Meeting Jesus

So life has been a smidgen stressful lately due to causes partly my own and partly due to the financial crisis. Long story short, I found myself without a source of income for my internship at the end of February. Confident (or foolishly thinking) that I would be able to find free-lance English work on the side, I volunteered to remain at UBA so I could finish my project and publish two posters for international conventions.

And the English jobs did pop up quickly, only to fall-through one by one frustrating week after frustrating week. I've gotten very good at making my euro stretch and making the cheapest meals imaginable (I'm eating lentils and potatoes as I write this) but there was one thing that I relied heavily on: my bike. Riding my bike all around Berlin allows me to not have to pay for the U-bahn, ever. And while 2,10 might not seem like much, that's more than enough for 2 loaves of bread.

This Tuesday I was feeling particualrly low as my business English student that I thought was a gaurentee, said he had to cancel because he didn't have the money. To top it off I got a flat tire on the way to work; the same tire, for the third time. Not wanting to spend three and a half loaves of bread to take my bike on the S-bahn (you have to buy a ticket for the bike too) and since it was nice out, I decided to walk my broken bike home. I have a tire patch kit, so I could fix it and be back in business the next day.

So there I was, disheartened, pushing my pathetic little bicycle 10 km from UBA to my place in Wedding. I was about 6 km there when I passed a man talking on his cell phone. It sounded like he said something to me, and maybe he did, but I wasn't going to stop since it sounded akin to a cat call. But then my bike stops me. I look down and the rubber band thing that seems to serve no purpose other than cause problems that is also shoved inside the tire along with the innertube, had fallen out in some sections and managed to wrap itself around the gear thingy of the back tire. So much so that the tire would no longer turn. At this point I was pretty numb to crap happening in life, so I didn't throw a temper tantrum like I would if this were just one bad day in a sea of relatively normal ones.

What happened next was nothing out of the ordinary. The guy had ended his cell phone call, and walked over to me, asking if my bike was broken. Well, obviously. Ok, I didn't say that, I said 'Wie, bitte?' a lot. Which is 'What?' in English because his German was very hard to understand through his thick accent which I soon learned was Palestinian. Of course next came what always comes next when I have trouble understanding people: the guess my nationality game. Rarely does anyone guess American on the first try. I don't know why this is, and I'm not complaining. I like that I blend in. I think this guy guessed German, Polish and English before I told him I was American. So then he starts speaking English. Or attempting too. That was fun. He definitely wins the 'worst English I've heard' award. It would have been easier to communicate in German. But no, this guy insisted on speaking Deutschlish (combination of the two). He was telling me how much he would like to help me. Saying I should leave my bike locked up at his shop (he's a car mechanic) and he could give me a ride home...but only if I wasn't afraid. He could probably read the look of skeptism on my face (not that I was trying to hide it). But my skeptism came with good reason since he doesn't know me and is probaly somewhere in the neighborhood of 40. Plus he was obviously trying to impress me by talking about his big appartment and telling me I have a beautiful name. He said he could fix my bike for me, and I could come get it the next day. Well, I had no money to give this guy and every intent to fix it myself. So I told him that. And he insisted that I didn't have to pay, he just wanted to help.

If I could have pushed my bike, I would have simply walked away. But since the back tire wouldn't move anyway, and I was tired from walking 6km already plus the 3 or so I had to walk in the morning after my tire went flat, I thought, 'what else can I do?' and accepted his offer. It was only a short way home. Right before we reached my street he asked if I had eaten yet (it was about 7:30 pm). I sighed and said 'no'. I was hesitant because I wanted to get away from him as soon as possible simply because the less time one spends alone with a strange man the better, but I was also sick at the thought of going home and eating rice for the 3rd meal in a row. But then he says, 'I get you some chicken. You like chicken? You take it with you and eat at home.' and he pulls up to a place not far from my house. I was immediately relieved. I thought his asking if I had eaten was his ploy to get me to go to dinner and spend more time with him. But no, he simply pulled over to the side of the road, left the keys in the car and joked 'don't steal my car' before running in to buy a meal to go.

And as I sat in the car waiting for him to return, with aching feet and an empty stomach, I thought to myself; this is Jesus. I am meeting Jesus through this middle-aged Palestinian car mechanic who barely speaks English. I've taught campers every summer about how we experience God the most through other people. And it's not that I don't believe that, I do. It's just that unfortunately, this world we live in isn't full of people who want to help you without expecting something in return.

He dropped me off around the corner and went home to eat my feast.

I wish this was the nice happy ending, but unfortunately, my bike got stolen from outside his shop that night. So now I have no bike. But he apologized profusely and offered to buy me a new one, so I believe that Jesus didn't steal my bike.

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.

Hip Hip Hurray for All of Us!

On this Earth there are some seas,
And the forests filled with trees.
There are mountains up so high.
Above it all is the blue sky.
Different people everywhere;
Different voice, face, clothes, and hair.

And over in Africa having fun,
There lives a hippo that weighs a ton!
Hip-hip-hippopotamus
hip hip hurray for all of us!
hip hip hippopotamus
hip hip hurray for all of us!


After a few minor adjustments, this church camp favorite about God creating all of us, turns into a fun song about diversity. It fits nicely into a lesson on 'Animate Nature' right after you ask the kids' names and favorite animals, making sure to spend some time acting like each animal that gets mentioned.

On Thursday I went to the Prague, where I gave a demo lesson at Bumble Bee School of Creative Children. It's an English speaking preschool. The position they can offer me is that of a 'Free Time Specialist'. But in order to get the job, I had to do a demo lesson. Meaning I came into the school and did the theme lesson of the day. The entire month of March is focused on 'Animate Nature', so after the above mentioned acting like animals followed by hippo song, I then got out a map of the world and clip out pictures of animals that I had printed out from the internet, which probably violated some sort of copyright law. We went around talking about the different animals they had and where they lived, and then glued them on the map. Then they colored the map with the animals. Then we acted like trees and did the 'Goin' on a Bear Hunt' song/chant.

The entire time the head teacher and the director of the school were sitting in the back of the room silently watching (and judging) so of course, I'm simultaneously teaching and criticizing myself on how things are going. If you look at the website, it mentions often how they are a school that uses 'non-directive teaching' meaning, teachers are just there to give suggestions and let the full creative potential of the students blossom and blah blah blah. So I was trying not to be too directive, but at the same time, not lose control of these 10 screaming 5 year olds. At the end of the bear hunt song, I looked at my watch. I had been instructed to give about a 30 minute lesson. It had been about 30 minutes, but I also had two other things I could do if I needed to keep going. I then asked the director, "is that ok?" or something to that affect, I don't remember now, and she responded, "sure, just finish up however you want to". Well I didn't exactly have some sort of grand finale planned, so I just reviewed the two animals whose names they didn't know in English and said my goodbyes.

Off I went into a room with the director. "So, how do you think it went?" This woman is the queen of showing no emotion. I had no idea what she was thinking, so I began spewing all of the things that I had noticed were going wrong. Finally she stopped me and asked for positive remarks. And then said "I think it went great; a little long, but great." She was super impressed with my organizational skills and ability to control some of the out of control boys in the class. And was impressed with how quickly I picked up some of their names. (Of course the only ones I could pick up were David and Victor and the other ones that weren't ridiculously Czech sounding). But I apparently gave one of the best demo lessons she has ever seen. She seemed the most worried that I wasn't interested anymore (because some of those boys were really unruly).

The next step was taking 3 Psychological Assessment Tests to make sure I'm a good fit for the job. I finished those last night, so hopefully my motivation and priorities are a good fit to be a free time specialist. If all goes well, I'll have a job in Prague for next year, and can begin the long, tedious, Czech work visa process. Hip Hip Hurray!

Dein Konto ist abgelaufen

I haven't had a computer at work for the past 2 and a half days. Thankfully, it worked after lunch today. I got a glimpse of what my life would be like in this was 1995 again. It's not that I need to have access to a computer 24/7. In fact, I would be perfectly content without a computer (at work) if my job involved a little less waiting. I'll be the first to admit, sometimes I don't work quite as efficiently as I could when I'm on the computer. For example I'll wait on the computer for the GPC or Turbo Vap, or Collmn or Accelorated Solvent Extraction or you name it, it involves waiting, to be completed in its entirety before pre-rinsing the glasses for the next step or something. But this week I worked as efficiently as possible. I even started with the sedimentary extraction while the luqid one was finishing and I still had some rather long stretches of nothing to do. I cleaned my office, wrote a letter, and drew pictures. It's not that I need the internet so badly, but I couldn't even type up protocol or look at past results. I don't know how you folks from previous generations did it. Two and half days was enough for me.

Aschermittwoch

This year for lent I'm giving up the snooze button. My personal best(?) is 4 hours. Granted sometimes I'm overzealous about what time I think I'm going to get up so I can get stuff done in the mornings. Regardless, I'm hoping giving up the snooze button with force me to think about what time I need to be at work the next day, becaues now I use the method, 'eh, I'll get there when I get up.' And that doesn't really result in my getting to work before 10am ever. Granted my colleagues don't care and my work day is rather flexible, but getting there eariler would allow me to leave earlier meaning I can also stop being late for things like Blasorchester practice.

Along with giving up the snooze button, I'm going to try to not be late to anything. Even if I get up on the first buzz, I sometimes still sit around (usually on the computer) and end up leaving the house significantly later than I had originally planned. And I have a problem underestimating the time it will take me to get places.

Of course, I'm off to a great start considering I hit snooze twice this morning. But I didn't think of until the ride to work this morning. So now the big test will be whether or not I'm late to practice tonight.

Fahrradsicherheit

You haven't heard many bike-tales from me lately not because I'm getting the hang of finding my way around Berlin, or that I've learned how to safely maneuver around curbs and pedestrians, but because once again I got a flat tire...and it's been cold. Also, the two weeks that Monika and Dieter were on vacation, Dieter gave me his Monatskarte so I could ride the subway for free. And since it was January and therefore pretty cold, I took advantage of it. But this time instead of paying 20 euro to have some guy put in a new tube, I bought a repair kit and Miki fixed it for me.

And if fixing bike tires isn't reason enough to love him, hopefully this next bit will win your approval.

Fahrradsicherheit = bicycle safety

Before I blew out my tire again, I was biking to work from Monika and Dieter's (which is less than 4 km away; a nice break from the normal 10+) so that Miki could have the run of the city while I was at work. During this small window of time, my lights officially ceased to function. The front one had been working on and off for about a month, and the back light never worked. This was unacceptable to Miki. My lack of helmet was also unacceptable. When we were in Kaufland buying a water cooker to replace the one I melted, (that's a great story) we looked for bike lights. The lights he had in mind weren't there, but there were helmets. Despite my childish protests about it 'not being cool', Miki clearly wasn't leaving until I picked one out. The next morning he got up and made sure I went to the bike store to buy lights before I went to work (so that I would have them for the ride home). Oh, and he also reminded me to wear my helmet when I 'forgot' it on the way out. I had to borrow 5 euro from him to pay for the lights since they were more expensive than I had expected and the Fahrrad shop doesn't take Visa. When I tried to pay him back he turned it down and said "Consider it my contribution to your Fahrradsicherheit."

So Mom, I have a helmet now! I continue to wear it regularly; it's not as uncool as I originally thought.

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