First days of work...

I think the most interesting part about any new work experience is that I always have this idealized vision of what it's going to be like as I'm about to begin, and the job turns out to be completely different. So far, my internship is not an exception to this pattern that I've observed in my life experiences. The Musikfestspiele is located on the lowest floor of a Professor's home a short drive from the city center of Saarbrücken. I'm basically doing everything that I did as an Honors RA this year, only on a much larger scale. For example, yesterday (my first day, mind you!), I wrote up an itinerary for a choir that is visiting at the end of June to send to charter bus companies and then worked on updating a checklist for the Vienna Philharmonic concert at the end of this month. Today, I had to write an e-mail to all of the Musikvereine in Saarland - the problem is that a lot of the Musikvereine do not have e-mails listed on Saarland's Musikvereine infopage and a bunch of them are outdated. So tomorrow I will be (bravely) calling up many of these organizations on the phone to offer them discounted tickets to the Vienna Philharmonic's second concert at the end of May. Everyone around me is speaking German at a seemingly ridiculously fast pace, but I'm sure it's just normal conversational speed. I'm hoping the comprehension aspect will click soon - in my past experiences (in France), it takes a week or so and then everything magically "clicks." I can't explain it other than in those terms. Hoping the "click" will come soon in this Saarlandischer Dialekt.

A side note - I'll try to post pictures - of my apartment and of some of Saarbrücken - tomorrow or the next day. I know it is boring without pictures. As the noble Rick Snyder said at UM's commencement ceremony, we are an increasingly "ADD society." Such well chosen words for such a well spoken man...