Lederhosen and Dirndl Time!

We no longer have to rely on my crude Photoshop to see what Noah and I might look like in the traditional Bavarian attire. After spending more money than you would expect (or at least we expected, before we moved here), we are now ready for Oktoberfest!

Our apartment in photos

We have finally (fingers crossed) reached the point where we are done shopping for the apartment. Hopefully this means less hectic Saturdays running around town on public transportation trying to buy all the things needed in a new place.

I figured this would be a good time to post some photos of our place. And most of the furniture was handmade built put-together by Noah and me! As usual, you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Hallway to the right

WC

'Bath' room

Newly installed kitchen

Newly installed kitchen

Tiny fridge with no freezer 

Closet/pantry

Living room

Living room

Hallway to the left

Our bedroom

Balcony

Guest room

Guest room

Official Deutschland Residents!!

Today Noah and I received our official residence cards, and I received my work visa. Technically Noah received one too – but his is more of a “not” working visa – it says he is not authorized to work. And since the dogs were registered last month, the entire family is set to stay in Germany forever!! Ok, not forever, but until January 2015 (and we currently are planning on staying through February 2014 – so we have plenty of buffer).

This means from this point on, all our posts must be written in German. Wir lieben München! Ich bin glücklich, hier zu leben! Never mind. I think that is enough.

But now we can go buy our lederhosen and dirndl! Here are a few ‘artist’ renditions of what we may or may not look like in the traditional Bavarian attire (click to enlarge):

Tales from Work

There has not been much to report on since our last blog update so I will share some stories from my work.  Although I should note, we ventured out for an exciting sledding trip last weekend which you can read about here.  

Also, I made it to my first European soccer match the weekend before- FC Bayern 2 : Schalke 0.  What can I say, it was absolutely incredible.  A blog would not even do it justice, but here is a photo.

Work Tale I

As is typical in R&D lab work, often times the instruments/equipment fail.  These machines have so many delicate, thoroughly integrated parts that a significant part of our jobs as “scientists” is to be “engineers” and fix broken equipment (part electrician, plumber, and architect). This is a constant battle.  Well since I arrived at Roche there has been a particularly nasty instrument-breaking-fairy roaming the lab which made 4 different instruments go temporarily kaput (remember your previous German lesson?).  Thankfully though, I work with a relatively light-hearted and fun bunch of people.  I learn to appreciate this the more I learn about other more typical German personalities. 

At the start of these problems they began to jokingly blame a French colleague; not because she is French, but because she was using most of the equipment and seemed like a common connection to the problems.  They are pretty funny about this too, one day I overheard them saying, “We opened up the instrument and found the problem was that the French colleague put a baguette inside the instrument rendering it kaput”. 

This kind of humor lasted for some time, but eventually it wore out and then was directed towards me.  They would say to me “what have you done” and “please don’t touch my instruments” etc.  Given the success of the ‘baguette’ joke, the funny guy decided to test his cleverness.  He said “we opened the instrument and found a…. (long pondering pause) uh….. a BEAN, inside that was causing the problems!” Well I found this to be really, really funny and I had to give him credit for first knowing regionally where Arizona is in the US and second for coming up with a symbolic food for our old home state.  I’m not sure I can come up with a better symbol myself- the avocado, orange, cotton, pecan, copper….I think I like a bean the best.  Thankfully now the baguettes and beans are being removed and some of the important instruments are starting to function again.

Work Tale II

I travelled to Waldkraiburg for some training last week-  oh you have never heard of it?  Well rightly so, some Germans can’t precisely place it on a map either, which gives you a sense of its size and spirit (60 miles east of Munich, population 24,000).  It was a successful trip - although there were slow moments I was able to clear up the direction and plans for my research project. 

My hotel was next to a mega-mart which was next to the company I was visiting- here is where I would sleep, eat, and work, respectively.  Although not exactly a thrilling social scene, this was a nice change from the long commutes I’ve grown accustomed to. 

Anyhow, this was a historical time in Waldkraiburg because they were currently hosting the 2012 world championships in “Eisstockschießen” where 20 countries were competing for the coveted trophy (including Brazil….who knew, right?).  We have noticed people playing this game out on the frozen canals and lakes all winter.  It is pretty much the equivalent of the kind of lawn games you would see at a tailgate party somewhere a.k.a. corn-hole.  It is kind of like curling but the discs have handles and there are no brooms.  Julie and I were prepared to buy some gear for next Eisstockschießen season until we realized it costs several hundred Euros for a set minimum….wow! 

Anyhow, so I ventured out on my last day to witness a piece of history.  I saw the Junior level long distance competition.  The scene there felt like one of those amateur tournaments shown on ESPN on Sunday morning or when the big 5 sport season is dormant- say cup stacking or world strongest man etc.  So I grabbed a beer, a bratwurst, and a front row seat as the action unfolded- quite simply who could throw the disc the furthest down a 200 m artificial ice track. I quickly observed distance thrown was proportional to mass of the thrower so the beefy German/Austrians had the advantage over the more athletic Italians/Brazilians.  Way to put yourself on the map Waldkraiburg and thanks for the good times!

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).