mein Wochenende

It is now Sunday night, which means I have wrapped up my first weekend here in Bern. Saturday I went into town to shop because that is what everyone does on Saturday since the shops are closed on Sunday. There is also a big outdoor market, so downtown is very crowded. I found a big arts and crafts store, which made me happy, and I bought a memory card reader so that I can finally upload some photos (still working on that). I also found a movie theater in town. It only has one screen, but it is pretty big. The movie was expensive (16 Francs! Over $14), and you had to pay one extra Franc to have stadium seating. My ticket had a reserved seat number (odd), and then halfway through, they stopped the movie, showed a commercial for ice cream, and half the audience got up to buy ice cream before starting the movie again! The Swiss are weird. But, I got to see American Gangster in English, and the German and French subtitles were good for learning. For example, I now know the word for "gun" in German is Waffe.

Sunday, I did laundry in the morning. The washers here use very little water, so it takes at least one hour to wash one load of clothes, not including the dryer. Luckily, everything turned out OK, and hopefully my clothes are as clean as I believe they are. I didn't quite understand the diagram for loading the soap, but the little drawer was empty when I finished, so that leads me to believe I did it correctly.

The weather was very nice (chilly, but not a cloud in the sky), so I thought I would check out the small mountain in Bern (Gurten). I had to take the train into town, walk to a tram stop, take the tram to the bottom of the mountain, and then take a vernicular railway up to the top. I didn't think there would be many people there, but actually everyone in town with a child under the age of 12 was at that mountain today. Everyone was bringing sleds up to the top, even though there was only a couple inches of snow. At first, I saw a nice view of Bern from the top of the mountain. I followed everyone else to a spot where there was an incredible view of the mountains, especially because the weather was so clear. I took lots of pictures and will post them soon (I promise). Besides all the little kiddies sledding, there was also an awesome playground with snow-covered slides to sled down, and hills with mini-jumps to take the sleds over. It made me wish I grew up in Bern. I also found a tower with a spiral staircase that went up 4-5 floors (and definitely swayed in the wind at the top). It also had some awesome views. There were lots of little trails to explore, but I decided to save them for when people come to visit, and when I have on my snowboots and not tennis shoes.

Other than that, I started working in lab last week. It has been pretty boring so far, since I have just been watching a post-doc do his experiments. Hopefully this week I will be able to do some of my own. I have a whole room to myself, with a patch clamp setup and a brand new computer. Pretty nice.

I am starting German lessons on Tuesday night - luckily the University pays for international students to take language classes. I think I will be much happier when I know the language better. Right now I feel like a total alien, and it will be nice to not have to embarrass myself anymore by asking everyone to speak English.

I also found (via Facebook) some Americans in my dorm who are celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday and I asked to join in. I couldn't possibly miss a holiday based around sweet potatoes and green bean casserole. Hopefully I will also meet new people and maybe even make some friends!