Advertisement
Published: September 10th 2016
Edit Blog Post
Germany is a great country. I first came there few times when I was a kid because my aunt is living in Köln, married to a German and living there. Those times I used to come with family to visit only.
The time I'm currently talking about is quite specific. I was on a management training program straight away after my Baccalaureate called manager assistant high school certificate. It is actually in two years. I did each of the internships abroad, the first one in Brussels and after I came back from there I realized everybody there was speaking at least three languages fluently. I can't believe that in France we are already so happy to manage speaking a bit of English ! Anyway I said to my mother I'm so bad in German... and within a week with her help I got my second internship in Germany. That happened in 2010 I went for one month internship from November to December nearby Frankfort called Mörfelden-Waldorf. It was during the first few times I was travelling by myself starting by Europe. I was learning German at school for the past years but going there to work for a while was such an amazing experience. In spite of the night falling at 4 pm, and the cold I met great people and learnt a lot about the culture, the way German people work which is very different from the French way, the lifestyle and especially the language. The first impression I had when I reached there was I didn't understand anything at all about what were people saying. That made me panicking at the first place and that lasted the first few weeks only before I started to improve and feel more comfortable.
It took time for me also to get used to liking the weather. Even though I knew I was coming in winter I didn't get much clothes for winter time. I enjoyed so much warm wine and bretzels during Christmas market that made me feel warm inside and in my heart. I met amazing people in the company. I actually went for 6 weeks in a company selling different kind of items like balloons, flowers, chocolate and other gifts for great times in the year like mother's day, Valentine's day, Christmas, New year, Easter, etc. The name of the company is Valentins GmbH. As I was there during Christmas time that was a lot of work for the staff there. As far as I remember they were hiring some foreign workers during those times to help. Most of them were from Cameroon or Turkey. I got very good friends from that month spent there. One small detail that I remember is it was the first time I heard Bruno Mars on the radio "just the way you are" I remember saying to myself "well that's new, never heard that before I like it !". Anyway I have plenty of good memories from Germany.
When I got back home I definitely wanted to speak German because I spent such a long time to improve myself but unfortunately when you don't practice the language it just goes away after a while. I will for sure get back into it if I have the opportunity again. The work I was doing there as an intern was not very much related to management. I did more administrative tasks and sometimes I was going to the warehouse to give a hand. I have to say the immersion was what I expected the most and that is indeed my best memory.
I really really enjoyed it and honestly when you experience living abroad for a long or short while you have to experiment good times as well as bad times. That's part of the game but it is completely worth it. That makes you so happy to share what happened to you to your family and people around you when you are back. That is also great to keep in touch with the people you met there and with who you're still in touch year after year. That's why I like it so much. You only experienced those moment and that's unique. I believe this is why I am currently writing it right now after six years, because many people around me told me I should share what I lived abroad because I like writing even though English is not my mother tongue. I think it is good to remember and write it somewhere to remember everything.
I was crying when i arrived because I was lost and couldn't understand anything but I was crying before I left because I spent such a good time I felt so bad saying goodbye. Anyway this is to say enjoy every moment you experience in any country. All this become good memories and even if it is not as good as you thought or even completely messed up you will laugh about it in a couple of years.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.063s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0349s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb