Beutiful Weather + Great Company = A Fabulous Weekend

June 15 - June 20

Hi All,

On the work front there is not much to report.

There have been lots of 'Open Air' (meaning outside) parties on campus but last week was
the biggest of the summer. There was a sea of people gathered in and around the student
residences. Lots of the multicultural groups had tables where they were selling exotic
food, there was live music, a couple DJs, and beer tents. Lots of fun :)

Last Saturday I arranged to visit my cousin Mike and his girlfriend Nadine in Heidelberg.
I let them know that I would  be arriving at the train station around 10 in the morning. I
took a train that had one stop over in Manheim. My train from Stuttgart was 5 minutes late
so I didn't make my connection and ended up being misguided by a deutsche bahn employee. I
somehow ended up in Karlsruhe which is back towards Stuttgart. On the train going the
wrong way I was able to borrow a girls cell phone and let Mike and Nadine know that I was
going to be late. The lady on the train was sooo nice that she even walked me to my train
to Heidelberg and made sure I was on the right track. She said that she believed that if
you are helpful to others the favour will be returned to you in some other way.....so
true! I gave her my e-mail address and told her she should come visit me in Canada.

Anyways, I finally made it to Heidelberg by 11:30 am and poor Nadine was there waiting for
me. Nadine and I had never met before and had never seen photos of each other so we had no
idea who we were looking for. I saw a lady standing around as if she was looking for
someone so I asked her if she was Nadine.....she was! Nadine later told me that she had
asked so many people before (at 10:00 when I was supposed to arrive) if they were Steffi
from Canada.....she was tired of getting weird looks so when she came to pick me up later
she let me do the asking. I felt really bad that I made Nadine wait for me for so long,
she was starting to get worried when I didn't show up, but she was very understanding.

Nadine and I got to know each other a little more as we toured the perfectly manicured
gardens of Schwetzingen Schloss (castle). After a couple hours Mike, who had to work
Saturday morning, joined us and we toured the inside of the summer castle. A lot of the
rooms were still furnished with original pieces and our German guide was full of funny
stories.

That night we visited my father's cousin Heidi, and her family in Haag (30 min from
Heidelberg). We had a yummy BBQ and I got to see Torstan, Jennifer and Helena all grown up.

The next day Mike and Nadine made an awesome breakfast and we (Mike, Nadine, Torsten and
his girlfriend) ate out an the patio. Torstan and his girlfriend offered to take me to
Strasbourg some weekend so that I can see where my dad used to study. That would be great
I just hope I can fit it in to my busy schedule ;)

Later in the day we visited Heidelberg Schloss which is like three palaces combined into
one castle. I preferred this castle to the one I saw on Sunday because the building was
not completely restored. Certain parts of the castle were still in ruins which to me seems
more authentic than a fully renovated place.

After a BIG traditional German dinner at a small restaurant I headed back to Stuttgart. I
could hardly move after my meal of potatoes, sauerkraut, saumagen, leberknödel, and
bratwurst but I still managed to fit in dessert.

I really had a fabulous weekend and it was great seeing all my family again.....I look
forward to having everyone come visit in Canada!

Bye for now,
Steph

Who me, work?........Beautiful Berlin........

June 6 - June 12, 2005

Hello again,

I realize that I haven't wrote anything about the work I'm doing.....it's not that I
haven't been doing anything but my travelling is probably a little more interesting to
read about. So far at work I've been doing reaserch andresearch for articles concerned
with modelling and simulating wastewater treatment. I haven't really done much lab
work but I did get to visit a pilot project plant in Heidelberg. At this plant they are
testing out a new system for treating wastewater with anaerobic bacteria. Since it is just
a pilot project all the treated water is sent back to the local municipal wastewater
treatment plant. I look forward to doing some lab work later on. My supervisor is super
nice and helpful, at work and with other German stuff. I was given the option to work in
either English or German but of course I really want to improve my Deutsche. My supervisor
knows this and she explains things slowly and thoroughly and if I don't understand a word
she explains it in German rather than translating it right away, even if this means
spending an hour explaining the word constitution ;)


Last weekend was quite the adventure. Katie, my new roommate, her friend Steve and I
decided to go to Berlin. On the internet I found a cheap Mitfahr (ride share.....where you
catch a ride with someone who is going in your direction and then you just pay them for
gas) for 25 euros per person to Berlin leaving 1:30 Friday afternoon. Supposedly it is very
common for people to leave early on Friday so I had permission to leave work.
We were told that it should take about 6.5 hours to get to Berlin by car but we weren't
expecting all the traffic and accidents we encountered. At one point we were at a complete
standstill on the autobahn so people were getting out of their cars, socializing, going to
the bathroom, and of course drinking beer. We ended up getting to Berlin at 10pm. On the
ride over we booked a place at a hostel so we knew exactly where we were going. After
dropping our stuff off we decided to go downtown.....Berlin is sooo big though that there
are multiple downtowns.

The next day we went to the Jewish museum. The building itself is worth going to look at
since the architect designed the building to symbolize different emotions. There are
rooms in the museum that are just left empty to represent the inhumanity of it all. Steve
and I got separated from Katie in the museum and ended up waiting for her in the lobby for
over an hour. We did search the museum and ask the staff to look for her but we later
found out that she left with out us thinking that she had been in the museum way too long
and that we wouldn't have waited sooo long. Eventually Steve and I decided to go and we
toured around downtown. We say the Parliament and visited the glass dome on top, we saw
check point Charlie, a Holocaust memorial, and tons of other old (but re-built) buildings.
We eventually caught up with Katie (after I finally remembered that she had a cell phone
and we could just call her) and went for a nice and affordable Indian dinner. That night
some of the museums were open till 1:00 in the morning. We tried to visit the Einstein
museum but we got there at 12:30 and they wouldn't let us in.

On Sunday we  ended up going to the Einstein museum, we saw the Berlin wall, museum
island, and, before
heading off to catch our 'mitfahr' back to Stuttgart we went out for Thai food. At 5:30pm
in Berlin we were wandering around the train station parking lot looking for a driver
named Fernando in a red van but after half an hour we gave up and called the person who
was supposed to be picking us up. Turns out they sent me an e-mail earlier that day saying
that due to some rental difficulties they wouldn't be driving......as if I'm gonna check
my mail when I'm in BERLIN. For me this wasn't a problem since I still had 2 trips left on
my, prepaid in Canadian $, eurail pass. I could just hop on any train back to Stuttgart
but my friends ended up paying over $60 per person and one of them had to buy a bahn card
in order to get that price. Katie and Steve decided to take a night train because it was
cheaper and then they would be sure to catch the S-bahn to the university in the morning.
I thought that would be a good idea too but the train didn't arrive in Stuttgart until 9am
and I was supposed to be accompanying Tosca (my supervisor) to a meeting. I decided to take
the train that left Berlin at 7pm and got to Stuttgart at 1:00am. I knew the local trains
probably wouldn't be running at 1 in the morning, Sunday night but I knew I'd find my way
home. I ended up taking an U-bahn which I thought would take me to Vaihingen but it didn'T
go that far in the middle of the night. I ended up getting off at a couple stops before
and the conductor of the train, who saw that I didn't really know where I was going, made
sure I had a taxi before he took off. I got home around 3am and was up for work at 8.

On Monday morning Tosca and her supervisor Werner took me to a meeting at Eisenman Firm
20km away from Stuttgart. It was difficult paying attention since everything was in German
and also it took a lot of effort to keep my eyes open. I managed to get the gist of the
meeting and I was able to see how one develops a computer system to control all the
different parts of a wastewater treatment plant.

Bye for now,
Steph

The road less travelled and the HIGHWAY!

June 1 – June 5, 2005:

Hello All!

Last Wednesday I got a new roommate. She, Katie, is a chemical engineering student from
Kansas and she is working here at the university for 2 months. She's really nice and seems
to have alot of experience travelling already since she's studied in Spain and has
friends all around the globe. That same day a civil engineering friend, that I met at the
Hausmeister's office while signing my dormitory contract, showed me a little more of
downtown Stuttgart. I saw a lovely garden full of fountains, forests, and flowers. We
climbed a tower that resembled a twisted suspension bridge turned up-right. At the top
there was a great view of the city only you couldn't see Stadtmitte since there was a
green hill in the way....so much greenery, it's nice.

On Thursday night I met up with a Canadian gal from Calgary. We saw Garden State......a
good movie but yet again in English.

Friday I left work a little early and took a train (make that 3 trains) to Feldberg
Bärental in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). I then took a bus to a youth hostel way up in
the middle of a ski resort. I had called ahead to make sure there would be enough space
for me but I had no idea how much room they had. This hostel had room for 270 people yet
I was the only one there. Picture this: It was a dark and stormy night, the thunder was
rumbling in the distance as I climbed the 4 flights of squeaky wooden stairs to my room.
As I opened the door the shadows bounced around the room and the wind blew in through the
curtains. Being the sole guest at the hostel, I knew that the creaking of the building
was due to the strong winds.- ………I assume an ordinary person may have found it a bit
creepy but I thought it was very peaceful and I slept like a baby. Obviously there are
tons of people there in the middle of winter but I was told that in the summer there are
quite a few people there who go hiking and biking….I guess the weather wasn’t nice enough
for people this particular weekend. The next morning I got up and went downstairs where
the inclusive ‘breakfast buffet’ was waiting for me…..this consisted of one tray of food
specifically for me. I ate up, grabbed a few things from my big tray, packed all my stuff
in my red knapsack and hiked 15 km to Schlucksee. The walk was very beautiful, through
the forest, and at times I felt like I was walking in the clouds because it was such an
overcast day and the mist was rising up from the valley below. I got to the quaint lake-
side town by 11:30 (it was so fast because it was all downhill) and had just enough time
to make it to the tourist office. I found out a couple places to spend the night but
decided since I still had half the day I would keep on moving. I hoped on a bus, since I
got a free day-bus-pass from the hostel, to Titisee where I walked around the lake and
explored the touristy shops. The shops were filled with kitschy blue souvenirs and tons
of Coo Coo Clocks. At about 4 I tried to find a place to stay at the local hostels but
they were all booked up. I hadn’t travelled more than 30km from where I was the only
tourist and now I was in tourist central. After trying to figure out what to do I
persuaded myself to just ask any hotel if they had a room…..no matter how swanky, or out
my budget they were. The first place I tried had 1 tiny room left but it didn’t have a
bathroom in the room. I was not about to complain because for 24 euros I got a cosy bed,
a TV (don’t worry I didn’t watch too much), breakfast, and access to a pool and sauna.
The hotel even provided housecoats :) This just proves that it never hurts to ask…..a
lesson that I am slowly learning.

On Sunday I got up early, walked up a hill to a nice lookout, walked back and took a
quick dip in the pool, and headed by train to Freiburg. In Freiburg I visited 4 museums…
most of which were solely in German….but I was able o learn a little about the history of
the town. Also I visited Münsterplatz and saw a large church that had been built and re-
built many times over the last centuries. I climbed up the steeple and saw all the
people;) At 1:30 I saw up close and HEARD the small bells of the church chime…..I can’t
imagine how loud the hourly, couple tonne, bells would have been while standing right
next to them. I was so tired by the end of the day that it was nice to sit on the train
back to Stuttgart and chat with a man and his 2 year old daughter.

See ya,
Steph 

PS – If I don’t write for awhile it doesn’t mean I’ve disappeared of the face of the
earth....it just means I’m having fun in Germany!