I'm too lazy to go back and attach pictures, so this is gonna be texty. Sorry.
This past weekend was pretty awesome and relaxed. A cool dude from the program, Mike MacLaffyTaffy, came up to get a little taste of Hamburg and the Kieler Woche.
He got in on Thursday, so we hung out a bit and watched some football (soccer). Friday I gave him the world-renowned personal tour of Hamburg. I got to show him a handful of the main sights and places, and unsurprisingly, he found Hamburg to be pretty cool. I must say, it's kinda cool having visitors here, because I can discover the city a little better with them. A win-win!
Saturday, Mike, Tyra, and I took the train up to Kiel for the day to go get a little taste of the Kieler Woche, one of the biggest sailing festivals in the world, and apparently the second biggest festival in Germany behind Oktoberfest. I had no idea what to expect before we got there and was really along for the ride. But as soon as we rolled into the station, I got a little jumpy at all the big ships and stuff.
Well when we got there, we did a little bit of walking around town at the start. Mike had to get a memory card, so we headed over to Saturn. Then we walked around a bit more, and decided on taking the ferry out to Laboe to try and catch a glimpse of all the sailboat races. Unfortunately the races were a little too far to really watch from the beach, but we had a great time and found some other cool stuff to do while we were there.
First we snacked on some Fischbrötchens, walked along the beach, saw a ton of kite surfers and parasailers, and did our best to stay out of the sporadic downpours. Then we found a DENKMAL!!!
Over this past year, I've developed a weird affinity to Denkmals. Especially big Denkmals. And for those of you that don't speak Deutsch, Denkmal means statue or monument. But I digress... We went to this giant Denkmal for Germany's naval history, and explored around a bit. There were a ton of really cool and intricate model ships, a little bit of naval history, and a really beautiful view at the top of the tower. The sun was nice and came out to meet us as we got to the top, and provided for a wonderful time. We then went down and walked through an old submarine.
Concluding with a typical ice cream break, we jumped on the ferry back to Kiel, where I took full advantage of nap time. When we made land, we continued to explore the fanfare and festivities of Kieler Woche, and had some yummy food and refreshing drink to go with it.
Next was football, Germany vs Ghana. Since we were there, we headed over to the public viewing for the fun. That was cool. Unfortunately it came to a tie, but my first Live Public Viewing was quite the treat.
After that we did a little more walking around at all the festivities, and stumbled upon this crazy rock band. They were dressed like cyborgs, had a cow pattern all across the stage, and played everything from Hells Bells to Party Rock Anthem. That was absolutely ridiculous, and provided quite the good time.
Overall, a great weekend. Tons of fun, random shenanigans, and a blast all around.
As most of you know, I was in the running for a position with RWE AG for a development program. Well, last week I got turned down from the position. And I had talked to the CEO of my company here beforehand, letting him know I was in the running, and that I would get back to him about continuing to work for 8.2 after I found out. Well, I sent him an email last week to let him know about that and he said we'd talk about it on Monday.
He came into my office, and showed how unprofessional he is. They had originally approached me to continue working at 8.2. I was interested and said I could do that, but I wanted to keep looking. I let them know about that other program to be open and honest with them, and let them know where I was at on all of this.
Well he came into my office, and just said that they are no longer offering me a position with the company. His reasoning? Because I had them as second on my list (though during our meeting, he said there was no problem with that and he appreciated me being honest with him) and that my interests didn't exactly line up with the company's line of work. Dick-fucking-move.
This was all a totally terrible surprise, as he had verbally promised and committed a position to me, which I had taken as a commitment, and planned the next few months out assuming I would be coming back to Hamburg. But his lack of professionalism and sudden decision have changed all of that.
I am really disappointed, and a little depressed and worried. I had something lined up, but now I have to start all the way back at square one for the job hunt. Really annoying and frustrating.
My old swim coach, Dean, came into town on an exchange trip that he was leading. We met up for beers last night, after I got the terrible news, to catch up. It was absolutely great to talk with him. Having a good distraction, but also just being able to get caught up with someone and see how life is going for them. He's had some past experience traveling and being in Germany, and it was really cool to get some perspective on how Germany used to be to an American, especially when the country was still divided.
He was also very helpful and encouraging with some great life advice on what I should do now. Obviously I was a little ticked off and down after getting the news, but it was great to see him and get a nice pick-me-up and refocus on what I have to do now.
I'm back on the job hunt, and I'm looking to stay/come back to Germany. I was really pumped to have that opportunity, but despite me not getting it, I want to keep living and learning here in Germany. Not being over here is going to make things tough to secure a job somehow, but I'm going to keep at it. I will probably have to find something in the mean time to provide some sort of income, but I plan on getting back here. Somehow. Now I'm going to use my last two days at work to just look for positions I can apply to.
USA vs. Germany game on Thursday. Norway on Friday. I need this.
Original Publish Date: June 24th, 2014