der Umzug

I have been in my new home, Rostock, for just over a week now. I would have written yesterday on the one week mark, but I was wicked tired since I stayed up late to watch the Superbowl.

Last week I checked out of my room in Neubrandenburg. I'd spent the previous 24 hours scrubbing my walls with an eraser after the horror stories I'd heard from the Latvian students about room damage fees. In the end I got away with somewhere between 6.25€ and whatever a painter costs for a day in damages. The Purple Hair Lady (which surprisingly doesn't narrow the field of possible people much in Germany) claimed that the place I leaned against the wall would need to be repaired...or the entire room be painted. Maybe if they didn't paint the walls with CHALK it wouldn't be a problem, but I digress. I've moved out. Today's word by the way mean “relocation.”

This. This right here. This is what my life fits into. No bullshit.

I've moved to Rostock now because I am starting my internship phase of the program. I have my internship at the University of Rostock in the Agrobiotechnology Lab. Their website is mostly in German, but the gist of the research is getting plants to grow things that are expensive, difficult, or environmentally damaging for humans to produce normally. The two main things we trick the plants into making are immune system proteins (which normally require you to infect an animal and harvest it's blood in order to produce) and plastics (which take a lot of oil and never break down in a landfill). I'm über-excited!

The painted wooden cow in the foyer should have been the first tip that my workplace would be non-traditional

Beforehand, I was expecting the really serious work environment that everyone kept alluding to. Namely that you are always on time, your coworkers are NOT your friends, you dress well, and you are meticulously thorough. I scoped out my lab the day before I started to make sure I knew where it was in the morning, and be damned if I didn't stumble onto my boss during my casing of the building. She was happy and laughed a lot and was generally very friendly. I immediately assumed that she had to be the exception to the rule. So the next day, I walk in, and everyone is very friendly, they (surprisingly) approach me and ask me about my home and my life. In the first 2 minutes, my boss informs me that everyone there uses the informal version of “you” when the address each other, which I also didn't expect. I mean my cell phone doesn't even use the informal version of “you” with me, and god knows the secrets that thing knows about me. My coworkers are really cool people. We have two Christophs. One of whom has been showing me around in the lab. He sort of looks like Einstein, and he's also pretty smart. The other one has been showing me around the city, and has an impressive list of hobbies including cooking, vaulting, photography, and farming...oh and he's a trained carpenter. Oh and in his spare time he's in the national guard. (Ladies, the German bachelors are a fantastic lot, if I do say so myself.) Anyways my work is fantastic and I love it there.

The food in the cafeteria is awesome. Also I stole that cup.

The city of Rostock is pretty big, nothing out of control, but like 200,000 people. I found the bar district, and may or may not have a favorite bar already. Also, north of town is a suburb (sort of) called Warnemünde. It's a beach town. Christoph, some of his friends, and I went there on Sunday. It was bitterly cold, as expected, but still there were loads of people there for a 10° day. I'm excited to see how it looks in the summer, I heard there's a nude beach...

My dorm is a shared apartment, which I shared with a German named Matthias and a Palestinian named Hani. I thought Hani's name was “Honey” for the longest time. Lemme tell you, it's really bizarre when you meet someone and right away he tells you to call him Honey. Also my apartment is huge, and it took me some thinking to figure out why. I finally solved the puzzle when I was in the bathroom. Nothing immodest, we have the handicapped apartment and so our bathroom is tricked out with all kinds of guard rails and emergency call buttons. That was what tipped me off. Also the doors are super wide and we are on the first floor. I really hope there aren't any poor students in wheel-chairs living on the third floor someone because of me.

I found this little gem near the grocery store. Big Long Asia....too easy.

So, all in all I could not be happier with my current placement, and if any of you readers are from Rostock (I highly doubt this) I'm gladly taking suggestions of new things to do, see, and try in the city.