Learning to drive on the left side...

Today was the first day I got on my cycle and sailed away through the cozy streets of Cambridge without stressing about cars passing by on my right side. It felt right, just as right as when I was confidently clocking though a roundabout this morning. Cycles are great, however punts may be even better on a sunny afternoon...


On the other hand, Cambridge is 800 years old, and I have only known it for 2 weeks now. So how right should I be allowed to feel? Signs all over the place remind you of your humble status (from the omnipresent "Don't step on the grass" one to more serious warnings), however the mind gets inspiring inputs from all dark college corners, and it seems that every stone rays creativity.


And just to prove that, as a whole year of celebrations was inaugurated last Saturday, a fancy lights show reminded us of all the discoveries and discoverers that once watched students cycling on the left side of good old Cambridge lanes and maybe had a look at American tourists punting under the mathematical bridge. Just like the other hundreds of people gathered in front of King's that evening (gura-casca), we kept clicking our camera's button for storing a second of greatness in our virtual not Ginko dependent memory... And maybe just like tens of people, we went for a glass of wine and ended up talking about the world and the word in the shadow of empty bottles...





Same people, different story...
Sunday morning... London no.1: the map, the tube, Sushi, shopping, walking, gazing, pictures (my camera goes out of battery before we come to the sightseeing part), Chinese dinner double-deckers, taxis, Leo fans, just life... Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar square, Tower of London, Tower of London!, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, ... - just like in my English lesson exercise in the 6th grade, maybe I still have the tape if I search for it (?deep in my mind, where's the Ginko? - ups, I find random things: "Shut the windows, ce...")... Well that was it for "Paris, je t'aime", I really loved London! Hope we'll meet again soon...

Cadre din Cambridge...

Imagini ce s-au furișat șmecherește în memoria aparatului foto...



Images that crept quietly into my camera one of these days...

2009?

Ok, I must admit that this was a very long blogging break, but it's also been a lot of traveling in a short time, with many great sights, with very dear old and new friends, as well as family, a bunch of happy moments and of positive feelings that make me smile when I'm looking back. Now I'm not going to describe the last days in Heidelberg (out of control greek gods party ;) + missing final course evaluation, some good skiing in Feldberg, Schwarzwald, saying good-bye to everybody, packing again, Christmas markets and Gluehwein, way back to Romania), nor the lovely white Christmas in Arieseni (check out the picasa pics for some great sights, a lot of snow + the incredible amount of people on the unique piste in Vartop - the 26th of December was the apogee of it all) and not even the skiing week in Bad Gastein (best weather ever, plenty of snow, speeeeding down the slopes, great New Year's party). I've been a week in Cambridge now and discovered that I'm extremely short of time, so my thoughts for the year to come:
- drink black tea in earlier mornings
- make time listen to me instead of being time's slave
- increase work productivity and not time
- don't misbehave too badly, if the case let it be a cute way
- take it easier on the beer (switch to wine?)
- get lost in London at least once
- read, watch, listen, ask and learn
- photograph 100 sheep
- speak french
- climb rocks no matter how unappropriated the current surroundings
- visit at least 5 friends before the end of the ear, keep in touch with dear ones that I don't manage to see
- add a point to this list daily until the 20th of January
- blog at least twice a month ;)
As I've already made some substantial progress on this last point, I believe that all these things are doable, provided a tiny bit of good will is there. And it is for now. I'll just attach a visual flavor of the winter vacation I was talking about earlier.


ARIESENI







BAD GASTEIN






Wish you a great 2009, with all the improvements you're looking for!!!

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)

9b???

Was just reading about what Chris Sharma has been up to lately... What about an expression profiling experiment, there must be some upregulated genes there?! Jumbo love...

À cette epoque les élans mangent des pommes pourries et sont bourrés...

...et il y en a qui meurent noyés dans les lacs à cause de ca...

Deutscher Herbst - Indian Summer

Golden October days in the cosy streets of Heidelberg, my new home for the next three months; enjoying my old-new bike, habits and friends :) Good old Germany, dressed up in its finest autumn clothes...