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