Hallo Leute!

It was my birthday!  I am 21 years old and what a city to turn 21 in.  I still cannot believe that it was already my birthday because that meant it was close to the end of this wonderful experience in Berlin.  My parents were here until Tuesday of this week to celebrate my birthday.  It was a bittersweet week because they left to go back but there was so much happening this week, so it was good.  All of us celebrated on Friday, which was so nice.  On Saturday, my coworker and I hung out and that was so lovely.  She is from Egypt but goes to school in Berlin for architecture and she just finished her last submission for her master’s degree thesis.  We went to the Floating University together because our boss recommended it, so we went to see it.  It was not what we expected but we got a good laugh and a few jokes out of the experience.  After we went there, she took me back to where she lives and showed me around and I met all her friends.  They were all so welcoming and very nice.  We got some Turkish food for dinner and went out for Turkish coffee to watch the EURO 2024.  It was very interesting when she was telling me about Arabic language and how there are different dialects.  She was also telling how she grew up and showing me pictures.  I did not really know too much about Egyptian culture, so it was interesting to learn about.  On Sunday, it was free museum Sunday because it was the first Sunday of the month.  I went to four museums, and I think I saw about a thousand different sculptures.  Each museum was interesting and had a different cultural display of the sculptures.

There was so much happening this week at my internship.  I think every day we had about two to three meetings about the machinery company.  The project is intriguing but let me tell you I do not think I have ever seen a project so discombobulated in my life.  It is confusing because the clients would give us tables and then floor plans to work with, but the major problem is that the square meters do not add up in the table or the floor plans.  This information is crucial because they want us to transfer functions that are in the existing building to the new building, which is not the same size.  With the laws and regulations established in Berlin, there can only be so many square meters built on the plot.  Information keeps changing with the client because so many people are involved on the client side.  Luckly, I just figured out volume models for the new building this week.  For most of this week, I did many volume studies and produced different ideas depending on which way the client might want to go.  I tried my best to think about the programming for the models with the constantly changing information that was provided.

I also got to go to another site visit for the unit complex this week.  I have not gone in a little bit because there have been other things to do at the office.  I enjoyed seeing the progress and the topography document that I made a couple weeks ago was put into it because it was finished when I was at the site.  We were only supposed to be there for one hour but shocker, we kept finding things that were wrong, so we ended up staying for three hours.  It was just my boss and I and she wanted my opinion about some coloring choices.  She showed me the samples but we both agreed they were too bright so when I got back to the office, I created some color palettes.  It is so hard using color because it can either make or break a project, so it must be carefully thought about.

Communication is a little different in Germany.  They are very direct about what they are doing and how they want things done.  They also want you to be direct too with things.  My boss is always making sure I know what I am doing and if I have any questions and if everything is clear.  Germans also speak in a very respectful tone when communicating things.  I normally do not have issues with miscommunication unless it is a language barrier, but we usually solve that issue in five minutes.

I cannot believe we only have two more weeks left.  I have so many mixed emotions because this has been quite an adventure.  I am trying to take as much as I can in with the little time remaining.

Ciao!!