Front door 1, Weiss' 0

This is the little story of how Noah and I ended up locked out of our apartment Friday night and spent 250 € for a locksmith’s 30 seconds of work. The kicker – we had our keys. Read on….

Ever since we moved in, we have been paranoid about our door. Sounds silly, but the outside door handle is just a knob – it serves no function other than something to grab onto when closing the door behind you. Here is a photo to show you what I mean – the door handle on the right doesn’t turn:

Basically this means when you are outside the apartment - even if the door isn’t locked - you have to open the door using your key as a ‘door knob’ – turning it slightly in the lock to open the latch. This is one point of paranoia – we are terrified of shutting the door behind us with the keys inside, essentially locking us out even when the door isn’t locked (Noah points out this is similar to a hotel room, but we have no 24 hour front desk). But this isn’t what happened.

Another scenario we worry about is one of us locking the other IN. Since the only way to lock/unlock the deadbolt from either side is using a key, what would we do if Noah left in the morning and locked the door, and I left my keys at work? I would be locked in the apartment with Noah kilometers away on his regional train. But this isn’t what happened either.

This is what unfolded on the day in question. Noah and I arrive home from dinner/shopping – with Noah carrying a huge wicker trunk for our guest room. Typically we use his keys to get in/out, but since his hands were full, I used mine. Then out of habit (to help us remember to take our keys), I stuck my keys in the door on the inside (you can refer to the photo above for a visual).

We set everything down and suit the dogs up for their evening walk. I notice my keys in the door, and ask Noah if he wants to take his keys (since he doesn’t have key chains, making them easier to pocket). He agrees, so I open the door with the dogs and head downstairs. Noah is behind me. He sees my keys in the door, but thinks nothing of it (since he has his), and shuts the door behind him.

This is where it turns south. Noah tries to lock the deadbolt behind him, but the key won’t go all the way in to turn. After a few attempts, he thinks, ‘I’ll just open the door instead’. Nope – the key won’t turn that way either. At this point I come back upstairs to see what the problem is.

As we look closely, the key is about 2 millimeters from going all the way in. Somehow, my key on the other side is preventing his key from working. I stupidly say we could call his aunt who has a spare key to let us in. My mind hadn’t wrapped itself around the situation yet – we didn’t need a spare key, Noah has his keys in his hand!! At this point we both realize the gravity of the situation – we are locked out, with our keys.

And for those of you thinking we could just shove the key in to knock the other one out – we tried. But if you shine a light through the lock (as our neighbor did on his door to see if this was a solution), it doesn’t shine through. It is not aligned.

Now we know this isn’t something we can fix. It is time for the locksmith. Luckily Noah has his phone and wallet with him (I have nothing in my pocket but poop bags), he calls up a locksmith. As Noah is on the phone, our other neighbor comes home. I explain to him in a mix of English and German what is happening, and he says he has had that happen twice. Awesome – we aren’t complete idiots if the German guy has done it not once, but twice! What did he do? Oh, he kicked down the door, and then it was ‘kaput’ (German for broken). Yeah, that isn’t what we are looking to do.

25 minutes later, the locksmith shows up. He wouldn’t let us watch him work, but we think he just had a narrow metal tool that he slid in to pop the ‘latch’ (that thing that goes into the door when you turn the handle – not the deadbolt). Which by the way, we did try to use Noah’s student ID for this same method, but it was too thick and flimsy.

What did he charge us for his 30 seconds of work? Yep, the 250 € mentioned above.

In conclusion: German doors are smarter than us.

So, What Would You Say You Do Here…..?

Tomorrow marks my third week on the job at Roche.  I’ve spent about one weeks time doing actual lab work, about one week doing training, and probably about one weeks time just sitting and wondering what the hell I should be doing.  Thankfully it’s easy to make this last part seem like I’m working because thinking is part of the scientific process.  “Hey Noah, what are you working on?”  “Oh you know, just thinking over this last data set”.  Let’s be honest though, how many people really “work” the WHOLE time they are at work?

In terms of my actual work at Roche, my task is to characterize synthetic peptides (small synthetic proteins or amino acid chains) that are precisely patterned on a solid surface.  Well at least in theory they should be precisely patterned and the sequences should be accurate.  That is where my job comes in: to ensure that they are in fact making what they think they are (just like any other consumer product, this is essentially QA/QC). 

However, because this product is new technology (faster, lighter, and more efficient) there are not clear methods or strategies for how to perform this QA/QC work.  In fact, it is actually a really big challenge to make these peptide measurements, but it has to be done for the product to be successful and understood.  Who CARES though, right?  Well these peptide materials would be very useful to researchers around the world to study diseases, drugs, and biological functions; however, they are only useful if they are well characterized and understood.  In other words, my job is the most important of them all!!

My daily commute averages about 1.5 hours door to door (Roche is in Penzberg - about 30 miles south of Munich).  This makes the days very long, but thankfully my train ride is quite pleasant thanks to it being mostly empty with amazing countryside views.  I’m now addicted to the Radio Lab podcast (highly recommended, and I’ve even got Julie hooked) and my Kindle has been getting a lot of use.  Here are some snapshots from the wonderful sights I enjoy on my commute: 

Seriously, the train is so empty one can play their trombone without making anyone else upset (if you don’t like it, move over to the empty carriage behind you).

I am the Paparazzi (sort of)

The weather is finally starting to warm up, and by that I mean it is hovering around the freezing point (versus dipping well below it).

While walking the dogs in the park the other day, we spotted this lovely gem. I apologize for my bigfoot style of photography, but I didn’t want to be creepier than I already was.

These are two men clothed in matching fur from head to toe. I am currently trying to convince Noah that we need to get identical matching winter outfits for ourselves. And of course the dogs too.

Life here is actually pretty boring most of the time

As I look back on the previous posts, I realize we have only posted about the amazing moments here, we are living in a fantasy world. While it definitely feels like that often, just as often it feels much closer to tedium than glamour. I thought I would post about what day-to-day life is really like here – not constant festivals and castles and beer (though there is a lot of beer – and I am starting to drink it!!). Also, this will be fun for me to look back on years down the road, when all I remember are our fun travels in Europe.

Precursor: Please do not take this as a pity party, or a complaining session, or read more into it than what it is. I know how lucky we are to be here, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Daily life is much harder here than the US where you can drive anywhere – more time commuting, taking dogs out, shopping for essentials, all with no car – but this is the tradeoff we are taking to live in fabulous Munich.

In Phoenix I used to roll out of bed around 7:30, and eventually make my way to work – a whopping 5 minute drive. Now: I wake up at 6:30 when Noah is making his way out the door to catch his long-distance train. Before I leave to start my hour commute, I have to take the dogs out no matter the weather. Lately that means freezing cold and sometimes snow. Every morning I miss the doggy door and backyard we had in Phoenix. I run out the door after cleaning them off to wait at the bus stop.

Sometimes I am lucky, and I catch the bus right away, and make it to the train station with amazing timing to catch my S3 train. More often, I wait outside for the bus or the train, or worse, both. Around 7:45 (give or take 10 minutes) I hop on an overly crowded train and try to grab a seat as it opens up. Normally I have a seat by the 4^th stop – Hauptbahnhof – where many people get off to make their connection.

Once I arrive at Fasanenpark (the stop for Intel), I have to walk 10 minutes to my building – all outside. The photo below shows the path I take, following the others getting off the train. By about 8:30 (give or take 10 minutes, depending on the commute that day) – an hour since I left home – I am at my table - who thought I would miss my mini-cubicle???

After work I typically take the 6 o’clock train home, where luckily the timing works out that I arrive at Laim (our station) about the same time as Noah. We either stop at the grocery store to pick up food (as our refrigerator and freezer is less than half the size as it was in Phoenix, and stores are only open until 8pm, and not at all on Sundays), or head straight home. If we don’t need to stop at the store, we usually get home around 6:45.

Now it is time to make dinner, eat, clean up, shower, take the dogs out again (Noah this time), and around 8pm, we finally get to relax and try to follow German TV before our 10pm bedtime.

So yeah, it is not a movie star life during the week. And during the week I sometimes think of how I miss the easiness of living in the States. But so far those thoughts get erased when I meet Noah at the train station at the end of the day, and we make our way to our amazing little apartment, passing little grocery stores, cute houses, and bakeries along the way. And then I remember: I f***ing live in Europe!

It’s only been 1 month??

Today marks the 1 month anniversary of when we landed in Munich to begin our new lives. I find it hard to believe that we have only been here that long – it feels like we’ve been here much longer. I think that is a good thing – we have settled into a routine and are adjusting well to living in Europe.

Even more, I have been surviving my first winter. With lows reaching -18 Celsius, and highs only -9 Celsius, I have been putting my winter gear to the test.

The upside of the freezing cold: getting to walk around ON the Nymphenburg canal with Noah and the dogs. With the canal frozen over, residents gather on the ice to skate, play hockey, curling (?) and like us, just walk along it. We mostly walked along the edge to avoid getting in the way of the skaters and players, and even the dogs tolerated the ice. Though Sadie would hop up on the bank of the canal, and eventually refused to get back on the ice. At this point we figured it was time to head back. 

View from the bridge



People used their regular shoes to mark the hockey goals

This pretty much sums up Sadie's attitude towards the ice

Family photo op in the ice, can you find Rita? (Sadie would not cooperate, see above)

View with the castle to my back