Off ice, but out of the country

Hello again.

So I was back in Seattle for a few months for Spring Quarter at the University of Washington, but am now in Leipzig, Germany as a research intern at the Helmholtz Umweltforschungszentrum (Environmental Research Center). The project I'm working on is investigating possible remediation (read: cleaning-upping) of a former industrial site nearby which has been contaminated with chloroethenes (read: nasty stuff) due to the shady environmental regulations under the former Communist government. I just started this week, so I'm not too deep into the actual research yet, but the literature and what I've done thus far is pretty engaging.

My German is conversational at best, so being here has been a great exercise in getting my point across while circumventing the use of words I do not know auf Deutsch. I've managed to get the landlord to fix the bathroom light, though, which bodes well.

I'll be posting the first batch of photos later on tonight now that I've got ye olde information superhighway up and running here at my flat and have nothing more productive to do because I am sick. Every time I board an airplane there seems to be someone waiting for me with my next cold. Ick.

The photos, as usual, are here.

I also made a YouTube account so I can post neat videos. So far the only thing exciting enough to warrant this treatment has been the coffee machine at work. I'm moving on up in the world of technology.