Kuechenschaben und Ouzo

Picture above: This is the Five star roach hotel that was formerly underneath my kitchen sink. Not pictured is the several year old newspapers and rotten food remains that were the penthouses, for the well-to-do roaches that could afford it. On the left is pure unadulterated roach scat. Towards the wall are several cockroaches running for their lives. Cleaning this up with nothing but my bare hands, a sponge, and soapy water is on my top five list of disgusting things I've had to do. Especially when you wipe up what seems to be a dead cock roach, but instead starts running up your arm. For the words that were said, it was a good thing no small children were present. What lies there now is a soft and fluffy, poisonous layer of borax. Gute Appetit, meiner Kuechenschaben.

The war of the Kuechenschaben (cockroaches) seems to be slightly going in my favor. I still find lots of cockroaches, but they are no longer alive. They are usually lying in the middle of the kitchen floor, covered in a dusty layer of borax (that I put under the countertops and sink), and lying on their back. One or two legs are usually slightly twitching. Death by borax induced dehydration. I wrote a letter to the landlord asking him to come fumigate this place or give me free rent. Neither of which I know will happen, but its fun to try. I'll let you know what happens.

Ouzo. The drink should be outlawed for the effects it has on its participants. You see Ouzo, as explained in one of my early posts, is a suspension of oil in water. The oil being anise extract. This can be described as nanoparticles free floating in solution--or the ouzo effect. Since I work in a pharmaceutical drug delivery research lab, about half of the graduate students research work is making nanoparticles for drug delivery. Hence Ouzo is the official alcoholic drink of the laboratory.

This week was the annual group meeting, where all 15-20 graduate students and post-docs give a seminar on their data for the past year. I gave a presentation on my thesis data and the three research ideas I was told to think up. At the end of each persons seminar, we are forcefully commanded to be critical of each other. This is so holes in our data can be fixed before we give a real research seminar and so more collaborations can exist between group members. On the whole, it was an interesting experience. One thing they do different is, instead of clapping hands, they knock their knuckles against their desks for applause.

At the end of the three days of seminar, my boss, Dr. Kissel takes us all out to dinner and drinks at his expense. This is were I learned the second and most important Ouzo effect. I have never seen a group of 15 people get so off the wall crazy in my life. These germans dont ever seem to fill up on beer or ouzo. The goal this year, like every year, is to break last years number of ouzo shots. Last year it was 96. This year it broke 12. But no one can remember the exact number, as everyones memory is a little hazy.

The effects of Ouzo: Off the wall shouting across the table. If I sat at one end of the table, at the other end, someone would alway be screaming "Herr Steele!, why arent you drinking more Ouzo?". This was nine times out of ten, Herr Dr. Kissel. So I would scream back, "Herr Kissel, because you will not buy me any!" At this point he would order another 15 shots and made sure two went for me.

We were eating in a small Greecian restaurant called the Lokomotive. The place basically got taken over with our loud obnoxious research group, as I told one of the graduate students that I can polka, jokingly. Somehow this caused great laughter, spread to all parts of the table, and before I knew it I was being forced to prove I knew how. The Grecian restaurant owner even had some polka. So before I knew it I was dancing polka with another graduate student named Olivia. Then tango with Nina, and onto salsa with Nadia. All to polka musik. After much laughter, the whole group erupted with people doing tango, swing, polka, and salsa to polka style music.

The Grecian restaurant got wrecked. Art fell from the walls, tables were turned over, wine glasses were broken, and ouzo shots were thrown across the table. but the owner didnt care!--he just tried to move stuff out of the way. And Dr. Kissel laughed at it all, and of course, ordered more Ouzo. They tried to teach me some german beer drinking songs, but I mostly just hummed along. At the end of the night, about three of the graduates students couldnt walk straight enough to make it home and had to be escorted. A group of five of us took turns carrying one of the graduates students home. As we walked/carried her back, she kept screaming about how tomorrow she was going to lose ten pounds, and "Wouldnt it be easier to carry me then?" We agreed.

The aquarium I got is up and running almost perfectly. The plants are even blooming and putting on new leaves. They all looked like they were going to die a week ago, until I stocked the tank with fish. I got two glass fish, four neons, and two small yellow fish, but I forget their names. I also got four small ghost shrimp that are bottom feeders. They keep the tank free of algae and are by far the funnest things to watch. They methodically groom each plant leaf in microscopic detail with there very tiny 'pincher' arms. Sometimes the other fish just follow the shrimp. I think they are wondering if they can eat it or not. One of the shrimps has also disappeared under mysterious circimstances. The glass fish blame the neons and vice versa. Detective Terry is still investigating. In my investigations I have learned that one of the sources of the ghost shrimp is the freshwater streams and rivers of the midwest. I'm not sure how this is going to solve the case though.

This week I also started my Volkshochschule to be able to speak the german language. The class mostly consists of turkish, persians, and some russians. There is also one american girl in there that is a senior exchange student from Cheboygan, Wisconsin. Small world huh? The interesting thing about the course is the instructor never uses your native language, just keeps talking german--and when you dont understand her--she draws a picture on a chalkboard and the lesson turns into a game of pictionary. When you finally understand, she rolls on to the next lesson. What is great is that most of the participants DON'T speak english, so I am forced to speak german to the turkish and russians during the breaks to try and find out more about them. It is a fun and fast way to learn a language. Today we had dialogues on ordering bread and vegatables from the market and had to act out a seen in front of the class with partners. All in all it was pretty amusing.

A friend sent me an email with a quote I have never heard before. I liked it so much, I reprint it here for you. Thanks S.A.!

"Be Kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."
-Plato