Three days in Germany, two days at work, and still no
internet access. It’s kind of nice to be
cut off from that world. For like a second. And then you realize your Gmail inbox is
probably overflowing since you haven’t been able to sort your emails. And you accumulate five pages of blog-writing
that you haven’t gotten a chance to post.
And then you’re kind of ready to be back in the 21st century.
Maybe we’ll get internet tomorrow.
Yesterday was my first day at work. My boss met me in the lobby, and then we had
a brief introductory meeting. She asked
me during the meeting whether or not I would prefer if they held their
conferences in English, as they are usually in German. Her boss (the man I interviewed with) told
her that they would have to start speaking more English when I came, but she
wanted to ask me to make sure. So I told
her they could carry on their meetings in German because I’m here to learn the
language, yadda-yadda-yadda… Okay. So it’s all German, all the time (with the
exception of today when I royally screwed up clocking out for my lunch break
and had to explain myself in English).
You’d be surprised how much Germans appreciate an American who can speak
their language. Even if it’s broken and
you have a terrible accent they’ll tell you how good you are at German.
It’s almost like the more German I hear, the less I can
speak. Everything on my computer at work
is in German. The keyboard is
German. (Who knew there was a
difference?) The most challenging part
of the new keyboard is that Y and Z are switched, causing me to often type
“Kerty.” I’m convinced that this whole
language barrier thing will get easier when I can master the keyboard. The most difficult part right now isn’t
understanding what other people are saying, but being able to express what I
want to say. I find it comical when I
say a sentence and then look at the person across from me, and their face is
totally blank. They didn’t understand a
word. Not a single word. And it’s funny because I’ve totally been in
that situation before—just staring at a person, trying to repeat their words in
my head and make some sort of sense out of them. But I’ll try again or they’ll ask me a
question, and we’ll finally be back on the same level. I’m beginning to be able to pick out
different accents. Sometimes when I
can’t understand a person, it’s not because they’re talking too fast or using
words it don’t know. It’s just because
people speak in an accent here, and they’re really, really difficult to
understand—even for other Germans!
There are many young workers at Hansgrohe, which pleases me
because I was afraid I would have no one to hang out with on the reg. We had an intern BBQ after work today, and I
got to meet many of the other interns.
They’re all very nice. I hope I
see them at work tomorrow so we can be friends.
I met a girl who studied in Tuebingen, so she gave me her contact
information and a few recommendations for good economics professors. Most of the interns are from the area, but
there is also a girl from Canada and a boy from Egypt.
All of my colleagues are fantastic. We go to lunch together. I met with my
boss today to discuss my first project (yay!), and then I met with her boss to
get an overview of the company, our department, and to tour the Aquademie (aqua
+ academie). It’s basically this really
sick building where you can see all of the Hansgrohe and AXOR products and test
some of them.
This weekend is a three-day weekend because Monday is some
sort of national religious holiday. I
guess there’s no separation of church and state in Deutschland. Whatevs, I get the day off. I have no idea what I’m going to do because
apparently nothing will be open Sunday or Monday and the only friend I’ve made
so far is going to be out of town. I
think I’ll just explore and maybe post these blogs and some pictures—if I have
access to the internet. Saturday, I
think I will travel to Offenburg to find a cell phone. Offenburg is 45 minutes away by train. Apparently I won’t find anything closer. I am literally in the middle of nowhere,
imaginary land.
On another note, there is also a deaf and mute boy who lives
in my house. He is ALWAYS in the
kitchen, sitting at the table. Last night,
I cooked my first meal. I took FOREVER
in the market. Not only could I not
decide what I should buy, but I couldn’t read many of the labels. In a rush to check out before it closed, I
accidentally bought pig head. (I can just imagine Molly cringing when she reads
this.) Anyway, I didn’t realize that I
bought pig head until I was cooking it and I read the label. Schweinekopf.
Ew. But the deaf, mute boy was
sitting in the kitchen, so I couldn’t just make a scene and throw it away,
mid-cook. No, I had to finish cooking my
pig head and then leave the kitchen to dispose of the meat in a different trash
can.
That was last night.
Tonight, I came home from the BBQ and went directly to my room, as per
usual. The boy from the kitchen knocked
on my door and motioned for me to follow him.
Guess where we went. The
kitchen! He pointed to the remote and
TV, signaling that it wouldn’t work. I
honestly don’t know what he expected me to do.
Considering that he spends 100% of his time in the kitchen, he should have
realized that I spend 0% of my time in the kitchen and therefore, do not know
anything about how the television works.
So I shrugged my shoulders and went back to my room. Three minutes later, he knocks on my door
again, points toward the kitchen, and gives me a thumbs-up. Great, the TV works. Smile, thumbs-up, we part ways, I close the
door. A couple minutes pass and he’s
back again, this time with a pen and paper.
Writing notes in German is totally my thing since I’m much better at
writing than speaking. That was nice
because we hadn’t formally been introduced, and it’s nice to know the person
you’re living with, I guess. But after
that he knocked on my door TWO MORE TIMES.
Come on, man. I’m trying to write
my blog. And I have to get up at
6:30. Give me a break.
I’m going to need to get coffee in the morning.
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