A little update

Hi folks!

I know, I haven't been very active by means of blogging, but I think I owe you a little update about my life. Well, what happened in the last month? I was in Berlin for celebrating NYE and had a great time seeing my friends and it became just obvious for me why I prefer being in Berlin to Cambridge. But well, happy days are over anow nd I returned to Cambridge 6 January and I directly noticed that, since the white landscapes were suddenly replaced by the grey and rainy English version of winter (and possibly summer as well). While people in other places experienced a rather bitter winter, temperatures here have always been something between -2 and +8°C degrees. This is just nice though when the sky is blue which hardly happens.
Life here in Cambridge started to become more friendly. I have been quite active with a bunch of very nice people of the CouchSurfing community and actually enjoyed some very good times in Cambridge. This includes among others my first time to an English night club. It was called "the place" and if "the place" doesn't promise enough, you'll better have to gain this experience by yourselves. Or maybe better not. I can be modest, especially if I don't expect too much and after the experiences from Sweden, I thought I was prepared for everything - well, I was wrong. I don't exaggerate when I say that I have never been to such a scrubby place. I was very relieved when "the place" closed at 2:30 am and we could continue at someone's place.
What happened else? I have been to a college pub which wasn't the special experience that I hoped it would be. I went to Dublin for a weekend which was definetely fun. Just refreshing to be back in a real city. Dublin was prettier than I thought it would be. Its nightlife has quite a lot to offer, especially the area around Temple Bar. I participated in a guided city tour and in a pub crawl which was definetly a highlight of the trip. Only bad thing with Dublin is that it's expensive as hell and not the best place for having a budget trip. Back to Cambridge, all my focus was committed to a talk that I had to give about my project and my progress. So I spent a rather long time to prepare this thoroughly and Wednesday it was. Approx. 90 minutes including many questions and lots of discussion, but I survived. In the beginning of the week, my bike decided to break. While I was driving, the back wheel fell on the street. Nothing else to do than carry the bike and the wheel back home and to walk.
So here I am now, approx. 4 weeks of lab work left (which are gonna be quite tough) and without bike. Even though, I never really loved Cambridge, I start getting melancholic especially when listening to Keane and walking down the rainy streets here. Another chapter is closing soon. On the other hand, I am really looking forward to going back to Berlin and particularly to end up lab work. I mean, I did like my project but I am realizing more and more that I get tired by working in the lab, always this pressure and the sweaty hands when working with radioactivity and rather long lab days don't contribute to a relaxed atmosphere. Indeed, it's getting time to finish all this and relax and maybe start something new.
For today, I decided to have a last relaxed day since I want to leave early. The reason is Brighton. Yes, after work I'll be on the way to the very South of England to spend a fun weekend at the seaside exploring the supposed to be lively city of Brighton. I hope that I'll enjoy it and that you enjoy the weekend as well! See you!

Customized spam

Random spam message which I received today in my skype window:

[25.01.2010 23:43:35] diplomas_here: Degree in any field.

GET YOUR DIPLOMA TODAY!If you are looking for a fast and effective way to get a diploma,(non accredited) this is the best way out for you. Provide us with degree you are interested in. Call us right now on: +13122607939 "Just leave your NAME & PHONE NO. (with CountryCode)" in the voicemail.
Our staff will get back to you in next few days!<<<

Unbelievable, isn't it?

The world of Tesco & co

To go shopping in England is so exciting, at least I think that there are so many things to discover everytime you do it. Even more than in Germany, I feel the urgent need to buy much more senseless things once I am in a supermarket.

Cambridge has approx. 100,000 inhabitants which makes it to a rather small town. The first day I was here I heared that the best store for a bigger shopping is Tesco which is located at the outskirts of the city in Cherry Hinton Village. And the first impressing point are the "normal" opening times:

And of course, you can find everything in that superstore. Computer, clothes, home appliances and even food. The biggest problem is just that you can't stop buying stuff. "Buy one, get one for free", "3 for 2 pounds" a.s.o. My bitter statistics after my first shopping round was 75 pounds. (more than 80 €) whereof 90% of this amount was spent for food! And actually, things are not necessarily more expensive here. When it comes to clothing, people from euro countries get even a big advantage as prices often are calculated for an exchange rate of 1 pound = 1.5 euro which is no more the case. Practically, something that in Germany would cost 30 euro is available for 20 pounds in the UK which is not more than 22 euro. And best of all, is the range of stuff that you get in the shops. It is everytime a pleasure to get there and everytime I have to realise painfully that I spend more than an hour in the supermarket. But no light without shadow and the bitter part of english shops is the bread section. Thousands of different kinds of bread and one worse than the other. However, my biggest discovery in Tesco superstore was "German Rye Bread". In a country with no bread culture - isn't this reason enough to admire Tesco?!

Yesterday, I was unfaithful - I went to another supermarket, Budgens. Not as big, not as nice and not as cheap, but it is the closest one. And actually, I made another big discovery. Innocent superfruit smoothie with pomegranates, blueberries & acai. It was horribly expensive but caughtmy eyes. I haven't tried it yet - probably it sounds much better than it will taste. This liter contains 76 pressed grapes, 2 1/2 mashed bananas, 1 1/2 pressed pomegranates, 2 squeezed oranges, 160 crushed blueberries, 100 peeled acai berries, some freshly squeezed lemon and 0 bungalows (or any stairs whatsoever) - no idea what they mean with that last fact. Sounds good, right?!

Lunch with a Nobel Prize Winner

Today I ate lunch in the cafeteria of the department. I noticed a journalist sitting in the corner and interviewing an indish looking guy with glasses and greyish hair. I sat down, took my sandwich and started eating. I wondered what kind of interviews someone would have in the cafeteria of a department like ours. After a while the indish looking guy left his interviewing partner and passed me. I realized that his face was familiar to me, but I did not see from where... it must have been TV or newspaper. Then I remembered the words from the lady from the administration office, "there are a couple of Nobel Prize Winners working here". Well, that was it. Wasn't that guy this year's Nobel Prize Winner, this Venk-whatever his name was, that has been researching ribosomes?! Back in my lab, I started googling and the autofinder helped me to find the name: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan - and there his picture popped up, the guy that I just met in the restaurant.

Bight is flooked

Quite a lot has happened, among others several ups and down in my enthusiasm about my project, my mood and mental state. So here we are in week 7 of my Diplomarbeit. Last friday I booked my flight to England. And I didn't do it well. Was so focused on arriving at London Stansted which is the closest airport to Cambridge (and besides Ryanair I could not find direct connections Berlin-Stansted), so finally I booked a flight including a change of planes in Düsseldorf. Not really smart if you consider that Cambridge is still accessible from London Luton. Shit happens. So around 10 days were left until the take-off. But this was not really the biggest mistake. Worse was the schedule for the remaining work in Berlin. No doubt that if everything had went to plan, I could have made it. But obviously I have not learn the lesson - never expect that everything works according your plans in lab. So here I am - frustrated after three days of devastating experiments and results. And there are still 2 scary works days remaining... Hopefully things will be more relaxed in England.
So what remains? Cleaning my bench in the lab. Preparing my samples and my parcels for England and posting them. Packing of course, so that my room can be given to a short term renter. Visiting my parents. And hopefully see some friends before I leave. Things are not well organised and probably I won't find the time for halv of the stuff that I wanted to do - but hey, I won't dissapear for always, it's just a couple of months. Wish me luck for the last preparation and hopefully see ya soon!

FREEDOM!

...not more to say!

Something is happening...

For those who did not have the possibility to hear about: A big change will take place in my life. Yes, change means change means I'm gonna move to Cambridge in order to carry out some experiments at the Medical Research Council towards my Diplomarbeit! That is actually the reason why I decided to switch to English now. The exact date is not determined yet, but I guess that it will be in the beginning of November. And this is the place where I will brief you about my life in England and my progress of getting started there. Currently, I'm still studying for my final exams but end is in sight! I'm done with three of four exams, that means just one remaining. The last one will be on Septmeber 28th - and then I am free again! And one day after that, I will go to Sweden for a couple of days. Looking forward to this!