Update, Hamburg și alegeri...

It's been a while since my last post and that's mainly due to this nice organization that does a great job in keeping us knowledge thirsty predocs busy from dusk 'til dawn (not that that would be too difficult in the current winter light conditions in germany ;) trondheim was at least white)... Anyways, we're currently in the second half of the course and have recently returned from our outstation visit (EMBL has a couple of outstations in Monterotondo, Grenoble, Hamburg and EBI-Hinxton) in Hamburg (my first choice ;) ... in the end the best one).







Hamburg is a very special place, not at all like german cities as I know them (have to admit that I've only been in the southern half of Germany and that I've only spent a couple of days in Hamburg, mostly in restaurants, pubs and shops). First of all, it is a real city, with it's own life (quite different from the cosy peace in Heidelberg huh) and it's own often very special inhabitants... The Repeerbahn at 1 a.m. on a cold November Saturday is a site of its own :) All in all, there were some really fun days, under the constant supervision of the synchrotron (Petra III ;)) and protein crystals searching for their lost phase. We had rain, snow and lovely chilly sun (soare cu dinți), a lot of good food and wine, time to go out on Hamburg's streets and in it's pubs (life music evening with some incredible karaoke singing best one's i've heard for sure) and enjoy a gluehwein at the pre-christmas market...






Now I'm back again in shiny Heidelberg and a bit preoccupied about the Romanian elections business. Was trying to convince friends to join me for a voting session, but enthusiasm is definitely not the word to describe the general public's feeling about this event. Everybody in and out of Romania is so disappointed with the politicians and the countries administration that the "why bother" opinion has turned in to a "it doesn't matter anyways AT ALL"/"it's a complete waste of time"/"it's all a charade"/"it's only sand in the eyes"... Still, I guess the least I can do is cast a vote, especially now, when I can place the stamp on one person's name specifically. We will see what the outcome is ... Was thinking a bit about the trust-enthusiasm-naivety-joy issue with respect to elections, remembering American faces some weeks ago, seeing images of people standing for hours in the rain for casting their vote. I guess it's because they knew and believed that it does matter and I felt some admiration for the whole situation. A bit of trust, some enthusiasm, and especially somebody to trust is something to ask for in Romania... At least a maybe we can?

Or maybe not. Dedicatie muzicala...
(Pentru cei ce se hotarasc sa mearga la vot aici un link de filtrat candidati)