Palm Sunday

Today is the beginning of Holy Week, and I don’t think it could have started much better for me. Let me first get the blog caught up on yesterday’s events.

It was to be a cooler weekend (it has been in the mid-fifties), so I decided, on recommendation by friends and co-workers, to visit the Deutsches Museum. It was below freezing in the morning, so after a 30 minute bike ride to the Innenstadt, I could not feel my hands! I guess I should have checked the weather. Unfortunately this would have been hard to do since my internet has not been working all weekend (I update this now from a local Starbucks). In any case, I first visited St. Anne for mass. The church was located near a monastery on the river and it had a gorgeous clock tower under its steeple. It reminded me of home, where our church in St. Henry also has a clock face.

After mass, I made it to the museum with the rest of a large crowd waiting at its front doors. It opened at nine… and people were anxious to get in! I found out why later in the day. I spent perhaps six hours, nonstop, absorbing as much of the museum as possible. It was the premiere science and technology museum in all of Germany. They literally had TONS of exhibits. I have never seen so many artifacts, displays, and hands-on gadgets. Full size planes and boats, machines of antiquity, pottery, toys, instruments, trains, cameras, televisions, encryption machines, telescopes, microscopes, watches, farming equipment, computers, models of breweries, scenes of history, micro-technology, machines of the future, windmills, motors, water mills, and even an observatory on the roof… this place was loaded with stuff to explore!

As I climbed to the higher floors, the crowds became less and the noise subsided. I think most people get burnt out before reaching the last of the exhibits. I am like a sponge at museums, and even I was getting worn out! If you are a museum buff, you NEED to check this place out. Conveniently, they had English subtexts for most of the exhibits. Some of the later ones did not include this text. In fact, many of the exhibits and exhibit halls in the upper floors were under construction. Hundreds of exhibits were recently shipped in, and it looks like the place is constantly growing and being updated. I think the most interesting exhibit was their special display exhibit on the 1950’s. It’s funny to see so many of the “hot” items of the day came from the USA during that period. Jukeboxes, diners, and the latest in cooking household technology all resembled the period as we know it in the USA.

After exploring the Museum, I found a book store and picked up a couple of essentials for this week. On recommendation I found a good German bible and a good German dictionary (really more of a thesaurus). These will be very useful for helping me with the language too. I’m learning more and more words each day.

That would catch us up to today…

I went to mass this morning for Palm Sunday and was met with one of the parishioners I met last week. She had told me last week that she would find out where I could find a Missal for the order of the mass in German. She sat down next to me this morning with a big smile and handed me a brand new book that translated the mass and basic prayers in SIX different languages… including English, German, Italian, and Latin. She called it an early Easter gift. How nice was that?? I couldn’t quite express enough in my broken German how much that meant to me… especially since I would need it for the Italian masses this week while in Rome! How coincidental? …or not. That made my weekend and I was very touched by the kindness of the elderly lady.

After mass, I got caught up on some assignment from home and UC before lunch. Mainly today has consisted of two of my favorite things to do… and I haven’t done them in perhaps MONTHS… I did some reading (as in a novel… NOT a text book), and I went on a run! Both were amazing. On the run, I had to laugh at some of the things I saw in the park. My favorites were the two boys fighting with sticks and the old men nearby playing chess and cards at small tables under some shady trees. That is what Sundays are made for! Everything is closed. There’s no work. Why not go to the park?

Like I said before, this has been a great start to the week, and I anticipate the week will be one I remember for a while. Three days until Rome!

Getting into the Professional Practice

This week things began to pick up a little in the department. I’ll perhaps give a little insight as to what I actually am doing in this department. Here is the step by step of what I have seen so far…

• We get a car or motorcycle (or a piece of either).
• We place sensors (called accelerometers) on the cars. See picture below.

• We double and triple check that the mass of wires and sensors are correctly placed and connected to the software we use.
• We either shake the car or hit it with a hammer.
• We look at what the sensors record on the computer.
• We make a report of what we see.

If you ever wondered why your car began to shake at certain speeds or RPMs… or why you heard that annoying hum as the engine idles… it is because of the acoustics that we are testing in the lab. Our job is to provide the designers information that help them make the cars less susceptible to these problems.

That is just one way we hook up the cars though. The explanation was very general and really doesn’t do the test procedure’s complexity justice, but perhaps this is the less boring way of explaining it. It’s sort of like the guy on the treadmill with all the wires attached to him… only we put the cars on treadmills… or hit them with hammers…

Besides that, I’ve seen a few other very interesting things throughout the week. Between doing work in our department, I have been able to see some of the experiments done in other labs. One lab utilizes an anechoic chamber (the walls absorb all sound) and the cars are driven on moving rollers.

Another lab was for tire duration and basically consisted of a machine that runs tires until they break. Another lab had some sort of rig (it looks like it is straight from the Matrix) that shakes the suspension of a car as if it were traversing the Sahara. Why a BMW would be in the Sahara… I don’t know. The final lab I saw (or experienced, rather) was the Virtual Simulation Lab. This is a common lab in the car industry and is great for test driving a car without going to the dealer. They basically recorded driving data/stats from various cars (competitors too!) and put the data into some simulation software. In the lab room was a car body suspended by hydraulic rams. If any of you have been to Disney World, you know what I’m talking about here. We were able to drive these various car models on rough roads and instantly feel the difference in ride quality!

Later in the week, I witnessed, experienced, and learned a few other interesting things. On Wednesday I was able to ride in a Rolls Royce for the first time. I was hesitant to step on the lambswool footmats or touch the solid walnut burr dash, but I did get to ride the RR Ghost. With a 6.6 Liter V12, it had the potential to move… but unfortunately, we never really broke a speedy 10 mph in the test facility. Anyone what to purchase a $250,000 dollar car??

In other news, BMW and other firms in Germany do a few really cool thing with younger students. I did a voluntary mentorship with Honda when I was in high school, but in Germany this is actually required by younger students. We had an aspiring 15 year old student with us for his “Praktikum” this week. What a cool experience for a 15 year old! He had the misfortune of working with me on one project, where I probably felt more clueless than he did. At least he understood the German better! It was interesting to see that he asked me for my Facebook name and not the Facebook name of my German counterpart. My co-worker later commented that it was because I was an American. I’m not sure if that was the complete truth, but I did find it interesting to note.

My last lesson of the week deals with the toilet. Yes, the toilet. I am learning in every situation, Germans are very keen on saving and conserving. On our computers we compress all picture files we take. Germans recycle, they utilize automatic lights everywhere, and they even extend this to water usage. For three weeks I wondered why the toilets had two buttons above them. I finally just asked a co-worked, putting all shame aside. In his limited English, he explained to me that there are situations when one needs more water and situations where one needs less (this was very funny to listen to). You can fill in the rest… basically, the button you choose depends on the experience you had in the WC.

So that was the week in a nutshell. My roommate moved out on Thursday, so I am now alone in my dorm cell. I’m not sure if another roommate is coming soon or not, but in the mean time, I’m sort of enjoying the peace. This weekend will likely be smaller adventures and planning for the Rome trip. Only a few short days until I leave!

Some Odds and Ends

Here is my brief update for the beginning of week two in Munich.

Sunday morning I did some math on travel in Munich. To walk from my apartment to downtown Munich takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes. I know because I did this. It was a good walk though! I also did some math on transportation costs…

I was on two missions that morning. One was to avoid spending a lot of money on bus and sub fares while staying here through the summer. I figured investing in a used bike would be a good idea. Its cost would be equivalent to monthly bus fares. I would get exercise. I can take a bike to other cities in Germany through trains. And at the end of my term, I could sell it again for a decent price. On the recommendation of my tour guide from the previous day, I purchased an old seven-speed off of a bike touring company called Mike’s Bikes. In the US, I would expect to pay around $40 for such a bike. Here is cost about as much as a new US bike. I looked everywhere, and an affordable bike is pretty tough to find… at least in Munich. New ones with multiple speeds range from 300 to 2000 Euros! I purchased a used one for 110 Euros. Not bad in my opinion. It is NOT my jeep, but it has air conditioning very similar to the Wrangler’s!

Also while downtown on Sunday, I bought some big train tickets. I decided that since I’ll be away for Easter this year, I may as well go all-out and see the Pope on the biggest day of the year. SO… I bought tickets for a round trip to Rome for Holy Week. It. Will. Be. Incredible. I was just informed today from the Bishop’s Office that I will be able to obtain a ticket to the Easter Papal mass, so that was very exciting news! I’ll be posting more updates on this later.

Today was Monday of the second week of work. The learning continued as we began using software and placing sensors on cars. We were also hooked up with some super chic steel toes shoes! Yeah, I know… you’re jealous.

After work, I took my new set of wheels to buy a bike lock and visit Real. Real is the German equivalent of a Super Wal-Mart… only BIGGER! They had nearly everything you would ever want. AND they actually took credit cards! That was a big surprise!

That’s all I have for now!

Dachau

I planned out today’s plans last night, and when I read my daily reading from the “Little Black Book” this morning (reflection book provided by the Church for lent), I was not shocked to see the info section concerning a priest who encountered an experience at a German concentration camp. Although I didn’t visit the Buchenwald or Flossenberg camps where Dietrich Bonhoeffer was incarcerated, I did visit Dachau this morning.

The tour group left at around 9am this morning, and we took a train out to Dachau. It was only a 15 minute trip. We had an excellent guide and she gave a lot of good background on everything we witnessed while there. I took a class in my 1^st winter quarter at UC called Auschwitz testimony which focused on the holocaust. There was some deep material in that class, but let me tell you, there is nothing that substitutes actually standing where it happened.

Dachau was the first of the camps. Dachau was to be the “model” camp for the others and it was also the location where most of the men in the SS trained. Today, the training grounds are actually used to train Germany police, but the prisoner camp has been turned into a memorial site. This was NOT an extermination camp, but a rehabilitation and work camp. Well over 60,000 people died at this camp though. Through horrifying work conditions and the contraction of diseases, death was a normal part of the camp’s daily happenings.

The closeness of the event in recent history and its relation to the Germans today is much closer than I really comprehended before. We had a small tour group, so we exchanged names and a little background as the tour went on. When I mentioned that I was working at BMW for a term, an interesting theme was brought up. Many of Germany’s successful companies today survived the war because they utilized labor from those in camps. BMW was one of them… along with Siemens, Audi, and many others. Knowing something like that, I can realize why many Germans today are still very sensitive to these events within the last century. Points were made on how you see very few German flags in the front yards of citizens and how Germans make it a point to remember their history well. I mentioned this in one of my earlier Cologne blog posts.

The tour lasted well past lunch and ended in the crematoria. It was difficult to imagine such horrors occurred in the brick ovens not too long ago. It was a very nice day today too (65 degrees and sunny). That made it even harder to imagine all of the camp’s past realities. It was, however, a good experience… one I will not forget. I think back to when my grandpa entered Germany, and I have to wonder how he handled seeing some of the things he did. I’m not sure I would personally be able to do it. I give all the credit in the world to those who experienced WWII.

In the afternoon, I took a short pause for lunch before doing a walking tour over some of Munich’s Nazi history. We visited MANY buildings of great significance to the rise of the party and the operation of the war machine.

We began the tour at 3pm (same tour guide as in Dachau) at the east tower leading into the Altstadt. It was here that we stopped by the brewery where the Nazi party was first formed and Hitler became a member.

Our next stop was a location you are likely familiar with. It was the birthplace of the Nazi party as we know it. The policies and rally behind the party’s forward motion began at the Hofbrauhaus. This was my first visit to the hall since being in Munich. This time, I did not have a beer. It was hard to imagine such a political campaign beginning in such a jovial place.

The tour progressed with some really good background history on the party and Hitler’s rise to power. Munich was it. This was the city where Hitler made it all come together. It was here that the party formed. It was here that he convinced the public to join in on National Socialism. It was here that he created an empire and led the 3^rd Reich. At the end of the tour we saw many buildings used for NAZI headquarters during the war. Many of these date back to Roman times, but their recent past uses cannot be denied. As an American citizen, I have always understood what happened in Germany. Actually being here and standing next to buildings bearing shrapnel scars is something else entirely. It adds some pretty good depth to the words in the history books.

Today was a reflective day for me. It was a good day, but one of realizing the closeness of these events to home. I don’t always understand why things did or do happen in the world, but always trying to better understand humanity is what will prevent future tragedies from coming to be.

On a brighter note… three incredible things did happen today!

1 – It is my brother’s birthday. Wish him a happy birthday if you get the chance! I do wish I could be home to enjoy some cake and ice cream with him!

2 – I finally saw a Jeep over here!!! I miss mine. Hopefully the birthday boy is taking good care of it!

3 – Mass this morning was very nice. I took some pictures of Old St. Peter to share with the blog too. I got to visit St. Paul and St. John in the front of the church as well. That was a good start to the day.

BMW and Work

I’ll give a brief rundown of how my first week went at BMW. Everyone was up to speed until Tuesday evening when I last posted, so here’s the latest…

On Wednesday, we actually began work and learning. Learning consists of three parts… engineering, culture, and language…

Engineering:

The lab I work in uses a number of means/methods to do their testing. These are basically photography, lasers, and sensors. Using these methods, they can do dynamic testing (cars move/shake) or static testing (cars don’t move). On Wednesday, Micah and I learned the art of photography. To simplify, the idea is to photograph a car before and after forces are placed on it. After comparing the photos, you get an idea of how the car was affected. On Thursday, we saw how a car is analyzed using a scanning laser. On Friday, we worked on placing accelerometers (sensors) on a car and recording results in a dynamic test. Much of the details are beyond me, but I will certainly be learning a lot this year. The tests we use compliment my recent two quarters of class very well.

Culture:

I heard a few things about German work culture before arriving here. Some of the work-culture we studied in class was accurate, and some not so much. Here’s a bit of the culture…

Interaction - BMW has departments that work separately (as in most companies) but they do so within a “get it done as simply and efficiently as possible” schema. This fits the mold I anticipated. There is less red tape baring our department from helping another if they need a test run or a helping hand.

Chain of Command - The hierarchy operates in much the same way. We have a boss/supervisor, but he really doesn’t need to be bogged down by unimportant details. For example, in past companies, I have had flex time just like here. Show up when you want and leave when you want as long as people generally know when you’ll be here and that you get in your hours. The difference here is that I don’t have to record the exact task I accomplish at each interval of the day and how long it took me. In fact, there is no formal recording system. It is very honor system based, which I appreciate very much. SO… at the end of the day, the boss doesn’t see or deal with a work log. He sees results or he doesn’t. People stay or are dismissed based on what they do and not so much how long they hang around the workplace.

Hours – Work 35 a week, and you are gold. No need to sweat so much in a week.

Social Time – This was more of a surprise to me. The day tends to be much more social than I anticipated. I was banking on strict, no-nonsense German work. I have found that the department I am in is very relaxed. The entire day is social time really… as long as work gets done. Most don’t arrive in the office until after 8:00am. At 1:00pm we take lunch. Lunch consists of the feast prepared by one of 12 different food stations. Pasta, Wurst, Bavarian, Pizza, Sea Food, Asian, Steaks, and Greens are the main stations that come to mind. Lunch is BIG. At 2:00pm everyone breaks from lunch to grab a cappuccino (fancy right?). There are at least 20 cappuccino/coffee machines in the Café portion of the cafeteria. After coffee, it’s back to work for another 2 hours before quitting time. I’m cool with this structure.

Fridays – I experienced my first German/Bavarian company Friday. Okay… so every company I’ve worked for in the US has a typically Friday routine… jeans, doughnuts, more social time, and perhaps an early leave. Here was a little different. At 9:00am every Friday, our department does a Weisswurst breakfast. This is Bavarian through and through. Bavaria is known for their Weisswurst. Tradition says it is to be eaten before noon. On Fridays, someone in the department will prepare the weisswurst and perhaps couple of other varieties or wurst. Someone else will bring in large soft pretzels. Every individual is responsible for bringing in his or her own beer of choice. Beer at 9am! What?! It’s 5 o’clock somewhere indeed. I about fell over when I heard we were going to have beer for breakfast! After breakfast, we hit up the labs for a couple hours. At 11 o’clock we took a short 10 minute break for coffee and Kuchen (cake). At 1pm it was lunch. We were out before 4pm.

Colleagues – The co-workers here are very cool. Most are in their early 30s and single. A couple of them are married though. They are all VERY helpful. They will answer any question and will stop what they are doing to help. On Thursday, they invited us to a Biergarten for “Starkbierzeit”. This is a special time in the spring, during lent, where the German brewers brew a special dark beer. It begins on St. Joseph’s feast day (March 19^th) and lasts until Easter. The idea was that the Germans needed a “filling” beer to aid in the fast during lent. We all had a liter of the strong dark beer on Thursday and just enjoyed the company and fresh air for about 5 hours. This isn’t a weekly thing, but every once in a while, they will get together for such a night.

Language:

Every day is a crash course in German language. It is MUCH more difficult to listen to fellow Germans converse in the work environment. I struggle just to pick out words most of the time, especially when someone is speaking “Bayerisch” (the southern Germany dialect). I am getting better though. By September, I should have a pretty keen ear.

German Offices

Today is easy to explain…

8:30am – Depart for Residency Registration Office

9:00am – Arrive at office and fight giant crowd of foreigners

10:00am – Doors to office open and stampede ensues

10:10am – I grab waiting ticket and a form to fill out

10:30am – I am admitted to submit my form and brave the guy with the big stamp

10:45am – I am released to the foreign authority to grab another ticket and form

10:55am – I am admitted to submit my residency permit

11:10am – Guy with big stamp says I’m gold

11:15am – I grab a waiting ticket to pay 50 Euros for my VISA

11:20am – I pay for my permit and obtain a pretty stamp in my passport to work here until September

11:45am – Micah and I depart to sign our work contracts with BMW (now that we have work permits)

1:30pm – After a lot of reading, we depart to obtain our tax cards (which we need to be paid… this is important)

2:20pm – We arrive at the Munich financial office and obtain waiting ticket and a form to fill out

2:40pm – We are admitted to submit the form and brave the tax ladies

3:30pm – We obtain tax cards and head back to set up bank accounts

4:15pm – We arrive to bank 15 minutes late (they close at 4pm) and decide to set up accounts on Thursday

4:30pm – We call it a day!

So yes… if you ever though forms were challenging and burdensome in English, the German version isn’t much better. I’m just glad we have most of that out of the way!

…and now I’m done thinking for the day.

Work, Shopping, and Living – Immersion into Germany

Today was my first day of work. I’m not sure what happened overnight, but the clear skies went away and it decided to pour most of the day. Rain, rain, and more rain. We left for work around 8:45am, and by the time we had made the 15 minute walk to work, I was rather wet. It was perhaps good that we showed up early. We had enough time before our 9:30am appointment for my pants to dry. Dry pants are preferred on the first day.

After showing up to the front desk of a GIANT glass building in FIZ (Research and Innovation Center), we were greeted by our supervisor. It was good to finally meet the man we’d been in contact with for the past five months. He was very laid back and well spoken of by his colleagues. He brought us father into the building and showed us first where the food was and then where everything else was. Priorities are well in order here. Haha! The building is very impressive. It reminds me of something from the Jetsons or Star Trek! It had a very futuristic and ultra-modern feel. Glass doors slip open diagonally with the swipe of an ID badge. A central tower stood in the middle of a hub or outer offices. This was the brain of BMW. This is where the innovations are birthed and new products tested. Our supervisor explained where various departments of research resided, but I was pretty lost in the gravity of the atmosphere. Slimming business suits were worn by the management and darkly died jeans and corduroy by the engineers and researchers. Everyone seemed to be carrying around a cup of steaming coffee as they moved about the main floor like ants in a giant anthill. These were no worker ants though… they were very friendly and the culture appeared to be young, energetic, and embracing. On the ground floor were interesting conveniences for workers. There was a clothing and merchandise store, an I.D. center, a fitness center, a doctor’s office, and a car dealership where employees could buy their own BMWs. What?!? I thought Honda had a good spread. That was until seeing this small park of the entire plant! I CANNOT wait to see more! They informed us that we would possibly receive a free plant tour later in our co-op term.

After our initial showing, we were instructed to begin the paperwork. “Do what you need to do,” were the exact words of our supervisor. This included apartment leases, work contracts, citizen registration, work permits for immigrants, tax cards, tax confirmation, and I.D. badges. These all need to be done in a specific order in offices across Munich which are NOT close to each other. Talk about frustrating... I think a little more prep work on this bureaucratic nightmare would have done me well. In any case, I have it figured out now… I think. The Anmeldung office (citizenship registration office) was closed at noon today, so we’ll have to do that and the other paperwork tomorrow. I’m praying there are no hang-ups. These are fairly important for completion.

When we got back from attempting to complete all this paperwork, we were further shown the research labs where we would be working. Basically, we’ll be placing sensors on cars and observing what certain vibrations or impulses do the chassis, frame, and car panels. They had cars in this lab that weren’t even in public’s eye yet. AHH!!! This is going to be sweet! I didn’t understand most of the technical stuff, but the main purpose of this co-op is to observe and learn. I will be doing both.

We went to lunch with fellow lab workers. Most of them were interns as well. They were very welcoming and they introduced us to the largest cafeteria I’ve ever seen. Two floors of every type of food imaginable. We uploaded cash onto our ID badges and simply waved them past a machine to pay for the meal. Snitzel for me! We spent an hour at lunch and then the next 20 minutes drinking coffee in a separate café. They were not kidding about that 1.5 hour lunch break that Germans take! After eating, we went back to the department for some more instruction and explanation of the work done there. Our second supervisor then dismissed us early since we still needed to fill out certain papers before officially starting. Overall, the first day at work was awesome! …rain and paperwork aside.

Upon returning home, I decided I needed stuff for my dorm-like apartment. I made my way out to a local Flohmarkt (flee market / second hand shop) to purchase dishes and silverware. I struck gold! This is the way to go in Germany! I went to a regular mall at first and immediately decided… not for me. No, I will not spend 15 Euros on two plates… thank you very much. This Flohmarkt had cheap items that were about ten times more valuable (in my mind). Guess how much I spent on this antique dish set and metal cups?? Note the detail on the cups (I think I’ll call them goblets!)…

Five Euros! …and with a few other compulsory items, the bill for my new kitchen set was 15 Euros! I only need a pot and pan now. They lady at the counter was also very friendly. We chatted about living in Germany (she doubled checked the dates for Oktoberfest to make sure I would attend), and spoke in both English and German. She liked talking in English, because she wanted to keep her skills sharp. I’ll be checking out more of these Flohmarkts for future shopping. After this, I was able to make a trip to Pennymarkt for food-stuffs. Finally… affordable food! I went home and immediately made a sandwich. Yes!

So… food is squared away. Kitchen supplies are, for the most part, purchased. AND I was able to purchase internet from a fellow floor-mate for a fair price. I’m now officially connected. A lot went down today, so I’m wiped out. I can’t wait until this weekend and all of these small details are out of the way. I could maybe then think about some actual engineering… that’s why I’m here right? …right?? Well, maybe there is more to it that just that. It will be a great 5 months.