Just got back from a meeting with the IT folks and I was surprised. No its not the pleasent kind that results in joy and laughter. Its the kind that makes you go 'oh wow, now I have no *insert expletive* idea what to do.' Long story short, they have pushed back the launch of the intranet to October which means the project is pushed out of my time frame in Germany, which probably means:
1) the boredom will be back to stay
2) they will assign me new busy work (i.e. more stuff to organize & papers to file which begs the question how are Germans NOT organized?)
3) I will try to accomplish as much as I can via offline template in constructing what hopes to be the intranet web representation that will be used by not only the team I work for, but all the product teams aka semi glorious victory!
4) my boss is irritated at IT so much so that he screams 'the sight of you reminds me how incompetent IT is, gtfo!' and lets me go on permanent vacation!
Ready for the worst (not really), hoping for the best and settling somewhere in the middle...
At least the weekend is coming! (I know its Tuesday)
cliff notes: work is now in question
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
QIAfestival 2009!
Not as exciting as it sounds, but it was a good chance to continue 'team bonding' in a Bavarian themed company party (will add pics). Had chicken!!! for dinner along with other not so tastful things. Pretzels were good and the Weiß beer was delish for the 2nd time, cementing Weiß beer as my favorite beer! Some people chose to dress as traditional Barvarians which means tight leather pants or overalls for guys and country cooking farm dresses for the ladies. Of course my co-workers did enjoy some dresses which is ok to me, but not when the girl looks like she is 14...
I digress, there was rock climbing and foosball and other activities, so it was not all boring although there was a live folk music band and that was NOT music in any sense of the word. Germany is certainly not known for its music.
And on Saturday the 27th, Philippe, the other intern from Montreal who just arrived and his mom invited me to go to the city. Of course I accepted and of course it RAINED. The weather here is far worse than the DMV, so we ended up going to a muesum of modern art, which by all standards was weird at best. Modern art is quite simply terrible. Then we headed to the posh media district to eat at a french restaurant (P & his mom are French Canadians) called Roberto's Bistro. It was NOT fancy, apparently it is a typical French restaurant which means the waiters are rude to you, often ignore you and certainly do not care for the customer. A shocking experience for sure, but the food was cooked absurdly well (most tender salmon I've ever eaten). The portions were large and with food like Calf head and thymus or other internals of a cow, I felt like I was in China. And I still do not eat that stuff. It was also nice to ride in a car btw. Philippe's mom can drive manual which is awesome!!! Sunday was spent sleeping in and planning for the futuro.
So I asked for more work & I was rewarded with organizing documents and filing papers...at least it didnt take long & thats the weekend update!
cliff notes: fun with coworkers & Philippe & his mom over the weekend
I digress, there was rock climbing and foosball and other activities, so it was not all boring although there was a live folk music band and that was NOT music in any sense of the word. Germany is certainly not known for its music.
And on Saturday the 27th, Philippe, the other intern from Montreal who just arrived and his mom invited me to go to the city. Of course I accepted and of course it RAINED. The weather here is far worse than the DMV, so we ended up going to a muesum of modern art, which by all standards was weird at best. Modern art is quite simply terrible. Then we headed to the posh media district to eat at a french restaurant (P & his mom are French Canadians) called Roberto's Bistro. It was NOT fancy, apparently it is a typical French restaurant which means the waiters are rude to you, often ignore you and certainly do not care for the customer. A shocking experience for sure, but the food was cooked absurdly well (most tender salmon I've ever eaten). The portions were large and with food like Calf head and thymus or other internals of a cow, I felt like I was in China. And I still do not eat that stuff. It was also nice to ride in a car btw. Philippe's mom can drive manual which is awesome!!! Sunday was spent sleeping in and planning for the futuro.
So I asked for more work & I was rewarded with organizing documents and filing papers...at least it didnt take long & thats the weekend update!
cliff notes: fun with coworkers & Philippe & his mom over the weekend
Thursday, June 25, 2009
team building with coworkers = best time so far
Could just be the alcohol, but for once the people behind the professionalism and seriousness, are fun, open and hospitable. Thibault and Elisa have been especially exceptional. While this may be a little bit emotional, but I am truly thankful for their 'friendship' or openness. It moves me (it definitely is the alcohol), but I think I know a good thing when it comes. Opportunity must not pass me by. Thank you. To all of my friends as well for keeping the boredom at bay.
cliff notes: alcohol makes me emotional
cliff notes: alcohol makes me emotional
Currently At Work
And my boss is not around for the second day in a row...which means I get to do nothing because his email response is 'out of office.' So the question is how can I be more productive at work? Do they really want me to work on something other than the assigned task. Something about 'you have no set schedule' makes me feel that I really should just enjoy...my office? which is eerily similar to Hilden/Haan...
I certainly cannot control the timeframes for the intranet web launch, so I will need to think.
But in the meantime, I have always wondered what the people do here at work that could occupy their time for 8+ hours each day. Many of them, at least the two people in the office across from my own are often staring out the window. They too are in a state of wonderment (i.e. how can I work more?) or in a state of contentment (i.e. welcome to the good life aka no work!). It could be that Europeans apply the whole 'enjoy life' attitude toward work, but in Germany? the land of ultra efficient robot workers? That may be a misconception, but somewhere along in the easy going lifestyle comes the worlds 3rd or 4th largest economy. Or perhaps its just the marketing department, having their budgets slashed due to the economic downturn. Whatever the case, my lack of recent productivity has certainly got me thinking a little and lazy a lot!
But the best part about the marketing department is, how truly difficult can work be if all that must be done is communicating with various people and working on presentations? Of course, I am not working in true marketing, but it does seem like a great job to have!
cliff notes: boredom strikes, it got me thinking, marketing could be the good life
I certainly cannot control the timeframes for the intranet web launch, so I will need to think.
But in the meantime, I have always wondered what the people do here at work that could occupy their time for 8+ hours each day. Many of them, at least the two people in the office across from my own are often staring out the window. They too are in a state of wonderment (i.e. how can I work more?) or in a state of contentment (i.e. welcome to the good life aka no work!). It could be that Europeans apply the whole 'enjoy life' attitude toward work, but in Germany? the land of ultra efficient robot workers? That may be a misconception, but somewhere along in the easy going lifestyle comes the worlds 3rd or 4th largest economy. Or perhaps its just the marketing department, having their budgets slashed due to the economic downturn. Whatever the case, my lack of recent productivity has certainly got me thinking a little and lazy a lot!
But the best part about the marketing department is, how truly difficult can work be if all that must be done is communicating with various people and working on presentations? Of course, I am not working in true marketing, but it does seem like a great job to have!
cliff notes: boredom strikes, it got me thinking, marketing could be the good life
Thursday, June 4, 2009
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