External stay in Boulder, Colorado

June 26th - July 26th 2012

The reason
Finally, the day I had been waiting for for two years arrived. I moved to Boulder, Colorado as part of my PhD study at KU. Protein pharmaceutics just took one step up the coolness ladder as I will now be working with protein pharmaceutics at high hydrostatic pressures. For those of you not in the protein world, it's like befriending superman. In this case he (the high pressure) saves proteins from the death of aggregation and even restores them back to good, healthy, refolded proteins. It is rather awesome and I am looking forward to cool experiments in Ted Randolph's lab.

Arriving to the wildfire

Smoky morning at 5 a.m.

My roommate the first few weeks, Mel, kindly picked me up at Denver International Airport and we chatted during the 45 min ride back to Boulder. The mountains were hazy, but as we approached the city it became obvious that smoke was making its way down canyon openings. The mountains were on fire! Driving through Boulder, a pleasent smell of wood burning in a fire place reached us. When we got out of the car the air was blue from dispersed smoke and we had heard on the radio that South Boulder was on a preevacuation notice. People had to come home from their holidays and pack valuables and personal belongings, ready to evacuate. Precausion was key because wildfires were roaring in Colorado, with a part of Colorado Springs being consumed by flames (and Fort Collins) was on alert too.
From my window I followed the fire at Bear Peak

Bear peak as a vulcano

which is one of the most distinctive peaks visible in Boulder. Every night the fire had moved to a new place. Huge numbers of fire fighters came to Boulder and stayed in Schools etc. They dropped red ammoniumphosphate onto the fires to sufficate the flames. Boulder had just hit 104F (40C) a few days before and broken all heat records. It was hot, dry and with most afternoons thunder came dispersing lightning and only little water. It was the high season for wild fires and all grills, open fires and fireworks were canceled. The turmoil lasted about a week until the fire department declared the fire under control. We continued to see small smoke stribes every second day for a week.

Twilight view from my room

Same view at night

Mel and the psych hiking club
Melanie is Canadian with parents from England and Germany. Many of her coworkers in the neuroscience field are international postdocs and phd students. They often refer to themselves as the psych hiking club because they go on shorter or longer hiking trips - though, usually only one day at a time. I only got to have this fantastic roommate for 3 days, before she went on a long trip to Europe. Luckily for me she left me her friends and we have had much fun and social life together.

Goodbye and introduction dinner at a pizza restaurant.
From left: Marina, ES; Marieke, NL; Mel, Ca; Jess, US; Nic, FR and my self

Before the first hike near Breckenridge @ Snickerdoo Mountain

Snickerdoo Mountain - My first thirteener (13,000 ft = 3,962 m)

Unexpected visit from a good friend
My friend and coworker, Mette, is currently doing her external stay at Kansas University (KU) in the neighbouring state. I had been trying to reach her for days after my arrival, but her American number seemed to only work through Viber in Denmark and not with a normal American phone number. My first Friday night she called me and apologized that she hadn't called back. She just passed through Boulder and was on the way back to Kansas with her boyfriend. What? Why Boulder? And why hadn't she called if she was in Boulder? Turned out that Lawrance, Kansas was so hot and had so little to offer for tourists that her and Jan rented a car and went hiking 10 hours west in what is actually the Boulder backcountry: Nederland and James park. They were just half an hour out of Boulder so I pursuaded them to come back although they were driving the whole night to catch a flight back to Denmark the next day. Mette has been in the states since March and it was fantastic to see her again. Jan had come here for a conference + quality time and they were so cute.
After their visit I felt lonely and drained from energy - possibly still jetlagged, I decided to skip the New Belgium (free) beer and short movie event that a colleauge of mine had invited me to the same day. The only low key night I have had in Boulder followed accompanied by multiple episodes of the TV show Mad Men.

Boulder creek path and tubing
I live in Family Housing which is a branch of university housing. We are perfectly situated between campus and Pearl Street, right next to the most beloved cycling path here: The Boulder Creek Path. It starts in the mountains and runs east through town. It is shared between pedestrians and bikers. Paved and adventurous. Just a 6 minutes ride takes me to east campus where my lab is. Boulder is a great bike city. Once you've figured out which roads to take (and which to avoid), travel by bike is safe and fast. I never had a mountain bike before, but was determined to get one "just in case" I would go for a ride in the mountains. I simply love it!

So lush

Always twisting a winding




Hanging out at Boulder Creek (Path)

The creek is also subject to tubing. On a really hot day before my arrival Tubing to work day was initiated by a Bouldarian in a suit.
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_20973122/boulders-tube-work-day-best-commute-ever
Firmly decided to go tubing, I bought 6 tubes for me and the psych hiking club. After airing them the tubes very huge and barely fit into the commute car I got though the university carshare deal. I soon discovered that they were not nearly as big, though, as they should have been. The blue marks on my butt after Mette and I did our virgin voyage on the creek were good proof (sorry, no photage!)



Goofing out at the sun heated wall of my building after ½ an hour of tubing