Microscopy, Camping, Driving!

Dear readers, I haven't forgotten about you. Needless to say, things have been busy and I've not had an opportunity for proper updation until now.

Last weekend was happily spent camping in the Vierwaldstättersee region, near Lucerne. I have uploaded many photos of the incredible views, although none of the pictures really do the experience justice. We hiked to Rigi, not the tallest point but a nice hike nonetheless. Almost 5,500 ft. It was a very hot day, so much sweating ensued. Also, I sunburnt the backs of my legs for the first time ever. It would appear that I am not invincible. Camping was a lot of fun, and it was my first ever actual camping site experience! I really enjoyed it, the atmosphere was fantastic. I have been camping before, but it's been a while. I look forward to the next time.

Since we were so near to Lucerne (or Luzern as it is in German), we took a trip there to see the city, and completely unexpectedly we arrived in the midst of the Jodlefest!! I totally forgot yodeling was a Swiss thing. There were hundreds of people dressed in their special traditional clothes and walking through the city we came across Alp Horn players and table-fulls of people breaking into song. I'll upload a video of said song-breaking to Flickr. I'm afraid you'll just have to scroll through the pages of photos to see the new ones.

Upon returning to Villigen, work this week began slowly. I felt I had no knowledge of the new stuff I have been learning about and was truly bummed out. This lasted just two or three days though, and I am now back on form and definitely know more than I did! Every day as I ask more questions and learn more I get more and more excited about the work. It's fantastic, and the website I mentioned is well underway. This week I took pictures of mystery cells with a light microscope, and said cells were undergoing x-ray diffraction scanning when I left work on Friday. Also, I learned about magnetosomes...! We tried to take some light microscope pictures of them too, but they are pretty small. These bacteria have magnetic crystals inside them and align themselves with the magnetic poles. Cool creatures, I thought. The idea behind taking light microscope pictures by the way, is to see if we can find the cells and if the specimens are good enough candidates for x-ray microscopy.

I have now been to an IAESTE meeting in Zurich.. almost! On Thursday I went with two friends to meet some fellow IAESTE students, and together we would go to the main meeting - but it didn't appear to be on as the meeting bar was closed for a private function. Still, the small group that we had went elsewhere for a beer (Miller... I think I dislike American beer), and it was great to meet some more people. I have signed myself up for the IAESTE weekend away to Bern next weekend, and on Thursday there's a barbecue in Zurich.

Friday evening (yesterday) was actually spent in Zurich too. This last picture was taken in Zurich. Bennie and I went to have some dinner and to see if we could find the Caliente festival. We decided not to find it after all, but enjoyed the cool evening by the river nonetheless. Today has been relaxing, much needed. We planned a "quick morning trip" to Germany to do some food shopping, but didn't actually go until lunchtime. After that I had a spontaneous driving lesson around the carpark of PSI :-D I am not so bad... but still not roadworthy. Unlike Marie who has passed her driving test!! :)

I haven't many fun anecdotes to share, but now at least you have updation. Oh, by accident I discovered that I can upload videos to Flickr (where all my photos are) so you can find some of the sights and sounds in the album now too! I am still in the process of uploading so check back soon.