So, I've now been in Frankfurt for almost a week (to be exact, it will be a week tomorrow at 14:02). I've moved here for the last and the coming five weeks because I had to... My studies in St. Gallen include a mandatory international internship. I wanted to tell you about it.

The rant

First of all I have to get something of my heart... To be forced to do this internship actually is a good thing but the way the SIM Office has communicated and implemented this new part of the curriculum is just plain ridiculous!

Internships lasting three weeks? 4 ECTS-credits? Writing a ridiculous (worthless?) proposal? Writing a 15 (!) page report about the experience? Those are all parts of a IMHO silly try to fit the new requirement in a set of rules which couldn't be changed. And this all because the SIM program want's to be ranked high in the FT rankings... Now, after the ranting and venting we can get to the interesting stuff (and you might have noticed that I tried to keep it short, really short...).

The flat

So, I arrived here last Monday on 14:02 and after a short call with my landlord and flatmate, Subin, I found the way to the flat. It is located at one of the main streets (Friedberger Landstrasse) but because of the new windows I'm not bothered by the traffic or the tram's passing by outside my window. The flat itself is in a somewhat raw state. Boxes are lying around everywhere and it is just starting to be possible to live here. Water in the kitchen is available since Tuesday, the kitchen became operational around the same time, but the shower is still almost unusable, thats one of the reasons I'm at the gym often :-) More importantly and this made this week almost unbearable to me ;-) there only is internet-access since Friday. I was cut off for four days (except when at work). My room is pretty large but sparely furnished, I have a bed and a table with a chair but I don't need much more, even though I'm looking forward to having a pillow soon. All in all the location of the flat is perfect and I feel comfortable living here, and it will get better.

The job

Already the next day after my arrival I started my work at namics. I'm part of the Team Mainhattan and currently working on the implementation of a controlling tool. Besides that I'm doing this and that... the regular stuff interns do ;-) I love namics, they enabled me to do this very unberaucratcly and by that they took away a huge burden which was lying on my shoulders. And as always whit namics it is easy to work with the people the environment fits me and I'm looking forward on the next five weeks working with the team. I hope there are some more demanding tasks in it, but I'm sure I will manage.

The gym

I already mentioned the gym before. It is not only where I train but also where I shower ;-) Also it is worth mentioning because it has a swimming pool which i truly enjoy. A sign of this might be, that I have been there five times since I arrived (yeah, I had to shower in the flat once or twice... )

The weekend

And then on Friday the long weekend arrived, and I and Jonathan started exploring Frankfurt. On Friday night we had some difficulties finding interesting spots after the first beer at the namics Office, but we truly started enjoying the city on Saturday, after a little sightseeing in the afternoon (including looking at the city from the top of the Maintower) we enjoyed the Flussfestmeile of the International German Turnfest It started with a great light show and fireworks and ended with a concert by a great cover band. There was also some Hefeweizen in play ;-) Today I then met up with Rahel and her boyfriend who had arrived just the day before and we went to Sachsenhausen to get to know Frankfurt a little better, but in the end we ended up drinking beer again and relaxing in the sun. All in all an almost perfect weekend.