Montréal - Gibeau Orange Julip and Unity Club - Just Dance!

Bonjour and au revoir Montréal.

Four weeks have passed and I will go home tonight. The last weekend was a blast. All my friends made some free time to say goodbye to me, but I guess the must sad moment was, when Nicolas and me said goodbye after having the most amazing party night in Montréal.

You can tell, that he was not amused kkk

Redpath Museum - McGill

Bonjour, 

as teased in the last post Bryan and me went to the Redpath Museum at McGill university. For students, as we are, is the entrance fee 0 CAD... After visiting I knew the reason haha....

Just an unregular Montréal Week!

Bonjour,

last week was super busy with wrapping up every experiment and every evaluation in Montréal. Poking went well, stainings went well, evaluation went well, furthermore I prepared all graphs, statistics and tables for the stuff I did here in Canada.

After all the work, I celebrated while having two Tim Horton Donuts and a XL Coffee on my sofa, but before doing so....

Neighbors are good to a walk, and Curry!

Bonjour, 

last Sunday, or actually I was feeling like going for a walk, yes we all grow up.

The weather was cold, but still amazing. So I asked my neighbor Cyrille to join and we made our way down to the old port and the old part of Montréal. 

 We talked about the reasons, why we moved to Montréal, about the pros and cons for the city and how it is to live abroad. It was nice to discuss with another European about the situation. Missing the feeling you get, while walking through Europe-style-streets....The old part of Montréal is still influenced by the early settlers. Equals, it feels like home. 

 Of course we stopped by the city hall.

 to get a nice view of Montréal.

 Temperature-wise we were forced to find shelter in a unbelievable stylish Café. OMG!

Yes, you got it... that's the entrance door...

 We went to CREW and I was not less than impressed by the location. 

 I guess on Friday I will grab my MacBook and go to CREW for work. 

 Some days later we saw each other again and went to Bighi Curry. I had Japanese style Curry....It was very similar to the Curry I had last year in Okinawa, so they get the Authentic-Taste-Medal. Actually, for the drinks I was biased. They had a Bloody Kim... Bloody Mary with Kimchi add on... Cyrille just ordered and was a little disappointed. I liked the idea of the drink in the end (But mine was still better, it had Kraken-Rum)!

While discussing the Marvel Universe (John, I did my best) I was mesmerized by this crazy painting...poor lady!

Casino Royal en Montréal

Bonjour,

todays night I went out with Nicolas for some cool stuff. We met at Berris to get to the Casino. Just one subway station apart the direct connection bus branded with the lucky number 777 was waiting for us. By the way the bus to the airport has the identification number 747, like the Boeing....

Easter Weekend - Inclusive an exclusive Easter-Egg-Hunt!

Bonjour,

this weekend was supposed to be a short holiday in Quebec. The whole hospital got 4 days off. Meaning...leaving Thursday evening, going back to work on Tuesday morning... guess what.. exchange students are not included in this equation. I feel like running out of time, and even after canceling my intentions to write on my thesis it feels like a work-marathon to get everything done before leaving Montréal. After the whole day at the lab, where I was doing great stuff, like cell poking, cell seedings, siRNA knockdowns, data evaluation and working on a coolio-protocolio I was taken to a very special Easter-Egg-Hunt. 

Montréal - L'amour Toujours

Bonjour,

Sunday evening 8:45 pm and the weekend is not done yet. I am not sure if I am happy or sad about the fact, that I have to work late today... progress vs the weekend feeling... Anyway, it was an amazing weekend and it feels, like I had tons of free time, but in fact I worked Friday about 13 hours, yesterday 4 h and I will start working on some evaluations later tonight. Putting a name on it: it was a zero recovery weekend.

Friday night I was out with some coworkers for beer and burgers. It was amazing to see, that PhD's/Postdocs in research share the same passion / curiosity and struggles around the world. 

Déjà Vu - Montréal Part Twó

Bonjour,

je visite Monreal....de nouveau!

Seoul - City Impressions

Anyong,

after spending a few days in SouthKoreas capital - Seoul - there is material for 5 independent blog entries.

The fact, that I am again back to Berlin makes it a little difficult to keep up in the time line. I decided to put all the city impressions we got in one post. Mostly there are no words to describe, because it has been such an adventure!

We lived directly in Myeong-dong, which is located in the heart of Seoul. 

Cheonggyecheon River was flowing on our doorstep. It has been amazing for jogging and of course for enjoying the late evenings.

Seoul - A City full of friends

Anyong,

during the few days we spent in Seoul we have been able to meet up with Stephano and Ben for dinner.

Gyeongbokgung Palace - 경복궁 The Original Way!

Anyong, 

finally we arrived in Seoul! With a BIG BANG!

Zamami - Jima - Best Of / Take outs

Moshi Moshi, 

one last time I will brag about how beautiful Zamami Island is and what an amazing time we had in the very south of Japan. 

Kahi Island - We found another paradise

Moshi Moshi,

today was our last day in Zamami. Therefore we thought about chartering a water-taxi to go to another island. The one I always talked about, when showing pictures of this group of islands. It was the best idea ever! We entered the boat at 12 and stayed 4 hours on Kahi Island. A place, where no humans life and where seriously for 2 hours we were alone. We just saw a few divers in the ocean. It was our paradise for one day. 

Stand up Paddling - Yuhina Beach

Moshi Moshi, 

STAND UP PADDLE BOARDING TIME!

Zamami Island - So green!

Moshi Moshi, 

yesterday Elisa, Natalia and me went for a small hike... turned out to take 4 hours.  As we decided John immediately announced, that he will stay in the ice cold, air conditioned room to have some alone time...fair enough. 

Actually we wanted to go hiking, because the weather was not the greatest. Still hot and humid, but very cloudy. Just grey skies. We went to 4 observation points on the westcoast and went then back to the main village, close to the port. We found out, that there are only 946 people living on this island. So less.

Ama Beach - Turtle Paradise

Moshi Moshi もしもし,

yesterday in the evening we went to the next beach of this heavenly island. Ama Beach. This one was very nice for watching the sunset, but also for watching turtles weeding seagrass. We went snorkeling for about 30 min, until Elisa found the first.... and only turtle of the evening. For Natalia, John and me it was the first sea turtle to see in it's natural habitat ever.

Furuzamami Beach - Zamami Island, Okinawa, Japan

もしもし Moshi Moshi, 

Yesterday we arrived on Zamami Island. Yes, it is as expected as it was! Some dreams come true on this breathtaking island. We found one of the most amazing beaches I have been to in my travel life. 

Busan - Seoul - Okinawa - Naha - Zamami

Anyong,  Moshi Moshi,

it is time go to to Japan!

Relax, take it easy - Farewell days

Anyong,

today was really relaxing day. After drinking with Kelly last night we slept long till midday. 

Then I just left for meeting Dawoon, already saying goodbye...lunch and coffee time. 

Seokbulsa Temple & Korean food parade

Anyong,

today Elisa, Natalia,  John and me went to Seokbulsa temple. For me and Elisa it has been the second time to visit that place, but still it was an adventure. Later that night we had dinner with Kelly, it has been amazing!

We slept pretty long today and left home around 12:30 pm. We got again, like every day a coffee from "The Liter" - yes, every morning 1 liter of Coffee Latte, iced! I love it! And some breakfast for sure!

Leaving Seomyeon for Mandeok station around 1 pm was maybe a little late, but still we did as we planned.

Arriving at Mandeok station we had to walk straight up the mountain through a construction site. Actually when Elisa and me walked that road we passed through a nice neighborhood. Everything was gone, we guess for more skyscrapers.

But after passing by the elementary school we finally entered the forests.

The way up the mountain too about 1 h.

 Some gym in the woods.

Finally arriving at the temple.

 Elisa and me tried to visualize the Gangsnam Style dance, in front of the representing Pagoda.

 Snickers, und der Hunger ist gegessen!

 Still having fun on our way home, which took just about 45 min.

 On our way home we passed by the world famous Kikitata lake! AMAZING

 In the evening we met with Kelly, first for chicken, then for japanese style food,and in the end korean Odeng (Fish cake) soup. Of course all combined with Soju!

Japan!

Even sea food soup with a thousand year old egg on top. Natalia loved it...not!

 Soju Sour! Nowadays Soju is mixed with different flavors!

 Great place!

 Last stop of the night has been the Korean Fish soup place! It has been amazing! For me personally best food until now on our trip. Even it has been very simple food I loved it!

YumYum!