Thursday, June 26, 2014

Fathers Day in the Fatherland (and the week that proceeded)



Tim Reppert
I don't really know what to write for this blog, so I'll just ramble about the previous week until something intelligible surfaces.

After a solid twenty-two hours at home thanks to finals, I made my way to the airport to meet people and await departure. The plane ride was decent enough, followed by a scenic train ride through Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland. Everyone immediately crashed for six hours which allowed me to meander about the city of Saarbrucken alone and explore.

The Gang at Luxembourg
Monday through Wednesday was chock full of exciting bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo where we went all over Saarbrucken trying to fill out paper work written in German. To our chagrin, we only accomplished half of the items on the list, but were later told that we physically could not.

Thursday, we wandered through Saarbrucken in an attempt to better our knowledge of where everything was located. On Friday, we took a trip to Luxembourg where we hit every tourist destination in their book, except Fort Thungen, which we could not find despite our efforts.

Saturday, we had to obtain supplies for the impending Sunday closure. We made sure to get food and other important things, then hung out by the river and watched some soccer at a public viewing event. On Sunday, we took a day trip to Heidelberg where we attempted to be the least tourist-like people there, although we did have Gabby with us.

Real work started Monday, where we all showed up ready to work, only to receive a heaping stack of literature that we had to read first. Some of us had the opportunity to get some hands on lab work experience in the first couple of days.

Strife: 
A lot of discord came out of being together too often. This was lessened when we started to work and had time away from one another.
The cooking situation is something that is taking a while to get used to. One kitchenette for nine people is difficult to manage, especially when it's in someone's bedroom.
The laundry situation is currently being looked into. Some people have resorted to buying more clothing in order to bide their time.

To recap the experience:
Germany is awesome. There is great food, great experience, and insanely intelligent people working on even more insanely mind-blowing projects.

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