The second week started out a little hairily, with me using up the last of my milk but only having about 10 Euros in my wallet, not really enough to go shopping with. I splurged on the "essentials" of milk and juice on Tuesday, and fortunately got (the sad remains of) my stipend on Wednesday, a total of 357.57 Euros, enough for groceries for a while, at least.
Monday was my first day of real work, which was very exciting. I was officially introduced to the kneader and began making samples - and quickly discovered what a slow and tedious process it is. The kneader is basically a very hot, very scientific mixing bowl where the different components of my samples (polymer, MAPP, and fiber) were melted down and mixed together to make a more-or-less homogeneous mixture. The frustrating part was cleaning the machine between samples, as it was still very hot and the cooled plastic was often very sticky and difficult to remove. Before any of this, however, I had to figure out how much of each component to add to the mixture, which rather complicated calculation I performed on a Google doc spreadsheet. This summer I really came to appreciate the usefulness of Google docs, as it avoided having to keep my data on a flash drive whereby I could move it between computers. I could get access to the Google doc from any computer with an internet connection, which meant that I could work just as well on my laptop as on the computers in the interns' lab. (This turned out to be especially useful since I forgot my password for the lab computers and it was a couple of weeks before we got that all straightened out and I could log on there.)
Because of these several complications, I only finished two out of my 52 total samples on Monday, but I had use of the kneader for the entire week, so I could only hope that my rate would improve with practice. Monday I got the treat of Wiener Schnitzel and potato salad for summer, a very German meal. At the supermarket you could buy frozen wiener schnitzel cutlets just like you can buy chicken nuggets here in the States, so I often had these for supper since they were both my favorite German food (although they technically originate from Vienna, Austria) and quite easy to make in a frying pan. Monday night was also my first time attending square dance, which I've already told you about. I was quite excited about this opportunity and only regretted that I had left my cowboy boots at home, which would have been the perfect addition to my square dancing outfit (and indeed, many people wore cowboy boots to practice every week, as well as western-themed button-down shirts and belts with large metal buckles). Since dance practice didn't get over until 10, it was quite late (for me) when I finally got to bed, but staying up was well worth it.
Tuesday I was back at the kneader and trying very hard to make the process more efficient, but I still only got through 5 samples before lunch. I then had to spend the afternoon cutting up flax fibers into workable lengths, and using the rubber-handled scissors in the hot, sweaty room wore patches of skin off of my fingers by the time I had finished cutting up the entire 900g of flax. At 5:00 I attended the Praise and Move small group upon Renate's request, although I hadn't quite understood what the group was about when she invited me to it on Sunday. This first week we didn't waste any time but were preparing an African chorus called "No one like Jesus" which we sang in English, German, and French - and Renate informed me that we would perform the song in church the following Sunday, which made me a little nervous, but excited at the same time, because I love to sing. After the small group it was time for youth group, so I stayed for that and met some of the church members who are closer to my age. I understood the pastor's message for the most part and really enjoyed myself there, and was only sad to discover that this would be the group's last regular meeting before summer vacation, so I wouldn't get the chance to attend in later weeks (in Germany, the academic year runs from October to July for college students). This activity kept me up later than usual as well, although not as late as Monday night, and for awhile I almost thought that I would get back into a normal sleep schedule.
Wednesday was my first full, uninterrupted day at the kneader, and as I hoped, I was getting faster. I got 14 samples in between 8:15 and 4:30, finishing one polymer system and moving on to the second which was (thankfully) much easier to chip off of the kneader. After work, at which I received my stipend, I took a much-needed shopping trip and re-stocked my fridge with necessary foodstuffs like hamburgers, bread, and fruit, but also a couple of treats like ice cream. One thing which I was very pleased to find this summer was that Germans have excellent ice cream, better than in the States, and I frequently took advantage of this specialty. I also purchased cleaning supplies for my room and swept my floor, which had become amazingly dirty in only 10 days. I tried harder after that to take my shoes off at the door of my room, but the unprecedented amounts of hair I was shedding, from stress or malnutrition or whatever other reason, meant that I always swept up a substantial dirt pile on my weekly cleaning sprees.
Thursday was much like Wednesday, with me finally finding my "groove" for the kneader and producing 15 samples between 8 and 4:30. After work I took care of some administrative things, such as calling my parents for the second time from Clausthal (I also discovered a way where I could use my computer to call American land lines/cell phone numbers at no cost, which made contacting my parents easier as we could avoid dealing with their uncooperative Skype) and starting to make plans with a German friend of mine from Princeton whom I very much wanted to visit while in his country. Exhausted from my several later nights, I fell into bed at 8 and immediately fell asleep.
Friday I hit a snag as the new polymer system I was working on proved to be much harder to clean than the others and required a higher processing temperature, making the entire room hot and sweaty to work in. I also found that I hadn't quite prepared enough flax to make all of my samples, and these setbacks caused me to give up for the week, frustrated, when I came to a good stopping place a little after 2:30. Leif always left around lunchtime on Fridays, and once he was gone I lost much of my motivation to keep working late into the afternoon, not to mention I was wont to come in earlier than most of the interns anyway. On this particular Friday I had a good reason for stopping early, however, as Renate had invited me to a Women's Retreat with the church that weekend and was picking me up at 3:45.
When Renate picked me up, we drove about fifteen minutes outside the town to a small retreat center down a dirt road. It took us a while to find everyone else, but eventually we spotted them on the porch of one of the cabins. There were only about five other ladies there, and at first I thought that this was because we were early or something, but ti turned out that the church is so small that only about seven women came to the retreat at all. We spent the first couple of hours chatting as we waited for the last partaker to arrive. Other than introducing myself, which by this time was old hat to me, I chose to sit and listen to conversations rather than try to participate in them, because these women already knew each other so I would have relatively little to contribute anyway. Apparently they took my voluntary silence as an inability to communicate, because one or two of them would occasionally ask whether I could understand them, to which I truthfully replied that I was getting about 90%. Overall, they, like the others I had encountered, were shocked that an American with no family ties to Germany could speak so well (I think I did my country proud this summer, and certainly tried my hardest to dispel the stereotype of the stupid, arrogant, monolingual American), and I would respond as politely and completely as I could when questions were directed at me. Eventually we tired of waiting for this other lady and decided to go for a walk. The countryside around the retreat center was gorgeous, as is the case around Clausthal in general. We walked on rough roads and trails through the woods and along a couple of Teichs (a small lake with a dam and a water wheel at one end for generating power), and I took some pictures of the beauty. The youngest woman there, who was still around ten years my senior (the rest were all my mother's age or older), started a conversation with me in which she inquired about my life, my studies, and my boyfriend. I often found the limits of my German vocabulary in that particular conversation, especially when attempting to describe my boyfriend - I kept coming back to "He's really super nice" because I didn't know the words for "thoughtful", "wonderful", "kind", "amazing" and so forth. After our little walk, the last participant finally arrived in time for us to enjoy a cookout of sorts. It was "bring your own food", but Renate thankfully had brought some Wurst that I could share, so I didn't have to go hungry. By the time we finished eating, the sun had begun to set, so their plans for having a teaching session and introductory activities were cut short. Renate spoke briefly on relationships, then we broke for the night. I realized during Renate's teaching that I was only understanding about 75% of what she was saying, and decided that I would really be better off staying home the next day instead of returning for the rest of the retreat. I also didn't want to get in the way of the ladies' understanding and being blessed by the teaching and discussions in which I would be more of a burden than anything as I required extra explanations and repetition. However, I enjoyed a good conversation with Renate on the way back from the retreat center (she would also spend the night at home and return in the morning) about the things she had mentioned and some relationship issues I had been dealing with in my own personal devotions and thought life. I am very glad I went to the retreat, and I did learn a few things.
Saturday, now freed up by not returning to the retreat, ended up not getting much done. After the busy weekends of Princeton in Munich, it was nice to have some days with no expectations when I could just relax, even if it made me feel guilty for being so unproductive. I worked a bit on some of my summerlong projects (though probably not as much as I should have). My one treasure of the weekend was discovering the "Amazon Kindle for Mac" app in the App Store and the wealth of free classic books available on Amazon - I must have downloaded 40 novels, quite ambitiously (in my defense, I read at least 7 of them during the course of my internship). This, understandably, also ate up a big chunk of my Saturday, but at least it made the prospects of the rest of my summer much more appealing.
Sunday the weather was beautiful and we performed "No One like Jesus" in front of the entire congregation - it came off surprisingly well and we were quite proud of ourselves. I was also officially "welcomed" into the congregation on this Sunday (since everything was so hectic with the baptism the week previous) with a bag of candy and a brochure introducing the church, which I saved to read later and never did :P After the service I called Leif and got quite lost trying to find his house (I knew I was going the wrong way when I almost wandered into someone's backyard where they were having a cookout O.o), where he had a bicycle waiting for me, a hybrid street and mountain bike that had stood in his garage unused for three years. When I had inquired about obtaining a bicycle for the summer, which I very much wanted to do as it increased my mobility at least tenfold, he graciously offered to lend me this one and I was ecstatic about not having to spend any money on a such a temporary convenience. It was interesting, to say the least, riding the bike back in my Sunday sundress, but I made it without mishap. The frame of the bike was really too big for me and the tires too thin to do the kind of riding I know I would tend to, and the rear gear shifter didn't work (I later discovered that it suffered from a loosened spring that I couldn't fix), bringing the bike from a 21-speed down to a 3-speed, but it was a bike and I was content. All the problems with the bike didn't stop me from having adventures with it, as you will read hereafter. The other big activity of Sunday was making a week's supply of shepherd's pie (or a normal amount for a five-person family, which is always what I had made), which is about the most complicated meal I made in the summer (and yet lived as frugally as possible and didn't tire of my variety - I might just make it this year, being independent!). And so ended my second adventure-filled week in Clausthal.
Well, I can't promise that I'll ever finish this blog, especially since I head back down to Princeton the day after tomorrow. But I'll keep trying, and you may eventually hear about all of my shenanigans - if you're lucky.
