Sunday

Today we were up at a better time then Sunday so we could wander
around Stuttgart a bit more before I left. For breakfast I was very
happy to have toast and peanut butter! I don`t have a toaster at my
apartment and peanut butter is not a very common thing here.

We caught the train to downtown where it was a lot quieter today.
There is basically nothing open in Germany on Sunday`s other than a
few cafes. We went to the Living Room of Stuttgart which is a park
like area. It is surrounded by old buildings, churches, cafes and lots
of statues. We were here being tourists when the rain rolled in again
along with a giant thunder and lightening storm. We again waited this
out in a cafe. It wasn`t fully let up but we headed on a train to meet
another friend of Danielle`s. With him we went to the Mercedes Benz
Museum for the afternoon. There were crowds of people since it was the
125th anniversary. We were too late in getting there to test drive.
The line was huge and would have taken hours to get through. We were
able to go through part of the museum and the dealership though. There
were lots of the cars open to sit in which was great!

After leaving we headed to pick my things up before going back to the
main station so I could catch my train home. We didn`t realize the
time and I was very close to missing my train! Danielle and I had to
run through the station and got there one minute before it pulled
away! However, I did make it back and am heading to bed now after a
great, busy and exhausting weekend.

Weekend 4

This weekend I headed off to Stuttgart to visit Danielle. So work
wasn't all that important on Friday to tell you about. The most
notable thing was the huge dark cloud moving in at lunch time. Frank
bet me that it would rain before I left and he won but was nice enough
to drive me to the train station.

I was able to take the train to Stuttgart and switch once all by
myself :) When I arrived Danielle was there to meet me. We headed
towards her house but stopped at the grocery store on the way there.
We were making the family that she lives with a what Danielle called
"A Canadian Supper" So we made them nachos and potato skins. They had
never had nachos before. The mom was very nice and loved the dinner.
She even brought out special Italian wine for the occasion. Not sure
if nachos and potato skins are the right meal for wine but it was good
none the less.

After dinner we headed out to meet some people in downtown Stuttgart.
It was a great night we went to a few different "disco's" as they are
called here. Danielle and I had many people ask us where we were from
when they saw/heard us speaking English. A few asked if we were
Americans! Once we said we were from Canada people always seemed to
think we were more interesting. The one thing to be said about the
night is that people around here need to learn how to dance! there
were a few people who could but most looked like they were doing a bad
version of the robot! I couldn`t help but laughing many times
throughout the night. After we were done at the disco we grabbed some
pizza and some water without bubbles before heading home. The discos
are open until 5am but we didn`t stay that long!

Saturday we took the time to sleep in before heading out for a day of
wandering. After breakfast we took the Ubahn to down town. There is a
great system set up in Stuttgart for the trains. This is why when we
arrived we ran into one of the many peaceful protest (but huge) about
not building a new network. It would mean a lot of money and tearing
up parts of the city. We walked past a few differnt stations that
people were protesting at. We walked around then headed to the Sky
Beach. This is basically a top of a building that has been covered in
sand and beach chairs. It was really nice until the storm started
rolling in. When we decided to leave it was very close and by the time
we were back on street level it was pouring! So we window shopped
around a bit and went to a cafe to wait it out. At the cafe we were
sitting at a table and the people beside us started to speak English
(huge deal now that I`m here). We asked them where they were from and
turns out from Canada! Two of them were visiting the other who is here
with the Stuttgart ballet. After talking with them for a while the
storm cleared and we parted ways.

Once we were done exploring we picked a few more things at the grocery
store as we made the family spaghetti, salad and garlic bread that
night. We were planning on meeting some people from Danielle`s work
but ended up talking to Karen (host mom) for a long time and were too
tired. So we watched a movie and went to bed so we could get up
earlier on Sunday.

Wednesday and Thursday

Last night was Stammtisch (round table) so it was to late to write a
post. So I"ll hopefully be able to get it all in this one.

Yesterday started off slow because it seemed everyone had some sort of
meeting in the morning. This meant that there wasn't anything for me
to do because what I was suppose to be doing you need two people for.
So I read some more I'm not sure what will happen once I"m done this
last book.

I left before lunch so that I could go pick up my passport. I finally
was able to have it back! I took them the last paper they needed payed
my residence fee ( odd I know) and had it in my possession again. I
know have a residence permit and a working permit for Germany. I think
it would be horrible to have to do this in Canada. Even if you are
just moving from one city to the next with in Germany you need to
check in and register with the city/town. Once I had this finished I
grabbed some fresh strawberries from the Wednesday noon market and
some lunch on my way back.

For the afternoon Simon said he had some things for me to do. He told
me that he would come get me when he was ready to start but that
wasn't until 3:30 (filled with more reading and correcting more
papers). I was so happy to be doing something but then that changed
when it took us two hours. I didn't leave until almost 5:30.

For the evening I had some supper then went to Stammtisch. Stammtisch
only reminded me of how quickly I need to learn German. They were
really good about trying to have some English conversations but like
people at work now too they tend to switch back to German because it's
easier. I'm building my vocabulary slowly but surely. I walked with
Julia and Dan until I met up with Frank and Andy. I ended up talking
with them for a while by the castle before heading the rest of the way
home. When I got home there were actual people outside my building!
Amazing I know. Turns out that they just moved in this week and are
here for four weeks doing a course but it's nice to know people are
actually here. So after all that it was late and I was tired.

Today was a slightly better day at work but the being tired didn't
help. I had some extractions to do and Carmen showed me how a new
spectrum machine worked. I had to read for only a bit this afternoon
while I waited for my extraction to finish. I went to lunch normally
as Frank and Simon put it. Another new person joined us I think he's
an intern but working on that and I didn't catch his name. The last
few days there have been a few new people in the department but are
definitely not all interns. I'll get to the bottom of this eventually.

It was another gorgeous hot day so after work I walked to the train
station to buy my ticket for the weekend. I'm going to visit Danielle
another UNBer for the weekend. I picked up some cereal on the way home
too and enjoyed the walk home. I put on another load of laundry but
didn't realize that I put my running clothes in. I was planning on
going running while my clothes were washing. That didn't happen. I was
able to get another skype call in tonight though :) saw my new
neighbors again and pack my bag for the weekend. I'm going now to
hopefully collect my dry clothes then head to bed. So most likely
until Sunday, Chow!

Day 21

So let's go with wow I've been here three weeks already! That just
blows my mind. Today the weather was a bit warmer not very much sun
but at least there wasn't any rain!

Work was good for the morning I was in the lab doing a bunch of
different things. I was also helping them with more English words. One
that none of them can grab onto is width. I'm not sure why but it
seems to get them. I am getting very good at playing fill in the blank
with conversations that is for sure. I think I really need them to
speak more German though because if I keep this rate of learning up
I'll be able to get by maybe by the time summer is over.

As the day got closer to lunch I was helping Simon with a few things.
It was almost lunch time so he said we would do the next thing after
lunch. I was apparently confused to what he meant because he said go
to lunch Frank is going too and be back here at 12. What he really
meant was to go to eat at 12.... we ended up going at 11:30 because of
the mix up. It was a semi good thing because there was barely a line
to wait for food. I pointed this out to make my misunderstanding seem
a bit better! haha

I ate lunch quickly because I wanted to go pick up my passport from
the town hall. After first going to the wrong room I was able to make
it to the right place. The bad thing was that she said I couldn't have
my passport yet. The lady I was talking to today could barely speak
English and had to pull a translator up to tell me why. Turns out that
they did not get all my health insurance papers so I can't have my
passport back yet. Tomorrow I plan on taking all the papers I have to
them and see if what they want is there. I really need my passport
back as I'm flying to Italy in 2 weeks!

For the afternoon I ran out of things to do. I was able to finally
figure out what my postal address is though with Simon's help. I was
trying to fill out a form for the train pass I bought but didn't know
how. With some help of the slow internet we figured it out. There was
nothing for me to do then so Simon said he would come get me once he
was done what he was doing and then we could work on something else.
He never came. So I spent most of the afternoon reading. I did help
another inter, Guillaume ( I think that's how you spell it), correct
his paper. He is from France doing his masters internship here at
Voith but needed to write his paper in English. We went through it
once and he is going to bring it back once he's made some changes. It
wasn't too bad just a few sentance structure and words that didn't
mean the same thing.

After work I went to the train station to hand in my completed form :)
after I looked up priced for a weekend trip to Stuttgart this weekend.
Once I had that figured out I headed to the grocery store to pick up
some juice and pasta sauce for supper. Walked around a bit came home
made supper showered and am now writing this. I'm still a little sore
from the bike crash on Friday so I'm going to wait another day before
going for another run. Tomorrow night I'm meeting with some of the
other interns for a BBQ so if I don't get a blog in that is why. Chow

Day 20 (I think at least)

Today was the start of work week 3 which is crazy! I was a little
sad when I left for work today because it was only 6 degrees out. The
rain held off for the day but I'm beginning to think the weather from
home it headed this way. Today was another fast one at work. I
literally spent all day working on my project. I had to take picture
of all the different samples that I have tested using the microscope
and it's software. I thought I had finished just after lunch but I
then learned I needed to make different measurements on them all. So
this took up the rest of the day. It wasn't too bad because I was in
the lab where Carmen and Simon work so I was able to talk to them on
and off. At one point Carmen asked me what a klutz was. I had called
myself this on Friday and she had been trying to figure it out over
the weekend I guess. I explained and she told me that the german word
for this is schusselig. Frank and I went to lunch today since Simon
had something else to do today. Lunch was interesting looking and the
signs were not all in English today they usually are. So I opted for
the vegetarian and pasts dish to be on the safe side. Turns out that
the main course had been pork and a stuffing type thing covered in
gravy. We chatted about the weekend and what plans are for the 3 long
weekends in June.

After work I headed to the town hall to pick up my passport. When I
got there though it turns out it is closed on Monday's. I will get it
this week! I asked the lady working the front desk when the office
would be open tomorrow. She knew what I was asking but it took her a
while to figure out the right times in English. So hopefully I can get
it tomorrow. I then just walked around town a bit before coming home
to have supper. After supper (and currently still working on it) I
attempted to do some laundry. The washer took an hour and I'm going on
two hours of my things being in the dryer. Hopefully they'll be done
soon since my bedsheets are in there! It was an ordeal to figure the
laundry out since none of the signs are in English and I couldn't get
any of the coins to work in the machine. I found someone in my
building as they were leaving and asked how they work. Turns out you
need to buy tokens at the hospital and can buy them Sunday mornings
from 7-10 am. So inconvenient. So once my laundry is done and I've
showered I'm off to bed, night. :)

Oh the picture for today is my favorite spot to sit in the castle
grounds. It's not right off the path and has it's own stairs up to the
seat. I love it because it is tucked away and has an amazing view of
the city.

Weekend number 3

The blog site was under repair on Friday and the weekend was a busy
one so this post will cover all of those days.

Friday
Well Friday the 13th had at me this year. I was up early and ready to
go to work and was planning on picking up my passport on the way. None
of this happened the way it should. I was leaving for work on my bike
when things started to go wrong. I usually don't ride my bike down the
driveway but I did this day. Which was a bad thing but a good in one
way. The brakes broke on me as I was going down the drive way so I had
two options cars or trees. I took the trees. The bike went flying I
was able to grab the tree and avoid too much damage. I'm okay just a
few bruises and cuts. Nothing big so no worries at home. This made me
late for work but they understood why. I showed up just in time for
breakfast, we had white Bavarian sausages and bread. It was pretty
good! There was also non-alcoholic wheat beer that was from Bavaria
too for breakfast. Apparently it is considered food not a drink. I
didn't really like it but at least I can say I tried it. I was really
busy at work just working on my project so the day flew by. I didn't
end up getting my passport back because it turns out that the town
hall closes at noon on Friday's.

After work I went home to change ( it was 28 and sunny) and get the
bike so I could take it back to Meri. I took it back and ended up
staying there for a while. I grabbed supper then went to meet Emily,
Erin and Colin at the train station. Once they were here we dropped
their gear off at my place. They weren't expecting the hill I live on
but we made it up with all of their belongings. After we headed back
down the hill to grab some drinks and catch up. The first place we
went to was packed! We waited almost 15 minutes for a table/drink and
didn't get one so we headed to the next place. It was really great
little pub so we stayed there the rest of the night. When we were
leaving we wanted food. Our waiter attempted and even drew a map to
McDonald's on the other side of town since he knew that would be open.
We set off for this no fully knowing where we were going. We were
talking about it and some guys heard us as we passed another pub. So
we asked them for more directions but they said it was going to be
another 2 km! Then we asked if there was anything closer and he
replied with yeah, 10 seconds and pointed across the street to a
Turkish place. So that's where we went and it was pretty good! Erin
and Colin had donairs (doner here) and Emily and I shared a pizza.
With full bellies we headed home and went to bed for the night. On our
way home we did run into a few pirates from the pirate convention that
is at the Best Western near where I live. We were never able to figure
out the pirate event but saw lots of them during the weekend.

Saturday

Once everyone was awake and showered we decided to head to the market
for breakfast. It was great we had fresh fruit and baked goods. Food
is pretty cheap here so it was a great meal. After the market we
headed to the cheese cake place for cheese cake because we had passed
it and it was too good looking (and tasting) to not have. After a bit
of wandering and stopping in some stores we went to meet Jenn at the
train station. Once she was with us we headed to this great asian food
place for lunch. It was delicious. For the afternoon we did some trip
planning for the rest of the summer. We're headed off to the southern
tip of Italy on the sea the first weekend of June! We got a sweet deal
and a beach weekend is going to be lots of fun. I was also able to get
my train tickets to Venice to meet Ruth and Don the second weekend if
June. I have a lot to look forward to :) Once trip planning was
complete we got ready and headed downtown again for supper and the
music festival. The restaurant had closed their kitchen because of the
festival and were having a BBQ instead. So this is what we had for
supper more German sausage. For the night we bounced around town to
the different places where bands were playing. There were 30 bands and
I think we saw about 10. The night was great we met a few people and
had some fun (we definitely stood out with all our English). By the
end of the night we were beat and were off to sleep in no time!

Sunday
Today was a lot colder and rainy but it was a lazy day. The group
headed home at different times through out the day too. Other than
walking them to the station and a short walk through the castle my day
wasn't all too exciting. It was nice to just relax and catch up with a
few people over skype and facebook. With that I'm off to bed soon
since work week 3 starts early tomorrow!

Day 16

Well I must start off with telling you that my good weather streak
ran out. I'm sure those of you will feel better knowing that I woke up
to pouring rain today! I was up early to go to work since I had left
early yesterday. As soon as I noticed the rain had somewhat died down
I headed to work. I was in luck because it let up just long enough for
me to get to work (thank you!). Simon and Frank were impressed when I
showed up dry to work. They had both driven their cars today. I
however did see a new way to bike and not get as wet. When I was
almost to work I passed a man on a bike also holding an umbrella so he
wouldn't get wet. That's a new one!

Today I was in the lab literally almost all day. None the less the
day flew by. I had a few extractions left to do. I've almost got the
lab caught up on extractions, for now that is. Each one takes three
hours to do and you can only do two at a time. While waiting for the
extraction I was able to start my project finally. Gloria showed me
how to prep my samples then left me to it. I have 32 different types
of materials that I need to test and need to have two samples of each
one to test. These took up almost all of the day to prepare and
tomorrow I get to start testing them. My day at work doesn't sound
that interesting but it wasn't too bad at all and flew by.

For lunch we almost made it to the canteen without the rain but it
started when we were about half way there. Lunch was the normal
conversation other than Simon asking if I had checked my facebook
lately. See Simon says he doesn't like facebook. Anyway, he had heard
on the news the night before that some peoples facebook accounts had
been hacked in Germany and wanted to see if my was okay. Seems to be
to me so we're all good. It would most likely be those people that
don't set up an security on their information or have accessible
computers. Who knows.

After work I was pretty hungry so I headed home right away. I did
however take another new route home. I think I discover a new one
every day! After eating I headed out to wander around some more. This
time it had a purpose. I wanted to make sure I knew the right way to
the train station for sure and how long it takes to get there. Emily
Colin and Erin arrive tomorrow and Jenn on Saturday morning for the
weekend so I need to make sure I"m there to meet them! On my way back
I cut through the castle grounds. What did I discover? Well it looks
like a circus tent. I'm not sure why so I'm going to have to
investigate. Maybe it's just the royal courts entertainment for the
weekend! haha I'm off to bed now. Hopefully Heidenheim is ready for a
weekend full of Canadians :)