Ber(li)n

Phew! What a day! It's 6pm and I'm at the close of a long day of composing and adapting letters to study authors to acquire more information about the particulars of their work.  Here was the schedule of the last few days: Thursday: leave running to the train station straight from a delayed meeting with my mentor. boy did i fly! Arrive in Stuttgart and see the beautiful town and breathe the rather oppressive air that Stuttgart is known for; Friday train to Dresden to meet my cousin's wife and their son, tour around the old town; Friday afternoon train to Berlin where I stay for the weekend until last night, night train (no, not recommended unless you're a really heavy sleeper) with stops every hour (yikes!) to Basel, where I take the 8am train straight to work in Bern.  

Whew-- too much travelling!  But nonetheless, I'm moving forward with my research (starting to write my article after a literature review, eligibility selection, an extraction for the purposes of contacting study authors and letters to actually contact them) and contemplating where else in this beautiful yet really small (hey, I'm Texan) country to visit.  Strangely enough, though, the stormy rainy weather is back in Bern. (sigh) After a weekend of way-too-strong sun and heat in Berlin, Bern though further south is much colder and threatened to breakout in a semi-tropical deluge this afternoon.  Coming from 2/3 tropical Houston, it's rather charming to hear my best Swiss friend say that the weather feels like a monsoon coming. With this weather, anything's possible!  

now let's see if i can figure out how to post pictures!