For the Visually Impaired

See, there's my name.

das Umweltbundesamt

Here is my first publication as a professional chemist.

I had to take a screen shot because it was done in PowerPoint and wouldn't give me the option to save it as anything but .ppt or .hml. I may have been able to figure something out if this computer were not entirely in German. Not that I can't read the German, it's just I don't know what I'm looking for in English. So the picture is tiny, but you should be able to make out that my name is listed second (maybe if you squint...well just trust me). I photoshopped the diagram of the person and the three pictures of in lab stuff are mine! The data found in the graph are also (mostly) mine, although Anja made the graph. I contributed to the written stuff as well, but most of what I wrote got edited or changed by the head of the Department who did the final editing. He's the one who took the poster to Sweden back in May. I actually haven't seen the actual huge poster version, but I know it exits somewhere.

Currently in lab we have a new column for the GCMS (Gas Chromatograph, Mass Spectrometer) and the power went out which through something off during the calibration process, so we have to start over. So basically I do nothing but watch people move around really small, expensive objects, and type things into computers.

But mentally I'm still on the American college student schedule, so I've been on break for a month now. So doing nothing fits my plans nicely.

Wo ist die Toilette?

Ok, I understand that in Germany and a lot of Europe you have to pay to use public restrooms. (The musical Urinetown must not have the same affect in Europe.) I've actually only had to do this once my entire 6+ months here and that was this past weekend in the Dresden train station. It was 1 € which is ridiculous, but I had been holding it for the entire 2 hour car ride, so I was willing to part with it. But what I don't understand is the number of people who publicly urinate on Bismarkplatz. Today was the third time that I came upon someone releiving himself in the bushes around UBA. I thought Grunewald was the nice part of Berlin. Maybe it's foolish of me to translate 'nice part' into 'you won't see people peeing everywhere'. Today as I was biking into work, right as I turned past this group of three old ladies out walking their dogs, I was faced with a backpack, that was strapped to a man facing the bushes, legs slightly wider than shoulder width apart, and sure enough, graciously draining his kidneys on the lawn. I wanted to ask him if he was aware that it was 10:30 in the morning and that he was in plain view of the relatively heavy traffic, but I didn't want to miss my green light.

It did, however, conjure up memories of the other times I had stumbled upon other men in similar positions. The first time, I was legitimately frightened. This was in the pre-bike days, so I was leaving work and heading toward the S-bahn. I wasn't even off of UBA's property yet. I was beginning to pass through the small walkway as usual, when I stopped myself, and quickly changed directions because I spotted a man creepily standing half-in the bushes. I wasn't in the getting-abducted-by-a-strange-man mood, so I decided to steer clear of the situation. It dawned on me later what he was doing in there.

The second one was kind of my fault. I was going someplace besides home after work, so I was waiting for the bus on the other side of the street than usual. I had to wait like 8 minutes and it was a bit cold, so I decided to walk laps around the little sausage/coffee shack that was by the bus stop. I wasn't exactly walking on a road or really anywhere that would be heavily traveled. Sure enough, on my first time around there was a man peeing. This was the most embarrassing one, because he really was trying to be discreet and he picked a better spot than the creepy guy at the entrance of UBA. And I was just moseying around trying to stay warm. Apparently we were participating in a twisted version of hide-and-seek and neither of us knew it.

Bioverfügbarkeit von PBDEs in Hausstaub

I just did a presentation at work about our project. Since I've never actually explained what it is I'm doing, now seems like a good time. I'll to make this as quick and painless as I can.

First, a translation of the title of the this post, which was also the title of my presentation: Bio availability of PBDEs in house dust.

Now a translation of that title: PBDEs = polybrominated diphenyl ethers. They look like this:
And can have anywhere from 1 - 10 Bromines on them.

In the late 1970s manufactures began using them on household things like furniture, carpet, and electronics as a fire retardant. This was all well and good until scientists noticed a dramatic increase in the number of cases of feline hyperthyroidism. (Cats with thyroid problems) They did further studies (some involving women and breast milk) and found that it is indeed these PBDEs that are the culprit.

In addition to thyroid problems, they have also been found to cause neurological developement problems in children and they are endocrine-disrupting.

In 2004 the EU (European Union) banned the production and usage as flame retardant of penta and octa PBDEs (the ones with 5 and 8 bromines on them) and the US only had one manufacturer of PBDEs so they agreed to also stop making them. However PBDE 209, which is deca PBDE is still at large.

This deca PBDE can break down into several other different types of PBDEs in the human body.

If you having a dusty home, you can breathe easy (hehe). Inhalation isn't that big of a deal. The main exposure route for people getting PBDEs into their system is hand to mouth contact. As you may have already concluded, it's worse for children since they go around licking everything and putting lots of things in their mouth.

**I don't know how paranoid some of you get, but before you go around disinfecting like a mad man, please note that most furniture and carpet today doesn't use PDBEs.**

Right now I am working with dust samples from the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST 2585). We made synthetic salivia, stomach, and intestinal juices. We've sort of created an in lab digestive system. We put 1 gram of dust through this system and see what comes out. At the end we're left with around 0.6 g of the original 1. And we've determined that somewhere from 10-40% of the PBDEs originally present in the dust are absorbed into the digestive tract. We have plenty more samples to work with and we need to continue to refine the method. But that is the basic jist of my work.

Oh, and the state of Washington has also caught on: link

Deutschen sind pünktlich.

"Germans are punctual." This was what Taras (one of my tandempartners) said to me after I was 20 minutes late. (only he said it in German.) This is one aspect of German culture that I definitely did not inherit. I am habitually late. I was that way in college, and I continue to be that way here. At work it's not really an issue, because I'm pretty much on my own, and I don't have to punch in. I blame the U-bahn. The frequency with which it runs depends on the time of day as well as the day of the week. The U8, which is the line closest to my Wohnung, is usually a 10 minute wait between trains once you get passed 7pm or something. And, it's about a 10 minute walk door-to-station. Well, 10 minute American pace, probably about 6 minutes German pace. Germans don't always walk fast, but they certainly do when they have someplace to go. When George was showing me around the lab at UBA I had to basically jog to keep up with him. So it's sort of like walking around with R. Adam. But then, if they're just going for a walk or something, which we do if it's warm enough after lunch (kind of like Mom and her friends, only it's just once around the block) they walk very casually (i.e. slowly). By that's besides the point. So, the first time I met Taras I was 20 minutes late, because Paul was actually home the same time I was (which rarely happens) and we were talking about something while cleaning the kitchen. Before I knew it, it was 8, which was when I was supposed to be there. I wasn't too worried because it was only like 5 minutes away on the U-bahn. However, I forgot to account for walking to the U-bahn and waiting for it and then finding him once I got there. Luckily he wasn't mad though. I have yet to feel the wrath of a German. I've witnessed it from afar a few times. There was a shouting match on the U-bahn once and there was almost a hobo fight. But Taras was very nice and just said that next time he would show up a half an hour after the time we actually agreed to meet.

The bajillion Tandempartners have settled down to really only about 4. A couple of them I met once and never again, and then there are some that just kept getting canceled so we just kind of gave up. Now I have two that I meet once a week for a causual drink and conversation and then two that are more along the lines of actually hanging out with a little more frequently (both of those are men, go figure). Some things never change I guess.

There's also a lady I work with who is from East Germany and therefore never learned English in school. She's taking a class now, but she's 57 and the class is only twice a week, so it's really hard for her. So she trys to talk to me in English a little bit each day. She is really interested in America and dreams of visiting some day. I guess the stigma of the American Dream hasn't been destroyed for everyone. But she asks me so many questions about Pennsylvania and the sizes of different towns and how many kilometers away things are. In these meetings, I have discovered that I know nothing about facts like that. I have no idea how many people live in York, PA, although, I must admit, I have on several occasions made up some numbers on the spot. So, depending on which German you ask, York, PA has anywhere from 10-80,000 inhabitants. One would think I'd be a bit more consistant. But where's the fun in that?

I really don't understand why America can't just switch to the metric system. It would make things much easier. I asked someone how tall he was, and he gave me some answer in the hundreds. When Eva, (the lady I work with) asked how cold it gets in the winter where I'm from, I just tried to remember the coldest temperature I've seen on the Hanover Foods marquee that we pass on the way to church since it also has Celcius. And cooking is interesting, since I brought cookbooks from home and anything I look up online uses the English system. Since Paul stocked the kitchen, we don't have measuring cups we have Liter measuring things. Don't let the fact that he's English fool you. They also use the metric system. I often times blame him for coming up with the English system and for killing the Native Americans. And he makes fun of me for "mispronouncing" words. We have a nice relationship.

Hallo, Hier ist Maggie Berndt

Finally, I have something to do at work....after lunch. I was given more to read until then. I thought Germans were supposed to be efficient. Berlin is also known for being really laid back. So I guess this is them demonstrating that facet of their lifestyle.

I need to brush up on my German phone etiquette. We were having a meeting in my office (how cool does that sound?) when my phone rang. And, of course these are the days of caller ID, so the name and extention number of the caller appeared on the screen.

"I don't know this person," I'm pretty sure I actually said out loud to myself in English.
"Es ist Dessau. Es ist OK" Anja assured me, gesturing for me to pick it up.
And so I did.

I learned German phone etiquette, several times actually including last summer when we went over it quite a bit. But did I execute what I've learned? Of course not. In Germany, it's common procedure to answer the phone with your name, some people do just last and some do first and last. My host mom last summer always answered it: Klinkhammer (said in the same tone you or I would say hello [you know, kind of like a question]) and that was her last name. When I called Anja on Friday, she answered thusly: Hallo, Hier ist Anja whatever her last name is. I like that one. It sort combines the best of both worlds. Plus if I say just my last name people could get confused since Bernd(t) (with or without the 't') is a man's first name here.

So that's what I should have said. But, of course, I just said "Hallo." And then she of course said who she was (some lady from Dessau) and asked who I was. I just gave my first name (like she would have any idea who Maggie is) and she told me for whom she was calling (Frau something German sounding). I sounded confused, squinted at my phone list and didn't find anything that seemed to match. I think she could tell I was either new or American (probably both) so she graciously said something along the lines of "That's OK, thanks" and hung up to probably dial a different random extention where that person will actually just look up Frau something German sounding's extention in our system and help lady from Dessau out.

Now keep in mind, this was during a meeting in my office. So when I hung up, looking rather flustered, Anja was just sitting there laughing at me. She too, told me it was OK. So I guess it's OK. That's one way to learn.

Essen

Once I get a way to get the pictures off of my camera and onto the computer, I'll post some pictures of my apartment. Before I left, I was very adamant about Mom bringing my memory stick drive with her to Lehigh when I had thought I'd forgotten it, but as it turned out, I did have it. However, I forgot to transfer it from my band camp bag to my Germany bags and, ironically, sent it home with her. One of these days, I'll go buy myself another one. I also need to buy myself a jacket. Already, in September it's in the 50's and the 40's at night.

We have a small kitchen in the apartment with a gas stove and oven, and a very small refrigerator. And when I say gas stove, I don't mean like the one I had at Polk street, although that was a gas stove. This is one that you have to actually light with a match or a lighter. The first week I ate basically sandwiches, granola, and yogurt since those were the only thing I bought the first time I went to the grocery store. Grocery shopping is interesting in Germany. There are different types of stores. There are the one like Aldi that have most of what you need. But then they usually don't have good vegtables. For fresh vegtables, you go to a market and for bread, you go to a bakery. So after you've been to those three places, you've got what you need. I went grocery shopping the beginning of last week. I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to get. I guess three months of not cooking for myself got me out of the habbit of menu planning and I wasn't quite sure with the German stores would have to offer (I still haven't really figured out all the possibilites) I bought chicken breast and deli turkey, cheese (Gouda and Swiss), eggs, and vegetables that I would eat in the States. So it's essentially the exact same stuff I eat. The only things I miss are frozen vegetables (that way you don't have to eat them right away) and cheddar cheese. I did make some awesome stuffed mushrooms the other day. This was during the week Paul was really busy and I never saw him and it was also my first time using the oven. It took me forever to figure out where to light the thing. And then it took even longer (and a whole lot of matches) to succeed at lighting it. And I have no idea what the temperatures are on it because it's just numbered 1 through 8.

I only cook dinner. I eat lunch with my work folks in the Kantine on the first floor of the UBA. I get a discount for being an intern and it's pretty cheap to begin with. I've eaten all sorts of different stuff there.