Summer School in Schwarzwald

In this article I would like to share my experiences from the 5-day Summer School organized by DECHEMA (Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie e. V.) a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting initiatives and support developments  in the fields of chemical engineering and biotechnology. The theme was  “Quantitative Biology – From Cell to Process” and the school was held  in Bad Herrenalb. This is a small and beautiful town in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) in the German state of Baden Württemberg, a few kms away from Karlsruhe. This summer school was suggested to me by my Professor and I was looking forward to it eagerly although not totally sure of what to expect since this would be the first scientific meeting or workshop I attend in Germany.

By noon on 26^th July, I had reached Karlsruhe, got off at the Hbf and waited for the S1. The trains here were very old modelled but still carried that certain charm on them. On reaching Bad Herrenalb, I wasn’t surprised to find it as a small traditional town, since its an unwritten rule that any kind of scientific gathering should take place in a remote and picturesque town. The train station was a small building and an andjacent platform and there were no loud speakers or electronic boards here  – they still used the good old bell which is rung a few minutes before a train would arrive! Although not relevant, its interesting to mention that on the way there was an even smaller village called Frauenalb!

I found it pleasant though to be here– how often do you get the chance to breathe the fresh air from the lush green mountains and meet people who speak a rustic, small –town accent. The German here is called Schwäbisch and that brings me to my first ever experience with accents. I started walking away from the train station and on the way, asked an old lady directions to the venue, which was called Haus der Kirche. She pronounced it as something like ‘Haoos da Keeurchey’  and I knew I was in Bad Herrenalb.

I checked  in at the residence – it was a remarkable House that had a protestant church, chapel and many guest rooms. I put my luggage away in my room and quickly came down again for the lunch since the first session of lectures were to begin shortly after noon. I made up a strong resolve to survive the next 5 days on German food ( for any Indian, 5 days without his usual Indian staple food means a tough ordeal. I always like German breakfast  though and it was excellent here too, and also the desserts. But when it comes to the main food, it is very difficult, particularly for a vegetarian. I am seriously thinking about taking a small electric rice cooker along when I go to another conference). The lectures started right away after a small introduction by Dr. –Ing. Vera Meyer form Leiden University, Netherlands. The first talk was by Prof. Dr. Anja Drews from Berlin on the principles of Balancing in process engineering. Over the next couple of days there were seminars by noted professors/ post-doc researchers and scientists from all over Germany like TU- Dortmund, Max Planck Institute Golm, TU München, Potsdam, Bremen, FZ  Jülich, RWTH Aachen, Freiburg, Martinsried and also speakers from the industry. Most of the sessions also included working exercises and associated training with relevant software tools which made the school even more interesting and valuable. The overall theme was to build a connecting thread to bring together the disciplines of biology and engineering and aimed at informing and training people specializing in one field, with the knowledge and latest concepts from the other fields.

On the first day, we even had an outdoor activity evening, for which we were taken to a park at nearby Pforzheim. This was a rope-climbing course and was something I had never tried before. After the safety instructions were given, we were allowed to try and climb up the different levels on the trees and cross from one tree to another over challenging tracks like suspended logs of wood, or simply a pair of ropes etc. It was real fun and the best part was a free fall crossing of around 50 metres from one tree to another, suspended on a rope 8 metres abovethe ground!

On the penultimate day we had a grill party and was very enjoyable. I checked out the other leisure rooms in the house and came to know that there were also rooms for table tennis, pool and table football. I peeped into the pool room and found 2 old men (Italians, I later came to know) playing casually by picking up the balls in their hands and hitting other balls arbitrarily and dropping them into the pockets for fun. It was very funny and I tried hard not to laugh, since I did not mean to be rude to them. One of them looked up at me and said that they were just finished and I could have the table. I said that all my other friends are in table tennis or table football and I had no one to play with here, so he could join me for a game if he was interested. By now, the other man had already taken a seat nearby and got ready and excited  to watch our game. It was an old table that was very rough ( and I suspect uneven near certain pockets), no chalks for the stick tips and no cue ball actually! We used some other ball I don’t remember as the cue ball. Anyway, the game began with the old man disinterestedly arranging the balls into order and me with a preformed notion that he knew nothing about the game and I must win this game in a way that wouldn’t be too hurting for him. So, as I broke the formation and pocketed the first ball, I kindly informed him about the game, “ So, from now on, I would be solids ad you stripes ..”. He simply nodded nonchalantly and replied, “ yes, I know”. When he got his turn, it was time for me to receive the most cruel and embarrassing shock of my life. The guy was a devil at pool! He simply pocketed one ball after another with ease and kept grinning at me all through, while his friend was clapping in joy. I kept turning away in shame and agony. At the end of 3 hours, we had played 2 long drawn- out battles, I got beaten in both but I was happy to have been able to put up a decent fight and make it tough for him, we exchanged greetings and I also learnt a few Italian swear words (during the few rare occasions when he missed a pocket).

Overall, I had a great week at the summer school in Bad Herrenalb, taking back with me the latest concepts and techniques in emerging fields like gene expression analysis, made new contacts with people from academia and industry, people who were research students like me and also Professors and post-doc scientists, brought back traditional Schwarzwald Marmelade and Hähnchen slices for my friends, drank unlimited colas and coffee, tried my hands at rope- climbing and got a little better in playing pool!

view from the seminar hall