Well what a two weeks it’s been since the moment I was sprinting through the airport in Switzerland wondering if my luggage was going to make my 13 minute layover due to a delayed arrival. The answer to that is no. Thankfully, it’s been all uphill since then. Arriving in Berlin has been a whirlwind in itself, but I have been able to adjust pretty easily. As I entered the room I was going to live in for the next three months I had no idea what to expect. Our first week was filled with plenty of walking around the city and adventuring cool places in Berlin such as the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, Bayer pharmaceutical company, and the Jewish History Museum. Also one of my favorite parts about Berlin has been the food including doner and borek (one of my favorite meals from back home that my grandma makes).

Being that this is an internship program, my second week, first week of work was a new experience in itself. I was placed in a company call Gramercy Global Media which is a search engine and search optimization marketing company that assists clients mainly in the sports and entertainment industry. The company works to maximize the amount of sales for each of the clients using Facebook Business Manager and Google AdWords primarily. When I arrived the first day, there were only four people in the office and everyone was German-American so it made me feel more comfortable on what it was going to be like. The people in the office are friendly and have introduced me to a lot of new strategies and methods of online marketing.

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks, I am planning on traveling to some destinations that have not been decided yet. One of my goals is to meet an American-Albanian in Germany which has not been successful yet, but apparently there are 400,000 Albanians in Germany so I have plenty of time. I also plan on attending Obama’s presentation on Thursday with Chancellor Merkel’s on Ascension Day. Another thing I can also check off of my bucket list is attending a European professional soccer which was yesterday in the Olympiastadion. Hertha Berlin played against Bayer Leverkusen and it was quite the experience to see how dedicated the fans were to the sport. And with that I will sign off and be back with plenty of new material to share with everyone next week.

-Tschuss, Anest