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.
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