Autor: Vivien Leonardo Schöne

Short version of what I have done the last two weaks

At work I do the usual. Together with Chris I inspect websites for bugs, mark them, open tickets for new ones, describe them and close them off if they are fixed.

What I learned about how this is done is quite valuable. The programmers program something and test it on their development environments.

Afterwards they push that stuff to a test environment where the test division tests the new things. Then the first bugs are raised already, checked, fixed and closed again. Afterwards depending on how big the site is, the changes or new things are either pushed to the live version directly and then rechecked again or if it is one of the big sites, they are pushed to the release environment. On the release environment they are tested again, fixed and finally we approve of it to be pushed live.

About private things: Of course I have been watching the first two Germany games in a pub with my roommates.

I am glad to have Chris with me at my company. He works much faster than I do and helps me out alot. Thanks to him we finished our tasks so fast that we had a few days on which we hadn’t to do much so we could learn about Cisco (Chris) or Java (me) or check out other things on the web.

On those occasions I read about self developement, about setting and reaching goals and about becoming the best self you can possibly be. I think in the long run this is more valuable than reading about Java or something related to work.

This is what I wanted to share with you in my big blog entry but if you are afraid that i’ll embarrass you/us/the Afib, then I won’t publish it on this platform. I’ll do that somewhere else so the ones who are ready for a change in their ways of thinking won’t miss out.

PS: To all who will be travelling to Ireland or any other country in the future, make sure you bring a camera. I didn’t bring one because I couldn’t afford one but I tell you, without a camera you can’t make pictures and keep all your lovely memories in a picture. So make sure to bring a camera!

Kind regards, Leo

don’t be too hard on me David 😉

I am working on that crazy blog entry

Hello everyone, just wanted to let you know how far I am.

I wrote down basic ideas yesterday and today I am writing for two hours straight now (@ work!). I think I am half done by now. I’ll have to finish the writing and then I’ll have to add all the links and videos and work on the design.

I just flicked through the stuff I have written so far and this is what comes to my mind: ‚Absolutely crazy, he can’t be serious, this will never work and WHAT AN IDIOT‚

It will not fit into any category we have set and we should write for. But it is too good to not publish it – to our supervisors: ‚I am sorry for any inconvenience‘ in advance.

Stay tuned! 🙂

Get ready…

Finally the one thing I was anticipating happened. Via mail Mr. Bavar told us to write blog entries everyday other.

I feel like he referred to me only because I didn’t write a single entry in two weeks…

So I will now officially announce the blockbuster… make yourself ready for the one and only blog entry…

Get your children into bed, tie yourself onto something heavy!

I Announce a blog entry that will contain so much value I probably should charge every single reader 50€ per paragraph!

Deep down in my heart I am convinced that my blog entry has invaluable information. If you recognize the value and if you’ll apply it will be up to you.

note from author: as I am writing this comment I am thinking about the legendary words already.

stay tuned!

Let’s talk business

A big warm Hello to all my loyal readers (as if I have any 😉 )

On thursday I talked to Chris about how some of us write their blog entries very infrequently. I am one of them too. Sometimes I am not motivated to write something and other times I simply forget that I have to…

But fortunately Mr. Bavar visited us at Web Reservations International on thursday too. We talked for a while then and on friday everyone went for a drink. But after hitting the gym I didn’t feel like going out, so I stayed at home. (had I known that Sebastian would be there, I would probably have overcome myself – you gotta tell me such things buddy 😉 )

Mr. Bavar also reminded us that we agreed to write articles more regularly and more about work-related topics as well. He is right, we are here to improve our English language skills, to learn about work methods in another country and about similarities and differences.

So let’s talk business!

At Web Reservations International Chris and I work in the test department. Currently they have 5 traveling sites online on which you can get information about your preferred travel locations, can buy travel guides and can book hostels, hotels and even tours.

Chris and I check these sites for bugs and after having finished most of that showed some initiative of our own and offered to improve the translations on some of the German language sites. This idea was happily welcome by Philip, our superior in the test department. We finished this task very fast and are back to testing and reporting bugs once again.

In the next article I will tell you more.

So stay tuned…

‚The Academy‘ and the club ’21‘

Hi everyone,

If you are following my blog you know that I wrote about the Dublin nightlife already. Here comes another article about that topic.

Yesterday evening, after a usual work day, which is well described by my roommate Chris in his blog entry from morning to night, I did the usual. I went to the gym with my other roommates Ben and Flo. Although we didn’t feel like it, we pushed really hard (literally 😛 ). Afterwards my legs were a little bit sore so I was thinking about not going out… BUT on ‚The Academys‘ website it said ‚free entry to the RnB night from 22:30pm to 23:00pm‘. After relaxing on the couch for half an hour or so my legs felt better and I started to dress myself all up.

After a quick ride with the Luas and a short walk I arrived at the club. But my friends, which arrived almost simultaneously and I couldn’t enter because the concert given, should have taken one more hour. So we left and asked some pedestrians if they knew another club nearby. They told us about the club ’21‘. After asking a couple more pedestrians we finally found it. We thought the name of the club is related to minimum age you can enter with. But although our group of six had 2 ‚youngsters‘ in it we all got in without any problems. The entry fee was 10€, the usual fee in Dublin without concessions.

Then the party finally started. The club had a VJ, playing live DVD videos on several plasma screens, only one floor but the whole club basically consisted of that floor. There were some pool tables in the back, a lot of chillout zones and a lot of beautiful girls on the floor which shook their bodys very sexily

Later that evening, while taking a short break outside, I was introduced to some German girls once again. Their Irish friend had already stolen my hat in a playful manner several times inside the club. (that hat was stolen like hell… 😉 ) We went in again, danced and fooled around until the club closed at 2:30am sharp.

Afterwards my two roomies went home while the rest of us took a bite at MCD and Lundis respectively before seperating and heading home in different directions.

More about the Dublin nightlife

Hello once again 🙂

The last few weekdays my roommate Chris wrote back and forth with some German girls over here in Ireland on the social network StudiVZ. He finally arranged a meeting on friday evening. He asked them if he could bring ’some‘ workmates, in reality meaning a mixed group of Herbertons and Ladlanes of about 8-10 people.

The girl who arranged the meeting was a bit shocked over so many people. She led us into a (SURPRISE!) pub where two other girls waited which she also knew from StudiVZ. We talked, we drank and since Becky(an abbrevation she hates! :P) lives here for a few months now, we got some really good advices. She works in the travel business and travels alot around here. So she could give us especially good advice about quick trips you can make on weekends.

At around 3am or 4am the rest of us left the pub, had a bite and then took off. Ben, Flo and I took a cab and drove home. While driving we made small talk and the taxi driver once again indicated that our district is REALLY dangerous…

Yesterday, perceived a few hours ago ;), we met the girls again at a location called ‚The Academy‘. I liked the location itself a lot. On two of the three floors the main theme was Rock and Indie Rock. The 3rd floor closed when we arrived but on that floor regular live gigs take place. The sofas in the lounge area were godlike… so incredible cOmFoRtAbLe… Furthermore did that floor have a section with a XBox, a football table and an extra room with a big display and two Guitar Hero DJ stands.

The music was very good, very loud and besides getting jostled like hell, dancing in that environment made a lot of fun . At 3am the club closed unfortunately. So we were literal thrown out. 🙁 We said goodbye to the girls, which looked gorgeous by the way and took of, following the Luas lines home.

The girls took pictures, so check back, I’ll try to get them…

*the camera is still on* So lets open up Studi, what was her name again? oh yeah… Isabelle *cencored*… found her, ok lets click here and then… hey… wait a second, is the camera still on… Jesus Christ, I’ll have to remove that later… *camera off*

Differences between Berlin and Dublin

Hello,

It’s been some days since my last entry. That is probably because nothing REALLY interesting has happened the last few days.

We finally got access to the VIP AREA… WHAT THE?… no, I mean we finally got access to the gym here at Herbertons… yeah, that is what I wanted to say. 😉 Yesterday I went to the gym, today I went to the gym, guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow? YEAH I will go to the gym. Partly because I want to be in (very) good shape when I come back and partly because Ben, a (now) good friend of mine wants to get in good shape too. He is also living with me at Herbertons. Check out his blog here.

Well but let’s get to the topic of the title. What is different between Berlin and Dublin? I’ll summarize the things that stroke me the most so far.

  1. Dublin is not as big as Berlin. In Dublin you can basically reach everything in the city area by foot in less than an hour.
  2. Surprise, surprise, they drive on the left side. 😉
  3. Our caretaker told us that it is normal that they don’t have power plugs in the bathroom, one plug is rare.
  4. The fare for the Luas (Tram) is a little less expensive than in Berlin but the fine for not having a valid ticket is as high as 1000€!
  5. The security personal in the Luas is wearing bullet proof vests, tasers and walkie-talkies, very impressive.
  6. The driving folk is much more relaxed, car drivers often excuse themselfs to the pedestrians!!!
  7. There were many more differences, so this list will probably be updated.

Thats it for today. (epic quote: ‚Thats it at first‘ ;))

Dublin nightlife up close

Hello everyone,

The last few days were very interesting, lots of alcohol, lots of money pulled out of jackets, purses and trousers AND lots of drunk friends and people. On Thursday the the group of us living in Ladlanes and we, from Herbertons met in Temple Bar. I thought Temple Bar was one special bar but as soon as we arrived at our destination I knew it was a whole area which is called by that name. We walked through that district while waiting for the Ladlanes which were a bit late and walked past the Wall of fame.

The Wall Of Fame in Dublin Temple Bar shows some of the most famous irish artists which originate from Dublin

On the Wall Of Fame some of the most famous irish artists originating from Dublin, e.g. Sinéad O’Connor and U2 are immortalized. Finally we met the others and entered Oliver St. John Gogarty Bar. We ordered some drinks, chatted and after a while a life artist started to play guitar and sing. Some songs were familiar, others weren’t but the guy was really really good. The atmosphere in the bar was really warm and talkative. It was so loud that you had to get really close to someone you wanted to talk with. (which is good when talking to girls ;))

On Friday we planned to check out the nightlife of Dublin, means the nightclubs. The Ladlanes came over to our apartment where we started warm up drinking. When we left some of us were already drunk and it probably was fun to watch from outside. We googled were we had to go to but we missed the last bus so we had to walk to our destination. Chris and I roughly knew were the club ‚POD‘ had to be because it is near our work place. After walking for half an hour most of us were tired and impatient for finding the club. So we decided to go into a random club. When we entered we saw the sign reading ‚POD‘. I guess we accidentally found what we were looking for… we are SO GOOD! 😉 We entered and were baffled. There was almost nothing going on on the dance floor(s) although it was already past 12:00pm. So the first thing we did was to buy more alcohol, 3 Coronas for 10€… and again… and…

At around 3:00am the club closed and we went home. We headed home while the Ladlanes walked off in the other direction to get home too. On our way home Alex walked across the street to talk to a group of four strangers which fortunately weren’t hostile. But they gave us great advice by telling us to not talk to strangers on the streets, especially not so at night. They said our district is BAD and very dangerous and we should be careful outside and rather run than getting in danger.

We kept walking and almost home I slipped and while slipping already, I slipped again, so I fell face down on the pavement. I didn’t hurt myself (fortunately) but the way I fell was so funny that Chris and Flo started laughing really really hard. I joined in and we got home amused. At home I went into bed right away and instantly fell asleep.

Today we got up at around 14:00pm and did absolutely nothing at all until we dressed up at around 19:00pm to visit some of the Ladlanes and check out their apartment. Afterwards we wanted to go into a nearby pub but we didn’t feel like it and our last Luas‘ departing time was 0:30am. So we decided to get that Luas and drive home ‚early‘ today. *smirks mischievously*

First work day

Hello again everyone,

Yesterday Chris, my roommate at Herberton Apartments and I had our last day off. So we went shopping in the city centre. After three hours of walking (which seemed to be days) and searching we finally turned left into a random street 😉 and found the Ilac Shopping Centre. Inside was a shop in which Chris and Alex, another colleague of us, residing at Lad Lane Apartments, both found what they were looking for. Afterwards Alex left, Chris and I met with Ben and Flo, the rest of our apartment and together we went on to buy some more stuff for our apartment.

Today Chris and I had to be at our company at 9:30 am for our first working day at Web Reservations International. We got shown around first and then we set up our computers and afterwards we got an introduction into the new page that went online this monday. Next we had to test the functions of the site ourselfs and thereafter we had to keep ourselfs busy for quite a while. Possibly we will get our real task tomorrow. (hopefully…)

And that was about it for today, hopefully I can write something more interesting in the upcoming days. (please! please! please!)