Monday morning was typical
I found the correct platform for the train Laura was in and waited. I realized I had forgotten my camera and chided myself. The train was pulling up in the distance. Staring down the track I watched it come closer. Suddenly, a green jacket caught my eye. When I saw the face of the woman I was surprised and puzzled. I was soon hugging Mrs. Fröhlingsdorf, and listening to some sad news. Laura had gotten the flu last night and was sick in bed. She invited me to come drink some coffee with her and I gladly accepted.
The bakery was warm and the smell of fresh bread wafted throughout the cozy room. A chocolate croissant began calling my name. It jumped onto my tray, and was soon joined by a steaming mug of coco. Turns out neither of us really drank coffee; Mrs. Fröhlingsdorf got an apple juice and a cheese filled croissant. We sat and chatted for a good ½ hour. The rain was still streaming down as we got into the car. Mrs. Fröhlingsdorf dropped me off at the Northurp's and left. The rest off the day I helped Giovanna get the house ready for her in-laws. We moved Giulianna’s bed to the master bed room, set up a tent for the kids, hung a bar over a doorway to hang cloths on and vacuumed.
After lunch I had a chance to work on my power point presentation for senior project. At abt. 5:30 Judith came and dinner preparations began in earnest. By the time the elders arrived there was a beautiful zucchini tomato sauce bubbling on the stove next to a pot of curly noodles. The kids went completely wild. There was much laughter and fun that evening. Peach cobbler topped it off perfectly. After a game of chess under Giulianna’s rules and a monkey game for Marco the missionaries had to leave. When I finally went to bed I fell asleep right away.e as yesterday. I pulled out my umbrella and set off for work. I was a little nervous about my new mentor Manuela Kredt, but my doubts had no foundation. She was very nice and her directions were easy to follow. I soon had the binding chemical and silvery pasted ready to work on the next day. I had a lot of extra time that I didn’t really know what to do with.
At about 3:00 Mr. Willems came up and reminded me I was going to visit them that night. I had sort of forgotten about that. I told him I was pretty much done, so any time he was ready I would go with him. He took me to his office and proposed to teach me a little statistics while he waited for Mr. Barrere for a short meeting. I was dying of boredom so I agreed. Before long Mr. Barrere showed up and they discussed some things for abt. 20 min. After another 15 min. of statistics to finish up the lesson I went to get my stuff from my locker. He first dropped me off at the Northrup's to pack an overnight bag. I stuffed some cloths in my backpack, wrote a hasty not to Giovanna and sprinted back down the 4 flights of stairs. Tuesday morning the weather was the sam
Although we did encounter a little traffic, the ride went smoothly. At the house Mr. Willems (Tonnie) let his daughter Johanna open the door and introduced me again to the twins Johanna and Laura (after 2 years they had forgotten me). They were a little shy at first, but by the time we all piled back into the car to make a trip to the grocery store we were talking a little. By the time we were in the parking lot they both were holding my hands.
Dinner was absolutely German “evening bread.” I realized the relished the realness of the dense, dark grainy bread. Two pieces filled me up… I had just enough room for the fresh strawberries we all enjoyed for dessert. Laura obviously had a cold… after dinner her parents took her temperature and she had a fever as well. I could see she was tired, but not to tired to miss her bed time story. Both girls picked a book and we snuggled on the bed to read them. “Time for bed!” Tonnie called. Laura went to sleep within 5 min., but Johanna stayed up to listen to the English CD and show me her forward rolls.
Eventually Tonnie shut the door and took me downstairs for a tour of the back yard. It was absolutely gigantic for German standards and even a good size for an American back yard. My favorite part was the large cherry tree that towered majestically in the middle of the yard. Tonnie showed me the extensive improvements he had made and was going to make on the house. Extensive isn’t an understatement – one of his projects included ripping down the entire stair case and building a new one. He told me he loved doing this and said his best ideas for DuPont usually came to him as he was working on the house.
It was pretty cold, and we soon retreated to the living room. His wife Claudia suggested we play a game; my opinion was called for and I decided on the vulture game. After a few rounds Tonnie broke out some cookies and we played triangles (like dominos except you have to match 2 sides instead of 1). At one point I had 7, Tonnie had 3 and his wife had 2 pieces left. However, the game turned in my favor and I was the first to lay my last piece. Sleep was overtaking me as I washed my face, brushed my teeth and slid into my JPL’s. The bed in the play room was soft and the blanket warm.
When I next opened my eyes I was a little surprised to see it was 7:30am. Laura and Johanna had both come to wake me up. By the time I was dressed and ready to go the family was just finishing breakfast. Two slices of German bread were provided for me, as well as a bowl of strawberries. After breakfast Tonnie explained everything would run a little differently today since Laura was still running a fever. We would bring Johanna to kindergarten and watch Laura at home while Claudia went to work. When she came back we would leave for DuPont. I didn’t have a problem with that. I was anticipating another day of sparse occupation anyway. After Tonnie called into work to let people know what was going on, Johanna got on her bike, Laura took my hand and we all set off for Kindergarten.
Despite the gloomy weather forecast the sun was shining and a cold wind was blowing. Johanna parked her bike next to the steps and led the way into the bustling entrance hall. She showed me her hook for her jacket, then Laura showed me me hers. After Tonnie had finished talking to the teachers he took Laura’s other hand and led us back to the house. Laura settled herself on the couch and put on a Connie CD. I took a quick shower, then joined her in the living room and attempted to read. I couldn’t’ concentrate with the CD going on in the background so I eventually gave up and played store with Laura. At abt. 100 Claudia came home; I gave Laura one last hug, accepted a picture she had drawn for me and left.
I felt kind of bad about going directly to eat lunch, so after I was dressed I went up to the lab. Manuela wasn’t there. I eventually asked Mr. Weick if I could go eat lunch and his answer was the same as ever: you don’t need to ask me, just tell me where you’re going. Lunch was only so so. The Broccoli was mushy and tasted like it had been soaked or boiled for weeks. I treated myself to some ice cream and made my way back to the lab. Manuela was ready for me. I finished making my silver paint – it wasn’t tricky at all. I’ve found out I prefer working with smaller amounts of chemicals more that the large amounts required for reactors. Colors make it more interesting as well.
The day was far from over when I left work. The bus took me to Oberbarmen where I caught the schwebebahn to the broadcast of the YW general conference. I had of course already seen it. I tried to organize my move to Sister Eller’s house. Daniella agreed to pick up my baggage and take me to her house after mutual. I knew I still had a few things scattered about that I needed to pack, so I left after the 1st talk was over. About 20 min. after I arrived at the Northrups’s house I was standing on the bus stop again. The activity was over when I got back to the church but I was able to attend another hilarious English class… we had a story that we changed by replacing some of the nouns and pronouns with ones we had made up. Instead of Goldilocks and the 3 bears, the story was about Edeltraud and the 3 anacondas.
Anyway, everyone left except me. I waited for what seemed like forever, then Daniella finally drove up. Around 10 pm I arrived and Angela’s house. I received a literally warm welcome in the form of 6 small pizzas. Surprisingly I was able to polish them all off in a jiffy. After a chat with Angela we started to plan the week… it looks alarmingly full but full of fun, so it’s okay. She drew me a small map to use to get to the bus stop, then said good night. After a shower I snuggled into my warm covers and determined to make the 6 hours of sleep I would have count for 8.
Well, the sun came to rouse me from my bed. Tiptoeing around I got ready for the day and grabbed an apple for breakfast. Cold rain met my face as I shut the door behind me. The bus stop was easy to find. I entered the 622 and carefully listened for my stop. When I got to Wichlinghausen I realized my connecting bus should be there that very min. I ran to the bus stop and sure enough, the 646 was waiting... Panting I sprang through the doors just as they were closing. It took me a few min. to catch my breath. When I finally did I looked up and stared at the stops. Some thing was nagging me at the back of my brain. I figured it out just before the bus pulled up to Oberbarmen. I was going the wrong direction. As we pulled up I saw the 646 for the right direction waiting gat the stop I started praying really hard and made a dash for the bus. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, I slipped in the doors in the nick of time.
I made it to work on time but it didn’t really seem to matter, because Manuela comes later. There were a few more things to do today. Manuela explained that usually the painting and testing process takes at least 3 months but that we were going to speed it up so that I would be able to finish by tomorrow. First thing we had to do was measure the viscosity and the ph value of the paint. To measure the viscosity, paint is pouredinto a bowl that is set in a tripod. The bowl has a little hole in the bottom that is stopped with a small ball on a stick. The instant you take the ball out you start the stop watch. When the steady flow of paint stops you stop the stop watch and enter the time into an excel sheet that uses the information you give it to calculate the viscosity and Festkoerperzahl. Manuela had to add a little extra viscalex to thicken the paint. The ph value was tested using what looked like a thermometer. This too had to be slightly altered, so a little DEMA was added to the mixture.
My next job was to prepare 2 metal plates for painting. First they needed to be sanded. Ear protection was provided in the form of yellow ear plugs… I admit I needed an explanation on how to use them. Sanding was easy… the machine that I used looked a lot like a vacuum cleaner; in fact, there was a vacuum cleaner attached to the sander to collect excess dust. The sander was a round attatchment on the vacuum cleaner; a fresh sheet of sandpaper was lightly pressed on top and the plait was secured on a magnetic board. Manuela carefully guided the machine over the plate, and soon handed the hose over to me. Nothing to it. Although our dear friend the vacuum cleaner had gotten most of the dust off, the plate was wiped with a chemical to get rid of any dirt or oils left on the surface.
A low humming filled my ears as we entered the painting stalls. I donned my trusty gas mask and ear plugs and watched Manuela do the first one. It didn’t look hard… she placed the metal plate on a magnetic bar that spanned the stall and poured some paint into the spray gun. “Even smooth strokes” I told myself as I watched her coat the surface and pull off a perfect plate. A little tentative I took the spray gun and aimed just above the plate like she told me. Manuela nodded and I pushed the nozzle. After about 10 seconds Manuela’s hands closed over mine, guiding them as we slowly worked our way down the metal. The alien mask came off and Manuela inspected my work. “Yours has a slightly thicker coat than mine, but that shouldn’t matter” came the verdict. Each metal sheet was carefully placed on a rack to dry, and I went to get some lunch. Upon my return I mixed the clear paint that I would need for my sheet. The dry silver sheets were waiting for us, shining dully. I’m not a natural talent at the painting job… Manuela again stepped in to help me. Both glistening pieces of metal were again placed on a sheet and baked for an hour.
I had an appointment with Erika Rehnart after work, so I walked up that long hill to the 635 bus stop. Slightly out of breath, I reached the top and stared down the street waiting for that worthy vehicle to come along. Finally the bus came into view, the doors opened, and it rumbled along to the main train station. The CE64 was just leaving the bus stop as I reached the top of the stairs. To console myself and make the 20 min. wait go by more quickly I grabbed a chocolate croissant at the bakery and munched on that for a while.
When the bus finally came I climbed aboard and eagerly watched the many familiar sights fly by. I was ready to get out however when Kohlfurther Bruecke came along. Unsure as to where the house was I wandered around a bit taking pictures. The numbers on the houses weren’t making sense to me for some reason so I asked a passer by where the number was. He told to try up the street, so I did. Sure enough, I found number 14 and was soon pushing the door open and greeting Erika in a sunny light colored room. She had some food all ready – “Geschnezeltes” (a mixture of cooked vegetables) with chicken and potatoes.
I soon got her talking on one of her favorite subjects: the house. Apparently there had been some huge problems during their move… the largest of which was a huge snow storm on their moving day which made it impossible for them to vacate their old apartment in time. Their landlady had taken no consideration of this fact, and took the matter to court. It took about a year to get everything straightened out, but they had finally come off clean. I got a quick tour: the whole apartment was very beautiful, tastefully decorated and full of light.
We moved onto Erika’s next favorite subject: her garden. A spacious grassy lawn spread out before us as we toured the vegetable and flower beds. We sat at the table and chatted some more; I relaxed and listened to the birds, drinking in the peace of the garden. Among other things, I told her about my visit with Mrs. Stahl, our old neighbor who lived alone. Erika immediately suggested that she go and talk to Mrs. Stahl to offer her some help if she should ever need it. I felt really good about that… I had been feeling a little uneasy about her.
It was already 7:00 by the time we retired to the living room to enjoy a scrumptious bowl of strawberries with creamy pudding. Brother Rehnart came home from work and we talked a little more. It was time for me to go… I still had one more day of work to survive. Sis. Rehnart offered to take me by my old house since I didn’t have a chance to take pictures last time (I had forgotten my camera). Cautiously navigating the street that was about the width of the car we made our way to the house. After a few snapshots Erika suggested we stop by Frau Stahl’s to let her know that Erika would be willing to help her and to ask her if we could turn around in her driveway. The blinds were down, an ominous sign. Rrrrring! I waited for the doorbell to take effect. Frau Stahl opened the door, scolded me for not calling her, invited us in, and got some cookies from the cupboard. She couldn’t remember Erika who had taken her once to our farewell party 2 years ago, but when she learned of her good intentions, Mrs. Stahl gladly accepted Erika’s phone number. The visit went pretty long. Last goodbyes were hard… although she tried to keep her emotions in check, I glanced a tear that almost fell down the old lady’s cheek. A gentle hug and a fervent wave, and she disappeared from sight.
Sis. Seute, who lived just up the hill, had asked me to call her sometime on Thursday, but Erika and I hadn’t been able to reach her. We decided to drive by her house as well. The sun was almost gone when we reached the top of the hill… turns out Sis. Seute had wanted to invite me to go window shopping with her the next afternoon. I agreed readily. Sis. Seute then took Erika to her garden… Erika had wanted some more plants to fill in some spots in hers. The ladies discussed cucumber plants while I took snapshots of the brilliant flowers that filled the beds. Well, make a long story short, it was about 11pm when I crawled into bed at Angela’s, and after that moment I knew no more…
Until the alarm clock rang at 5:30am. Somehow I forced myself out of bed and set out for my last day of work. First thing I did was give Mr. Weick and Manuela a packet of Merci chocolates with a card I had made the night before (yeah, I’m not sure how I did that at that point in my exhaustion). Manuela took me to do some tests on my metal sheet from the day before… we did a “stone hit” test where the sheet was bombarded with small pieces of gravel, a “Gitterschnit” cut (bar cut) with a roller tool with that was equipped with several blades, an image clarity test to test the shine of the coating, and finally an Erichson boil to test the elasticity of the paint. My last practical job was appropriately from Mr. Weick. He gave me a thick honey-like material and told me we needed the Festkoerper. There was only a little twist: it had to be thinned with xylol first and there would be three samples instead of two. I weighed in the tablets, but this time they also had paper clips in them. I then weighed about 1 g of the thick stuff into each, adding 1 ml of xylol and mixing it with the bent paper clip. Half an hour in the oven, and the results came out nicely.
Lunch came and went and it was time for my talk with Mr. Weick and his boss Mr. Barerre. We sat down at a round table in Mr. Frieberg’s office; Mr. Weick did most of the talking and went through my whole “praktikum” report with me that would be centralized in Dupont’s records for future use. Overall it was very good and we were both pleased with the outcome. He thinks I would be qualified to do the work of a Lacklaborantin, and said I was punctual, contact friendly and interested and focused among other things. I took the report with me, said a last goodbye, gathered my things from my desk, cleaned out my locker, and went to building 206 where I had begun. Mrs. Walden was waiting for me. She asked me how I liked the work, if I felt I had gotten to do enough practical things, and if there was anything else she could do for me. She said I would get a Praktikum certificate in the mail. I asked if she could send me some pictures I could use in my report and she said she would be happy to do that. One last search through my spacious lab pockets, and I handed in the lab coat, the protective shoes and glasses.
I couldn’t believe it was over. I walked up the same hill I had walked up the day before, and still couldn’t believe it. It was sad… 3 weeks were already over. I would leave, and perhaps never see the people I had met again. Life went on anyway… the bus took me to the train station, and I went to city arkaden to wander through the book shop. At 4:00 Sis. Seute came. She proposed Chinese food and I was more than ready to agree it was time for food. I ordered some noodles, she got some duck and we talked 
about our 
families. City Arkaden was our first target. Browsing was our watchword… we walked through many stores… Bonjour Briggitte was hard to leave… a jewelry store full of sparkling shining splendor. I allowed her to buy me a small ring for 3 Euro. When we walked by the shoe shop she saw some colorful rubber shoes she wanted to try on… they were extremely expensive, so I proposed to send her some from the States. She wouldn’t agree. I wanted to take a look at the sandal section, so we wandered over. I tried on several pair, just for fun (they were out of my price range: ~50Euro). Before I knew it she offered to buy me a pair. I admit I was sorely tempted, but I knew I couldn’t accept that large of a gift. She was disappointed, but I was glad in the end I didn’t let her get them for me. Time for some refreshment: ice cream. Spaghetti ice cream was on my list of must-have-while-I’m-in-Germany list, so it took me 2 seconds to make up my mind despite the alluring variety on the colorful menu. A forest berry yogurt was just the thing for Sis. Seute. We finished the day by looking for some family gifts... I found
a Chronicles of Narnia CD in German and Sis. Seute got the family a DVD. It
was late when I got home.
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