The first 48 hours in Berlin

20^th of Octomber 2010, I arrived in Tegel Airport (Lufthansa) at 9.00 a.m in the morning, Germany hour. All around me I heard German language and I understood that for that moment I am far far away from home. Lucky me, my boss, Kalle K. from ESNA Higer Education and News have been waiting for me in the airport. He is a really nice guy and he is helping me a lot here. After I took my luggage I bought a bus ticket and we went directly to the office. After one bus ride, two trains, some steps to claim and a nice walking one the street, we finally arrived in the office. I presented myself and Kalle started to laugh when I said: “Hi! My name is Bianca and I am from Romania”. I said to him: “I have to present myself. I just arrived.” After I took a seat and I opened my computer. I was tired, hungry and a bit lost because it’s the first time when I came in Berlin. I couldn’t see almost anything from this city but as I saw in the first day, they have a very good transport network. They have busses, trams, subway, trains and of course taxi. People are nice with each other, children are smiling to their parents, and the atmosphere is quite calm and nice. After 5 hours of staying at working and trying to understand what is going on in this news agency and what will be my work here, Kalle and me decided to go to my “one week home”: his apartment. This is Kopenick area. As I said he is a really nice man and he is helping me a lot. For the first time, I did not have to help the others; now I was me who was helped. I did not know how to react when we arrive home and he gave me the keys and said: “this week this will be your home”. I said wow thanks a lot. I repeat, it was the first time when I was helped so I did not know how to react and what exactly to say. After, we went to a shopping center and he helped me to buy a German phone number. I walked with him to the train station and after I came back to the shopping center to buy some food. Because I am not used to look in others person stuff, I found very hard the pillow and actually the bad. His apartment is really nice and interesting. He has a lot of space, big windows, books, movies, many flowers and old photo cameras. I really like his room because it has a strong personality compressed in it. So, the bed was somewhere up, quite hard to find it if you are not used with this. Because I was afraid to fall I decided to sleep on the couch. It was quite cold in the night but I did not care because I was really happy that I actually have a place to live.

21 of Octomber 2010, I wake up at 7 a.m. and in a big rush I made my rucksack for work, I ate something fast and I went to the train station where I met Kalle. We went together at the office to show me the road. There he gave me a task: to make the profile of my country on education field. I started to do that. At almost 11 or something, the other boss came in the office. He said after the breack we will have a meeting all together. We had the eating break between 12.30 and 1.30 p.m. After this, me, 2 others interns (one from Spain and one from Belgium) plus a German girl who is working in the office with us came back to work. We had the meeting with the boss and he scared me a bit. He is a very smart guy and he knows very well what he has to do. I honestly said to him that I don’t know almost anything about Public Relation and I came here to learn. But, by far this wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. So, I started to feel bad and I said to myself: “what I will do now? He will surely ask me to go home to make my luggage and leave. What I will do?” After the meeting, with a serious voice he said to me: “get dressed we go for a walk”. I said then: “This is the end. For sure he will ask me to leave. German people do not make jokes. They just work.” I went with him to drink a cappuccino in a bar and we spoke more. I asked him about this news agency and what will be my job here. He explained to me anything I needed to know and he said that we have a lot of work to do. We discus in a very serious way about how much time I can spend in the office and I said it would be great for me between 9 a.m to 4 p.m. He made a fast calculation and he said: “hmm 25 hours per week. Few. We have to decide about something more. At least 28-30 hours. I said to myself. What can be worst? I don’t have any apartment where I can stay all this 3 months, my buss is already upset on me because I am not as good as he thought in Public Relation, now I say I prefer to work only 25 hours per week. This is the end.” He said we will manage after but preferable it will be to work more in the office. I said it is ok for me. “I came here to learn and work so it is ok”. We came back to the office and I started to check my e-mails and messages. I left the office at half past 5. With the good help of the Spanish girl and Kalle I manage to go to the train station. I was sitting on the platform, looking around and thinking: “I feel lost. I have a lot of work to do. These guys are not joking. I should as faster as possible to manage to learn as much as I can about public relations.” In the train I started to write a message to my parents in which I was saying: ”It is hard here but you don’t worry. I will manage myself. It is about my career so I have to be strong. As long as I have a brain and a body which are working perfectly normal I have to manage everything.” And then I suddenly remembered what I have been saying to myself when I finished the first year of faculty: “If I haven’t been loving this job, I would have been giving up for a long time ago. It is hard to be well prepared for being a journalist. You need to work to study to know to do thing right. I have to fight for wining a good reputation here”. When I arrived in the Kopenick station, I went to the shopping center to buy some sweets and a bottle of wine. I came home, I put some frozen pizza in the oven, I drop in a glass some red wine and I sit on the couch to write this article. I really needed to have a some time to relax myself, to charge my batteries and to start thinking positive. Time is flying too fast sometimes. I would have been ok if I could study 4 years in the university and not only 3. I would have been in time with the preparation of my bachelor, I would have finished mostly all the internships I wanted to do. I would have more time to spend with my boyfriend who is actually treating me very nice because he is supporting me and he always says: ”it will be ok don’t worry. I trust you and I am with you in what you are doing.” My parents also support me and for this and all good this that happened to me this is I have to thanks God because He was and He is really kind to me. I am lucky to have such great parents and such nice boyfriend. Maybe I have to be more grateful for everything I receive: a scholarship in Norway for 5 months, some internships on TVR (Romanian national tv), Europe Fm (Romanian radio), Romania Senate, a job at National Geographic, a scholarship in Berlin for 3 months; and the most important facts: great people around me, great parents, great boyfriend, great boss in Berlin, health, power to work, determination. But the most important thing is: LIFE to live, see, hear, feel and enjoy everything around me. Life is such great gift for people but it is a pity that many times they don’t or refuse to see it. I am lucky and grateful for all good and bad things that happened to me because all my experiences made me the person I am today. I wish I could have an other life but as I have only one I think is more than necessary for enjoying living.