room to attach anywhere but at the head of my bed. Otherwise, it's a nice little space. Since taking the first round of pictures I've managed to personalize it a little more with what I'd like to call "The Post-it Wall ver. 2.0" (see below.)

Anyone who has seen the wall above my bed in St. Louis knows about my particular brand of filing system. At Kenyon I tried to keep it to my desk and usually had enough wall decoration that it didn't get out of hand... but with all the empty wall space here, I'm reverting to old habits. It's just a start, but hopefully by the end of the year it will be just as impressive as the first version. Here are my current favorites, and both are already vital for my day-to-day functioning:

Oh, and I almost forgot! I promised actual content with this post, now didn't I?

I did go see the play last Friday night. It was... different. The set was minimalist with an actual budget, which is to say already way cooler than whatever we had at Rosati... Okay, that's not hard to do. I'm not sure if I can say that the set and costumes were "modern" per se, but they certainly weren't period. On the upside, I was able to follow the dialogue fairly easily. The thing that really struck me as odd, however, was that the director tried to play the show for laughs. I'm sure plenty of people laugh at the overwrought pathos of The Crucible as it is normally portrayed, particularly when it is filled with screaming, overacting high school girls... but that's a little different from throwing in a game of heavy-metal musical chairs between Parris and Hale at the top of the second act, or morphing Dansforth into an MTV VJ for the girls' fashion-runway enterance during the trial scene. Modern audiences already stuggle with understanding the characters' motivations in this piece, so why throw in nonsensical frivolity? That said, the actors still seemed to have a decent grip on the intensity of the story, so I still enjoyed it.

Last weekend the Choir sang our Bach Cantata at a church service. St. Nikolai is Evangelical, so the service was a little different from what I've been exposed to at the Catholic churches over here. That in itself was kind of neat, and luckily I've picked up enough of the Our Father to be able to mumble along a little bit, which came in handy. The music went well enough, although I felt afterwards that I had sung much better in rehearsal than the actual performance. The alto and tenor soloists (ringers, not choir members) were decent, although with the hall setup it was hard for me to hear them. I'm glad we're done with the piece and can focus on some of the other works for our other concerts, which quite frankly I like much better.

This week in the lab has been pretty good. I'm feeling a little better about my technique after finally running a couple of gels on my own... I still have plenty of guidance, of course, but it's a nice feeling of independence nonetheless. I'm starting to accumulate stacks of articles again, which is not as overwhelming as it's been in the past. A good sign.

German classes are going well, and despite the time required I'm glad I have them. The other students in my dorm have complemented my speaking ability on a couple of occasions, and seem genuinely suprised when I tell them I only studied it for two years at college... But I also point out that I've been here for a few months now, and that my intensive course at the beginning made a world of difference.

Neuro classes... ahem. Neuro classes are currently at 8:15 in the morning on Mondays and Thursdays. I'm still interested in the lectures (membrane physiology at the moment) but I've been having the darndest time getting out the door before 8... and with no one checking up on my attendance, and no credit for the course, and the knowledge that I'll have to take lots of intro next year anyway... No, no, let's not beat around the bush here. I'm lazy and it's cold so I'm skipping class. Simple as that. BOTH this week, one last week. I'm feeling a little conflicted about it, but surprisingly only a little. The fact of the matter is that the lectures seem to be merely supplements for the lab rotations, methods courses, tutorials, and seminars that make up the meat of the program... and I'm not in the program. As nice as it is to hear some science, I get that in the lab all day. Anyway, maybe I'll start going again when I want to hear some different science, to branch out a little. Or when I find myself physically able to get out of bed before 7:30. Whichever comes first.

Speaking of class, I'm off to my last one of the week. I've been invited to my first student party this weekend, so hopefully there's good stuff to come!