Some Regrets

I regret coming here this summer. If I knew in January (or even May) what I know now, I would not have come. I have yet to do any engineering work since I’ve been here. I’m in my second week of my second job and the closest I’ve had to any engineering is editing a research paper about LabVIEW and looking at some of the Airbus airplane schematics. I have not had any of the usable experiences that I would have had if I took the internship I was offered in North Carolina. The cultural differences don’t bother me that much. It’s the fact that I’m not doing anything close to what I expected to be doing that bothers me. I have tried to ask for more things to do, but all they have given me is photos to Photoshop and a paper to edit. I do not dislike these things (I actually enjoyed learning Photoshop), but I dislike that everything I have done at both of my jobs would be better done by a good secretary. I want to be doing engineering. I do not think it is because I am a woman because the other guy in my lab has the same tasks I do. I just think that these people want cheap labor from people who can understand technical things. 

I also got my MCAT scores back. I did three points worse than I had done on any of my practice tests, and one point too low to be guaranteed to UCF’s medical school. So now I have to decide if I am going to study for the whole month of July and come back to the US early to take another MCAT on August 18 or whether to forfeit my guaranteed seat in an American MD school that has good residency matches. I should clarify that MCAT scores are not like SAT scores: you should only take it once, but if you do take it again, medical schools want to see serious improvement. If I had not come here, I would have taken the exam two weeks later, giving me more time to study, and I probably would have gotten the score I needed. 

I think the Airbus job would have been good for an industrial engineer, and I think that this study abroad would have been good for me last summer, but I think that this was the wrong time and I was the wrong person for this. Right now, I just want it to be a year from now when I’ve graduated, and I know what I am going to be doing with the next four years of my life.

Scotland Pt. 3

My last day in Scotland was mostly a travel day. We were going to get breakfast, but Alice ended up sleeping in later than she expected, and I was not going to wake her up since she had to take one last final on that Wednesday and she had been so kind to host me. So to get to the airport, I had to take a car, to take a train, to take a tram, to get to the airport. I got to the airport early in case something happened or security was long, but I ended up getting though security in less than 10 minutes. Then I had two and a half hours until my flight left. I got some lunch at a sushi place that had a strange concept. They have their sushi on conveyors going all around the restaurant; when you see something you want, you just take it off the conveyor and eat it. Different colored plates meant different prices, so when you paid at the end, the waiter just added up the total from the colors of the plates. It was an interesting experience. I still had a lot of time to kill, so I just wandered around the airport. I found out that the gates for flights are not announced until 45 minutes before the flight. So all the passengers just waited in a large holding area with shops and food until their gate was called. Another thing that I have not experienced in a US airport was being bussed to the plane. At Hamburg, Edinburgh, and London Stansted, I had to get on a bus that took me and other passengers (sometimes to the other side of the runway) to get on the plane. I had a layover in London Stansted that was supposed to be three hours, but ended up being four or more. When I landed in London, I couldn’t figure out how to get to the other terminals. I asked an attendant and she pointed me in a direction and told me to follow the signs. I did that, but I ended up outside. So I had to go through security again. I was able to get through security in less than 20 minutes. London Stansted had a similar set up that Edinburgh had. There was a large holding area and gates were not announced until 45 minutes before the flight. But, I did like that I was able to get a chicken and avocado sandwich from Prett, which I had not been able to get in Edinburgh. My flight was delayed, which was frustrating. It ended up being 11pm when I got back to my apartment in Bremen. It was just a long day.

Scotland Pt. 2

My second day in Scotland was my history day. Alice and I had breakfast with another one of her friends at a local café that students frequent. It had a sign out front displaying “Where Kate met Wills (for coffee)”, so there were plenty of tourists taking pictures of that sign. I enjoyed my food there. I had a scone, porridge, and tea, very British. After breakfast, we went to the castle. That day, they were having a special event to show people about what life was like in the middle ages. We saw a fashion show, we shot a bow and arrow, we carved soap like the stones were carved, and I carved a limestone block. We were also able to have a guided tour of the castle that carried over to the cathedral. The cathedral was more ruins than the castle was because it was torn down by the protestants during the reformation. St. Andrews has a very violent history, especially with religious wars. Alice could not get over the fact that the cathedral probably would still be there if the protestants had not destroyed it. I also climbed the 150 or so stairs to get to the top of the tower, which had amazing views of the water and of the town. After learning about all of the history, we went to the pub and I got a 2/3 pint of beer. I was surprised, but they only served beer in 1/3 and 2/3 of a pint. We also went to Cromar’s, which has the best fish and chips in Scotland, and they were definitely the best fish and chips I have ever had. After the fish and chips, we had ice cream, which was also very good. By that time, it was late so we went back to the flat and went to sleep. It was another great day!

Scotland Pt. 1

The second weekend I was in Germany was a long weekend, so I went to Scotland! One of my good friends from high school studies history at St. Andrews University in St. Andrews, Scotland. We had one weekend of overlap on the same continent, and I was very happy that it happened to be a long weekend for me. I flew from Hamburg to Edinburgh (pronounced Edinbruh), then took a tram to the train station, then took a train to Leuchars, then Alice and her flatmate, Avery, picked me up in Avery’s car. I was surprised by the train because it was a diesel train, and not electric. I had just assumed that all of the passenger trains would be electric. It was more effort than I thought it would be to get up to St. Andrews. We first went to their flat, which was very centrally located in the city. Alice said she had some classes that were in the building right down the street from the flat. After I got a little settled, we went and got brunch and watched the Royal Wedding. I had a traditional Scottish breakfast, and it was pretty good. And, yes, I did have the black pudding, and it wasn’t bad. It was spiced and it had a similar texture to the liver I have had at hibachi restaurants. When we were in the restaurant, some other Americans came in and watched the royal wedding. I knew that the waitress was laughing at us, but it was still fun and I loved Megan’s dress. After brunch, Alice gave me a tour of the city. It is a small, old, beautiful town. It was very walkable. I never needed to use any public transportation, so I do not know anything about the public transportation in St. Andrews.  Alice and Avery said that the only reasons to come to St. Andrews are for the university or for golf. It also seems like locals do not really like the students and the students do not really like the golfers, but I do not know what the locals think about the golfers. After Alice’s tour, which I would highly recommend, we went to her friend’s flat for dinner and watched Captain America. My flight that morning was very early, so I was perfectly ok with a more relaxed evening. Even though it was late when we left her flat, it was still light outside because Scotland is so far north. All and all, it was a great day.

Wadden Sea

Yesterday, I went on one of the field trips put on by the school to the Wadden Sea. When I signed up for it, I thought that it was in Hamburg, for some reason, and I also thought that it was Hochschule Bremen organizing the trip. However, when I got the email the week before with more information about the trip, I found out that it was in Wilhelmshaven and Hochschule Jade organized the trip. I had to be at the Wilhelmshaven train station at noon, which would be fine on a weekday, but on the weekend, the train service is not the same. I had to take two trains and a rail replacement bus to get there, which took about two hours. I got to the meeting location, and the group took a bus and then walked to the North Sea. There, we got on a boat and had a tour of the Harbor. The harbor is part of the Wadden Sea, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The harbor is also the only or the biggest (I could not fully tell what the guide said) deep water port in Germany. It is the biggest naval base for Germany, and so we were able to see a lot of German naval ships. After the harbor tour, we only had half an hour for pictures by the sea and lunch. We ate quickly and took pictures simply because we did not have much time. Then, we had a guided tour of the Wadden Sea museum. I learned that Wadden Sea is not a geographical term, but more of an ecological term. It refers to the area between the barrier islands and the mainland that dries during low tide and is submerged during high tide. Apparently, if you have a guide who knows what he is doing, you can walk from the mainland to the islands during low tide. It was very interesting to see the animals that live in the Wadden Sea area. It is also a major resting point for migratory birds going to Africa from the Artic or vice versa. After the tour, we went to the train station to go home. The trip home was better because it only required one bus and one train. It was a fun trip, and it is not something I would have thought to do on my own. I was pleasantly surprised.

Hamburg

I never described my day in Hamburg. I had a lot of fun! It was the annual harbor festival, celebrating 829 years of Hamburg’s port! Once I got off of the train, I walked to the port to catch a ferry tour that I found that would be in English. I walked because I was not in too much of a hurry and I wanted to see some of the city. The boat tour was really cool. Because of the festival, there were a lot of cool boats, that I took lots of pictures of. I do not know much about boats, but many of them looked very old. I saw one that was steam powered! Since this is such a big event, I had even seen some of these boats on the local news the night before. I saw a Mississippi type river boat on the news and then in person (I know it was the same boat because it had the same name, Louisiana Star). On the boat tour, we went into some of Hamburg’s canals. Apparently, it has more canals and bridges than Amsterdam. After the boat tour, I walked around the festival area and got some food. It had a state fair kind of vibe. But I was still interested to try German fair food. I got fries with mayonnaise (the best fry condiment), some sausage with a bun that was much smaller than itself, and a fried potato cake with applesauce. I am pretty sure I have had that fried potato cake with applesauce at the German pavilion at Epcot, so I was kind of surprised that it is actually a thing in Germany. After walking through some (it was huge) of the festival area, I went to St. Michael’s church. It is a beautiful Lutheran church that was actually built as a Protestant church. There are definitely more ornate Catholic churches, but that has to be the most beautiful Protestant church I have ever been in. I started to slowly make my way back to the train station. On the way, I stopped in at the city hall, which was also surprisingly beautiful. However, they closed 10ish minutes after I got there, so I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked. I also stopped in another Lutheran church where the musicians were practicing for a service that I am guessing was that evening. It was interesting to hear more modern music in the acoustics of a large, Cathedral-type (though Lutheran) church. At the train station, I got the only American fast food that I have had since I have been in Germany, KFC. It has been years since I have been to a KFC, but none of the other options sounded appealing to me and I had to catch a train. I ate it on the train back to Bremen, satisfied and tired after a long day out.

Trains

The first weekend I was in Germany, I went to Hamburg for a day. I had already been on the train the day before because I went to the Climatehouse in Bremerhaven on a school trip. I should probably write a blog post about that, too. Included in my fees for the university is my semester pass. My semester pass lets me use all of the transportation in Bremen and Bremerhaven. I use the trams in Bremen almost every day so this is very useful. My semester pass also lets me get on any regional train in the states of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lower Saxony. If I did not have a semester pass, it would have cost about 30 Euro to go round trip between Bremen and Hamburg. What I find amazing about the trains is that I can show up to the trains station 10 minutes before my train leaves, walk to the platform, wait a minute or two for my train to arrive, and just get on the train when it gets there. There is no security! To get on the monorail at Disney you have to go through security. Also, the airport security that I have experienced in Europe has been very similar to in America. I do not know if they have that airport security and no train station security because of international laws regarding aviation. It is also surprising that there are no ticket turnstiles to go through before you get on the train. While you are on your way, an employee comes and checks that everyone has a ticket. When this happens, I just show them my semester pass. Once, someone asked me to show an ID, even though my semester pass has a picture on it. I just find it so amazing that just show up at the train station and get on a train. It is just so simple.

Another thing that I have noticed about rail in Europe is that in every train I have ridden, there are two sets of track right next to each other. In the US, whenever I drive over a railway track, it is only one set of track. I think the two sets of track are helpful because trains do not have to let other trains pass. 

Spargels

Evidently, I arrived in Germany during Spargelzeit; Spargel season. Germans say nothing marks the beginning of Spring like the appearance of the beloved white asparagus, known in Germany as Spargel. White Asparagus is harvested from mid-April to the end of June.

I was curious so I looked up what the difference between white and green asparagus is; apparently the difference between white and green asparagus is the way in which the plant is grown. The white asparagus is grown under a thick layer of mulch and covered in dark plastic, completely underground, or under dark containers so that no sunlight can reach the spears, therefore photosynthesis never takes place. Once the vegetable is harvested, the white asparagus must be peeled because the outside is very fibrous and woody. The white asparagus do not contain quite as many antioxidants as the green but it is still a healthy vegetable. 

The most common way to prepare them is to bundle 2-4 spears with kitchen string and place them in simmering water until the stalk is tender when pierced with a knife. Other ways of preparing the noble vegetable is pickling, wrapping the asparagus in cured meats, dicing and placing into salads, and used as a vegetable in dishes such as quiche and casseroles.

I had the pleasure of eating a plate of white asparagus with boiled potatoes covered in hollandaise sauce. The white asparagus was much milder than the green variety and I found it to be very delicious. I have actually had white asparagus three times since I have been in Germany. It is easy to order at a cafeteria because I recognize the word “spargel” and I know I will like it. I had it for the first time in the mensa (cafeteria) at Hochschule Bremen. I had it for the second and third times at the canteen (cafeteria) at Airbus. The two pictures are from Airbus. 

Shopping Center Experience

Today, I decided to try to find an area similar to shopping centers that may have larger stores than the small neighborhood corner grocer or health/beauty aide store in my neighborhood. I was hoping to find something similar to our shopping centers. Successfully, I found an area outside of the city central that I could reach by tram that would only take 10-15 minutes of travel time. Google maps is an amazing app that has saved me so many times. I hopped on the tram and went the correct number of stops but I did not press the button to stop the tram and no one else was getting off, so the tram went passed my stop. I hopped off at the next hub and went under the tracks through a tunnel and waited for the next tram. Since it was a Saturday, the trams were running at half the rate of weekdays so I waited 15 minutes for the next tram. I finally got off the tram at the correct location and found my way through the highway interchange, down a path and through a parking lot to what resembled an American suburb shopping area. The area had a store similar to a home depot, a large car wash, and an indoor shopping mall. There was a parking lot that had cars parked in it, there were actually more cars there than bicycles. Inside the shopping mall were about 3 clothing stores, a pharmacy/heath and beauty aide store, a small discount department store, an electronics store similar to Best Buy, a shoe store similar to Rack Room, a few local take-away food kiosks, a nail salon, a pet supply store similar to PetSmart, a floral store, and at the the back of the mall, was the closest store I could find to a Walmart. I had finally found a store that could provide me with the household items I needed for my apartment and larger variety of groceries that I could cook in the microwave or on the hot plate in my “tiny house” apartment. I felt like I was home, shopping at this store instantly made me feel at ease. To finish the American shopping experience in Bremen, on the way out of the shopping center, there was a corner McDonald’s. Luckily, I have yet to eat at McDonalds in Germany.

Blog 4: Real Day 2 at Work

Today is May 17th. I really just don't know what to do. The job is as foreign as the language. They were having me work on the business infrastructure things again today, and I have no idea how to run or manage a business! I was required to attend more meetings that were spoken in German and I try to follow along and react to social cues by laughing when the group laughs, nodding when I feel I need to, and trying to look engaged in a room full of people that are not able to engage me. 

I again talked with my interim supervisor to inform her that I feel at a loss for not having the ability to contribute to this position. I reminded her that I have only taken mechanical engineering classes and nothing remotely close to the task they have assigned me. I am a person that needs to be productive and not wasteful. I truly need to have a job that I have knowledge about, especially in a group of people that struggle to speak the same language.  She informs me that my supervisor will return Tuesday and maybe he can assist me at that point. 

I did learn that I am required to wear work shoes that the company has provided me. I will wear my normal shoes to work and change once I am in the facility. My attire is typical professional / casual work clothing. I wear slacks, and a professional blouse. Most people I see are wearing denim pants with collared casual shirts. Sometimes I will see a blazer with an oxford shirt and jeans. There are also many more men employed at Airbus than women, which I was expecting.

Earlier this morning, I had to travel across the city, about 40 minutes, to the University of Bremen. The VISA requirements and work permit that Airbus has required me to do are out of the ordinary for international study abroad students coming to Germany. I will provide a more detailed record of the process I went through later. 

Blog 3: My First Real Day at Work

Because I did not know what I would be doing about my job at Airbus, I did not want to blog about my experiences there. I also did not want to say anything too bad while I was working there. However, I did write some blogs ahead of time, which I will post now.

I had my first real day of work today, May 16. The work they had me doing was an industrial engineer's work, and I do not know anything about industrial engineering! I told them I am studying mechanical engineering. I don't know what to do because this is not what I have studied or what I expected, but I do not want to seem ungrateful. My supervisor will not be back until May 28, so I can’t even ask him about my job. They have assigned a substitute supervisor to me but she in frequently in meetings, away from her desk, and she has no authority to ask for a change in work assignments for me.

I have no idea what they are asking me to do. I truly do not know if I can continue this. The meetings they have me attend are in German and not everyone speaks English in Bremen. I was told English would be the language spoken at Airbus since it is an international airline manufacturing company. I feel I am wasting Airbus’s time and resources as well as mine. I do not have the background, education, or experience to be able to contribute to this position. I frequently sit trying to find something productive to do and do my best at approaching the task they have presented me. I also have no idea how to record my work time, when I should have break-time and lunchtime, nor proper procedure for leaving at the end of the day. Also, at the end of the day, I am not able to find my supervisor when it was time to leave so I remained at my desk until 30 minutes after the shift ended just to make sure I was ok to leave. I did not find her, so I email that I would be leaving and I would return after I made a mandatory visit to the University of Bremen, in order to finish required residency paperwork the next day.  I really do not know if I can hold on until the 28th. 

Blog 2: My First Day of Work

Today was kind of a hot mess. I arrived early for my first day. I went to the receptionist, who directed me to the badging office. I got my badge, and then the badging office told me to go back to the receptionist. I knew my supervisor would be gone this week, so he gave me another person’s contact information for my first day. I found out about a half hour later (it took 25 minutes for someone to come get me then 5 to get to my building) that my assigned person was not there today. So I arrived where I will be working, and no one there had any idea that I was coming until a half hour beforehand! They simply didn’t know what to do with me. I knew it wasn’t their fault that they didn’t know I was coming, and I also knew it wasn’t my fault that they didn’t know I was coming, but it still felt weird. I felt bad because I was taking time out of their day, but there also should have been better internal communication. Once I arrived where the person who came to get me dropped me off, I spent about 20 minutes with the de facto group leader, then he passed me off to the integrator. The integrator told me that his job is basically to be the middleman between the blue collar workers on the production line and the white collar office workers. He was a very nice man. I spent the most time with him. He took me on a tour through the facilities and then afterwards we chatted and waited for the de facto leader to come back. He told me that they were going to be in a meeting the rest of the day, so he was fine if I went home. So, I went back to my apartment. I decided not to use names in this summary of the day’s events because I did not ask anyone’s permission to write about them publicly, and it feels weird to use names without their permission. 

Blog 1: Expectations and Preparation

I came into this not really knowing what to expect. I had always wanted to study abroad and when I was given the opportunity to do an internship in Bremen, Germany, I was thrilled. I began the process in December but did not receive confirmation that the program would actually come to fruition until late January. The school relationship and program are new between UCF and HSB with Airbus, so through the months prior to my departure there were many uncertainties as to the best way to proceed with logistics and the formalities necessary to make the internship a reality. Because of this, I did not really know what to expect for the summer, so I prepared the best way possible for the upcoming departure. However, I did not do as much language preparation as I would have liked. The past few weeks have been crazy for me. I had a final on Thursday, April 26, then I had two finals on Monday, April 30, I had lab research to wrap up before I left for the summer, then I had my MCAT on Saturday, May 5. When I returned from taking the MCAT, my extended family had arrived from North Carolina to spend the week since it was the only time we would have for a family gathering for the year. I spent all my free time during the 3 days prior to my flight packing and preparing for my departure to Bremen, scheduled for Wednesday, May 9. My contact person at HSB had told me to arrive sometime during the week before my internship job was scheduled to start at Airbus, which is on Tuesday, May 15. Because I took the MCAT this semester, I spent all of my free time studying for that and not for practical German. I had used the app Duolingo to help prepare me when I was taking a break from mandatory school work. I also used a German pocket phrase book and met with a friend that teaches mini German classes. However, now that I am in Germany, when I go to try to use some of the little German that I know, I get anxious and I forget everything I have learned. I have only managed to use “Bitte” and “Danke” consistently. Now that things are settling down, I am going to spend a lot more time studying German. I am taking a class online though Eastern Florida State College as a transient student and I have found some quality online resources like DuoLingo and Deutsche Welle.

Back to how I arrived legally in Bremen. To get my visa/temporary residence permit/work permit, I had to drive down to Miami to go to the German consulate. However, I could not visit the consulate until I had the actual original work ZAV to take with me. It was annoying to have to go all the way down Miami, but it was nice to have already done that when I arrived here. When I was interacting with the people in the consulate, I was pretty sure that they would know English. Whereas here, I can’t tell until I start speaking to them. I will post the process on what papers were necessary and the sequence of events to make sure I had everything in order to begin work tomorrow after I actually know it worked. There are so many little things that have happened that I will post about to make the process easier for the next person that will have the good fortune to do an internship in Bremen with AirBus.