Holidays again.

For most students it's the time of recovery but unfortunately not for me:
I still felt a little irresolute about which job or study course would suit me best so I applied for an internship at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (to be precise: at the Institute for Toxicology and Genetics).

That meant: Get up at 5am every day and travel to Karlsruhe by car, train and bus (all in all nearly 3hs + slightly less for the way back) - not really something you would want to do in your holidays...
(It's not that funny when you meet your friends at the station just coming from the disco and looking forward to going to bed soon, when you're just on the way to work...)
Although it was really exhausting I learned quite a lot and thanks to the absolutely cool guys it was fun as well.

On Monday I was in a pretty international group with team members from maybe 10 different countries (= 10 different cute English accents) and Tom Cruise showed me brains of zebrafish. (He really looked like young Tom Cruise though he was a lot more likeable!)
On Tuesday it was warm (22°C) an sunny when I got up but when I finally arrived at the FZK it pissed and I looked like the winner of a wet t-shirt contest... After borrowing the secretary's blow-dryer I spent the day being fascinated by all the centrifuges, battery-operated pipets, vortexes, heaters, bubblers, coolers, microscopes...
On Wednesday I was with the animals and to protect them from bacteria I had to shower and dress like a surgeon (white clothes, over-shoes, mask, cap and gloves). Then I was shown mice and rats from the outside as well as from the inside - a little unpleasant for sensitive stomaches and hearts... (Did you know that a mouse's bowels are about 50cm long?)
On Thursday I hybridised fish and today I cut their frozen babies into slices.

*Please don't think I'm a sadist - it wasn't even half as brutal as it sounds!

Whatever, it was an interesting week but I'm glad it's over now; being friendly and amiable all day can be quite straining.

So one day of relaxation and then I'm going to leave for a week in Taizé - what a contrast...