Last Post from Germany

So this is officially my last post from Germany.  It's sad that this trip had to end, but I can't wait to be home and see everybody!
I forgot to mention what happened Tuesday through Friday (today).
Tuesday, we went to research to present our powerpoints about our research to our mentor scientists.  That was really nerve wracking, but we all survived.  Afterwards, we went shopping and bought lots of chocolate! Wednesday, we had to make another presentation, but this one was about our experience in Germany.  We hadn't really worked on it so we were going to meet early in the morning at JWS so I woke up at 7 and missed Dr. Braun so I couldn't catch a ride to the school.  I got ready and waited for the bus in the rain.  The bus left at 8:15 and I got to the main station at 8:45.  I then took bus #62 to get to the school, but I had absolutely no idea which street to get off at.  I picked a random street and had to walk around for an hour and a half - walking almost a 5K and finally made it to the school dripping wet just to see that Amy and Krista hadn't informed me that they weren't coming until 11:00.  Once they did arrive though, we worked on our presentation and presented it - it went quite well.  The ceremony they had was nice and a lot of important people like the Minister of Education came to give speeches.
Thursday, we ended up going to school with the German students.  We sat through Economics- in German, Biotechnology- in German/English (actually a really interesting class where in vitro fertilization was the topic of conversation), English, and Biotechnology again.  After Biotechnology, we all went through a window and picked apples.  I went home with Alex and ate at her house and then Erika drove us to Melanie's house where we watched the Bourne Identity and Supremacy.
Today, we went to school again here for the last time and went to P.E. and Math.  P.E. was a lot of fun because we played one game where you have to throw a foam ball at people like dodgeball except there's a king that you're trying to get out.  We also played a game where you have a huge ball and you have to use any method you can to get it into your goal.  That was a lot of fun!  Math was interesting because we were split into teams (Amy and I with the Germans, and Krista with the other Germans) and they played a strategy game like Chess on the board, but to move you had to get the math problems right.  Once the Germans found out that Amy and I were good at math, we had to answer all of the questions.  Krista however didn't get to play at all because the one person who knew German wasn't even participating.  After school, we went out into the city for a little while and bought more presents.  Now I have to start packing for tomorrow.  We leave at 7:30 and our plane takes off at 11:40.  We'll be back in the states at 1:20 pm tomorrow so I should be home by 4!
TIME TO PACK!


Goodbye (in different languages):


ba bye - creole


totsiens / tot siens - Afrikaans (standard)
koebaai - Afrikaans (informal; derived from English "Good-Bye")
vaarwel - Afrikaans (formal)


elalleqa - Arabic


khodaa haafez - persian


aabar dekha hobey - Bengali


Donadagohvi - Cherokee


Hagoonea' - Navajo


Ahoj - Czech


Sayonara / さよなら (if you will not see them for a long time) - Japanese


Auf Wiedersehen - German
Bis dann - German
Tschüss - German


Viszlát! - Hungarian


Ciao - Italian
Buona sera - Italian


Adieu - French [add-ee-uh] 
Au Revoir - French (aw reh-VWAH)


Hejdå - Swedish


Aloha - Hawaiian


Le'hitraot - Hebrew
Shalom - Hebrew


Aavajo - Gujarat


Bye, 
~Kiersten

Leipzig: Day 3 + Sun & Mon

Leipzig Day 3 in a brief overview:
    - Visited the restaurant where Goethe spent most of his time writing
    - Ate at said restaurant
    -Went window shopping
    -Saw an awesome theater show including acrobatics, singing, magic, and jokes in German
    -Went to the Potato House restaurant: waited for over 2 hours for our food that wasn't even good
    -Walked around Leipzig and explored
    -bed
Sunday:
   -Drove back to Pforzheim (8 hours)
   - Watched the USA vs Japan Women's world cup Championship: one of the most intense games thus far
   -Saw Japan win the game and all the people back in Japan celebrate
Monday:
   -Worked on presentation for tomorrow at research
That's all for now and I have to finish my presentation and figure out what the plan is for tomorrow.
Ciao,
~Kiersten

Leipzig: Day 1 and 2

Sorry about the lack of posting, but we have been enjoying East Germany and hanging out with other teenagers who actually try to speak English with us.  We have been touring Leipzig, going to museums and listening to stories about how the Berlin wall was built and destroyed and how the Monday demonstrations took place in front of the church directly in front our motel which has turned out to be a lot nicer than any hotel I've ever stayed out.  It's really upscale.  We've had a great time hanging out with the other students from Pforzheim and learning more German.  Tonight, we went exploring around Leipzig and in the hotel.  I also bought a European jacket, which I think is pretty classy and not too expensive.  Tomorrow, we are going to see a play of some sort so that should be fun and then on Sunday we have to drive 8 hours back to Pforzheim and watch the USA play Japan for the title of champion in the women's world cup.
Now that you're up to date, I'm going to head to bed.
Night,
~Kiersten

Wow...it's been a while since I've posted

    It's been a while since I've posted anything so I have four days to catch you up on.
Sunday: worked on presentation for research and watched The Island along with Stardust later that night.  A good do nothing day.
Monday: Research and Stuttgart.  We went shopping, but didn't find anything and I was going to get Starbucks, but the line was too long and it was expensive so it wasn't worth it.
Tuesday: Research and chilling in Mannheim.  We went and laid in the grass in the park, but a police officer walked by and apparently you aren't aloud to lay in the grass there, but luckily he was nice about it and offered us a bench nearby instead.
Today: It started out normally with us making all of our connections, but the return home was a different story.  We left research at 4:10 and had to be back at the station to make the 4:36 train.  We briskly walked to the tram, but missed it by 30 seconds, which meant that we were going to miss our train.  We all wanted to get home early in order to see the USA vs France game on TV so we wanted to be home around 6 meaning we had to find an early train.  We looked up times and found a train that would get us there quickly, but Krista stopped to get pasta and Amy mentioned that we had 30 seconds to catch the train.  When we got the platform, the sign said that the train was delayed 15 minutes, which soon turned into 20, then 25, then 35 minutes.  Amy went to check other train times and while she was gone I followed Krista into a market to look at chocolate.  We returned to the platform to find Amy missing and we couldn't find her anywhere.  We looked on our platform twice and searched the station, but had no luck.  Our train finally arrived and we couldn't find Amy so we decided to get on, hoping she caught one of the other trains going to the station.  We arrived in Karlsruhe and still couldn't find her.  We were worried and somewhat bored and so we made a short video on my computer saying that we officially lost Amy.  When we got off of the train we headed to her bus station just in case she made it there and lo and behold she was there!  We exchanged stories and it turned out that she had gotten on a train on a different platform because she thought we had already left her, but we ended up in Karlsruhe ahead of her (faster train) and we had both ridden the same train in different compartments to Pforzheim.  It was a domino effect starting with the red light that prevented us from reaching the tram to get to the station.  Those 30 seconds cost us an hour of waiting in the train station, and two hours of worry.  It was funny though thtat we missed Amy's return to our platform in Mannheim because we were fascinated by the chocolate in the store (mostly Krista haha).
I got back to Braun's house and turned on the TV to watch the USA vs France game.  The USA won 3-1 and while watching it, the commentary went like this: something, something, something in German, Wambach, something, something, Wambach, something, Wambach, something, something, Wambach.  I think there was a theme in the coverage.  Now that I've brought you up to speed, I'm going to go pack for Leipzig this weekend.  It's an 8 hour car ride that I'm not looking forward too, but I'm excited to see East Germany.  We leave tomorrow and won't be back until Sunday so it should be fun.
Talk to you later,
~Kiersten

Heidelberg

Today started out with biking around Nussbaum, which was an interesting experience given the bike I was riding.  It was a bicycle that cost over 2,000 Euros and looked like a professional one.  It was hard to get used to how it worked and I almost got run over in the process, but luckily I learned how to stop just in time.

After biking, we headed to Heidelberg and visited a student prison where the kids were kept if they misbehaved and they wrote their stories, engraved their names, and painted pictures of themselves on the walls of the prison. I even saw an engraving of the last name Schmidt on the wall.  We also visited the Castle in Heidelberg, which is the most famous castle in Germany.  After that we went shopping for a short time and I got a cute Germany bag, a few t-shirts, and some other items.  It was a lot of fun and now we're watching the Germany vs Japan soccer game.  Japan just scored a goal in thirty minutes of overtime and it was an extremely painful game.

I was just looking up the news for today and everyone is celebrating the birth of South Sudan and they raised the new flag in Juba today.  It's now official that all of the maps of the world are now out of date and we are experiencing history.  It's weird to think that some of the events I'm reading about that are going on now like the Arab spring and all of the revolutions in Africa are going to be written in textbooks years from now.  Well, I should probably head to bed now...

Nacht,

~Kiersten

Research and Stuttgart

Yesterday at research nothing out of the ordinary occurred besides the fact that I've been having problems with getting results and one of my films turned out completely blank, which is not a good sign.  Today, I redid the latter half of the experiment and it turned out that I had used the wrong secondary antibody.  Instead of using the HRP against mouse antibody, I used the marker lysate I had made previously that week.  They both had an 'm' on the top of the lid and I had assumed they both meant mouse.  Whoops...but now I have results and I have to work on my presentation and paper all next week.

Today, we decided to go to Stuttgart after research and it has the largest mall/shopping center in all of Germany. It was extremely impressive and the overall atmosphere and architecture made the trip worth it.  We only had time to go into one store because the lines were so long and there were too many people, but I did get some shorts.  Hopefully, we will be able to go back and get more clothes.  Tomorrow we're going to Heidelberg- tourist central, and there I hope to find things to buy.  Also, I learned from Krista that South Sudan is becoming it's own country tonight at midnight, which means that tomorrow all of our maps will be wrong.  And in England, people are camping out to see the viewing of Harry Potter 7 Part 2 and they ahve recreated Hogsmeade accompanied by wand shops, etc in England.  People have come dressed up in Hogwarts robes and are excited to catch glimpses of the actors/actresses when they arrive for the viewing.  Wish I was in England right now...It's sad that we won't be able to see the movie when it comes out even though it officially premiers here on July 12th.  That's all for now.
Adios,
~Kiersten

Just Another Ordinary Day *insert sarcasm*

Sorry that I haven't posted the past two days, but all that happened was that we went to research and I went running for 30 minutes straight on Monday.  Today, however, was a different story.

Today started out normally with us getting on the train to Karlsruhe.  Amy and I have a joint ticket to ride the trains and she was carrying it around in her hand.  We didn't have any problems until we got onto the train in Karlsruhe to go to Mannheim.  Amy realized that she no longer had the ticket in her hand.  We searched through all of our bags and pockets and even looked around on the ground, but to our despair, no ticket could be found.  We went to research as per usual and called Dr. Braun to see what we would have to do.  The ticket that we had lasted for the entire month and would get us anywhere in Germany, but it cost 400 Euros.  Amy was so upset about it and she spent most of the tram ride back to the station worrying about the cost and how she always misplaces stuff.

    We got off at the station and bought some fruit and train tickets to get us back to Pforzheim.  We asked all of service counters in both Mannheim and Karlsruhe if they had obtained our ticket and we searched the platforms for it.  When we were searching for a payphone to call Dr. Braun with (my phone ran out of money and the other girls didn't have theirs with them), Amy set down her laptop case.  She left it there and out of luck she passed by one of the attendants who had picked it up.  She almost lost both the ticket and her laptop.  It was not a good day for Amy and with no luck with finding the ticket, we headed back home.  When we got off at the Karlsruhe train station, there were train attendants standing around a garbage bin with water and it turned out that there was smoke coming out if.  My guess was that someone carelessly through a cigarette into the paper compartment of the trash.  It was a crazy day and I ended up spending $30 on a train ticket just today.  Dr. Braun purchased tickets for Amy and I for this coming week so we should be good until we are supposed to go to Leipzig.

     I forgot to mention that yesterday, there was a man on the train who could only speak French and he needed help to find out where to get off.  A woman who only spoke German asked Krista if she could help the man.  The woman talked to Krista in German, Krista translated to English for Amy, and Amy spoke French to the man.  It was interesting to watch this "language train" and I sort of wish there had been some need for me to speak to Spanish, but seeing as I have taken a year off from Spanish, it probably wouldn't have been pretty.    

     Digressing, on Saturday, the plan is to go to Heidelberg to shop, sight see, and watch fireworks on top of the castle.  I really need to start preparing for my presentation of my research because we have to make one before leaving Germany.  I can't believe how fast this has gone and that it's almost over.  I'm just now getting used to the routine, my lab, the Braun family, and I'm really enjoying myself here.  We've had a lot of adventures here and I hope to have more before we leave.  I will be sad to say goodbye to Germany, but I'm also kind of excited to be going home to spend time with my family.  It's going to be a bittersweet goodbye, but that is still a ways off so I'm going to enjoy myself here while I can.

      It's late here so I should probably hit the hay.

Tchuss,

~Kiersten

Swimming today

As the title of this post implies, we went swimming today.  It was 65F outside, but the place we went to was all indoors with a small outdoor pool.  It was actually a pretty big place with five or six different pools and hot tubs. There was even an indoor water slide.  On the pools was about 15 ft deep and there were diving boards that went up to 5 meters tall.  We swam for five hours and ate lunch and dinner there.  It was a lot of fun and it was good exercise.  I'm sure I will sleep soundly tonight.  Nothing else has happened so far, but I'll probably post again tomorrow when it's back to work.  Hopefully, we will all be able to get results this week because we are running out of weeks of research.  Next week, we are spending the week in East Germany- Leipzig, so we only have about 7 days of research left and we have to make presentations on what we've done in a couple of weeks.  I feel like our classmates have gotten more time doing research than we have, but we'll see how it turns out in the end.
Ciao,
~Kiersten

Women's World Cup: USA vs Colombia

USA: 3 Colombia: 0
What an awesome game! We arrived at the stadium before four (the game started at six) and we all painted our faces with watercolors (it was the only thing we could find).  Our faces actually turned out pretty cool with Amy and Krista painting American flags on their's and on mine was red, white, and blue stripes (I had on my American flag t-shirt).  Thirteen minutes into the game and America already scored with an amazing long shot that hit the back right corner.  It was a gorgeous shot and started us off on a good foot.  The footwork in the game was amazing too and it was interesting to watch the different moves by the women to pass, feint, and move quickly across the field.  Colombia got the ball into the goal and celebrated as if they had scored, but unfortunately for them they were off-sides so the goal wasn't counted.  The referees in the game where horrible because they didn't call penalties that they should have for both sides so it was very aggressive game, but interesting to watch.  In the second half, there was another amazing goal that arched from a long distance and got past the goalie and it was kicked by #15 who was not great at passing the ball, but was really good at getting around the other players with fancy footwork.  The last goal that was scored was a completely lucky shot because the ball should have been caught by the goalie, but it bounced off of her fingers and into the goal.  Overall, it was a spectacular game.  Our seats were the obstructed view seats so they only cost 25E instead of 80E so the view wasn't perfect, but we were five rows above the field so we could actually see the players' faces.  We also saw the second goal perfectly which was amazing and the players ran to our side to celebrate.  A lot of people took our pictures at the game because of our faces and one older gentleman commented that he liked the design on my face the best and then said, "Merci" (the red, white, and blue stripe make up France's flag).  There were a lot of cameras around and Krista and I both got to be filmed, but we have no idea what station it was for.  There was an American family across from us that got filmed by a different camera crew, and were told that it was ESPN so we were close to being shown in America.  There were a ton of people from the US, which was amazing and it was nice to hear people speaking in English.  There were even supporters from Colombia and they had signs saying "Te Amo Colombia" and sombreros with the Colombian colors.  The game was amazing and it was definitely worth.  We had so much fun and there were over 25,000 in attendance and the seats were sold out so we were lucky enough to go.  I have no idea what's planned for tomorrow so I guess I that means I get to sleep in.
Night,
~Kiersten
  

Umbilical Cords

During research today, Amy and I got to see one of the scientists in the lab obtain cells from a donated umbilical cord.  Apparently, there used to be a lot of donors a few years ago, but now the lab is lucky to get one a week. The researcher, Anja, took a syringe attached to a needle and pressed PBS through the vein (she called it, "ze ween") in the center to make sure there weren't any holes.  She found a hole and had to cut the cord with a scalpel and then she had to pump all of the blood out of the vein.  After that she used clamps and filled the vein with collagenase and incubated it.  Anja told us, "I am making fun with ze umbilical cord."  I love German accents!  It was one of the most exciting things that has happened so far in research.  I also got to work with DNA today and develop films too.  We are trying to find paint here for tomorrow's game, but so far we haven't had much luck.  We're going to try to go shopping in Stuttgart tomorrow before the game...I'm going to try to see if I can watch Pride and Prejudice on my computer tonight...
That's all for now,
~Kiersten

Intriguing People

Today on the train back from research, we heard a guy say, “Sorry” to someone he bumped into and we automatically thought American.  Krista asked the guy if he was from America or Britain.  The man said that he lived in America but was born in Iran and after living in California he moved to Germany and is now working in geophysics as a seismologist and he married a Russian woman.  His 18^th month old is now learning Farzi, Russian, German, and English.  We played with his son and talked to him for the rest of the train ride to Karlsruhe and as we were about to get off another man approached us and told us that he was from Michigan and he composes the music that plays in the short videos in museums.  I didn’t even know there were such people who did that.  He also plays the saxophone and loves Germany more than America because it has a lot operas and promotion of the arts.  He is now a professor in Karlsruhe, too.  It was so cool to talk to other Americans and they were so friendly, which is a definite plus.  I feel like the Germans would be nice too if only I could speak German. All in all today was pretty good and we got to meet some awesome people.

Adios,

~Kiersten

monday and tuesday (27 and 28)

Yesterday was busy so I didn't have time to post anything.  After research we went looking around Mannheim and ended up in a bookstore-- surprise, surprise.  Across from the bookstore were these two guys who were street performers called the Streetles (written like the Beatles).  We spent a lot of the time trying to find a Go Kart place where we were meeting Melanie's family to race go-karts.  We got lost of course- it seems to have become our specialty.  We ended up finding a whole bunch of blackberries and had fun picking them and eating them while we waited for Melanie's father to find us.  As we were about to leave, a guy our age talked to Krista in German and it turns out that he was from Turkey.  We left and went racing go-karts.  I think because it runs in the family (*cough* Dad *cough*) I wasn't half bad if I do say so myself :P By the time we caught a train back to Pforzheim, it was 11:30 and so I had to head to bed.

Today, wasn't terribly exciting...I had to pipet solution into 4,800 tiny tubes all day which was tedious work.  We ended up leaving early and Krista had to stay behind because she wasn't going to get out until after 6.

Bye for now,
~Kiersten

Sunday

Today, I got to go see a horse competition at the stables near the Braun's house.  It was actually warm today (80F) so that was nice and it cool to see the jumping competition.  We toured a monastery today, which turned out to be a lot more fun than it sounds.  I'm reading The Pillars of the Earth and it is a fictional story with action and adventure but also focuses on monasteries and how they are built, so it was interesting to apply the knowledge from this book to an actual monastery.  There was also a Renaissance fair in the square of the monastery and so I got to see sword fighting, Medieval skits, and tug-of-war with four teams and a wheel.  There were a ton of people dressed up and it was interesting to see the different costumes.  I watched the women's soccer game on TV, Germany vs Canada, and Germany won 2-1.  Mexico played earlier today against France in a scrimmage and lost awfully, so it was not a good day for North America, but hopefully Saturday will be better. I had maultaussen for lunch today and flammkuchen (a flat pizza) for dinner.  I'm exhausted so I'm off to sleep.
Ciao,
~Kiersten

German Public Transportation

So the public transportation was not on our side at all today.  We started out the day planning on meeting at platform 4 to take a train indirectly to Heidelberg.  Amy and I both arrived there before the train was at the station and we were waiting for Krista and Erika.  2 minutes before the train leaves at 10:34, I get a call from Erika saying their bus was 15 minutes late and she still has to buy a ticket.  Amy and I decide that we can afford to miss this train, so we change platforms to wait for Erika and Krista.  This train leaves at 10:43 without us and still no sign of Erika or Krista.  We go up the stairs and find both of them trying to get the machine to work and print out a ticket, so that we can catch the next train at 10:47.  It finally prints out the ticket and we run to the platform just in time to see that the train has already left.  We missed all 3 trains to Heidelberg.  A train running at 11:23 would have gotten us to Heidelberg, but Amy's mentor, Jen (who was planning this whole trip for us--going to the castle, having tea, eating schnitzel, etc), called and told us that was a train that would take us straight to Heidelberg.  We had to wait around until 11:47 to take this IC (high speed) train.  We get on the train, find seats, and relax.  We stop at station after station and Krista starts wondering if this is the right train because the stop wasn't listed on the train schedule.  A man comes on the intercom in the train and in German says a bunch of random things and then I hear Heidelberg 12:20 (in German).  We all assume that it's a stop on the way to Nuremberg (the train's final destination).  We all look anxiously at the time as it becomes 12:30 then 12:40...After talking a lot with Jen and trying to find out why our train wasn't stopping, Erika went and asked one of the train attendants who tells her that the next stop is in Crailsheim, 45 minutes away and that Nuremberg in Bavaria is about an hour away (from Pforzheim Nuremberg is a 3 hour train ride).  After a lot of discussion and worry, we finally decide to just go all the way to Nuremberg, go sightseeing and exploring there and then return home later.

Nuremberg was an amazing city that was built for tourists.  There were fortresses, churches, architecture, museums, festivals, open markets, and anything else that might attract people from everywhere.  We walked around and got chocolate, looked at stores, took pictures of the ornate churches, went onto a tall fortress that overlooked the city (gorgeous view and it even had rooftop gardens), played foosball on an extended foosball table and really had a good time.  There were even people painted in all silver acting like statues reminding me of San Francisco.  We headed back to the train station and left Bavaria at 5:30ish and returned to Pforzheim around 8:30.  From there, Krista and Erika got on their bus leaving me to wait with Amy for Melanie's mom to pick her up and then I was going to catch my bus at 9:38.  I headed to my bus stop after Amy left and I realized that she had my phone, which wasn't a problem because I was going to see her tomorrow.  Soon I realized how bad of an idea that was.

When I got to my bus stop around 9:25 I look at the schedule for the buses and saw that I was mistaken about this bus and that the next and last bus was to come at 11 o'clock.  On closer inspection though I found out that wasn't true.  Apparently at 11, the bus didn't stop at 3 stations and one of those stations happened to be the one I had to get off at.  I had to find, try to translate, and use a pay phone to call Dr. Braun and after a lot of trouble with the phone, but I got a ride back to the house.

After that great adventure, it was about 11 when we got back and we headed to the stables to pick up Annalena.  There was a party going on to celebrate the horse competitions that are held this weekend.  I got my schnitzel and there was a band playing that had to be American because their English was perfect and according to Dr. Braun, their German was terrible.  They played songs from Michael Jackson, Pink, Elvis, and also some German songs.  It was fun hanging out their and I got to meet Annalena's friend who has had 9 years of English in school speaks very well.  She was extremely nice and we hung out until midnight.  Tomorrow, we are going to a Renaissance festival and to explore the monastery, which should be fun.  Today was so much fun and quite an adventure.
Hope there are more to come!
~Kiersten  

Amazing

Today was simply amazing.  Research was fun and I got to do the entire experiment by myself, which showed me that my mentors trust me.  After research, we decided randomly to go explore Mannheim.  We now have tickets that will take us anywhere in Germany, so we might take advantage of that later.  In Mannheim, we took pictures around this building that had statues and carvings of Neptune, nymphs, and sphinxes.  It was a gorgeous building with beautiful fountains on either side.  After we finished taking pictures there, we went shopping.  (I will try to see if Amy will post the pictures on Facebook...she likes to play around with them to make them look better).  I didn't get anything, but there were a lot of cute clothes and they were really cheap.  I'm thinking about maybe entering a European style phase and getting skinny jeans or lose black capris, a red tank top, and either a black or beige fitted jacket or a denim one.  Too bad money doesn't grow on trees (: ...Amy got a really cute denim dress and Krista bought an outrageous shirt just for fun.  We took the train back to Pforzheim and we realized that there was a festival going on.  There are festivals every week in Pforzheim and this week it was a car show.  The cars looked really sleek and were a lot smaller than the ones at home.  I wasn't particularly interested in the cars besides their looks, but there was a concert going on in the center so we hung out there.  I went to the Turkish restaurant and got a meat sandwich with lettuce and chili pepper (I usually wouldn't have asked for this, but the employee insisted).  It was delicious and that is now one of my favorite places for food!  We walked around a lot and found a garden on the top of one of the stores's roof.  We had a great time and it was fun just spontaneously going to a festival that just happened to be in Pforzheim.  Tomorrow's plans are to go to Heidelberg, eat Schpatzel for lunch, visit the ruins of a castle, take lots of pictures, possibly drink tea, and shop.  Sunday, we are taking a tour of a monastery and going to a Renaissance Festival they are holding near the monastery.  According to my mentor, it's one of the most attended festivals and there are jousting competitions, people dressed in costumes, and a lot more.  I'm excited to tell you guys all about it.

Night,

~Kiersten 

France

We headed off to France today...It was a church holiday and the priests and their parishes walked in a parade from parish to parish, which was cool to watch because they carried the host underneath a canopy.  We drove an hour and a half to Strasbourg, France and it was so gorgeous especially with all the decorative architecture.  We walked around a lot and went inside the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Strasbourg.  That was my favorite part because the church was TALL and was so beautifully decorated with detailed sculptures, paintings, etc.  It was crazy how striking the cathedral was and every time I saw it, it took my breath away.  I had a common French cuisine at a restaurant though I forgot what it's called but it was three different types of sausages, three different types of ham, and sauerkraut (which I didn't eat...not a huge fan).  It was good though and we went window shopping, too.  Everything was so expensive, but I did happen to buy a pair of earrings for a Euro, which I thought was a good purchase.  Also, we took a boat tour of the River splitting Strasbourg and we got to see the building where the European parliament worked and we got to experience going through a lock...It was an interesting audio narrated tour, but the rocking of the boat almost put me to sleep.  We got stuck in traffic on the way back and it took us three hours to get back to the house.  I'm exhausted and I'm headed off to bed...
(P.S.- Mom, I'm almost done with the Pillars of the Earth, only 100 pages left and it is SO good! Love you!)
Talk to you later,
~Kiersten

Pick Pocketed!

I just realized that I got pick pocketed today! My iPod Shuffle and headphones were taken! : / They were in the back pocket of my bag and they aren't there any more...luckily nothing else was taken because I didn't put my bag down at all today, but I can't believe someone was able to take that without me noticing!

Interesting Day

Today was a lot of fun! It started out with us getting off on the wrong train station and having to get on a random train that we thought we might be able to ride to possibly the right station.  It was an hour long ride through Brushel, Heidelberg, and Mannheim.  Tomorrow we get new tickets and with them we can travel anywhere we want to in Germany.  We were half and hour late research, but the mentors didn't care.  i worked on another Western Blot today and got to do most of the experiment by myself.  One of the girls in the lab, Caro, had a birthday this week so we went out to a bakery to buy food and had a party/brunch.  It was kind of awkward because Amy and I were the only English speakers and we couldn't sit next to each other because all of the seats were filled.  Also, apparently Cheng (the Chinese man in our lab) was sad because no one talked English around him or translated anything and he was afraid that he might forget his English and that he was being left out of conversations and he's been here a year.  When asked about what Tanja thinks is the biggest difference between Germany and the US, she said the government and the life styles.  She said that if people accidently forgot one thing, then BOOM, they were put in jail :) Also, in the lab they received a new order of bottles that were stored in dry ice and Tanja brought some pieces of it to the lab so we could play with it for fun.  We put one piece in a plastic glove and added water and the glove expanded.  We then proceeded to draw a face on it with a pig nose and jack-o-lantern teeth.  We put one in a 15 mL tub and added water and watched the gas escape.  We added soap to it too and when the bubbles popped the gas flowed out.  We also put dry ice in an eppendorf tube (1 mL), added water, sealed the lid tightly, and then hid it behind one of the people in the lab and it exploded!  Tanja told me about how she once put some in a hot water bath and the gas filled up the entire room.  After we finished playing with the ice, we got out early and stopped for ice cream.
On the train ride back from Karlsruhe to Pforzheim, there was a mother with a 3 year old, a 1 year old, and a newborn.  Her sons were so cute and the 1 year old had the funniest expressions.  Our whole car was entertained by them.  We all made faces at them and imitated their sounds and actions.  There was this one middle aged, built guy who had a completely straight face and wheeled his bike to play with the kids with a hint of a smile on his face.  The 3 year old kids had some sort of candy and he went around trying to share it with everyone.  As we were about to get off the train, the boy stuck a handful in his mouth and spit them everywhere.  His brother came along and ate some off the floor, which was disgusting.  The newborn baby was so adorable though and slept for most of the train ride.  It was a very interesting train ride and it's nice to see how friendly the Germans are.
Digressing, on July 2nd, we get to go see the women's world cup for soccer (US vs Colombia) and we are painting up - red, white, and blue! Also, it's the summer solstice today.  There's no research tomorrow so I think we might be going to France tomorrow and then to a celebration in Heidelberg on Saturday so that should be fun.  More to come later.
Tschuss,
~Kiersten

Tuesday- Research

Today was pretty normal at research.  I worked most of the time on performing western blots on proteins, so that was the extent of today's work and nothing of much consequence happened on the trains today.  Krista did happen to make a friend with a guy with dreds because it looked like their bus had a flat tire...Not much to talk about today, but we have another holiday on Thursday (there seems to be a holiday every week here) so that should be fun though I don't know what we're going to do then.  I need to start buying things other than food here because that's all I've spent my money on so far...That's about it.
Adios for now,
~Kiersten

Sunday/Monday

Yesterday, Krista and I went running and we experienced a picturesque moment.  Picture the city in the background covered in a mist and in front of it are fields and fields of wheat. It's windy, so it looks like the wheat fields are actually water and the wheat is forming an undulating current. It's sunny, but drizzling at the same time -- the perfect weather for the perfect view.  I wish I could have frozen time right then because of how gorgeous it was, but of course time kept moving.  Later that day we went bowling and I scored above 100! That's right -- 101!
Today, we had research and all I did today was load gels and let them run so nothing exciting happened.  When we got back to Pforzheim, we stopped at a restaurant and got desserts.  I got Tiramisu, which was amazing! It was extremely good and I wish I could have had more.  Amy got panna cotta, which was okay but a little bland and it looked like flan.  Krista got spaghetti ice cream, which is also delicious.  When I got back to the Braun's house, we went out to eat at the most German restaurant EVER *sarcasm* -- Subway (: I was upset because they didn't have meatball subs, so I came up with a random combination of food that actually ended up tasting good.  I got chicken covered in Mexican seasoning, cheese, lettuce, cucumbers, olives, and chipotle sauce.  It was spicy and good.  Afterwards, we went walking around a town called Bretten and had ice cream there.  Lots of desserts today! It was really good, but now I feel full and should probably go to bed early because of research tomorrow.
See ya,
~Kiersten