Christiane has lived on Mars. Well, almost. The physicist and engineer has spent twelve months at a research base under Mars-like conditions. On the barren slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano, she has lived in isolation from the rest of humanity together with five other volunteers. They shared a small dome-shaped habitat which they only left dressed in mock space suits and all their communications with the outside world were restricted to time-delayed emails. Upon her return to her tiny terrestrial home town Bitterfeld in Eastern Germany, she now enjoys such simple pleasures like sleeping with her window open and eating fresh fruits whenever she likes. Yet to her own surprise, she found that life on Mars is not as appalling as it may seem and that she is actually missing some aspects of it.