Monat: Juni 2014

Last week

Just in the mid of the last week we had to accomplish another big task Tony gave us. Today we had to go through all buildings on all floors and write down the telephone extension numbers of every single phone. All in all I guess it were over 1000 phones and it took a lot of time. After that we had to move some PCs to other desks because a big contractor needed more space for it’s employees. But like the german saying „Too many cooks spoil the broth“, it was a big mess in the end and we had to exchange a lot more equipment then we were told.

In the afternoon me and my flat-mates started to sort out all our stuff we’ve got in the apartment. The time here in Belfast comes to an end and I think it’s worth to spend the time now instead of having a stressful Friday where every one is rushing around. I hope that the luggage that I carry with me hasn’t got too much overweight since I’ve bought new stuff and it feels a bit heavier then just 2 kilos.

Advice Nr.3

Hey everyone,

time for a new advice. 🙂 We all know that communication is a big part of our life. How can you keep in touch with someone?

Buy a phonecard!

It can be very expensive for you, if you take a phone call or use the mobile internet with a phonecard from your home country. Therefore I advice you to buy a prepaid card (in the new country). If you travel in a group it is useful, that all people of you buy a prepaid card from the same provider. You have a big range which provider you could choose. The most of them have a nice offer for travellers. You can book a lot of options. As an example a flat rate for any phone calls in Ireland combined with 200mb of mobile internet and 30 minutes to phone in your home country (that was the constellation that I chossed). I do not want to make any promotion, because of this I am telling you that you only need (the common run) 20€ for a month.

Be careful!

Your flat rate for any phone calls will only work in your own country! If you are living in the „Republic of Ireland“ you are not able to use your phone card in „Northern ireland“. There are both independent countrys! The same applies to people who living in „Northern Ireland“.

Use your credit sparingly! It is useful to have enough credits in the case of an emergency.

Area codes:

The area code for the „Republic of Ireland“ is 00(+) 353
The area code for „Northern Ireland“ is 00(+) 44
The area code for „Germany“ is 00(+) 49

Yours George

Running Out Of Time

I haven’t checked but I think I might be the last person to tell you that this is our last week here in Ireland. In fact, it’s not even a whole week anymore and I am sad to leave System Dynamics and Ireland. I enjoyed the time here very much and I have seen more of the country than a lot of the Irish ever did. I have, however, left a ton of places that are worth visiting and I know a lot of the places that are worth visiting again.

I just want to give you an overview over the last couple of days.

I haven’t really done anything on Sunday because I was pretty exhausted from the week that lay behind me. There was a party at the house that I didn’t join because I wasn’t in the mood to be around a lot of people. The sun has also gotten to me pretty bad on Saturday and I was minding my sunburn and tried to ignore the mild headache that was probably due to dehydration. The party was a welcoming party for Thomas, Anne’s son who lives in Australia for almost 7 years now. He brought his wife who is from Cork and their Daughter Saoirse who was born in Australia. They’re here for Saoirse’s christening, Anne’s 60th and some other event but I forgot what that was.

On Monday, I took care of all the Europass paperwork and started to get rid of any lose ends to my work here. There are still a couple of cables in the rack that I have put there to get rid of other cables that are just in the way of everything but I didn’t get around to switching them and Eamonn seemed afraid to do it so I guess I’m not going to mess with it and just remove the surplus cables again.

I ordered a MacBook Air yesterday for 1366 € with 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM, i5 processor and an external drive as well as 2 adapters for Ethernet and VGA. I felt filthy afterwards but I guess the good thing is that it was neither my money nor my responsibility once the thing gets here. I ordered it for one of the managers who needed it for mobility reasons.

I’m going to have a “full Irish” breakfast in an hour or so with Eamonn. It’s going to be my first ever and my last for now. I’m looking forward to it because I keep snacking on nuts and raisins.

Tomorrow I’m going to bring in some cake that I will buy later today at Lidl. I think it’s going to be some kind of double chocolate fudge thing and maybe carrot cake to give everybody a false sense of security about eating healthy. After all, vegetable cakes can’t be bad, right?! I’m scheduled to go to the Ferryman with Linda, Eamonn and Genevieve and whoever else would like to join us for a pint.

Friday is going to be quite a stressful day at least half of the day. I’m going to work in the morning pretty much just to say my goodbyes and clean up my desk. Around 11am, I have to hurry to Margaret to give her a final report on how the internship went. The Derrians are arriving at Dublin Airport sometime between 1pm and 2pm and the plan is to stash their luggage in my room at Anne’s house and go into city center because they want to check out the Guinness Storehouse. In the evening we’ll go out and buy beer (probably Budweiser or Carlsberg) and snacks and head to the airport to stay the night and wait for our flight on Saturday morning.

I am also working on something that you will get to see in my last post on Sunday. I enjoy working on it so I hope you’ll enjoy seeing what it is.

Stay tuned, Angelo

We have entered the final week of our internship

Hi there!

Yep, the title is the vital point this week. Now we gradually have to plan our return journey to Germany. For today it’s planned to mop the floors of our apartement. And because of my heartburn last week, I really have to struggle with the amount of food now. I even have to share it with my colleages in the neighbor apartment, because it’s impossible for me to eat five pizza, fries and a baguette in the 3 remaining days. Poor me! 😀 In terms of work I will do my final steps now, because I have to use the remaining time with Christy for the completion of my Euro Pass formulars. The last days I have read the Google documentation about the rendering of CSS and co., because the Google Page Speed site pointed out some render blocking CCS issues at our page.

Advice Nr.2

Hey everyone,

today is Tuesday and there are only 4 days left here in Ireland – Dublin. Time for a new advice. 🙂

Get a credit card!

I know some of you already own one, two or maybe more, but for those people who do not thought about it…should. Even if you do not need the credit card in your home country, it could be very useful in others. Many credit institutions allocate them for free. The big advantage is, that you mostly (it depends on your credit institution) do not pay any transaction fees and It is also very easy to pay with them. Besides most of the shops accept them. Before you go to another country, inform your credit institution that you will make a journey. Otherwise it could happen that they lock your credit card for caution’s sake and it become useless. 😉

Be careful!

If you want to buy something with your credit card, you do not need to key in your PIN number. Mostly it suffices that you sign the receipt. As much more you should look that you do not lose your credit card. Other people could buy something with it without your PIN.
Just in case safe the emergency number from your credit institution in your mobile phone.

Yours George

Last week in Ireland

That’s the last week here. I look forward to get back home in my normal life but really enjoyed the time here. The last few weeks rushed and I didn’t even realized that the time is almost over. I’m looking forward to tomorrow because one of our human resource managers has planned a big dinner for the hole office. We will go in a restaurant that was rent for us the evening and enjoy delicious Asian cuisine. Hope everybody had a great time.

 

Tuesday

Today we’ve been invited by Intern Europe for an analysis of the stay here in Belfast, after a bit of becoming mentally awake we had a little talk about our experience and filled out some forms that need to be held in their archive. It was about how we liked our work-placement and the overall internship abroad. After that Martin, Nick, Eric, Marco, Max and me had a breakfast in a tiny but great restaurant called „Meat in a Bap“. Later that day I maybe go to the gym or to the cinema (since a few new movies were released which are worth the watch), it depends on what the others will decide for.

What’s For Dinner?

Steak, potatoes and carrot/onion/parsnip-vegetables, that’s what. I had a great time at their house and after dinner, Eamonn, his wife Angela and I sat back and watched the England vs. Uruguay game. Everybody that cares knows how the game went so I won’t go into detail here; I will just say that I think the outcome was absolutely deserved on both sides. It was an interesting enough game to watch.

When the game was over, we all got into the car and Eamonn drove me home using the opportunity to show me around the neighborhood some more. He lives in Malahide which is north of Dublin and we took the coastal route, detouring only through Howth to see the sun set from Howth Summit. It was beautiful to see the lights of the city on one side and the light of the dying day on the other. This could’ve only been made better if someone would’ve handed me a Guinness and maybe lit a fire to keep us warm.

On Saturday, I tried sleeping in, which turned out to be no longer than 9 am. This already includes the half hour of vividly turning around while trying to find a comfortable position. I had my usual breakfast of toast with Nutella and – today – a boiled egg of which I find one or two sitting on the stove every now and then. When brekkie was over, I packed a banana and a pear that I had lying around my room for the past 2 days, a Snickers bar and the bottle of water that I bought Friday afternoon at Tesco.

I could have taken the bus and then the DART but decided on walking into city center instead to take the DART from Tara Station. It saved me money and contributed 10000 steps to my daily quota right away. The train ride into Bray was beautiful enough because the rails follow the coast line and you can see beaches turn into cliffs and vice versa. When I arrived in Bray, I made my way to the beach which was relatively busy with people playing games on the grass or walking over hot stones and swimming on the other side of the walkway.

The cliff walk towards Greystones is obviously 6km long, if you believe the 2 signs that are put up at 1/3 and 2/3 of the way. The sun was shining mercilessly and I didn’t expect that seeing as the forecast was for cloudy weather. I guess the sun burnt the clouds right out of the sky like Icarus back in the day. It’s a very interesting walk winding along the coast of Ireland and there are a few places where you can sit down and rest while enjoying the view, the sweet song of the ocean and the voices of many a bird.

I made it into Greystones at around 3.30pm and walked past a few nice looking restaurants on my way to the DART. I didn’t bother eating there only because I knew I was going to come home to a prepared meal. It is in fact a nice plus for my wallet but kind of restricts social behavior, as well. I had to wait for the DART for half an hour and started watching Game of Thrones on my phone. The ride back was just as beautiful as the walk towards Greystones.

I got off at Tara Station and walked home from there, managing to put down 35073 steps for the day.

Please enjoy these photographs:

Cheers,
Angelo

Advice Nr.1

Hey everyone,

there are only five days left and I am looking forward to see my family in Berlin. I will try to give you some information about Dublin, that could be useful for the „AFIB-successor“ next year.

Get a „leapcard“!
Taking the Dublin bus will be very expensive for you if you do not own one. Besides you will need coins to buy a busticket. They will not take any kind of banknotes and you do not get any change!
The Dublin bus system is not completed nowadays. There are a few zones in the city which affect the price of a regular bus ticket (per direction). In the end you will mostly pay 2,35€ except you only drive one or two stations…and you will notice that this will be very expensive if you need the bus to reach your workplace.

leapcard.

You can buy a leadcard in most of the „Spar“ shops for 5€. After that you can top off your leap card with a random amount of money. If you take the bus and pay with your leapcard you will mostly pay 1,95€ to reach your destination (per direction). After your internship you can give your „leapcard“ back to a shop. After that you will get back your 5€…or you keep it as a souvenir 😉

This link could be useful:  https://www.dublinbus.ie/Fares–Tickets/Fare-Information/Fares/

Yours George