We are now at the second to last week of the IIP Berlin Program, and I must say, it will be very sad to have to leave this place so soon. I have made some friends, seen lots of new places, and grown professionally.

Some highlight from this week are the Neues museum, where I got to see the famed bust of Nefertiti, which was, approximately as expected. Though, I was suprisied to see that see had some wrinkles, which I find to be a bit unusual. They had a great collection of sculpture, metallurgy, pottery, and other relics from ancient times. In particular, their collection of items from ancient Egypt is very impressive. In addition to this, I also hit up another flea market, did some shopping, and sang karaoke with some new friends.

Now as for my internship. I have so much still to do! I am hoping to get another article out this week, so its crunch time on that, and it’s a real shame that I only have two months in this program, because there is still so much I would have liked to achieve.

I believe that my host culture defines success likely the same way we do in the USA, though perhaps if the prompt for this week did not have the caveat “professionally”, I would not have presented this answer. As far as I can see, the expectation is roughly the same professionally, but for many Germans , success is established outside of work.

A successful or effective employee in my internship/industry is one which can communicate well. A lot of what I do is just relay information back and forth. Synthesizing, summarizing, analyzing..etc. Thus, it is important to be clear and concise with all relevant information, and be able to present big picture ideas in appealing ways.

In the USA, a successful employee is expected to work even outside of regular work hours, and be a real go-getter. We are praised for working hard, which is a virtue without a doubt, but it also leads to burn-out and other mental health issues. In Germany, it seems that employees are not expected to exchange their free time for professional success, though, I’m certain it still happens anyway.

Next week will be my last blog from Berlin. Bye bye!