Today was my last day of work and it felt both good and strange. I was really pleased because I had finished everything that I had ever started or that was still on my to-do list. We had also cleaned up the office in the past week, so everything was bare, just waiting for me to leave in a way. It did feel strange though that I was finished and that I wouldn't be coming back to work again. I am going back on Monday to say good bye to everyone, and I'm really looking forward to that. Hopefully at that point, I'll really be ready to say farewell.
Yesterday was my last Fitness mit Musik. Not that I went extremely often, but in the last weeks I have been trying to go to this fitness class, especially with Hendrik. I really enjoyed it, especially with one trainer in particular, Dirk. He actually cares if people are doing the movements right and yells otherwise. Oh and he's good looking of course. Right when I was getting in the habit of going, I have to leave, damnit....
I've said my first good-byes, first to Carolin and then Hendrik. Things never hit me till I'm all the way home, and then I'm sure I'll lose it just a little bit.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Aachen Adventures...what have I been up to?
Now that it's down to the last 10 days (so excited!!), it's time to remember all the stuff I've been doing the last few weeks.
UROP officially ended on Wednesday, July 29th. It was amusing to hear all the students ask me if I was going to travel around now or relax since the program was over, considering I still had to go to work for another 1.5 weeks. Just because they're done and gone, doesn't mean there isn't lots to clean up or organize once they're gone. My job leading up to the final event was to organize the guest list, collect all the certificates and put them in the folders, along with lots of other stuff the students got back, organize tshirts, name tags, build and set up portable walls to hang the students' posters on, etc. It seems like a lot of busy work, which it was, but it was nice to do that for once, instead of working on the computer all the time.
The final event was a Poster Colloquium. Due to the large number of projects, forty-nine to be exact, we didn't want every student to have to formally present his/her project. Since there are 9 faculties at the RWTH Aachen, we put them in their respective groups, and asked that they prepare a short info bit about their faculty and then each briefly describe their project. Not every group had to do this though, just those pulled hroups out of hat at random. We heard from medicine, biology, waste managment, business and economics, and a few more. Afterwards there was time for everyone to hang up their posters and the guests to walk around and ask questions. To close the colloquium, we handed out the certificates. I'm not sure what other ideas Beate had had in mind in terms of how to structure the colloquium (last year there were only 23 students, so they all did powerpoints) but I know that I mentioned UM's UROP Poster Colloquium, so it felt good about contributing to the format and how to run things.
The colloquium went really well. The dress code was casual, though no flip flops, but I decided to wear a dress I had brought with me but hadn't had a chance to wear all summer. Good decision: I got compliments left and right, but mostly because I was probably more dressed up the the majority of people. In the evening we had a pizza party for everyone, which was actually quite nice. It last for three hours, which we didn't expect. Some students had planned a huge party for everyone later that night. I attended but left rather early (11:30ish).
Now my work consists of evaluating the surveys we sent out to the participants, cleaning the office, evaluating the summer, translating press releases, helping organize other programs Beate heads, etc. Classes will be interesting this fall as a result of this summer. My business German class should not be too new, considering all the formal letters and such I've been writing and reading, whereas my CompLit translation class will be completely different, since I'm used to translating nonfiction and logistical documents, not literature.
Socially I suppose I've been very busy lately, due to one person in particular. Hendrik (I've mentioned him in previous posts) and I have either spent a large amount of time together or just talk a lot. I'm not sure which. I think we just both have a lot of time, but we've watched movies together while drinking way too much amaretto, gotten lunch, met together with other friends, etc. I mean in the long run, it's not like we've done something every day, but he has been the most consistent and present friend here, even though we probably only met a month ago. He actually spent a year in Iowa as an exchange student and has gone back to the US since then. For that reason oddly enough, we almost always speak English, which is actually kind of nice. I don't even consider him my 'German' friend, rather just a friend.
A couple of weeks ago, Beate, Carolin, some of my coworkers and I had a picnic to enjoy ourselves outside of work. They're a really great group of people and I've meshed really well. It definitely influences my decision about coming back next year.
Yesterday I got together with friends to BBQ. I had a great time, though I'm sure the three different schnapps varieties (some honey one, Apfelkorn, and brandy) we tried helped a lot. That and a beer did me in the for the evening just enough. The evening was also quite successful, because I managed to open a beer bottle with a lighter for the first time. I hadn't tried too often before, but it really shouldn't that hard and should also be a skill everyone possesses. I had made it a habit to carry a lighter with me, out of convenience for smokers in a group or actualy bottle opening, but that doesn't mean I had actually used the lighter much myself.
For more info on that bottle opening method, see: http://www.wikihow.com/Open-a-Beer-Bottle-with-a-Lighter ( But I held the lighter a bit differently.)
Aachen is such a relatively small city that I've managed to meet enough people and run into them on the street. It's like getting part of my A2 life back. People who know me there will agree when I say that I run into almost too many people when out and about in Ann Arbor. It's a great feeling here, because it's like I built a life up from nothing and now I'm actually greeted on the street. Sometimes it's pure chance. I think I saw one person almost every day one week, each time in a completely different place.
In a way it's good timing that I'm leaving soon, because the exam phase has begun here. Students are really tested at all during the whole semester and then they have a huge exam at the end of the semester. Most students do no work until this phase and then spend ABSOLUTELY ALL THEIR TIME studying. I'm not exaggerating. That being said, almost no one is available to get together (except of course Hendrik, b/c somehow he's always available if he's in town.). I'd be quite bored the next few weeks. The exam phase started about a week ago and it goes till about the beginning of October, since the new semester starts mid-October. It kind of bugs me that students do this to themselves and limit their social lives, but when I actually gave it some thought, I realized I do something similar. Although I always try to be as social as I can and balance school, I never went out very often on the weekend just in general, always opting to do something else, including hw. Now that I don't have any schoolwork, I've been going out a ton. I can imagine that when I get back to school, I won't be going out as much as I have been, even if I want to, since I know I will definitely miss going out.
What will I be doing these last few days, you may ask?:
-Maybe going to the movies
- maybe going to the thermal baths with Hendrik, though probably not
- seeing Carolin
- packing, cleaning my room
-hopefully going to a local museum with Sarah to see an exhibit where everything is made out of chocolate (some things look like porcelain statues)
- going to the local fair ( you can see the grounds from my window, and I saw the ferris wheel being built!)
- throwing a going away party next weekend
- making rice krispie treats for the office (It's normal to bake when you're leaving, and I don't have a real oven nor do I want to buy ingredients I'm only going to use once, so rice krispie treats are a good option, plus they're super American. I made them for my class as an exchange student too.)
*By the way, don't you just love my ridiculously long sentences? I promise my academic writing is much better, or at least I hope it is.
The bottom photos are of the Aachen cathedral at night, a posable fountain, and a street in Aachen-kind of part the old town/inner city, pedestrian only, but it's not the main shopping pedestrain zone. Confusing I know.
UROP officially ended on Wednesday, July 29th. It was amusing to hear all the students ask me if I was going to travel around now or relax since the program was over, considering I still had to go to work for another 1.5 weeks. Just because they're done and gone, doesn't mean there isn't lots to clean up or organize once they're gone. My job leading up to the final event was to organize the guest list, collect all the certificates and put them in the folders, along with lots of other stuff the students got back, organize tshirts, name tags, build and set up portable walls to hang the students' posters on, etc. It seems like a lot of busy work, which it was, but it was nice to do that for once, instead of working on the computer all the time.
The final event was a Poster Colloquium. Due to the large number of projects, forty-nine to be exact, we didn't want every student to have to formally present his/her project. Since there are 9 faculties at the RWTH Aachen, we put them in their respective groups, and asked that they prepare a short info bit about their faculty and then each briefly describe their project. Not every group had to do this though, just those pulled hroups out of hat at random. We heard from medicine, biology, waste managment, business and economics, and a few more. Afterwards there was time for everyone to hang up their posters and the guests to walk around and ask questions. To close the colloquium, we handed out the certificates. I'm not sure what other ideas Beate had had in mind in terms of how to structure the colloquium (last year there were only 23 students, so they all did powerpoints) but I know that I mentioned UM's UROP Poster Colloquium, so it felt good about contributing to the format and how to run things.
The colloquium went really well. The dress code was casual, though no flip flops, but I decided to wear a dress I had brought with me but hadn't had a chance to wear all summer. Good decision: I got compliments left and right, but mostly because I was probably more dressed up the the majority of people. In the evening we had a pizza party for everyone, which was actually quite nice. It last for three hours, which we didn't expect. Some students had planned a huge party for everyone later that night. I attended but left rather early (11:30ish).
Now my work consists of evaluating the surveys we sent out to the participants, cleaning the office, evaluating the summer, translating press releases, helping organize other programs Beate heads, etc. Classes will be interesting this fall as a result of this summer. My business German class should not be too new, considering all the formal letters and such I've been writing and reading, whereas my CompLit translation class will be completely different, since I'm used to translating nonfiction and logistical documents, not literature.
Socially I suppose I've been very busy lately, due to one person in particular. Hendrik (I've mentioned him in previous posts) and I have either spent a large amount of time together or just talk a lot. I'm not sure which. I think we just both have a lot of time, but we've watched movies together while drinking way too much amaretto, gotten lunch, met together with other friends, etc. I mean in the long run, it's not like we've done something every day, but he has been the most consistent and present friend here, even though we probably only met a month ago. He actually spent a year in Iowa as an exchange student and has gone back to the US since then. For that reason oddly enough, we almost always speak English, which is actually kind of nice. I don't even consider him my 'German' friend, rather just a friend.
A couple of weeks ago, Beate, Carolin, some of my coworkers and I had a picnic to enjoy ourselves outside of work. They're a really great group of people and I've meshed really well. It definitely influences my decision about coming back next year.
Yesterday I got together with friends to BBQ. I had a great time, though I'm sure the three different schnapps varieties (some honey one, Apfelkorn, and brandy) we tried helped a lot. That and a beer did me in the for the evening just enough. The evening was also quite successful, because I managed to open a beer bottle with a lighter for the first time. I hadn't tried too often before, but it really shouldn't that hard and should also be a skill everyone possesses. I had made it a habit to carry a lighter with me, out of convenience for smokers in a group or actualy bottle opening, but that doesn't mean I had actually used the lighter much myself.For more info on that bottle opening method, see: http://www.wikihow.com/Open-a-Beer-Bottle-with-a-Lighter ( But I held the lighter a bit differently.)
Aachen is such a relatively small city that I've managed to meet enough people and run into them on the street. It's like getting part of my A2 life back. People who know me there will agree when I say that I run into almost too many people when out and about in Ann Arbor. It's a great feeling here, because it's like I built a life up from nothing and now I'm actually greeted on the street. Sometimes it's pure chance. I think I saw one person almost every day one week, each time in a completely different place.
In a way it's good timing that I'm leaving soon, because the exam phase has begun here. Students are really tested at all during the whole semester and then they have a huge exam at the end of the semester. Most students do no work until this phase and then spend ABSOLUTELY ALL THEIR TIME studying. I'm not exaggerating. That being said, almost no one is available to get together (except of course Hendrik, b/c somehow he's always available if he's in town.). I'd be quite bored the next few weeks. The exam phase started about a week ago and it goes till about the beginning of October, since the new semester starts mid-October. It kind of bugs me that students do this to themselves and limit their social lives, but when I actually gave it some thought, I realized I do something similar. Although I always try to be as social as I can and balance school, I never went out very often on the weekend just in general, always opting to do something else, including hw. Now that I don't have any schoolwork, I've been going out a ton. I can imagine that when I get back to school, I won't be going out as much as I have been, even if I want to, since I know I will definitely miss going out.
What will I be doing these last few days, you may ask?:
-Maybe going to the movies
- maybe going to the thermal baths with Hendrik, though probably not
- seeing Carolin
- packing, cleaning my room
-hopefully going to a local museum with Sarah to see an exhibit where everything is made out of chocolate (some things look like porcelain statues)
- going to the local fair ( you can see the grounds from my window, and I saw the ferris wheel being built!)
- throwing a going away party next weekend
- making rice krispie treats for the office (It's normal to bake when you're leaving, and I don't have a real oven nor do I want to buy ingredients I'm only going to use once, so rice krispie treats are a good option, plus they're super American. I made them for my class as an exchange student too.)
*By the way, don't you just love my ridiculously long sentences? I promise my academic writing is much better, or at least I hope it is.
The bottom photos are of the Aachen cathedral at night, a posable fountain, and a street in Aachen-kind of part the old town/inner city, pedestrian only, but it's not the main shopping pedestrain zone. Confusing I know.
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