Helloooooo!!
I’m going to pack a lot of info into this entry, which is being pre-typed in my room on my laptop so I don’t have to spend too long at an internet cafe. I’ve compiled a short list of things that are good and bad about Germany:
Gut:
• There is plenty of water = long showers
• I have found a frûche equivalent that is not only tastier, but costs a mere 29 cents
• Alcohol is cheaper (which is good, because duty free shops were closed when I arrived)
• Almost everyone speaks English
• Old buildings, cobblestones, and much cooler shops than Brisbane, even though the city has a population equivalent to Toowoomba’s
• There’s really interesting bread here, which must be such low-GI that I’m eating less than normal yet am never hungry (could be an idea, Kath :P)
• I might be going to Luxemburg on Saturday (that’s right, a different country is as close as Byron Bay!)
Nicht so gut:
• Fruit and vegies cost more
• The plentiful water tastes pretty ordinary
• I’m not sure if I’m meant to eat the beef (feel free to advise me)
• My bankcard is completely useless here – THANKS VERY MUCH CIRRUS MAESTRO!! So currently I’m waiting for my scholarship money so I can pay my rent :\
• The foreigners’ registration office workers don’t speak English (wtf?)
• I feel that my English is worsening, and my German isn’t improving nearly enough to compensate
• I don’t know if it’s representative of all German beds, but my mattress is pretty “sturdy”
• There are no Asian people here, and therefore no Asian food :(
And now for some photos! They’re not uploaded in the best format, cos I accidentally set my camera on high res, and so they take too long to upload properly.
This is what I chose to purchase as refreshments in Singapore – chocolate soy milk and chocolate spread-filled rolled-up pancakes packaged as sushi (couldn’t finish it all, btw). Not sure why I selected those things, but in my defence, it was 1 am Brisvegas time by this point.
My hall, complete with sensor-lights and multi-coloured walls (I’m on the right in the yellow section)
My room (with sturdy mattress)
My kitchen (note the coffee machine in the box on the counter – don’t know how to use it, but they seem to be big here)
This was the first view from my balcony (which incidentally, I’m not meant to stand on cos there was a storm and it might not be safe… I had already stood on it several times prior to finding that out)
The view from the 3rd floor of my apartment block (I’m on the 1st) – the shiny building is where my lab is. If you squint, you can see Marc standing on the balcony on the third floor, which is just outside our tea room. On the right of the courtyard is a supermarket, straight ahead is a pharmacy, and on the left is a hairdresser and massage/manicure place. Ah, convenience!
While making my way into town, I turned a corner and found this – impressive, ja?
This church was so big I couldn’t fit it in one frame
The mighty Rhine
The longest boat I’ve ever seen – split between two frames
Mainz skyline at sunset
Pretty street
Just can’t escape those old buildings
Amusing street name (for footy fans only)
These are no ordinary tomatoes… they’re PARTY tomatoes!! I think the words underneath mean “the small ones with the big taste”.
People in my lab are very nice – some are excited to be able to improve their English by listening to me. I’m being looked after by a girl called Dani, who I would’ve called an RA, but the titles are different over here – she did our equivalent of med science. I pester Volker about the more important matters (he’s kind of like our SRO), and I finally met the lab head, Thomas, today – he’s been in Bonn reviewing grants or something.
People generally speak German around the lab, and then occasionally someone translates important stuff into English for me. Thanks to my German course, I tend to know the subject of discussion, but that’s about it. With my limited German, I’ve managed to order a coffee, a pretzel, say I can’t speak German, and ask several people if they speak English. As I told my mother yesterday, a girl in the lab apologised for her ‘bad’ English (which is still pretty decent), and she learnt it for 5 years, so I don’t know what hope I have of learning German to any respectable standard during my stay here!
As an aside, for Chris and Nathan – Catherine Wölfel asked me the other day if Frisbee was big in Australia – I think she was confused when I laughed!
Anyhoo, I’ll aim to update this again soon – on Saturday, I’m going to a town called Trier with Manuela, the lady who organised my apartment and a lot of the stuff in it (and is getting me a TV from her husband’s work). So I should have some photos from that outing next time!
Hope you are all well :)
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1 comment:
Hi Michelle,
Katherine and I were laughing over your post this morning. Good to see that you look fairly settled in at this stage, and I am sure there will be plenty more photos to come. We received a false alarm about Melanie possibly having the baby yesterday afternoon when Linda drove her to the hospital. I really thought she should have been staying home and taking things a bit easy, so hopefully she will do that now. I just heard from Linda this morning that Melanie is in hospital, and they are delaying the labour (I think she is about six weeks early at this stage), but she will have the baby earlier than expected. Other than that, there's not much to report except that the football season is about to start again. Of course you are aware that the Lions are playing Carlton in the NAB cup final, which does raise the question of what you have done with your season ticket.
Germany sounds like a much nicer place from your eyes (and photos) compared to what my sister described on her trip to Berlin. Everything looks so peaceful and quiet in Mainz, as if the scenery was frozen in time (maybe that's just the winter; it is winter isn't it?). I just love all the buildings and the church is probably not quite as impressive as actually seeing it right there.
It is rather funny because my friend Mathew is in Japan for two months working on his PhD project as well, so I am actually getting foreign correspondence from Asia and Europe at the same time! If you could only see his apartment size compared to yours! Of course, you can't really beat Japanese television for absurdity, but otherwise Germany has just as much to offer.
Anyway, with football season kicking off, and the cricket world cup, there will be no more working late on Friday nights and coming in on weekends for me :) Great to hear from you and here's to both of us getting some great (if not reproducible) results.
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