For six points ...

Ah, my social life is alive and well - I now have a pub quiz weekly outing with a group from the institute. I love pub quizzes. Last year, the Igloo made regular outings to the Dog and I always had a great time. I guess it's just the fantastic combination of drinking and getting a chance to use all the random bits of knowledge that have absolutely no other use in my life.

The group from here is called the Bengal Cat Club of Norway (don't ask) and goes to one of the three Irish pubs that are here in Freiburg (why is there always an Irish pub wherever you go? As if the Germans need any help in drinking!) and I have to say, it's an interesting experience doing a pub quiz in another language. It's not the language itself per se - the questions are read in both German and English - but more the fact that there were a couple of questions that, as a native English speaker I took for granted. Like, "what is the technical name for chewing?". I said ' masticate', and everyone at the table looked at me weirdly as if I'd said a dirty word (it turns out that they actually did think that I'd said a dirty word. I'll let you guess what it was). And remember that these are all biology/biophysics PhD students that are also fluent in English ... ah, it's always the odd things that catch me out here.

So, conclusion: pub quizzes are good. Just like Irish pubs serving Irish beer and/or cider are good. But Irish pub food seems to make my stomach not so happy. So I guess it was an authentic Irish pub after all :(