The IMPRS retreat was two days of scientific lectures and discussion. Plus evenings for partying the the third day for froicking in the an autumn awesomeland (like winterwonderand?).

So if you don't like pretty pictures like this:

(who am I kidding, this is the nicest one)

Or posey pictures like this:
You should just move along now.




We went to Mirow, which is a tiny town somewhere nearly directly north-but-just-a-little-bit-west or Berlin, and nearly-directly-east-but-just-a-little-bit-south of Hamburg.



As mentioned, there was Science, but the only photo I have to track its passing is this one of the lovey Max.

For those of you who are completely unfamiliar with what I do, he's made a very accurate picture of a plant cell. The big blob is a vacuole (for storage of stuff), and the smaller ones are presumably chloroplasts (for making sugars from the sun and carbon dioxide) and mitochondria (for making energy from the sugars).

We also have mitochondria, and small, unawe-inspiring vacuoles, but because we are not awesome and are too lazy to evolve to fix inorganic carbon, we do not have chloroplasts.

Which are really the only interesting organelles anyway.

















We spent some time trying to get rid of our excess energy (acquired from the consumption of candy, chips, sugary drinks, chocolate etc.), by jumping around like maniacs. Poorly co-ordinated maniacs as it turned out:
 (also from Pau)

Ultimately that just made us hungry again, so we went searching for mushrooms...


 I NEED AMACROLENSINEEDAMACROLENS


This chess set looks very fatalistic or something. Mercedes and I tried to play but I quickly became distracted because... shiny things!:







On the first evening I introduced the group to the concept of croctching- in which a dominant male frames his 'region of interest' with his hands in an aggressive downwards motion. It sometimes helps to yell BAM at the same time.

This was a big thing at my old institute, and I felt proud to be an ambassador to The Continent.

We also talked Catapulting (in which alpha male sits with one foot on his knee so his legs form a kind of arrow pointing to... you guessed it, the crotch).. and later in the evening I tried to teach Mercedes to Neg.

It was a roaring success.. my favourite part of the evening being when the male in the room who I suspect thinks he is alpha tried to do the pose, and the whole group told him he was not as alpha as Tegan and Mercedes (I think someone may have suggested he can be beta female, but that might have just been in the glory of my imagination).

No wait, my favourite part might have been when Mercedes and I went home and exited on a synchronised double-crotch.

BAM!

The next night there was dancing:





 Most of which was successful...



We danced to the wee hours, with every third song being that 'I DON'T CARE' song that Mercedes had stuck in our head the whole damn camp.

I managed to SPIN (ANdy never lets me spin), and tried-very-hard-but-never-quite-managed to get my hips to move like Pau's


As they awarded some of us with bubbles (I think for our awesomeness).. the next morning was filled with soap suds in the eye and Arek thinking he was a magician.








Here are some obligatory group shots which are probably not too interesting if you're not in the group, but if you make it past them I promise there are more pretty leaves and fungi coming up.

Also, some of the shots feature a cat! (Which came when I clicked and only left when Pau pulled me away).








On the way home we stopped in at Rheinsberg Palace.









SWAN! Which also came when I clicked, and apart from the fact that it hissed at me and tried to bite my fingers, I think really liked me. I was such a friggin animal whisperer on this trip.


(From Pau!)



(From Pau)






Bullrushes remind me of home.








I am probably Frodo.




JuanK got really attached to this leaf. We were a bit more liberal with our lovin':








I know Perth is always a little behind on the trends, but seriously, we should start doing this Autumn thing!