Hi everyone!

I can’t believe that our first week in Cologne has already past; so much has happened with so many new impressions to take in that I have barely had any time to reflect. John and I arrived in Düsseldorf last Saturday and made our way to Cologne via the German inter-rail system. The journey went well although it was (and still is!) extremely hot outside and with no aircon on the train the trip was a less than pleasant experience. Anyway, we arrived and here is where the ‘challenging’ in the title comes to play a role. Unfortunately there had been a misunderstanding with the accommodation that Saltire had arranged for us through a recommendation from Bayer and there were already people living there! At first the situation was rather stressful but after being in contact with Bayer and Saltire everything was sorted out and now we are housed in fantastic flats in the middle of town, such a luxury! Saltire has been extremely helpful with regards to the situation; it is always difficult to deal with these types of organizational challenges without actually being there and we were both thankful and happy that it was all sorted out well. Another thing that I was (am) extremely grateful for is that John speaks German, which has made everything so much easier for us; many Germans speak decent English but there are also those who do not understand a word. Seeing as all TV is dubbed it is easy to understand why this is the case, and, as I speak Swedish, English and French but no German, I’ve tried communicating in various ways with very varying success.

A part from settling-in in our new apartments we have basically been working most of our waking hours, and it has been great! Everyone at Bayer has been so helpful and the atmosphere is welcoming and easy, so that you quickly feel like part of the team rather than an outsider. They are used to having interns (they have up to 50 at every point in time!) and that shows; on Monday we went through a structured program receiving computers and quick IT training, a run-down of the office and some talks about how it works before we were assigned to our projects. And here is where the good stuff begins; I absolutely love my project! I’m working together with two consultants who are both really nice but also challenging; I don’t really know what I expected but you are definitely thrown into things straight away here, which is great. I’ve been able to attend client meetings, work on presentations and do research, all within one week! Mostly everone is really considerate and speak English so the language barrier is not a problem either. As all consultants at Bayer move to wherever the client is, I am sitting in a building quite far away from the other interns, and in order to get there I’ve rented a bike to get through the gigantic industrial complex that is Bayerwerk. The only two downsides have been 1.) having to work under a formal dress code in a suit is quite horrible in this heat; we peaked at 38° celsius this week! 2.) cycling on a big ‘man-bike’ in an office skirt takes some skills, which I lacked in the beginning =). So far we have had very little time to explore Cologne since we have been working most of our waking hours (we’re usually allowed to go home a bit earlier than the consultants, but o my god they work hard!), but we’re planning on changing that today. Tonight there is a yearly happening down by the river with a firework show as well so hopefully we’ll have a look at that as well.

Wow, long post! Have to update a bit more frequently instead I think…. Take care /Emma