Two new flatmates

One of them planned:
and one not:



Since Lola, my dsungarian hamster, died I´ve been wanting to get a successor. This morning I finally got round to driving to Osnabrueck´s animal shelter and had a look at their four dwarf hamsters. They
had been dumped with 4 more conspecifics in a cardboard box in may.
One of them kept screeching at me as soon as I came close to the cage. So I thought we might get along well and took her home with me :) .
Actually: she was obviously very stressed by the surroundings and I felt she had to get out of there. She is settling well into her new home, has explored the whole enclosure and has tested the wodent wheel extensively.
She´s also stopped screeching and came up to me inquisitively... so we´ll see if she´ll really turn out to be the "monster hamster" as she presented herself in the shelter.

In contrast, my second new flatmate wasn´t planned at all. This afternoon I got a call from the chairwoman of the animal protection society I´m a member of.
She told me she had been given a "white mouse" which turned out to be a baby rat. So the ritten is here for now and I´ll see what´ll become of it.

Needless to say I didn´t get round to doing any of the things I had planned for today...

Tara

a friend´s kitten

Naked mole rats

(Heterocephalus glaber) on display in the newish underground part of Osnabrück Zoo. These animals are fascinating, especially their social structure. Interested? Naked mole rats on "the life of mammals", BBC: Videolink.

Did you know there´s another "eusocial" mole rat beside the naked one? I didn´t either... the damaraland mole rat. (Cryptomis damarensis)

Do you want a mole rat for you home ?
You can have one! Sandras mole rat figurines.

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Last days

in Krakow. I'm leaving on Saturday and am kind of looking forward to it, even if people are very nice here, the school's interesting and the city beautiful. Wrote a test today... arghhhh....tomorrow is the last day at school and we'll get the results then.
And it's 35 C again and I've really had enough of this heat to be honest, I find it really hard to sleep, too. And yes, i know I spent months in the tropics, but its different in a city. At least for me...I guess Im just a country bumpkin.
Did nothing special on the last days, wanted to go to Wielizka Saltmine but not enough people turned up for the trip. Hopefully I'll go to see Krakow zoo tomorrow, missed the bus today.
Work starts on Monday and I'm kind of looking forward to that, too :).

Oświęcim

..is polish for 'Auschwitz'.
I spent the day there.
(Not) much more to write, still stunned and I guess it will take a long time to cope with the experience.
Glad I went though.

Dzien dobry from Krakows Central Square!

Hurra, I've made it to Krakow, Poland !
Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe above the Rynek, 'Europes most beautiful central square'. Don't know about that but it is a very nice and lively square with an unbelievable number of historical buildings. As you might know I'm not much of a city fan but as fas as cities go Krakow is beautiful.
I'm staying in Boronowice, one of the suburbs, about 20 miuntes by tram from the centre. It's a really nice place to stay and I've got my own room with a desk, and cupboard and I can use the communal kitchen and it's clean :) and everyone is nice.
Everyone means my german landlady and her polish boyfriend who'll only be there til friday, another polish girl and two italian guys of whom I've only met one so far.
I like to stay in the suburb because it feels more "real" , no tourists around there.

The polish course (absoulte beginner :() is from 9.30 to 13.00 and really intense. We are 5 within the group, 3 germans, one american and a french guy. So I get to practise english as well, hurra :)!
One shouldn't count ones chicken before they are hatched but so far I'm glad I've come here.

There are only two problems:
1. it's really hot! Too hot! Summer! Packed the wrong clothes!
2. There's too much to do, too many things on offer. I've made the concious decision to take it easy though - I'm here on holiday and I want to stroll around, get a feel of the place, relax.
Don't really want a tight schedule besides the course. On sunday I'll be off to Zakopane in the mountains and on saturdaz there is a choice of going to Auschwitz concentration camp. I haven't really decided if I'm going, don't know if I'm prepared for that right now.

That's all for now, I'll go down and slowly head towards "home" :).