(Hopefully not) baking on the S-Bahn

The weather forecast promised (or perhaps a better word would be “threatened”) highs of 35°C for today. That’s 95°F for all you fahrenheit fans. I checked the online weather reports at 4:30pm and was informed that the temperature at that moment was 36°C/96°F. That’s one degree higher! So the weather forecasters lied! Not that one degree bothers me that much. Anything over about 26°C comes under the heading of “too hot”. Above 30° and it becomes “far too hot”. I’m just glad the weather decided to get the worst bit over with today when I don’t have to travel Gernsbach just when the sun is at its hottest. I’m scared enough of this interview without having to worry about dying of heat stroke before I even get there!

I’ve been looking on the Karlsruhe transport website trying to figure out how to get there. The perfect method would be to take the S-Bahn from Marktplatz. I would just have to walk to the tram stop, board the train and sit down to await Gernsbach. Of course I wouldn’t be me if things worked out that way…
The S-41, the train I would get on at Marktplatz, gets into Gernsbach every hour at 59 minutes past. 12:59, 1:59… my interview is at 2pm. The only way I could get from the train station to the interview in one minute is if someone invents teleportation by tomorrow… not going to happen I feel. I could, of course, get the one that arrives in Gernsbach at 12.59, but what am I going to do in Gernsbach, on my own, for an hour? It’s really not that big a town. So my other option is to take the S-31, which would get me there at 1:30pm. The S-31 goes from Karlsruhe main train station. That means I have to get a tram to the train station first. Not really difficult, but gives me more opportuny to panic. What if I miss the tram from Europaplatz and the S-31 has already left? I’d be late for my interview! Doooooooom!

OK, maybe I’m being slightly over sensitive. What can I say, I’m a worrier. And interviews scare me. A lot! In between worrying about how to get to Gernsbach I’ve been worrying about what I’m going to wear, whether a blue blouse is appropriate, whether it matters that I don’t have a proper suit, what I’m going to say when I get there, whether I’ll be able to answer their question, how badly my German is going to let me down… there are so many things that could go wrong! I’ll be glad when it’s this time tomorrow and the whole ordeal is over with!

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Gernsbach and the final

I almost didn’t go to see the football last night. Yesterday was just too hot for me! Despite taking a bottle of water to Gernsbach with us and trying hard to stay in the shade, by the time we left I had a killer headache. Gernsbach is a nice little town though. I found the place where I have the interview, and where I might later be working if all goes well, and it’s in a lovely part of town. There’s a little public garden opposite it with benches to sit on and it’s just across the river from the old part of town. I also found the tram stop where I’ll have to get off on Thursday. One less thing to worry about. Now it’s just the interview itself that’s going to torture me for the next few days.

The football was incredibly boring last night. For Germans it was probably an exciting match, but as a neutral outsider I was bored senseless. Spain won 1-0 and as far as I’m concerned they deserved to. Towards the end Germany did seem to wake up a bit and at least try to equalise but for the entire first half and most of the second Spain might as well have been alone on the pitch. I found myself wondering why I’d bothered to go and watch the match – I could just as easily have stayed home and nursed my headache in bed! Never mind, at least the football is over now and everyone can finally find something new to obsess about.
Oh, and it seems I was wrong about Joachim Loew not being fashionable… at least according to some weird report I saw by accident yesterday. It seems that his combination of a white shirt and black trousers make him a “trendsetter” and all the women find it incredibly sexy. Umm, ok then. Can’t say I find Loew particularly sexy and last time I checked a white shirt and black trousers was the attire of businessmen all over the world, but who am I to argue with the TV. It’s not like I’m exactly a follower of fashion.

My headache seems to have mostly gone this morning – just the odd twinge here and there – and instead I feel slightly sick. I managed to eat a cracker for breakfast and have made a sandwich to take to work with me just in case I feel up to eating later but right now I’m just not hungry at all. And I’m a little worried about the weather too – it’s 19.4°C now and it’s only 8:25am! Not good for someone that gets sunstroke as easily as I do! And today is probably going to be the best day of the week, with highs of 27°C (says the weather man). Tomorrow it’s set to go up to 32°C and at some point later in the week they’re saying it could reach 35°C!

Parkplatzfest etc.

I didn’t get a chance to write yesterday cos I was too busy a) sleeping off the effects of the night before (more on that later). b) making and eating a fried breakfast and c) barbecuing outside my building.

So, Friday night was Parkplatzfest. For those that don’t speak German I shall explain.
Parkplatz means carpark and a Fest is… well, a party really. A big one. (Think of the English word festival). So it was a party in carpark. The carpark in question is the one outside my building. The party is run by the residents of the 4 student residences surrounding the carpark. Each floor gets their own stand where they sell various food and drinks. We sold cocktails and shots. The people living on each floor have to either take turns at selling the stuff or help with the preparation for the Fest… go shopping for ingredients, make the decorations, help premix the cocktails. Things like that. As I was at work when they did all the preparation bit I had to do two selling shifts… the first shift from 6:45-8:30pm then the last shift, which started at 11:30 and went until the end of the party, officially 1am but in reality we were there much longer than that. Once we’d finally packed up and all the guests had gone home a group of ended up on the roof terrace drinking bacardi and having a sing-along (guitars were fetched). I was tired before the Fest started. By 7am when I finally went to to bed I was practically a zombie… a very drunk zombie. That’s why I spent most of yesterday sleeping. And why I needed a cooked breakfast to soak up the alcohol. Luckily I don’t suffer from hangovers, so I was just tired and starving when I woke up. I’m sure plenty of people were suffering though 😉

The Fest was fun. I’m not sure yet how much money we made, but I sold quite a few cocktails and, towards the end, a LOT of shots. My friend Janni came, which was nice as I hadn’t seen her in ages. Not quite so nice was the fact that after the party finished and most people had gone to bed somebody apparantly went through the building going into people’s rooms and the cash box from third floor was stolen. I don’t know any details (where was it to get stolen? Why had nobody locked it away securely?) but however it happened it sucks!

Today Jan and I are going to Gernsbach so I can see where I have a job interview on Thursday and so we can have a day out. And tonight we have to watch the football of course – Germany’s in the final.
Now I have to go and make sandwiches for our trip.

More good news

It seems to be a week of good news on the jobs front. This morning somebody from Gernsbach called me. Apparantly she sent me something by post but it arrived back on her desk this morning with a stamp saying I don’t exist at that address. Very strange. I can assure you I do exist at my address – and she did have it right. She even read it out to me. Apparantly she had invited me to an interview tomorrow, but obviously I hadn’t got the letter, so we’ve rearranged it for next Thursday. It’s more than a week away and I’m nervous already! Wish me luck please.

I want that job!

I’ve just been looking at the German job centre website, as I so often do these days, and I’ve found a job that would be great for me. It’s in Gernsbach in the Black Forest. A quick look at the Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) website tells me that from here it’s only a roughly 45 minute train ride to Gernsbach train station, which means it would be possible to commute from here. The job is for a trainee translator. They want someone with excellent English skills, preferably a native speaker. This person should have “good” translation skills. I have both of those covered! Unlike the other jobs I’m applying for, this one is not at a translation company. The employer is actually a publishing house, specialising in information about environmental issues – waste management, recycling, water (and the cleaning thereof). The applicant should be interested in environmental policy. It all sounds great. I am good at translation (81% in my last assignment says it all really), I am interested in the environment and in recycling and, most of all, I’m interested in finding a job that’s either in Karlsruhe (where I live) or at least somewhere that I can easily commute to. I really, really don’t want to move (well, actually I do want to move, but only out of this building – not half way across the country).  Ideally I would have liked to stay at the company where I’m doing my internship, but as the bosses don’t want to give me permanent position this job in Gernsbach sounds perfect for me. I’ve just written my application for it. I just have to wait for my boyfriend to come and proofread it for me then it shall be sent on its merry way. If anyone has happened to stumble across this blog then please keep your fingers crossed for me. Cos I really, really want this job!