Monday, May 2, 2011

First day of work (Day 6)

Today was my first day of work. I woke up early to make sure I
wouldn't be late since that would not be a good first impression! haha
I was to go directly to my department since I had orientation on
Thursday (in English) today it was in German. So I did just that but
when I got there my ID didn't work to let me in. There was another
person going in just ahead of me though so I tailgated in. I told the
receptionist who I was and who I was looking for. This was only after
I realized she was talking to me! I really need to learn some
German... She called my supervisor and told me to take a seat. People
either realized I was new or looked foreign because they all stared at
me as they went up and down the staircase/elevator I was by.

My supervisor came down introduced herself then led me up to my work
area. I have a desk with another intern just outside her office. As
she showed me this she told me she was just back from holiday and had
a big meeting this Wednesday so she wouldn't be able to do anything
with me until Wednesday afternoon or Thursday. Not what I was
expecting but she dished me off to Alex and another intern that were
working in the lab. Alex works with her in the lab. So after a few
awkward moments Alex said that for now I could just watch him do some
things in the lab. As I and the other intern were doing this he was
trying to explain the paper making process to me in English but was
having a hard time with the translations. I helped him through them
then he remembered he had some videos that I could watch instead. So
this is what I did I watched 4 short ones that explained the basics.
Then filled out some papers until lunch.

Alex took me to the "canteen" that is on the company grounds for
lunch. It's more like a meal hall it is really large and there was a
tonne of people there! I found out that there are almost 5000 people
that work at this one site so it explained the mass amount of people
in the canteen. To get food you need to load up your card with money
which worked for me even though I can't get into the labs, buildings
or gates. They must know I like food or something. So we grabbed some
food which I must say is a million times better than what is at
school! We swiped our cards to pay and headed outside to eat. Our
lunch time conversation mainly consisted of making fun of American's
and their beer. As well as comparing food, traditions ect. Then we
finished Alex showed me the ice cream shop that was on the grounds too
:) I think that ice cream is a bit different than home too but not
really sure how to explain the difference.

Once lunch was over and we were back in the office I was to watch more
videos for the afternoon. By this time I had been given my password
and login to the company system. I was able to login once I realized
the server cord had to be plugged into my computer! Then the program
didn't want to work on my computer and Alex had disappeared. I tried
searching th computer but that was taking forever and I was almost
falling asleep waiting for it to find it when Alex finally came back.
He then took me to the lab set me up on a computer there and that was
the rest of my day watching him to tests in the lab and watching these
videos.

Once work was over, or as Alex said until tomorrow, I headed to town
to grab some food for dinner/breakfast and headed home. I cooked some
dinner since I was too late about getting the email about the intern
running club.... and tried to catch my neighbors (still haven't seen
them other then some yelling above me Saturday night and some yummy
smelling food that was in the oven Sunday). With no luck I'm calling
it a night once I have a few skype calls I'm waiting for :)

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