~Posted 12 May 2004~

Just a little update for my regular readership (my mom) out there... spring is coming to Erlangen! The sun has begun to shine half-heartedly, and the winter jackets are finally being put in mothballs (was it stupid for me to send mine home one month ago? The answer is yes). This means lots of exciting things are coming up. First, my baby's birthday party is next Saturday (May 22)! It promises to be an incredible (read: drunken) time. The festivities continue the following week because of Pentacost... which is a religious holiday exploited by the Erlangen natives to drink for 10 days in a row! That's right, it's Franconia's answer to Oktoberfest, and hell if I'm gonna walk away from all the carnage without a "Bergschein" clutched in my blood-stained fist! (that's the certificate you get if you drink at least one liter of beer every day). In June I'm going to sneak up to Berlin once again to collect the 500� I won in some essay contest... and hopefully I'll be able to convert that money into an amazing trip to London (finally!) to see my friend Margaret who's doing research on ribozymes in Cambridge. At the end of the month, Meridee will be flying in from California (her first time ever leaving North America! she doesn't even have a passport!) and I predict that we are going to wreak some havoc on this sleepy little German town. And I'm thinking about leaving Germany a little earlier, say July 20th or so. That just leaves a few days to say goodbye to this place that has absolutely no personality but that I am for some reason really going to miss... sniff sniff. Of course, more updates as time goes on... but this is it folks... I'm heading back to the good ol' U.S. of A.! First stop: Popeye's Fried Chicken & Biscuits ;)

~Posted 21 Apr. 2004~

Wow, it's been quite a while since my last update, and a lot of stuff has happened inzwischen! For one, I managed to trek out to Paris back in February to visit our good family friends Dee and Joe Hartzog, where I was finally introduced to the finer aspects of Parisian culture and came away with a new respect for/love of the city (and the French). Among other things, I was treated to a $70 Pot-au-feu ("down-to-earth cuisine and prices" my foot!), the ugly Pompadou Museum (modern art), the Rodin Museum, and still my personal favorite, the spectacular Mus�e d'Orsay.

Then it was off to K�htai, the highest-elevation ski resort in Austria, which was conveniently playing host to an international lupus conference (don't be fooled; those doctors know exactly what they're doing). My boss arranged for me to give a short 15-minute presentation on my research (on circulating DNA and lupus activity)—and then of course it was time for me and all the rheumatologists to hit the slopes!

A few weeks later I was bundled off once again, this time on an all-expense-paid trip to Berlin for the weeklong German-American Fulbright conference. We were housed in the Park Inn Hotel at Alexanderplatz, the perfect location from which to explore this incredibly energetic city. In addition to attending conferences on things like health care challenges facing the expanding EU (right up my alley!), we were treated to an incredible exhibition of Fulbright talent. Many of the grantees gave short presentations on the research that they've been conducting this year, with topics ranging from the reconversion of military bases in the former East Germany (with assistance from the UN) to the new circle of German woman writers in Berlin to an analysis of American-European relations and the War in Iraq using continental philosophy. Additionally, we had two evenings of outstanding visual, spoken-word, and musical presentations by Fulbright scholars pursuing the fine arts here in Germany. On the last day we met the Governor/Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit. Of course, the days were not just filled with official activities... large groups of grantees set aside plenty of time to explore Berlin's justifiably famous nightlife and club/bar scene; I managed to catch a performance of the incredible Berlin Philharmonic (playing Bartok's Der Wunderbare Mandarin) as well as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. All in all, this was a week that I won't soon forget, made all the more memorable because I got to meet up with all the friends I met at the first Fulbright orientation meeting back in Bremen in September.

I had a little time to catch my breath before my parents came to visit during the first week of April. After convincing my mom it wasn't a good idea to see all of Europe in one week, we settled on bonding with those to whom I'm closest here (including my boss and her family, my other boss, my host family, and some close friends) and several day-trips. We spent one day in Rothenburg, the "most well-preserved medieval city in Germany," a day in N�rnberg, a day in Munich (with a side-trip out to Dachau), and a day in Bamberg with my boss and her family. I think my parents loved Europe and are definitely planning another (longer) trip out here in the near future. However, my dad will need to work on his German accent in the meantime! (his current vocabulary consists of "ach so!" and "danke," as well as a lot of guttural noises and spitting).

Since all of that excitement, my life has calmed down considerably. April has been going slowly... I was almost glad when university started up again the day before yesterday. I am taking a Spanish course for beginners (yo no soy estudiante bueno!) and considering two others: a lecture on Kafka and his relationship to bureaucracy, the law, and Czech-Judaism, and a seminar entitled "Literature and Music" which sounds really interesting. In addition, I'm excited about the music our orchestra is performing this semester—Mozart's Violin Conerto in D Major, Beethoven's 8th Symphony, and Elgar's Serenade for Strings. It sounds like a very well-rounded (if traditional) program (concert is on Thurs., July 15 at 8 p.m. in the Bohlenplatz Church for those who are interested).

Finally, for those of you wondering what the heck it is I'm doing with my life, I think that's finally becoming a little clearer. Of course med school and New Haven are looming in my mind right now... I'll be back there at the end of August. But I'm really looking forward to it getting back into the swing of things—having a schedule and working toward a specific goal. My other long-term plans include either an MPH or an MBA... possibly in California... Stanford? Berkeley? I always envisioned an MPH closer to home (Harvard or Hopkins) but I guess I need to get back to the States before weighing all my options. And the writing? I still want to do it, somehow—whether it be formulating policy recommendations or even doing some creative stuff (my list of doctor-writers is still growing). But either way, I just want to find some way to put that literature degree to good use.

I think that's enough updating for now. Please remember that I always enjoy getting emails or letters from from home. My address is:

Justin Chen
Hofmannstrasse 29
App. 02/01/08
91052 Erlangen, GERMANY

'Til then—mach's gut, und viele liebe Gr�sse aus Bayern!

On to the About Me Page

The Story of This Webpage

Hi! So, if you're at my website, you probably already know who I am—and if not, get away from me, you psycho freak!

What some of you may not know is that I am secretly a disgruntled old man trapped in the body of a recent college graduate. I shake my metaphorical cane at the world and complain bitterly to those around me about literally everything, from the fact that I turn bright red when I drink to annoying people who think they're cool but clearly are not. Thanks for putting up with me, guys! ~*hugz*~ <3 puahaha!! Okay, clearly I've been reading too many annoying Asian girls' Xanga sites.

But one thing those Xanga sites did make me think about was the ultimate purpose of the Internet, other than porn, instant messaging, and online word games, all of which are indisputably important. One benefit I thought of was the ability to disseminate news almost instantaneously (and far more effectively than is possible with other forms of media such as TV or radio). Another bonus of the Internet is that it facilitates the free flow of information between societies, which I believe will ultimately lead to the elimination of all totalitarian regimes as well as foster a greater level of understanding among different societies and cultural groups. But clearly the best aspect of the Internet is that it allows retarded people to post pages upon pages of information all about themselves! Even better, instead of coming right out and confronting the numerous problems in their lives, they can passive-aggressively post insults to their friends/siblings/ex-lovers in the form of web journal entries! Finally, they can bandy about nonexistent words and sounds like "hugz," "puahaha," and "kekeke!"

So, I am engineering this webpage, as though I were like that engineer of the wild, the beaver (pictured to the left). The site will be ugly, just like that beaver, but also easy to maintain, unlike a beaver; and it will also be the following: suitably passive-aggressive, chock full of my own desultory ruminations, and brimming with photos (as well as instances of the words "also" and "clearly")! Also, no more use of made-up words, I promise most sincerefully. Please email me with any thoughts or suggestions about layout, content, beavers, etc. Otherwise, bring on the smut!