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.