Safe in Marburg, the city of hills

I arrived safely in Marburg this morning. The train ride was smooth but I didn't sleep much. I had too much on my mind with work to do in Marburg and Andy's job offers. I arrived at the train station pretty exhausted and ready to collapse into a bed. But it turns out that my ride couldn't find me at the train station, despite the fact I was the only person with a HUGE suitcase and I was wearing a bright pink shirt.

So another lab person had to come find me. He searched for 10 minutes before finally finding me in front of the station wearing my bright pink shirt and hauling my enormous suitcase. Since this lab person didn't have a car or the keys to my flat, we had to take the bus from the Main Train station to the lab. During the long uphill ride, I tried to balance myself, a backpack, and two suitcases on the sharp turns. On one turn (conveniently close to the hospital), I lost my balance and crashed into the two suitcases and knocked over a baby carriage next to me. The entire bus burst into laughter (and rightly so) and I gingerly picked up two suitcases and a baby carriage (sans baby). If I was tired enough, I would have burst into tears, but instead, I was able to see the humour in the situation (I looked pretty ridiculous on top of two suitcases and a carriage) and I laughed along.

After recovering from my fall (my suitcase was padded so I didn't even develop a bruise), we arrived at the lab, only to discover that the lab was farther up a series of 30 stairs. Reuti, lab mate without a car, takes pity on me to carry the suitcase up half of the stairs. Then we trek the half kilometer to lab, which conveniently had an elevator. I arrived in the lab, hoping to find Robin (lab mate with car) to no avail. But I do meet three people in the lab, including Prof. Frenking, the professor that I will work with. Prof. Frenking said hello and then said "I don't have time to meet you today but I think I can fit you in for 30 minutes tomorrow morning". Is this the start of things to come? Probably......

After 20 minutes of wandering around aimlessly, meeting a guy from Tennessee who was dissapointed to NOT hear a Kentucky accent, and unpacking my laptop; Robin (lab mate with car), arrives and says that he can take me immediately or at 5pm...I take the immeadiately. We then find my flat, only to realize that it too...is uphill....I'm beginning to think that Marburg is a freak of nature... paths only go uphill and never lead downhill, especially when you have a large suitcase. Robin took pity on my tired and pathetic arms and carried the suitcase up the one flight of stairs. After unpacking a little, I fell into my bed for a much needed nap.

Now I'm safe in lab and already running calculations. :-) We'll see how long I can go on my 45 minute nap. Ciao!