Lab

I finally managed to take some pictures of the lab. This is Linda and the main two benches for molecular biology experiments. There're others for microbiology and EtBr gels and for lots of PCR machines...

This is where the computers are and Pan Ding:

The cell culture room: change your shoes before you enter! :)

The laminar flow looks just like the ones in Germany...

My desk:

Taichung

Last weekend I went to Taichung to visit Julia and An Chi. (They visited me in Heidelberg in September and Julia is the daughter of one of my parents friends - Julius. I think I've known here for a long time but when we were children we never could talk...)

During the evening we visited the night market, it was really big and so crowded that we got stuck for several minutes. But still I had lots of fun, I just love night market. I tasted the Taiwan speciality "stinky tofu". It really stinks but the taste is actually not that bad. But I think I would never buy it for myself... let's say it's interesting. :)

I also met Julias boyfriend Martin and Julias grandmother. She's a really cool lady, she's very active and likes to learn new things, so she even knows a few English words!
So here you see Julia, Martin, An Chi and Julias Granny.




The next day we visited the National Galery of Art, I really enjoyed this, the museum was very big and there was modern art of whole Asia. It reminded me of the Tate Museum in London, because there were many video rooms and big walk through art. And I found Asian artists are just as crazy and brilliant as European ones...




I came across another strange food. I don't know how to discribe the taste but it doesn't taste like it looks. It's actually quite good, not too sweet. Sometimes I find drinks here are just awfully sweet, I don't know how people can drink this...
So here's the picture of the strange dessert:

Tainan

I said earlier I visited some cities, so this entry is about Tainan. This city has many old buildings and lot's of temples. There is even some Dutch castle (because acutally Dutch people colonised Taiwan). I went there with my friends Yukiko and Kevin. Yukiko is from Japan but she probably will stay in Taiwan because Kevin is Taiwanese and she like's it here better anyway.

We visited an old German company house:


I spend Saturday with Yukiko and Kevin together and we visited the part where the dutch castle is, called Anping. In the evening Kevin had to leave but Yukiko and me stayed over night. She showed me all her favorite places in Tainan, so I think we actually circled around the whole city and saw mostly all attractions:






On Sunday evening some of Yukikos and Kevins friend got married and I could join them for the wedding party. It was really big and the food tasted great. I also got a chance to wear my fancy clothes. :)

at home

Some weeks ago we had a big Thanksgiving Party at our house and I cooked lots of spaghetti to feed everybody. Allthough most people already went home around 10pm, some friends of Tery and me stayed up till 3am.

These two are classmates of Tery, the left one's called Funny (I gave her the name because she's funny) and Ingrid.


We also drank some Taiwan beer which comes in big bottles:


And I introduced the German custom of "Brüderschaft trinken", which means to drink to a close friendship. By the way, that evening I got a chinese name:
Chan Kung Yi (speak Chan Kang I). Chan is the last name and it's the same last name as Tery's; I think it means old *smile*. Kung Yi means health and happiness. I didn't chose it because of the meaning, but because it sounds cool and I think it somehow fits.


Last Thursday Tery, Viola and me went to some barbeque / hot pot restaurant; all you can eat for only 300NT$ (about 6€). I think that would be really cool to have in Germany, especially some of Dominiks friends would enjoy this. Don't waste precious space by eating carbonhydrates, it's just meat, fish and vegetable (if you like).

Long time no see

Wow, it's already a month since my last entry... oops. :) Didn't have so much time to write, because I either spend my free time visiting some cities in Taiwan or writing the BTP report. But good news, at least for me: the report is finally finished and I feel like a free person again!!!

So, what have I been up to during the last few weeks?
First, I've been to Kaoshiung, the city where my parents used to live some 30 years ago.
There was a big temple opening festival one evening, everybody had tables outside to eat dinner together and afterwards there was a huge parade.
The next picture shows Monika, her Mum and me.





The next day we went to Zoying lake (no idea if that's the right spelling), a place I still remember from my childhood visits to Taiwan. There're big tunnels in the shape of tiger and dragon and you can walk through them and there's a zigzag bridge across some part of the lake.




Afterwards we also visited the Confucius Temple in Kaoshiung, it's a very beautiful place but actually nobody really uses the facilities, it's just for showing and maybe celebrating Confucius birthday once a year.