Jan 28 - Exploring exploring!

Today was an exciting day. The weather was gorgeous so I went out for a very long bike ride to explore Juelich. Well, before biking I walked down to a nearby plant store which I have been eyeing all week (of course it's always closed when I ride by it), and brought home a few little plants to make my apartment more homey. Sorry dad, I am a traitor, but there's no Gardenworks in Germany! :)



First stop on my bike ride was the citadel, or "Zitadelle". This was basically a giant fortress in the middle of town, which would have been QUITE the stronghold back in the day. Huge brick walls were surrounded by what looked to be the remains of a gigantic moat (I could be wrong though), and two bridges connected the surrounding land with the only two entrances which tunneled through the walls. I biked through one of the tunnels and found a large old building surrounded by a grassy yard. It was really a sight.

Adjacent to the Zitadelle, I was surprised to find that Juelich has a bit of a downtown...nothing like ours in Vancouver, but a cute old part of town, with rows of flat brick buildings, lots of little shops and restaurants, and cobble stone streets. So THIS is where everyone spends their Saturdays, up until 2 pm when everything closes! (!!!!!?????? so these people have officially 4 hours of shopping time in a week outside of regular work hours???? Unbelievable!) I was very excited to find a little market which was packed with people. There were stalls selling fresh fruit and veggies, bread, cheese, meats, plants and clothes. I also wandered into a few stores, and bought some fresh bread, comfort items (such as slippers) and clothes. I found a housecoat for 10 Euros just like my one at home, so I just had to buy it (I MISS my housecoat!). I explored this part of town further and found some very interesting buildings, tunnels and churches. Turns out Juelich isn't as small and boring as I had originally thought! It is really cute!




I managed to cram all my purchases into the basket on the back of my bike, and decided to continue exploring. Someone at work told me that you can bike along the river, and so I found that and biked North along a path beside it for quite a ways. It was really pretty. Eventually I realized that I was surrounded by highways and fields and the town of Juelich was nowhere in sight, so I decided to turn around and make my way back. I finally found some houses and streets and so I veered off the path. I was a little bit worried that I wasn't actually in Juelich but some adjacent town, but I biked a little further and soon recognized the area that Jon lived in (the man I borrowed the bike from). Phew!

About 4 hours later I finally made my way home. I went to the giant superstore-like grocery store near me to try to get a SIM card for my phone. It wasn't easy to find one! I had to do a lot of hand gestures and say a few words I knew in German to get someone to help direct me. Just a few more notes on the grocery stores here...some items which I am quite annoyed about not being able to find...crackers, for one!!! In a land full of cheese, you would think it would be easy to find crackers!! All I have found so far are chips, pretzels, and little small snack-sized crackers with flavoring. Also, salsa - although I guess they are a pretty long ways from Mexico. And I've been looking for ingredients to bake cookies in the oven I have discovered in the kitchen at work...and it has been tough!!! Sugar and flour were easy enough to find (I should hope so, in a town that produces sugar), but so far no luck with baking powder or soda (although I had no idea what the translation of those were, so it may have just come in packaging I wasn't used to). And chocolate chips just do not seem to be popular here; I have only found them in tiny 125ml boxes. Boo.

Anyways, after a long day of exploring, I am quite exhausted. I am finding Juelich to be a very charming little town, and I don't think I will be bored here for a while :).

Jan 26 - Part of the club now

Well, I am officially a part of the club (or that's what it feels like, almost). I FINALLY got a badge to get in the front gate at the research centre! Of course, they neglected to tell me that it was ready, I just happened to ask one day and it was. But yes, very very exciting and thank GOD I don't have to go through that gate procedure any more! Now that I have a badge I can also buy food at the cafeteria. I found out that the weekly menu is online, and sometimes they actually have good stuff! So I ate there the other day...not bad...beef ragout and paella is what I had.

Starting to get into more of a routine now. I have been biking to and from work, which takes just under half an hour each way. I think I could do it in 20 minutes with a bike that wasn't a bit too small for me and didn't have a rusty chain (working on getting that greased...if only stores didn't close so early here...). But having the freedom of biking is GREAT! I also discovered the short-cut that everyone who bikes uses, so that you don't have to take the long, loopy road to the centre. Of course, the first time I tried to take the shortcut was at 6pm in the pitch black on an empty stomach, where I proceeded to get lost in the forest by the centre for about 15 minutes, only to end up half-way down the loopy road to the centre. That was fun. Should have looked at the map more carefully before I left. The REAL route, which I found the next morning, only goes through the forest for about 100 metres. It's a single lane "road" (mostly paved) that runs between farmers fields and is lined with trees. It's actually really beautiful in the morning when the sun is rising. I imagine it's even more beautiful in the summer when the trees have leaves.

As for research, I finally was able to attend some of my scanning time, so that was a neat experience! After tweaking the sequence a little, the data is looking a bit better and I have more hope for success.

Planning some weekend trips, which is exciting! I have already booked a flight to Dublin to visit my Irish friends (130 euros round trip - much cheaper than flights in Canada!) Tonight I hope to book a flight to Edinburgh as well to visit some friends there, and a flight or train to Innsbruck, Austria to visit Christian and do some skiing. (All of this isn't for at least a month though.) I will also have the pleasure of having Katherine visit one of these coming weekends!! Yay! I know some of you are probably thinking, why go to all these far-away countries instead of exploring the ones that are nearby? Well, if you can believe it, to fly to the UK is actually cheaper than even taking the train across Germany to a town that is 3 hours away. wtf!! And since the flights are only about 1 hour anyways, who cares where I go! :)

Oh, I guess I did mention that I would be exploring last Sunday...Well, I tried. I got all ready with my map/bag/etc to go bike around, and I stepped outside to realize it was pouring and super windy. My glove got soaked just from closing the front door. I then decided that I didn't really like biking in the rain anyway, but I could walk around with an umbrella. Went back in, got the umbrella, and came out again...walked 100 metres and the umbrella was wrenched inside out by the wind, and then I decided that exploring wasn't worth the death of my umbrella. Went back in, but then decided that I really didn't want to spend another day indoors, and I am more courageous about getting wet when I am walk/running...so decided to kill 2 birds with one stone (i.e. physio and exploring) and went for a walk/run. Of course, once I was out there the weather got quite a bit better, and I ended up going for about an hour. Found some nice trails through the middle of town. Also found out that there's a train station about 3 blocks away from me! Aaaand found out that NOTHING is open in Germany on Sundays!! Not even restaurants or fast food places! Or grocery stores!! Boooo!!! Due to the lack of daylight during the week, that will restrict my exploring of non-natural wonders to Saturdays. Yay.

Jan 21 - I have acquired a bike!!!

Well, as I have just mentioned in the title of this post, I have just acquired a bike, and I am SUPER excited about it! The head of the research institute (and also a prof I am working with while I am here) is a very kind and generous British man with Indian heritage who lives in Juelich with his family, and he lent me the bike. His wife even went out and bought a brand new lock for me to use as well! I couldn't believe it. I am continually impressed by how nice people I meet here are! The bike even has a light that is powered when you spin the wheel as you ride. The Germans have thought of everything! We are so behind in technology in Canada!

Perhaps with my new-found bike I will be more adventurous tomorrow, and put down the very engrossing book I have been reading all day haha (A Game of Thrones - I don't think I will be sleeping tonight). To be fair, it was raining all day, and I am still feeling a bit sick from the food poisoning I got a couple days ago. And, would you believe it, I don't even think I got it from eating the cafeteria food. It was either my home-made salami sandwich or the fish dinner! Either way, I was extremely sick for a whole day and had to miss a very important day of work - including my two hours of scan time, a group meeting, AND a meeting about the water content study (my PhD project), which only takes place once a month :( :(. gah.

However, I was feeling just well enough to make it to work the next day. And I think it was a good thing I didn't attempt to make the journey to the centre the day before - I had to wait for half an hour in the visitor centre just outside the gates while they tried to call anyone in the research centre to let me in. It was brutal. I ended up being let in by someone I didn't even know (or at least couldn't remember). We laughed about it later because he had no idea who this (he thought German) "Frau Meyer" was, but he let me in anyway. I reallly hope I get my own entry badge soon!

That day at work did turn out to be an exciting day though. One of the ladies who works there, Irene, was giving her first talk at the university in Aachen (a nearby town), and apparently in Germany getting put on the teaching list/giving your first lecture is a very big deal. Just about everyone from the centre was going to watch her talk at 4pm, and so I tagged along too. Of course I didn't think about the fact that it would be in German!! So while I found the few videos of people that have tourettes (the topic of the lecture) interesting, I understood almost nothing in the lecture, besides one phrase - "das ist eine katze", which means "this is a cat". Don't ask me why that was in there, but I was very excited to know it. Good work, Rosetta Stone. I know almost no useful phrases, but I know that that is a cat.

After the talk there was a fancy reception with champagne/mimosas, lots of appies, and a few live musicians. I actually felt well enough to eat a bit, for the first time, and the food was good! Following that was a party organized and paid for by Irene in Juelich. It took place in a large greenhouse - a most interesting venue, and as it turns out probably one of the best party venues I've ever been to! It seems to have been set up for parties, with a full bar and a dance floor (which was not used by the medical physicists :P). There was a buffet dinner and an open bar! I had a great time, and got to know a lot of the very nice, laid back people that work at the centre. One point of interest - it was Irene's mother in law's birthday the next day, so at 12am they gave a champagne toast and sang happy birthday...in English! I was very surprised. Apparently they are taught it in kindergarten, and they usually sing happy birthday in English. Weird.

Well, time to get back to my book! Looking forward to a day of exploring tomorrow!

Jan 18 - Settled in!

Okay...so I decided to do a blog after all :)

Let's start with the trip here...this consisted of
1. A 9 hour flight - I slept pretty much the whole way after I told the little Indian man behind me who kept ordering whiskeys to stop shoving my chair (he did)
2. A very stressful 50 minute connection in Heathrow, in which I had to change terminals, go through security, and have my carry-on suitcase completely unpacked and checked/swabbed due to my little bottles of maple syrup (it was cool though because they gave me a bright orange pass thing that got me through all the lines)
3. A 1 hour flight to Dusseldorf - was neat because the skies were completely clear and the plane flew quite low, so I could see everywhere we flew over. To be honest, from what I saw, England, the Netherlands and North Germany are very flat and boring haha, at least from above
4. A German "sky train" ride from the airport to the train station. I felt like I was in the future! The technology here is crazy! It was a train thing that hung from a rail like some sort of amusement park ride.
5. A 1 hour train journey to Dueren(unfortunately it was too dark to see anything out the windows)
6. A ride from a lady I am working with at the research group (Anca) to my apartment, to find my landlady waiting right outside for me with my keys! I am happy to say that I made it all the way here with all my bags, and without paying any extra baggage or overweight fees! (WITH weight to spare!! woohoo!)

My landlady is super nice and speaks very good English, and my little studio apartment is perfect. It is actually equipped with everything I could possibly need (besides a real oven), and more! I have my own washer and dryer, iron, kettle, stove, toaster oven, microwave, cleaning supplies, cloths and towels/linen, garbage bags, dishes, etc!! It's actually a nice size too. There's even an extra bed that folds out of the IKEA wall unit (as does my bed)...in case anyone wants to visit! :) I am really happy with it! Even better, 2 blocks away is the bus stop for a bus that goes right to the research centre where I am working (which is about 5 km away). I am hoping to eventually find a used bike so that I don't have to bus, but for now it's convenient.

Anca (my supervisor here) is an angel. So kind and generous. She gave me a big bag of Lindt chocolates (apparently the factory is only 30 min away...I am doomed! :) ) and two wine glasses when I arrived. Right after taking me to my apartment the first night, she took me for a quick grocery shop, which I was very thankful for because boy was that load heavy! Fortunately we arrived 15 min before the grocery store closed. Groceries are SO CHEAP here! I couldn't believe it! A bag of red peppers for just over $1!! A block of guda and ementhal (?) cheese for each about $3!!! Wine for $3! Beer for 50 cents a bottle! (I will let you know later how tasty it is.) Anca also took me grocery shopping again today after work and gave me a ride home (good thing, because another heavy load with very important items such as TOILET PAPER, toothpaste and laundry detergent!) She is very kind and I look forward to working with her.

As for the town of Juelich...it is very small and has a factory right in the middle of it :S that produces sugar, so it doesn't look like it's going to be a super exciting place. Funny enough, although there are only one or two main streets, there was actually bumper to bumper traffic around 5pm the other day! Lots of trucks, perhaps transporting stuff from the factory? However, regardless of how boring the town looks, I am looking forward to some quiet small town life :). I plan to do lots of exploring once I obtain a bike. It's super flat here so biking will be really easy. There are also several fitness centres nearby where I saw people doing some kind of exercise class, so maybe I will sign up for yoga or something. I also hope to do a lot of physio (exercises and walk/runs) and learn some German with an online course I am taking, maybe read a bit... Because my sleep schedule is a bit messed up lately, I have been waking up quite early, so this morning I went for a walk/run in the pitch black at 6:45am! I actually really enjoyed it. Made a loop through the main part of Juelich in 20 minutes, without getting lost (phew!). Maybe I will try to maintain this sleep schedule... Fortunately (at least for the walk/runs) there is no snow and the temp is around 0-5 degrees.

Work so far...
The research centre here, Forschungszentrum Jeulich, is huge. There's all sorts of research going on here besides MRI. Lots of medical and physics-y stuff. Also lots of MRI scanners, which is good for me. It's weird though, I always feel like I am (once again) entering into some kind of futuristic sci-fi world when I go there. Entrance is very controlled and you have to have a badge, or otherwise a visitor pass to get in. I got what turned out to be a one-day pass on the first day, which I kept without knowing and used today. Someone at the gate even comes on the bus to check passes! Fortunately they didn't notice today that mine was expired... unfortunately I had to give it back when Anca gave me a ride home, so I will have to get another day pass tomorrow (still waiting on my own more permanent badge)... The place has a lot of levels of administrative bureaucracy as well. Anca said there are something like 2 admin people per every researcher, which seems crazy to me! I have already had to deal with a few levels with setting up my contract :S. Lots and lots of papers to sign, and yet still it is not complete. Boo.

There's also a fairly cheap cafeteria where EVERYONE eats. They all pile in, go pick out their food, pay with their swipe cards, sit, and then pile out after leaving their trays on conveyor belts. It's like an efficient factory. However, the food looks questionable to me...not sure if this goes for German food in general, or just this food in particular. Lots of sausages and strange bones of meat (pork knuckle or something???), and other greasy dishes. I was told that everyone from the centre went to lunch together there and it was a social thing, so I reluctantly gave up my home-made sandwich and went the first day. A very nice guy named Johannes put my meal on his swipe card. The little shop beside it had sandwiches (which in my opinion weren't amazing either...they put slices of egg on their tuna sandwiches - ew), so I got one of those. But, everyone at lunch was reallly nice and talkative so I am glad I went.

Today I went for lunch with another guy from my office, Daniel, and met his school friends who all live in Juelich - yay! I guess I should explain why I am excited about meeting people who live in Juelich...just about no one at the research centre does!!! It's very frustrating too because I have all sorts of questions, but everyone has been like - sorry, I live in Aachen and bus in, or sorry, I live in Cologne and drive in, or just about any town within an hour from here. But Daniel and his friends live here, and he has been very helpful - and he invited me to go to a bar with them tomorrow night! Yay!

Anyways, I guess I have written enough for now. This is what happens when I have completely free evenings! :)