Mildly annoyed that no one bothered to inform me that I didn't have to go in for my internship today. I thought the bank holiday was tomorrow? Apparently it's a four day weekend.

Eurgh, internships. I just want something to do, guys. It's nice when you give me work to do, even if it involves me cutting name cards out. That's better than me being bored. :c

Canoeing, or, how we almost died.

Hahaha, I'd never have thought that I would first go canoeing in Germany. We went canoeing on the Elbe today, and while most of the time you go for say, 3 or four miles, we had to go above and beyond that.

22 kilometers, guys. That's around 13.5 miles.

Needless to say, my entire body hurts. I feel like an old lady and haven't left my bed except for dinner. Also, it began to rain halfway through our trip and then a barge came up the Elbe, and that plus rain plus wind created currents. I thought we were going to die, no joke. Apparently it was bad enough that our tour guide almost made us get out of the water, but we persevered!

I have never been so happy to see land again in my life. Good day though, except for the rain and almost dying, and canoeing is now something I would like to do more frequently, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

Berlin again!

Berlin was just as fantastic the second time around, but even more so because we had nice weather and didn't have to lug backpacks around. (Molly, Virginia, and I may have also gotten lost, but we found our way around so yay for skills!)

We were going to do a street art tour, but never managed to find the Starbucks near the Alexanderplatz, so then we went on a man-hunt to find the East Side Gallery ourselves. Let's just say that took hours--we got side-tracked by Checkpoint Charlie, souvenir shops, a strange yarn ball-esque sculpture, and a flea market. Eventually we (meaning me) managed to talk to someone who knew how to find the East Side Gallery, and made it there. It was well worth the time it took to get there, and I like Berlin even more than I did the first time.

(Also, found cookie cutters shaped like the Ampelmännchen*! So excited to get home and bake now.)

* These are Ampelmännchen. East German ones, natürlich.

Wörlitz!

Wörlitz was so neat! We had some awesome weather, for one, and we got to go run around in a massive park all day. Also, gondola rides, which are sort of terrifying but fun all the same.

The Wörlitzer Park was sort of the obsession of Duke Leopold III of Anhalt-Dessau. He did a tour of Europe (which was the norm for all the fashionable rich kids in the 18th century) and came back to Germany wanting to create an English park of his very own. Thus the Wörlitzer Park was born: complete with a Temple of Flora, a palace, a baby Vesuvius, grottos, and a column Leopold brought back from Pompeii. Basically, it was like the 18th century German Disneyland; people would come there to learn more about other places they couldn't afford to visit otherwise and got to see Leopold's palace and the like.

Duke Leopold was a nice guy, wasn't he? His wife wasn't so happy about people touring her palace, so he built her her own house so she could go off and brood. Smart chap, our Leopold, haha.

So we had some nice weather, I got some good pictures, and we had a good time running around the park. Very good day!

Internship shenanigans abounded today. I've been working on my program translation for KTC's Himmel auf Erden festival (an international music festival that takes place in July). This is okay, but I've realized I'm going to finish this way faster than I think they intended. Perhaps I ought to draw it out for as long as I can.

The people I work with are nice, but I don't do much talking. For the most part people have their own offices and work at computers, so there's not much time for talking. I dunno, but I ought to improve my German somehow and this isn't going to cut it. However, this is only the third day so gotta give them some time--I'm sure they're not used to me being awkwardly there either.

Easter times

Today had been a good day! I went to the church service at the Castle Church with the Bennetts, Casey, and Matt, and had a good time. I'm amazed at how pretty the church is--all stained glass and impressive like. So it was fascinating to go to church there, and I was surprised to find that I picked up a good portion of the sermon/service.

Afterwards, we had lunch at the Haus des Handwerks, one of the older restaurants in town, dating from the GDR period. Very good food, but pricey, but altogether worth it. This evening I'll go to the British boys choir concert, and surely will be a nice way to end my Easter Sunday.

Internships start tomorrow!

Well, classes are over and internships start tomorrow. I think I'll be alright, and the folks that work there seem nice, but I'm nervous.

Apparently Dr. Bennett says it's good to be nervous? I've got my dictionary, so here's to making the best of it.

German certification exam is today. Let me die - my nerves are so bad right now. :c

Erfurt/Eisenach

Well, this trip was a bit of a mess. Our bus driver got lost, so we lost a good portion of time for our Erfurt tour and that was a shame. Erfurt is basically your quintessential German merchant town, complete with a fantastic merchants' bridge, where the shops line the sides of the bridge over a river. Very narrow, but fantastic. Also, houses were apparently named with symbols and pictures that were painted on the front of the house--no house numbers here! It was neat, and I liked it, but I wish we'd had more time to look at the city.

Unfortunately we didn't because then we were off to the Wartburg Castle. For those of you who don't know, the Wartburg is where Martin Luther hid from the Holy Roman Emperor after being excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Also, where he translated the New Testament from Latin to German--what a winner! It was interesting because there were areas that had been renovated with massive mosaics portraying "medieval" life as envisioned by chaps in the 19th century. Very pretty, but sort of funny because it was very romanticised. The room where Martin Luther translated the New Testament was very anti-climactic in comparison, and unfortunately I couldn't take pictures. Too bad--I know some of you would have like to have see it, but it really wasn't that impressive.

Afterwards, we went to the Bachhouse in Eisenach. That was neat! We had a baby concert on period instruments (harpsichords and small pipe organs) and then we got to wander in the museum. I definitely have a new appreciation for Dr. Faber (Witt's organist) and other organists--it's definitely not easy.