Celebrating My Last German Weekend with Mr. X Game!

Hello all!! Last weekend was my last weekend in Germany before heading back to good old Arizona. I have mixed feelings about this, I really really miss home, but I am also sad that this amazing journey is coming to an end. This past weekend, I played Mr. X with some people from the lab and friends (shout out to Gesa and Mareike for inviting me to so many things this summer and being  awesome friends to me in the lab). This is where you get a clue every half hour of where Mr. X is in Bielefeld and you have to use public transport to find him. We definitely did not find him on accident (which means we totally did) but we did it!! We found Mr. X!

Well this is one of my last posts for Kali's DAAD RISE blog, thank you all for following along with me on my adventures and I will see y'all in AZ soon!!

(post Mr. X on the train)

Hamburg

Last weekend Kolja showed me his hometown of Hamburg, Germany. We had a great time in a great city! I only have one more weekend of travel left before heading back home! I'm thinking of going to Berlin, what do you all think?

Routine, Routine, Routine...

Since I have been here for 8 weeks now (crazyyyyyy), I have fallen into a daily routine. Of course, things change day to day, but I thought I'd share my routine for the work day.

7am: wake up and get ready
8am: make toast and jelly and put my morning coffee in my to-go cup
8:07am: leave for the tram station
8:21 am: Take the tram #1 from Schildesche to Bielefeld Hauptbahnof
8:38 am: Take the tram #4 from Hauptbahnof to Universitat
8:55am: arrive at CeBiTec and work on various activities
11:30am (on the dot): go to lunch with the 11:30 lunch group. Lunch is great and here is a picture of a normal meal; a main dish, veggies, carb of some sort, and dessert

12:30pm (Wednesdays): go to seminar, someone is usually presenting their research. I presented on mine and my university this week
4:30pm-6pm: go home for the day
When I get home: Run to the lake in Schildesche
8pm: I cook dinner to unwind from the day (I have found that I love cooking every evening when I have time to)
9pm: hang out in the kitchen with roommates
10:30pm: go to bed to start it over again in the morning

Not super exciting, but that is my Bielefeld life!

Brussels, Belgium

Hello! Last weekend Kolja and I went to Brussels! It was a great trip. The city was so beautiful and we happened to go during their national celebration! Seeing the city festivities was amazing. 

This arch was built in 50 A.D. 

I got excited when I found a Kali sized door

Of course, I had to try the waffles!!

More techniques!!

Alright, hopefully in seven weeks I learned a thing or two in the lab. Here is an updated list of the protocols I have learned and now have done on my own at least once:

Over Half Way Done!

Hi everyone!! Few things to update y'all on. First of all, I only have a little over 5 weeks here in Germany!! Time has really flown by.

Also, here is a picture of all of the DAAD RISE Scholars! We are the group who were awarded the scholarships to be in Germany for 3 months and this picture was taken at the RISE meeting in Heidelberg two weekends ago.

I thought I'd end this post with some of the differences between Germany and the US that I thought were kind of strange/interesting

1. Milk is boxed and doesn't need to be refrigerated
2. Supermarkets and a lot of other stores are closed on Sundays
3. Public bathrooms are not free
4. You may not name your baby a "weird" name
5. People are very blunt (not mean just say what's on their mind) and don't waste time with flowery talk
6. There is no German word for pie (meaning my apple pie I made was always referred to as a cake)
7. You must bring your own bag to the supermarket and pack your groceries up yourself. My roommates were flabbergasted that we pay people to pack our grocery bags

Reckenfeld, Germany

This weekend my roommate Tabea treated a few of the house members to a trip to her hometown of Reckfeld! It was a lot of fun and I got to see the hometown of one of my best friends here in Germany. I met her family and we spent the day at the lake. It was beautiful. Enjoy the beauty of German nature. 

Me and Christiane!