First Day on the Job!

Whew, what an exhausting first day! While five hours of work doesn’t seem like a lot, especially with a 2 hour lunch break to split up the time, it certainly has taken a toll on me. Attempting to understand the German that the 5 people that I will be working with for the next year spoke to me today was a job and a half! I asked them to speak mostly German to me because I DEFINITELY want to be fluent by the time I leave. The few moments that they spoke English, though, was like a breath of fresh air. At this moment in time, it feels like I will never catch on, but I will; I have to!

Today’s tasks included getting some paperwork out of the way to get my visa. I also got the Praktikant’s emails forwarded to my Valpo email address so I could answer any questions that get sent my way. Brigette helped me most with my visa paperwork. She is a kind, older woman who seems to know everything!
Karin seemed to be in charge of me more-so than the others. She started having me do tasks today amidst the paperwork. It was kind of funny, because I would begin a task and if I had a question, I would sit there, stare at the wall or my computer, and try to figure out how my question would sound best in German. The thought process, one that I am sure will come more naturally in a few months, was a slow one.
 
My first task, besides paperwork, was to fix a formatting problem on a Microsoft Word document. Not too terribly difficult, despite the drop down menus all being in German. It was a lot of trial and error kind of work, going off of what I know about my English Microsoft Word.
 
The second task was using Microsoft Mail Merge to flow names of future students into a letter to prove that they are indeed going to be students starting in October. Over 100 international students have signed up for an intensive German class beginning in September, so these students need this letter to get their semester bus pass, among other things. Thank GOD for the Intern Handbook, because I don’t know how the Mail Merge process would have gone without the step-by-step instructions included in said handbook. In a month or two I probably could have figured it out, having used Mail Merge in the US, but on my first day at my new internship with the computer set in a language that is non-native to me? Probably not.
 
I was unaware that I had a nice two hour break in the middle of my day, so when Karin told me that I could go for Mittagspause (lunch break) and that I needed to be back by 2 p.m., I was shocked and grateful! It was wonderful having that little break to take a quick nap and eat some food. I lost track of time at the end of my day, as well, and ended up leaving the office about a half hour later than I should. As I’m not on a time card, it’s not a big deal, but I will be checking the time more regularly tomorrow. J

For dinner tonight, I was really feeling some comfort food. I googled comfort food recipes and ended up choosing a home-made mac n cheese recommended by Oprah. It was worth spending 7 Euros on cheese at the Penny Markt!

Yum, baked homemade mac n cheese!



Another relaxing evening was in store for me. Or so I had hoped. I received an email from Sallie Mae today congratulating me on my graduation. This confused me, as they had deferred my loans until December of 2014 the last I had checked. From what I understood, if I was re-enrolled at the university, the university would let Sallie Mae know about my re-enrollment and it would either be taken care of (more likely) or I would have to file for a deferral myself. As all the “begin payment” dates were in December of 2014, I thought all was well - apparently not.

I got ahold of a real jerk at Sallie Mae named John and he, very unkindly I might add, informed me that I probably wouldn’t be approved for a deferral based on my credit load (which is technically .5 credit hours per semester, BUT I am also working AT LEAST 20 hours per week in an internship and that doesn’t include the time I’ll be putting in on the weekends). No matter that I was assured by the woman who is in charge of this program that deferment has been granted for every other intern in the past. No matter that I’ll be taking a class through Reutlingen Hochschule for each semester that I am here. He didn’t care to hear what I had to say. He was snippy, rude, and overall not a very good customer service representative!

As I am overseas, my poor, wonderful mother is now calling professors, the registrar’s office, and the financial aid office for me to try to figure out what the heck is going on and how to fix it. God bless her soul. I’m now hoping that everything will be figured out in a timely manner.

Overall, an interesting day! I had some good moments and some bad moments, and all of that has led me to be truly exhausted by 11 p.m.!

Here's to hoping my jet lag is mostly gone by tomorrow and that I’ll be ready to face another day.