So, I didn't sleep well for whatever reason. Woke up at five-thirty this morning and had to go back to sleep only to hear my alarm at six-thirty. Got ready and ate breakfast (juice with a pice of bread and butter). Then Frau Brause dropped me off at the train station at twenty to eight on her way to pick up the kids she's driving to kindergarten. The train came, and I sat facing backwards because that ususally doesn't bother me. I felt a little naseous this time.
Walking through town that early in the morning is nice. There are hardly any people out and its nice and cool. I took some pictures on the way in, without feeling too conspicuous. Upon arriving at the museum, I tried opening the doors. Locked. They didn't tell me about this part; I assumed they'd be open to let the employees in. Luckily a girl with a key came and let me in. Then after figuring out what I needed, she directed me back outside, around the corner, to a door where she said I could get in to find Frau Auer, my boss.
Around the corner I went, to find a big old fashioned door that looked like something from the Middle Ages. Locked. I looked around to make sure I had the right door, because this looked like one of those, look but don't touch doors. But, next to it was a buzzer, like on an apartment, to let one in. I tried it about three times, to avail. Right about then, a woman came riding up on a bicycle and asked if I was Kathryn. I was, and she let me in with her key. Apparently their secretary was sick and so no one was there to open the door for me when I buzzed.
She said she would get my key for me, so I followed her through two doors to the janitors station, which yielded no key. Then we went to the Tourist Information center to ask, and they said it was on the secretary's desk. back upstairs. So there we went, up one of the loudest and oldest staircases I have ever seen. Turns out its (or at least the building) about 500 years old. No wonder it makes noise. We finally found the key and then she showed me where I'd work (in a room next to the secretary's office. Then she took me around to introduce me to everzone and then on a small and incomplete tour of the museum.
She couldn't remember everything, and didn't give me much time to read the signs, but its a very cool place. Some of the frescoes date back to teh Middle Ages, some statues to the Baroque era, and then there's the excavated tomb of a prince who lived either 200 or 400 years before Christ. There's a lot of old stuff here, all its all very interesting.
After the tour, she said she had an appiontment with someone, and for me to pass the time while she was gone, I could read some stuff. She handed me a stack of stuff, some scholarly articles about museums (I'm not sure if they were really relavent; I felt like I was given busy work) and some about the acutal museum. So I read for almost two and a half hours before she came back.
In the mean time, a lot of people kept coming in and out of the room getting random things or using the copier. It provided me with some break and distraction. I had a conversation with the Hausmeister and a guy named...Mathias. He's a couple years younger than me, and is taking a year to work between high school and university. He's really nice and it's even nicer to have someone here closer to my own age.
When Frau Auer finally came back, she said she had to go somewhere, and the others had invited me to lunch and then at 2pm she had to go to another museum and I could go with her. So, after waiting a while, Frau Contenz found me and I went to lunch with her, Mathias, and Rüdlig, another person who works for the museum. We went to a pizzaria about 20 feet away from the museum and it was very good. The converstation was better, I've felt a little starved for it the past couple of days.
When lunch was over, I still had about an hour, so Frau Contenz and Rüdlig took me to the "Depo", which is the attic and storage space for everything that isn't on display. It was amazing. There was so much stuff, furniture, paintings, clocks, spinning wheels, you name it. And to know that every single piece is valuable, has a story and all, is crazy. I wandered around open mouthed and felt like this would have been heaven for "America Pickers" or "Pawn Stars." There wer also a lot of old guns.
Basically what we had to do, was find some stuff, load it on a cart, take it across the musem and put it back on display. The display area had been recently cleaned for a terrible mold ifestation. I helped out until about five till two, then dashed off, back to my work area, to supposedly meet Frau Auer.
She wasn't there. So, I ran upstairs to look in her office. Nope. Back down. Waited. Decided to run downstairs, just in case. Nope. Upon trying to return, I found out that my first key didn't work for one of the doors. Luckily the HausMeister, Herr Paul, was there and gave me a second one to get back in. So, I ran back upstairs and found no one. At this point it was twenty after two, and I knew that whereever Frau Auer was, she was no longer at the museum. So, feeling stupid and helpless, I went back to the third floor to find Frau Contenz and Rüdig. I told them what happened and then helped them a bit more.
Around three we were done, and in taking the cart back downstairs, we found Frau Auer. I told her what happened and was very very apologetic. Which I genuinely was. It turned out I was supposed to meet her downstairs, but she did not say that specifically, I'm pretty sure. And by the time I'd checked there, she was gone. She said not to worry about it. But I still felt bad. Then she asked if I still had more reading to do, which I did, technically, so then I could do that until the end of the day.
I only read for about another hour more, and I doubt much of any of it sank in today, but that last hour was brutal. My eyes kept closing. Mathias gave me a booklet about the museum, which was more interesting than the magazines she gave me, so I read that. At ten past four, when Mathias had already left, she came and told me I could leave everyday at four. So I packed up and walked to the train station to catch the five o clock train.
Frau Auer did tell me what I'd be doing the next week and a half or so. She's putting together a family tour with a bit of a fantasy theme, and would like me to translate it. I'm not sure if I'll really be giving it in English, but she mentioned it would be good for people to hear a native speaker. So that sounds very cool. In the mean time, I hope I'll get to help Frau Contenz and Rüdig with their projekts, too, since they're very nice and friendly people.
And, for the record, I did not get lost on the way home today in St. Georgan. I paid close attention this morning on the way to the trainstation to avoid walking an extra twenty minutes this evening. I got home around five-thirty.
When I came home, Herr Brause was finishing putting in a new cat door. His converstation with Frau Brause went something like this:
FB: It looks great!
HB: No.
FB: It does!
HB: No.
FB: It looks classy!
HB: No.
FB: Can you say anything besides 'no?'
HB: No, no, no. Shit.
FB: Leave it alone!
HB: No.
And that's pretty much how they talk to each other all the time. It's great. But dinner was good, I'm still full, quite tired, and wrote a lot. So there.
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