Whoah! So many adventures! This weekend was absolutely beautiful :D

(Beware, this post is looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.)

My weekend started a day early, because the colleagues

,

in Bremen wanted me to get to see Helgoland. Helgoland is an island in the North Sea, off the coast of Germany. I was (easily) persuaded to go explore it! Hear I am on the Kloar Kimming.

Yep, somehow I managed to get onto the Kim boat, as opposed to the more traditional sounding Atlantis or whatever the other one was! It was a 3 hour boat ride out, which was fun. It was pretty windy. Especially if you were sticking your head over the edge for most of the trip, as I was :) We also got some nice waves. On the way out we were kicking up a lot of spray. I was on the second of 3 stories, and I still got my face full of water several times, and an earful of water once :) It was a hard thing to try to photograph, since I didn't want my camera to get wet. This is the best picture I got:

And here is the first view of Helogland:

... The zoom on my eyes was a little better than that on the camera... So, we eventually reached Helgoland and dropped anchor nearby. Then a few of these little boats came out to ferry us to the island itself.

I ended up on the last boat to land because I got distracted by this bird that was really curious and friendly:

4 guys, a pair each from the Kloar Kimming and the little boat (I think mine was named Matilda), handed each of the passengers in. Then we rode over to the island! Bye boat!

Helgoland itself is really small ... I think around 1 square kilometer. So the popular thing to do is to walk around the whole perimeter. There are some vacation houses on one part and of course tourist shops (duty free :)) and sheep! It totally used to be a pirate hangout! I bought myself a fish sandwich and found a nice bench to eat it on. Then I did the island circuit. The sun was out full force and it was a beautiful day. Helgoland was bombed in WWII, and there's a crater from a 5000 Kg bomb that I got to see. I didn't have the proper lighting to take a picture that conveys the size of the crater. As in the rest of Germany, pretty flowers are plentiful on Helgoland (especially by the little vacation houses). Here's a pretty flower!

And some sheep!

The island also has a lot of red sandstone. Look, I found some!

This picture was my favorite one ALL DAY, because it was so fun to take. First, notice that I am pretty far away from the camera. Then realize that my autotimer gives me 10 seconds to get into position, and the first is wasted seeing that the autotimer light has started flashing. Ok, note that I am barefootedly enjoying the nice day. And finally, recall the sheep -- where sheep live, sheep poop. So. Getting the picture meant setting the camera up at the right angle on a rock, starting the timer, sprinting quickly yet carefully and erratically up to the rock, climbing up, and smiling triumphantly. Lots of fun! The people picnicing on the neighboring hill seemed to be amused. Here's another picture where you can see the coloration of the sandstone a little better, and also that nifty stone tower, the name of which I can't recall at the moment.

I went to what was marked as the high point of the island and lay down on a hill in the sun and rested. I tuned out the world around me. Eventually I started to be aware of noises again, and then to be aware of an amusing conversation happening near me. Translated to English (from German):

Guy A: "Think we should help her?"

Guy B: "Well, she hasn't moved for a while..."

Guy C: "maybe she's dead"

They continued to make good natured comments like this until I looked up.

Guy A: "Are you ok?"

Me: "I'm fine... really good. It's so nice out! "

Guy A: "Are you sure??"

Guy B: "Because we could help you!"

Guy A: "we know first aid!"

Me: "Nope, I'm sure :)"

Guys: Bye!

Here's a wider view of people walking around on the island.

The docks and more inhabited area is in the background, and everything in the foreground and behind me is just pastoral.

After I completed the circuit I through the shops area and got a large wurst and fries. I was amused that a litre of Jack Daniels cost 17 Euro at the shops :) (well, 16.95. but it counts.) They sold alcohol in large quantities -- I saw a 4.5 litre bottle of scotch!

All together we had about 3 hours on the island. Then we got back on the boat and headed back to Bremenhaven. Bremenhaven is actually a town distinct from the larger city of Bremen. Haven means harbor. I really like Bremenhaven. It reminds me a little bit of Duluth. I suppose I just like harbor towns in general! On my way to the boat that morning I had seen signs for a Kino im Haven -- Movies at the Harbor. So, I headed down to the harbor where they were supposed to be. Along the way I found an apple tree and picked about a dozen apples :D Kino im Haven turned out to be a huge awesome community event. They announced attendance as being either 3.5 or 4.5 thousand, I forget which. They had gotten some freight containers -- the kind you've probably seen on trains, and which are also sent around on ships -- and stacked them up about 5 high and 2 long, and then hung a huge screen over that. I got a nice seat near the front -- a lady had been saving the seat for her sister who cancelled. First there was a magician to watch. The sun set.

Then the movie: Kalender Girls. It was Calender Girls, but dubbed in German. I remember hearing about the movie a long time ago, when I was looking at colleges, and hearing that it was good. And then I forgot about it. So, it was really cool to finally see it. It's a fun movie based on the true story of a group of English women creating and selling a novel calender to raise money for a good cause.

After the movie I asked walking directions to the train station from some nice women who insisted on driving me there :)

And all this happened in my weekend before Saturday! Speaking of which, on Saturday morning I got on a couple of trains and ended up in Amsterdaam! On the way in I saw sheep, cows, and galloping horses out the train window. :D

Somehow I am hitting all of the exciting events in Europe this summer! I happened to be in Kassel, not knowing about the Documenta beforehand. Alex invited me to LiveEarth in Hamburg. Devin and I rendezvoused in Paris for Bastille Day weekend. And I just happened to come to Amsterdaam on the weekend of the yearly Gay Pride Festival. So, the whole city was completely alive! Here's a picture of a parade on the canals:

I met three guys a year or two younger than me from England and sort of just joined their group for the day :D After hanging out at their hostel and talking for a while, I headed out to a flea market and they went to go sit in a park and enjoy the sun. At the flea market I bargained a guy down from 12.50 Euros to 10 for a skirt and also got an exciting headscarf thing. Exciting because it uses elastic instead of plastic, so it doesn't hurt my temples! Then we met up again and I went to the Van Gogh museum with one of them. Then we all met at the hostel again and three of us went out to the grocery store and got a wonderful dinner. We each got a delicious salad, and we got an apple pie to share. And I got a crazy fruit. The cashier didn't even know what it was. It looked sort of like a tiny pineapple with spikes. But not really. It was just a crazy tropical fruit. When I cut it open later, the inside came out like a white egg. And inside the fruit was a nut. Or something. It was the most enigmatic fruit ever! I also got a KinderEgg! It's a hollow chocolate egg and inside are some pieces and instructions for building them into a toy! So, we went out to the huge nearby park and had a nice picnic. A lot of other people had the same idea. Some of them brought their drumset, mike, and other instruments and just gave an impromptu concert. There was also cabaret in a bandshell a ways away ... I went to investigate at one point when we heard clapping from that direction. After a nice relaxed, delicous, filling dinner, we played frisbee for a while. Then we sat there talking for a few hours. Except that I actually took this opportunity to take a nap. :) I woke up around midnight and we headed back to the hostel, and then one of the guys went out with me to explore the night.

We got some Kebab -- best Kebab I've ever tasted!! And did other traditional things, such as seeing the red light district. And untraditional things, like seeing the Anne Frank house at night (because I didn't know when else I would get a chance to see it!) And we sat and talked to a guy named Maurice. All in all, it was great fun. I'm really pleased in general about how thoroughly I saw Amsterdaam in only one day. I guess I should also mention seeing the national monument, Madam Toussard's, and the canals in general. I learned my way around the city really quickly!

Early the next morning I caught a train to The Hague. The people of The Netherlands are so nice! First, a guy from the train got me oriented when we got there. Then I went walking along and found the City Hall and De Nieuwe Kerk (The New Church). And a guy -- his name may have been Charles, but I'm afraid I've already forgotten -- offered to take a picture with me in it. And here is that picture:

And then he just sort of decided to be my tour guide. He was a really good tour guide, too! And took pictures for me :) Here's the town hall. I include the second picture to try to show that it is bigger than it appears in the pic with me in it. The thing is massive.

We took one of these trams to the Westbroek Park.

The trams going in that direction were all packed, since that was the direction to the beach and the weather was again gorgeous. Westbroek Park is this huge flower park in the middle of a big city :) All the flowers smelled great! Here I am smelling a rose and modelling my new headscarf-y thing.

And here I am with a statue of Puss In Boots. (One of my favorite fairy tales as a kid)

Then I said farewell to my excellent tour guide and headed to the beach. Along the way I encountered some art. I am really starting to love the art that's everywhere in Europe. I don't know about the Netherlands, but in Germany anyone who erects a building is required to spend some percentage of their building fund on art for the property. (Also, people building shops with awnings have to plant trees because they're preventing water from getting the the earth around their shop.) Some art:

Look, I found a beach!!

And a crab!

And some tulips ... or are they umbrellas?

The beach was really nice. I ended up leaving my bag with a sunbathing couple who have a daughter my age, and were incredibly nice. Then I hung around in the water with a 16 year old girl from the Netherlands named Ashleigh. Then I walked up and down the beach finding pretty seashells. I found a tiny tiny sand dollar!!!

After the beach I stopped briefly at Madurodam, a flea market, Chinatown (I was soo excited that The Hague has a Chinatown! It's small, but there's a Dim Sum place!) and the Parliament building.

And then I headed out, for the long journey back to Kassel for work tomorrow! The End!

On the plus side, I've been eating lots of delicious food. On the minus side, I've been eating LOTS of delicous food. There goes the gym... I think I had four croissants at breakfast this morning. They were just that delicous. This is in addition to a Brötchen, jogurt, fruit, bacon and eggs. I somehow managed to avoid the cake for the first time in 3 days... I actually got to work earlier today despite leaving later, which was exciting. Yesterday I sort of followed the river, since I knew my end destination was near the river as well. Today I realized that while the best path could run away from the river, the metal rails all thru the streets couldn't, since my destination was near a streetcar stop. So, I could stop asking directions at every major intersection, and avoid the perils of people who don't know their own city!

Work was really fun! I did two work instructions, one for injector cables and one for an overhaul of an exhaust system. I also got a new cat:

Isn't he cute! He walks around the bottom of the screen, or even on top of your windows, and general acts like a cat. (You can get your own Felix here: http://www.goldfiles.com/portal.php?fileid=17 ) Awww.... he's so cute! So, work was fun. I wish I could work here longer!

And then I went home with Birgit, my temporary boss in Bremen. She told me a recipe for the goulash we had for lunch, and helped me write it down in german. And then we made Käsespitze with chicken and vegetables, which was delicous. I ended up crying though, cutting up the onion :) Only the second time in Germany, so I guess I'm not doing so poorly... And we had wine with our meal, and icecream with cherries and whipped cream for desert!

Then I came back to the hotel. On the way I stopped in a bookstore to read a couple of pages of Harry Potter. Then I sort of just vegged out, read a new webcomic, listened to music. Because it's summer -- I can relax if I want.

Tomorrow I am going to head off to exciting new adventures, and I won't be bringing my laptop. It is no fun to travel with! I think next time I go on a trip I'm going to write all the blogs ahead of time, and have them post automatically. Anyways, I will (hopefully) be writing about all sorts of awesome adventures after the weekend is over. Auf Wiedersehen!

I'm on a business trip, and it's lots of fun :) On Monday I was in Bremen and got to see their place, and the work they are doing related to my project. And then Alex and I went shopping and to dinner, and I had a Baki with my hamburger. Alex says Bakis are usually called Kibas in her experience. The two parts of the word, in any case, are Ba - short for Banane, which is of course german for banana- and Ki -short for Kirsche, which is german for cherry. Baki or Kiba, it was delicous. Also, apparently very german.

Bremen is so much fun! I'd like to stay here longer. At work it's a really friendly atmosphere. And I get to walk around warehouses full of, for instance, engines. Many of them the size of small dorm rooms. Many with 16 cylinders. It makes me happy when I recognize the Triebzugwagen engines that we use in Kassel :) We've been walking around taking pictures of certain bolts and stuff on the engines because of an Arbeitsansweizung that we -- primarily I -- are/am writing. Basically, I'm writing instructions about how to do an oil change correcly. In german. On an engine that is several times my size and with which I have very little familiarity. I'm kindof confused about why exactly they want me to tell other people what to do. But it's so cool! Oh, and at the factory, there's the Führersraum from a 218 just being used as interior decoration. I love it! I also enjoy striding purposefully around huge warehouses in a big blue coat and hardhat.

After work today I biked around for a while. I stopped at their library and looked around. You have to pay use the library in Germany :( They had a giant chess set there too. They're everywhere... I'm really glad to finally get a picture for you:

It was a pretty library. I sort of biked around every which way for a while, being very indecisive about what I wanted to do. I eventually went down to The Weser River and got some chicken, bread, and Apfelschorle (carbonated apple juice -- sooo delicious! One of the things I'll definitely miss when I go back to the US). Then I sat around in the sunshine. This is a big deal, because most of the summer has actually felt like fall :( But today was nice and warm! I listened to the people next to me talking about computer science in german, following as best I could. I asked them about this old ship I saw anchored. Apparently the restaurant there specializes in pancakes! Eventually I wandered down to a lady who was knitting and asked what she was doing, and we ended up having a nice conversation. She pointed out the people rowing on the river and showed how you could tell which boats had learners in them. She learned how to row in Bremen! She's been here 15 years, originally from Southwest germany. She also has one of those neat collapsible bicycles. She pointed me down the river where there is apparently a boat over to a little island with a beach and café. So I walked down that way.

As I walked along, it looked like a scene from some idyllic picture, with people sitting on the grass along the riverfront, just relaxing. I felt lonely. I started to make up a trilingual song about being alone. And then I saw some people playing frisbee. So I asked if I could play, and they said yes. And it was a lot of fun. I happened to stand facing the direction I had come from. When I looked up, the clouds in that direction were absolutely beautiful. Eventually the sun set, and the sky was amazing. Also, I improved my forehand throw a lot! So, I declare the evening a success! After that, I headed back. I had taken the Straßenbahn -- er, I suppose it's streetcar in English... that just seems funny for some reason-- to the river. But after that I had walked a ways and so I wasn't near the stop anymore. So I walked back to my hotel. Along the way, I saw this place with a sign that said something Seiwer Haus ... I don't remember what exactly. But it looked like Bremen's Senior Haus (er, to non-MIT people, never mind.) I also saw a place that claimed to be the 'Döner Palace.' Which was what it sounds like it would be. I also saw pretty parks, stores selling everything from thick Arabic rugs to ice cream, and lots of people out enjoying the night. I got a scoop of icecream with a name that was unfamiliar to me. Something-cake. It was yummy!

I came back here around 10pm and read a couple of stories from the Arabian Nights.

Yep. I definitely recommend going on business trips. I get my bed made every day, delicious free breakfast, and a public transportation pass. And someone lent me a bike. I didn't even ask! And the beds here are excellent! Big puffy down blankets and pillows :) Speaking of which... I'm going to go sleep now. Er... have a nice dinner! Or whatever it is you do at midnight my time :)

A Random Assortment of Things I've Been Meaning to / Forgot to Blog:

1) The kids' names from last weekend. Inge's nieces and nephew are Nina, Bastian, and Miri.

2) The Grotto. I CAN'T BELIEVE I forgot to mention this when I wrote about Potsdam (July 22nd's Journal entry). It's this place in one of the castles -- the castle has two names; one is the name of the architect and the other is something like New Castle. I think. *shrug* I don't have internet right now or I'd tell you. It's this one, in case you go and are looking around for it:

So in this castle is room -- well, small cavern is a better way to describe it, maybe -- known as The Grotto. And I think it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. The room itself is very large and elegant, with marble floors, windows across the far wall, a slightly domed ceiling, and many small alcoves curving around its perimeter. The spectacular part is that the whole thing is encrusted with seashells and precious minerals and jewels. They aren't just displayed, they're part of the room. The minerals and jewels seem to grow out of the walls. And they're not just one royal family's jewels. Over the years, gifts from all sorts of royalty and dignitaries have been added. Now, they don't even know what's all there. A german university is currently doing a project during the hours that its closed to the public to try to identify all the components of the room. Honestly, the place is so awesome. The pictures of it they sell in the gift shop are ok, but they can't capture the feeling in the room.

3) Work. Deutsche Bahn is an amazing place to intern, in my opinion! The work's interesting, plus you get to see all sorts of related work at the factory (I got to operate the hydraulic lift the other day! That means I made a train go 5 feet in the air!), and go on business trips. I'm going to end up having a total of 10 days away from Kassel for business. And I get 5 vacation days, too :D Which I have to remember to take. Note to self: choose your vacation days! I love working for a rich company! They're putting me up at a nice hotel this week while I'm in Bremen. I was actually supposed to be there last week as well, but then some stuff came up at the Kassel office that I had to do. So what "stuff" do I do for DB anyways? The main thing I've been working on is this Klappsitz project that I started on the very first day. So, it's basically taking the plans that show how the train currently is, with its skeleton and all, and recreating them in a 3D modelling program. But of course with the new seats as well. It's pretty detailed. We model all the welds, screws, everything. Last week we sent a draft of the whole assembly to the office in Minden and they ran a stress analysis on it and sent us back pretty pictures of where it would break first. Then we had to redesign some of it. It was actually fine for normal use, but we have to engineer for hooligans jumping up and down on the seats. And today I'm going to Minden, where I'm apparently going to get to see a prototype tested for real. The Minden office specializes in testing for safety and whatnot. As for the people I work with, I started out working with Steffen Starke and Mr. Danuschewske, but now I mostly work in the office with all the 3D-modeling capable computers. So I suppose my boss is effectively Walter Waßmuth. He is a little bit, um, rough around the edges? Luckily I can understand german much better now, so I know that I'm not actually being constantly yelled at. But if I didn't know better, and cued solely off of diction and cadence of speech, I would swear I was always in trouble :D