Hey everyone! My first week here in Bad Homburg, Germany, has rushed by like one of the high speed trains I keep seeing! So far it's been amazing - everything I imagined and more!

I arrived in Frankfurt Airport early evening on Saturday after 2 good flights (with a bit of a tense change from London Gatwick to London Heathrow in the middle due to the Glasgow - Gatwick flight being delayed). The approach into landing was the first moment it really hit me that I was going to be living and working abroad for 2 months, and the excitement had be grinning like an idiot! I was met by a very nice taxi driver in the terminal who insisted on carrying my luggage in the 35 degree heat. Then when he heard it was my first time in Germany he floored it on the AutoBahn to give me a taste of what it was like. The car was limited to 210 Km/h but it was still pretty fast.

My apartment here is great! It's actually in Koeppern, which is about 8 km away from Bad Homburg, but I can get a train straight from here to work no problem (German transport is so good!). I have a huge room complete with double bed, couches and a TV in a 3 bedroom flat on the ground floor, and since it's in the shadow from the next building it also stays really cool during the day. The other two rooms are taken by my flatmates, David and Matthias, who are both great english speakers as well as being patient enough to teach me german. After the taxi dropped me off I explored the town, grabbed myself a pizza, and then later on was invited to a party in the next building where I was already affectionately known to everyone as "The Scottish Guy". Had a good time meeting everyone and having a couple of drinks before pleading exhaustion and heading to bed. On Sunday I took the train to Bad Homburg and explored the town. It's mainly residential with a small business core in and around the middle. The centre streets are beautiful though - filled with pituresque buildings, shops, and busy cafés with outdoor seating. I decided that after 2 hours of walking around I couldn't take the heat anymore so I found a bar, ordered a beer, and watched the Grand Prix (in German of course).

On Monday I was given a lift to work by Dr Gerhard Mager who is one of the senior figures in the Research and Development department at Fresenius Medical Care. He had already told me that the dress code was casual, especially with the heat, so I happily turned up in shorts and t-shirt. I was given a personal tour of the building, including the desk and labspace I have to myself, and then met Dr Gail-Suzanne Brown who is the GlobalScot responsible for my internship here. Not only this but she holds the very prestigious (and rather cool) job of Senior Vice President of Reasearch and Development so I felt a little overwhelmed that I was meeting such an important person so casually. I was then introduced to my mentor and project leader, Mr Alexander Heide, who everyone calls the Russian nickname "Sascha", even though he's German! I have a project working on a new concept to hopefully be implemented in future Fresenius dialysis machines, and although my contract means I can't say much about it, what I can say is it's pretty wicked that I've been given the responsibility of such a task! I don't think any other company would give a student intern as much creative freedom and trust as Fresenius have given me. The work has simply flown by since then, and I've met many more colleagues resulting in lots of great conversations about Scotland, Fresenius, Germany and the Saltire Foundation. I also went out on wednesday night after work with a couple of the other student interns from german universities and before I knew it the night was gone, and I had to run for my train!

So that's the end of my first week. Visiting Frankfurt tomorrow to explore some more (since it decided to rain today). Thank you again to the Saltire Foundation and Fresenius for everything. This has been a pretty long post so I think I'll copy Emma and blog more often!

Hope you all continue having a good time. Iain