Superwurstparty

This morning was the first day of intensive German classes. I hadn't signed up for the German course because TCU charges summer tuition for it (very expensive). IES already requires me to take a 3-credit internship seminar, so there was no way I was paying any more than necessary. However, we worked it out so I can take the course without receiving credit (and therefore without paying for it).

From 9:15 until 1:45, we had class at the IES center. The beginning session was just a placement test. We had a written worksheet (which was pretty difficult) and a speaking portion. By some miracle, I was placed into the more advanced course. Even though I feel like the weakest speaker/reader in the group (there are 7 of us), it's a good challenge. The range of talent across all of is is pretty broad, so it's difficult to sort us into only two levels. Thus we've got the super advanced German majors (Mikkal and Christine) and those of us who have just spent a bit more time with the language than the average person (me) all together.

The course is all in German. Our professor seemed kind of standoffish at first, but I think he's just German. We opened the course asking questions, with only two people (Christine and a guy named Gavin) really saying anything. I occasionally piped up, but I'm a bit shy when it comes to speaking German.

Then he wrote this question on the board: "Wofür hast du 80 Bratwürste gekauft?" Why did you buy 80 sausages?

This broke the tension a little, as we all giggled. His answer was even better:

"Für unsere Superwurstparty!" For our Super Wurst Party!

I don't know about you, but a Superwurstparty with 80 Bratwurst sounds like quite a party to me.

Finally, at 1:45, we were able to go get lunch. Yesterday at orientation, one of the student assistants told us about an adorable little restaurant called Shop of Small Wonders. It was just a block away from the center, and SO cute!

There was a little spiral staircase in the entrance, and the restaurant itself was on the second floor. Hanging flower baskets and potted plants decorated every corner. I ordered a Japanese lunch bowl (as did most people in our group). It was so precious.

During lunch I got an email from my supervisors at Forexfix. They invited me over to the office to take a brief tour during my break. We didn't have to go back to class until 5:00, so I thought it would be a great idea. Their office is near Potsdamer Platz, which I'd been to already.

I bid farwell to everyone else,

since they were planning on making another grocery store run, and made my way to work. I had to call my boss to let me in, since they are contracting space from a company that is contracting space from another company. :p

Our "parent" company has rented out one floor of the offic building. It's not a very big space. There are several tables with computers throughout one room. Our company has one table in one corner. (We're quite small!)

The most exciting thing about this office space is that they have free coffee (a nice latte machine too) and beer on tap. Only in Germany...

Unfortunately, Forexfix's contract is running out next week, so they'll be moving offices. Hopefully their new space is just as nice!

I got the rundown on all the technology. Although there were several terms and technologies I wasn't familiar with, I was able to grasp most of it very well. You know, easy stuff, like APIs, documentation, database analytics with NoSQL, the like! So simple! :p

The person I work directly under doesn't speak any German, but my "head supervisor" is German. They had been doing some testing of the website, and my supervisor had sent a test message like "does this help message feature work?"

In the corner, a little chat box had popped up with this very elegant reply from the German: Buuuuh (boo)

I couldn't help but smile as the German explained that he was being silly with a sheepish grin on his face. Turns out they also have an entire group chat dedicated just to Berlin memes. I think I'm going to fit in with this company pretty well!!

I just barely made it back to the center in time, filled with excitement and nerves about Tuesday (my first day). We had our internship seminar, which was pretty uneventful. The nicest thing is that we got to sit outside to work. I doodled a little piece of ice saying "Buuuuh".

For dinner, Christine and I found a little Italian place under our apartment building and had pizzas. The weather outside was so nice. I really like it here.