Week 2 in Berlin is finished, along with the first week of my internship!

The first day of my internship was on Tuesday because Monday was a national holiday in Germany. On Tuesday, I was able to meet my coworkers, and I learned that I will be working in the Financial Controlling department. Fortunately, all of my coworkers speak English very well. After they met me, they showed me around the office. The office is very nice and brand new because they just moved into this office building in February. The office is located in Potsdamer Platz, which is a public square in the center of Berlin. I love that my office is centrally located because I can see new things after work by just walking there. I visited the Brandenburg Gate after work one day, which was only about a 15 minute walk.

So far, my coworkers have trained me to use Declaree to review their credit card statements, Verifier to verify the information on their invoices, and SAP to organize the invoices. This work is the first time I have practically done accounting for a company. It is interesting to see how what I am learning in school is related to the workplace. For example, I have used my knowledge of credits and debits, cost centers, and GAAP in my internship, which are all topics I learned about in my classes at Pitt. 

My supervisor explained to me that Sirius Facilities is a public company, and their stock trades on the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Since they are public, they have to be audited, and their auditor is Ernst & Young. As a small business, they have to close their books twice a year, at the end of December and May. 

On Friday, I was able to meet other people in the office outside of my coworkers. It was great to meet new people, and they had a lot of questions for me about the United States. They asked me if the yellow school buses were real, and they were amazed when I told them that I rode those buses to school when I was younger. Some of them have never been to the US, so their only perception of it is from TV shows and movies. They also asked me about politics and gun violence, which was sad to see that is how other countries perceive the US. I was also surprised by how well I was able to communicate with my coworkers and other people in the office. Everyone is able to speak English well. In the US, it is somewhat rare to meet people who are fluent in multiple languages, so it is interesting to see how that is the norm in Germany. 

Time management has been easy at times and challenging at other times. My work hours are 9am to 6pm, and since I have only learned how to do a couple of tasks so far, it is not too hard to prioritize which tasks to do. I usually start my day by checking my email and opening Microsoft Teams, and then I work on the credit card statements or invoices. In the future, time management at work may become more challenging as I learn how to do more tasks. I plan to prioritize my tasks in order of importance and when they are assigned. I enjoy completing tasks chronologically, so I am planning to complete my tasks in order of how they were given to me. 

Time management is more difficult outside of work for me. I think being abroad is the ultimate test of self care. It can be challenging to plan ahead for meals, exercising, social activities, sightseeing, time to rest, time for commuting to work, and more. It is hard for me to find the time to do everything I want to in a day, and I usually end up sacrificing one thing for another. 

During the weekend, I went to a flea market with other students from Pitt. The flea market was so big and had so many great vendors. You can buy jewelry, pants, shorts, shirts, coats, leather jackets, artwork, decorations, household items, and more for great prices. After the flea market, we went to a local bistro to get traditional German food. I ate currywurst and fries with ketchup. 

We also went to an American diner as a group because we wanted to see how it would compare to the food we know in the US. In my opinion, the diner got some things right but some things wrong. For example, there was an item on the menu called “Philadelphia Pasta.” Many students at Pitt, including students in this program, are from “outside of Philly,” and they have never heard of “Philadelphia Pasta.”

I hope next week will be even better!