Sharing technology as well as culture.
The
internship was a valuable experience I am not sure I would choose to repeat.
The program was so poorly organized, I did not even know where, or for whom
I would be working. My first assignment was in the University's steel
construction department. I worked on a fatigue project, so to speak. I observed
and assisted in an experiment that was extremely boring. On the other hand,
it gave me the opportunity to learn a great deal of technical German.
In the second week of the intership I was tranferred to the Geotechnical
department. During this sixth and last week, I had the opportunity to take
in a wide range of projects. I spent two days in a lab, running tests. I also
spent a couple days travelling to Frankfurt and Mannheim to help in foundation
surveys and inspections.
The Geotech department was great fun. The people had a great sense of humour
and were really friendly. My supervisor took great joy in showing me around
the towns we travelled to, the department, and the experiments taking place.