DAY FIFTEEN

Heidiho!
Tuesday was today.
Lab was fine. I did my job and everythin worked out fine. My boss is still not there.
For lunch I had pizza. Small and expensive. I might have better joined our neighbouring lab. They had mussels and cooked them themselves. Tomorrwo I will join the for lunch at the T-Centro, a mensa in the neighbouring T-Online building. In the evening, Alessandro came to my lab. He wanted to go to hospital with me again. But after looking at his appointment again, we saw that it was already in the morning. So no hospital. I had quite a few minutes the to shop and reload my cell phone card. After that I wanted to go to the rehearsal of a choir but I did not for I was wandering around for too long and finally was late... Shit!!! I might go there next week.
Tomorrow my new Apple I-book will be ready for first boot. I am looking forward to that. This means that I will finally be ready for really working in the lab and I might use it at home. It will definitely have a funcioning microphone plug so that you will then be able to cheaply call me on a 07143 number which will ring on my computer. Great isn't it???
So, more Harry Potter for me now while going to bed.
See you tomorrow...or maybe not...but you might see my BLOG...right???

DAY FOURTEEN

Hey ho!!!
Second entry for today.
It's not too late right now. I decided that I did not want to go out today and came home early. I made a tea, wrote some letters, cleaned the kitchen and the windows...
I lit a candle for Sunday was the first "Advent".
I will now take a bath and read a little and get ready for bed. I want to be fit tomorrow and not oversleep again on Tuesday.
We will see if my mice will grant me more sleep tonight. So far my flatmate is not home. He is again at his youth meeting and might come home late. I put the dirty dishes and more stuff he just let lying around in his room. The room is a complete mess as is our lab, that's true. But for the lab I have hope for my flatmate I don't.
Well, I am becoming tired of writing all that stuff. Maybe I will reduce my entries a little and only show to you the most important stuff.
So long!

WEEK TWO

Hey today I am writing from lab. This is why this is gonna be short.
Yesterday I came home late. I went out for a beer with a friend and only came back after midnnight, so that then I went to bed fast.
But still, for my freaking mice did not let me sleep, I actually overslept and got up after nine. This felt bad and then I hurried toward the lab again taking again another route which actually made everything worse. I came to lab after 10.30.
Well still this week my boss is again gone for one week, so that working is not too stressful. And in additon there were two seminars today which made thing even better.
Well, I finish this for now but might write more tonight.

So long!

DAY THIRTEEN

Oh, wow, I just typed the header of this entry and it was the ominous thirteenth day today.
Well, the day was fine. Finally I could sleep a little longer and after getting up (my flatmate was sleeping until 4 o'clock in the afternoon) I answered some emails and surfed the web. Not so intersting, I know.
In the afternoon I went for weekend shopping and finally I ended up in the Lainzer Tiergarten, a huge forest with deer close to Vienna. It's a great place to hike and I enjoyed a nice walk in the snow.
In the evening I went downtown to meet my boss and a colleague for a pizza first and then I saw one of the greatest soul concerts in my life. An incredible black woman came form the States, Gewn McGrae. Amazing, powerful, erotic. Really, this music was so nice.
Then I wanted to go dancing to the Moulin Rouge to join some girls from the institute but in the end the concert finished too late so that I had to pay for the music club. So I went home and while I am listening to Southpark on TV, which my faltmate is watching I become tired and will now go to bed.
Tomorrow is Sunday and we will see waht comes up.
So long!

DAYS ELEVEN and TWELVE

Wow, I was busy this week and yesterday I had no energy typing in anything into the BLOG.
Well I went to join a choir yesterday and even had my first performance with around 15 people at a catholic mass. It was interisting. Later I went for a goose eating downtown with 40 people from the institute. Food was great and people very friendly. Slowly I am getting to know more and more people.
But then I came home so late that there was no chance turning on the computer again.
Today I was working again but onyl a little for there was nice lecture in the afternoon about the mouse as a model organism in gentics. It was good to hear some stuff about thing I never did in the lab but that I might encounter at some time.
From five o'clock on we had beer hour in the institute. This is a monthly get-together with food and free beer and dancing music (quite impressive collection of mp3s). I talked a lot and finally went home early because I was tired after that week.
My feet are better now after the football match on Monday and tomorrow I will sleep long to recover from the stress this week. And no plans so far for the weekend. Right now I am sitting in the living room (my flatmat is out), I cleaned the kitchen a little and I am listening to the Kill Bill soundtrack with my Shisha loaded with peppermint and melon tobacco. This really reminds me of earlier times in Tübingen and Jettenburg.
I am really curious what the next days will bring. Hopefully I can accomodate even more to the big city Vienna and also to the new feeling being a working guy doing my PhD.
I wish you a good night. But especially to me.
See you soon,

Sebi

DAY TEN

Servus!
Only shortly for today:
- did not read today
- we had a small presentation of a cross-flow system by Amersham
- I did some lab work; my boss was not there again
- I went to orchestra rehearsal (was nice)
- I visited a bath house with pool, whirlpool and saune (was ok, but I have seen better places)
- Markus, the friend of my flatmate cooked some Pizza-like cake which I could have some for dinner
- Good night!

DAY NINE

It seems it is gonna be after midnight that I write to my BLOG always. Tonight again!!!
I have just come home from a midnight snowy walk in the neighbourhood. There is a small hill from which one could look down on Vienna quite fine if there were no tress. Still, it was nice and quiet.
Today some surprising things happened. First, all of a sudden I was allowed to finally start pipetting in the lab. I was helping Stefan our postdoc cloning some genes. I performed a reverse transcription reaction and a PCR. Some basic standard techniques, but good for me having been absent from the lab for a year now.
Then bad news came to my ears. After we first thought we might move to our new building December 9 this moving was now posponed to mid-January. This is really bad for I wanted to start my actual PhD-project Januar 1.
Finally in the afternoon my friend Alessandro called and asked for my help to visit him to the hospital. He injured his foot in the football match yesterday evening and was exmained and X-rayed today. In the end he got "Krücken" and was prescribed Heparin injections which he had to inject himself. This was a drama...

Well then, now I am totally tired, my feet hurt after the football and there is working again tomorrow.

Good night!

DAY EIGHT

Well, really, this working is hard....and long.
Came home only some minutes before 11pm and only had the time to write some mails, chat a little in ICQ, eat and shower.
To shower I had, for I joined some other nine guys from my institutes at two hours of football.
This was the most exhausting thing I did within the last months. I was done after 30 minutes, but fighted to not give up before the end of the two hours. Beside, I am not good at football at all and people seemed not to be too happy about my skills.
Well, they have to go through this. Then I drove home - today with my car - for this morning I was quite late after picking up my Bankomat (EC) card from my bank. This was comfortabele but still takes some minutes. After the showering I looked at the three blisters I got and now, at again almost 1am in the night, I will finally go to bed. Fortunately no big plans for tomorrow evening. Still, work at the lab, maybe for the first time real work. I will help out Postdoc cloning five genes, and from the vectors produce the protein to then purify and send for making antibodies.
Well, this was is.
Good night!

WEEK NUMBER ONE

It's Sunday today and almost time to go to bed.
I have just come home from an evening with my flatmate and his friend at the bowling center. I was not bad. 133. This is around my record.
I cooked a soup (Chinese) now before going to sleep and thougt I might as well tell you, in a summary, how my first 7 days, the first week, in Vienna was.
As you might have followed my entries in the BLOG you know that I acheived quite a lot in these days. I almost managed to have all administrative stuff done, as well in my institute as with the city of Vienna. Tomorrow I will as last deed collect my new Bankomat cards and receive my security instruction.
My appartment also looks really comfortable after the first week. I spent a lot of money at IKEA, where I was twice to bring some color to the flat. Today I hung up pictures and posters.
As I told Markus I might make a video touring through my flat...
Well, at the lab things are not yet very exciting. I do not have my own project yet and therefore I am reading a lot, mostly basic stuff. The great thing is, that I have my own office, for at the lab there is no free bench space nor a desk for me.
But everything will become better, as soon as we have moved to the new building.
I alredy know a lot of people. Of course most not very good. But this will come and anyway, it is only the first week.
Ok, I will finish this know, sounds a bit boring to me.
New things are to come tomorrw.

Good night!
And have a great week!

Snow

Of course, today is Saturday. That's why I can write more often.
Just to let you know. It is freezing cold. I almost slipped when I walked on the sidewalk.
It even snowed really heavily this morning.
Ja, great, isn't it???
Today I went for a walk to Schloss Schönbrunn. A great castle, with a beautiful park and a gorcious look down onto Vienna.
I checked out the surrounding of my flat, I looked for a nice Sauna...
Well, that's it!
Until later!

Pictures

Alright, you know, my internet connection at my computer is working, so I finally uploaded some pictures of my house, my bike and my room. I made a sequence of pictures how my room became how it finally looks like.
You can look at them under:
fotos.web.de/ehmseb/Zimmer_in_Wien
Have fun and write to me what you think about it!

DAY SIX

Oh my dear! It is not getting better. Again it is almost 1.30 in the night.
I mean, of course, its Friday today. But as I did not go out, I could as well be in bed already.
It is freezing in the appartment right now, so I will indeed hop into my comfortable sleeping place.
Today was a lazy day. My boss was on a meeting and so people were not stressed in the lab. I did some reading but most of the time organised my life in Vienna and met a lot of old and new people all around the different lab buildings.
Maybe we, this is all the PhD-students who are gonna start, will meet on the weekend at som time.
In the evening I went home a little earlier, I was shopping a little (bought Shisha tobacco) and finally came home to eat something and to use my new freedom with the internet at home.
Finally I decided to go and see the Harry Potter 4 movie today.
I am back now and was totally dissappointed. They changed so many thing. It was incredibly far from the book. There was no time in the movie for telling the story or going back to the other books. Instead they spent a lot of time for special effects and instead of havinge the jokes written in the book, they introduced new ones that do not have to do anything with the Harry-Potter-world of J.K. Rowling.
Well, enough for today.
I go brushing my teeth, bring the computer back to my room to listen to Harry Potter 5 audio book and hopefully fall asleep soon.

So long,
Sebi

DAY FIVE

Alright then!
Still I am motivated enough to write these reports everyday. And, looking at the number of people who visit my BLOG beside me, there are still people who want to know what is going on in Vienna.
Well then. Todays entry will be short for it is alreday 1 o'clock in the morning.
In short:
- in the lab: a lot of reading (besides papers, newspapers (there is a good article about Vienna in "Die Zeit"), and Aldi adverstisments)
- first quarrel in the lab between a diploma student and the boss (I hated it; you know how much harmony-needing I am)
- some new ideas about what I might be doing soon; I am rewriting a grant proposal with another PhD-student, Dubravka
- later on I went to Ikea with my Italian friends and we had dinner at their place
- the biggest thing: I got my own Austrian cell phone number, so call me under:
0043 - 69981 - 545345
and I have internet with my computer now and can use ICQ and also soon Skype to cheaply call you.
That was it! Tomorrow is Friday and this means weekend is gonna come.

DAY FOUR

Hey everybod!
Ok, ok, I know, a lot of reading for you these days.
It will be less in the future and even for today.
I is actualle already day FIVE now, for midnight has passed.
I went to lab today the second time and spent most of the time reading and recapitualting basics about RNA silencing.
Finally I got my computer account and my crad for access to the lab.
I also organised a desk for myself so that I can do the reading I am supossed to do.
I ordered a credit card today and tomorrow I can pick up my new Austrian cell phone number. I will let you know, so that you can calle me...
After lab today I went to a concert band rehearsal. This was cool. About 50 to 60 good wind instrument players, a friendly American conductur, interesting pieces and a good overall atmosphere. I got to know a lot of people and even joined the "Stammtisch" after the rehearsal. Unforunately I only came home after 11pm because of this and could not go on cleaning the flat. Still I have to finish the kitchen, start with the living room and finish my room, so that everything has its place.
Now I am tired after this day and will finish it, after a good "Guatemala Grande" coffee with a little Harry Potter!!!
Good night.

DAY THREE

Hey folks!
Day three of my Vienna adventure is finished.
Today I started working at the lab. But actually there was no work for me except filling up the water bottels.
I did some reading, I signed the contract, I toured through the institute to get to know where everybody and everything is.
I also registered at the city of Vienna and for god sake they let me keep my Germand adress as first adress. So I do not have to import my old Clio to Austria.
After quite some hours in the lab, without a bench but with some laughs and a chat with my old new friend Alessandro at his lab I went home (I was faster than in the morning when I needed 45 minutes to get to the lab) and started cleaning the appartment. I did the bahtroom and the kitchen and tried to make my room even more cosy. You will see pictures soon.
Now, after a walk to the swimming pool and sauna close to the appartment, I can write you this report for my flatmate Massi or as as I prefer to call him, Flo, lets me kindly use his computer to check mails and update my BLOG.
So long!!!

DAY TWO

Today I got up at around 9.30am with a not too good feeling. Waking up in Vienna, the big city in a still foreign flat with unusual noices.
I started by sneaking into my flatmates room to use his internet connection to check on the thing I wanted to do today.
The I dressed and went for my first appointment. I opened a student bank account (which is for free) and got a lot of presents and maybe made a new friend for the bank accountant was very nice and told my a lot about her son...
Then I went to the "Einwohnermeldeamt" but for I did not have the right form filled out I left very soon. Still, I found the building and I actually went there by bike (the great one, whicht I got as a gracious gift from Jule's mom Claudia). It is an old one with five gears and which clickers when one rides it.
The I got lost one my way back but rode through a nice area with trees which was very hilly. I noticed that I am not trained at all anymore (this I noticed even earlier, when I went to sports lesson on Friday at CSGB).
In the afternoon I went shopping to a mall called the Shopping City Süd (SCS) primarily to Ikea, where I bought a lot of thing to make the appartment more comfortable.
I also tried to make a cell phone contract but could not decide on the provider.
Then I drove back home to start the cleaning. I cleaned the toilet and the bath room. The floor in the hall and some of my room.
Finally my flatmate Flo came back and after I will have finished this entry I will go to the "Jugend" a meeting (from church, but only some real active Christians there) where he went with his brother. Maybe there will be some interesting new people there.
So long!

DAY ONE

I know that today (Monday) it is actually already day two of my stay in Vienna. But for a lacking internet connection I could not write anything yesterday.
Well, what to tell you.
I am here! And, of course, everything is quite new and it feels strange to be in that big city.
When I came here on Sunday I started imediately to unpack the car with again more stuff beside my moving stuff in the truck some days ago.
I built up my bed and tried to make my room a little more comfortable. I unpacked the new linen for my bed I got as a birthday present from my mother. After watching the "Lago Maggiore" video, which I got from Jojo as a goodbye present and some more cleaning I finally found sleep around midnight. It was a calm sleep for god's sake. I was just too tired after that hard day, after the last party at Pascal's on Saturday and the exciting goodbye and driving to Vienna.

Boring Wednesday

Today I will go to bed quite early. After visiting an old student-housing friend from Tübingen in Stuttgart, I alreday came back to Besigheim around 9pm. I stopped by the school band rehearsal and met some of my old companions there. After that, nothing special happened. I tried to see Passe at his Alltagswoche on the Burg in Walheim. But that was it.
So...hope tomorrow will be better. Last rehearsal with the Musikverein Walheim.
By the way, I already have up to four bands I can play with in Vieanna. Among them the Hoch- und Deutschmeister Numero 4 and the Vieanna Bläserphilharmonie. We will see.

So long, good night.

...Lothar is ICQing. I need to reply!

Great Thing!

Wow, wow, wow!!!
Great thing I got for birthday yesterday evening.
Number one a sauna ticket for free entry, number two a vine plant in a pot to take the Swabian wine with me to Vienna and number three a great picture wall with most of me friends on it and me of course and best with the emblems of all the villages and cities I so far lived in. This is a super memory!!!

Still here!

I know, this thing is new. That's why I am again posting although not so many thing happened since the last time.
I have had my birhtday afternoon coffee drinking and tonight the celebrating will go on with a meeting in the "Besenwirtschaft" in Besigheim. Will be cool!!!
Beside that, the sun is shining. That's great. I love the sun! I can not live without it. As I am always saying in Italiean: "Siempre sto bene, quando c'e il sole e quando il cielo e azzurro!"
Beside my computer lies a nice little book from Antoine de Saint Exupery. It is called "Man sieht nur mit dem Herzen gut". I love it. Many very interesting and intelligent stories and guiding thoughts. One of them: Everybody comes from a land, called childhood, and your roots go back to it and you can not flee from it.
So long!

Birthday

When I wrote my first entry I had forgotten to do this in English. As there might be a lot of international people reading it, this might be better.
Alright then, I go on in English and althoug I am not yet in Vienna I start this BLOG with some entries, now from Walheim, Germany, alsongside the river Neckar and its beautiful slopes with vineyards and forests.
Ok, enough of this.
It is my birthday today. I am 27 now and this is reason to celebrate, isn't it?
This "isn't it" would be to homolog to the Swiss "oder" I mentioned in the first entry.
Well, I am looking forward to the afternoon when some friends will come to join me for a birthday celebration with selfmade cake and coffee.

Jetzt geht's los!

Ich hab mir gedacht, dass so ein Blog, weil das gerade Mode ist, ne nette Art wäre, euch über meine Erlebnisst in Wien zu informieren. Werde also von Zeit zu Zeit hier was reinschreiben und wer Lust hat das zu lesen. Nur zu!!! Das erspart euch das anschauen überwältigend langer Erlebnis-Berichts-Email und ihr müsst noch nicht mal zurück schreiben. Na das ist doch was, oder?!? "oder", dieses schweizerische "oder" am Ende eines jeden Satzes, als erwartende Floskel zur Bestätigung einer Aussage ging mir in Wien vor kurzem sehr oft über die Lippen, als ich mit Jule und Manu da war, um in meine Neue WG einzuziehen. Gut, soviel zunächst. Später mehr!