Hi Everyone!  Yes I’m back from the dead.  Actually I’m back from my summer holiday in Italy.  I took time off after my student finished her practicum in the lab.  It was a much needed rest because I was on the verge of a burnout.  The lack of personal time plus having to think for two people has really taken its toll on me. 

I didn’t really spend 2 whole weeks in Italy, It was actually just 9 days.  Four of those I spent in Lignano, where Francesco and his friends’ rented apartment is.  Lignano’s a beach town in north east Italy.  I was tempted to walk around with an umbrella because the Filipino in me dictates it but in Italy I’d look like a fool if I did so.  So I ignored myr urge to stay in the shade, lathered myself with lots of sunscreen, and headed for the beach.  Yes, I even got over some of my fear of sharks to go dip myself in the water (hanggang bewang nga lang after that panic kicks in).  It was not Boracay by all means.  The sand was gold (Sabbia d’Oro or sand of gold is actually appended to Lignano).  There were no bars by the beach (walang FRIDAYS sign na pwedeng Kodak-an).  But it was a great place to just relax and appreciate the fact that I wasn’t in Saarbruecken and that my skin was getting a healthy dose of humidity. 

The other 5 days I spent with Francesco mostly in Udine where he works.  I got to sit through his German and English classes.  I even got to participate in the speaking session.  He teaches students as young as 12 and as old as 67. He’s a bit of a perfectionist with regards to languages (He even corrects my English every so often).  But yeah he’s good at what he does.  I’m glad that he’s found what he liked to do and that he’ll be taking his 2nd degree to be able to have the credentials to teach in the university. 

So now I’m working again in the lab.  Actually it’s just been 2 days, but they were two very hectic days.  I had to write my progress report plus I had to write about this new stuff that my supervisor discovered during my vacation.  It’s all hush hush as of now because well let’s just say I might be the first person to determine how bacteria makes this known antibiotic.  I have 2 big biosynthesis projects now.  It would be great having to get out of having to look for compounds and just settling for a couple.  My boss said two biosynthesis would be enough for my Ph.D. work.  Ok for the uninformed it might look easy but seriously, it’s going to involve a lot of hard work.  You see bacteria don’t always do what you want them to do.  It’s like they have a brain.  I have now resorted to shouting to an agar plate “Give me clones!!!”.  Apparently that technique worked well with one of the junior professors when he was doing his Ph.D.

Wow ganito na pala mag-propa ang chem dept ngayon.  Dati hanggang flyers and jingle lang kami. 

ACheS propa vid

ADMU Chemistry Department.  You can still see me near the end of the vid

Last week we were able to visit our new building before construction finishes just to take a look at how everything will be laid out.  Offices and lab spaces were already assigned to people.  Luckily I get to stay with the people that I have been sharing the office with for the past 8 months. 

My new lab bench is a bit wider than my current one and it has it’s own -20 deg freezer.  Very convenient.  I’m also near a workstation so there’s always an opportunity to journal what happened during the day.  The shelves are a little too high for most of us in the lab though.   I sure hope the boss will buy more steppers for the vertically challenged.  And there’s a lot of us. 

It would be so cool to have everything in one floor.  All our instruments and labs are spread out in 4 buildings and it has been quite strenuous to have to walk and carry our samples and cultures all the time. 

Here’s a preview of the building

I’ll take new pictures after our move.

I went to Aachen a few weeks back for the scholars meeting. It was a pretty good one except for the long lines for the buffet table. Note to organizers, it’s not smart to only have 2 buffet tables for ~600 people. There wasn’t really any talk that was related to what I was doing but I attended 2 talks about robotics, nanotechnology and medicine. After watching House and Grey’s Anatomy for so long, I was able to follow what the speaker was talking about.

One more thing that was nice about the meeting was that Francesco was able to go there with me

Here are some of our photos

This is long overdue.  Florence was the one who tagged me. 

1. What is your occupation?
Ph.D. student

2. What color are your socks right now?
Not wearing any cuz it’s warm

3. What are you listening to right now?
Euro 2008 game (Greece vs. Sweden)

4. What was the last thing that you ate?
Mozzarella wrapped in grilled eggplant slices and smoked ham

5. Can you drive a stick shift?
Yes.  I actually prefer it to automatic

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Red

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
Mommy

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Okey lang…hehehe joke lang Florence!

9. Favorite drink?
Orange Juice din

10. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Right now it’s football.  Before it would basketball specially if it’s a ADMU-DLSU game

11. Have you ever dyed your hair?
I tried the temporary one but it didn’t work on my hair

12. Pets?
Bulate siguro ehehhe

13. Favorite food?
Depends.  Comfort food would be Filipino and Chinese.  For simple preparations, I like Italian food.  For desserts, I like German cakes and pastries (Donauwellen *drool*).  Florence, get yourself a copy of the Dr. Oetker baking book

14. Last movie you watched?
Sex and the City

15. Favorite Day of the year?
Hmm basta walang pasok

16. What do you do to vent anger?
Rant until I get it out of my system. 

17. What was your favorite toy as a child?
Board games like Monopoly, Cluedo, and MAD

18. What is your favorite, fall or spring?
Fall just because I like wearing a trench coat

19. Hugs or kisses?
Hugs

20. What kind of pie?
Apple with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream

21. Do you want your friends to email you back?
yeah

22. Who is most likely to respond?
Those who have the time and likes to reply to these things 

23. Who is least likely to respond?
Those I didn’t tag

24. Living arrangements?
I got my own place

25. When was the last time you cried?
I don’t remember when it was exactly but I know I cried because I was so exhausted.

26. What is on the floor of your closet?
Fold up bag

27. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to?
Derick , Nina and Oui

28. The friend you have known the shortest amount of time that you are sending this to?
David

29. Favorite smell?
Lacoste Inspiration and the smell of a freshly opened balikbayan box

30. What inspires you?
People who know what they’re doing

31. What are you afraid of?
Sharks

32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?
Cheese is the only thing I like in the list.  I’d like to have something else on it though.

33. Favorite car?
Volkswagen new beetle (also) and the Mini Cooper

34. Favorite cat breed?
Sorry I’m a dog person.  But i like looking at the Scottish fold

35. Number of keys on your key ring?
I don’t know.  Madami kasi

36. How many years at your current job?
not applicable.

37. Favorite day of the week?
Friday din. 

38. How many provinces have you lived in?
None, was born and raised in Manila

39. How many countries have you been to?
9

After a nice bath, Gordon, my stuffed panda bear, was brought to work.  Yeah the chromatogram and MS spectra confused him too. 

Gordon is named after Gordon Ramsay.  His nickname is the “Little F*cker” also inspired by Gordon Ramsay.  He was Francesco’s childhood stuffed bear which he sort of gave me last Christmas.  I am taking care of Gordon because Francesco likes to squeeze him, punch him, and throw him towards the wall.  Gigil ba. 

So Oui, may pangsagot na ako kay Pikachu

if your boss saw that this photo is your office computer’s desktop wallpaper?

It’s been 19 years since I watched The Last Crusade in Ali Mall with my mom.  I would say that it is one of my all time favorite movies.  Because of that I was a bit cautious about the latest installment.  I didn’t want to read any reviews nor did I want to know about the plot (yeah so much that I didn’t know that Cate Blanchett played a Russian scientist and that Shia LeBeouf was even in the movie) 

I missed a bit of the movies’ humor because I watched it in German.  But that aside, I personally found the movie meh (for lack of a better term).  Indiana Jones went from historical fantasy to science fiction.  I mean aliens?  Flying saucers in Peru?  Not my kind of thing and they weren’t what I expected from Indiana Jones.  The previous movies required suspension of disbelief, I must admit, but they were tied to history and legends.  Creatures with huge magnetic heads are just out of this world (pun majorly intended) and do not match the man with the hat and whip. 

The movie was also predictable.  Who among you realized that Mutt was Indie’s son the moment he motorcycled his way into the film?  And that Mac would be backstabbing Indie?  And that Irina Spalko would be killed by the very thing she was searching for?  It was all so transparent. 

There are a few things I liked about the film.  I like the fact that they did not suspend time and allowed Indie to grow old.   He looked tired and not as strong as he was 20 years ago which gives the character credibility.  The throwback to the past was also endearing.  Seeing Indiana Jones Sr.’s foto and Indie not being able to grab on to the snake that Mutt threw to pull him out of the quicksand.  Didn’t you just want to scream to Mutt “He hates snakes!”.  Lastly, one of my fave characters was pompadoured monkey.  How can you not love pompadoured monkey?  Ok maybe I might have been influenced by CuteOverload on that one. 

Part of me wished that I was still a kid and that I would be impressed by the grandeur of Indie’s latest journey.  But alas I cannot yell “Yee-Ha!” just like the kid who sat 2 seats away from me.  Being grown up and knowing Indiana Jones movies as they were pretty muched ruined this movie for me.  Or maybe it did that to itself. 

I will be buying the Indiana Jones box set but I begrudge spending the extra money for the 4th DVD.  They should really have stopped at Last Crusade. 

 

 

One really long episode…2.5 hours long. 

Just like Indiana Jones, I watched SATC in German. I thought I was going to lose some of the dialogue’s flavor but it was alright.  The translation was good.  And actually there were some lines that sounded more funny in German.  Anyhoo, I watched SATC with a couple of girls in the lab.  It was CineLady night and wow was the entire place filled with women.  The only men I saw were waiters serving the free Prosecco and poor boyfriends waiting by the bar.  I think I willed myself not to have the urge to pee because the line for the ladies room would have been pure hell. 

Anyway what did I think about the movie?  Well as I’ve already written, it felt like one really long episode.  There wasn’t really something that merits having to watch it on the big screen.  Don’t get me wrong.  I enjoyed the movie but I enjoyed it as much as I would every episode.  The entire Carrie wedding extravaganza was way too long. In addition to that, the moping that came after the nonexistent wedding.  It’s a good thing that there were a lot of funny moments when the 4 went to Mexico because seriously I don’t get why they had to do scenes there. 

Charlotte was the saving grace of the movie in spite of the fact that she played mostly a supporting role.  You got to love her optimism, her loyalty, and her quirks (scared shit of eating or drinking anything during their trip to Mexico).  Her line to Big was priceless. 

Samantha was kinda neutered by her relationship to Smith.  I liked her more when she was promiscuous.  She had more character then. I just don’t think it’s believable that Samantha would be the type to just up and move for the love of her life.  It was clear even before the movie, Samantha loves one person alone, herself.

Miranda’s storyline was better than Samantha’s or Charlotte’s.  Her’s is I guess the more realistic among the girls’.  My heart bled for Steve.  Ok what he did was inexcusable but the way he was after was just heartwrenching.  He’s a puppy.  A puppy that made a mistake but a puppy nonetheless.  I think I nearly cried when he and Miranda met at the bridge.  I say nearly because I stand by my resolve not to cry in public. 

And for Carrie, well it was her show.  It was ALL about her.  And what about those clothes she wore.  Wow they went all out on that one.  Bird on your wedding veil anyone?  With regards to her story, everything played out the way it was expected to.  They get engaged. Big panics.  Wedding doesn’t push through.  A lot of crying.  Carrie realizes how much Big loves her and vice versa.  They get back together.  The end. 

Given the chance would I watch the movie again?  Sure.  Preferably in English.  Surprisingly it’s not available on streaming (at least not yet).  I’ll give it a week. 

Yeah so it’s Pfingsmontag here in Germany and instead of going out and enjoying the marvelous weather, I opted to stay at home and vegetate in front of my laptop.  I wanted to sort out every single MP3 file in my computer and seeing as Gino managed to dump all of his music (sometimes multiple copies of) all over my hard disk, I had to sort and purge a lot of them. I mean I can take only so much techno and house music. 

Speaking of music, I’m in love with 2 songs right now and I play their videos everytime I go to Youtube

First is Mercy by Duffy

It has an Amy Winehouse vibe to it but I think that style in vogue right now. I really enjoy the throwback to the 50’s and 60’s.  Is Duffy big in the US and the Phils already?  I’m kinda out of touch already. 

My next fave is a song by Stefanie Heinzmann called My Man is a Mean Man.  Just a little backgrounder on Stefanie Heinzmann: she’s a 19 year-old Swiss singer who won the contest SSDSDSSWEMUGABRTLAD which stood for Stefan sucht den Superstar, der singen soll, was er möchte, und gerne auch bei RTL auftreten darf, meaning: Stefan is looking for the Superstar who shall sing what she wants and may also gladly perform on RTL).  The contest is a spoof of the show DSDS (Deustchland sucht den Superstar) which is the German Idol.  Anyhoo watch the vid below.  The refrain is really catchy. 

Been really busy for the past couple of weeks that’s why it’s been quiet here for a while.  Started out with the practicum course that I, among with the other Ph.D. students, have to supervise.  If you think about it, I shouldn’t really exhausted from it since a) I’ve taught a lot of lab classes already and b) lab teachers sit around a lot.  What’s tiring about it is the preparation before the actual course and the amount of time that has to be spent there.  About 4 precious Ph.D. hours are spent each afternoon in the practical lab.  Time that could have been spent on cloning experiments, restriction digests, or production culture inoculation and harvest.   I feel like every morning I have to go rush all my experiments because in the afternoons I have no chance to touch any of my stuff.  And now I’m involved in the second batch of students.  Bah.  After that would be the voluntary practicum for the pharmacy students.  I learned that I have one project student already.  What’s cool is she wants to learn English.  Great tandem partner.  I am really forcing myself now to speak more German since some of the students here neither speak nor understand English. Kawawa naman kung hindi nila ako maintindihan.  So yeah I try my best.  I’ve been complimented na on the way I speak. I still feel conscious about it though.  Ayaw ko kasi ng nagkakamali.  But then there’s no other way to learn. 

Speaking of languages, tomorrow I’ll be starting with my Italian language course.  I registered for it since the Uni offers it for free and it would take only 1.5 hours of my week.  What I think would be  bit of a challenge is that I will be learning Italian in German.  Just how confusing would that be?  Ewan.  Basta wish me luck.  I do hope that at the very least I can talk barok Italian after 6 months. 
About Berlin

I went to Berlin because I was to participate in a workshop that was sponsored by the same organizations that sponsored the biotech training program I participated in in 2005.  I also had to give a talk about how the 2005 training program helped my career.  It was a bit of a big deal since we had as an audience the former minister of education and research.  I’m proud to say that I think I did a pretty good job during my presentation.  Most of the people there said thanked me for waking them up. 

What’s also nice about this workshop in Berlin was that I was able to catch up with Chi, Kusti, and Hong.  Former program- and travelmates.  Of course, since we’re all travel happy, we spent the time after workshop to travel around Berlin a bit. We went to Berlin Spandau to eat at Hong’s friend.  That was really cool.  I like Vietnamese food. I just find it really fresh.  And I am now a lemon grass fan.  Just a few days ago I bought a bunch from the Asian market.  I used that on the fresh spring roll that I prepared tonight.  Yummy yummy yummy!

Ok enough about food.  To do something a bit more cultural, Chi, Kusti, and I went to the Museum Island to go to the Pergamon Museum.  Wahnsinn!  When you enter the place, what would welcome you would be the Pergamon altar.  It’s huge!  So for 3 hours we walked along ancient Greek, Roman, and Islamic artworks.  Aside from the Pergamon altar, one can also see there the Ishtar Gate, the Muschatta Wall, the Aleppo Room, and the Market Gate of Miletus.  Too bad the Market Gate was under construction.  But it was ok.  There were a lot of other sculptures there to see. 

It was totally touristic but I just had to do it.  I just had to see Knut in the Berlin Zoo.  Our motel was just across the road from the Berlin Zoo so I didn’t pass up the chance.  When I entered, I felt like I was a hunter and Knut was my prey.  I searched for that darn polar bear for almost an hour before I was able to see it.  They hid him and his friends well inside the zoo.  And I think for the first time in a long time, I was able to use up the entire SD card space in my camera.  And even though he’s not as cute and is huge and dirty, I was still happy to see him.  I guess there’s something about animals that can bring out the kid in us. 

I have here a few photos from the Berlin trip.  I’m still waiting until Chi and Kusti post the pictures we took using their cameras.  All the rest of mine I’ll probably post in a web album.