Tag: 23. April 2012

The first 24 hours

Ryanair Boeing 737-800
Ryanair Boeing 737-800

After a smooth flight from Berlin Schönefeld to Dublin and a … hm … let’s call it „dynamic“ bus ride we arrived at the Europa Bus Centre in Belfast at approximately 23:15 (UTC). María Gonzales, one of our contact persons here in Belfast, picked us up there and organized some taxis to bring us to our new homes for the next two months. Oliver, René, Tobias and I live in the Somerset Mews Townhouses in the centre of Belfast.

Today we had an induction meeting at RSM Tenon (the company which planned our work experience and supports us here in Belfast) with Kevin Shine, another of our contact persons and our supervisor here, where we got some general information about Belfast and Nothern Ireland as well as more specific information on our work placements.

After the induction Kevin and me took a cab to go to my job interview at Translink, the public transport provider in Northern Ireland, where I was told about general facts of the work at Translink, the current projects and my possible tasks. I will start tomorrow at 9 o’clock.

In my next post I will tell you something about my first day(s) at Translink …

The journey begins and every journey begins with one step

During our stay in Ireland we will improve ourselves and we will learn a lot about us and about a very lovely culture. I wrote lovely because our first days were fantastic and that’s because of the people. It was great to be welcomed this way. It is a pleasure for me to be part of this traineeship and get these experiences.

Let’s have a look of our first steps, we started with a very well-known lady in Berlin-Schönefeld (SXF), she is called Boing 737-800 NG (Next Generation). In the past I had the opportunity to travel with this plane and I had the honor to have a seat in the cockpit and to get a few very interesting pieces of information about this plane. So it was grateful to fly with it again because of the good memories.

So the journey to Ireland starts in a good mood! During our flight to Dublin we saw a lot of impressive sceneries, which were painted by the landscape and the coasts we saw.

The eagle has been landed! After our touch down in Dublin we traveled to Belfast by bus, unfortunately at night, so we couldn’t see anything of the landscape.

Successfully arrived at our apartment we were impressed by the standard of it.

After we did a little night walk, we found everything we required for our daily need. It was really good idea to do this because it made things easier.

Today we had a meeting with Kevin Shine, he is our advisor here in Belfast. He really wants us to have a good time here in Belfast. The meeting was great, because he is a really funny and nice guy.

Tomorrow I will have an interview at ECIT. The building is located near the Titanic dry dock and the museum. I am looking forward to it and I hope I get the placement there.

I will tell you …

So have a look at the panorama in front of the RSM Tenon office:

My first impressions about Belfast

Hey folks!

This is our second evening here in Belfast. The flight was quite calm and without any problems. When we arrived at Dublin Airport, we had to wait about thirty minutes for the bus to Belfast and arrived at 11:30 p.m.. Maria, who is one of our contact persons, ordered some taxis, which took us to our apartments. I share my apartment with Oliver, Tim and Tobias. We have two single rooms and one double room. Our apartment is very comfortable, offering a washing machine, water boiler, automatic dishwasher and a cooker. The apartment is very clean and we all are very satisfied.

Today, we had a meeting with Kevin, who told us some facts and responsibilities concerning our stay in Northern Ireland. Kevin is a really nice guy, who seems to be really interested in ensuring that we all have a really good time in Belfast.

We already walked a lot, so we’ve already seen many streets and shops of Belfast, which is a city with a very special charm. People are very friendly and try to help each other. When we were looking for the correct bus, a man asked us, where we want to go and helped us to find the way. Another man standing next to us noticed our conversation and asked us, where we are from, afterwards he told us to have a good time in Ireland.

So my first impression about Belfast is a really good one. People are friendly, the accomodation is really satisfying and tomorrow, I will have my first day at Steria, the company I will work at during the next eight weeks.

So, I think tomorrow or on Wednesday I will tell you something about my first day at work.

Till later then

René

During the flight

The first day at Dublin

Hello everyone,

here is a little introduction into my current living situation. First of all I have to notice that I share the apartement with another german apprentice, Josephine Irlbeck, and a french girl. I’m really sorry but I already forgot her name because she wasn’t present when we arrived. She came back in the middle of the night with a visitor. And that’s not all! I don’t know for how long that girl lives here but the kitchen was all other than clean. Also the living room was a little hell.

Today we had a meeting with Margaret Purdy, the European Programmes Manager of the Internsplus, in the Guinness Enterprise Centre. We talked about issues we might have with the apartement, our working places and the propabiltiy to get reduced prices on Luas, DART and the DublinBus . After that meeting we had another pretty „meeting“ in the Guinness Storehouse. It was quite interessting, how the irish people love there Guinness. We also had the chance to get a little glas of Guinness, just to get into the taste of that dark beer. And to be honest: It’s not my taste at the moment.

In the evening I bought myself a leapcard. Thats a card to get reduced prices on nearly all public transports. You can charge that card at a store or online with your VISA, but only when u registered your card. I tried it and I’ll tell you soon if it worked or not.

The best thing today was the influence of Margaret,then she managed it that our apartement issues were getting fixed quite fast.

Greetings
Daniela Kaim