Berlin Rocks!

Berlin – what an awesome city! Finally saw Vishal after 2.5 years since we graduated. Also met his Swedish housemate, Lars who welcomed me into his home and was good entertainment value.

The weekend was full of spontaneous random singing, bollywood dancing/twisting (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8JHzPzARNc) , punches and arms wrestles - for once, I actually may not have been the craziest person in the vicinity.

The Berlin Linier Bus was 43 euro return. The bus took about 3.5 hrs, which is longer than the Ice train but is a lot cheaper. I sat up top on the double decker bus and I’m sure I could feel it swaying from side to side on the Autobahn. There were cars passing us quite quickly so they must have really been gunning it.

On Saturday we rented bikes and saw the sites - the old buildings, parks, checkpoint Charlie and what was left of the Berlin wall. Also saw some nice display cars including a Ferarri and Bugati Veyron.

It was the first time I had ridden a bike in at least 15 years. The weather was great and I had an absolute blast - it is days like these that really make the hard days worth the struggle.

Every so often I got a whiff of sewerage, which was absolutely horrible. Also I noticed the requirement to pay to go to the toilet at most public places (also the same in Hamburg) – even at McDonalds! I’ve seen it cost anywhere between 30 cents and 1 euro, so it really depends on how desperate I am – the most I’ve paid is 80 cents.

It was a real struggle on Monday! I was supposed to go on training courses for the next 2 weeks for Airbus Catia Methods and Primes (PDM system), but they were cancelled due to lack of participants. The next English courses are not until end of August so it might be awhile before I am productive at work.

Last Wednesday we had the equivalent of ‘Beer on the Balcony’. It was held at the Veritas Beach club next door which is literally a beach club with sand, deck chairs and beach volleyball. It was a shame the weather wasn’t great but we still managed to have a good time in the undercover areas. It was interesting talking to colleagues who are not based in my office and finding out that more than 2 job descriptions, other than cad or stress monkey exist.

That’s all for now – more pics on facebook:

Berlin: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=130237&id=782988985&l=a93e08400b

Hamburg: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=130246&id=782988985&l=d1919449b7

Viel Spaß.

Passed the Catia Test!

I passed my Catia validation test! I was a bit worried mid last week that I would get deported if I didn’t pass. I have been struggling with multi-sections add and remove. I didn’t need to use these in the test but I did a few dumb things like omit part of the assembly and interpret the drawing strangely, therefore making my 3d model more complicated than it actually was - but I am glad it’s over. There were 8 of us and 6 passed - same as the pass mark in the test.

The office is getting quieter. Randy has gone to the Airbus site in Bahrenfield, which is apparently where the rest of the A350 team is. There are only about 20 people in the Harburg-Rathaus office, one team of Indians and another team of Germans. After I finish the Airbus training I will probably be based at the Airbus site too.

I am used to the walking now. I found another way to/from the station that is quieter so I don’t have to deal with all the people and pushbikes if I don’t feel like it. There are so many people on pushbikes - I guess it’s easier and cheaper than driving, and a lot of paths have a dedicated redbrick lane for bikes. I saw one woman with 2 kids in front of her – I thought they only did that in India! I often see guys with just a 6-pack of beer after a visit to Aldi. Also helmets are not compulsory here so you don’t have to worry about sweating in the helmet and messing up your hair. I think I might get a pushbike too :)

I see a lot of nice BMWs, VWs, Mercedes and Audi’s mounting kerbs in the narrow streets on the way home. It's pretty common to see a smart car like Matilda's squeezed in perpendicularly between the 'normal sized' parallel parked cars. There’s also the odd Ford, Mazda and Toyota. I might have to do a written and driving test to get a German license soon as my Aussie license is only valid for 6 months. I can’t wait to go driving on the Autobahn!

The pedestrian lights at traffic intersections show either 2 red men or 1 green man – I guess they just use the same covers as the traffic lights but I wonder why there are 2 red men and not 2 green men or 1 red, 1 orange and 1 green man. There is no flashing red man so I don’t know if I can quickly make it across or not. I rarely see people jaywalk so I try not to do it either.

I bought some shoes on Saturday – made in Italy and half price at 30 euro. I thought it was a pretty good find, though not as good as Krystle’s $2.50 pair of shoes – so what if they’re bright green! I am still struggling with the German language barrier. I said ‘Sprechen Sie Englisch?’ to the store helper and she said yes and then I asked for shoes in a different size but she came back with the same size so I quietly found another helper.

Not knowing German makes me even more curious when I look at signs and advertisements because I like looking at how products are advertised. I worked out Effenberger is a bakery from another sign but still wonder why is a garden growing on the girl/guy’s head, why is Marilyn Monroe in a low cut dress advertising the German paper and why is there a condom on a strawberry? Some things just aren’t in my translator.

The voice on the train sounds like the Connex guy. At every station he announces whether to exit the train links or recht (left or right). I pass over the river every day and there’s always a guy standing on a small round platform in the middle of no where – I had to look a few times to convince myself that he wasn’t real. The trains are pretty clean - there’s a small rectangle bin between each set of chairs that looks like a mini aluminium table and opens like an aeroplane tray table. Sometimes I see people zig-zag across the carriage, looking in every bin for plastic bottles that can be turned in for money.

I must be starting to blend in – I’ve had people ask me in German what I interpreted as ‘Is the S-Bahn downstairs?’ and ‘Is this train going to Harburg?’ I mean when I have a question I’ll ask someone that at least looks German – not some Asian girl. I don’t talk much enroute to/from destinations but as soon as I do, everyone knows I’m strange. If I accidentally bump into someone my natural reaction is to say sorry, not entschuldigung. People ask me ‘Where are you from?’ or ‘Are you from China or Japan?’ No one even guesses Australia based on the accent, they just get really confused when they look at me.

I’ve been out to eat a few times but I can’t read the menu. On Friday we went to a wine festival after watching Transformers (in English!). Randy’s German/Spanish friend ordered something – and Randy put up 2 fingers and I put up 3 fingers and to make it 3 of the same. It turned out to be quite a nice piece of pork.

The weather has been quite nice and sunny. I have been sitting near a huge open window so it almost feels like I’m working outside. Some days have been quite hot (feels around 25 degrees) but there are no air-conditioners here – none at work, the apartment, trains, stores, cinemas, anywhere! It has been mostly bearable inside with the windows open but the trains have been particularly bad.

It started raining last night but it looks fine now - hopefully the weather stays good so we can have a few drinks outside tonight.

Guten Abend!

First Week...

I made it through my first week of work - well not that I’m actually doing any work! I have been finding my way around Hamburg to get a tax card, health insurance, bank account etc. I have also been practising doing 3d models and drawings in Catia V5 for a validation test early next week. The practise models are a little bit trickier than the simpler brackets I’m use to, and the features have to be modelled in a certain order to get full marks. The validation test is a requirement to start about a month of Airbus training. I probably won’t finish the training until end of August because they thankfully decided to book me into the training courses run in English.

Every so often I hear this loud siren – like the bombs are coming and we should go hide in the underground bunker. I’m told this is just a nearby company’s signal for their workers to go on break – not funny!

There’s a very small kitchen and basic coffee machine - I haven’t got a mug so no moyling so far. Also I haven’t been able to find any hot chocolate powder – might have to go next door to Belgium. There’s free bottled water though :)

I received my EC (Eurocard) from Deutsche Bank in the mail with my telefon and online banking pins. I think I also got paid – now I just have to figure out what my ATM pin is. All my mail is in German so I’ll have to ask Joel to translate. It is a bit frustrating not knowing the language but I am getting by. Work said they would put me into a German course when it starts.

The batch of pasta I made will last another week. In the states I was making pasta about once a fortnight and freezing half of it, which was lunch on weekdays. Towards the end I almost got sick of eating pasta – almost! I managed to crack 2 plates already - I guess that’s not as bad as burning 2 pots whilst boiling water like I did in the states.

For breakfast I’ve been eating fruit muesli and toast with jam or eggs – I really like the muesli. Lunch on the weekend has been frozen baguettes or sausages. Dinner is usually mixed vegetables from a frozen bag and frozen steak or fish. I think A Current Affair said frozen vegetables are as good if not better than fresh because all the nutrients are snap frozen – I hope that’s also true for meat.

I found a snail about the size of a 5 cent coin in my frozen vegetables – now I know the French eat snails but I didn’t know Germans eat them too! I almost burnt dinner one night because I think the instructions said put it in the oven for 45 mins at 225 degrees – the broccoli based sauce on top started burning so I ended up scraping it off and frying the fish instead. Luckily there are no smoke alarms to set off.

The first time I tried to open the window was quite scary - they open like a door on one setting, and in another only the top opens like it’s falling on top of you. There are no fly screens because I’m told there aren’t many flies here – I guess it’s true as I haven’t seen any but I did see eins or zwei (one or two) other smaller bugs flying around. My windows face east and I don’t have any curtains - sometimes it is still light outside when I go to sleep and the sun also wakes me up early in the morning.

I’m still hand washing my clothes – it’s easier for me to do a bit each day as I didn’t bring that many. Socks are particularly difficult as I really have to scrub them – I’m considering waiting till the end of the week and washing them in the machine or treating them like consumables and just throw them out like someone I know. Just to clarify, it’s not my first time washing clothes out of home – the first time I actually put my clothes in the dryer with powder and only realised after I had started it because it didn’t sound like a washing machine.

I went to the Fischmarkt on Saturday but it closes early and I only got there at midday – will have to try again next week. I ended up catching the ferry across to Airbus and then the bus as I thought I’d get to see the Airbus runway. Unfortunately I only saw a lot of bushland where the runway should be. Before I knew it, we were on the freeway with signs pointing to Breman. We went into an underwater tunnel then somehow ended up close to where I live so I got out and walked home. There are maps of the city at most bus, ferry and train stations, including street references which has helped a lot.

On Saturday there was some sort of Bike/Harley-Davidson festival at the Reeperbahn. The place was packed with people lining the roadside and median strips to see the bikes ride by. There were also many leather clad bikies and their bikes parked everywhere. There is an open area with tables and live music that is really nice. The Astra beer is 2.50 euro and cocktails, 5 euro. I haven’t seen any trouble or fights there but I guess it helps that there is a polizei station nearby.

Tschüss!

First Impressions of Hamburg

Well here I am in Hamburg! Damn it is a really long way from Melbourne – over 27 hrs including stopovers in Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam. I requested aisle seats but only got one for the first 8 hour leg, and then window seats the next 2 legs of 12 hrs and 1.5 hours. I hate window seats on long legs because I like going to the toilet, getting drinks and walking around when I feel like it instead of holding on when the two people next to me are asleep. Also when they woke up they didn’t even get out of their seats and I barely managed to keep my ass from touching them as I squeezed past.

For someone that only recently found out Amsterdam was in the Netherlands, I thought the airport was pretty impressive - lots of sky blue aircraft as the nation’s carrier, KLM dominated.

Coming into Hamburg, we flew from west to east, south of the river. I spotted the Airbus Runway – now that was cool. I also noticed the older looking buildings and the high number of brown/white apartment blocks.

I made it out of the airport, saw the S train symbol but still didn’t know where to go. The bus driver didn’t speak English but pointed towards and elevator and made a downward hand motion. Choosing a ticket was difficult – even in English! There were so many types, I’m pretty sure I got the wrong one.

I was expecting everyone to look like Burger (pb) and Claudia Schiffer but there are actually a higher number of brown haired Germans. Though one of my managers looks like a shorter version of Burger, right down to the hair style! Asians are rare and more often seen near Asian take away stores.

A few weeks ago I knew only 2 german words, danke and Guten Morgen (thanks to the coffee club). It helps that some words are very similar to English – Hallo, Adresse, Halt, Familie, Waschen to name a few. The most useful phase for me has been Sprechen Sie Englisch? Most people speak a little English as it is taught in Primary school. Randy and I were out the other night and some Canadians asked him if he could speak English – he must be starting to look German. Someone also said ‘Share Share’ to me (thank you in Manderin).

There’s an Aldi store about two short blocks from the apartment. Going shopping in a new country is always an interesting experience – I like to see what same brands they have as back home and also the country specific brands. Mostly I just choose items by whatever is cheapest but it is particularly challenging as everything is in German! I bought what I thought was glad wrap but it turned out to be plastic bags - and toilet paper turned out to be paper hand towels. Luckily the paper hand towels aren’t too rough.

Credit cards – accepted all over the world, except Germany! All my credit cards are useless. I don’t like carrying cash and will probably get an EC (debit) card soon. I went to the fruit store and handed over 20 euros as I didn’t know the amount the cashier wanted and she handed me back 16 euros. A similar thing happened at the Internet café – I’ll have to find out how to count money soon. It doesn’t help that the gold coins are 10, 20, 50 cents and the silver coins are 1 or 2 dollars, with the 1 dollar smaller than the 2 dollars (opposite to aussie money). They also still use 1 and 2 cent coins here.

Randy and I live pretty close to Altona station. Randy is still living in Altona half way across the world. My apartment is on the top (7th) floor and has views of the Hamburg TV tower and glimpses of the red trains. I also saw the Airbus aircraft with the oversized head fly by – very cool. The couch turns into the bed and I have a kitchen with stove – but really missing a microwave.

There are 2 English or rather American channels here, MTV and CNN. There’s been a lot on the situation in Iran on CNN. Rock of Love was on MTV last night, it reminded me of when I was in the states watching similar reality rubbish shows – well there’s always Eurosport. They also get a lot of good American movies dubbed in German – too bad there’s no English subtitles. I watched Simpsons in German; Homer sounds awful, but Lisa sounds like her American self.

I managed to cook pasta – it tastes a bit funny but I think I’m going to be ok here. I’m not sure if the wooden circles are heat mats or chopping boards or both. I tried to wash clothes and couldn’t work out why the machine wouldn’t start – the instructions were in German. I ended up taking out all my clothes and hand washing them in my bathtub. I went back down to the basement to use the dryer and found the washing machine going with just water sloshing around. I think I must have set some sort of timer on it so I hope I’ll have better luck next time. The dryer took forever – instructions in German but I worked out that I didn’t set it on the highest temperature the first time. They still wouldn’t dry the second time so I took my damp clothes and put them on a fold out clothes line instead.

Joel lives in the Reeperbahn, the red light district of Hamburg with many strip clubs and sex stores. Convenient? Hmm…! We were out about 8pm on a Wednesday night and Joel said they should be out by now – we turned the corner and yep he was right. There were so many – some scantily clad but others quite normal looking in jeans and a jacket except with heavy makeup. There is also a section where women who are not working girls are not allowed. It was quite sad to see so many women, some quite pretty approaching all these old men. We saw 4 girls standing half a meter apart and one by one they approached this old guy in front of us who was just walking past. Strangely, Randy and Joel said that they have never been approached – draw your own conclusions as to why.

Went to work on Thursday – managed to find the place after being disoriented coming out of the station, which always happens to me. It is like choose your own adventure path – you get off the train and choose the left or right exit, then you go up escalators, walk a bit and find several more exits. Most of the train stations are underground and look like they are straight out of a hollywood movie.

The work environment is nice as there are huge windows with lots of natural light. The desks are set up like primary school, with 2 pairs of people facing each other. There’s a window spot next to Joel, opposite Randy free so I hope I’ll be sitting there. Randy showed me some A350 models in Catia which looked really cool. I got an Altran Technologies showbag including an Altran pen, lanyard, notepad, stickynotes and tic tacs – now I just have to work out how to score a mug!

I missed the train coming home from work and had to wait a whole 3 minutes for the next one. The longest I’ve had to wait for a train is 5 mins – this was at 4am. They have 24 hour trains in the main train network! I feel pretty safe on public transport and walking the streets – it helps that it’s almost summer and it doesn’t get dark till 10.30pm.

We went to the Hurricane music festival on Friday – a yearly occurrence similar to the Big Day Out (not sure as I’ve never been to the Big Day Out!). There were tons of people, most of them carrying 1 litre juice cartons which they had taped up to carry across their shoulder like a side bag. We stood for a good part of 12 hours watching bands like Ting Tings, Katy Perry, Duffy and Kings of Leon. It took awhile for me to register who most of these bands were as I only recognised their signature songs. Joel and Baldy stayed for all 3 days but I was done after one day.

My legs have been really sore from all the walking/standing. I’m use to walking from my room down to the garage and from the garage at work, up two flights of stairs to my desk. It’s just over 5 mins from my apartment to the station and about the same from the station to work. The route to/from my apartment to the station is like walking down Bourke St Mall. This weekend it was packed as there was some sort of festival – many tent stores and even a mini Ferris wheel set up.


The weather is similar to Melbourne spring – sometimes sunny, sometimes raining, sometimes sunny and raining at the same time – all in one day! I hear there will be 2 weeks of really hot 40 degree weather sometime in the next few months.

So far, so good. I think I like it here :)