Paris - Last day off and first day in the lab

Okay, I guess time's overdue for an update ... Sunday was very relaxed indeed. I got some baguette first and later, J made me some Croq Monsieur for lunch. Croq Monsieur is the French term for sandwiches made with a sandwich maker, you basically just add cheese and ham and that's it. But it tastes good and with 42 evenings in which I'll have to cook for myself ahead of me, I'm grateful for any tips on simple meals. After a shopping stop at the Chinese-French supermarket (in which all the fruits are labeled in Chinese and where they have a huge variety of 水饺- yummie!), we went for a little walk which lead us through the non-touristic sites of Montmartre over to Gare du Nord. There we got my Passe Navigo which relieves me of all the single tickets in my pockets (even if it was probably cheaper to continue on Carnets) and ultimately made it to Paris Mondial, by walking through the African, Indian and Chinese streets in our arrondissement. It's really amazing - there's one street where there are only Sari-Shops, jewelers and Indish restaurants and in the next one, you feel as if you warped to Nairobi, with a lively outdoor market going on and everyone looking funny at you because you're white. I mean it's not that there aren't any "coloured" people in Germany, but over here it's le bled (very cool word that originally meant home country, but is used nowadays for French quarters in which you don't feel like being in France anymore). They dress differently (not all of them are wearing multi-coloured tunics, but they have their own style) and they seem to spend a good time of the day just hanging out in groups on the street and drinking tea. It's fascinating just to watch them, so my way to and from the metro never will be boring.

If only the same was true for my work ... my first day in the lab passed fairly well, everyone seems to be nice, lab is clean and tidy and my French is getting back by the minute, but you know how first days are: they give you a pile of papers to read and if you're really lucky, you might start mixing buffers. Well, I wasn't lucky, so all I did was making lists of the antibodies we still have *yawn*. But on the other hand, work is sure to come, so I'd better not complain now ;-).