Falling for Munich

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 06:00:00 +0200

Three days into my stay, and I have to admit it: I love Munich.

To be fair, I have barely seen any of the city, but the feeling is there. In ways, it reminds me of my first days in Brussels. I feel like a small-town kid arriving in the big city for the first time.

The neighborhood where I’m staying is not one of Munich’s glamorous areas, yet it is surrounded by the headquarters and office towers of major companies and research institutes.

At the same time, there is the local butcher shop where the woman behind the counter chats with customers in a language that doesn’t sound like German. It’s this combination of international business, local character, and cultural diversity that makes the city fascinating.

I’m full of enthusiasm and curious to see how I’ll feel once I finally make it into the city center this weekend.

I’m also very happy with my living arrangement. Sharing an apartment with people from a different generation has turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. In exchange for helping out with the occasional technical issue, I come home to varied and delicious home-cooked meals. It’s a trade I’m more than willing to accept.

The internship continues to be enjoyable, even though there isn’t much work for me to do. I’ve completed everything that came up for the handful of colleagues who were in the office this week. The more substantial projects will begin next week.

The technology enthusiast in me appreciates the office equipment. The phones are connected to webcams, allowing people to see each other while talking, something that feels remarkably futuristic.

For now, I’m more than satisfied. Munich is making an excellent first impression.

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First Day in Munich

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 06:00:00 +0200

And just like that, England is over. Christmas is over. New Year’s Eve is over. With all that behind me, it’s time to begin the next chapter in what I consider the most beautiful state capital in southern Germany: Munich.

I arrived last night and barely had time to move into my new place before my first day of work. Fortunately, the day didn’t start until 10 a.m., which made for a relaxed introduction to both the city and my new internship.

The office building made a good first impression - beautiful from the outside and modern on the inside, although it did have a certain corporate business-school vibe in places.

At reception, I was greeted by C, who immediately introduced herself by her first name and explained that everyone in the company was on a first-name basis. At first, I assumed that applied within our department, but I quickly discovered that almost everyone addressed each other informally. It created a friendly atmosphere and made me feel surprisingly welcome.

After a brief introduction, I received my first assignment: testing a questionnaire. It reminded me a lot of previous survey projects I had worked on. Fortunately, there were only a few errors to be found and almost no unusual content issues. Still, testing all the different filter paths and scenarios kept me busy for about an hour.

Lunch was in the company cafeteria. Initially, the prices seemed a bit high, but after comparing them with the restaurant menus I saw on my walk home, the cafeteria suddenly looked like a bargain. In the end, I bought two bread rolls. I accidentally used the wrong (dialect) word and then walked to the wrong checkout counter, providing amusement for the people around me.

The second half of the day brought one of the classic internship challenges: there wasn’t much work available. Only three people from our department were in the office, while everyone else was on holiday and wouldn’t return until Monday. To keep me occupied, I was asked to prepare a proposal. It sounded exciting, but in reality it involved replacing company names in a template and updating the copyright year in a few graphics. Perhaps January isn’t the most thrilling time to start an internship.

Once that was finished, C gave me more background material to read and told me I could leave whenever I felt I had read enough. Since I needed to reach my weekly hours, I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the company intranet, reading internal documents, and creating templates for my timesheets and internship reports.

I finally headed home around 5:30 p.m.

Thanks to mobile internet, I even managed to find a supermarket, although not without taking a rather large detour. At least breakfast for the next morning was secured.

The evening, I spent on my Harvard coursework (thankfully that would be finished soon), took care of a few administrative tasks, and prepared for another early start the next day.

Overall, not a spectacular first day, but a positive one.

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Munich on Søren's Blog

Falling for Munich

First Day in Munich