How I got to the beer

A number of months ago I was looking for a internship in biomedical engineering. Having only completed two years of college and with no experience in the field, internships were not particularly easy to come by. Add to this my desire to stay in the Bay Area for the summer and my options were very limited. Figuring that I would try to use all available networking opportunities I posted to Facebook that I was looking for an internship. Low and behold it worked, but not quite where I had expected.

Our family friend Ossi sent me a message asking if I would be interested in interning in his lab in Freiburg, Germany testing biomaterials. After discussing this idea it was decided that this is how I would spend my summer.

So tickets were bought, plans were made, bags were packed (eventually) and on the evening of July 2nd I was delivered to San Fransisco to attempt to make my way to Freiburg where I would be met by one of my hosts. After checking in, mother and I spent a delightful few minutes stalling by looking at antique German china that I couldn't differentiate from plates from a garage sale. She then sent me away and next thing I knew I was on the plane on the way to Germany. I had a very enjoyable flight that included dinner just after takeoff. a roll with something resembling meat and a slice of plastic and yogurt posing as breakfast just before landing, but by the time I disembarked I had already missed out on lunch.

I then meandered towards the train station. After negotiating the ticket machine which seemed to want to know everything about my plan for the train ride right down to how many trips to the WC I'd need, it gave me a ticket and I continued to the proper platform and settled in. A bit before 15:54, the arrival time, my train's information showed up on the display board and by 15:56 the information from the next train had replaced it. Now if I had been on the train I would not have known when it's information would have disappeared but of course the train did not show up. The next train came and went as did the one after that. Being somewhat worried that I had misunderstood the German train system I did what any logical person would do when his train does not show up, I continued sitting there. My train did show up however, a mere half hour later and I along with the rest of Germany squeezed on to the train. Immediately numerous laptops were opened and connected to the train's wifi to attempt to watch Germany destroy Argentina. Despite the miserable connection due to so many people trying to stream the game, I was able to at least keep up with the score thanks to the conductor announcing the score frequently over the loudspeaker.

After a fast (upwards of 250 km/hr) train ride I arrived in Freiburg and was greeted by Claudia. As we drove towards Merdingen, all of Germany was out in the streets yelling, honking horns, and generally celebrating the utter destruction of Argentina. When we finally reached the house, I was greeted much to Claudia's chagrin with the bier that I had traveled so far to get to. And that is how I got to the bier.