Berlin has us back

Hi guys,

yes, we have it done, we are back in Berlin.
The flight from Dublin to Berlin with RyanAir was, like the flight to Belfast, okay.
My brother had me picked up from the airport in Schönefeld.
We are driven to me at home, to see the football game „Germany vs. Denmark“.

All apprentices which were abroad, were on Monday at school for a „post-processing workshop“, but it was not really a workshop, rather an info event.
An apprentice from each city has told about the stay in his city.
Additional we should fill out a formula, for the „Leonardo da Vinci“-program.

Yesterday was the TELC-test at the OSZIMT, where I was tested for the B2 certificate.
Some questions of the test were difficult, but other not.
I will see what the result is, but unfortunately first in some weeks. 🙁

Today was my first day at work, after the stay abroad.
There was the first task for me, to write this text.

To the conclusion again an big thankyou to all which have given us the opportunity for this internship abroad.

Best regards from Berlin
Benjamin

Home

I’m back in Germany. After the long journey yesterday, I’m in the hot Berlin. The busdriver thought he must crank up the heater, to let us feel like we’re in the Caribbean. Anyway, he turned on the air conditioner after a half hour and we arrived the Dublin airport early. But at the check-in the next surprise: My baggage has overweight and I hadn’t no option to pack something in the hand baggage because it was also very full. So I paid the 20 € for 1,4 kg. After this I have to drop the sunmilk because it was a to big liquid. Never mind, I landed in Germany punctual, where I was put into receiving.

After this 8 weeks in Belfast, I have to say thank you to all those responsible that have something to do with this internship abroad. It was really a good time and I’ve learned a much. On that note: Good bye!

A flight on a jet stream

I’m back at home and I’m also very suprised that our flight was shorter than I expected but why? When I arrived at Schönefeld my father told me that we where over the Netherlands in around 12km height. We nearly reached the 1000km/h because of a jet stream. Flying on a jet stream gives the plain an enormous boost which is nearly like when you swim with the water stream. And now imagine the plain would have 1062km/h. That’s a sonic boom.

It’s nice to be home but I miss Ireland a bit. I think I’ll make holiday there when I’m done with my aprenticeship. A really beautiful land with lots of helpful and nice people.

My last advice for all is: Get a lagguage scale befor you fly home else it will be chaos at the airport or in the apartements.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Now it has come, the day of departure.

After leaving the brightly polished house in a taxi taking us to Europa Buscentre (which is actually only a 5-minute walk away), we bought our bus tickets and got ready for a 2 hour roller coaster ride back to Dublin Airport again, where we are now sitting and waiting for the pilot to start in the direction of our beloved hometown Berlin.

To soothe you: I have not turned on my iPhone in the plane right before the start to post this. To be honest I wrote this post yesterday and scheduled it to be published today right at the time our plane is planned to departure to Berlin.

Finally, to make a connection to the title, enjoy the legendary song:
John Denver – Leaving on a Jet Plane

Fly me to the…

I’ am sitting here in the plain, waiting for takeoff and being happy going home! It was a great time and I will always remember the time I had here in Ireland! Yesterday we packed our bags did the things we had to do before we leave and at night we went to our favorite Pub to say good bye! The Pub was totally crowded so after a short stay we decided to leave. It was a bit annoying me but we had our pint of Guinness so and in the end it was all right! I’m really looking forward to this flight and I know I will be excited when I see the lights of Berlin, see my girlfriend and my family. This day is gonna be legen …wait for it…dary!

Pack the bag…

It’s the last day in Dublin and we were pretty busy with packing all stuff together into our suitcase. Good that I bought a lagguage scale a few weeks ago because the guys in Dublin didn’t had any so they borrowed the one from Josephine and me. I hope I won’t forget anything. Our dinner today was made totally easy. I made a Quesadilla, not typical irish but tasty and it’s made in less than 15 minutes.

The last day in Belfast

Hi guys,

yes, today is it the last day of the time in Belfast.

Today we had to pack our bags, and also clean our apartment for the next arriving people from Germany.

We (Martin and I) are gone today in the afternoon, on our last day, in the Morning Star-Restaurant in Belfast, because many people have recommended us.
I have eaten there from the typical Irish buffet. It was very interesting for me, with some new tastes.

Yesterday in my company, I had with Christian and the other guys of Anaeko a small goodbye-celebration with pizza, beer and sometimes good music :D. It was very funny and it was a lot of fun. By the way: it was very interesting to see, how the behaviour from the other employee changed, after some beers mrgreen  .
I must say that the time at Anaeko was very interesting and I have learned there some programming skills, but also social skills with foreign colleagues.

A big thanks to my host-company Anaeko, for the nice time in the company. And also, of course a thanks to Kevin Shine, for the organizational part.

The last best regards from Belfast
Benjamin

Thank you!

In my probably second to last post in this blog I would like to take the chance to say thank you.

Thank you to Kevin Shine and his team at RSM Tenon, who organized our time here in Belfast and cared about us. You did a really good job and made our stay here very comfortable and enjoyable.

Thank you to Laurence Roberts from City Resorts, who provided our accommodation and always solved our problems concerning the house as fast as possible.

Thank you to the IT department at Translink for letting me work on many interesting projects and gain valuable on-the-job experience working in a live environment supporting many users across multiple locations. You all made me feel very welcome and I really enjoyed working with you.

Thank you to afib and OSZ IMT for making this internship possible at all.

I hope I did not forget anyone; if I did: thank you, too!

Last Days at Belfast

Tomorrow it’s time to leave the island. The weather makes it very easy to leave Belfast: Since a few days it’s raining and we’ve a heavy wind too. But there was also sunny days, which I’ve enjoyed and payed dearly with a sunburn. At work I made the paperwork for the Europass. Unfortunately our IT-Supervisor is ill and can’t come. But he wrote us a nice mail, in which he said thank you for the work and all the best. Therefore we spoke to our boss and told him what we have done in the 8 weeks. He thanked us and wished us all the best too. Too bad, that the work here at NIBEC is over, but I’ve learned a much and had a lot of fun.
PS: The next post comes on Monday from Germany, because I want to write something about the homeward journey.

It’s time to say goodbye…

Hi guys,
the last days and weeks were so amazing and I have really enjoyed to spend the time at Belfast with so great people like Kevin R. But now, it’s time to say goodbye @ all! Well, I don’t really want to say this one…^^ I owe so much people a debt of gratitude, but the greatest thanks goes to Kevin Robinson, my supervisor and mentor for my internship in Belfast. He is great guy and I hope my project partner for the last days at Volunteer Now will have a great experience at Belfast. He come from Spain and he is doing the same intership like us, but he will stay a little bit longer in Belfast (twelve weeks). Of course, we did some great things on the last days and I was invited on friday one week ago to a little boat trip which was the celebration week for some great volunteers and I was in a nice pub with Kevin where I have watched the football match between Spain and Irland and spent the last time together… I still will miss this great time!