Lab Outings and Hamburg Rituals

At 6 pm the girls in the lab spontaneously decide: we are all going for beers into the park, so thats what we do. (At the "Ise-Canal", 5 minutes by bicycle is a big lawn with an idyllic view of the water, families BBQing, kids running around naked, groups of families and working colleagues doing the same thing we do: drinking beer in the park on the lawn and enjoying a beautiful day ) Its amazing how one forgets to appreciate the beauty of sunny weather and blue sky in a place like San Diego. It's like having ice cream every day.

Today my technician, Alex, had his first day. Beer in the park, thats a good start as ending the first day. The whole afternoon I loaded the poor guy with all the details of my project, past and future work. He's probably still reading the papers I gave to him today as I am writing this (I feel bad) He was a bit exhausted/worn out in the end. Beer in the park is the ideal recovery plan. Actually, he got some good insight and already came up with some very good comments: the right guy for the job! And he drinks beer. ;-)

One special thing about Hamburg: warm summer evenings are considered "holy gifts from nature", and the thankful worshipping must be performed outside in the sun (its the north so sunset is late) "This is the Hamburg summer, enjoy it, it may be over tomorrow".

On the canal I see people standing on surfboards and paddling with a long paddle. Kevin (postdoc) comments: "see, Thomas you can go surfing in Hamburg! Standup paddling is very popular in Hawaii." (he went half a year ago). I am a bit jealous, since I wanted to go to Hawaii before I leave San Diego! Chances are I will never live that close to Hawaii again. (Japan? unlikely, but then, never say never!)