Giving Thanks

Emily, Sarah (Emily's sister), and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the lab. Here are a few pics of the big day.

Georg carving the turkey


Georg's youngest, Adrian


Scary monsters! (Emily and Ansem)


Emily drying the inside of the turkey. It was a little gross!

Lab Puppy

Recently we have been discussing the possibility of getting a lab puppy (a puppy for the lab, not a Labrador). So, Emily and I went to the local tierheim (animal shelter). Here is what we found. His name is Tony.

The End of a Dream

I have to give up my life long dream of being a miner. I know what you're thinking... she can always be a farmer...but NO! I can't do that either. No extreme sports, no running on asphalt, and no desk jobs. How will I get through life? The cause?... a herniated disk (disk extrusion) at the L5/S1 position. Aren't I too young for this sort of thing?

Yes We Can!!!

I am proud of the American president (elect) for the first time in my adult life! Not only do I not feel like I have to defend my fellow Americans, and constantly explain that not all American's hold the beliefs and ideals of the government, but finally have a leader that I can look up to. I have hope for positive change in the country for the first time in a long time. I am a little emotional about it right now, partly because I haven't slept! Emily and I stayed up all night to watch the election. It was called for Obama when California closed the polls which was at 5:00 am here! Then of course we watched the speeches, and now I am at work. So, to sum up... I am thrilled! Elated! Ecstatic! and best of Hopeful!!!

Zurich, Halloween, and more Hedgehogs

Ok, it has been a while since I've posted anything, so this is going to be a long one.

First, Emily and I spend a weekend in Zurich a couple of weeks ago. It was very romantic...we rented a paddleboat on the Zurich See (lake); hiked in the hills, enjoying the fall leaves and overview of Zurich; strolled through the botanical gardens... I could go on and on.

Here's Emily looking at the bulletin board at the ETH (the Harvard of Europe). We've been watching a lot of Gilmore Girls lately.

This is my Swiss bed in the hostel we stayed in.

Is this pot? It was growing in the botanical gardens.

Here's Emily during our romantic paddle boat ride on the Zurich See.

Seriously though, Zurich is a beautiful city and we saw some nice churches and museums, including the Museum of Skin Diseases and the coffee museum. We thought the art museums sounded boring. FYI, the skin disease museum was disgusting!!!

From left to right: The largest clock in Europe, a blue cow, a view of the Alps through the fog, Emily on the rooftop terrace of our hostel

On to Halloween. I am planning a big costume party and encouraging all my non American friends to participate in the tradition. Last weekend Kristina, Dirk, Emily, and I carved pumpkins and ate pumpkin soup (provided by Kristina).

Finally, I have an update to my continuing fascination with hedgehogs. I touched one! Emily says I'm going to get rabies if I don't stop touching every animal I see, but they are so cute! I touched it's face and ear and it's spiky back (it wasn't very sharp).

Touched by a Monkey

So, I have been withholding this exciting news until I remembered to bring my camera to work.

I was touched be a monkey!

Right on the shoulder!

He looked like this.

My Manga

So I jumped on the Manga bandwagon. What do you think?

A year abroad

So, today marks my one year anniversary in Germany. I know everyone always says this, but I really cannot believe it has been that long. Especially since that means I am 1/3 of the way through my PhD. Speaking of which, I really should get back to work. Only two years left to go!

Princess Consuella Banana-Hammock

Americans enjoy the right to name your children any bizarre name you can come up with! In Germany there will be no Pipers, Nightshades, Willows, etc... Every name here must be approved by a special council for name approval. You cannot doom your poor child to a lifetime walking the earth as a "Ocean" or "Reef" I think this is outrageous! Where is the creativity, the individuality? What do you think?

Illegal baby names

I wasn't lying about the speedos!

Here is scientific proof!



more graph humor and song chart memes

Get to know your friends 2008 cont.. (aka: I can't move out of my chair because I rode my bike to work today so I might as well fill out this form)

1. What time did you get up this morning? 10:00 ... pretty early for a Tuesday

2. Diamonds or Pearls? Diamonds are a girls best friend! (not that I own any ... yet)

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Charlie Bartlett - in Berlin. We wanted to see "Sex in the City" but we would have missed our train.

4. What is your favorite TV show? The Office in America, The Rock of Love here (what? we only get CNN and MTV in English!)

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Cereal

6. What is your middle name? Manning

7. What food do you dislike? Most cheese and Vegemite

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Elizabethtown soundtrack

9. What kind of car do you drive? Nope

10. Favorite sandwich? come on, it's a sandwich, how great can it be?

11 What characteristic do you despise? Thinking the world owes you something and always playing the victim (is that a characteristic? )

12. Favorite item of clothing? I don't have one

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Magfest...I miss it!

14. Are you an organized person? Nope

15. Where would you like to retire to? I know I'm old, but I'm not THAT old!

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? My 29th birthday I spent at the drum circle on Siesta Key Beach

17. What are you going to do when you finish this? Try to peel myself off of my chair and do some work.

18. Furthest place you are sending this to? The World Wide Web

19. Person you expect to send it back first? If you don't have any expectations you are less likely to be disappointed!

20. When is your next birthday? This year I am going to have it in January, after that I can't make any promises.

21. Morning person or night person? Night! (see #1)

22. What is your shoe size? 8

23. Pets? Mattie and Ebony who traveled with me from the States. And Lucy who stayed behind :(

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I saw hedgehogs trying to mate (see last post)

25. What did you want to be when you were little? Ballerina, singer, cowgirl...

26. How are you today? Feeling better now that I have sat for 20 minutes.

27. What is your favorite flower? hibiscus

28. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? I have nothing to look forward to, isn't that sad?

29. What are you listening to right now? I don't listen,

30. What was the last thing you ate? Cereal

31. Do you wish on stars? Yes, because unlike Emily, I am still amazingly superstitious for a scientist.

32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? I haven't the slightest idea!

33. How is the weather right now? Warm and breezy

34. Last person I spoke to on the phone? Lori

35. Favorite soft drink? Dr. Pepper baby!

36. Favorite restaurant? The Magic Mushroom

37. Hair color? Jury is still out, I am growing out all of the dye. I let you know when I find out.

38. What was your favorite toy as a child? Probably my cat.

39. Summer or Winter? Winter in Florida.

40. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate. A thousand times chocolate.

41. Coffee or tea? Tea.

42. Do you want your friends to email you back? That would be nice, but see #19

43. When was the last time you cried? I'm too tough to cry!

44. What is under your bed? Whatever Mattie has dragged under there.

45. What did you do last night? Went to the gym, made dinner, watched two episodes of Next (I'm not proud of that OK, but again there are only two channels in English!), and tried to complete four different Sudoku puzzles (without success)

46. What are you afraid of? Never falling in love and horror movies

47. Salty or sweet? sweet

48. How many keys on your key ring? a bunch

49. How many years at your current job? 1 in September

50. Favorite day of the week? Sunday

51. Do you make friends easily? Yeah, but I usually only have a few close friends.

52. How many people will you send this to? Emily might read it.

53. How many will respond? Why do you keep asking this? See #19

54. Do you like finding out all this stuff about your friends? Some of this stuff I don't really care about, but some of it is interesting. For instance, I don't really care about anyone's shoe size unless it is freakishly large (Emily) or freakishly small (Shelly)

Hedgehog Mating Rituals

I realized I have been remiss in my educational responsibilities of late. So, the lesson for today is on the mating behaviors of hedgehogs (which are surprisingly similar to the mating behaviors of humans).

The male hedgehog (by the way, hedgehogs live wild in Europe) tries to mate with any female he comes across in his nightly wanderings. He approaches the female and begins to circle around her. He circles because she won't let him get anywhere near her private bits. He makes all sorts of grunting noises to try to impress her, but generally she just ignores him. This can go on for hours. Eventually one of the two will give in. Either she will spread her hind legs and lay flat on the ground or he will go away.

This guy is having better luck than the one I saw.

Adventures in Berlin!

Emily and I traveled to Berlin last week. The most amazing thing happened ...

I was magically transported back to Florida!


After I returned, we saw the sights of Berlin (a few of them at least).

We saw the Brandenburg Gate

The new American Embassy

And of course, remnants of The Wall

We also found out that in Germany they leave the "Picture" out of "Rocky Horror Picture Show"

Finally, my love and adoration for Jack Johnson was renewed. Isn't he dreamy!?

Jack Johnson

Emily and I trekked to Berlin Tuesday to see Jack Johnson. Great concert! More on Berlin to come.

So much to catch up on.

Sorry to leave all my avid readers hanging on the edge of your seats...waiting to hear what's been happening in my world! I have been on vacation. Now I have to catch you up on the past couple of weeks.

As you may or may not know, Germany won the semifinals, but lost the final game to Spain. I have some footage of the crowd after the semifinal victory.




Also, my Aunt Meg and Grandma were here visiting. We spent some time in Dresden and in Prague. We also went to the Dornburg Rose Festival and saw the Rose Queen (very beautiful). And, of course, we had a 4th of July party.

Dresden was very nice, but we were only there one night. Amazingly they have rebuilt many of the old buildings that were destroyed during the war. I would like to go back when I have more time to explore Dresden.

I highly recommend Prague to anyone traveling to Europe. It is a beautiful city. The pictures I have don't do it justice. We stayed in a 16th century hotel at the base of the steps leading up to Prague Castle (the largest castle in Europe). We were staying very near to the Charles Bridge, which, like all of Prague, is breath taking at night.

Meg and I watching the European Cup Final

Me at a castle in Dresden

Skyline of Prague at sunset

Grandma and Meg outside our hotel in Prague

Oh, and you might of noticed, I got my hair cut.

Disappointment

I still can't believe the Netherlands lost last night! I had faith in them to go all the way. Plus this seriously diminishes the chance of me winning the office pool. Oh well, now at least I can focus my energy on cheering for Germany.

GO DEUTSCHLAND!!!

Pottery

As some of you already know, I have taken up ceramics as a hobby. I absolutely love it! It is the most relaxing thing I have ever done. When I am making something I can completely clear my mind of all the days worries. Here are some examples of things I have made so far.

Germany Celebrates!

The streets echoed with shouts of joy as the German soccer team secured a place in the European Cup semifinals last night.

GO DEUTSCHLAND!

I have a confession to make... I like football (soccer)! I have been taken in by the European Cup. Germany plays tonight in the quarter finals against Portugal. There is a lot of excitement here. I will be rooting for Germany of course. Although, in the office pool I have chosen the Netherlands as the overall winner, so I hope they win the whole thing.

http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/

Learning the European Ways

OK, I always knew Americans were a bit repressed when it comes to the human body, and I had no problem accepting that every time I pass a photography studio here I am going to see breasts, however I must say I was completely surprised when I went to a public swimming area and people changed into their swimsuits in broad daylight! I don't want to sound prudish...I really don't mind that they do this, I am just surprised that they are so comfortable taking their clothes off in public. I now feel that it is necessary to warn my European friends that if they do this in America they can be arrested for indecent exposure! They can't believe it.

So consider this a

Public Service Announcement

Americans: be aware that in Europe you might see naked people.

Europeans: be aware that we have laws against public nudity in America

What in the world am I doing in Germany?

Some of you may have no idea why I am in Germany or what I am doing here. This blog is for you. I am here working on my PhD in chemical ecology. I am at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. (The university is celebrating its 450th anniversary this year!) I am also part of the International Leibniz Research School (http://www.ilrs.hki-jena.de) I am studying the chemically mediated interactions between green algae and their associated microbial community.

That's my algae (Dictyosphaeria ocellata).

I am using a molecular technique called denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) to profile the microbial community associated with the algae and comparing that to the microbial community in the surrounding seawater.

This is a DGGE image. Each band represents one species of bacteria.

I am also looking for chemicals that regulate the interactions between the algae and the microbes.


Basically, I left Florida to go to Germany to study algae that live in Florida!

Even More Pics

March 2008 (Easter)

A mill near Bielefeld

Osterfeuer

My bed on the train

April 2008
Back to Holland

Keukenhoff Tulip Park

More Pics

February 2008
Field Work in the Florida Keys
























March 2008
Seminar in Siegmundsburg
(that's my boss with the snowball!)














Me and the "Burgermeister" at an Osterfeuer
(a bonfire held Easter weekend to tell winter to go away)