16 July 2010

My Internship - The Last Chapter: "Was nicht zur Tat wird, hat keinen Wert"


(rough translation of title quote from Gustav Werner "What does not become an action, has no worth.")

It hardly seems long ago that I walked through the doors of the old brick Krankenhäusle back in February to start my first day at the Projektgruppe Stadthalle. Now, almost 6 months later, I am saying my goodbyes to a team of coworkers that have become another sort of family to me here in Reutlingen.

As I reflect upon my time at PGS, I am amazed not only at the plethera of jobs I have done while a co-op intern there, but also how much I have learned technically, linguistically, professionally, and personally. A glance at my resume gives a surprisingly thick list of new skills that I've aquired from the variety of jobs I was given over the months:
· Assisted in writing presentations for the project manager.
· Translated technical journal articles into German or English for assistant project manager.
· Acted as official translator for site tours and presentations for international visitors
· Took photos and managed documentation of project construction and public tours.
· Assisted in communication with firms regarding public advertisement around the site.
· Wrote and contributed to online “Blick Hinter den Bauzaun” construction photo gallery.
· Edited layout construction plans and change order documents.
· Wrote billing and minor contract statements for contractors.

...and much more :-P

Behind this list stands a million lessons learned and challenges faced, though. For me, the biggest worry I had when starting this co-op was the language. Learning a foreign language at university is one thing - living and also working in the language is a totally other matter - certainly not a typical experience for an American either. It was for me a true test of the linguistic skills I had been acquiring over the past 4 years of school - and I was unsure of how well I would succeed. It was a tiring and frustrating first months, especially for an expressive person like me, as I tried to break through the language barrier to show myself and who I was as a person to the group. I had several milestones language-wise, though, like...

...when I found I could space out and still understand the conversations around me.
...when I answered the phone and my immediate words where in German.
...when I couldn't figure out if I was thinking in German or English.
...when my coworkers started correcting me for my dialectal accent and NOT for German.
...when I knew what the technical words were in German, but couldn't remember what they were in English.
...when I tried to write interview notes in English and ended up writing German.

and the best:
...when a German schoolteacher lady asked me "so you're German, right?"

I can truly say my German would never have improved as much as it did without this job and the help and patience of my coworkers.

Along the way, I have also learned to solve problems that I don't always understand, to look past personal differences and work together, to make deadlines even with tight schedules and stress, and to bring a cheerful and willing spirit to difficult situations. I now have a greater certainty in my skills as an engineer and my value to a team. More importantly personally, I feel more confident in who I am, what I can do, what I want, and - as I told the group - I feel as if I have "come into" myself.

The last week at PGS was no less busy than usual, and even though I wished the days would go slower, time passed quickly and it was soon Thursday, when I had my "going away" party. I prepared most of the food - snickerdoodles (Herr Eder's favorite from my baking), cherry chocolate chip cake (Herr Kessler's favorite from my baking), fruit salad - and the drinks - coffee, orange juice, apple juice, Sprudel (seltzer water) and the requisite Sekt (sparkling wine)....but the group suprised me with the set-up - USA and German flag decorations, which made it feel like a belated very German kind of 4th of July celebration - and a few gifts too. The party was a way for me to thank them for the chance to work with them, and for us to be able to enjoy one last time relaxing and talking together. I went home with my own specially-made bookbag, a book of Reutlingen, a strong recommendation letter, and with warm feelings on both sides.

In closing, when I came to PGS, I was and felt like a Praktikantin. Now - thanks to my wonderful colleagues and my experiences working six months with them - I may still be a Praktikantin in title, but I leave feeling like a Mitarbeiterin. For that, I have much to be thankful for.

~E.

Some quotes that came to my mind when thinking about this Praktikum (fittingly from Goethe):

"We don't get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like." ~ Goethe

"Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting." ~ Goethe

"How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then you shall know what is in thee." ~Goethe

14 July 2010

Just Because

There's not alot, and it's really just a random assortment of photos of flowers, things around town, the construction site, and so on...but I thought I'd give you the pictures anyway, so you can see what has been of interest for me and my camera of late.

~E.

My Internship - Conquering the Crane

Yup. That's right. That's me. Just chilling at the top of a huge crane. You know, a normal part of a normal day's work :-D

Well, not exactly. But Herr Eder (our assistant Project Manager) and I had been wanting to go up to the top of that crane ever since it was set up a couple weeks and figured we'd wait to climb it until after the cornerstone-laying ceremony, when things would be less busy. Typical of what happens in our group, we planned on Wednesday morning to climb the crane, but then a presentation came around..and a meeting...and another meeting. So yeah, it was Wednesday still, but about 4 pm before things freed up for the two of us to go to the top of the crane.

And wow - it was exhilariting. As I told Herr Eder on the climb up, my fear of exposed heights is great, but my desire to get to the top of this thing is greater!! It kindof felt like climbing a kid's huge K'nex model...with the perk of it being real, and bigger. I kept looking at all the steel connections and oo-ing and ahh-ing over them (I took Steel last semester and will be taking Advanced Steel Design in the fall...I know, I'm crazy :-D ), which distracted me from the fact that I was on a glorified step ladder definitely more than "just a few" feet above the ground. I can't imagine why the rest of our group wasn't as enthusiastic as we two were about being that high (*wink*)

In anycase, at the top, the view was fantastic - I've got a pictures from where we were, and also from the bottom, so you'll get an idea of how high we were up in that amazing man-made stork (or giraffe)of crane.

All I can say is - Being a CE is awesome. :-D

~E.

11 July 2010

My Internship - Cornerstone for the Stadthalle, Milestone for Me

The past two weeks have been long and full - everyone at my office has been working overtime preparing for our huge cornerstone-laying ceremony on July 2nd. The ceremony itself is only about 1 hr, but we've spread it into an all-day public event, complete with construction site tours and an open house. It is good publicity for the project and ended up attracting lots of people, despite it being 36 degrees Celcius and blazing hot. Working as official photographer for the project group meant I was all over the place, but basically, as I told our Project Manger, I was going to be his shadow, because I figured wherever he was, the important stuff was going to be. And boy, was there alot going on...Here's an overview of my day looked like as far as photos:

Meeting No. 1 - Architects from Max Dudler in Berlin, the Erste Oberbürgermeisterin Frau Hotz (First Mayor; she's in charge of construction projects among other things), and other big shots. Tactic: Hide in the back. Don't talk. Try to blend into the non-existent wallpaper. Photos - Check.

Meeting No. 2 - Tour of Construction Site with formerly stated important people. Tactic: act like you've been on a construction site before, so people don't ask why you don't have a hot and annoying helmet on that obstructs your view with the camera...oh wait. I have been on a construction site before....Photos - Check.

Meeting No. 3 - Opening of our exhibition "Stadthalle und Bürgerpark" in the first floor of our office building. Big speech from the Oberbürgermeisterin and Max Dudler, the architect. Tactic: Smile, avoid talking with the big shots. Just taking good photos here, people, that's all. Photos - Check.

Cornerstone Laying Ceremony - long speech from our Oberbürgermeisterin Frau Bosch, the regional president, and Max Dudler... Tactic for these photos: hold camera prominantly before you, take lots of photos really fast, and pretend as if you know what you're doing. You'll fool 70% of the people into thinking you're actual press (the other 30% being 90% of the press people themselves) - Oh, and another tip: Being small is a *huge* advantage as far as squeezing in between actual professionals to get the best shots. Photos - Check.

Construction Site Tours and Austellung (Exhibit) - lots of people. A few important ones. Hot and dusty construction site. Mildly less hot but shaded indoor exhibit rooms. Tactic: AMPAP (as many photos as possible). Follow the important people so you can get good shots of them. They usually don't mind being in the spotlight. Follow the normal people, but discretely - unlike the big shots, they get nervous and scare off easily when they see you taking a photo of them. Construction site tours - if the lady wants you to delete that supposedly unattractive picture of her with a safety helmet on, do it. Just don't delete the other photos along with it (like I did the day before - oops. Good news - they were recovered) Photos - Check.

Short summary: I took over 500 photos in less than 5 hours, was broiling in a black T-shirt, and had hardly a break to sit, so I was tired, hot, thirsty, and my neck and head ached at the end of the day, but it was well worth it. Even though I am only an intern with the project group, I felt incredibly proud to be here at this huge milestone in the project - which by the way, is not only on-time as far as the construction timeframe, but also within budget. For a project that was started during the financial crisis and orginally met with only about 60% approval in Reutlingen - that means alot.

For me, the day was also significant, but in a different way - for the first time, our Project Manager introduced me as a Mitarbeiterin (coworker) - not a Praktikantin (intern), and said they would miss alot when I left. For one thing, most Germans don't give compliments frequently and certainly not our PM. For another thing, Germans usually distinguish professional position descriptions more strictly - a Mitarbeiter/in is used to describe a full-time paid worker at company, and a Praktikantin...well, that's just an intern, and NOT a Mitarbeiterin for sure. So hearing him call me a Mitarbeiterin sent the signal that he considered me to be a full contributing member of team, who produced amount and quality of work that a full-time worker would, not just a Pratikant level. Probably the most subtly-delivered, but yet consciously-stated complement I have received the entire 6 months. It was well worth the wait.

So there's lots of photos, but I've cut it down quite a bit from what I had (think of the 500 plus - your response: *sigh of relief*) I have tried to put in enough description so you know what you're looking at, too. :-D Hope you enjoy! It's the masterpiece from my long day's work.

~E.

My Internship - From the Island to the Continent


A year ago, I never thought I have come so far with my language skills that I would feel comfortable working every day with German colleagues and speaking German 98% of the week. Certainly, even as recent as 5 months ago, I would have never seen myself in the position I was on June 16th....acting as an official interpreter for English soccer players from Reutlingen's partner city in England. Yup. I was a bit intimidated by the idea of translating in a formal capacity for a group of people who were not my family or friends - not to mention the mayor was going to be there and I was going to be translating her welcome speech alongside other colleagues that had more experience with these things than I did...and were probably 10 years older.

I shouldn't have worried. Yes - it was challenging. It is one thing to translate a presentation or research paper in writing for someone to read (passive translating); quite another thing to do simultaneous translating for someone who speaks and doesn't give enough break times for you to catch up(active translating).....

The group of men from England that I was going to translate for were terrific, though, and put me at ease immediately... they had been here to Reutlingen several times and said if I had any troubles with translating, they wouldn't notice anyway - "just cut out the boring stuff and leave in the interesting parts; it'll be better and we won't fall asleep that way." We kindof lost the group when we went for the city tour, which meant finding the meeting place for lunch on our own with a the Swiss group who was also there. Oops. :-/ We eventually got there, ate our food, and then they convinced me (it wasn't difficult) to come along and watch the World Cup game with them (Germany slaughtered their opponents in that game). It must have looked amusing, a little woman like me tripping around town with a bunch of Englishmen, all of them offering to share their umbrella, and then sitting with them in the bar, ordering their beers for them. Ha. Well, it was a good time - but I was tired, so after the second time of nodding off over my drink, they sent me home with good natured hugs and compliments - apparently I was the "prettiest looking smart young interpreter they had ever had" I think I'll call that a good first translating experience :-D

~E.
Reutlingen website newsletter with pictures from day. Sorry folks, it's in German, but go to the pictures and look for a girl with a burgundy cardigan and polka dot blouse (me!; Pictures 6 and 19): http://www.reutlingen.de/ceasy/modules/cms/main.php5?cPageId=2310&view=publish&item=article&id=1830