Farewell Party for 6 people

The lastest event took place last weekend, when we all the interns came together again to celebrate the farewell of 6 girls: Caro (my predecessor+housemate), Katha, Vici(my housemate), Christina, Saba and Gonca.



As almost every farewell party has a theme, this time the girls decided to leave their footprint with a 'Stars & Stripes' party. The party took place at our house and they managed to decorate our living with small American flags. Everyone went off the week to get some fancy stuff for the party but Bene was definetely the most creative (and spent probably the most money but this is also a great carnival costume!)



My biggest investment in addition to all the small accesoires were the red sandals that you can see on the picture...I love them!!!

Even though we celebrated the girl' farewell it was a very successful party. And of course, the farewell ceremonie took a bit longer as we had give away the farewell slides collection and the signed farewell flag to each of the 6 girls with a small speech. It happened that I had to give Katha her slides and her flag and I felt very happy to do it as we spent a good time together over the last 6 weeks.
This party was definitely much more emotional for me because 2 of the girls Caro (my predecessor) and Katha became close friends to me. But also new interns arrived and there already very nice people here and there will be new people to spend a good time with!

For more pictures, check: http://gerryg.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php

Party night in Philly

After 6 weeks, I finally went off for my first party night in Philly itself. It is only half an hour away (like Cologne from my hometown) but as I went on other trip on the last weekends, I never made it to Philly's party area in the Old City.
In the beginning we were 6 girls but 3 of them left to go in a Hip Hop club but Caro, Katha and me were not that into it, so we preferred to stay in the bar and catched up with Bruce, a guy that we met at work. It was a great night out!

Katha's farewell party

That Friday night the girls crew was invited to Owen, Katha's boss. He sponsored a BBQ party at his house to say goodbye to Katha. There were also some colleagues from her and friends of Owen. We had great BBQ in the real American way and after we played either or pool or foosball (this is how they call "Kicker" here - for all the Germans...;-). It was a funny, relaxed party.

Cooking sessions

I cannot say exactly when it started but it must have been in my 2nd or 3rd week here. Somehow Vici, my housemate was supposed to cook a german meal. And here comes the problem: Vici cannot cook at all....So Gonca, her turkish friend helped her out and cooked garic bread as an entree and as the main dish turkish Moussaka and Ayram with cucumber for us. It was soooo delicious but there was also so much garlic in every dish that we were so thirsty after and our whole kitchen kept the smell until the next morning...



Somehow, Vici managed never to cook her german dish but instead we got so delicious food to taste every Thursday. Most of the time we cooked at our house because we have a really spacious kitchen and the perfect dining room. So the next cooking night was dedicated to France:
Julien, my housemate prepared fois gras for us as an entree and we had Ratatouille with Tuna filet, then french cheese and finally a strawberry tarte as dessert. I felt much more filled than after Raclette!!!!



In the following week we got french crepes with all kind of fillings. We had a big crepes party.
But then the germans had the chance to present one of the famous dishes. Our 'Frankengirl' Christina took the initiative and planned the dumpling night. The problem was, that we wanted to fill the dumplings with meat balls.



I never ate potatoe dumplings like this before but it tasted very well althouh the preparation was a challenge! For me it turned out that I am much better in preparing the meat balls than actually filling the dumplings with the meat balls...But finally we succeded:



Lalo, my new mexican housemate also prepared typical food. We had awesome Quesadillas filled woth Guacamole, cooked mexican Chorizo and Julien prepared a tarte des pommes.



These evenings were so much fun when we prepared the food together and people from all over the world sit together at one table. It is great!

Boston - August, 16-18, 2009

Exactly at 4pm, we left Siemens and started our girls trip to Boston. Normally it takes about 6 hours to drive there but not on a Friday afternoon/evening...We arrived around 12pm...But as we got a great deal on hotwire.com (lastminute hotelrooms and flights)we slept very comfortable in our 4,5 star hotel:D
The next day, we started to explore the city and the botanical garden and also the waterfront.

In the evening, the 'Duck tours' took us around Boston for 2 hours...It is kind of a bus which also can swim in the water...I guess in german we call them 'Amphibienfahrzeug'(thanks to Bene#s comment!) but not sure...That was fun but not the guide. He tried to be funny and was talking all the time...but who cares about his appendix operation????|-|

After that we had great Italian food and explored the nightlife in Boston.
The next day began early for us as we went on a boat for whale watching. For 1,5 hours we drove and nothing happened. But then we spotted a baby whale with his mother. It was amazing to see them swimming next to our boat!

On our way back it happened that we saw 3 different whales as well. Wicked!
I really liked Boston, you can still see much of the European influence, especially with the buildings and you find many small cafés, bars and pubs. The structure of the streets is not so straight in squares as in other American cities, there are a lot of trees around and not so many skyscrapers. It is not so stressful as in New York, people appear more relaxed and it wasn't crowded at all. This is really a city where I could imagine to live...or study (Harvard...:DD)

My first farewell party

On Friday, I went on the first farewell party. More or less every intern whose internship has ended or will end shortly, is celebrating his or her farewell with a party. In the past, all these parties were kind of a theme party. Michael and Ami chose "Black&White", so we had a Michael Jackson party. It was so funny, it took place at one of the intern houses and everyone dressed up appropriately. At this party they received the farewell flag which has been signed by everyone and their farewell slides. The farewell slides are created by all the interns to keep the memory from the time over here. Just check the pics: grande fiesta!

Beachhouse in Avalon

This weekend was so unbelievable! We head off straight from work to get down to Avalon in New Jersey. The daughter in law of Rebecca's landlords owns a beachhouse there and offered her to bring a few friends for the weekend.

So 8 girls were on their way for a very relaxed and luxurious weekend. When we arrived, we couldn't believe that this whole house (around US $ 3 Mio. worth) would be ours for the weekend!

Even though we arrived late on Friday night and after exploring all 3 levels and all the balkonies and terrasse including the peer, we were so excited! After a short BBQ session, we got more and more tired and went to bed sooner or later. 2 of us couldn't wait to check out the pool table...
The next day started with a large breakfast at the balkony and then we decided to stay at the nice house, directly at the waterfront. We found great water equipment to hang around in the sun all day.

In the evening we started a big BBQ session and enjoyed the nice weather at the balcony and finished the night with a stroll to the beach.
The sunday was lazy as the weather changed rapidly, so we were sleeping in, had breaky, played Wii and in the late afternoon it was time to leave....So sad! Even the pic's on my photoalbum (http://gerryg.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php?page=1) don't tell everything! This house had 4 normal bedrooms, one huge master bedroom, 3 TV's, a Wii, a X-Box 360, 4 fridges, a jacuzzi outside at the terrasse, a small yard, a waterscooter, 2 large balkonies, 2 living rooms on different levels with a pool table on the 2nd floor, a kicker table in the basement, 3 bathrooms...I could still tell more. We felt so rich$$$ hihihi