This week has been full of adventures. After getting over my heat exhaustion from my favorite weekend trip so far, it was time to go back to exploring Berlin. I went to the Samurai museum, which honestly was not my favorite. From the reviews I thought it was going to be more interactive than it was. It was cool to see the samurai stuff, but everything just felt like giant text after giant text.

However the day after was great. I decided to go to the Spy Museum. It was really fun. We got to try Morse code, learn about different spies throughout history, locate listening devices, and of course my favorite, the laser maze. Now did I fail miserably at the laser maze? Yes, absolutely, but it was still really fun. Of course my shoulder had to hit it at the last minute, but it is okay. I also got a really good strawberry vanilla milkshake from Espresso House. 10/10 would recommend. And yes, my coffee shop adventures are still continuing, but I figured if I mention every time I had a chai latte in Europe it would get boring. Then I went light souvenir shopping, aka I got a shirt and I got my dad a shirt, so that is definite progress on that front, just like 6 family members left to go.

So, I have a German minor. Am I great at German? No. But I thought, let’s fully immerse myself in it. So I went to see Cabaret in Berlin. I have never seen the play before, but I was really proud when I understood most of it and got the main meaning of the musical with zero English involved. It was really interesting. We had really good seats and it was opening night. I definitely need to go to more musicals. I did not know how much I like them.

Then it was another adventure this week, Prague. Prague was good. It was fun. Okay so here is the thing, I do not think Prague was ever going to live up to Budapest from last week, so it was good. It reminded me a bit of Poznan in a way, and I guess I thought it was going to feel more different. They have a huge going out scene, but it was not really my vibe personally, so I just vibed at the major sites and went on a boat cruise with some other people on the trip. Day 2 of Prague was shopping, looking at vintage stores, which were really expensive, so I got nothing. But we did go to McDonald’s and had the special Prague menu like cheese and truffle fries. Amazing. Raspberry and ricotta pie. Amazing. I also got some candy at a candy store, my favorite was the gummy snake. After that it was a chill and relaxing rainy day. Also shoutout to not taking a FlixBus in the foreseeable future. Nothing against them, buses are just my least favorite form of transportation.

Also work has been picking up a little bit this week. My boss really liked the dashboard I made and wants me to make a version for 2027, which I am so glad she likes. I also am going to record a video so people can listen to it in the future for my presentation explaining the payroll system. I was also able to sit in on a couple of meetings and learn more about the negotiation side of HR, which was cool to see in the process.

Regarding the communication differences, Germany is generally more low context, similar to the US, meaning communication tends to be more direct, explicit, and less reliant on reading between the lines. In my work environment, this is mostly true as well, but it feels very relaxed and informal day to day, especially since many of my coworkers are international and the workplace culture is casual. Because of that, I have not really experienced any major communication issues, since people tend to communicate pretty clearly and openly.

One difference I have noticed is that when people ask how you are, they actually seem interested in hearing the real answer instead of it just being a greeting. In the US, asking how someone is often feels like another way of saying hello, and most people just respond with fine and move on. Here, people seem more willing to actually talk about how they are doing, which makes conversations feel a little more genuine.