A Working Week

What´s new? I´ve just had my first week of practical work in the lab. Well, really, we got started last Friday, when I was taught how to use the Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) spotter machine - that´s not the true technical name, but it´ll do. But I made a bit of a boo-boo: I´d been watching others using it before I myself would be given a go, and Sebastian trusted me enough to leave me to try it without supervision. There´s nothing to it, it´s actually pretty cool - you fill a syringe with your sample, and then a robot finger presses down gently and evenly on the plunger so that you get better coverage on the TLC plate than if your shaky self (or myself) was doing it. So, there I was, happily placing my syringe in the slot, and pressing the ´Go` button, when a scratchy noise ensued... And I saw the tip of the syringe slowly bending until it had almost bent back on itself. Uh. Oh. I hadn´t pushed the syringe far enough in. Not the best start I could´ve imagined. Sebastian came back and discovered what had happened, but didn´t get angry at all and told me not to worry - I think he was feeling bad that he had left me unsupervised on my first go. I very stupidly felt very bad for the rest of the afternoon and put a damper on the mood as we worked together. But Monday saw a fresh start. What did Mr Wilde say: "experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes" - as long as I learn from errors it´ll be ok; think the problem is that I´m not often humble enough to learn!

It´s only been the second week of my project, but I already feel like I´ve fallen into a routine: I walk to the lab and arrive a bit before 9, a guy Daniel who works in the next lab usually unlocks the door of my ´office` for me (it´s just a wee room which I put my things in because there isn´t space elsewhere), I put on my labcoat:

 and instantly become Chemistwoman and fly through the building saving people from potential explosions, low percentage yields, Schrödinger equations, the like... Or, I unassumingly look over what I wrote in my lab book the day before. Quietly concealing my true identity.

Then Sebastian arrives and we get to it, but just for a while before lunchtime comes at 11 and we´re off to the Mensa, then afterwards mainly the women head to the coffee joint in the Maths building. At lunch and coffee, almost all the talk is in German, quite naturally, but I think I get the jist of most things. It´s going to be a big step to become confident enough to join in... But I hope I get there before I have to leave!

Then back to work. It´s quite weird to be working over what would be lunchtime at home, but I think my tummy´s gettting quite used to it; even though I have breakfast at the back of 8, I´m getting quite hungry by 10. Maybe I am also an increasing pie, getting too used to big helpings at lunchtime and delighting in the multitude of bakeries I encounter when I go down to the Altstadt. Who can say. At 3 o´clock, we break for more coffee, and maybe possibly probably some form of confection. I don´t entirely mind this excursion. Then back to the lab for the final push, until between 5 and 6, then home!

I left too big a gap between the last post and this one, there´s a lot I could talk about. Last Sunday, I went to a church with Laura and Ronit, English and American girls whom I´d met the Sunday before. We went to the Open Door church which happens in a cinema. I used to think that going to church in a cinema would be very surreal, but it actually works very well; the seating is really just like the arrangements upstairs in bigger churches but you´re obviously closer to the action, and there´s a lot of space down at the front for speakers - and a band! I enjoyed the music, the first song was ´Better is One Day`, which took me by surprise! The other songs were in German, but lyrics were given, I still have some of them in my head now. After the first song, a man and wife were officially admitted as members of the church. After the second, a woman was introduced as having suffered from problems with her skin for ten years, and with reference to James 5:14, one of the elders put oil on her forehead, and then the preacher and two elders placed their hands on her shoulders. Later at lunch, someone told me that the same had been done for another woman who had very similar problems, and she´s now totally healed. You know, I´d never given credence to that verse as describing something that could be done nowadays, and be effective - I was inwardly embarrassed that I often underestimate the power of prayer. And again when someone else said that that same morning, the young daughter of the singer in the band had asked her mum to turn on a CD player which everyone thought was broken, and her mum told her as much... But then the girl prayed that it would be fixed, and then immediately asked her mum to turn it on because it would work this time. The mum was so worried about how she would have to explain why the CD player still wasn´t working... Except, it was now. I think that made me beam and blush at the same time. I think I understood the main ideas of what the preacher went on to talk about - he used videos too, which helped a bit. In any case, it was apparently a lot easier to engage with than sermons at other protestant churches here, and we were warmly welcomed.

Later that day, Laura hosted a viewing of The Sound of Music, which I´d never seen before (!!!!!!!!!!!). It is, actually, brilliant and magical. How Maria can play a tune with the children, who represent different notes, by pointing at them, as though they´d practised this for months... How Maria so conveniently knows Sixteen Going On Seventeen later on even though it was just sung between Liesl and Rolf at first... No, I did really rather like it. I would go to Salzburg and do ´the tour`. That much.

Tomorrow will hopefully see a Burns Supper at the ESG, I´m excited to see haggis in a foreign land! I hope I´m not called on for a recital as one of the two Scottish people likely to be present... I know the first couple of verses of To a Mouse, and it gets very patchy until "the best laid plans of mice and men aft gang agly". Maybe that´s a good thing to remember in the lab.

How to end? Here´s a picture of my German steed:

I bought it from a Flohmarkt (flea market), apparently that´s the thing to do for good value - mine was 25€! I hope the mannie wasn´t saying things like, "you know, I don´t think the brakes will last much longer, hehehe, good luck to you!", I don´t know what the German for that would´ve sounded like - but the cycle home was ok, I think I should´ve trusted it more!

Getting into the swing...I hope...

To me, it honestly feels like yonkeroonies since my last post. A lot of things have happened to fill the time, mainly with putting things in place for my stay here, which I´m now grateful for! It´s strange though: rather than feeling very much like a short-term visitor, as I expected to, even in the course of the last couple of days I´ve begun to feel like I´m a ´real` student here. Indeed, I´ve been enroled as a student, and here I am in halls - here´s me room, in Ludwig-Thoma Heim:

 There is a bed too, don´t worry (it feels quite strange, to have been living in this sort of set-up at the start of my studies and returning to it pretty much at the end...there are moments when I could almost be in Johnston...but do you ever look back at certain times of life and think them so distant that for a moment it´s hard to comprehend that they belong to the same life you´re living now?...Maybe not!). But beyond these, there´s a peculiar feeling of beginning to integrate more than I´d expected I would. Please humour me in this, I will use more words than are necessary... For our project placements, it hasn´t been expected of us that we have more than a rough knowledge of the language of the country we´re visiting, if even that. I bet I could get by in Regensburg just fine without a word of German...if I could hold out long enough from the squirming feeling of ignorance that´d probably germinate. But, because I do have some German, I´m feeling obliged to at least begin exchanges in it...I´m not doing a very good job, but it´s happening! It feels more like the experience of an exchange student trying to get to grips with the language, even though, really, it´d be OK if I conducted everything in English. If I worried that I wouldn´t get much of a chance to use German because everyone would want to practice their English on me all the time...pahahaha. If you could learn foreign languages by osmosis, right now I´d look like Violet Beauregarde post-Willy Wonka´s three-course meal chewing gum episode. I hope you know what I mean. If not, imagine me, spherical. Not hard.

That isn´t a very accurate picture. Really, most people speak English, to a much better standard than I think they realise, and it even excites some of them to be able to speak to a native speaker (that seems to be a real buzzword with English learners here), because some of them never have before. That´s quite surreal, isn´t it? People have evidently put years of hard work into learning English...and never had the benefit of using it with the people they maybe most intended to! Although that also testifies to how popular English is as a means of communication between non-British Europeans. I don´t think I´ve really appreciated how fortunate I am to have been born into English...if I was in the same position as the German students who really want to have a high standard of English to improve their prospects, I´d long for it to come as naturally to me as a native speaker! And maybe it´s my own generation who have felt the obligation to learn English most...in the 80´s, it was still OK for German scientists to publish research in German...that doesn´t happen now! I´d appreciate it if it was resented - but it doesn´t seem to be. Almost everyone I´ve spoken to wants to perfect their English, and they apologise that they aren´t better. This is extraordinary of them, firstly because their English is great and even we native speakers make various mistakes all the time, but secondly because I´m here in their country, bludgeoning their language with each incorrect article and every wrong tense. And forgetting to say ´please` after stumbling to the end of questions; I deserve a good clip round the lug.

Anyway.

Joining the group I´m going to be working with, that´s actually started off better than my nervous self could´ve anticipated. Waaaaay better! I´m working with a PhD student called Sebastian, on the isolation, fractionation and structural elucidation of acylphoroglucinol derivatives from Hypericum Empetrifolium. Ja. This week was intended to be an introduction for me - so far, so good! All the people working in the lab, mainly pharmacy PhD students and postdocs, have been very friendly and accommodating. We all go to lunch at 11, before the students hit the Mensa at noon, and have coffee breaks together later on. Kaffee and Kuchen really are had all the time here, I thought it was just the same as the idea that every Scottish man wears a kilt, always. And I had a Currywurst for lunch today. Mental. Mostly they speak in English to me, but sometimes try German - if I haven´t been expecting it and I´m not tuned in, I appear slower than I really am. It´s a handy enough excuse...

My first job was to help Sebastian prepare a presentation in English. We´ve made a deal that if I help him in his English, he´ll help me with my German - I really need to start being more brave and use more complex German for him to help with! But I´ve actually really been enjoying giving English help; it´s rewarding when you feel that your support is valued! Man, this is turning into a ode to Germanic languages, sorry. What else has happened...had hoped to take pictures of campus today, but it was raining - yus! Felt like home! But, yeah, I´ll regret it if I don´t start prolifically snapping, I know. I´ll get on it, rain or shine.

For now, here´s my favourite documented case of Denglish (German-English) so far: Germany has taken Hob Nobs for her own:

Sonntag

I don´t know if I´ll continue to post as regularly as I´ve started out doing, but today has been interesting so far and I want to write about it while it´s still fresh in my mind! This morning I went to the English language service I mentioned last time, at a centre for protestant groups in the old town. It was led by Rhona Dunphy, who´s been here for quite a long time, 17 years if I remember correctly! I find the idea of being an expat very interesting, especially when people start families outside their home country, as she has. It´s hard for me to imagine what it´s like to make such concrete plans to be quite far away from where you came from. Think that shows just how much of an island mentality I have. She wasn´t expecting many others as students are only just returning for the start of term, but two students about my age came, as well as a few older women (maybe mature students). Normally services are held in a little chapel in the centre, but this time we met in a wee room, with a wreath and candles on a table in the middle. It was like a normal Church of Scotland service except with comfy chairs and with the minister playing the piano for the hymns...quite surreal and funny now I reflect on it! But I enjoyed it. Rhona talked about Jesus being the light of the world; she said she´d found this a difficult topic to talk about in recent years, as through cancer she has lost the use of one eye, and when it´s dark, even her good eye doesn´t work well at all. But she talked about the power that Jesus´ light has, and how, when people reflect clearly his light (she mentioned Mother Teresa), it has a greater evangelical impact than almost anything else.There was communion at the end, where we stood in a circle, and I wasn´t quite sure what was going to happen - Rhona passed me a cracker (think savoury snack, not Christmas), broke off a piece of it, and said "this is Christ´s body, broken for you" and passed me the piece. It took a while for me to realise that I was meant to do the same for the person next in the circle! Then the wine was passed round, and we held hands for the blessing, and then shook each other´s hands afterwards. I know it mightn´t be practically possible to have communion in this way with a bigger congregation, but I liked it; I also know it´s obvious that Christians all over the world are part of the same family, but this brought it home to me in a very clear way- I hadn´t known these folk first thing today, but we already shared a bond!

Some of us stayed after the meeting for tea and coffee. All through my career as a chemistry student, my explanation that I am that very thing usually arouses the same sentiment, tellingly expressed as an "...oh." Today wasn´t much different...except that one of the other students studies maths, so we share common ground in the reaction-of-others-on-disclosure-of-our-subject-of-study stakes I think, that´s always comforting. She lives next to the halls I think I´ll be staying in (it´s curious that the student office is being quite shady about the details of my accommodation...but all will become clear tomorrow!) and said I could pop round if I liked, which was very nice! Rhona talked about a meeting of the Church of Scotland presbytery of Europe which is coming up...did you know that Bermuda and Sri Lanka are part of that? Long story - they nearly joined with the CoS presbytery of the Scottish Western Isles beforehand...hahaha! And Rhona used to be a minister in Culloden so knows David Meredith, and knows people who used to go to Bon Accord. This world is distinctly small.

Afterwards, I went a walk and finally properly got my camera out! This here is the cathedral, der Regensburger Dom:



It´s a big chap.

Here´s the Danube, in spate with all the snowmelt:

And here´s my first real German Kaffee und Kuchen! :D A mocha and a Donauwelle (Danube wave), which was creamy and had cherries in it, scrumdiddly.

Because not many places are open today, I bought myself a cheese pretzel to have sometime today (I have fruit and things too, never fear!). Alas, you don´t get to see this. My belly already has.

I´ve arrived!

So, here I am, wow-weeeee. It seems right to talk about my first impressions, but in a way, it doesn´t feel like the ´real` experience as actually started - I´m not yet in student accommodation but in a hotel until Monday, when I pick up my keys and meet my supervisor. Monday is D-Day (though I definitely shouldn´t mention the war). But, apart from that...first impressions are excellent! Yesterday my friend Carmen, who was a Regensburg ERASMUS student in one of my third year lab groups, picked me up from Munich airport and drove me and my fat, fat luggage to my hotel here in Regensburg; I don´t know how I would´ve managed without her, the only other option would´ve been the train, and everyone knows trains are fatfatluggage-ist. And the pavements in Regensburg are glazed with ice - the local news programme is calling it ´Blitzeis!!` and interviewing a spectrum of moustached residents about their slippery escapades; I was unsuitably amused - so distances carrying much more than oneself are a thought. But we got to the hotel ok, and then Carmen offered to show me around the outside of the university, it was closed because of a public holiday (Carmen told me that Bavaria observes a lot of religious holidays, so much so that there´s just about one day off every fortnight...sound´s like Riley´s life!). No getting around it, Üniversität Regensburg isn´t that pretty. Imagine a campus made up of different shapes and sizes of buildings very similar to the MacRobert building at King´s College. I think Aberdeen might have spoiled me for most other universities. But I know where the Chemistry department is now, and very importantly the Mensa (food hall). They also put stickers of big black birds on windows, to stop real birds flying into them...I like what I´ve seen so far of German logic. They even have parking spaces specifically for women in multi storey car parks, which are wider than normal and closer to exits...kiddin´ye not. That might be a double-edged sword, if that´s the right expression... Also, the current Pope was once a professor of theology here, and when he revisited Regensburg lately in his present capacity, the buildings he was to visit were nicely painted. Hehe.

I spent today generally wandering around - gingerly so, with my fellow pavement-trampers. Regensburg´s old town is lovely, lovely, lovely - Carmen said she hadn´t really realised that all the buildings were painted with pastel colours until I commented on it! Everything is so well-preserved, and it´s weird so see such evidently old buildings drafted into modern day consumerism, business etc. And they like their bread, and coffee, they sure do. I could´ve taken photos of everything - apart from anything else though, I thought I ought to have free hands when braving the ice, and I didn´t want to draw further attention to myself. You know, I felt very Scottish today; I don´t think I´ve the skin to blend in with the Bavarians. Or, maybe, the German. Oh dear. I doubt my knuckles would recover from the rapping they deserve from the German teachers I´ve had in life, after today. I mixed the perfect and imperfect tenses at least once, ouch.

Here is a picture to break up the blurb:

It´s the Steinerne Brücke (stone bridge) which was completed in 1146, and allowed for major trade routes to pass over the Danube for the first time - it´s in good shape!

Tomorrow shall hopefully hold more informed sightseeing. And Sunday is promising: I´ve been in touch with the ESG in Regensburg, which is a protestant Christian union, and discovered that every second Sunday they have English language services, led by a female Church of Scotland minister, and one of these services is happening this Sunday! Apparently, everything is shut here on Sundays and it´s very peaceful - looking forward to it!

P.S. Please excuse the apostrophes, I hadn´t really noticed before but English keyboards don´t add much of a slant to them, but German keyboards offer you ´or `, acute or grave accents. It´s interesting. Also, y swaps places with z. I´ve typed a lot of zou´s lately.