Lebensqualität

Quality of Life

Somewhere between Christmas and Karneval (more to follow on the latter point - currently still in process - soon enough) I fell in love (the head-over-heels variety) with Mainz. I am sure that all of you, my loyal blog followers (I'm almost certainly flattering myself a little bit here) remember some of the entries that I wrote back in October and November when I was just starting my work at the MPI and was absolutely beside myself. I know that I expressed some of my feelings of confusion and helplessness, and - for lack of a better term - constant fumbling. Even though I was pretty descriptive about the specific nature of some of my struggles, when I go back and re-read said entries and compare them with private e-mails that I'd sent or things that I'd written in my paper journal around the same time period, I realize that I really was suffering a lot more than I let on here. Despite my best efforts to stay positive and remind myself that it was a gift to be here, I felt like everything was a bad fit - the labwork, the city, my budding friendships and inability to fit them in with a 55-hour work week and chemistry that just wouldn't work - and I would be lying if I said I never considered throwing the towel in and hopping back on the first plane back to America.

BUT.

A more recent snapshot of my life is starkly different from the "melancholy autumn" one I described just three short months ago. I don't know what exactly happened, or when, for that matter, but I don't even think I could relate to the person who was writing in this blog in October, 2008.

I have finally gotten into a good groove with my co-workers and I honestly look forward to coming to the MPI every day. I even happily (most of the time, anyway - it's still research, which is inherently frustrating at times) stay late into the evening. Considering that my synthetic organic chemistry skills were bare-bones-basic upon my arrival in this country, I feel like I have made significant progress with my project. I have an arsenal of synthetic skills that I didn't come here with and I can even take a mass spec by myself! I have successfully synthesized a few brand new small organic molecules (in high purity - that was the clincher) for potential future use in protein conjugate chemistry, and I will completely change directions to start trying some chemical protein modifications this week.

My social situation is fantastic. I have made a few really close friends here (in addition to my great roommates who are wonderful and continue to put up with my broken German) and have a pretty great extended social circle from the rather large Müllen research group. Incidentally, my four closest friends in Mainz are two couples - Ting and David, who are both PhD students at the Institute and live on the same street as me, and Nathan and Lena, an American and German, respectively (I met Nathan at one of my orientation events at the University back in October - after realizing that we were both native English speakers, I found out that he just finished applying for a Fulbright to come to Mainz next year...the world is a freakishly small place). I frequently share meals (and wine) with these guys and am shocked at how much I actually enjoy cooking. I have also been enjoying a newly-established weekly "girls' coffee date" with some of my female co-workers and MPI girls' soccer team teammates.

That's right - I have been playing Fußball with other woman scientists on Friday afternoons, for several months now. For those of you who are not familiar with my athletic abilities, or lack thereof, please understand that this is about as shocking and ridiculous as saying that I like to eat liverwurst (except now that I actually do eat - and quite enjoy - Leberwurst...). Our endlessly-dedicated coach is a certain enthusasitc Manfred Wagner, the Müllen group's NMR specialist. Manny is great - and I think that my friend/teammate Kate sums him up best:

"I think that Manny has his PhD in soccer."

I have provided photographic proof of my athletic endeavors below - and as proof that we take the game very seriously, please notice the difference between before and after:

Before...
(L to R) Lucia, Kathy, Rike, Vero, Teresa, Manny, Me, Kate

...After, sweaty and muddy.

(I feel that it is relevant to share that I had to buy new running shoes this weekend, for obvious reasons.)

I also have made friends with some pretty awesome people from the polymer theory group and now meet them for weekly badminton sessions (if you have any questions about my badminton skills, see "soccer abilities"). I also frequently swim with Ting and David. I really miss the cheap and easy access to a gym with cardio machines and free weights that I was used to back in the States, but I have been doing a lot of yoga in my room and it's actually kind of fun to play sports something that I've been truly afraid of since, well, middle school gym class.

I have a lot more that I want to say here, but the craziness of Karneval has caught up with me and I will have to continue to wax poetic about how much I love this city and country another time...

(And maybe I'll also eventually post pictures and stories from Berlin and Hamburg, which already feels like it was ages ago...)

A very happy Ashlan wishes everyone a "Guten Abend."