Work etc.

Hmm, it seems that I haven't posted in a while (again) and so I feel like I should be writing something new. I have finally dipped my toe in the world that exists outside of Berlin. But only barely. Recently, my department at work had its annual meeting in the northern part of former East Germany. Really the middle of nowhere so it was a pretty boring locale. Plus, it was for work, so that didn't help for the excitement either. Then, last weekend I managed to make a day trip to Potsdam, a short distance from Berlin. This one was at least not work-related. There is a castle there and such, so there were some things to see, and now I can say that I've been there. But, hopefully soon, I'll be getting out a bit more. Still working on it.

As far as at work, here is a picture of the equipment I'm currently working with. It is kind of a bigger and more complicated version of the same class of equipment I worked with during my Ph.D. Currently, it is one other German postdoc and I working on this machine. It is generally considered unfavorable for more than one postdoc to be working on a piece of equipment. They tend to get in each other's way and sometimes there can be conflict over the direction the research should go. Sooooooo, I've been supposed to move to another piece of equipment for the last couple of months. But, there are all kinds of excuses why they haven't moved me yet. The latest one is that there is some foreign visitor who has applied to come do experiments on that equipment for a couple of months. All in all, the guy I'm working with is not difficult to get along with and so it is ok working where I am now. But, I'd rather not feel like I'm in limbo all the time waiting to move somewhere else. It makes it a little more difficult to be invested in what I'm currently doing. Plus, I'll inevitably have another learning curve when I move to another piece of equipment, and I'd rather get that going sooner rather than later. Also, working with another German postdoc as now, it seems that he is given preference on a lot of things, partly because the other Germans are more comfortable talking to him. We'll see how the situation develops.

So, there's the short work update. Now all of you who have been clamoring for work updates, I hope will be satisfied. What's that? No one has been clamoring for work updates? Hmmm, well you've got one anyway. Enjoy.

Hmmmm

So, I just got back from my department's annual meeting, held this year at Hasenwinkel (http://www.hasenwinkel.com/) and I thought I'd make a short post. So, after living at my apartment for more than two months, I recently noticed that I have a plant. Apparently, it must have always been there. Of course that makes sense, since who would have broken into my aparment and given me a plant, managing to leave without any other trace. The evidence that this plant was always there is further supported by this photo from when I moved into my apartment. Anyway, so it probably goes without saying that I haven't really been caring for this plant, since I didn't know it was there. So, no watering whatsoever. No easy access to sunlight. But, then, the day after I noticed the plant, it sprouted these two pretty flowers (below). You can see it harvesting the light it can from in between the cracks of the venetian blinds.

Pretty nice! Plus, I'm hoping it's not reading too much into things to wonder if this plant is somehow representative of my current state of evolution in Berlin as well. Perhaps...