My stay in Leipzig has included a lot of “Firsts”.
The first of hopefully many German stays.
The first time I have been able to bike to work everyday.
The first time meeting Dirk, one of my supervisors three .
The first time extracting using kits NucleoSpin Soil and DNeasy.
The first time performing Bsal and Ranavirus qPCR runs.
The first time walking down a street and not being able to understand anyone.
The first time eating cake daily for two months in a row.
The first time trudging across campus carrying a box full of samples in the snow.
The first time using a coal oven in the absence of central heating.
The first time using a FastPrep machine to give my samples a good beating.
The first time meeting my fellow P3 students Oliver, Judit, and Marilen.
The first time burning myself on said coal oven.
The first time living completely alone.
This trip is a first of many of my thesis project’s milestones.
And a celebratory cheers (Prost!) goes out to the many other firsts I have experienced in Leipzig then and again.
But now it’s time to go back to San Francisco, so to everyone at UFZ…
Auf Wiedersehen!