A cathedral spire in Bonn. Photo (c) Resident on Earth

One Sunday morning last December, we awoke early to a light snow. I was amazed to see a white van pull up outside the apartment, and a few men jumped out with shovels (the mafia?? ha ha) to start shoveling the meager dusting of snow on the sidewalk, and before sunrise, no less. Let’s just say in the town I lived in before moving to Germany, it would dump snow and ice and no one would do anything. I used to joke that the town had one snow plow (for a city of 400,000 people) because you would never see them plowing the roads and every once in awhile you would just see one lone snowplow on the highway.

So what have I been doing since I arrived here three months ago? Well, for the first three weeks I really just allowed myself to get acclimatized to my new surroundings here in Bonn. I rode the strassenbahn around town, complained about the weather, went to a couple of Christmas markets, ate my first wurst and drank warm glühwein. Then I celebrated the holidays, Christmas here, and New Year’s in Paris.

Soon after the festivities ended it was time for me to start my internship which I was thankfully able to secure before arriving in Germany. I am now in the middle of a four month contract with the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). Interning here has really been a great experience, and opened up my eyes to how Germans do business. I have had the pleasure of working in two different departments doing completely different task and truly enjoy the work.