An Evening to Be Thankful For

Thanksgiving. Was. Fantastic.

Everything came together wonderfully and my other thirds (Claire and Tony) were so helpful and organized. Tony and one other person picked up the plates and silverware on time around 12:30 p.m.

While the boys were doing that, I went to Penny to pick up a few ingredients to make a cheesey spinach dish - it turned out pretty good!

Then a few of us met at 1:30 p.m. to get the room all set up - we moved around tables, put up decorations, set the tables, and grabbed the drinks for later. There were just enough of us to get the job done.

I ended up at Reichwein Haus for about an hour before the dinner to hang out with Tammi and Allie. I had to head over a bit earlier in order to make sure everything was in order. People slowly started arriving and, around 7:45 p.m., there were so many people in line for food that it was crazy! There were way more than the 100 that had signed up to attend.

We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, and then the side dishes and desserts were all a pot luck situation where, if you attended the dinner, you brought something to share.

We had everything from veggies to bread to soup and everything inbetween. The desserts were just as varied and just as delicious.

Rachel, me, and Chelsea at Thanksgiving dinner. Photo Cred: Chris Ferguson

I ended up picking up what I could with half of the people still around in order to help a bit with the clean up. I then got the chance to Skype my whole family over at my aunt and grandma's house! It was so good to see them all. :)

This year, I am thankful for the opportunity that has been given to me to participate in this German co-op, for my health, the health of my family, and the happiness that I have found in the last few months.

I am so lucky to have found the friends that I have here in Reutlingen. I look forward to many more shared experiences with them, as well as for all of the new students I will meet beginning in February.

I think this quote most aptly describes what the last six months of my life:

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I've ended up where I needed to be."
-Douglas Adams

Despite not going where I expected to go, I know that everything in my life happens for a reason; this experience, and everything that has happened thus far, has all happened to shape my future in the way that my life is supposed to go.

I love college... But not when I'm woken up at 3 a.m.!

There are times during my internship that I am very much reminded that I am still in a college setting.

Today, I was woken up around 3:00 a.m. to someone knocking on my window and yelling my name. This, of course, is not ideal, as I was already asleep for a few hours.

After a grateful thank you and some excessive chattering (on his part), I was able to go back to bed in peace. 

I'm feeling a little bit like all of these tired GIFs today... I have to power through, though and help put on the best Thanksgiving dinner that these internationals have never seen!

After getting a taste of some homemade biscuits that an American brought into the office for me to bring tonight, though... I don't think we're going to have a problem.

Teaching the Internationals About Thanksgiving

Today was the day - presentation day.

I practiced my presentation a few more times before I had to leave for work, and dressed up to look professional. As the international office has a casual dress code, I have never really dressed up before - my colleagues were shocked that I was wearing a skirt. Perhaps I should dress up more often!

During my lunch break, I practiced more. While I get a little nervous while speaking, I actually like giving presentations! The difference between this presentation and a normal presentation was a huge one - the language. I can talk all day in English, but in German, my vocabulary is more limited.

My presentation included points on the history of Thanksgiving, the food we eat, and the activities associated with Thanksgiving. As almost all of my classmates are from other parts of the world, I hope that my presentation gave them a better understanding of why us crazy Americans take the day off and eat turkey once a year.

Despite my presentation being in another language, it went very well! According to my Italian classmate, I could have used my hands more (but even he admitted, he is Italian..), but that was one of the only criticisms.

I felt a weight lift off my shoulders as I realized that I was finally caught up on all my obligations for the week.

A Busy, Busy Day

Today was not my standard day in the office. I had the pleasure of accompanying my colleague Max and about 30 international students on an excursion to the Diamler-Benz engine factory, as well as the Mercedes-Benz museum, both of which are in Stuttgart.

We left around 8:45 a.m. and, despite having to drive through a bit of German traffic, made it to the factory on time.

Despite my little knowledge of cars, factory tours like this and the Audi factory tour are completely fascinating. To be able to actually see how, in this case, the engines for cars that are sent around the world are produced is much more interesting that just hearing about how it is done; it's much like the difference between watching a sports game on television versus being there in the stadium.

After seeing how these engines were made (no photographs allowed, unfortunately), we had a short break, and then were allowed to wander through the Mercedes-Benz museum nearby (where we could take pictures!). Each person got a listening guide and we could wander the museum at our own pace.

 Visit to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart

One of many Mercedes-Benz vehicles that we found in the museum

Advertisements for Mercedes-Benz

Once we had completed our visit to Stuttgart, we came back to Reutlingen just in time for me to tutor one of my tuttees. I made the 15 minute climb to her house and, once again, feel like she taught me more German than I taught her English. And my day did not end there.

Tomorrow is my first German presentation at Reutlingen. For my B1 German class, I have to give a presentation about American culture - the topic can be whatever I would like it to be, but that almost makes it more difficult than if I were assigned a topic. To choose one of the millions of things that make up American culture?! Yikes. In the end, I settled on the topic of Thanksgiving.

I began to put together an outline for my presentation, but was interrupted around 7:45, as I had my dance class. It was a welcome distraction!

We learned more of the routine that we will be performing in December. There were a bunch of new people and we did some review, which was nice.

Once that was done, I was back to it. I completed my presentation, ran through it a few times, finished up the homework that I had to do for my German class as well, and now I am heading to bed.

It was a long, slightly stressful, but very rewarding day.