Riedberg campus

Yesterday I traveled out to one of the four University of Frankfurt campuses to see where I will be lecturing. Right now the University has two campuses in the city, Campus Westend and Campus Bockenheim. I am living in the Westend section of the city, on the edge of the Bockenheim campus. The Westend campus is nearby, easily within walking distance. Many of the sciences, including the Molecular Biology, Neuroscience, Pharmacology, Physics, Chemistry and Biophysics, are located on the Riedberg campus. This campus is about a 30 minute train ride north of the city, high on a hill on the edge of a town called Niederusel. At the present time, some of the Biology groups (human genetics and others) are still here in the city on the Westend campus, but by 2015 they are all to be moved to Riedberg. The University is planning on shutting down the Bockenheim campus and consolidating to the remaining 3 (I don’t know what the current fourth campus is…). The Riedberg campus was really beautiful, a combination of new buildings with lots of glass and windows. All of the different groups of buildings are built in different styles, so there was a range of architecture. And, there is a TON of building happening. Around the outside of the area that already has buildings, there was construction happening nearly everywhere. Cranes were in use in nearly every direction I turned. The spaces between the buildings were beautiful, with many courtyards and even a few fountains. I took my camera and only managed to take a couple of pictures before my battery ran out.

I met with Prof. Zimmerman and with the individual who organizes the class, Dr. Scharf. I will be lecturing in ‘Ausgewahlte Kapitel aus der Zell-und Entwicklungsbiologie Vorlesung and Literaturseminar’. I have no idea what that means- I think Zell is Cell and the last name in the course title clearly has something to do with Literature and Seminar. Fortunately, this course is taught COMPLETELY in English! But, everyone who knows me knows that I speak quickly, so I am going to have to be very careful to slow it way down. The class meets at 8:30, so maybe I should skip my morning coffee on those days?! This course is typically taken by students in their 3 or 4th years. It is organized into 4-5 lecture sections, with each section covered by a single professor. The topics are entirely up to the faculty member- but they should cover some aspect of cell-molecular biology. Typically, faculty cover topics that are related to their own research areas. So, I am going to talk about post-transcriptional mechanisms of gene regulation in Drosophila oogenesis and then two lectures on some aspect of Immunology. Apparently there are no Drosophilists here, so I can spend a large chunk of my first lecture explaining Drosophila as a model. I was glad to see the campus and meet some more people, especially people in Biology.

I am looking forward to the lectures and I am anxious to see how the German undergraduates compare to ours at home. I actually had to students from here in my Immunology class at TCNJ a few years ago. I wish I could remember their names- but they were very good students. They embraced their time in the states, traveling nearly every weekend. I think they got to places I have never been. My favorite story from their time at TCNJ has to do with Halloween. Apparently, some of the TCNJ students explained Halloween to them and told them that we ALL get dressed up for class. That afternoon they arrived in lecture dressed as a cowboy and a ballerina. I guess I forgot to mention that they were male students, so while the cowboy costume was funny it wasn’t as good as the pink tutu on the other one. They got a good laugh out of the joke and were good sports about the situation. Hopefully this bunch of students will be equally easy-going.

No adventures, only work

I hate to sound like a broken record, but still having internet problems. People, how hard can it be to have wireless access for 24 hours a day rather than 10?! I am going to head over the the not so helpful 'helpdesk' again this morning.

Otherwise I have been working on a grant application. I have finally reached my limit for eggs, pasta and frozen peas and have therefore been out to eat a couple of times. Despite the small tables, it is lovely to sit outside with a pile of papers and a big old cheeseburger (notice I did not say handkase mit musik!).

Technology- it is a wonderful thing

Our family has discovered Skype, and it has been marvelous (at least when my internet connection is working). I can talk to Steve and the boys and actually see them all. I usually call them in the morning, as they are getting ready to leave to head out for school. Steve puts his computer on the counter and I can watch the regular morning routine unfold. Heck, I can even be part of it, reminding them to put on their shoes, and telling them that yes, they do need to wear their coats. Yesterday Steve came up with a new trick- he put his computer on the cabinet in our room and left it on overnight. He also set it up so that Skype would automatically accept my calls- so, I have been able to call in and see them while they sleep! I couldn't actually see anything until about 7, and at first it was just a grainy mess. But, at around 7:15 I could make out little Hen snuggled up next to Daddy, and then at 7:20 or so, Charlie came wandering in and climbed in with them. Ahh, I almost feel as though I am there. Thanks Steve!

The sun has returned

This was the view from my window this morning- the rain is gone and the sun has returned. It is amazing how much better life seems with a little sunshine. Kir and Kev, I don't know how you survive Seattle, I would be sooooo grumpy!

Work on the grant continues- I am in that, 'there is no way I will ever write something coherent in the time I have left' phase. I suppose I will get through it and that I will, in fact, have some sort of finished product by the deadline. I have developed a routine where I work on it for the hours of late afternoon until I allow myself to stop and watch DVDs (usually around 11 or so). I am still not sleeping terribly well, but that seems to be getting better. I have been more strict with myself about getting up when my alarm goes off, rather than sleeping until I feel like I am done. In general, I am restricting myself to 2 hours of DVD watching a day, which I think is pretty good, considering I am here all alone. I brought a few DVDs with me, as I knew that there is no television here in the apartment. Most importantly, however, I have discovered that I can download and watch DVDs from iTunes-Apple, I love you! Yesterday I purchased the first season of The Tudors and I watched the first episode last night. Thanks for the recommendation Nancy, I am hooked. I have 9 more episodes from this season to look forward to!

Here are a shots of my day so far....

Breakfast of champions



The fine German washing machine in the basement



Huh??



I selected option 'C', mostly because that was what the machine was already set on. I hope that was right?!

Off to finish the laundry and maybe go for a run (I need my Hopewell buds, it is hard to motivate to run alone!)

Ebbelwoi and handkase mit musik.

It has been a relatively quiet few days here. The weather has changed, DRAT, and the sun and warm temperatures have been replaced with clouds, drizzle and cooler temperatures. My internet situation is still not worked out- I know I seem to harp on this, but I truly feel cut off from the world when my screen suddenly reads 'you are not connected to the internet' at some random time late in the afternoon. Jens, the nice computer gentleman from the Uni (as the University is called here), came by on Thursday afternoon (he works Mondays and Thursdays) and was quite flummoxed by the situation. He had placed a call to the actual computer office folks, inquiring as to where the router for the building is located. Of course they had not yet returned his call. As near as we can tell, my computer is still connected to the router, as it thinks it is still on the network, but alas, the router seems to be disconnected from the actual 'information superhighway'. Due to the random nature of the shutoff time, it seems likely that someone is shutting it off, either purposely or inadvertently. Hopefully Jens can find out where this critical router is located and we can get to the bottom of this soon!

I did make my way to the Main for a run yesterday. I am not sure how far I went, but I headed south, crossed the river and then ran west. At 30 minutes on my watch I turned around and returned home. My knee wasn't too bad, but it did begin hurting a little around 50 minutes. I am trying to be careful about not taxing it, so I will wait until tomorrow to go again.

Last night I met Fabian and Almut and some friends of theirs in Old Frankfurt for dinner at a German pub. This part of Frankfurt is rather upscale with trendy boutiques and posh restaurants. As I mentioned earlier, applewine or ebbelwoi, is the local speciality and most of the pubs serve it. Pubs with a wreath hanging outside are establishments that make their own applewine. For many of them, once you enter the door on the street you find yourself in a covered passageway that leads to a small open air courtyard filled with tables. During the better weather this is clearly the area to be, but last night in the drizzle we went inside. Here, like the outdoor area, the room was filled with long tables and benches. It is German custom to fill the tables, with multiple parties sitting together at the same table. We were seated at the end of a table currently being used by three older Frankfurt women and partway through out meal, two older men were seated between us and the women at the end. Once seated we order some applewine. It is brought in a large container called a bembel. These clay pitcher are found all over Frankfurt, they are gray with a blue design on the outside. Many establishments have decorative bembels hanging outside to indicate that they serve the local beverage. Similarly, there is a traditional glass in which to drink applewine, it is called a gerippte. These small glasses have a distinctive pattern, sort of a cross-hatching, on the outside. The pattern goes up to within an inch or so of the top of the glass. According to Jaques you are to pour the applewine up to that line and then put a dash of water on the top. So, the applewine comes to the table in the large bembel and we are brought glasses and a bottle of water with some bubbles. The taste of applewine is a bit like apple juice gone bad, and I suppose that is essentially what it is. I must admit, I do find it rather refreshing.

We then turned our attention to the menu for dinner selections. Everyone was thrilled to see that the pub offered an appetizer of the three local Frankfurt food delicacies; grune sauce mit ei (green sauce with egg), tafelspitz (soft beef) and handkase mit musik (cheese with onions). Needless to say, this was the first thing we ordered. I will say that I did try all three samples and I wish I had a camera to show the handkase! This is the low-fat cheese covered with onions, oil/vinegar, carroway seeds and salt and pepper. One eats this by taking a knife, NOT a fork, and spreading a bit of the cheese and onion mixture on brown bread covered with a thin layer of butter. Sounds good, no? I think that best that I can say for this one is that I didn't hate it. I actually had a second bite, but I will admit that is where I stopped. I am thinking that handkase must be a acquired taste. The other two dishes were much better- the green sauce is a mixture of fresh herbs and yogurt and it is served with hard boiled eggs. My main course, schnitzel, also came with green sauce on the side and I did enjoy it with the pork also.

We spent the evening at the pub. It took us a while to finish the bembel of applewine. As the night progressed, the pub filled quickly, with many groups coming in. There was a large party celebrating someone's birthday and a women with a HUGE dog. The dog feel asleep under one of the tables and I didn't see it again before we left. It was a fun evening, and we plan to do it again when the weather improves and we can sit outside under the trees.

A few photos from my walk.

Let's see if I can figure out how to intersperse photos and text....

There is a natural history museum very close by to the apartment. Because the German schools are on a two week Easter holiday, it has been very busy with families nearly every day.







I think that the dinosaur looks particularly vicious with the cranes in the background!

I don't know too much about the history of this neighborhood, it is called Westend. Apparently one of the biggest synagogues in Frankfurt is located over here. Naturally, many of the families that used to live here before the war were Jewish. During the seventies, developers wanted to knock down nearly all of these homes and build new, more modern homes and offices. The students of the University protested this by boycotting and occupying some of the bigger homes in the neighborhood. Today, there are mostly beautiful older homes. Some of my favorites:

Settling in

It has been quiet over here the past few days. I am starting to settle into a routine of sorts. My sleeping is getting much better- I am not sure why it has taken me so long to accommodate to the time change. I do think part of it is that I am in a city rather than sleepy Hopewell. Our apartment is on the first floor and with the windows open it is almost as if I were on the street itself. I hear every car door and every conversation (although I have NO idea what people are saying!). Unfortunately, my internet connection is still only active during the day. I have some hope that it might be resolved today, but I am not terribly optimistic. So I find that I spend a large chunk of my day glued to the computer trying to do any work that requires an internet connection. I answer emails, skype the boys before they go to school, etc. The good news is that I have really been concentrating on my grant the past few days. It is due May 13th, but I would like to have it done by the time I come home at the beginning of May. Truthfully, the inability to surf the internet or skype or email at night has made it much easier to focus on the grant.

I did get out for a run on Tuesday- a 45 minute loop around a park nearby. I am hoping to run today as well, and perhaps this time I will make it to the Main River. Today is also the farmer's market and I will head over there shortly for flowers and apples. I will also try to remember to take the camera.

I have also finally heard from the professor who will coordinate my second 'teaching responsibility' while I am here. I had emailed him several times before I arrived, and then again on Tuesday. I am scheduled to meet with him on Monday afternoon to discuss opportunities in his department. He is in education, so I believe I might be working with prospective Biology teachers. Fabian (of Almut and Fabian and Easter) is a high school Biology teacher and he went here to the Univ. of Frankfurt. He thought it might be fun for me to come to his high school class and talk to his students as well.

Easter, part zwei

Yesterday I had another nice day with another nice German family. This time my hosts were Cornelia and her husband Volker and their children Dario and Lea-Sophia. They live in another small town to the west of Frakfurt in the house that Cornelia grew up in. Her parents built it nearly 50 years ago and she and her family lived downstairs and her grandparents lived in the apartment above. Today, her mother lives upstairs and Cornelia and her family live downstairs. It is a modern-style house, with big windows overlooking a spacious garden. I am sorry to say that I didn’t take any pictures, as the camera’s memory was full. I guess I took a lot of photos yesterday!

I am continually struck by how compact and efficient the European homes are. Both of the homes I have visited have been small by American standards, but they do not seem small or cramped. Both families had a ton of books and narrow bookshelves that lined the walls and in both homes there were a lot of built in cupboards for storage. Today I was most impressed with the very fancy, yet compact, coffee maker in the kitchen. I believe it was German and it produced the best coffee nearly instantly. Cornelia put two cups of milk in the oven to warm, placing the saucers on top of the cups. She then used a small whisk, twirling it quickly between her hands to froth the milk and finally put the cups under the spout of the magic machine to dispense the hot coffee. Delicious!

While Cornelia prepared lunch, Volker and I walked their dog in the woods bordering town. This stretch of land isn’t really a park, but is a stand of woods filled with trails. We saw a lot of other walkers, bicyclists, runners and people on horseback. I was interested to learn that there are wild pigs in this part of the country, and that the males can grow to nearly 250 lbs. And, they have large tusks! Fortunately, we did not see any on our walk.

Cornelia drove me back to my apartment by early evening. I then spent a quiet night- cleaning up my computer (actually going through and organizing my files and documents) and I actually worked on my grant quite a big as well. It is amazing what you can do when you have lots of free time on your hands. Today I plan to try a long run along the Main River- I have been told that traveling in the west-bound direction is the most scenic. I seem to have picked up a little bug, my throat is sore and I have a bit of a headache, so hopefully the run will go well.

A lovely Easter

Yesterday I spent the day with Almuth and Fabian and their three girls, Merit, Julia and Lily. I took the train out to their town, about 15 km south of Frankfurt. It was wonderful to get out of my apartment and even better to spend time with nice people. I am glad to have had my first subway/train trip here, and now I feel like I kind of understand the system. Hopefully this means that I will be confident enough to make some other journeys before the family arrives.

Almuth was the exchange professor from the University of Frankfurt and she and her family were in NJ in the fall of 2006. Their oldest daughter, Merit, still understands and speaks perfect English. Julia, who is 6, understands what I say, but she speaks exclusively in German, and Lily neither speaks not understands much English. They live in a sweet house in the old historic part of town. While their new place is new, built to look as if it is old on the outside, their last house was over 300 years old. We had a delicious lunch in the garden- salad, pasta and chicken. Both of their older girls are vegetarians because they don't believe that killing and eating animals is acceptable. I think that Charlie and Merit will get along very well! She has invited Charlie to come to school with her for a day- she can translate for him and her class does take English lessons, so I think that would be a fantastic opportunity for him. Given Julia's lack of English speaking, and henry's shyness, I am not sure whether he will be able to attend a German school for a whole day, but perhaps he could at least visit. Fabian is a high school biology teacher and they have several interesting pets about the house- two turtles who get let out to bask in the sunshine in the garden and an aquarium full of these insects that look just like sticks. Apparently, they are terribly easy to keep, just chuck in some blueberry leaves and spritz them with some water, and they reproduce like crazy. There must have been 25 of them in various sizes. I got to hold one of the largest.

After lunch, we took a walk around Lagen. Many of the streets are cobble stone and the houses are right on top of one another. Surround the village is the original fortification, built in the 1300s. Two towers and a stretch of wall remain, on the other side of the wall is a meadow. Julia showed me where she buried a black bird that she had found dead- the little grave was marked with a stone, a homemade cross made of twigs and some flowers. We continued on our walk, going past the church and the town fountain in the main square. This area of Germany is known for its special drink, Apple wine. At the end of June Lagen has an enormous festival to celebrate the Apple wine harvest. The streets are closed down, people set up little pubs in their yards and the fountain runs with apple wine instead of water. It lasts for several days and culminates with a team event on Sunday morning- teams of 5 people compete in wheel barrel races, egg and spoon races and the like. According to Almuth, this type of festival was popular before the wars, but the tradition stopped after the first WW. Somehow it got started again in the 70s I believe and it is a really big deal here in Lagen. Apple wine itself is the drink of the region, but I got the impression that the festival is a Lagen tradition.

Almuth's parents also live in Lagen, and we then went to her mother's home for some Easter desert. Her father and his girlfriend were also there, as were her sister and her husband, and her 3 brothers. Her youngest brother's wife has just had a baby, and she was there as well. We sat in the garden enjoying coffee and cakes, while the girls played on the swing set in the back. Everyone was kind, speaking to me in English, but the also carried on their normal conversations as I sat listening. Almuth's father and girlfriend are taking a 3 week train journey through Africa and there was much discussion about the train route- this is a conversation that I could actually follow in Germany- Mozambique and Zimbabwe sound the same in both English and German. At one point the conversation turned to Lagen's traditions and to apple wine. Everyone proceeded to try and describe it to me. It is essentially a fermented apple juice, but it is not sweet at all. Almuth described it as medicinal and sour! At least three people told me that the first glass tastes awful, the second is tolerable and the third is refreshing. Apparently, few people drink it straight, and it is usually cut with water or lemonade. After much discussion, Fabian searched the house for a bottle, but alas there was none. Not to be discouraged, he tried the neighbors who happened to have a bottle of non-alcoholic apple wine. I had a glass cut with water, and while I wouldn't call it delicious, it was not nearly as bad as they had led me to believe (I guess that was their strategy). Almuth's father then returned from taking the girls on an Easer egg hunt at his house and said that he had a bottle of the real stuff there, Fabian dashed off to retrieve it. So, then I got my second glass of apple wine, and this one was alcoholic. I must say that it was better than the first, but I didn't have a third, so I am not yet confident about the three glass rule. In addition to the special region drink, there is also a particular regional dish, some sort of soft, low fat cheese, served cold with salt, pepper, onions and carraway seeds. Mmmm, sounds yummy! I have been challenged to try that one before we leave!

Well, today I am off for lunch and a walk with Cornelia Rosebruck, a dean here at the University. Enjoy the photos and I will try to post again tomorrow when my internet connection comes back on.

Daytime wifi???

So, it is looking like the internet connection going down at night was not a fluke, as it happened again last night. This time I did not panic, but instead read a book, watched a movie and went to sleep around 1. I got up this morning before 9 local time, so maybe I am on my way to being adjusted to the time. Yay!

I was able to do a small run yesterday, about 35 minutes. It was actually HOT here, so I will be able to leave my winter running clothes in NJ when I return home in a couple of weeks. Thanks to Kevin for the knee brace- I felt no pain at all. Running in the city is a little challenging, as traffic lights are frequent. I did manage to find my way to a park, so that part of the run was free from interruption.

I went out and did a little exploring around the neighborhood yesterday, so here are a few photos. Charlie, thank you for loaning me your camera, it takes great pictures. xo, Mom.

Time change.

Sometime late yesterday afternoon, my newly acquired internet connection went down. Arghh! NO Skype, no email and no internet, I was at a total loss. I have come to realize that my computer is my connection to home and to humanity (that is more than a little ironic, isn't it).

Last night I had a difficult time sleeping, so I read watched a couple of DVDs that I brought and finally fell asleep. I woke up today and glanced at my watch, thinking that getting up at 8 wasn't so bad. Unfortunately, it wasn't 8, it was 2, which looks an awful lot like 8 when you are holding your watch upside down. On the bright side, I feel great and the internet is back, on the down side, I will be up too late again. I will have to work at acclimating myself to this new time zone.

Guten Tag from Frankfurt

I have arrived in Frankfurt. I actually got here yesterday, but I was just hooked up with internet in the apartment this afternoon. It is beautiful here, the weather is a couple of weeks ahead of us in NJ, so the trees are blooming and everything smells wonderful. My flight over was uneventful. I actually had an entire 2-seat row to myself, so I was able to stretch out, or at least hunch over, in twice as much space. I landed in London and safely made my connecting flight to Frankfurt, unfortunately one of my two bags did not. While British Air assured me that they would deliver it last night, it didn't get to me until noontime today. Fortunately, I have the apartment to myself, so I just went to bed tired and stinky last night. I slept in, until around 10 this morning, and it was delivered around 11:30.

My internet connection has been hooked up as well, so I can now check email, surf the web and update blog posts! Easter is a very big holiday in these parts. Luckily I was warned that stores and shops will not be open tomorrow, or Sunday AND Monday. I have stocked up on enough food and supplies to get me through to Saturday. Cooking will certainly be a challenge- the kitchen is really a kitchenette, with a pair of hot plate like burners and a half refrigerator. I will have a few weeks to master stove top recipes before the family arrives. Any suggestions for ideas of things I can make are welcome!

Tomorrow I plan to go for a run and hopefully not get lost. I have found a couple of loops on 'map my run', but I think I will start small/short for my first running venture. While the shops will the closed, museums will be open, so I may check out one of them nearby. I have also been invited for Easter dinner on Sunday. Almut Kuppers and her family were at TCNJ two years ago, she has three girls 9.6 and 3, and they have graciously invited me to their home for the holiday.

I will take my camera out tomorrow to get some good shots of the neighborhood etc. I will leave you with a video of Henry- I watch this and laugh every time I see it. The boy is a nut!

Two days to go.

Well, I leave in about 48 hours and I have been in serious denial. At this point no packing is done, but there are several small piles of things throughout the house- a pile of papers on the dining room floor, a pile of running clothes on the guest bed and a small collection of shoes outside of my closet. I am returning home in about three weeks, so if I forget anything I can pick it up then.

Here are some photos of the guest house where we will be staying. The boys are intrigued by the 'extra toilet' in the bathroom. I will post more once I actually arrive.