Working Through a Language Barrier

I was lucky enough to get to see a division of my company, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR, German Aerospace Center), before I even started working in Bremen. While we were in Köln participating in our Intercultural Training course, we toured DLR Köln as our last activity before I departed. We got to see a lot of really cool things there, such as the European Astronaut Training Center and the DLR biological science facility. While we were learning about their project to land on an asteroid and collect material samples, we witnessed “Mission Control” live-chatting with one of the Astronauts aboard the International Space Station, which was really awesome! Having seen this branch of DLR, I was really excited to start my new job.

Hello from the ISS

I moved from Köln to Bremen on Tuesday. When I arrived, it was 10:00pm and dark. Since I don't have a permanent residence yet, I'm staying in a Backpacker Hostel that is approximately 6 km (3.5 miles) away from where I work. When I went to bed, I decided it would be a good way for me to see the city and get some exercise if I walked to work. Terrible decision! It was -5 Celsius, and for you non-engineers out there, that is about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Walking for an hour in that cold is not fun.

My first day of work in Germany went the same as a first day of work in the US would go. I had to fill out a lot of paperwork and promise not to give away any of DLR’s secrets. Filling out many of these forms is difficult because they are written in lawyer language, which nobody really understands. Now I was two layers out of the loop because these forms were written in German-law.

Jennifer, the project assistant for my department, took me around and introduced me to everyone. She helped me when they spook too quickly for me to comprehend what they were saying. She’s a very nice person and has been very helpful with the many issues I’ve had surrounding my living situation and paperwork. While going through the introductions, I met all of the other interns and grad students working through DLR. They are awesome and invited me to go to lunch with them! It was a great blessing to have them helping me because I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do for lunch.

One of the other interns, Matheus, is from Brazil and speaks about as much German as me. I have a feeling he and I will bond very quickly. One of the grad students, Thimo, was born and raised in Bremen. Two people with very different backgrounds, yet both are incredibly nice and helpful people. We may try to go to the Werder Bremen soccer game this weekend. It will be the game to kick off the second half of the season. I guess we’ll just wait and see what happens.

"Long Live Green and White"

Working is pretty exhausting because many of the conversations are in German and take a lot of focus and energy. Then, I have to read technical papers on redundant inertial measurement unit (IMU) systems to identify the appropriate geometry and application as a navigational device. My project will be incorporated into DLR's SHEFEX project. That also takes a lot of focus and energy. By the time the day is over, I am just about cashed out. It doesn’t help that I have been getting into work as the sun is rising and leaving after the sun sets. I’m looking forward to the weekend and getting to see Bremen in the daylight. Many people have told me that Bremen is a beautiful city with a lot of history.

Other than that, I had a very good experience setting up my bank account today. The entire conversation was in German! Granted, the banker spoke slowly and used many hand gestures to get his point across, but I was excited to have carried on the entire conversation in German with him. Things are coming together piece by piece. My biggest concern is not having a permanent place to live yet, but I’m keeping my spirits high for the moment.

Many exciting developments on the way. I’ll keep you up-to-date with everything, and hopefully I will have pictures of the city and a soccer game up after the weekend!