Oberstdorf

During my two-week vacation in Germany I spend a wonderful couple of days at my grandmother's place together with Klaus.
We had sunshine and a lot of snow all the time - ideal for long walks in the beautiful mountain region. And of course we spent a lot of time together with my grandmother playing cards and enjoying her cooking skills ;-)

Vierschanzen-Tournee

For the first time in my life I did not only spend the day of the first ski jumping event of the Vierschanzen-Tournee in Oberstdorf, but saw the event in person in the stadium together with 22 000 fans.
Even if no German won, it was an overwhelming experience and definitely worth spending a whole afternoon with -10 ℃ (10 ℉) outside. Martin Schmitt won the 5th place and two other Germans made it among the best 10! What a result after a couple of years with no German in the Ski jumping world elite.

Alicante

It is cold cold cold cold.....
but besides that my 4-months stay in Alicante started well.



My new university.....

and the hospital in San Juan, a small town 4km north of Alicante where I undertake my internship in Internal Medicine.

Sometimes I terribly miss Boston and I also miss my family and friends in Germany, since Alicante is so much closer to Germany than Boston, but I still cannot be there.
But life has to go on.....

Good-Bye Boston II

My time in Boston, finally 15 months, was one of the most wonderful experiences in my life. Not only because I like the city, but also because I found people who became very good and close friends. Now I do not really feel prepared for a life after Boston, right now I feel more like going on a vacation to come back in a couple of weeks.
Good-bye Boston, good-bye all of you.... Thanks for a wonderful time. I'll miss you.
Hopefully see you soon.

Chicago Sightseeing

The last day of my stay in Chicago was reserved for sightseeing, but the temperature shortened my tour significantly. After a wonderful walk along the lake I couldn't feel my hands and the little uncovered part of my face anymore.

Chicago

Chicago Skyline: view from McCormick Conference Center


On top of the world: Sears Tower - the third highest building in the world.


Chicago by night - seen from the apartment building where Johanna and Felix live.

Johanna and Felix, thank you so much for your overwhelming hospitality. I often felt lost during the conference, but knowing to come "home" and have friends to talk to helped me over the worst moments.

Big, bigger, RSNA

During my last week in the US it was time for the highlight of my research year: the Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago, with nearly 70000 visitors the biggest conference for medical professionals in the world.


On Tuesday I walked in the entrance hall and was overwhelmed - a huge complex of five buildings, crowed with thousands of very professional looking people. I felt lost and sometimes I wished that some nice person came to pick me up at the "lost and found" counter where I seemed to belong best as maybe the youngest participant.




Two of my abstracts got accepted and I was scheduled to present them on Wednesday and Thursday in front of an audience that might be as big as a couple of hundred people.
In the end it weren't that many, but still I was very nervous and super happy and relieved when it was over successfully.

Happy End Part I

Minutes before I left to go to the airport and fly to Chicago for my first conference, I received an even more important email.

THE ACCEPTANCE OF MY FIRST PAPER AS FIRST AUTHOR!!!!

And not in some small journal, but one of the highest rated in the radiology world: American Journal of Roentgenology


All the work especially since summer, all the disappointments I experienced during my year in Boston were more than worth it.

Good-Bye Boston I

Thanks to all of you for saying good-bye and enjoying pancakes together with me for the last time.
And like you know - it is more a "see you" than a "good bye". I'll come back to Boston for a conference during the last week of April 2009.

Thanksgiving

This year I didn't have turkey, this year it was more like a preparation for my upcoming stay in Spain.
I was invited together with a couple of other friends by Roberto to spend lunch together. He prepared a delicious Paella - and you won't believe it - I ate all the seafood it contained. And it was a lot of different animals!

Asterix ganz groß!

Es ist da, es ist da!
Nachdem zum ersten Mal in der ganzen Odyssee die Uni eingeräumt hat, eigene Fehler gemacht zu haben und den Zettel verloren zu haben, hielt ich die Chance, dass er wieder auftaucht, für fast 0.
Doch nun, siehe da, er tauchte wieder auf.

Vielen Dank, Johannes, für dein unermüdliches Behördengerenne in meinem Namen in Tübingen!
Und vielen Dank, Klaus, für deine so liebevolle Unterstützung und v.a. für die tatkräftige Mithilfe bei der Email, die der Suche im Dekanat ganz offensichtlich ziemlich auf die Sprünge half!

Asterix und Obelix - ein Horrorcomic

Asterix und Obelix Teil 3 (oder war es 4 oder 5???)
oder Das Schwarze Loch Uni Tübingen

Zum wiederholten Mal brauche ich eine Unterschrift meiner Universität in Deutschland. Noch nie hat es komplikationslos funktioniert, doch die heutige Geschichte sprengt einfach alle Dimensionen.

Mein PJ-Tertial in Spanien - beginnend in zwei Wochen, alle Flüge bereits gebucht - ist in akuter Gefahr.....
weil ein Zettel, den die spanische Uni vor einem halben Jahr an meine deutsche Uni geschickt hat, leider auf irgendeinem Schreibtisch in dem ach so organisierten Studiendekanat verschuett gegangen ist.

Ohne diesen Zettel (das Agreement, das von mir, der deutschen und der spanischen Uni im Original unterschrieben werden musste und die Postreise Boston - Tübingen - Alicante überstanden hatte) kann ich mich nicht in Spanien einschreiben. Ohne Einschreibung keine Unterschrift auf einer der PJ-Bescheinigungen, ohne PJ-Bescheinigung keine Äquivalenzbescheinigung vom Landesprüfungsamt Baden-Württemberg, ohne Äquivalenzbescheinigung keine Anerkennung des PJ-Tertials, ohne Annerkennung des PJ-Tertials keine Zulassung zum Staatsexamen.....

Morgen ist Krisensitzung in Tübingen. Die Verantwortlichen versuchen zu organisieren, was denn mit der armen zettellosen Medizinstudentin Nummer 3106257 passieren soll.....
Irgendwelche Vorschläge????

Work II

Today was a day of wonderful news that I received by email - or better by multiple emails.
I received the following one twice:

That means I will visit wonderful Vienna in March and present two abstracts on my PhD thesis at the European Congress of Radiology. And I am still waiting for the notification on two other abstracts.
And I received this email even four times:

That means if I can collect enough money to afford both trips I will come back to Boston end of April next year for the Annual Meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society.

Freezing cold

Exactly two weeks ago the cold trouble started: On a Friday evening, right when I desperately needed a shower in order to prepare for my concert at Sanders Theater, I realized that there was no hot water. And unfortunately this situation stayed like this over the whole weekend until Tuesday. Even worse, the boiler in the basement leaked, setting the washing machine in a big deep puddle of water. Thanks to Veena I could enjoy a hot shower on Monday at her place, after I nearly collapsed under repeated cold showers that I couldn't avoid due to my concerts.

But it got even worse: This Tuesday coming home from work earlier than 10pm for the first time in a couple of days, it was freezing cold in my room - the heat now didn't work. I went back to my cosy warm windowless office at Mass General Hospital and kept working until bedtime. Yesterday we got it fixed, but unfortunately today (when I again came home earlier than 10pm for the first time since Tuesday) it again doesn't work. Now I tried to further insulate my windows with blankets and curtains, but it does not help too much. What a luck that I already planned on visiting Linda und Ralph again tomorrow for two days!

Work

Preparations for my first conference...... maybe this presentation was even more challenging than the true one in Chicago in two weeks. Even if it was only a "rehearsal", a couple of important people came - like my supervisor, some other attendings and the head of department.
But everything went perfectly well, I got a lot of compliments and also some very good comments on how to further improve my talk and interesting questions. Although I could not answer all of them, I now know what further results of my work I have to look up again and memmorize.

Besides that I try to finish as many projects as possible before I leave:
- inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. After looking at hundreds of patients I now try to write up the paper within the next two weeks.
- volume measurements: this project was so challenging for my laptop that it needed a little outside help from a new extended work memory. This project also only needs to be written up during the upcoming days.
- renal cancer: a project just started a few days ago, now already on the home stretch. But the most difficult thing is about to come - the time of my supervisor to proofread images.
- and the very last: my contribution on a book chapter dealing with the highlight of MGH radiology research - ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide

A lot to do for only a couple of days....

New Hampshire - the last (for this year)

I spent two last beautiful weekends in New Hampshire together with Linda and Ralph, friends that got so close during my stay in the US. They were the first I met on the plane which carried me to Boston more than a year ago and together with them I spent wonderful time in the woods and on the lakes of New England.
Besides we had interesting conversations and they gave me the feeling that I found a second family on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Yes, he can!

The dream of millions of Americans came true!

(images from National Post and New York Times)

Hochrechnungen

CNN 9.30pm Eastern Time
CNN 10.30pm Eastern Time
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CNN 11.30pm Eastern Time
Final Result Nov 17th



270 Votes are necessary to become the New President of the United States