Last Month in Mainz

Professional Baseball Game in Germany

Holyyyyyyy moly how time has flown. I have been a busy bee, working 9-5 Monday-Friday, then attempting to salvage a social life by going out on the weekends. May was a busy month, with my parents coming and then the CBYX Final Seminar (see previous posts). June has been off to a great start, especially since Germany celebrates every religious holiday possible (three federal holidays in one month.. yes please!). On top of the federal holidays, I have been smart (or stupid?) and saved up most of my vacation days (as JUST an intern for five months, I am REQUIRED to take 8 vacation days... thanks Germany!). Add that all up and that means I barely have any working days in June, and that means lots of free time to do some much wanted traveling that I have slacked on the past couple of months. Check below to see some of the stuff I've been up to lately:

Bier Bike

A couple interns and some au pair friends of mine got together one night after work and wheeled a beer bike around the city of Mainz. I have wanted to try one of these things ever since I saw one my first month in Germany so I finally made it happen! Basically, there are 16 seats and bike pedals on every other seat, along with a bench in the back. It is hollow in the middle... that's where the bartender stands to pour drinks from the keg, as well as control the music. Yours truly got the honor of being bartender and DJ all night... in which many people said it was the best beer pouring and extremely pleased with the song selection so woo! (or maybe their adrenaline was still pumpin... who cares!). It also comes with a designated steerer from the bier bike company. The funniest part was when a bus or tram driver would get stuck behind us. Instead of getting annoyed or upset that they had to go super slow behind us, most of the drivers actually started dancing along to our loud music! Ah, refreshing.

Trying to get the group pumped up!

Success!

US Intern Day

Every summer, my work has a US Intern program where a handful of American students come to work for a couple of months. Unfortunately, this summer something messed up in the application process, and only one person got through. So, that left me, Erick, and new intern Katie for our very own US Intern Day! A day completely dedicated to us and the head of Human Resources. We started the day by giving Powerpoint presentations about ourselves and our internship duties/expectations (I probably shouldn't have put a crazy beer bike picture up as my ending slide, but hey, gotta add in some character somewhere). Then we got a presentation from someone in my work's Graduate Program, which sounds very enticing. Then we were treated to lunch in the company cafeteria and went into the city for a free tour of the Gutenberg Museum (Johannes Gutenberg is from Mainz and invented the printing press people!).

Messing around in some "secret" Mainz garden

We also got a guided city tour of Mainz (probably should done that back in October.. not one month before I'm leaving) and our tour guide was AWESOME. I learned more about Mainz within 3 minutes of this lady talking than I did living here for 9 months. Zum Beispiel..... Mainz is the SECOND oldest city in Germany (see Trier post below for the first!), over 90% of the city was bombed during World War II, and the only buildings that still stood were ones around the Mainzer Dom (church) because it was the highest point in the city so planes knew where to strike. It has also been under French rule FIVE times, and if you hear the Mainz dialect spoken, you will hear a lot of French words. I could go on... but I won't bore you.



Trier, Germany

Hauptmarkt

Last Sunday two friends and I went on a day trip to Trier, Germany's oldest city. It's over 2,000 years old with lots of Roman ruins scattered around the city. I also think there was an ice cream stand about every 100 feet or so... literally. Europeans and their ice cream... goodness. I was really excited to see the city, especially since before I left my uncle told me his was stationed here when he was in the military, and that I needed to check it out. He was right... the city is absolutely beautiful! (but unfortunately, has become quite touristy). We visited the world's oldest Roman amphitheater (north of the Alps... it ain't no Coliseum!), world's most preserved city gate, the Porta Nigra (again, north of the Alps) and also some old Roman baths. All in all, a good day with some interesting history learned.

the Porta Nigra

the Dom

Up Next!

This week I will be heading to Intersolar in Munich, which is the world's largest solar exhibition (over 75,000 people expected to attend). It is my first ever work trip, and I feel all grown up (ah shucks)... It will be interesting to see/meet people from all over the world, so I'm excited. I will also be staying in Munich until Monday (federal holiday woop woop) to visit some CBYX friends in Munich, as well as visit a small town nearby called Regensberg, where an intern friend of mine goes to school. Update to follow!