This third week continued to introduce new adventures. I went to a meet up at a coffee shop with a couple of the other companies in the working space. That was a situation of ambiguity defiantly because I’m not used the high intensity networking. It was especially interesting because they were mostly start-up companies. All of these “founders” (that’s what they call themselves, which I thought was interesting because I always thought of these start-up people as like CEOs and stuff like that) were super passionate about their projects and I heard some really interesting ideas. I was never really interested in entrepreneurial ventures before that meet-up, but hearing the passion that these entrepreneurs had for the projects that they are a part of changed my mindset and now I will definitely keep a more open mind for the future.

As for my actual work, there is usually only some ambiguity as the projects are pretty clear and my manager, who is also the CEO, has a good vison of what he wants me to add to the product. He articulates it well to me, so it is mostly me just creating what he wants. The most ambiguity has come from my most recent project, where I have to create inputs to get into the AI formula to make sure that the formula actually can find the information necessary to create the proper registration from the documents provided. My situation that I find myself in is that I do not know how to get that confirmation from the software. I have asked the CTO, who made the software, how I should go about testing it, and he just recommended holding practice documents against that AI.  But I had to work around that, because I am not the most tech savvy human being, so I have to go through the document and take certain sections that sometimes include and sometimes not include the answer to the inputs. This makes sure that I can confirm whether the formula can differentiate right from wrong answers.  This way is much more complicated than it probably should be, but I understand that my managers were busy, so I had to navigate by myself. Figuring out improbable solutions to problems to make sure that I finished the project is something that I believe is extremely important. I’m glad that I can grow this skill during my internship abroad because I feel like if I could do this in a foreign country where my language is that second language for many people, then I could do this same thing better when I am working in the United States. These are the type of skills that I hope to build on this trip, so even though it is a difficult situation I definitely would be open to more problems like this so I can build these skills.

Outside of work, I went to Grosser Wannsee, a lake that separates Berlin from Potsdam. I was really surprised when I saw that there was an actual beach there, because I am used to Pennsylvania lakes, where the beach is mostly rocks and u have to either jump in from a ledge or wade in with water shoes. But here there was sand, and it felt as if I was at the Jersey Shore, something I am sorely missing this summer by being in Berlin. The water was a little murky, with a lot of water vegetation on the bottom hitting our feet as we were in the water. I figured out that this was because Berlin is built in a very swampy area, kind of like the Jersey Shore, which is probably why I liked it so much. But, talking to some of the locals before we went in, we figured out that the lakes down south in Germany are very clear and wonderful to be in. They are clear because they are in the mountains, a stark contrast to the swampy lands of Berlin. Regardless, I still had a wonderful time. There were volleyball courts that we played at and the water was much warmer than I expected considering the high altitude that we are at and the time of the year. Considering that we are above Toronto longitudinally speak, the weather has been wonderful.  We finished off the weekend with probably the best Greek food I have ever had right next to our hotel. It really shows how international this city is and the people that it attracts.