updates: 1. letter of recommendation

So let's start with the update where i left of, in July. I finally received my letter of recommendation from my internship and wow it was worth waiting for. When i read it the first time I literally cried. Nobody has every used so many nice words about me before. I actually felt competent! :D Not that I would do so very often (especially since i am such a university failure). But well decide for yourself! Here are some quotes:

Ms R's contribution to the Book Fair was vital to the Consulate's success at this key event.

Ms R assisted with [several official visits (shouldn't mention the specifics, SBU you understand! ;))], demonstrating a high degree of organizational competence and reliability.

Ms R [wrote several drafts and remarks for the CG and the two Officers.] Her texts were clear, relevant and readily usable, something greatly appreciated by the users of the material.

Ms R also expertly created and maintained information about restoration of the historic Capa building in Leipzig.

Ms R was an effective translator, providing quick, accurate translations of press articles or internally generated documents as needed.

Ms R provided regular input and updates for our social media sites, breathing new life into these increasingly important communication tools. Her style, consciously pitched at a youthful audience, resulted in consistently fresh material for the Consulate's official Facebook page. (how can you make updating fb and twitter sound so important and noteworthy?)

Her willingness to learn and to get involved with a wide variety of activities is noteworthy.

..... These were my favorite parts! I have now idea about whom they are talking in this letter of recommendation but I hope to meet that person one day or maybe even become her! ;) Tomorrow hopefully more on my trip to Copenhagen in July and well everything that followed afterwards. :)






PS I thank leo.org and wikipedia for the useful help during my internship! :D

Leipzig part 2

So I am behind on a few stories here and since I might be without Internet for a while, since we are switching contracts, I should better finish some posts here.

So I am  in Leipzig for almost 5 month now. Totally crazy! So many things happened. I finished my internship, moved again, got a job and still didn't manage to get much done for uni which totally sucks but I am on to it.

For the internship part. Well it was pretty cool. i learned many things, met many cool people and could really imagine working for the foreign services in the future. The only bad thing came afterwards. 2 months are gone and i still haven't gotten my letter of recommendation. Obviously the people at the consulate think we just worked there for the fun of it. Will write another email tonight and hope that this whole thing is behind me very soon. Weird is also that I didn't learned much about the US during my internship. Maybe because I new already so much but it is strange anyway. But I learned tons about Germany and the region were I am from (Saxony-Anhalt) and now living (Saxony) which might be good fro the future. And I learned that just because people work for a government doesn't mean that they are necessarily smarter than an ordinary student. And it is obviously much harder to work for the German foreign services than for the US state secretary. ;)

As I mentioned , I moved again. After sleeping at a friends place for a week and staying at my parents place for another couple of days I was very fortunate to find and apartment with 2 lovely flat mates.  the two girls and i get along well and I think we'll have a good time together. After sleeping on an air mattress for 3 weeks I finally have furniture. More about the decoration of my room in another post, very soon. :D


Luckily in the same week that I found my new flat I also found a job. I am working now part time at Subway, the sandwich store. I never thought i would stay there more than a couple of month but who knows. The salary is super bad but the people are very nice and I get free food for every shift I do. So i am very lazy in cooking lately but at least i am eating healthier. And I worked over 50% more than I should this months. Not that I will get that extra money right away (stupid German tax system) but at least i can plan my vacation to Copenhagen for July now without worrying that i won't have enough hours in July.

So much for now!

Leipzig

On Wednesday the 5th, after spending some nice hours in Magdeburg (thanks to Tim and Andy for taking some time to meet me for lunch), I moved to Leipzig to start my internship. Well, moving is maybe not the right term. Since I still don’t have an apartment. I am staying at the moment in a youth hostel until I find a flat. Shouldn’t take so long, I hope. I looked at a room today in which I could move in next week. I will look at some other place tomorrow and decide but the room I looked at today is much cheaper and with the money I save I could buy a new laptop in case my old one cannot be repaired.

So I started my internship on Thursday and after 2 days I can say I like it. Everybody is super nice and although I didn’t do a lot during the first 2 days, the next weeks will be busy. Got 3 assignments 20min before my day ended on Friday. :D Perfect timing. But I will have a lot of research to do and that is something I always enjoyed.

That's more or less all I can say about my internship, at least in a blog. If anybody wants details please email me. :)