self-imposed exile is now over

I passed! I passed my preliminary oral exam and I am now an official PhD candidate. :-) so now I can smile with confidence! :-)

disappeared from blogging but wishing I could disapear from life for a while

Wow, the last few weeks have been absolutely torturous. I've really struggled with a sense of alienation lately. Most of the alienation stems from my self-imposed exile from life outside of the research lab. Since I am a rather social person and quantum chemical calculations are not social, I have become rather depressed and lonely. But let me back track...Why did I exile myself from life outside of the lab?

One: I take my oral exam for my Phd on Dec. 10th. The oral exam is meant to test your ability to defend and describe your research. But in order to defend and describe your research, you must know and love it. I can do neither, which has lead to many thoughts about the meaning of life and why I really want a PhD, which of course spirals down into an empty abyss of self-loathing and hopelessness.

By placing myself into exile, I decided to let research consume my being. Anything that was not research related was considered frivolous and must be disposed of. Gone are the big and small joys of my life.

Graditeam list - replaced by the Gaussian03 Users Manual
Dinners with friends - replaced by dinners in front of the terminal screen
Phone calls- screened and returned only in the case of emergency
Church - attended when necessary
Family - see phone calls
sleep - replaced by caffeine and papers
Boyfriend - seen 1-2 times a week for moral support (you can guess that this causes a slight strain on the relationship)
Instant Messenger - turned off

I even went so far to turn off my gmail news feed so I won't get distracted by inane newstories or advertisements for quantum chemistry packages.

So my life has been stripped down to my computer, papers, food prepared one week in advance, and meetings with my advisor.....and occasionally an hour or two with the boyfriend.

The problem with this life...it stinks.

I don't love my research. I can barely tolerate it at times. Being absorbed into my research may be the source of the mysterious twitching that has developed recently. But the thing is....if I want to pass this prelim...I have to learn to love my research. So I figure the best way to do that is to continue to spend inordinate amounts of time on it until I get to know it in a personal way. Love will stem from a mutual sense of hatred into a beautiful flower of brilliant research.

I must now disappear into research world again.

Continuing the Tour

Hi, I'm back...

After a one month hiatus I decided to continue the blog. My European travels may be over (for the time being) but my adventures continue. So if you don't mind, I'm going to continue to post to my blog. Hopefully people still read it. :-)

In the last month I moved, visited family in KY, finished a portion of a project, helped with Teaching Assistant Training, started my own course, and finished a huge fellowship application. Now that my 800 students have checked into lab and my room is mostly completed, I believe my life can continue on.

I miss Europe. I miss the sense of adventure I felt every weekend as I explored a new place and I missed trying new things everyday. But I've learned to appreciate the things I love about home. I love the Champaign bus service and the fact that I am walking distance from my boyfriends apartment (2.3 miles is walking distance if you give yourself 40 minutes to walk it). I also love visiting my favorite organic food store (Strawberry Fields) after I make my Saturday morning farmer's market run. I love the ability to use my cell phone to call home as much as I want without paying ridiculous roaming fees.

But I think the thing I love most is knowing that I know my country. I may not understand why we have 20 different types of yogurt, but I know which kind I want. I love not having to ask someone how to operate the vending machine or what type of food I'm ordering off the menu. I also know how to navigate cell phone customer service. I guess I just like things to be normal, so I don't have to ask for help every time I want to try something new. But at the same time, I know that after a few months of normal, I'm going to start begging for travel experiences soon.

Just as a precaution for boring days ahead, anyone want me to visit?

Dream experience?

So I'm safe in the US now, back in the same house I've lived in for 4 years. Walking to front door, my hands began shaking, not because I was nervous about how things had changed since I left, but because so little has changed that I'm afraid the past 2 months will turn out to be a dream. I walked into my apartment, turned the key the wrong way like I always have, opened the door, and smelled the mustiness that I've grown accustomed to in the last year. My bathroom towel still hung in the same place I left it 10 weeks ago.

As I walked through the door, scenes from the summer flashed through my mind. Watching the Hungarian symphony in a a gilded opera house, watching the alps zoom past the train window in the superfast train, walking through the streets of Goslar with my long lost German sister. I have to wonder, did all of this really happen? Did I really spend 10 amazing weeks roaming the streets of 7 European countries? Did I really meet people from 30 different countries? Well, this blog, unless I can write blog entries in my sleep, proves that I did in fact do all these amazing things, and much more.

I still have so much to write about. So much happened on this trip that the blog hasn't even begun to explain all the memories in my mind. Hopefully I can catch up on some of the amazing experiences later this week as I wake up 2-3 hours before everyone else (I made it to 5:30am this morning. But until I can write again, I leave you with the last picture I took in Marbug, which really makes me think that this trip was a dream.

MIA for a while

Just so you know, I will probably be MIA for the next few days as I travel from Marburg to Frankfurt to Geneva to Amsterdam to Chicago and finally Champaign. Pray that no air traffic controllers strike in Switzerland, the Netherlands, or Chicago and that I make all my trains (I have 4 tomorrow alone) :-/

As much as Reuti wants me to have an eventful trip...I hope its plain boring.

Tata for now!

Caught unawares....but at least I had my towel

I leave for the US on Wednesday but I had to check out of my dorm today. However, I didn't know that I had to check out of my dorm today. I got up around 8:45...headed to the shower. I share a shower with 15 other people...which you might think is gross, but people keep the shower clean so its really not that bad. But I have to walk down the hall to use the shower.

Anyways, I'm down the hall, taking a shower, shampooing my hair, when someone bangs really loud on the door. I wonder if the door is going to crash in. Then I hear a female voice yelling "drei hundert neunzehn"....which is my room number. I turn off the shower, get soap in my eyes and yell back. "Ya, drei hundert neunzehn" . She then bangs on the door again and yells something in German...I have no idea what she said....I listen...I pause...and I reply "Ich verstehe nicht"....(I don't understand) to which she says another 30 words in German of which the only part I understand is "aus".....which ussually comes paired with questions that ask about travel. I then realize that someone was coming to see me....and apparantly they wanted to know when I'm leaving. I reply...with my very limited German "Dienstag!" (Tuesday)....she then says .aa/s.mdf/.amdsf;lasjksdf;ljsa or something....I have no idea....and walks away. Thinking that the exchange was over...I finish my shower....get the soap out of my eyes...and wrap up in a towel for the 5 meter walk back to my room.

I step into the hallway, wearing just a towel (I time my escape so no one sees me) and rush to my door...only to be blocked by a large woman dressed in white with hair the color of a coke bottle. She clutched what looked to be 2 folders, one with my name emblazoned across the top. Before letting me into my room, she proceeds to pester me with questions in very fast german....questions that I only catch one or two words of before becoming completely lost. I listen and listen..and eventually figure out that she wanted to know when I was leaving and if I paid my deposit. I say yes, and then say that I'm going to pay my rent that very day. During this time she grabs a tall Arabic guy and asks him to translate for us....even though I'm standing in the hallway wearing nothing but a towel!!!!

We then finish our conversation outside, after which she explains that she needs to see my room, but she doesn't give me the option to dress beforehand. So I open the door to my room, dreading her expression. I had just started packing and entire closet now lay between my floor and bed...sorted into piles that only I understood. I had not cleaned the sink (a task I saved for tonight) and my desk was covered in piles of dead moths (another task for this evening). She quickly walked through the room, with me hurriedly throwing things into a suitcase with one hand and grasping my towel with the other. She then told me that I would be charged a cleaning fee....(not surprised considering the state of my room). And then she left, leaving the door open so everyone could see me in my towel. :-/

I closed the door, quickly dressed, and then began cleaning the room. However, damage had been done, I would now be charged a cleaning fee, all because I had no idea that I had to check out one day before I left. :-/

Thus ends my story.

The Moral: Never leave without your towel.

Success!!!`

As the title suggests...I achieved success today as the 11th person in Marburg to obtain a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The evening started around 10pm when Amir and I walked to the city center (busses stopped running so we had to walk.


After wandering around for a bit, we finally found the bookstore that sold the book at this hour.

Around 12:30, a line began to form, so we decided to get in line.

By 1am, the line stretched around the block.

But at 1:01, the doors opened and we all walked in to obtain our copy of the book, which was even gift wrapped for us. :-)


So here I am with the bag...and the book...



I'm happy to report that the ending is...........

addendum to Harry Potter post

I should also add that I was able to watch the fourth movie in Germany this week...in English even. I'm beginning to wonder why I need to go back to the states...I can get all the books and watch all the movies I want.

Exciting plans for the weekend

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the last year, you know that Harry Potter book 7 is released at midnight tonight. Well, the book is released at midnight in great Britain, which means it will be released at 1am in central Europe. Even so, 1am in Germany is still 5 hours ahead of midnight in the states, so if I go to a book store at 1am, I will have my hands on a copy at least 4 hours before my friends in the states. :-) But I will also have the original British version instead of the "translated" American version.

I figure, I'm in Europe, I might as well take advantage of the timezone change. :-) Yesterday Reuti, a labmate, found the only bookstore in Marburg that will actually open at 1am to sell the book. So this morning I set out to the Altstadt (old marburg) to reserve my own copy of the book.

Thanks to Reuti's excellent map, I quickly found the bookstore and went in to order my copy. The bookstore owner laughed when he heard my american accent and said "you traveled a long way to get one book!" I successfully ordered my own copy of the book, so keep you eyes open for an exciting picture to appear around 1:30am my time, (6:30pm CST). Perhaps I'll even open the last page for you. :-)

Highlights from Krakow

This past weekend I traveled to Poland, specifically Warsaw and Krakow, to meet with CESRI fellows and IIE staff for a debrief.

If I had to pick out my favorite thing about Krakow, I would pick hanging out with all the CESRI fellows and IIE staff. It was really nice to see everyone again after 7 weeks in our seperate countries and to hear all about the various projects and experiences of each of the other scholars. It was also great to see Chris and Agi from Budapest and to meet Vijay (with whom I had many phone conversations with) and Mark, the creator of the CESRI program. Chris had impeccable dining taste (he really should write a guidebook) and took us to the most fantastic restaurants in Krakow where we tried dishes such as roast duck, grilled pheasant, blueberry peirogies, and delightful borsh (beet soup). We also took advantage of the large number of people (one table for one shot means just trying a sip of each drink) to sample a large variety of polish vodkas including the incredibly smooth Zubrowka, herbal Wodka Zoladkow Gorzka, and hot honey vodka. We also tried freshly squeezed bison grass (green but rather tasty) and mint apple juice. Needless to say, the weekend was a culinary treat.

But I also experienced a lovely culture and two beautiful cities. Since it was cheaper to fly to Warsaw than Krakow, Cau (CESRI scholar in Marburg) and I flew to Warsaw to stay with Mike, another CESRI fellow who studied in Warsaw this summer. Mike lived in Warsaw until he was 14, so he spoke fluent Polish and could show us around town. We visited the palace of culture and discovered yummy polish pastries. We then took the express train from Warsaw to Krakow (under 3 hours on a track devoted to high speed trains, excellent). In Krakow, we stayed in a hotel jut outside the Floridian gate of the old city. Since we were so close we spent time exploring the lovely inner city. In my own opinion, Krakow ranks far above Prague. Prague was lovely but incredibly crowded and seemed quite dirty (unwashed buildings, dirty streets, etc). Krakow on the other hand contained a lot of tourists, but the wide medievel walkways and large marketplace could handle the large crowd of tourists (one guidebook said that restaurants on the main square could easily hold over 1000 people at one time, which I think was a low number). The main square contained the cloth hall which still served as a marketplace where shopkeepers sold traditional Polish boxes, amber, embroidery, and leathergoods in stalls over 500 years old. Krakow also seemed to host more street entertainment with Polish quartets, Klesmer bands, marionette puppets, and even an elaborate puppet opera could be found on evenings. One never tired of things to see in Krakow. Even after three solid days of touring, including a guided tour of the Nicolas Copernicus Museum with our Polish guide, I found myself yearning for a monthlong stay.

On Sunday, after Chris and Agi left and we finished our powerpoint presentations, we had to fend for ourself gastonomically. However, since krakow is the culinary capital of Poland, we had no trouble finding lovely cafes for a sit down meal and even found yummy snacks on the main square. I tasted my first sheep cheese (squeaky) and fried apple pancakes. We even found restaurants with complimentary pig lard (no joke). To get out of the city on a hot day, we traveled to the Weiczocka salt mines, where 600 years of rock salt mining and artists produced spectacular caves full of statues and chapels. The cool salty air helped clear out our lungs to the point that we all began coughing once we emerged from the mine 3 hours later. After the mine, we grabbed some more sheep's cheese and black current juice and headed to a concert in a recently restored Baroque cathedral. After relishing the amazing accoustics and gilded altars, we traveled to a polish cafe where we all "shared a bed" together as we tried the soup parade of traditional polish soups or dined on 10 different types of meat (I didn't know there were that many). After dinner, the night was still young, so we headed off towards the jewish quarter where Eric showed us his superpowers. After a round of drinks, we began a rousing rendition of Big Booty (video here) with small breaks of zoom and piffle. The calm atmosphere of the jewish quarter was a welcome difference to crazy fireworks displays of the city center. Then around 2am in the morning...we finally headed back to the hotel for a short nap, before some of use arose early to visit the state apartments of Wawel castle and cathedral and the ornate cathedral of St. Mary's (no pictures allowed inside but here is a link to the websites).

I finished off Monday with a final visit to the cloth hall and a leather shop down the street. Then Mike and I met at the train station (see previous post) and I returned safely back to Marburg.

I don't have a whole lot of pictures from this trip, but Mike just posted some excellent photos with his blog post.

You can read the post here.


My photos can be seen here

Poland

Navigating trains and making mistakes

After living and traveling in Europe for two months, one would think that I would understand rail travel in Europe. I love traveling by train, and I've spent over 78 hours on various trains in Europe this summer. I've ridden on extremely fast InterCityExpress and the painfully slow local trains. I've ridden in an air-conditioned luxurious sleeping car from Vienna to Frankfurt and over-crowded unair-conditiioned leaky (it started raining mid trip) train from Bratislava to Prague (same for a night train as well). Even my worst train experiences were fun and I couldn't wait to ride the train again. This past weekend...I had some interesting lessons to learn about train tickets. For nearly all my train travel, I used a rail pass or a pass designated for a certain route. This past weekend, I decided to 'go native' and actually purchase point to point tickets.

Most of my travels were uneventful, but my return trips were rather exciting. On Monday, I had a fairly tight travel schedule. I started out in Krakow (southern poland) where I would catch an express train from Krakow to Warsaw around 2pm, then around 6pm catch a bus from Warsaw to the Warsaw airport to catch my flight to Frankfurt. After arriving in frankfurt, I would then have to catch the S-bahn (regional train) from the airport to Frankfurt Main Station, where I would have to catch a train to Marburg, hopefully arriving around 11:30pm at night.

Incident 1: For the Krakow to Warsaw train, Mike (CESRI scholar who lived in Poland for the summer) and I decided to catch the 2pm train. However, we had a slight miscommunication. I thought Mike would buy our tickets in the morning, and then I would meet him on the train station at 1:40pm. I arrived at what I though was the main hall of the train station at 1;35 and became confused when I received a text message from Mike saying that he was running late and needed some extra cash to purchase tickets. I sent Mike a message saying that I could help...and this is where breakdown occured. I assumed that I was waiting just outside the main hall, so I became worried when I still didn't see Mike at 1:50pm. It turns out the the main hall of the train station was 100 meters away from the actual train tracks, so what I thought was a main hall was actually an underground walkway. I race across the tracks, carrying my 30 lb backpack, a large bottle of water in one hand, and fragile souvenirs in another hand while getting smacked with every step by the Kelty compression sack attached to my backpack. I finally find Mike, who is rushing out the station clutching what appears to be two tickets for the express train. We meet, and we run 100 meters back towards the train tracks....arriving just as people began boarding the train. We get on the train, find a sparsely occupied car...and sit down to enjoy the lovely 3 hour train ride to Warsaw, confident in our ticket purchase. However, when the conductor walks by 1 hour later, he looks at Mike's ticket and asks for the real ticket. Mike looks bewildered. We look at the "ticket stubs" and realize that the attendant only gave Mike one ticket...and I was on board with out a ticket. Mike asks (in fluent Polish, btw) if we can buy a ticket...and the conductor assures us that we can. I thankfully have my credit card with me, so I buy ticket on the train...only charged 4 zlotys ($1.30) for the missed ticket. We then arrive in Warsaw without major incident, and even have time to enjoy authentic polish pancakes before I take off for Warsaw airport (which btw, is the most ineffeciently run airport I have encounted to date).

Incident 2: I arrive at Frankfurt airport without incident, board the S-bahn for town and then arrive at the main train station. I've transferred in the train station several times before, so I understand the layout quite well. I also know how to purchase train tickets at the kiosk.... My s-bahn arrives a few minutes late so instead of stopping at the kiosk, I walk straight to the train (taking care to board the car marked Marburg instead of the Dillenburg) and plan on buying my ticket on the train (which had been done previously in Poland and witnessed on several other train trips in Germany). When the conductor came by 30 minutes later, he told me that I couldn't buy my ticket on the train and I had two choices, give him my passport or I pay a 40 Euro fine. Thankfully I still had some Euros, so I could pay the 40 Euro fine...but it still hurt a bit. My actually train ticket was supposed to cost 12 Euro...so I actually only paid 28 Euros extra...but the embarassment of a "smackdown" from a conductor was quite painful. My lab mates then explained to me that you can buy a ticket on express trains...but you can't buy a ticket on regional trains...even though the regional train conductors use the exact same ticket issuing slips as the express train conductors.

So now I can say I've learned my lesson, always double check your ticket, before you board....and then check it again. I'll write more later about my trip to poland...once I edit some pictures.

A first for Charity...a worst for the team

Today I "bonded" with my lab mates through a typical german university experience, the department soccer tournament. I was recruited for the team, despite my lack on soccer skills and knowledge. I only played soccer once in 4th grade and I've only watched 3 soccer games in my entire life. Today I played in 4 games, so I can say I've played in more games than I've seen. :-/ Anyways, I survived the tournament with only a scratch on my leg. (one of the more agressive teams stepped on my ankle). I had a great time but my team did not fair well. We scored one goal against our opponents while our opponents (4 different teams) scored no less than 10 goals against us. Not too bad for a team that never practiced together, at least we scored one goal. :-) I've attached a picture of our team below.
This post will be my last for a while as I leave for Krakow, Poland this weekend. I will return to Marburg on Tuesday. Until then...Tchuss!

pictures from visit with maria

You can see pictures from my visit with Maria here.

Visiting Maria

Also, I hope to post once or twice more before I leave for Krakow, but I forgot that I was recruited for the group soccer team, so I may be too sore to post tomorrow.

a sister in any other country is still a sister

This weekend I got a very special treat. Several years ago, my family hosted a foreign exchange student from Berlin named Maria. Over the course of a year, my family grew very close to Maria. Two years later, Maria came to visit for a summer and then her sister followed to live with us for a year. I consider Maria and her sister Louisa to be family so I was very excited to visit 'meine Schwester' in her home town. Here is a picture of Maria (with her beautiful red hair) at the door to her flat.

Maria lives in a Gottingen, a university town one and a half hours north of Marburg. Most people know Gottingen for the home of the first Max Planck institute and indeed Gottingen reminds you constantly that its a science town. The information booth in the train station looked like an astronomical chart. The city layout also included a 1:2 millionth model of the solar system (I forgot to take pictures).



On friday night, I arrived at the train station, and found Maria immediately. We embraced and then started talking like no time had passed at all. Maria quickly led me through town and then helped me bike the 4 km uphill to her flat in the suburbs of Gottingen. We then stayed up and talked until well past midnight and only stopped talking after we realized we still had two days to talk. :-) Maria made a traditional German breakfast of fresh bread, cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, and tea....but she brought out some jam and honey for me. For some reason the "traditional' german breakfast feels normal when you eat it with a friend. On Saturday, Maria showed me around Gottingen, making sure to point out the school she attends (800 people applied to a school that only accepted 12) and the science buildings. She forgot to take me to the statue of Bunsen (its in Gottingen, not Marburg) but she promised to take a picture and send it to me. :-)

Since neither of us really cared for traditional German lunch (she's vegetarian) but we do care for chocolate, we ate 'lunch' at a chocolate cafe where I dined on a special layer cake and shared a delicious mocca. My cake consisted of several thin layers of dried pineapple, dark chocolate, a creamy torte, and sugar cake. Yum yum yum. Maria told me that these cakes can sometimes grow as tall as 1 meter high! We then walked off our lunch in a botanical garden that was first started over 400 years ago. (Pictures to be posted tomorrow Jenny).

We then visited an African restuarant where I tasted my first green german beir. Yum yum yum.. We then bicycled over to an American style bar to meet up with some of her friends (ooops forgot to take pictures again)...where we won (and then lost dramatically) on a few games of pool. Then...late on Saturday night, we headed uphill again to maria's flat. (we only had to walk for 300 meters this time).

On Sunday, after snapping a lot of photos of Maria and her apartment (don't worry, they will be posted soon too), we headed to the train station to catch a train to Goslar, a UNESCO world heritage site one hour north of Gottingen. However, the train we boarded went east, not north. When the conductor looked at our tickets, he laughed and told us that we boarded the wrong train. hehehe....ooopps.... Maria turned the same shade as her hair, especially when an elderly German couple treated her like an American tourist by slowly explaining how trains work in Germany. After laughing for about 10 minutes, we got off the train in Heilingenstadt, a small German village that was part of the former GDR (communist block) where we discovered that the next train to Gottingen wouldn't leave for an hour. So we took the time to explore the lovely city of Heilingenstadt, home to four lovely churches. We think they are used for pilgramages, but we never really confirmed this fact. Instead, we got to see a lovely restored city.
After returning to Gottingen and boarding the correct train for Goslar, we finally arrived at this lovely medieval city. Goslar is famous for its 800 year old ore mine (didn't have time to explore) and its large and well preserved medieval city. Goslar also served as the summer palace home of early Germanic Emporers and you can still see the original Kaiser throne. Besides visiting the salt mines, the only thing to do in Goslar is walk the old city, which we did for several hours, while talking and catching up on life the entire time. We talked about American politics, German politics, world politics, life, love, relationships, family, struggles, and dreams...all the typical sisterly stuff...while enveloped in a town 600 years old. We finished our day by enjoying ice cream and watching the Glockenspiel, then chatting the entire train ride back to Gottingen. We took the time to enjoy one last meal together at a local indian restaurant, and then I was able to meet Maria's boyfriend Jens, whose train arrived 5 minutes before mine departed. But before I left...I was able to catch one last shot of Maria and her boyfriend and get one last hug. Hopefully we can meet up again sometime....

Homesickness hits....hard

Wow, it took nearly two months for homesickness to hit but it finally hit me this week...I like hanging out with my friends and family in the states. Exploring cities and meeting new people is wonderful, but sometimes you just long to talk to people that you understand and understand you. Marburg has been my primary destination for several weeks now. When I arrived, part of me hoped to make friends quickly and find people to hang out with. I've found one or two people to talk to, but no one that I can call up and say...hey lets go for a picnic today. Making true friends takes time, and I don't have much of that left. So I'm stuck with two choices, try really really hard to make friends that I will only know for 3 more weeks...or just float through the rest of the period with casual acquitances....I'll probably try a mix of the two.

Part of my problem is that I'm not stable on weekends. I also travel to some excited radical state where I hang out with other radicals. However, I don't linger long enough to make long lasting bonds. :-)

sorry...bad chemistry joke

Anyways...I wanted to write more here but the bus got in the way. Instead, I must head off
to catch the bus...I have much to write about ...and lots of experiences to share...perhaps I will catch up on the bus.

Tchuss!

Research goes and goes and goes...

.....And I fill up the server with 30 jobs at a time.....I feel a little bad about taking up all this space except that

1. I need the space because I have a great amount of calculations to run in a short period of time
2. No one else is using it...I submit jobs like everyone else.

But today I took a short break from submitting 20 jobs (I was using up nearly 25% of the group's server) and decided to play around with some of the structures I made. So here is a picture of 3 molecules I "made" last week....just to prove that I have done some work during my travels.

First week in Marburg

I've posted a lot about my travels outside of Marburg but I haven't posted much about Marburg, other than I arrived. (I'm still here). Marburg is a university town about an hour north of Frankfurt. The population of the town is somewhere around 80,000 pepeople where 40,000 of those people are students (sounds like Champaign, except German). Most of the town lives is dorms or guest houses, I live in a dorm. Unlike most university towns where the town is seperated into University and city....the university is spread out over the entire town, and sometimes expands into towns next door. Reason why....Ich habe keine Ahnung! (I have no idea, a phrase I use often.) Actually, I do have some idea. If you look on a 2-D map, the city seems quite compact, but if you look at a topological map, you realize that the building 0.5 km away is actually 0.5 km west and 0.25 up. The city is very very hilly, meaning that if you want to get anywhere, you have to take a bus or hike uphill. The city center is concentrated into a 1.0 km radius at the base of the hill, while everything else is spread out on the hill tops. The chemistry building appears to be 1 km away from the main train station, but in reality, you have to hike 2.0 km to get to the building or take a 6 km bus ride.

If you decide to hike though, the view is quite lovely. Germany is very green. This area of Germany receives 1-2 inches of rainfall every two days so things are always growing and the air is always fresh. The hiking paths are well marked with pine needles. In order to get to the bus stop, I actually have to hike along some of these paths, and its a highlight of my day. To get an idea of the town, I've posted some pictures on picassa.

I've also posted pictures of my train trip to Marburg (I slept in a 2 bed couchette) and my room in the dorm. My train trip to Marburg wasn't nearly as exciting as the train trip from Switzerland but one point is worth mentioning....sometimes is worth it to pay the extra money for a two person bed. My room was air conditioned, clean, and the attendant came to wake me up when my station was close. Much better than the italian train. Anyways...I'm going to stop blabbering and let you see the pictures. Enjoy!

Marburg Week 1

By popular request

Pictures of the blisters...by popular request. Beware...these pictures are pretty gross.. I posted the bandaged photo here....but you can see the other photos at the following link

BEWARE! These pictures are gross!

10 reasons to never take an italian train...but a really cool story anyways.

Okay...some of these things weren't caused my the italian train system but the swiss...but I place all the blame on the swiss system.

first...after hiking 22 miles on Saturday...I was still in a lot of pain on Sunday. I had booked a seat on a night train after hearing how wonderful the seats were. Everybody said that the seat (5 Euros) was worth more than the bed (50 Euros). So I took everyone's advice and booked a seat, although, I'm not sure a bed would have been much better.

So I left Andy at 10:13pm. My train then proceed from Martigny to Brig, where I was supposed to have a 10 minute layover before leaving on my next train. Shockingly, my swiss train was delayed 8 minutes (reasons never explained in any language) and the night train was already waiting on the tracks when my Swiss train arrived. I ended up running from one train to another (keep in mind that my knees would still hurt when I walked...even more so when I ran) and then running across the platform to find my seat...which ended up at the very front of the train. Thankfully, the train waited for everyone to board before leaving.

Upon boarding, I was greeted not by a clean air conditioned train (as promised by german rail systems), but an old, dirty, loud, un air conditioned train. My seat was not a nice normal train seat, but instead one seat in a room of 6 seats where 5 of the 6 seats was already occupied. :-/
If you aren't familiar with European trains, these rooms are set up so 3 seats face another 3 seats...supposedly its more comfortable to stare and play footsie at complete strangers instead of the back of their seat.

One of the seats was taken up by an older italian women, who, upon seeing that 4 young women would occupy the cabin, left to find space in another cabin or sleep in the lounge. I wish I had followed her. The four young women in the cabin included 25 year old me, a 22 year Swiss girl named Emily, and two Italian sisters named Deborah and Julia, who claimed they were 18 and 17 respectively. Deborah and Julia spoke Italian and French, Emily spoke German, French, some italian and English, while I spoke English and somewhat understood german and French. Deborah and Julia greeted Emily and I (we raced from the tardy Brig train to the night train together) with open arms and readily shared cold tea that their mom had packed for the trip. Deborah also tried to make us a sandwich, which we refused 5 times before she finally gave up.

Even though it was already midnight, Deborah and Julia wanted to talk the entire night....and they did, even though I had a pillow and I kept yawning. Julia especially wanted to practice English with me. So try to capture this image, four young women, on a hot and loud (the window was open) train, trying to carry on a conversation when no one understood all the languages, and trying to make hand gestures in a room lit only by starlight. Sentences began in Italian, shifted to French, and included one English word. Responses usually began in German or French,...then switched to Italian or English...then back to German or French. I don't think anyone actually knew what we were talking about until the sentence was repeated three times. Conversation topics (I think) ranged from family to boyfriends to politics to travel. Perhaps one or two other topics were discussed I'm not sure. This talking went on for over an hour...until around 1:30am Around 1:30, we decided to sleep, and Deborah decided that she needed to kick her sister out of her seat and take over three seats on one side of the train, leaving the rest of us to 'sleep' on the other side, staring at her. She did offer to let us put our feet on her side...which was not an option for me because my knees hurt so bad.

Around 1;35...right after we settled down...we apparantly crossed the swiss/german border, so the border guard came to see our passports. He collected our passports...and we all settled back down..apparently the train driver settled down as well because the train stayed at passport control for 45 minutes! This fact becomes important later....

We calmly settle back down until 4:30 am when a person comes running through the train asking for someone who speaks English. I say I did and she keeps asking about a train stop I know nothing about. it turns out she was supposed to get off at 4:30am and the train hadn't stopped, but no one told her why. It turns out the train was delayed for an hour...but NOT ONE EVER TOLD ANYONE! I didn't find this fact out until later when I woke up to my phone alarm at 5:50, because I was supposed to get off the train at 6:00 am in Frankfurt. The train stops at 6am comes and I go to get off the train...but I'm stopped when people point out the sign....at 6:00am the train had only reached Dresden...its was still an hour away from Frankfurt! BUT NO ONE TOLD US! If the older italian women hadn't grabbed my hand, I would have been stuck in Dresden for a few days.

The train arrived in FRankfurt at 6:55am. My train connection to Marburg left at 6:23am...which meant I missed my train...but no fear...there are twice hourly train between Frankfurt and marburg...The only problem was that I had no idea which of the 25 trains in the station would take me there. However, the train station had an internet kiosk (1 euro for 10 minutes) which allowed me to check the Deutschbahn website and figure out which train to catch. I eventually found a train and boarded.

I arrived in marburg one and a half hours later than expected. When I got home, I showered, changed, and ran to catch a bus so I could attend seminar at 10:15am. I don't remember much of the seminar except that the speaker had a cool history, I'll try to recite it sometime.

Well...that's the end of my scary train journey. I'm sure I'll think of other details but for now I have to run to catch the last bus home.

I will walk 500 miles.....

So, I didn't quite walk 500 miles (but don't tell that to my knees, they will disagree), but Andy and I did walk 22 miles on Saturday while ascending and descending over one mile!

Some of you know that my boyfriend has studied in Switzerland the past year. He was going to return to the states this week, so I decided to utilize my German/Swiss/Austria rail pass to go visit him. So I took a 7 and a half hour train ride from Marburg to Martigny, riding on 4 different types of trains (double decker German Inter Region, really fast InterCity Express, Swiss InterCity, and Swiss Inter Region) and hearing about 10 different languages in route. I arrived on Friday night to Andy in a tie-died t-shirt ready to take me to dinner and discuss our hike the next morning. I knew that this weekend was his last in Switzerland so I let him pick out the hike for the next day, which was a great (and not so smart idea). He picked out a hike that he was certain I wouldn't complete (great boyfriend). He was so convinced that I would make him turn around, that he only looked up the train schedule for our departure point and not the bus schedule for our return point (which became a problem later).

Anyways, we set off at 9am towards the St. Bernard Pass...and start climbing...and climbing...and climbing...then walking uphill...then climbing again. Eventually we reach a lake...and I realize that one hour into the hike, I've developed hot spots (never a good sign). I bandage up my heels, tighten up my laces...and proceed onward. I convince Andy to take a chair lift up the alps to this mountain (and to give my legs a break). We get some amazing views of the valley that holds Andy's village. (Pictures to follow soon). Then we hiked downhill some 300 feet to begin our path towards some pass...

We take our time, relishing the amazing Swiss countryside and breathtaking views (I really want to insert pictures here but they aren't available yet). But picture heaven...but drier and with snow and alpine flowers and you may be close. We make it up to what we think is the top of the pass and take the time to scale what we think is a big rock. It turns out...we weren't even a third of the way up the pass. Less than 30 minutes later, what we thought was a large rock...was barely visible from the 500 meters we had climbed. It took us 5 hours to reach the top of this pass..and in order to get there, we had to clamber over bolders the size of my parent's van and snow packed so tightly it was blue. We reach the "top" of the pass around 3pm and decide that we want lunch, so we scale around 300 boulders to the mid point of a peak to find some bolders arranged like a couch, where we sit down to dine on our high fiber bread and water (cuz somebody forgot to buy peanut butter and jelly at the store). While we dine, we partake of an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING view of a mile long glacier and snow-capped mountains. Behind our "couch" we saw the green, alpine flower filled valley from whence we came.

Thinking that the worst of the hike was over, we take our time with lunch and snap some cool photos before heading down the mountain. It turns out that the bolder and snow infested side was the "easy side". The trail on the other side consisted of a series of steep dirt trails where numerous hikers had already dislodged most of the footholds that we so desperately desired. The steep trail jack-knifed across the "sunny side" of the mountain (which meant we turned into giant lobsters) yet still dropped 1000 feet in under 2 hours!!! I feel once, but thankfully I fell backwards into soft dirt instead of forwards into the rocks. After about two hours...Andy kept saying...I think we're near the end , I think we're almost there. After about 5 times, I didn't believe him anymore. My knees and feet were screaming in pain but I knew that the only way to relieve them was to hike the rest of the day.

Which I'm glad we did hike, because about 2/3rds of the way down (while the trail merged with a small stream, testing the waterproofness of my boots), we came across a large herd of sheep grazing in the mountains. Andy was able to find one before it became bored and found its own grass.

Eventually we made it to the end of the pass, were we hiked the trail that Andy had taken Jenny, Bryce, Jon, and Chris on (yeah I finally got to see the glacier that everyone talked about). And then we walked to the bus stop, only to find out that we missed the last bus by 15 minutes (this is where Someone forgot to check the bus schedule before we left). With no real option but to walk back, Andy and I filled up our water bottles and started on the two hour downhill trek back to Martigny. Poor Andy had to deal with a lot of complaints and near tears as every step in my boots caused exruciating pain. My knees were so sore from walking down the mountain that at the end, I could only shuffle down the valley path. Even now, two days later, I can't walk downstairs with out cringing in pain, causing my labmates to speculate that I fell down the mountain instead of climbed down. (I only fell once). However, around 9:15pm, 12 hours after we set out, we finally arrived at Andy's apartment building. Too tired to walk much further, we willed our legs to the restaurant in front of his building and enjoyed some food (I was soooo hungry that I almost finished an entire pizza). Then we hobbled back to Andy's apartment where I bandaged up the enormous blisters on my feet. (picture not to follow due to the sensitivities of people reading this blog). I was so tired that I apparently fell asleep mid sentence.

Anyways....so that's the story of the 500 mile hike through the swiss alps. I'm really glad that Andy and I could hike to such a beautiful place and I'm extremely glad that I lived to tell the tale. Andy said that it was the longest time he had hiked since arriving in Switzerland and he was impressed that I could keep up (at least until the last 3 hours). I'm still healing and I still can't walk down stairs without cringing in pain and shoes are rather painful to wear no matter how many pairs of socks I put one..but I have some amazing memories and some great pictures that I hope to share sometime soon...once Andy figures out the problem with his camera.

Stay tuned for updates about my train ride home......otherwise known as the top 10 reasons to NEVER take an italian night train.

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!

Country Hopping and speaking german with a Slovak

Most people who know me at all, know that I have traveled quite a bit for a girl from rural Kentucky. Before I turned 21, I had already visited 5 countries and tried to learn 5 different languages. Its really amazing to think how much I have adapeted to international travel since then. In the past month, I have visited 6 countries and tried to learn 5 new languages. (Switzerland- French, Hungary-Maygar, Slovakia -Slovak, Czech Republic - Czech, Austria and Germany - Deutsch). I actually write this post while on my very first night train, somewhere in Vienna. I find it odd that I consider normal to not understand the conversations around me. Its odd that odd things (like cheese and sardines for lunch) are the new normal. On some trips, I froze at the thought at trying to communicate to someone who spoke one word of Engligh (yes) or who didn't speak English at all.

On the train from Bratislava to Vienna, I actually spoke over an hour with two Slovaks. I met Maria, a cook originally from middle Slovakia who now works months away from her family in Vienna. She visits Slovakia only for birthdays and holidays. I also met Stefan, the train attendent who kept trying to steer the conversation to sexual matters. The odd part about these people is that they didn't speak any English. The entire conversationw as carried out in Slovak or German. (which led to some pretty awkward pauses as I looked up phrases in my phrase book). I was sooo proud of myself, my first real conversation auf Deutsch. :-) I'm sure I will have many more.

Another thought struck me on the night train tonight. (my first night train ever). Every body has something to share, even though you might not understand it. Maria expressed sadness over missing her family. (she has three children, but she says they aren't boys and they aren't girls....so they would birls?). She also could tell me all about weight problems in central slovakia (she doesn't drink beer but she will drink wine). She also asked about my boyfriend and wanted to know how we spent so much time apart. It was amazing! This lady, 50 years old, and living halfway across the world had the same concerns as some of my friends in America. She also cared about me. later on the train, she helped me with my (very very heavy) suitcase and even gave me instructions for the train. It was great.

So now I end this post with a hope that I actually sleep on the train. The train still shakes a little but my bed looks comfortable and my roomate (Christina from Berlin) is extremely nice. I will add more when I arrive in Marburg. Guten Tag!

Going to Marburg

Oh, in case you didn't know. I'm leaving Slovakia on the night train for Marburg, Germany to work with the Frenking group. I'll post new messages once I arrive....and I'll catch up on photos from Andy's visit, Vienna, and Prague.

A Day in the life of Slovakian Charity

Before I leave Bratislava, I figured that I should post a typical day in the life of blog. Because I running out of time, I've resorted to pictures instead of words.

This first picture is of my building. I walk into the building every day and enter using my magnetic key. An older lady usually "guards" the door and makes us write down the names of visitors.


This next picture is of the lab group during the last outing. We celebrated Elena's birthday with a pizza party in her suburb. From left to right you see Micheal (studied at Purdue for three months last year, Bryce), Vladmir, Olga, Stano, and Elena.




Finally, here is a picture of the cafeteria where we eat lunch and take coffee break every day. During lunch, the line stretches to the door (where I'm standing), and the glass case is full of food. During coffee break (around 14:00 everyday), the building is almost empty. we ussually get a chocolate or fruit pastry (around 25-50 cents) and a cola or coffee.

Total cost: $1

Surprisingly, the 50 cent cake is usually excellent, although I recommend against the chocolate one with the white puff on top. Its a sneaky one. You would think that the fluffy white thing was soft...but it turns out...its solid with the consistency of sand.

Well, I wanted to post more photos, but Blogger won't let me. Instead, I'll provide a link to the picassa album. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chariteach/DayInSlovakia

back from Prague

Hi,

I'm back from Prague. The town was amazing, despite the hordes of tourists. I'm taking my laptop home so I can label pictures. I'll try to post some tomorrow.

Off to Prague for the weekend

I'm off to Prague this weekend so I won't post much again until I return on Monday. I hope to have a lot of pictures by then. But before I leave, I wanted to note of a large difference between US and European research groups...especially in the summer....European groups expect you to take time off.

The group looked at me in horror when I said I wanted to work the first weekend. They were right. I shouldn't have come in. Nobody was in the lab and the lab director even made me sign in before I could enter the building. since the first weekend, I've taken every weekend off. Last weekend Andy and I went to Vienna. This weekend, Prague. Next weekend...probably Switzerland. The list goes on and on. Anyways. I look forward to all these travel and I hope that the weekend travel pays off with increased focus during the week. (hasn't happened much yet because I'm too busy planning my weekends). Alas...today I'm taking the train so I'll probably read some articles on the way.

Anyways, I'm off to Prague. Have a great weekend!

So what can one do during their third week in Bratislava

....in short...not much....I've seen all the touristy sites and its too hot to hike (its too hot to do anything but roast actually). Plus, I'm afraid to go outside because I'll get eaten by killer mosquitos (they chase me in my office as well, I already have 20 bites). Tonight is actually quite nice. A rain storm came by this afternoon so the wind picked up and the town cooled down a bit. I actually got to wear jeans this evening! I haven't worn jeans since the Matterhorn!

Anyways...so I've been trying to find things to do to keep myself busy during the evenings. However, this week proved to be easier than most. Andy visited for four days last weekend and we took the time to explore more castle ruins, the entire old town of Bratislava, and even took a day trip to Vienna. Andy was able to experience the cheap and hearty food from the mensa and even got to see the mean dogs when we returned late from Vienna. (a really funny story here about how one late tram can lead to a pile of crazy happenings, to be told when I get around to labeling pictures from that weekend).

So back on track...this week I got to spend some more time with my labmates. I should explain a bit about my labmates, they are a family. I mean that literally, not figuratively. Nearly everyone in the group is related to each other some how. My advisor, Olga Malkina, is married to Vladmir Malkin. Together they have produced many wonderful articles and two human offspring. Like their parents both daughters, Elina and Elena, study physics and mathematics. Elina currently resides in Zurich with her husband (also a scientist) while Elena lives at home with her parents. Elena is engaged to Stano, who is a graduate student with her father Vladmir. Elena officially works for another professor in the university but she spends most of her time in the same lab as her parents. Then there is another student, Michal. Michal is the only non-related person in the group. But it doesn't matter because he practically lives at the Malkin house (they have a couch just for him). Then are some extraneous people like Peter (engaged to an organic chemist down the hall) and Stefan (my office mate whose connection to the group I still haven't figured out yet). I don't think this intermarrying thing is common in Europe (anybody else see this type of activity in their group?).

While I gently tease the group about this closeness, its actually really neat to watch them work.
Research is much more collaborative, in fact, its like 5 people thinking in the exact same way, like some sort of organic research mind blob that moves in several directions at once....okay...maybe I'm not describing it properly.....its really hard to explain. One member of the group looks at the other and the other person nods and says "Yes I agree" even though no words were spoken. I feel like an outsider...Of course some of that may be due to the fact that the group conversation switches between Slovak, English, German, French, and then English, Slovak, etc, etc. Its hard to keep up.

I say that I feel like an outsider, but the group is actually very warm and welcoming. Vladmir and Olga treat me like their own daughter and tell me to call them if I have any problems. In fact, they told me to call them if anything happens while in Prague...they will come pick me up if necessary.

So I mention the group because this week has been a time of celebrations. On Wednesday, we celebrated Elena's birthday. We all went to a pizza place in the suburb where everybody but me lives. I took the time to snap this quick picture of the group.

From left to right you see Michal, Vladmir, Olga, Stano, and Elena (on the phone). Peter and his fiance decided not to come.



Today (Thursday) we took the afternoon off to celebrate Peter's upcoming nuptials. The group bought him a bowl made of fine china (famous in Slovakia) and he responded by bringing in bottles of Slovak wine. The entire group sat in the computer lab and drank wine for two hours. Then everybody left to go home. On Friday, the celebrations continue (without me because I'm going to Prague) with a "Sports Day" for the entire Slovak Academy of Sciences. The entire academy visits a park across the street (actually a small mountain). For most of the day they will play sports like volleyball and tennis or hike through the park. Around noon, they settle for a soup with drinks. Then, since its Friday, they probably all go home. (I however will be en route to Prague so I will miss out on the festivities).

Despite all the celebrations, work is still be accomplished. I started some calculations today...they all died. Not surprising. But I started calculations anyways...I'm always relearning linear algebra. More to add later. Well, its time to head home before the dogs are released. I'll post more later.

Ooopss...long time...no post

Looking at my post log, I realized that I haven't posted in 6 days!! Incredible. I am no remedying that problem with a post about a Budapest (four weeks and four countries ago, I'm a little behind). I just posted pictures from the 4 day orientation in the lovely and enchanting town of Budapest. Ten scholars from across the US (CA, MA, MO, IL, KY, NC, ????) and across disciplines (but mostly bio and chemie) met on a boat on the Danube on Sunday May 16th. After introductions by Agi and Chris (people who work for the Institute for International Education, our host organization), we started a week of lectures, tours, travel, food, and little sleep. (like 4 hours a night if we were lucky).

Budapest is actually two cities, Buda is the older (tourist inundated) part on the west side of the Danube while Pest is the more residential east side). Nearly all of our time was spent in Pest because the IIE offices were right next to the Hungarian academy of sciences on Roosevelt Ter (plaza) in Pest. Sunday night we visited a traditional Hungarian pub (forgot my camera so no pictures). Monday we sat through a lot of lectures and then visited a wine bar where we partook of a large amount of wine and water carbonated at the restaurant. The next day, we sat through more lectures, visited the Hungarian academy of sciences, saw the chemistry building of a Hungarian college, and saw the symphony (a true highlight of my experience). On Wednesday we took off for a day trip to Bratislava....I didn't take any pictures of Bratislava because I knew I would return later. On Thursday, we sat through seminars in the morning and then some of us took off for some Turkish baths. After relaxing for 2 hours in the baths of various temperature and mineral content and enjoying the 2000 year old building, we left for a dinner cruise across the Danube. After the dinner cruise we visited a "budha bar" with small huts overlooking the Danube and a giant statue of Budha on the dance floor. After the buda bar, we visited the beer garden that had chairs on the side of the walls...it was very odd. After returning to the boatel at 2am, I packed up my remaining items and slept for two hours before waking up at 5am to catch a 7am flight to the states. Phew.... a very busy week indeed. Anyways...here are the pictures...enjoy.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chariteach/BudapestOrientation02

Hiking to a Castle

So Saturday night, Elena (the daughter of my host and a member of the research group...the whole family thing to be explained when I get around to taking pictures of my research group) called to tell me about a day hike that one of her friends from the university just organized. All she said was that four people were going hiking the next day and that I was invited. Since I obviously had nothing better to do and I was anxious to see the Slovak countryside, I said yes right away. And I'm very glad I did.

All the guidebooks I looked at told me of the glorious Slovak countryside and how hiking was a common past time for all Slovak residents. Since one of my main goals of this trip (second to ground breaking research, of course) was to experience the country as a local, I excitedly prepared for the trip by packing light (only water and some food in my backpack) and waking up early (Slovak's are early risers..most places open at 7am or earlier)

So I set off to the bus station at 9am (not really that early but early for me) and met up with Eleana. We actually didn't leave for the trip until 11am because we had to do some last minute shopping for food and the buses left later than we expected). After a short 20 minute bus ride to the Bratislava suburbs, we disembarked and headed for our goal...which at this point...I thought was a leisurely walk through the woods. An hour into our hike, which proved that the Bratislava countryside was quite lovely, Mike..."our guide for the day" pointed to ruins on a distant peak and said...that's where we're going... (I was going to post a photo here but Blogger won't cooperate).

Anyways....I peer into the fog (the day was incredibly rainy and foggy) and I see ancient ruins surrounded by a lush landscape!!! Wow...this totally turned my day around....I couldn't wait to see these ruins up close....two hours later...we arrived and I saw some really cool ruins from th 13th Century..

According the bratislava.com

" The ruins of the Pajstun castle are found in the forests of the Small Carpathian Mountains, above the small Borinka, 25 km far from Bratislava. The access on foot to the castle takes 45 minutes, with one light climb that leave from Borinka village. The Pajstun castle was for the first time mentioned in the 13th century and made part of the frontier castles complex. The castle was the seat of estate until the 1810 when Napoleon's soldiers destroyed it."

I've posted pictures of my trip here

http://picasaweb.google.com/chariteach/CastlePashtjun

Anyways...the purpose for this post...when someone in your lab asks you to join them on a hike...say yes...and bring your camera.

Exploring the city on my own....and getting hit on

My host was MIA today so I decided to set out and explore the city on my own. I have to say that I really hated Bratislava at first, I thought the city was dirty and messy, and boring. It turns out that I was correct, about my part of town. I went back to the city center this afternoon and took the time to really explore the old town. Its actually quite nice and modern with a pedestrian only zone for about 25 city blocks. Trams run along the Danube and through parts of the zone. The Pedestrian zone is paved with bricks and kept very clean.

The city also plans lots of events downtown too. Today I walked in on a wine tasting party. Vineyards from all over the country offered tastings for 10Kr (about 75 cents). You could rent a wine glass for 50 Kr ($2) and then visit one booth after another. The tasting were 50 mL which doesn't sound like much, but can add up quickly. Hence why I only tried two (very excellent) wines. I stopped trying wines when a rather boisterous group of Australian men tried to hit on me. I quickly ran to the other side until they had enough "tastings" to annoy everyone else in the party and finally get kicked out. Phew...that was annoying. Anyways....

After the wine tasting...I visited the main square and ordered boiled corn from a street vendor who then proceeded to give me corn and then ask for my number....what is it with this town....do they think they can hit on any woman? Anyways...I want to write more but I think I have to leave before I get eaten by dogs...more on that another time. Do videenya!

Trapped in Lab

Every night from 19-19:30, the building I work in is locked. No one can come in or out. The reason: because its an eastern European country? I have no idea. Some lady always sits in the front desk and watches us come in and out of the laboratory. She doesn't do anything but watch people buzz themselves in. Perhaps this job is a relic of communism where every one had a job but not everybody worked? Anyways, I mention this strange fact because I forgot that the lab was closed from 7-7:30 and tried to leave at 7:10 to meet some friends downtown at 7:45. Now I'm stuck in lab with no chance of making my 7:45 meeting and no way of telling the people I will be 15-30 minutes late (they don't have a cell phone and no one is answering the phone at the hostel).

Woe is me!

Dancing time away in Bratislava

I've reached the end of day 4 in Bratislava and I must say that I'm slowing begining to love this country and the people The people in the research group have been excellent hosts. Last night, they took me to a local restaurant in the city where i got a full meal (drinks, salad, and one large dish of food) for only $4.25! No joke. My entire meal was under $5, and I couldn't even finish it. It was crazy. Every day at 3pm we all take off for a coffee break in the academy cafeteria where coffee and a desert cost only 75 cents! Its great. Anyways.....enough about the cheap food.

Today I started working on my actual research. Its been over two weeks since I last performed calculations so I was a little rusty to say the least. It took me over an hour to set up a calculation that ussually only take 5 minutes. But at least, I started the calculation in time. I even had time to make some pretty pictures today. See the picture on the right.



I took off early this afternoon (just like every one else) so I could do some grocery shopping at Tesco. Tesco is like a Walmart. In fact, they sell the same clothes Walmart does. (Cherokee anyone?).

So Tesco is this really big store about three blocks away. Its so big, it even has its own bus stop, and McDonalds. (I must add a quick note about McDonalds, slovak's don't eat there because the food is too expensive. I have to agree, the average McDonald's meal costs $5, which is much more expensive than my large healthy meal in the city.) Tesco is pretty big, even for someone accustomed to Super Walmart. Tesco sells furniture ($300 for a couch isn't bad), clothes, electronics, movies, gas, and finally food. The quality of food isn't great but the selection is pretty decent. But I still haven't been able to find hummus. (My slovak hosts had never heard of hummus so they couldn't help).

Anyways, another highlight of my day was waiting for me at home. I walked into my apartment building to really loud dance music. My first thought was...oh no, one of my neighbors is having a party tonight. Well, I was somewhat correct. My apartment overlooks a small school for developmentally impaired children. I often wake up to them playing on the playground (I live on the 7th floor so its not too loud). Today was "Celebrate the Child" day so the school brought in inflatable games, motorcycles, and a dj for the kids. Earlier today they sold handicrafts that the children made. When I came home around 7pm, a bunch of kids were dancing on the pavillion and getting rides on motorcycles. If you look past the trees, you can see kids waiting in line to get on the motorcycles. The dj was stationed under the gazebo. A bunch of kids just stood around a danced. One kid who couldn't walk was pushed around in a wheelchair while the rest of the kids danced around him. With nothing better to do, I just pulled a chair to my balcony and watched them all dance for a while. Just watching the kids brought a huge smile to my face. My only hope is that they stop dancing before 11pm so I can go to sleep. I'm sure they will. Anyways, I'm need to get back to work. I miss you all very much and I hope to post more pictures soon.

Home sweet Gulag

So I arrived in Bratislava today. Strangely, I had no problems with travel despite the fact I had to catch two planes, a bus, a train, and somehow contact my hosts within a 14 hour period. I'm happy to say that I succeeded and I made it safely and on time to Bratislava. I actually met an American student and a Hungarian professor on the train and we had a lovely conversation about European culture and life in general. It turns out that we all had a strong interest in fantasy and science fiction novels. Who knew? Anyways, because I talked the entire train ride, I couldn't nap, so I'm extremely tired right now. Even though its only 5pm local time, it feels like 11pm. I feel like I could sleep for weeks. I probably will. My hosts are supposed to take me shopping and then I plan on crashing for the night. Hopefully I can tell you more about Slovakia once I've slept. I also have to tell you about switzerland and Budapest and the American wedding. So much to say, so little brain power to say it all. But in the mean time, I've posted pictures of my Slovakian apartment.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chariteach/SlovakiaMyHome

I actually like my apartment, even though I refer to it as a gulag. The building is pretty ugly but the interior was recently renovated so my room is quite cheery and clean. I can't say the same for the elevator. The lift (aka closet as it can only hold 3 people at a time) has a plywood floor and 6 shades of paint peeling off of it. I would take the stairs but my room is on the 6th floor (7th floor American). I have access to a group kitchen and a tv room down the hall, but other than that, I don't have much. However, the room should do quite nicely for 3 weeks. Well, I'm really tired so I'm going to sign off. Hopefully I will see some of you online tommorow.

I miss you all very much!

Some Budapest Pictures up

I just wanted to let you know that budapest pictures are up. You can check the pictures online at

http://picasaweb.google.com/chariteach/BudapestOrientation

I'm added notes so you have some idea what you are looking at. I'll upload more pictures when I have time.

elite status in a frequent flyer program

I decided today that I will try to gain elite status in a frequent flyer program. I haven't decided which one, but I will soon. I discovered today that if I had flown all my flights on the same carrier, I would have earned elite status two flights ago, giving me free access to airline lounges. I speak of airline lounges because I am in one right now. My northwest ticket came with a day pass to their day lounge. The only problem was that I had to use it before July 25th. Considering that today is the last day I will be in Ohare before July 25th, I decided to use it. The lounges really make flying a much more pleasant experience. No noisy crowds or crying babies. Instead an empty chair with free drinks and snacks and free wireless. Now I just have to decide which carrier to use. American airlines services more domestic destinations but flying isn't always a pleasant experience. I definitely won't use them internationally. For international flights, I prefer swiss air and lufthansa, which share miles with united. I definitely prefer the service on united flights, but they don't service all the airports I need domestically. I'm closest to elite status on Northwest, but I really hate flying them, so I think I will avoid them for the time being. Does anyone have a suggestion for a frequent flyer club?

P.S. - If you didn't know, I'm writing this post from the Ohare airport. I flew back to the US for a wedding and now I fly back to Europe to start my fellowship. I'm sorry if I didn't call you. I was only on US soil for 48 hours so I didn't have much time to call people. We can still email. :-)

Budapest is awesome but tiring

So much has happened in the last few days. I wish I had time to share but I don't. I will try later this week. Here are highlights, I ate chicken parts (ask me about them), I slept on a boat, I went to a symphony in a European concert hall, met my mentor, and fell asleep on two trains. Today I'm on my way to a real Turkish bath. Which is why I can't write long. Budapest is full of sights and things to do and the fellowship has kept me very busy. Its crazy. I will try to write me while I"m traveling this week. I promise to respond to emails next week!

exploring the pest in buda

Wow, its crazy that sooo much can happen in just two days. In 48 hours, I said goodbye to the man I love (that would be Andy if you are confused) and a dear friend (Jenny) and hello to an entirely new culture and group of people. I've spent the night on the Danube river (my hotel is a boat), enjoyed my first bowl of Hungarian cuisine (it was really cheesy), gotten lost in Pest, seen three amazing cathedrals, and learned much about European research life. Its crazy. I've taken pictures but I still haven't been able to find an internet connection strong enough to load them to picassa. I promise to load them as soon as I can. I also want to write more about how amazing these people are and the rich history I've learned in just two days. But we have to be at a dinner 20 minutes across town in 15 minutes. But since I can't share all of my experiences, I will leave you with a link to the wikipedia article on St. Stephen's Basilica.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen's_Basilica

Enjoy! I will post more once I can get more internet time.

Safe in Hungary

I am now safe in country number 2 (well 4 if you count layovers in Belgium and the netherlands, but I don't). Typing on foreign keyboards is always an adventure. I am deeply sorry for any typos. So far I can say two words in hungarian, yes and thank you (but I still mispronononce thank you). I will post pictures of my house boat soon (once I can connect my laptop to the internet). Well, my time is almost up. I will talk to you later!

Say Cheese

It rained today, which meant that we couldn't go hiking like we planned. But have no fear, Jenny and I purchased swiss rail passes before we left, so we all decided to take the train somewhere fun. WE ended up taking the train to Gruyeres, which is a small German town in the alps. Gruyeres is famous for two things, cheese and the chateau. We experienced both. We got to visit a cheese factory and watch cheese mold. Its really more exciting than you think. The cheese factory is mechanized so you see this robot flip huge rows of cheese around. After sampling 6month old, 8 month old, and 10 month cheese (included in the museum price), we hiked half a mile to a chateau in a perfectly preserved medieval village. We saw amazing veiws of the alps shrouded in clouds and some really cool flowers. I'll include pictures later. Right now, my internet connection is weak so I can't really do much more than post to this blog.

Also, its nearly 11pm and I need to wake up early for the trip to Zermatt. Pray it doesn't rain again so we can actually see the Matterhorn.