update

Sooo have been a bit lazy and will start off where i finished.

Tuesday -

We went to a lecture in the morning about management fashions. This was a lecture about how different management trends come about, and the rhetoric consultants use to sell their ideas. It was not exciting or as interesting as yesterday but it was still ok. After that it was casestudy time. So we sat and worked on ours for a few hours. Then the five lovely ladies in my group all walked downtown to find lunch. Ended up with ham and salad rolls (what a surprise). And i also bought some fresh strawberries from the market. I found out also that you get paid 15-25c when you recycle your plastic bottles here. So i kept mine (and Diannes). I still have them (wednesday night now...) but i am determined to get my 30c. We met up with the rest of the group and my left over strawberries got shared around, and ended up being taken by a complete stranger.

In the afternoon we went to BASF. A huge chemical company (employing 30000 people in mannheim!). The first part was a museum of the different things they make (foods flavours, colours, plastics, scents etc.) which was fairly interesting. I wish it had stopped there. Then they took us on a tour of the plant. It is massive. We were in the bus for 40 minutes. It was boring after 3 minutes. I didnt really know what the guide was talking about. And we werent allowed to take photos so i was bored. One interesting thing was to prevent oil spills in the river they have lines from bank to bank which blow air into the water, raising a strip of water about 3cms. This is enough to stop the oil spreading in case of a spill. Clever huh. I managed not to fall asleep (unlike others!). Then it was time to go and visit the learning centre (even though we wanted to go home). The BASF learning centre is for employees to partake in self-directed learning. Its like a library for staff which is trying to use lots of different methods to help people learn in different ways (a room with no corners apparently helps...). Our guide told us that when you study you shouldnt eat a treat when you take a break, you should have the break then eat a treat when you begin work again. Interesting. But i feel my method of eating treats the whole time whilst studying is also effective.

Finally we got to go back to the hotel. But i was soo tired. But we had case study work to do. sigh. We met in A & D's room. I forgot their room number (and was meant to tell the other girls) so i just stood outside a few doors trying to work out which one their voices were coming from. It worked. We "worked" on the case, but also spent time talking about different holidays here, and how they celebrate christmas and easter differently. It was fun.

We had to finish at 8pm because the soccer was starting and everyone was going for dinner at a nearby pub. Sarah and i got there late and then left because they said our food was going to be one hour (we didnt even want the food, and we didnt want to watch football). Aparently we were being called the grandmas. I dont mind, because i get this at home too. So we wandered the streets of mannheim and eventually settled on the pizza shop a block from the hotel. The pizza men didnt speak english. It was fun ordering (we were the only customers). Sarah wanted pineapple. We tried to ask, but they said anana - i thought this was banana. So i said no. And then asked for paper and a pen and drew a pineapple. Turns out they were right...very funny! And very good pizza and nice company too! so nice to meet someone so like minded! Still finding the hot hot weather and long sunny days a strange adjustment. We ate dinner after 9pm but it didnt feel weird. Back to the hotel and i got to chat to mitch for the first time which was pretty exciting.

TODAY:

Soooo today. We began our morning with a tour of John Deere factory. We were given a small presentation about the company's history. They spend $4.5 million on R&D every day! WOW! Then we went on a tour of the factory. It was hot. It was smelly. It was BORING. Waaaaaaaay to much technical information. I had no idea what he was talking about and wasnt sure what everyone was doing even when he told us. Im sure the machinery was impressive. And the quality assurance systems were very detailed. But i couldnt concentrate after 20 minutes passed. The tour was 1.5hours. Lucky H. was bored to. So we started making up games. You had to walk on lines, you had to stand on one foot when waiting, you had to bend up and down waiting, practice ballet moves etc. It was like being in primary school. It was fun to have a silly friend to save me from boredom. Im sure i was trying to remember interesting facts from the tour to add here...i cant remember any of them. After the tour we did a quick look in the museum, then had a quick drink/food break, then we had to sit through another 20mins of a sustainable resources. Looking around the room i think 25% of people were listening. There were lots of facts. Some were interesting. But i didnt really listen either as i was writing palm cards for tonights presentation.

We got back to the hotel at around 1.30. Our group met again, and then we all had to leave at 3pm to go to the winery. YAY. We were catching a tram. We were all waiting at the stop. The tram arrived. Five of us were waiting for two ladies to get off the tram with prams. The doors closed. We pressed the open button. They stayed closed. Five of us missed the tram. Oh no. I ran after it because H. was standing in the back signalling for us to run. But no one else did. So the guy from Belgium rang Michael. They all caught another tram back to meet us. Apparently they had tried to keep the doors open for us at the next stop but the driver said he would call the police...WHOOPS. This all meant that we now had to run to the train station and catch a train instead. Then change trains twice. And we ran 20 minutes late. It was an adventure!

The town the winery was in is beautiful. Very picturesque, very much reminding me of a little village in France. The winery was amazing. Its now 225 years old. 9 generations of one family have kept it going. We started with our case studies. Our group presented last, after a very long and detailed presentation by another group. We kept it short, sadly not very snappy, but it didnt really matter. Then we went on a tour of the grounds. They are spectacular.

1. They have a ginko tree which are rare in the area. The leaves grow as two separate sections, then these form together as one. Goethe wrote a poem about them being like old married couples.
2. a long time ago an American bug was introduced that burries under the ground and eats the vine roots, killing the plant. The only roots that survive are american wild vine roots, so all the vines here are grafted on to those roots. Amazing.
3. They plant rose bushes at the end of the vine rows. This is because fungi diseases will attack the rose bushes first - then they know to spray.
4. Lots of wine makers die because of CO2 poisoning in cellars. I did not know this. Always take a candle down with you so you know if you need to make a fast escape.

We also did wine tasting. 6 different wines. Some were amazing, some were not. I liked the one they made with a red grape, but the wine looks white (they must be extra gentle when transporting the grapes becaus if the skin gets broken the colour gets into the wine). Had some iced wine too. SOOOOO sweet. I also enjoyed the sparkling passionfruit wine. All very tasty. I didnt finish any of my samples but others around me enjoyed them. needless to say the mood of everyone was very relaxed upon leaving. I spent time talking to H again. We drew pictures to learn new words in english/german. She knows german, english, swiss and Finnish. WOW. I wish i was multilingual. I also drew german guy (whos name i forget) a kangaroo.

We all made purchases then walked through town. This time everyone stopped for gelati. I learned that in germany the phrase for getting your "good side" in a photo is make sure you get my "chocolate side". I like this.

Caught a tram back to Mannheim. Sarah and i very much enjoyed a sing-a-long to some Sister Act 2 and other great hits. Then we walked (forever) back to the hotel. my feet are soooo tired!

Time for bed now because tomorrow we leave at 7.15am to FRANCE!!! Thats in 7.5 hours.

Ahhh good night all!

Ill keep you posted.