Week 2 is over!

Hi Everyone,
I can't believe week two of my internship is already done, it feels like I have only been here for a few days! This past week has been good. Monday through Wednesday were really good and I had a great time with the kids. Thursday threw me for a loop when I had a baby throw up on me TWICE and another kid wipe his snot all over me. That wasn't such a good day. On the days that the Elementary School doesn't have school, me and two other interns go to the School Age Center all day, instead of going only in the afternoon. It was a pretty hectic day, but overall it went really well. I also found a 50 Euro bill on our walk home, so that made the day even better.
On friday night, we still didn't have definite travel plans for the weekend. We were originally going to go to Cologne but that changed to a little town called Cochem which lies on the Rhine on the Romantic Road. There were five of us going, so we found an apartment that you could rent by night that slept five people and so we booked it. Not even 30 minutes later, the owner calls us and says that our reservation was not going to be possible because the found a BOMB from world war II and everyone was evacuating. So that led us to eventually thinking about taking the bus to Luxembourg, but we couldn't decide on where to stay and it was kinda spendy trying to do it last minute so eventually we were just like ummm why don't we just go to Cologne like we wanted to? It was a REALLY stressful night but the weekend turned out being a lot of fun.
We left Landstuhl around 9am on saturday morning and rode the train for four and a half hours to Cologne. From there we took the subway and got to our hostel which was awesome. It was called the Black Sheep Hostel, and it was in the perfect location for a really good price. We walked around that area for a bit and then decided to go back to the more popular area. First we went into the Dom Cathedral, which is absolutely beautiful. It's so big but so dark inside. After walking around there for a bit, we decided to go to the Museum Ludwig. This museum is the home to most of Pablo Picasso's works and it was an awesome museum. I'm not a huge art buff, but there are lots of pieces of art work that I know and love. What I didn't know, is that one of my favorite paintings by Jackson Pollack (Black and White number 15) was there. It was such an awesome moment for me and reminded me of when we went to the Lourve this summer. After our museum, we went and got dinner and relaxed for a few hours and then went out. Today we woke up early and went to the Chocolate Museum and that was awesome as well. We took an early train and now we're home.
This weekend was rough. I had a lot of fun but I have been really homesick lately. I don't know exactly what has triggered it but all I know is it sucks to be this homesick only going on the third week of my internship. I hope things get better(:

Germany, Round 2

Hello Again!

Well to all of you that are actually reading this, I'm actually back in germany. I've been here for a week already (it seems like so much longer) and so far, I love it. My summer was spent in a completely different part of this country and while each has its pros and cons, I'm so very thankful for the opportunities I'm presented with. We got here monday morning around 8am, after a long and exhausting day of traveling. But getting here just felt so right. We spent all day monday getting to know each other and getting settled.

There are a total of 11 people at the site I'm at this time (10 counselors and 1 Project Coordinator). Five of us girls live in an apartment, three more girls live upstairs in another and the other three boys live across the hall. So far, we all get along really well and I'm really thankful for that. Nothing is worse than not getting along or not meshing with the people you'll be spending the next four months with. We started training on tuesday and have been very busy ever since. I work in the Child Development Center on Landstuhl Regional Medical Center base and in the School Age Care. I spend the first four hours of the day in the Infant room at the CDC and then the afternoons at SAC. I love the infants, they are adorable and it makes me so happy that I enjoy working there so much. I work with a variety of ages, but I feel like that my experiences with children have really helped me prepare for this job.

After a long week, the group and I took a day trip to a city called Trier, which is supposedly the oldest city in Germany. The city still has roman ruins and is absolutely beautiful. We got in around 11am and stopped for some good German food before walking around and sight seeing. We walked around and saw all the sights as well as did some shopping. We made it a short day, and came home to relax the rest of saturday. Sunday was our lazy day after our crazy week. We stayed in and watched movies and planned out some trips for our next few months.

Today was the first day of work for the second week, and it actually went pretty well. I have a split shift, which kind of sucks but overall it was nice to have a three hour break in between my shifts. I'm able to nap, shower, get on the internet, etc. which is really nice. This weekend, we are planning to go to Heidelberg for a few hours and then after that go to Cologne for the night. I think it'll be an awesome trip. Other than that, we don't have much planned in means of travel besides going to Disneyland Paris for my birthday weekend! I'm super excited about that.

I surprisingly haven't been very homesick. The few weeks leading up to my departure were worse than how I felt when I actually got here. I'm really happy to be back and really happy to be able to work with amazing kids and travel on the weekends. I have a feeling these next few months are going to fly by and I'll have the time of my life before I depart to Italy in june. Keep reading for more of my adventure!!