Flazeah
Cloud eight-and-three-fifths
It's so nice when you more or less dread something, or at least not really look forward to it, and then end up having loads of fun. I wasn't really looking forward to going on work experience to Germany for a week, but it turned out to be awesome and I loved it. I worked in a pet shop - I wasn't doing anything amazing, just changing some animals' food and water - they had rodents like guinea-pigs, rabbits, rats, mice, some degus (which were insanely cute, gah; I love their ears ; ;) and birds like parrots. The parrots were so cool - they said "hallo". The employees were also amusing; some of them liked to make birdcalls. I also restocked shelves, swept the floor, cleaned some merchandise and reordered things on the shelves.
Ahahaha, the lunch was awesome; we got free breakfast and dinner at the Jugendherberge - youth hostel - but getting lunch was up to us, and mine usually consisted of a mini pizza, some bread and a cake like a doughnut or something. I once had this really nice cake with cream and cherries or something in it - or it might have been strawberries... I think it was because I didn't know the name of the actual cake so I described it instead, asking in German for the tart with the strawberries or something. I was proud that I got it. xD Although one day, I asked for Eibrot - egg bread - and the lady at the counter of the bakery must've thiught I'd said "drei Brot" - three pieces of bread - and gave me them, which turned out to be cheaper, and I just accepted it because I figured I could save some for the journey home the next day.
Many funny things happened - like on the last day, the company reps took us - the work experience was organised by a company, and there were about fifty people in our group - to the cathedral, where we were put into small groups and given sheets of paper with questions on them, which we had to walk around finding the answers to. Me and my group went into the nearby train station to ask some people questions, and we ended up talking to a drunk German guy (there were a lot of drunk Germans around because there had been a festival in Köln on the Thursday and there was a lot of partying spirit still going around) who somehow one of my two eammates ended up telling that it was his birthday the next day - he wasn't joking; it really was his birthday then. And the drunk German guy started going "Woo!" and lifted him onto his shoulders hapharzardly, then started walking off. Because it seemed to be in good humour, me and the other guy weren't that freaked out - it was very funny, we all agreed, but we were still a bit worried, and decided to follow them - luckily the guy dropped our teammate after only a few paces. We, uh, didn't do well in the quiz, but everyone ended up getting chocolate and all was good. >D
The youth hostel was pretty nice - the rooms were okay and were for four people. I shared with the two girls in my German class, which consists of a whopping four people, and a girl from another school, who was nice. The food was pretty great, considering it was, well, not a five-star hotel or anything - I don't think they fed us any German specialities, but we got some neat pasta, meat and there was nearly always jelly available for dessert. Delicious. There was also this rather awful coffee stuff which looked almost exactly like a chocolate dessert, and we sometimes had chocolate instead of the coffee thing, so you took a risk in eating it, but hey. There was a shop by the reception in the hostel which sold chocolate, vanilla and banana milk, one type of which I bought nearly every day. Hey, it was in place of milk, which I usually drink, but they didn't have milk in the canteen.
Oh yeah, I learned a bit of German along the way - I had to speak it most of the time at work, apart from when I really didn't understand something, because one of the employees spoke some English and could translate for me - but what I'm most pleased I got experience of was the German accent, I guess. Being immersed in Germany, as you'd probably expect, really did help me pick up how they speak, and hopefully improve my own German accent a bit, though I dunno if my accent has actually got much better.
Anyway, the trip was a lot of fun, and I'm actually really glad we got to travel by coach instead of plane, because we travelled through Belgium on the way. As well as France. But going through a bit of Belgium was cool for me because I'd never been to the country before. The part we travelled through was pretty - a mostly countryside-ish area with some places with buildings thrown in. I dunno which parts we went trough, but it seemed like we were in Belgium for ages, at least on the way - not so much on the way back, but maybe tha's because we stopped less. Although on the way back, we got to go to a chocolate factory. An actual Belgian chocolate factory. <3 And they were giving free samples. Oh, that was good chocolate. I also bought some chocolate. But yeah.
If you ever get the opportunity to go on work experience to a foreign country like that, seriously, go. :D The first day, I was kinda tired and was just like, mrr... but by the end, I adored the city and felt sorta attached to my fellow people on work experience. It's weird how that can happen in just a week. Some people were uspet at leaving and many hugs happened. I didn't cry; the hugs were nice and I was a little glad to be going home. But mostly sad, actually, at that point. I'm back home now - I have been for a week, actually - and settled back in, but I will seriously never forget that awesome trip. I'm so glad I went.
Ahahaha, the lunch was awesome; we got free breakfast and dinner at the Jugendherberge - youth hostel - but getting lunch was up to us, and mine usually consisted of a mini pizza, some bread and a cake like a doughnut or something. I once had this really nice cake with cream and cherries or something in it - or it might have been strawberries... I think it was because I didn't know the name of the actual cake so I described it instead, asking in German for the tart with the strawberries or something. I was proud that I got it. xD Although one day, I asked for Eibrot - egg bread - and the lady at the counter of the bakery must've thiught I'd said "drei Brot" - three pieces of bread - and gave me them, which turned out to be cheaper, and I just accepted it because I figured I could save some for the journey home the next day.
Many funny things happened - like on the last day, the company reps took us - the work experience was organised by a company, and there were about fifty people in our group - to the cathedral, where we were put into small groups and given sheets of paper with questions on them, which we had to walk around finding the answers to. Me and my group went into the nearby train station to ask some people questions, and we ended up talking to a drunk German guy (there were a lot of drunk Germans around because there had been a festival in Köln on the Thursday and there was a lot of partying spirit still going around) who somehow one of my two eammates ended up telling that it was his birthday the next day - he wasn't joking; it really was his birthday then. And the drunk German guy started going "Woo!" and lifted him onto his shoulders hapharzardly, then started walking off. Because it seemed to be in good humour, me and the other guy weren't that freaked out - it was very funny, we all agreed, but we were still a bit worried, and decided to follow them - luckily the guy dropped our teammate after only a few paces. We, uh, didn't do well in the quiz, but everyone ended up getting chocolate and all was good. >D
The youth hostel was pretty nice - the rooms were okay and were for four people. I shared with the two girls in my German class, which consists of a whopping four people, and a girl from another school, who was nice. The food was pretty great, considering it was, well, not a five-star hotel or anything - I don't think they fed us any German specialities, but we got some neat pasta, meat and there was nearly always jelly available for dessert. Delicious. There was also this rather awful coffee stuff which looked almost exactly like a chocolate dessert, and we sometimes had chocolate instead of the coffee thing, so you took a risk in eating it, but hey. There was a shop by the reception in the hostel which sold chocolate, vanilla and banana milk, one type of which I bought nearly every day. Hey, it was in place of milk, which I usually drink, but they didn't have milk in the canteen.
Oh yeah, I learned a bit of German along the way - I had to speak it most of the time at work, apart from when I really didn't understand something, because one of the employees spoke some English and could translate for me - but what I'm most pleased I got experience of was the German accent, I guess. Being immersed in Germany, as you'd probably expect, really did help me pick up how they speak, and hopefully improve my own German accent a bit, though I dunno if my accent has actually got much better.
Anyway, the trip was a lot of fun, and I'm actually really glad we got to travel by coach instead of plane, because we travelled through Belgium on the way. As well as France. But going through a bit of Belgium was cool for me because I'd never been to the country before. The part we travelled through was pretty - a mostly countryside-ish area with some places with buildings thrown in. I dunno which parts we went trough, but it seemed like we were in Belgium for ages, at least on the way - not so much on the way back, but maybe tha's because we stopped less. Although on the way back, we got to go to a chocolate factory. An actual Belgian chocolate factory. <3 And they were giving free samples. Oh, that was good chocolate. I also bought some chocolate. But yeah.
If you ever get the opportunity to go on work experience to a foreign country like that, seriously, go. :D The first day, I was kinda tired and was just like, mrr... but by the end, I adored the city and felt sorta attached to my fellow people on work experience. It's weird how that can happen in just a week. Some people were uspet at leaving and many hugs happened. I didn't cry; the hugs were nice and I was a little glad to be going home. But mostly sad, actually, at that point. I'm back home now - I have been for a week, actually - and settled back in, but I will seriously never forget that awesome trip. I'm so glad I went.
