End of Phase 1

I'll be honest. I feel like I was in Strasbourg a month ago. How was that only 5 days ago? This week has been bonkers...and today was my last day of work! What??!

I'll backtrack briefly to talk about Strasbourg. It really was very beautiful, regardless of the weather. It seemed like it was some sort of fusion of Köln and Amsterdam, with a touch of Provence. I wandered around in the rain until I found a place with a map, and then I actually knew how to get to the cathedral so I headed straight there. GORGEOUS. And very Kölner Dom-esque, although not quite so big, and much less graffitied. Even though it was Sunday, the area around the cathedral was bustling with about 80% Germans, 15% Asians, and 5% Americans. There were souvenir shops everywhere, although they were all selling the same things (beer steins, stuffed Alsace cranes, and creepy little witches). I actually managed to weed through all the junk to find a lovely little paining of the cathedral for just 2 euros, so that made me very happy :)


By mid to late afternoon, I was wet and freezing and really wishing for some respite from the weather...but there were so many more things that I wanted to see before heading back to Germany. That basically left me 2 options: the tourist train, or the tourist boat. After my lovely experience in Luxembourg with the stupid tourist train (see the edit!), the choice was easy. The boat ride was very much like the tours offered in Amsterdam, and lasted just over an hour. It was the perfect way to visit everything that I wanted to see while getting a break from the weather.

It gets better. When the tour ended, I was welcomed by absolutely perfect weather. The sun was out and it was warm, so I decided to walk along the canal, following the route that the boat had gone, to further investigate some of the sights I had just learned about. This included a visit to the popular Petite France area (very cute, and absolutely deserving of its Heritage Site classification), the covered canals, and a few more churches.


Eventually I meandered my way back to the train station (after ditching a creepy old man that liked my eyes and thought he'd follow me around for a while) to head home. Successful daytrip indeed!

And then it was back to real life. Or at least as real as it can get while spending the summer working abroad! As you could probably tell from my last post, I was freaked about my seminar. I already know that I suck at presentations. I'm shy and I have issues with nerves. But this time there was even more on the table - it was my first real presentation: not at school, not being graded, but to show my contributions and to (hopefully) earn the respect of my colleagues. Maybe freaked is an understatement! I was glad to have a few minutes to myself before it started; I needed to remind myself to breathe!

But actually, I think it went pretty well. I didn't die, and aside from forgetting about one of my slides near the end and misunderstanding one of the questions from my boss, I didn't mess up anything too badly! Actually, one of my colleagues told me after that she thought I looked very relaxed and confident. Sweet! I really don't know where that came from, but I sure hope it sticks around!

The rest of the week at work was spent writing my report (a recollection of everything that I experienced and learned this summer) for school in German. More than half is finished, and that is fabulous.

Suddenly today arrived. August 20th. The end date on my contract. Mist.

So since I am kind of a nerdy Canadian, I brought 2 bottles of real Canadian maple syrup with me from home. I thought that they might come in handy at some point. I was right! I used it to make maple cookies for my colleagues which I brought to work today. And not just boring old cookies. I also made a giant maple leaf-shaped cookie, which seemed necessary at the time (Canadian, therefore maple cookies, therefore maple leaf), but really cheesy after the fact. Oh well...apparently my colleagues liked it - they asked if they could take my picture with it! :P Not everybody liked the cookies of course (they are REALLY sweet, after all), but many loved them and asked for the recipe, so that was exciting! Especially since I'm pretty sure that was the first time I've ever made cookies from scratch.


After putting off my departure for as long as possible (and finally visiting Eggbert, the little quail that hatched 2 days ago), it soon became obvious that it was time to go. I cleaned out my desk, put my lab coat in the laundry, said my goodbyes (not gonna lie, that was really hard - I hadn't realized just how much I had become a part of the group!), visited the chickens, and walked down the hill to the Sankt Ingbert train station for the last time.

Yes, that is the end of mein Praktikum. Commence Phase 2: SUMMER VACATION!!

Tomorrow morning I head to Frankfurt to meet up with Tamara, and tomorrow night we catch our Nachtzug to Vienna. SUPERduper excited, both to see Tammy and to go back to Vienna! It has been way too long x2. As for blogging, I hope to continue for my remaining 9 days abroad, but I don't know what the internet situation will be like, so we'll just have to see. In any case, you will hear from me again at some point.

Bis dann!