Lily Elsner

Ah, Germany!

Lily writes:
Ah Germany! The land of the old and the new.  As I stepped off of the plane on the real continent of Europe, I had to pinch myself.  I had to verify that the vision of five smiling faces and a bag of hot, fresh pretzels bobbing over a large sign reading "Welcome Roche Exchange Students!"  was not simply a result of approximately fifteen minutes of sleep the night before on the plane.  The first few days went by in a blur, meeting my host family, and getting acquainted with the village I am living in, Öschelbronn.  On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of our first week, Alice, Emily, Dr. Bhuvana, and I attended the Johanna Wittum Schule, a specialized high school for Biotechnology in Pforzheim, Germany.

In these classes, I have realized the universality of knowledge; no matter where in the world one travels, subject matter will not change, regardless of the language barrier I am currently struggling with.  Time and time again, I sat in astonishment, as I had been taught at GSSM nearly everything that the German teacher taught, and I was familiar with what the students studied.  Though we may not speak the same language, we can each draw a hydrocarbon chain, or determine the cosine of an angle, for example.

I also have been extremely impressed by the teaching ability of Dr. Bhuvana, who has accompanied us on our academic adventure in Deutschland.  In several of the classes, the German Chemistry/Biotechnology professor, Dr. Braun, who orchestrated the organization of this exchange, has asked Dr. Bhuvana to teach.  She grandly rises to the challenge every time, calmly explaining everything from epigenetics to the various structures of a protein at the German students’ request. 
However, learning has not only been in the academic area.  We have been able to enjoy many aspects of the German culture through many venues.  We often use public transportation, riding the bus and trains to get to school and around the area.  We eat at traditional German restaurants and at the homes our host families or their relatives’'.  We have enjoyed such regional specialties as Black Forest cake (or Schwarzwaelder Kirsch torte), asparagus, spaetzle (dumpling or noodle strips which can be made from scratch or bought dried from the supermarket, and cooked in various ways with different sauces, etc), schnitzel (a fried pork chop), bratwurst, maultaschen (pasta stuffed with meat and vegetables, said to have been made my monks trying to hide meat from the eyes of God, as they were not to eat meat every day), and such beverages as mineralwasser (sparkling water). 

We have visited such cultural landmarks as the town square of the city of Pforzheim, the monastery at Maulbronn (which we had to bike though rolling fields, up and down monster hills, through sun-baked strawberry fields, busy streets, and under a huge blue sky for about 15 km to reach), and on Saturday, a trip to the Palace of Karlsruhe.  We have simply been enjoying the wonder of living in a country so full of beauty, in the landscape, buildings, and even the personalities of the citizens.  However, we are thrilled to begin our research, and experience the scientific aspects of this spectacular experience.


Until next time,

Tschüß (So long, cheerio, bye, etc. in deutch)