This week was a lot of fun but uneventful. It started slowly. My boss was still on vacation for the entire week, so I had the option of being remote. However, I decided I would still go in if necessary. It was a great week because this for me. I was able to not do much Monday and explore central Berlin. I went to a few really cool Beer Gardens with one of my other interns throughout the week. I went to the office Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, we caught an afternoon train to Prague. I was able to get all my work done and have a call scheduled with my boss this week to go over my progress. My bosses one week vacation turned into a three-week vacation through out Germany.

Earlier in the week my fellow intern and I had decided to go on a trip together. We got to Prague Friday evening. The hostel was nice and outside the city center. We met a few Americans and Australians who had just finished their study abroad semesters this past week and were traveling before heading back home. We had a great night and woke up pretty late but just in time for a tour of the city. The city was beautiful. It had very strong historical vibe to it. The buildings were all at least two hundred years old. Although there were a lot of tourists however, I felt that it was not to bad and definitely not like Amsterdam. Saturday night we did one of the pub crawls and were able to see a lot of different places in the city. I met a group from Penn State. It was lot of fun. I also met a girl I went to elementary school with Houston. She had moved to Philly, and I had not seen her since fourth grade.

Sunday morning, we got a text from our boss telling us we did not have to be back until Wednesday. I had scheduled a call with him since I was at an impasse in my project and needed his help. We decided to extend our trip a few days and when we got to the train station we decided to go to take whatever train we saw first. We ended up going to Budapest.

I have been fortunate to travel throughout Europe previously but had never made it to Hungary before. It was by far the most beautiful city I have seen in Europe and reminded me of Pittsburgh if it had Hapsburg architecture. The city was amazing. The weather was the hottest I had experience in Europe (over 90 degrees) but that did not stop us. We saw most of the historical sites Monday and managed to see some very cool architecture. We also checked out various ruin bars. Ruin bars are bars in previously abandoned buildings located throughout the city. I would recommend for anyone who has the opportunity to go back. Tuesday, we took a train back to Berlin. The train ride took all day. We took a six hour train to Munich and a four hour train from Munich to Berlin. I look forward to speaking to my boss by phone Wednesday and seeing him in person Friday when he finally comes back from vacation. My project is going really well, and I think I may make a lasting contribution to the company.   Regarding skills I am taking back with me after this internship. The first soft skill is communication. German work culture prides individual work. If you do not ask for help or clarification, it is generally assumed that you either know what you are doing or don’t need help. It becomes a necessity to advocate for yourself. This is not something that occurs as much in my experience in the United States where your boss will check up on you periodically. Also, in European work culture when someone is on vacation, they typically do not respond to any work communication. This has caused a lot of difficulty since my project requires consistent feedback and input from my boss. Adapting to this and seeking help even from people who do not really speak English is a very useful skill I have learned. Also, I have learned that you do not necessarily need to speak the same language to work well together with people. Hard skill wise, I have had to learn the basics of Java for a certain aspect of my job. Pitt teaches us Python in the business school but knowing another programming language is a unique skill that I hope will separate me from other people.