q_rai

Okay, if I continue writing at this rate, I might actually be finished by end of summer.. ;)
And I guess I don't really stick to the post-by-topic rather than post-by-day.
Anyway. Here comes the second Tokyo post!

( Shinjuku )

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( Harajuku )

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( Shibuya )

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As usual, more pics over here.

As usual, more pictures can be found on my flickr account - for this entry they're all in the Tokyo set (along with a few more from 2 more days in Tokyo).

( Tsukiji )

( Tokyo Tower )

( Maranouchi )

( Ginza )

( Akihabara )

Finally, I get around to writing about Japan! After brooding a bit, I decided to write the entries about the cities rather than the single days. :)

First of all, let me give you a general idea of the timeline. Mostly we followed what we had planned, but we had to diverge from our original plans a little.

Updated, more detailed plan
Mar 26: Arrival in Tokyo
Mar 27: Tokyo: Tsukiji, Tokyo Tower, Maranouchi, Ginza and Akihabara
Mar 28: Tokyo: Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya
Mar 29: Nikko and Ginza at night
Mar 30: Kamakura
Mar 31: Takayama
Apr 1: Takayama and Kyoto
Apr 2: Kyoto: Kiyomizu-dera, Philosopher's Walk and Ginkaku-ji
Apr 3: Kyoto: Fushimi Inari Shrine; and Nara
Apr 4: Kyoto: Nijo-jo, Kinkaku-ji, Arashiyama and Gion
Apr 5: Kyoto: Johnny Hillwalker Tour and Manga Museum
Apr 6: Hiroshima and Miyajima
Apr 7: Miyajima and Shinjuku at night
Apr 8: Tokyo: Asakusa, Ueno and Akihabara; and departure

I will be adding links to the corresponding posts when they're written :)
My flickr account already has most of my favourite pics (all unedited though, we took about 3000) in case you want a sneak peek before reading ;)

( Japan in a Nutshell )

( My diet )

Okay, I'll make this quick since I should really go to sleep!

First of all: My sleeping schedule totally didn't work out. I blame my rather non-existent sleep on the plane. Oh well, that's 16 hours of change within 3 days for me then ;) I'll cope.

Second: I'm soooo excited! Taking the train to Frankfurt tomorrow morning :D

( Very coarse plan )

( Click )

Also, I uploaded a whole bunch of photos to my flickr account. :D

Sooo, as mentioned in my previous post, I'm in California soon (I was writing this on the plane. At the time I'm posting it I've been here for one and a half days already.). I'll arrive there 13:20 local time and I'm already pretty excited about seeing my boyfriend again! (With a 9 hour time difference, even Skype can be quite a hassle.) Hopefully, immigration and customs will let me through easily. I think I shouldn't be too suspicious. Except, maybe, if the customs officers see I have 3 (!!!) pairs of shoes in my suitcase. We have to dress up for the workshop, so I'm bringing suitable shoes for M and myself. In addition, after being sick for more than three weeks straight (with various illnesses, including a medically-induced one (yahoo, penicillin allergy)), I really want/need some exercise, so I also brought sports shoes.

So, now for the more exciting part ;)
M is picking me up from the airport and we booked a motel in a great location in the centre of San Francisco where we'll stay for a night, Tuesday evening, we leave for Davis, so we have about one-and-a-half days to explore the city. I definitely want to see the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf and the cute little cable cars. Apart from that, Chinatown, Japantown (as a comparison how authentically Japanese it is ;)) and Little Italy might be nice, but we haven't decided on that yet.
Wednesday, Thursday and some part of Friday, we are in Davis. Since M is writing on a paper, he will probably be busy. I only have to write a short seminar paper and prepare a presentation for the mentoring programme^* of my faculty, so I'm thinking about visiting Sacramento for a day, if I find someone who wants to come along (it's more fun than alone).
Friday to Sunday, we'll be in Bodega Bay for the workshop.
After that I already have to leave for San Francisco - one week isn't too much time, after all. Especially, if you spend it in three places.

* Master students can supervise Freshers for two semesters and get credit points for our studies in return. I mostly do it for the fun of it but I don't mind the points ;) Since it's a seminar for us, we have to write and present something though.

Proper (and long) post alert!!! It's been a while since I last posted. Since I'm spending some time on planes (for details read the rest of the article), and my life not quite as boring as usual at the moment, I decided to write about some of the things that are going on. Expect a few posts from me ;)

I realise there's still one Venice post missing - I just completely forgot about it. I forgot to pack my notes but I hope I'll be able to write it during my crazy sleep schedule time :)

( How it Began )

( The Problem )

( The Solution )

( Some Stats )

And of course, there will be pictures!

As some of you may know, I chose biology as my subsidiary subject. It was clear that sooner or later, I would have to deal with genetics. It turned out to be sooner rather than later - and I love it! However, I'm really bad at memorising things.

After a semester of genetics and bioinformatics lectures, I realised that I still couldn't remember which of the nucleotides connect as base pairs.

So what does a good student do?

Right, find a way of memorising it. The last time I had to do this, it was about Skolemisation and all we got was an easy-to-memorise but really-bad-grammar and nonsensical mnemonic which would translate to "A real Hungarian would never eat his sister's child." - but it worked, and it survived on the student union's board for months!
I was determined to find something nicer for the nucleotides. With only four letters which are all different, I just had to come up with something. I even had 8 possibilities to order the letters.

A few days ago, I finally did.

the Green Cat Admires the Tiger
(read: GC and AT form base pairs)

I could immediately picture a cute green cat next to a tiger who looked rather indifferent and confused by its affections. After having a quick sketch next to my keyboard for a few days, I absolutely couldn't resist drawing it properly.

So here it is:



Now, the only bit missing is the replacement of thymine by uracil in RNA. But for some reason I can remember that.