January 5th: Germany is quite . . . German

Today was a day that just kept on getting better. That being said it started off quite poorly. I had trouble getting to bed last night and my lack of alarm clock at the moment kept my sleep light, as I had to get up at 8am in order to have time to get ready for work, I was meant to be there between 9 and 10.

I got up at 20 to nine, jumped in the shower and headed out the door. After my tiny banana breakfast I was at the bus stop just after the first bus that I should of caught left. The next bus decided not to show up so I headed up the bus line to the main depot and caught a bus at 9:40. For some reason the bus stopped about 15min from the depot at a station in “downtown” Lintorf and I thought that the driver waived us off and onto the bus in front of us because the suspension was making a strange grinding noise. Turns out that no I was meant to stay on the bus, the two busses headed off. 40min later I caught a bus and was on my way to work.

I showed up at Dynetek Europe and one of the friendly factory workers pointed me to the office. I met my new boss Rowan, a very nice German fellow, who showed me around the factory and the office. All the people that I met were among the friendliest of all the engineers that I have worked with. There was however one little surprise at work, it turns out that everyone speaks German as their first language at work here! This means that most documents and all machinery is labeled in German, yikes. I figured out that my first job is going to be to establish a systems assembly and testing facility and optimize the workflow of the place. This is going to be a challenging job due to the language barrier but I think that I can make the most of it.
I bought groceries in German after work, I was very proud of myself. I then made it halfway through my donor order before switching to English, damn. I still need to figure out how to ask to eat in the restaurant as opposed to taking it out. I am now at home and about to enjoy some Jagermeister. Today just keeps on getting better.