Home
Institution
Medizinische
Hochschule Hannover
Host
Institution
Division
of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Research Mentors: Maia Kokoeva, Ph.D. and Jeffrey S. Flier, M.D.
E-Mail: annebudde@gmx.de
see Abstract
A wonderful time! I have met so many interesting people from all over the world, that it really makes Boston a fascinating place. Boston offers so many opportunities that it is hardly ever boring. Sitting in the middle of 70,000 people on the Boston Common listening to "Carmen" while eating Thai food, running along the Charles River, a lot of great parties, and eating at the "Brown Sugar Café" are just a few things that have made this experience so awesome so far.
The work at the lab is pretty interesting and the people I work with (a very international group with an Asian-German majority) are very nice. When I started to work I was a little nervous to be around all these great researchers, but pretty soon I realised that even in Harvard people only cook with water. The big difference is just the money, especially in a field like obesity research, where the sums of money are just incredibly huge. Getting used to the American way of life was not too hard, since Boston is very much like Europe, in my opinion.
My first contact with the American view of politics, and especially international politics, was very strange, and I thought that I would not be able to talk about politics with Americans for the rest of the year, since I did not want to be in trouble. But I really had to change my opinion on behalf of this issue: I have had great discussions with Americans about politics, the current situation and everything that is involved. My thought that Americans do not question their government and the decisions it makes was very wrong, but maybe Boston is just a different place.
Getting the right visa in order to work at Harvard! It took quite a bit of paper work and money to finally get the J1-visa through CIEE. Finding a place to live was not that difficult, once I got used to the prices. Everything over here is just very expensive. The prices are pretty much like the old DM prices, only the DM sign is replaced by the Dollar sign.
The new working techniques at the lab were not too difficult to learn and everybody was more than willing to explain things to me and to help. But it was very difficult to find a place that sells decent coffee!
On a Saturday in the fall I wanted to try out an abdominals class at my gym that I had never taken before. I was there on time and just followed the crowd that had gathered in front of the aerobics room. Everybody grabbed a mat and sat down on the floor. So did I. I realised that they all took off their shoes, which I thought was a bit weird, but I did so, too. Then the instructor came in, a guy in his fifties with long grey hair, and he lit some incense. I was starting to wonder a little, but I thought that maybe this was the American way of training your abdominal muscles, since everyone around me was totally fine with it. But when he started some very relaxing Asian music, I just started laughing. Then the instructor looked at me and said, "Oh, if you're looking for the abdominals class, it's next door."
Since everything is so expensive, try to stop converting the money into the Euro as soon as possible. It will be a lot more fun once you don't worry about it any more. Get the paper work for the visa started really in advance. It sometimes takes a lot of time for the administration over here to sign a piece of paper and to mail it back! Try www.skyways.de for cheap airplane tickets, and for Bostonians, check out Brown Sugar Café (awesome Thai food!) and Café Vittorio in the North End for very good CaféLatte!
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