the blog originally titled: First impressions
then it was titled: Wein schmeckt gut (Wine tastes good).
then it was titled: Wash your fresh fruits and vegetables.
then it was titled: Ich komme aus Amerika (I come from America).
then it was titled: Willkommen in Hamburg (Welcome to Hamburg).
Since I waited so long to finally get around to writing and posting this blog, this post has went through many name changes.... a lot has happened and I will try to fill you guys in on all the happenings here in Reinbek (which is about 20 kilometers outside of Hamburg, hour by bus and train).
Monday I arrived in Hamburg (this is where my last blog entry left off) to the Hauptbahnhof. I knew all I had to do was look for my name. I didn't know who was picking me up (well, I knew it was my boss for the summer, but since I had never met these people [him and his wife ended up picking me up], I didn't know what they looked like). And I finally got my airport/train station greeting. You always see the people in the airports and train stations with the signs of names. Well, my name was finally amongst them.
Okay, okay, I know, get on with the story now (I was just kinda happy with the whole sign thing). I met up with Herr Kratzmann (the elder), held out my hand for a nice firm handshake (I hope), and said, "Hallo. Ich bin Corey Burbank." We talked a bit, but I was so tired from being on the train for eight out of the last ten hours, that I probably butchered everything that I tried to say.
I think, personally, that I make really bad first impressions. Thinking back to when I started my last job (at the scrapbook store), I probably seemed like an idiot, just like I did last Monday. I wore jeans on that first Tuesday at the scrapbook store, when I should have worn nice dress pants. I walked around and really didn't do much.... I'm sure Andy and Emily were probably wondering why they hired me. Maybe it's just my impression of myself. I think I do okay in interviews, but the first couple of days on the job I am a flop. (Luckily [I think it was Michelle] was there too, so customers were actually helped that evening.)
It felt like the same thing here. Except that I wasn't expecting to go into the store at all last Monday.... I was hoping that I would just go to the room that I would be staying in and be able to get set up.... But nope, Herr Kratzmann took me to the store (one of the two that his son runs) where I was to be working for the next three months.
Herr Kratzmann showed me around the store. Here's the bakery, here's the fresh fruits and vegetables, here's this, here's that. Meet Frau so-and-so, meet Herr what's his name (almost none of the names stuck.... okay, honestly, none of the names stuck). We talked about when I was going to work (2-8pm Tuesday through Saturday, 6am to noon starting next Monday), what I have to wear (comes to find out I could have brought more jeans.... figures.... I brought about ten pairs of nice slacks with me), and when I'll get paid (150 Euros every Saturday).
Then we came to the house in which I have a room in for the next three months. It's a pretty nice room. I'll have to take a few pictures of it once I get around to it.... (Okay, so I've been kinda lazy in the blogging and picture taking arena.) My host mother wasn't home at the time, she was off to the opera (which I missed since I didn't get out of Paris on time), so Herr and Frau Kratzmann showed me where everything was and gave me the money for the room (in addition to getting 600 Euros a month, Herr Kratzmann is also paying the 250 Euros a month for my room.... I really got lucky, didn't I?).
Herr Kratzmann also gave the suggestion to go back to the store and buy some food for that night and the morning.... Grocery stores here in Germany do not stay open 24 hours a day like we're used to in the States. Most everything around where I'm staying closes at 8pm (and nothing is open on Sundays, but we'll get to that later).
I went, bought some apples, bananas, tortellini (mit Fleisch, natürlich), spaghetti noodles, tomato sauce, yogurt, cereal, and milk (I think that's all for that trip). When I went to check out, I learned about the scanner.... I don't know if there's any in America (at least I haven't seen any), but the customer actually weighs and prices how much of the fruit and vegetables they buy fresh. There's like a little scanner that pops out price tags. Anyways... It was interesting....
Well, I can tell this is going to be a really long post... I haven't even gotten to the work part of things.
By time I went to bed last Monday, I had already unpacked and put everything in its place. My host mother came home and we talked about where different things are, and little things that Germans do differently.
Since I didn't have to go to work until 2pm, I had an easy morning.... The hardest thing was deciding when I was going to head to work. I knew I had to be early (since that's the way German's are), but I was worrying about how soon was too soon. My walk to work was only to be five minutes (it was take even less time then that, but the cross walk signals take so darn long... it might even take more than five minutes at certain times of the day), and I knew I wanted to be at least 15-20 minutes early on my first day. So I left at 1:30. Admittedly, this is earlier then I think I have ever left for work.... I never go so early.... Crazy. But it was a good thing. Now I don't leave until twenty-to or quarter-to... but that's because I don't want to be stuck in the break room for too long (more on that later).
Being my first day on the job, of course there was to be logistics to figure out.... But surprisingly, no paperwork. That was all taken care of by the nice folks at the International Cooperative Education Program office (and that's what my pricey program fee went to pay for). So I just had to get my uniform (for now, just a black polo shirt with Edeka on the front and advertisements on the back) and set up my account with the figure print door opener thingy....
Okay, so I have no idea what it would be called. To open the back doors (when the store isn't open of course), I don't need a key, instead I will just put my finger on the finger pad and it will read my finger print.... But the computer didn't know my finger print, and figuring out the computer program took the office people awhile to do. After that was all said and done, I was told to wait in the break room until the gals went out to restock the shelves.
So that's what I did on Tuesday. I helped restock the shelves.
Then Herr Kratzmann returned, and he told me I could call home from his office. Unfortunately, we couldn't figure out what numbers we needed before the actual number.... I'm still not sure. But instead, I came back to my room and called my parents via Skype (which is a lot simpler, and probably a lot cheaper since I'm paying the US to US prices- which is only about 2.1 cents per minute.... you can't really beat that). I talked to my mom for about an hour, then later that night I talked to dad and Casey via Skype video chat.
Ooh, oh, yeah, I forgot to mention.... Herr Kratzmann let me out early since it was my first day. I got out around five-ish, when I was supposed to work until eight.
Wednesday it was back to the grind... well, a different type of grind.
I helped Herr Schüttle stock the wine shelves.
There are a lot of different wines. I really don't know much about wines. But I now know that "trocken" means dry.
Okay, maybe this is going to take a few entries to get through everything. There's so much to tell! Laters! (aka. my hands are getting tired of typing.)
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