Over the past week, I have had the time to explore a little more of Germany because we did not travel to another country last weekend. I used this as an opportunity to take the S7 all the way to Potsdam, which is a smaller city only about a 40 minute train ride from Berlin. Because many of my peers were tired from the week, I actually made this trip alone, and solo-tripping for the first time during my stay here was exciting in and of itself. Before leaving, I made an itinerary for things I must see and the order in which to see them in terms of proximity and efficiency. When I first arrived, it was around lunchtime, so I decided to explore the Dutch quarter, which is oftentimes referred to as “Little Amsterdam.” I sat down at a small cafe and after eating a sandwich and ordering a matcha latte, I set out to see the Brandenburg Gate (a smaller version of the one in Berlin) and the Neue Gate, which are both within the Dutch quarter itself. As I was walking to the Brandenburg Gate, I passed by a guy who I had previously passed at the cafe I went to, and we both started talking. As it turned out, he was also solo-traveling and originally grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. He had been in Berlin for a few days, and on this day was exploring Potsdam. He had a flight to Milan later that day, and apparently it is faster to reach the airport from Potsdam than it is from Berlin, which is why he decided to see it. Since we were both traveling solo, we decided to walk to the Brandenburg Gate together, and then grabbed a bite to eat. I learned that he is 25, and married with a kid. He was on this solo trip because he had just signed an offer for a new, better paying job in his field (he is an actuary), and he had a week between the end of his last job and the start of his new one. After we ate, he had to go catch his flight to Milan, and I decided to go to Sanssouci Park.
Sanssouci Park has three different palaces, all of which are gorgeous. The architecture is very impressive, and they are all walking distance from each other in this vast, paved park. I first saw the Sanssouci Palace, then walked to the Orangerie Palace, and then the Neues Palais. All three castles were rather far apart despite being in the same park, so by the time I reached the last palace I was thoroughly exhausted. In addition to the amount of walking, it was 84º and sunny which added to the exhaustion. I decided to call it an early night, but stumbled upon an Indian restaurant on my way to the train station and ended up eating dinner there before heading home. The food was amazing, and all the staff started speaking to me in Hindi which was oddly comforting. I had not heard or spoken the language much since leaving the United States, so it felt nice to connect to my culture in this foreign country.
During the work week, I explored some new places in Berlin. I went to Neukölln and brought some friends to Klunkerkranich, a rooftop restaurant. It had a view of the entire city, and we were there during sunset which only added to the beauty. On Friday, a few friends and I went to Maybacufer and saw the Turkish Market, where vendors were selling all sorts of things. There were stands selling vegetables, fabrics, food, handmade jewelry, clothing, and so much more.
At work, I have been working hard and learning a lot. The code I had been working on since I started at my internship finally ran without errors and successfully created the csv files containing the necessary data. I am acquiring both hard and soft skills at this internship. While the hard skills are more obvious—higher level experience with python, git, unix commands, dataframes, and reading/writing to files—the soft skills are less so. Some of the soft skills I have acquired are interpersonal communication, problem solving, and adaptability. Communication has been imperative in this internship, and the language barrier has added a layer of difficulty. Overcoming the language barrier has shown me that I am capable of adapting to new situations and I have strong interpersonal skills. I have also learned problem solving skills because I cannot run to my supervisor every time I have a question. I have learned to take the problems step by step, and focus on one thing at a time rather than the entire problem as a whole. This has made it easier for me to solve issues on my own, and has enhanced my ability to problem solve and be resourceful.
