Interesting week...

This week was filled with a few interesting events.

The first thing happened when I walked into work on Monday to discover my boss missing. She apparently injured herself last Friday and was so seriously injured, that she wasn't going to be able to make it into work all week. I guess that's why there are interns!! Even though she has two other student assistants working for her, they don't work every day. I ended up filling Beate's shoes as much as possible, at least within the boundaries of UROP. Luckily Beate can check her work email at home, so she was able to forward me things. The week might not have been so hectic, but we had printed certificates for the participants, all of which had a mistake, and many more had more mistakes, we later discovered. If we just needed to print them ourselves, it might not have been so bad. But not only did I have to send all the revisions to the University Press, I had to write a letter to all the supervisors and professors, who were supposed to sign them, telling them to discard the old certficate and sign the new one, and then I had to mail them all with the university mail. Maybe just fixing them all once would have been okay, but when you discover a new mistake on a couple every day, it gets super frustrating, and kind of embarassing to keep sending the revised copies to the university press. I'm surprised they don't hate me yet.

There were other things that need to be done. I just got really good at following up, answering the phone, and writing very polite business emails. Honestly, I don't if any of the work this week was HARD. It was challenging, I suppose, and one has to be able to keep a level head and remember everything. Everyone was very impressed with how I managed, and I know they were super thankful. Considering people say the Germans aren't apt to praise people, I certainly heard a lot of lob this week. It was kind of nice though this week, because I was kept busy all day. It was also a great example of what it might be like next year, if Beate were to go on vacation and leave me alone.

I think what struck me the most was how happy they were that I was capable of taking care of things and the fact that I actually did. In my eyes, I didn't have a choice. I gladly accepted the challenge, but what else was I supposed to do? Say that I couldn't work without Beate, just not show up, screw everything up ( I suppose that's always possible...)? I feel like I took the most normal action. Needless to say, it was an interesting and fun week.

Another fun event happened about two days ago. I was walking back from the store and this guy stopped me and asked if I knew where a street was. I apologized and told him I didn't know the area very well and proceeded to go on my way. He then proceeded to apologize for bothering me again, but wanted to tell me that I am very attractive and pretty and that I shouldn't take that creepily, but as a compliment. He wanted to know if we could get coffee sometime, casually..(and I kind of believe him in that part, at least initially) He proceeded to mention that he has a girlfriend, but that they're not married, so it's nothing solid, etc., etc. I eventually managed to say good bye. What was further interesting though, was that I mentioned I wouldn't be available since I was flying home soon ( I made it sound sooner than it was.) and he asked if home was South America. Do I look South American? Does my accent sound South American? Anyways, that was new and interesting.