A typical weekday for me looks like this. I wake up and eat müesli for breakfast. Literally I've been doing this for 2 weeks straight and I'm still not tired of it! I started out eating bread with jam or hazelnut spread, but müesli is so yummy (and also very German, almost everybody here eats it). I walk to work, which takes less than 10 minutes. Actually, 6 minutes is spent walking to the entrance of the Fraunhofer Institute and another like 3-4 minutes is spent just walking from the entrance through the building to my desk\lab. You can get an idea of how huge the Franhofer Institute is... it took me about 2 weeks to understand where everything was (as in all the places that I needed to go). The buildings I work in work with wastewater from various industries (municipal, dairy, olive oil, etc.) but my first day I accidentally ended up in the robotics building. And although I don't think my senses have been dulled by the smell of wastewater, I have a less adverse reaction to it. After work, what I do is highly variable. About once a week I'll go running in the forest, but this depends on the weather and my other plans. I've gotten lost all but the last time I've gone running, which makes my runs >1hr, so I feel like that is pretty good for the entire week. Plus, it's mentally exhausting trying to keep track of where I am, finding my way back, and asking for directions when I am lost. I might also go grocery shopping, which takes at least an hour and a half for me. It takes about 25 minutes to walk to Vaihingen and the grocery stores there, then I am so so indecisive when I am doing my shopping. If I have my dictionary I'll definitely use that to decipher the foods. I've stopped going to Kaufland, the huge grocery store, because they have such huge selections of every item (bread, jam, wine, etc.) that I am overwhelmed with making a decision. Sometime I'll take a nap in my room after work, and other times there are various festivals or concerts going on.
I've done various tasks at work. Usually I will run experiments on a reactor or perform Mg tests on samples. I also wrote up a paper about motivations for nutrient recycling, which I've been revising on and off for several weeks. I'm not allowed to say too much about specific things that I do but I think that was a good summary. Most of my coworkers are here in the Process Technology group doing their Bachelor's Thesis, Masters Thesis, or phD Thesis. The undergraduates in Germany must do an internship (practicum) for 3 months and then a bachelor thesis for another 3 months, and they can do this at their home university or elsewhere. Both the internship and bachelor thesis can be at a company or an institute such as the Fraunhofer Institute or Max Planck Institute which are independent bodies. Actually, Fraunhofer is funded about 50% by industry and 50% by the government and the MPI is funded 100% by the government.
Some of the people I work with:
Jen - She is my phD student supervisor. Jen grew up in Ecuador and did her undergrad there (I think) then did her Masters here in Stuttgart in the WASTE program which is very international and taught in English. She had wanted to go to the U.S. to do her phD but her plans changed because of Holgen her (now) husband. My first week here she was definitely inviting me everywhere she was going and stuff, and I think after she realized that I was making friends she stopped doing that, lol. Jen and Holgen are both very very environmentally conscious and green; they don't have a car (which isn't too uncommon in Germany because the public transportation is amazing, although many people have cars just because they like to drive and stuff), started an environmental club at the University of Holnheim, and always buy 'bio' and fair trade products.
Daniel - He actually gives me most of my tasks. He is a HIWI, which means that he just finished his Bachelors Thesis and he has a few months left in his contract to work here. So basically Jen tells us what needs to be done, and Daniel and I split up the tasks and he teaches me exactly what is done. Daniel is really nice and good-natured and it will be sad when he leaves Fraunhofer. When I was doing magnesium tests, I would have to decipher his terrible handwriting and I always gave him a hard time because some of the numbers were completely illegible. I'm also getting to see the whole interview\job hunting process through him because he is looking for jobs.
Weronika - She sits next to me in the office (when both of us are in there, which is rare nowadays) and is my source of girltalk\gossip\giggles. She is originally from Hamburg and doesn't know that many people here either. I love her crazy stories and rants and secrets (which guys in the lab\office are hot, the usual).
Sebastian - Also sits in our office area. He is doing his bachelor thesis on distillation to separate water from solvents in the wastewater that comes from the paint industry. Sometimes he will ask me questions from his textbook about English translations or about distillation theory, and this makes me feel important. The dynamic between him and Weronika is pretty funny because they are such opposite personalities. Weronika is very animated and can be dramatic at times, and Sebastian is just not animated (not to say that he isn't funny or talkative or anything, he just isn't animated). For awhile, there was an air conditioning conflict because she wanted it on and he wanted it off. I learned later that Sebastian spent 7 months in Australia on a work\travel visa, and one of the jobs he had was tree pruning in 47degC weather. He can definitely handle some heat.
Uli - The first time I remember her saying was that she was going to the football match but planned on drinking a lot because she hates football. Haaaa. This isn't very representative of her personality though. She loves hiking and taking bike trips with her boyfriend, and she also goes to Stuttgart 21 protests on Mondays with Jen.
Boris - He is a real employee (as in he already finished his degree and just works at IGB) and I find it kind of odd that he still lives in the on-campus housing since he must be at least 28 if not 30 years old.
Natalie - Super cool girl I met while I was in another lab doing magnesium tests. She also did the work\travel thing in Australia and absolutely loved it; now she is trying to learn Portuguese because she may be going to Brasil soon, which works out because her thesis was on biogas reactors and there is a lot of that going on in Brasil.
Thilo - He and his twin brother are both working in the biotechnology group at Fraunhofer. Crazy.
Jan - Neil Patrick Harris doppelganger. Enough said.
