The beginning of the week was pretty uninteresting. It mostly involved me combing through the internet for info for my new project.
Tuesday afternoon, I heard something coming from Oli’s computer and when I looked over, he informed me that it was Transformers. I walked over and it was the trailer on YouTube. I told him that I would watch it with my brother after I get back and he said that he was going to go watch it on Wednesday. It came out in the US on July 4th but had only reach German on August 1st. I asked him if he watched the cartoon and he nodded. So the next day, he left work really early at around 2:30 in the afternoon. I was really confused when he said goodbye to me. He usually works really late. I looked from the clock on my computer to my watch, both of which said 14:30. I even subtracted 12 from 14 to make sure. Anyhow, he said the movie was good. One of his friends called his cell phone and he said something about Transformers and 5 Euros. I’m getting better at this German business, lol.
So on Wednesday, Carolyn and I went to watch Harry Potter in its original English version. The theater was not full at all so we got better seats than we were assigned to. The movie was great the second time around too. I actually understood the conversations this time. But what changed the movie even more for me was that this time, I’ve finished the 7th book. I looked at everything in the movie with such a different perspective. Carolyn said the same thing. Everything made so much more sense and both of us said that we really need to read the books and watch the movies again.
On Thursday I got to work at 10am because the S-Bahn was on strike again. I took the Regional Express from Wannsee to the Zoo Station. From there I took a bus instead of checking if the U-Bahn took me to Potsdamer Platz. It actually does but I saw some other interns later in the day and one of them said that the U2 was so packed that he had to wait for a second train. The bus that I took only took me to Unter den Linden though. So I had to walk from there to my workplace which was a 10 minute walk in hot, humid weather.
Anyway, I met up with Dorothee Hartmann for lunch. She was the one who emailed me about this internship and we’ve been in contact a lot. I met her for the first time at the DB International Club Event back in July. We went out to a popular pasta place. They make their pasta fresh and cook the sauce right in front of you. You can also get salads or pizzas. The pastas are about 5-8 Euros a plate. It was really good. We mostly talked about my internship and impressions of Germany. After this, we went to a nearby coffee shop. Dorothee said that in recent years coffee shops have become really popular in Germany. They’re everywhere and people really like them. She said that whenever she travels she worries that she won’t be able to find a good coffee shop. I told her that I wanted to visit Australia at some point and it turns out that she visits there about every two years in January. She absolutely loves the place and talked about it very excitedly.
Late afternoon, after nearly everyone else had left, I finally got a chance to talk to my boss about what I’ve been doing. He seems surprised by all the things I’ve found. He told me more about what he wanted out of the project. Which was good. My project is on phytoremediation (using plants to clean up industrial waste in soil, groundwater, sediment, etc.). I think he was under the impression that using phytoremediation is more expensive than conventional methods. I was really surprised because I had thought it was common knowledge that phytoremediation is usually a lot cheaper. One of the things about Germans is that they don’t embrace new technology with quite as much enthusiasm as Americans. They’re still thinking about phytoremediation and only have a few pilot projects while it’s been in use in America pretty extensively for the past 20, 30 years. By the time I met with him, it was just me, him, and Oli in our part of the office. It was kind of creepy since all the doors were closed and it was dark outside since it was really cloudy.
I got to work a little earlier on Friday. Everyone was already there were just chatting in the secretary’s office. I really wished I could’ve joined them. And if I know German, I could have. But since I don’t, it was useless for me even try. After a few minutes of me checking email, Jean came in and asked if I had work to do now. She hadn’t gotten my email from the day before so she went to check. I could’ve just told her what was in it but she left really quickly.
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