Nice time at all!

Hey together

This will be one of my last articles I write while I’m here in Northern Ireland. It will be a short conclusion of the last day and my overall impression here at Belfast.

The first day we were in Belfast the only thing we were happy about was that the flight was over and we have a weekend to relax. We were welcomed by a heavy rain which isn’t unusual here. We get our apartments after taking our first trip with a cab. Satisfaction appears not like this. The flat seems to be very small at all and there were some issues. But how discussed before this NI trip we shouldn’t complain about any small issues. Tristan and I arrived in a „full house“. There were 5 rooms. Except one room all were filled with at least one person. All together nice people but sometimes a little bit secluded. After a few weeks and some trips outside we become accustomed to the flat.

Also the work placement we get was very good for the most of us. In my case it was Capita – Managed IT Solutions. It is located in the north of Belfast so we go by bus up to 1 hour to arrive there. Capita is a big company with more than one site in the EU. While arriving here the first day I was a little bit sceptical towards this work placement. What will happen, what could I expect, will I be happy there and what are the behaviours of my supervisors? Many question before that first day. Luckily all these questions were really unnecessary at all. All people (about 500) working all in one room and seems to be very nice. Also my supervisors were quite nice and very friendly and polite. First I get a tour through the whole building while creating my security card I’ll need to get into the building and some other bureaucratic stuff. I was very amazed about the building at all, the structure and all the people who worked inside. Most of them seems to be happy so maybe it could be a good time for me. I meet the people who will be responsible for me for the 8 weeks. My supervisor Peter who seems to be very busy and the other people from the network and communication department: Colum, he is very tall and very polite. For the first time it was really difficult to understand him because he speaks very fast, but he will be the first contact person beside Peter; Eamon, he’s one of the older guys in the network department and made jokes about my hair style every time, he said he need longer for his hair style than me, but he has a baldness, also very polite, and the last one is Ahmed, he works for Capita since 2,5 years and is from Jordan. Because English is not his mother tongue he speaks it very slow so very easy for me to understand, he makes jokes every time with me and also the other colleagues. Nice atmosphere at all. I love it. I think they’ll be also happy with me, Marcel and Lukas. We’re arriving mostly 30 minutes before the normal start of work and leave not until the work for today is finished. All in all I’m very happy with my work placement here because I had nice colleagues and a lot of things to do so no free time for boredom at all.

–> see the whole newsletter page here: https://imgur.com/6sNVJxn

One other important point here in NI was the visit of a gym for me weekly. For me it seems like a cheap doss house but all devices and units I’ll need were inside. There I get a good compensation of sitting the whole day in the office without that much movement.

Sometimes the agency tried to establish some nice evening to get together with other exchange people in Belfast. On the one hand it was a quiz night it was OK but it seems that some of us weren’t really happy at all. Every group get some questions and had to fill in the right answer. On the other hand there was the bingo night, I was really good a fortiori I was quite disappointed that our other afib colleagues loves to sit at home and to miss the opportunity to have fun. But Tristan and I enjoyed it.

What I will miss of Belfast (City):

• Most of the shops opened every Sunday so you don’t have to buy all on Saturday
• The all in all clean city centre resp. the whole town
• The pubs and the different beers
• Some food restaurants like Chip Co etc.
• The friendly and polite population there
• Poundland

What I’ll never miss of Belfast:

• The catastrophic public transportation system and their prices (monthly ticket ca. 81 €)
• The traffic and small streets
• The homeless people (even if this is not their fault sometimes)
• The search of a “Free Withdrawals” cash-point which accept credit cards and give a good money exchange instalment
• The prices for all in all for groceries
• The small flat we were living in and the construction work the last days inside and the flat mates who seems to do nothing towards the household
• The weather at all. We have had all 4 seasons sometimes at one day and not only one time
• The pubs closing always at 1 am.
• Share the WLAN with some guys who stream the whole day in ultra HD :/
• To have only one LIDL close to our home

All in all I was a very nice trip to Belfast. 2 months resp. 8 weeks for me seems to be really enough. We get good English skills at all not only because we also speak English among us. I know all of us will be happy to get back to Berlin but I will enjoy the last days here and be glad to go back to Germany at the end of this week. I hope we will enjoy the last time here and get back healthy. Thanks for that great period in my lifetime I’ll never forget….

Woooooooowwwwww!!!!, that’s my longest article with 1029 words. It’s uncreeeedibleeeee 😀

See ya 🙂