This past week has been amazing. I was present at two more births after the first, and then got to go home early yesterday because there was nothing to do. :) One was a vacuum birth, which was rather traumatic and the other also wasn't the most 'beautiful' birth...the hebammen promise me that I'll get to see a pretty birth soon though. I think they do it really naturally as it is, but apparently it gets even more natural than this (and it usually is!)
Yesterday was Maja's birthday and I drank waaaaay too much. I only get two days free, and today I was in bed until 2 pm. Just what I needed. :) But it was reallllly embarrassing last night and I made a pretty large fool of myself. Ah, well, alcohol will do that to your inhibitions...just snatch 'em right up from under you.
Things I'm noticing about Germany: The smell. Germany smells like Germany. It's a mixture of cologne (which EVERYONE wears here--doctors, nurses, midwives, people in the subway, my friends), bread, rain, and something that's just indescribably Germany. I can smell it in my clothes, in the air...and I smile whenever I smell it. I love it. What I don't love so much about this whole time in Germany is how much I'm working. It's a lot. I suppose I'll get used to it, but I'm really wiped out and it makes my social life a little hard because I can never stay out past midnight. I think that will change though because sometimes I'll have Spätdienst (the PM shift) and sometimes I'll have Nachts (Nights). It's interesting because in America healthcare workers (for the most part) stay on their shift and all earn shift differentials. For instance, if you work a PM, you'll get an extra 10% or something per hour. And nights you usually make much more. Here, in this socialized health care crazy world, every midwife works all shifts all the time. It's just the unluky draw when. To me it seems really crazy, but when you think about where it's coming from, it makes a lot of sense.
Tonight is the football game of the year---two German teams battling it out in London for the Champion's League. I'm going over to Marc's to watch it with his friends. Today I went to Entwicklungs Tag (Development Day) in Bonn, which was super cool. There were a bunch of NGOs and Maja was there representing CARE. CARE was the organization that had originally sent care packages to the people in war torn Europe after WWII, and she said it was really cool because she met people who had received the packages as children. That is so cool!
Bonn is really cold today, and I need to leave. I'm pretty tired. This game will go late too... >:(
Yesterday was Maja's birthday and I drank waaaaay too much. I only get two days free, and today I was in bed until 2 pm. Just what I needed. :) But it was reallllly embarrassing last night and I made a pretty large fool of myself. Ah, well, alcohol will do that to your inhibitions...just snatch 'em right up from under you.
Things I'm noticing about Germany: The smell. Germany smells like Germany. It's a mixture of cologne (which EVERYONE wears here--doctors, nurses, midwives, people in the subway, my friends), bread, rain, and something that's just indescribably Germany. I can smell it in my clothes, in the air...and I smile whenever I smell it. I love it. What I don't love so much about this whole time in Germany is how much I'm working. It's a lot. I suppose I'll get used to it, but I'm really wiped out and it makes my social life a little hard because I can never stay out past midnight. I think that will change though because sometimes I'll have Spätdienst (the PM shift) and sometimes I'll have Nachts (Nights). It's interesting because in America healthcare workers (for the most part) stay on their shift and all earn shift differentials. For instance, if you work a PM, you'll get an extra 10% or something per hour. And nights you usually make much more. Here, in this socialized health care crazy world, every midwife works all shifts all the time. It's just the unluky draw when. To me it seems really crazy, but when you think about where it's coming from, it makes a lot of sense.
Tonight is the football game of the year---two German teams battling it out in London for the Champion's League. I'm going over to Marc's to watch it with his friends. Today I went to Entwicklungs Tag (Development Day) in Bonn, which was super cool. There were a bunch of NGOs and Maja was there representing CARE. CARE was the organization that had originally sent care packages to the people in war torn Europe after WWII, and she said it was really cool because she met people who had received the packages as children. That is so cool!
Bonn is really cold today, and I need to leave. I'm pretty tired. This game will go late too... >:(
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