Week 7 in the books! Things have still been going well at Vireo Ventures and I’m sad to say I’m coming up on my last week of work. It has been so great to make the connections I have made and to be able to know such wonderful people. This week my office plans to do a final goodbye dinner on Wednesday to send me off! I’m going to miss them and I’m so grateful for this experience. This internship has taught me that success can be measured in many ways. My roommate Loghan talked in his blog post about how Germans value success as “the ability of the individual to balance personal comfort with societal wellbeing” (Hawkes). At Vireo, they do value these ideas, however, success is defined by the quality of work you produce. If an employee can produce amazing results in a quick manner, this is deemed as an achievement. I believe this idea is highly transferable to the American workplace values, as producing good results is essential. While Germany and America have significant differences, I think the definition of ‘success’ at vireo has prepared me very well to be a valuable employee in my future internships.
Besides this bittersweet moment, I actually had the chance to meet up with some family in Munich this past weekend. My mom and grandmother are going on a Viking Cruise throughout Europe and their first destination was Munich. When I arrived, they had already been in this city for an entire day and saw most of the attractions, so the day I arrived we went to a town in Austria called Salzburg. This small city is known as the birthplace of Mozart and many other famous people throughout history. It was such a beautiful town with amazing little shops and a beautiful castle. My family had booked a walking tour around the city, and we got to learn a little bit about its history. This city was actually the place where they filmed The Sound of Music, and we got to see one of the original sets!
We also had the opportunity to go into the castle that lays atop the highest mountain in the city. The best part of it all was that the transport to the castel was just like the Incline in Pittsburgh!! When we entered the compartment that was taking us up, my Mom looked at me and said, “this is exactly like the Pittsburgh Incline”, haha! When we reached the top, there was a beautiful view of the entire city. It was one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my life. From there, we walked up to the highest point in the castle; so many stairs! At the top there was a panoramic view of the city and the surrounding landscape. Salzburg is right next to the alps, and as you can imagine, it was amazing. You could see the fields of grass as they rose upward into the mountains, with clouds covering the very top.
After our adventures in Salzburg, we returned to Munich for the night. As many of my friends know, I am a waitress at The Hofbrauhaus in Pittsburgh. This restaurant is a chain of German restaurants originating in Munich (of course I had to go). For dinner my family and I got a table inside the beer hall and it was gorgeous! The ceiling was painted with vibrant colors and there was a band of seven playing Bavarian music. It was definitely different from the Hofbrauhaus in Pittsburgh, and it was so cool to see the original place! We ordered pretzels and some other traditional Bavarian food, and it was delicious. I’m so glad I got to experience that with my family!
The next day, my mom and grandma were off to a nearby city called Passau. I helped them find their train and they left around 12. I was by myself ready to explore the city! My favorite part of exploring Munich was seeing the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. It dances every day at 11am, 12pm, and 5pm. I saw it at 5pm, and it was honestly one of the silliest experiences I’ve had while being in Germany. The bells ran for I think 5 minutes before the statues started to dance, and during these five minutes I think the entire crowd was wondering if it was actually going to move. When it did everyone gasped, and it was hilarious. The movement of the statues was very interesting, and it told the story of what looked like a king and queen. Despite not knowing much about the history of Munich, it was really nice to see a part of its history today.
