I was counting the days we have been in Berlin, and it has been three weeks since we got here, two weeks since the start of the internship, and we are now walking into the third week of work. Time really flies and now we only have six weeks left before the program officially ends. To be honest, I have very strong mixed feelings about it, like I’m excited to be in Berlin, but I have not fully explored the city than I would like to, but I also can’t wait to go home; I like doing the internship, but work makes me exhausted. I feel like the problem is I’m so exhausted after work that I just want to stay in and not go out for the rest of the day, so weekends have been the only time I go out and explore, which makes my time here feel less than it actually is, but it feels long at work at the same time. Well, I think it is a me problem that I’m exhausted after work even when I’m not doing too much. I think I really need to get myself up and do things after work to worth my limited time here. I started to go to a bakery for pre-dinner or go out for dinner after work last week tho. It has been fun to go to a cafe or a bakery here in berlin because they have amazing pastries and cute outdoor seatings.

Also, I did get out and go explore new places this weekend. I went to Wannsee to a lake with the people from the program on Saturday, and it was very relaxing. At first, we were worried that the weather was going to mess up our lake plan because it was drizzling on our way to the lake, but luckily it stopped and the sun was out for the rest of our time at the lake. It looked nothing like what I imagined when it said it was a lake online—it was more like a beach than a lake. We went into the water for a bit, then we were just talking and sunbathing by the water. It was almost crowded that day as well. One interesting thing I noticed is that we had to pay 5 euros for the cover to get in there, which was different from what I was used to in Taiwan where we don’t have to pay for public open water.

We also went to a Greek place near our hotel for dinner. It was so cute that the waiter remembered us from last time we were there and got us free drinks. I love how cute and nice people at the restaurants here, and we would often get food or drinks on the house as well.

Anyways, as I was reading the prompt for this blog post and reflecting on what I did for work last week, I realized that even though I was given tasks to complete, I wasn’t given much instructions for every task. Me and my co-workers finished up a shipping project last week, and I also finished the training slides project myself and currently still working on the data update project. I guess they were instructed properly by the slides provided, but the data update project was not really carefully guided for me. I was told to email the companies about updated data sheets if I cannot find them online, and I honestly am not one hundred percent sure how to properly email them asking for the specific data sheet. I sent an email draft to my supervisor, having him look over the draft before sending as I didn’t want to misrepresent the company. I think the best way to deal with incomplete information is to ask. I was always told to ask questions instead of guessing. I think it is better to get as much information as possible before starting doing something than doing things in a completely wrong direction. I would rather spend time asking people than re-doing things if it’s heading the wrong way.

The data update project is taking most of my time at work as the other two projects were done. Hopefully I will get it done this week and get a different task to do. I really wanted to know more about how the company manages their supply chain and get the most out of this internship experience.