On stardom and future

The Operon seminar room is not that big. EMBL was built for four hundred people and, despite twice that number working here now, the seminar room has not been expanded. Still, it has a very respectable size. Last Monday it was filled to the brim. There were people on the steps, people standing at the entrance, people standing behind those.

Surely the speaker must be big. The Nobels had just been announced, could it be one of the recent laureates? The last talk of a outgoing very popular in-house PI? Darwin himself, raised from the death to discuss with zombie Mendel the implications of genetics in evolution? No, that would not take every single PhD student of this place out of their labs. It was something bigger. Jorge Cham was in the building.

For those of you who don't know, Jorge Cham is the author of the widely known in academia PhD Comics, which depicts in dark humorous tones the life of a postgraduate student, the lack of money, the working hours, the advisors and so on. And that day everyone was gathered to hear a man who has made a livelihood of pointing out how much their lives suck. Not to throw stones, as one might expect, but to laugh at his jokes.

And laugh they did. Jorge had it easy. He barely had to approach a subject before the crowd roared into laughter, which is a bit scary for me. Everyone was finding it funny because it's true. And if it's true, that is what expects me for the next four years... Goodie.

Look, a photo!

Nothing new to add from the last post. Classes and extra-curricular activities were normal and pleasant. The latter were the usual going out for a beer, going to see the town, doing groceries, pyjama party. Normal student life.

For the weekend I rented a camera from the staff association. The weather did not coperate yesterday, though, and today the internet is refusing to do any serious uploading, so I leave you with only one photo of the old part of Heidelberg, as seen from the other bank of the river. Click on it to go to see it bigger. Enjoy!

On Frankfurt, lodging and gaming consoles.

Did you know that Frankfurt airport has oversized telephone booths for people to smoke indoors? They look like fish tanks, the people standing in there vacantly looking out while they smoke their cigarette because what else can you do in there?

That was a rhetorical question, so no lewd suggestions in the comments, please.

Anyway, the smoking booths are my most striking memory from the flight, followed by the sheer number of airplanes flying into Frankfurt. I don't think I've ever flown as closely to another flying airplane as I did on Saturday. After landing, as the plane turned to park, the lights from at least six other planes as they started their landing approach could be seen.

The rest of the trip to Heidelberg, in a brand new Mercedes with a driver, was unremarkable. Upon arrival, I met the apartment where I'll live for the next three months. The good new: it's a duplex. The bad news: it's a small duplex. Still, me and my roommate have already found the other students who are staying in a big apartment in the guest house, so we already know where the parties will take place. The stove is going to be hard to get used to. It's a crappy electric thingy with two heaters so close that if I want to use the frying pan, it takes all the space. At the moment my first experiment with it and rice is underway.

Speaking of parties, social events where the reason I haven't written a proper blog post yet and why you get this condensed version of the last five days instead of individual funny stories written with time to spare. It's just hard to sit down to write them after arriving from the course and grocery shopping when I only have one hour to cook and go downtown for drinks.

The course started on Monday and so far has only been basic biology for non-biologists and basic computational stuff for biologists. The most fun has been the gymkhana that the administration section has prepared for us, where we have to chase signatures from a dozen different rooms in the various buildings. I have no shame to say that I eventually I got lost. Yet I can hold no grudge against the institute: this place rents Nintendo Wiis and Playsations 3 to any member of the staff! How cool is that?

Hello from Germany

Just to let you know that I arrived in Heidelberg, I am safe, and internet connection at home is now established.

I am in a hurry to cook dinner and then go into town, but I'll try to have a proper blog post tomorrow.

Until then.