My fourth week in Berlin was the easiest and most boring by far. I had just returned from Vienna late that Monday and was informed around the same time I got back that I would be working remote at least on Tuesday. I was disappointed to hear this because I need to spend time in the office speaking to other employees to progress on my project. This meant that there was little I could accomplish until Thursday. Instead, I decided to prepare for my day in the office on Wednesday for a little before going out to explore Berlin.

I spent a few minutes looking through google maps before I finally spotted a small lake and park close to my hotel. I began walking and reached it about twenty-five minutes later. I walked around the lake and did not see many people. However, when I crossed a small bridge over the main road into the rest of the park, I was shocked. There were people everywhere. It was the first day of summer weather. The park was packed with people. I was honestly very surprised that there were that many people of all ages out during the workday. The rest of my time in the park passed fairly quickly.

I did the same thing on Wednesday except I went a park the opposite way. The park was part of the grounds of a palace built for one of the Prussian kings. The palace itself was small but the grounds were beautiful. The river spree ran along the length of the grounds. It was really cool to experience it and it was odd to find such quiet in the middle of the busy city.

On my way out of the grounds, after wandering through some kind of fancy garden I stumbled through one of the most shocking things I’ve seen in the city – A sheep farm. There were between thirty and forty sheep just out grazing. It was not labeled on the map and if I had not noticed it earlier, I would’ve had no idea they were there. It was pretty cool to see.

Thursday, I went into work. It was a busy day. I ended up staying until almost six thirty. Typically I expect to be out by five pm. The overall experience of the day was not to bad but I was constantly doing something and did not have much of a break. After work I went straight to a Beer Garten and met a bunch of people who were from different schools who were in Berlin as well through Intrax. It was really cool to meet people from different places who are interning in Berlin this summer. I even ended up meeting someone from Houston. It was nice to to see someone from the same city as me. The Beer Garten was really cool. It was located in south east Berlin on an abandoned Airfield. We sat outside at some tables by the runway. The airfield had been turned into some kind of park. There were soccer fields and baseball fields built around it and people were biking and walking around.

Friday was more of the same and I spent the weekend exploring nightlife in Berlin and catching up on sleep. There was not much else to mention and it was not eventful at all. My boss went on vacation sometime this week. Hopefully he gets back soon because it is difficult to get ahold of him via WhatsApp and he is overseeing my project.  

I have found parts of German work culture be a little difficult to assimilate into. Mainly the idea that you get your work done then leave the office is a little strange to me. There have been days where I finish my work in four hours and am out of the office by two. Other days it I am there until after five. Also, people arrive at different times. Partially due to the nature of the industry I am working in but some employees arrive at ten am, some at noon, some at eight am. However, they all leave at different time. I will say that there is more of a formal structure between the boss, their boss, and the rest of the employees. It is different to the United States. The distance manifests in the way people talk and there is less collaboration than I expected in the office. Another thing to note about Berlin is that it is a very cash heavy city. This has taken some time to get used to since I never use cash in America.