Flash Forward to Today

Sorry for the late updates guys. Technical difficulties. Since I last updated you guys I was about to embark on my journey to Europe. Flash-forward and now I am in Berlin and living as a worker in the city. The first couple of days here were very interesting, to say the least. I flew with Air Berlin and had crying babies on either side of me. But they also had just recently installed really good in-flight entertainment on my flight. After 9 and a half hours, I found myself landing on German soil.

I arrived in Berlin on a very foggy/rainy morning. I had landed and was so dazed by the flight that I didn't notice that my luggage had been going around the baggage claim about 10 times before I realized it was mine...and the only bag left. Immigration was pretty much a breeze. They just said hello and asked me where I'm from. The airport did not have a Deutsche Bank, so I recommend anybody to bring their money with them beforehand if they have an account with Bank of America and are counting on that partnership.

After speaking to my fellow interns, apparently we all got charged different rates by the taxi drivers to get to the same location from the airport...between 15 to 35 euro. The hotel we're staying at is called the Sylter Hof. Its actually really nice except for the pillows...the room set-ups are interesting and very soon I started to meet the other interns, who are all very friendly and outgoing and just as excited to be here as I am.

Before long I started my first day at Fotofeliz. I was super anxious the days leading up to it. We had an Intrax workshop the day before to solidify our "Global Training Skills." Julia, our on-site coordinator, was the one to give us the lectures. She works for Intrax and is a really helpful resource for us staying abroad. She is also one of the nicest people I've met in Berlin so far. I've got to say I've had some "culture clashes" with some of the people here, especially those who work in transportation. I went to get my monthly bus pass the other day and the guy was really rude to me, barely looking at me because he was too distracted playing his scratch & win lottery cards.

But my first day at Fotofeliz was actually really laid-back. All of my co-workers are super friendly and made it a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be on my first day. My boss, Patrick, seems to be a very intelligent man, and I'm glad I've got someone like him to learn from this summer. I feel like I will be learning a lot. And best of all, I have my own desk. :) Pretty soon afterward we went to Hamburg...so stay tuned.