Another Great Week in Germany

So as any football fan (soccer) should know, Germany started off their World Cup with a 4-0 victory over Australia last week. I was able to be at Heiligeistfeld for this game, along with 55,000 other crazy German fans. It was great to see Germany get off to a great start, but a 1-0 loss to Serbia on Friday was especially disappointing. The game was at 1:30pm, which basically meant that everyone went home and the weekend started early. I watched the game with some colleagues, and then headed over to the Public Viewing to watch the USA game. At first it looked like it was gonna be a disappointing day all around, with the U.S. down 2-0 at the half,

but an amazing comeback to tie it (should have been 3-2 and a victory, thanks ref) gave me some solace.

Believe it or not, there is still other stuff going on in Hamburg besides watching the WC, aka my internship :-) This past week was the best week on the job so far, between finally making progress on the Purchasing Training, and getting tours through the landing gear, engine, and maintain halls. I even got to go out on Lufthansa's "runway" and take some pics with a decommissioned Boeing 747. Also I've made some contacts in the engineering departments, and it seems as if I could have an internship again next year if I wanted.

After seeing a few more sights this weekend, I have done the touristy part of Hamburg, and am now planning on doing some more traveling around Germany and Europe. I bought a German rail pass good for 4 days in the next 30, and am going to visit München next weekend. I haven't decided where I'll go with the other two days for sure, but feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions. I am also planning on visiting Paris sometime in July, so that should be rather exciting too. I was gonna go sailing today, but the weather disagreed so hopefully I'll get another chance. Too all my friends back in the states, I wish you guys could be here too (if you can afford the plane ticket you'll have a place to stay).

More Sightseeing and Stuff

I have now had nearly two full weeks and weekends to enjoy Hamburg, and have been able to see and do a lot of cool stuff. Instead of writing about it all I'm just gonna post a bunch of pics with captions, in no particular order.

Above and below are pictures of the Public Viewing at Heiligengeistfeld, for the England vs. USA match. There were a couple thousand fans there, the majority of which were impartial Germans. However, I found a group of about 25 American students and got the USA USA USA chants rolling. The Brits replied with their old songs and actual football tradition, so pretty soon we had a miniature revolutionary war going on. Still didn't match a game at the Big House, but I'm excited to see how much crazier it gets when Germany is playing.
The next four pictures are of a nature trail and beach along the Elbe river in Hamburg. For those of you who don't know Hamburg is one of the biggest harbors in Europe, and the largest in Germany. It was a beautiful summer day when I went to the beach.



Below is a pic of Alster sea, from Alster park. It is a lake in the middle of Hamburg's city center. It's a great place to relax on a nice summer day.
Another picture of some ships in the harbor.
Below is a professional volleyball match that happened to be going on, while I was walking around the harbor. The court was actually in the middle of the Elbe and was pretty cool. Also not sure if I was supposed to pay, but no one ever asked for a ticket :-)
Another view of Hamburg's harbor and old warehouse buildings.

First Week on the Job

Monday had arrived and it was time to wake up and head to work. But before I could do that I needed to sign the lease for my room. Unfortunately the head of the studentenwohnheim didn't arrive at his office until 9am, which was precisely the time I needed to be at work... luckily Lufthansa was fine with me showing up a little late. I arrived at the dorm, received my keys, and got a quick tour before heading on the s-bahn and u-bahn to get to work (above and below ground trains). Luck would have it however, that the train station I was heading towards had caught on fire and we be closed for up to an hour. Around this time I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to make it to Lufthansa Technik.

I decided to follow the crowd of people exiting the subway, and started walking in the direction of the next stops. It would be amiss of me not to mention that it was raining that morning as well, as it does more often than not in Hamburg, or so it seems. Good thing is that rain puts out fire, and by the time arrived at the next stop the firefighters had done their job and just reopened the subway station. I got on the train and after a few more stops arrived at the airport, where I got on a bus that took me to the Lufthansa Technik Basis.

By this point I was tired and anxious, but ready to get started. My German, however, was not ready. I quickly was overwhelmed by the speed at which they spoke, and had to ask them to slow down before I could understand where I had to go. After working my way through the grounds, which is as large as Central Campus at the University of Michigan, I found my department. I was going to be working in the Corporate Purchasing Department with my mentor Jessica Tomm.

Jessica was just as friendly in person as she had seemed on the telephone, and she quickly got to work introducing me to my coworkers and telling me about their responsibilities. We often changed between German and English before Jessica asked me which I preferred, to which I responded English... at least for the first day. After we finished the introductions it was time for lunch. Lufthansa has 2 large cafeterias where you can get just about anything you want for under 5 euros, and it tastes fantastic. After lunch I was introduced to some of the software they used, and then worked on some online training's and such for the rest of the day.

After work I headed back to the hotel, and relaxed for a while before calling it a night (Although I had my dorm room now, I had booked the hotel till the 1st of June assuming that would be the first day I could move in, so I just stayed there). The next day I arrived at work punctually, and learned what my task was going to be for the summer. I have to create a training concept for Corporate Purchasing employees of Lufthansa Technik working outside Germany. This training is for the different purchasing programs, organizational tools, and corporate purchasing methods they use. This involves me learning not only about the tools they are currently using abroad (odd that abroad now refers to outside Germany), but also the tools they use in Hamburg and the training's they give here. In addition I have many smaller tasks such as fixing and optimizing their work flow diagram software.

I moved into my summer room that night after work, and had to go buy pillows, sheets, and a blanket for my bed. I once again was too exhausted to go out and do anything exciting after work; after getting up at 7 and not getting back till 6 for the past few nights. The next day I learned Jessica was sick and wasn't coming back till Monday, so two days in and I was already on my own. Unfortunately, I think I caught whatever she had. That evening and the next day I had a sore throat, followed by a runny nose the next few days. I apologize if so far this post has seemed a little negative, but I was sick and stressed this past week. However, such is life and things can only get better, as they did.

Today (Friday) I started feeling better and the weather had cleared up as well, becoming 67 and sunny. After work I rushed home and changed before going to see the Rathaus and the harbor downtown in the evening sunshine (It stays light out until after 10 here and the sun rises at 5).

I also looked through a few of the shops before realizing this was the exact place I had been 3 summers ago with Walled Lake Central's German Exchange Program. I sat down and enjoyed the sunshine while thinking of all the great times I had already had in Deutschland, and of the even better times that are still to come...