Week 8: Gothic Towns

This week I actually started RNA isolation! After so much preparation, we finally did it, and it went pretty smoothly. Since it was my PhD student’s first time doing it as well, we had no idea what to expect and how much RNase contamination was even likely, so we took every precaution – doubling up on gloves and changing them often, cleaning everything in sight first with ethanol and then with the RNase away reagent, and working under the decontamination hood. When we finished, we ran some samples in a gel electrophoresis to examine the integrity and uses spectroscopy to determine the purity and concentration, and all our test yielded positive results!

My flatmates and some of the other Erlangen interns also went to the lake a few afternoons this week. Since it is so close, why not go? We brought some disposable picnic grills and cooked some burgers and hot dogs, swam accross the lake a few times, and just hung out around the fire (and drank a few beers of course). A perfect end to a work day, in my opinion!

Then over the weekend, a few of the other interns and I took day trips to some small, close-by German cities. On Saturday, we saw Rothemburg, a cute, yet tourist filled Gothic town. It had an old wall surrounding its boundaries that you could easily imagine being filled with knights looking out through the peep holes for possible attackers, but now provides a view of the vineyards and green hills surrounding the town. Within the walls, tight cobble stone streets with colorful shops on either side and hundreds of tourists filled the town. On Sunday, we took a train to Regensburg, a delightful town with a lively atmosphere. Local musicians played along the streets, vendors sold souvaniers and local delights, and in the center of town, bigger jazz artists came from other cities and performed free concerts (supposedly it was “Jazz Weekend” there). In terms of sites in Regensburg, much of the city was similar to Rothemberg, with the cute Gothic buildings and skinny cobelstone streets, however, there was also a magnificant Cathedral to see and the Danube River runs through the city! Plus Regensburg is a bit larger, it being the fourth largest city in Bavaria, following Munich, Nuremberg, and Augsburg. Anyways, it was another great weekend, and one that I was able to take many photos: