Odds and ends

So my internship is over. I've had a brilliant six months in Berlin and know for definite now that I want to translate as a career. It was sad leaving on Thursday. My boss gave me a book about the history of the German language in German, and a nice card. There were a few tears on my part when I finally left, but he did say I was always welcome there. Careful, mister, because I may just have to take you up on that in a year or so.

I also realised that, despite sending a huge suitcase home, I still have far too much to take as hand luggage on the final flight back to England. I mentioned this to my boss and he gave me a suitcase that he had in the office. It's a perfect size, and yes I've had to pay for hold baggage, but I'm much less stressed now.

Though I have just realised that my trainers are white and brand new, so I'll look a bit like a dick. Might have to scrape them across the curbs or something, you know, to look cool and all that, because spanking white trainers are a bit too much. Perhaps I should have slept before my flight and not decided to stay up eating cheeseballs, because I'm chatting poop now.

Anyway, my rucksack is all packed and ready to leave for Spain in the morning. Can't believe it's come around so quick! It doesn't seem possible that in just a few weeks now I'll be at home in Essex.

Before that though, it's the summer holidays and I intend to make the best of them!

Laters
xxx

And suddenly, a social life

Hallo hallo

The last couple of weeks have been very much fun-filled, thanks to being friends with people my age again. I have come to the conclusion that everyone I have met from Edinburgh Uni (read, Joe's mates) are all total babes. Last Wednesday we found ourselves in a fetish club, which was a very eye-opening experience. It was good fun though, and we danced away to techno until the small hours. The following day was the 1st May bank holiday which naturally meant a massive street party in Kreuzberg. The streets were rammed with people, food, alcohol and loud music. We left in the early evening before it descended into madness (we'd already seen about a thousand riot police) and the festival is quite well known for it's rioting and car burning. We went for a nice drink in Neukolln, Hilary, Sophie, Blythe (who was visiting from Austria) and I and had some wonderful tapas. A busker came in and was particularly rude when Blythe gave him some money and said 'Is that all?'. Bloody ingrate.

Goerly Park got a bit packed too 

Oranienstrasse (Sorry to this dude)

I've also recently become obsessed with Game of Thrones (very late on the bandwagon, I know) so Saturday consisted mainly of that before we went for dinner at a little French place in Kreuzberg called Chez Michel. The food was good, but the bloke was as tetchy as anything. I asked him where the bottle opener was and I was half expecting him to hit me with it.

Sunday was my first visit to Mauerpark and, despite the famous Karaoke not being on, it was still pretty good. No pictures from me, because I forgot my camera, but Hilary took a couple. Fairly sure I'll go again at some point!

Choosing a shirt, oh the dilemma

We went for a Vietnamese not far from me and oh my, it was divine. It was then time to say goodbye to Blythe, but hopefully I will see her while I am in Vienna (only a few weeks away!). I'm also still meeting with Lionel every week and I think we've made Italo our spot. It's such good food and it's not too expensive. I'm still frustrated with French though, as there are points where I just cannot remember how to say it in French and accidentally speak German. Lionel is nice about it, but it's just so embarrassing. I'm reading Heidi in French at the moment in a bid to absorb some of it, and I've also been listening to a lot of Zaho. (If you don't know her, you should). I'm trying!

Thursday night was quite exciting, as Sophie and I went to see a 'mystery movie', or as we were firmly corrected by the woman ' a sneakpeek', at Potsdamer Platz. It was an, erm, interesting movie with Jake Gyllenhaal. Just watch the trailer below and you may understand our state of 'okay, that was pretty odd'. (There was a lot of spiders and ALSO, I'm fairly sure it was bodysnatchers kinda thing but yeah)

And last night was, of course, Eurovision. We went to a bar round the corner from me to watch it. Sat in a basement in front of a big projecter screen with people fidgeting, stealing coats (Sophie found hers in the end), treading on beer bottles, not clapping and generally just not understanding was a little frustrating but we still enjoyed it. Although the UK didn't win (obviously), I still think we did fairly well - 40 points! Progress is progress!

the glorious beginning and the heads of the two morons that irritated me all night

When Conchita won!

My prize for betting that Austria would win, righty ho. The others got one too!

Aside from socialising (I know right, look at me go), work has been good too. I feel like my German has improved a lot, and I no longer have to strain to understand. I'm also glad that I chose to do an internship, as it's teaching me so much. Not just the translation industry, and what makes a good/bad translator, but just general things about being a project manager. I'm still enjoying it, even though there are days when I just want to hide under my desk, so that's the main thing!

I'm also proud to announce that I have now had 4 dreams/semi-dreams auf Deutsch. They're all nonsense but, still!

Unfortunately, I haven't heard from Jean in a couple of weeks... so I'm not really sure what that's about. I am disappointed because we were getting on really well! Ah, might have to find another German tandem partner if I don't hear from her this week...

Anyway, that's all for now.

Tschussi

xxx

Project managing and gravehunting

The last couple of weeks have gone so fast - how is it practically April already? Spring is definitely setting in here as the sun has been shining, the trees in the courtyard are flowering and bees have started to buzz around my head. The shops are filled with Easter related goodies and I have to say, they really go all out here. It's definitely not just about the chocolate eggs with the collectible mug.

Anyway...work has been good, albeit a bit stressful as Marit was ill for a couple of days last week which meant I then had to do quotes for clients and start actually project managing. Obviously great for experience, but my boss left the office for half an hour and so many emails came in that I just wanted to scream. No disasters though and I can safely say that I take back all my vehement 'when the hell am I ever gonna need this' arguments with Maths teachers. My language is also definitely improving. I know this because a) I understand Marit 75% of the time and b) strangers understand me more. Yay! On the translation front, I'm pleased with myself too. I did a translation on Thursday for a client because it wasn't very long, I've proofread a lot of their stuff before and it needed to be done for that evening. I was pooping myself at first, but I was so proud when Marit read it over and said it was good!

Steinmetzstr.- where I work, and it's a pretty sign

I also did a translation for Jean, from English into German...I really really did not want to, but she desperately needed a CV translated over the weekend and because I'm an awesome friend I did it for her, apologising profusely for how hideous it was but she said I'd done a 'decent job'. I'll take that.

On the subject of tandem partners it's been great fun. Last Wednesday Jean and I went to a bar in Friedrichshain called Astro. It was small and smoky but the music was good and we had no idea we'd been there for four hours. Work was a bit difficult the following morning as I had drunk a few too many 'Moscow Mules'. The following evening, Lionel continued my tour of Kreuzberg, which involved walking through a squat. I was a bit dubious, like, why would you do that, but the view from the riverbank of said squat was beautiful. The Oberbaumbrücke is probably one of the nicest bridges ever, but no, I don't have a picture.

Last Saturday, I took myself on a little sightseeing tour, starting with the flea market at John F Kennedy Platz, where he famously said 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'

No idea what this is, but it's not a graveyard

It was rainy and miserable but that didn't stop me sifting through mounds of clothes and junk. It wasn't quite the same without Niamh, my partner in crime, so I took myself off to what I thought was the graveyard where the Brothers Grimm are buried. It turned out not to be, after I asked about 3 people and they confirmed that this church did not have a graveyard...nevertheless, there was a market there where I had some potato pancakes for lunch.

Tasty, but far too much Apfelmuss....

Then I found possibly one of the best bookshops I have ever seen, complete with ceiling-high bookshelves and stepladders. It was so quiet and the woman at the till was just sitting there drinking tea. She is living my retirement dream!

I actually managed to climb this several times with no incidents. Incredible.

I finished up in this huge secondhand and vintage shop near Nollendorfplatz, called Garage, before I went home to eat and get ready to meet Jean and her boyfriend, Marcel. The plan was to meet at Saphir Bar in Prenzlauer Berg but I got totally lost and ended up being an hour late...why am I so incapable? The cocktails in this bar were expensive (but they paid for mine as a thanks for the translation, how sweet!) but insanely tasty. One of them was called 'Dance of the Galactic Aliens' (or something). It was very spicy and tasty until I threw half of it all over my trousers, thus learning the verb 'kleckern'. I don't remember much about the rest of the night, save from the fact that me and Jean (Marcel went home at some point?) ended up in Tresor, a huge abandoned warehouse or something with most of the club underground in basements, in Mitte. Jean used to work there so everything was free, which was great until I consumed a stupid amount of Jägermeister which ended in me throwing up against a lamp-post outside her flat. Good one.

I was quite excited the next morning though when Marcel announced he was making eggs for breakfast, as I felt like a gorilla's armpit. I was sorely disappointed when it turned out to be scrambled eggs/omelette with figs, raisins, pine nuts and other things. Like, it was delicious. But, where is the grease to soak up the evening's sins?

We didn't meet up this week, but I did see Lionel on Thursday and saw the Socialist frieze and the memorial to the East Germany 1953 Uprising at the Federal Ministry of Finance. We also saw the facade of Anhalter Bahnhof, which in it's heyday was known as the 'Gateway to the South', with trains going to Italy and Greece! According to Wikipedia, it was also used to deport 'about a third of the city's Jewish population', which is just harrowing.

We went for dinner somewhere or other and I ordered a Flammekuechen and was very excited, remembering how much I liked the one I had in Strasbourg but this one was more like a pizza and there wasn't enough sour cream.

I was also gutted beyond belief last Monday when I realised I had missed the St.Patricks Day parade. I thought I would just pop along after work, but it was on Sunday! I consoled myself with watching Lord of the Dance, obviously.

On Friday after work, I rushed off to find the actual graveyard of the Brothers Grimm. I'm obsessed, I know. I found it this time and said my thanks for all the fairy tales.

Thank you for Sleepy

Today, I went to Potsdam, but I'll write about that in a separate post.

So yes, it's been a good couple of weeks here in Berlino, and my flatmates are back the week after next. That'll be strange, as they've been gone a month and I've thoroughly enjoyed pretending this flat is mine!

Tschuessi!
xx

CVs or why does Comic Sans even exist?

This might not be incredibly relevant to my blog, but I guess it could come under 'what my YA internship taught me'.

I just want to say that it is not until you are on the receiving end of CVs that you realise just how important everything you ever learnt about work experience is.

I've received so many applications, and sent emails to, people who sound excellent. I excitedly open the attachments to find that they have written in Comic Sans, in red font, used a coloured background, made numerous spelling mistakes, have used a template from the Stone Ages or haven't used a template at all and have just written in paragraphs and have used a picture of themselves holding their cat/guinea pig/dressed as a clown.

Where is the professionalism?

You could have excellent qualifications but if your CV isn't excellent too, you're going to have a bad time. Obviously, right?

I don't want to be preachy and patronising and all like, I work behind a desk so I'm well important, I just thought this was a valid point and something I will definitely be bearing in my mind when I update my CV again.

I'm aware that most people I know would not even dream of doing these things, and I'm fairly sure most people would rather go on a date with Hannibal Lecter than use Word Art on their CV.

Ok, see ya x