More About Schott Glass

So I realize that before I left, I was really vague about the company I'm working for, because I really had no idea what they did. I have spent the entire week either in the European Sales Meeting or in a training session for new employees, so I've gotten a much better idea of what's going on.

Schott Glass, AG makes all kinds of specialized glass products in five major areas: Home Tech, Fiberoptics, Advanced Materials, Pharmaceuticals, and Solar Technology. They have other product areas as well, but those are the major ones. Among the products they make are glass-ceramic stove tops for induction cooking (these things are really super nifty), the make components for all kinds of electrical systems (including cell phones, flat panel displays, and BMWs haha my favorite!), lenses for everything from microscopes to giant astronomy telescopes, solar panels, pharmaceutical packaging like syringes, bottles, etc. The list goes on. The thing they're really getting press for right now is a huge solar energy plant they're building in New Mexico. I'm working in the Advanced Optical Materials department, which handles glass and glass ceramic products mostly for lenses. Among these products is this stuff called Zerodur, which is used in virtually every big telescope you've ever heard of, because it has negligible thermal expansion (a few millimeters, even when it's subjected to extreme temperature changes).

Today I got a tour of the Zerodur production floor, which is virtually the only product that is still produced in Mainz. It was really cool to see the giant melting vats, the coolers, the huge saws and grinders. The whole process of making Zerodur takes anywhere from 3 to 12 months, because if it's cooled too quickly, it warps the material. This is all probably pretty boring for you guys, but I thought some of you might be interested. I'm bored half the time and really interested for the rest of it. Next week I find out what my duties will be! Can't wait to get to the actual marketing.

The First Week

Well I just left Frankfurt am Main today. I spent my first day recovering from the jetlag. On Day 2 I wandered all over the Palmengarten, which is the botanical garden in the city - a beautiful expanse of planted heaven in the middle of the city. The only disappointment was that the rose garden was not yet in bloom. I took lots of pictures. I also explored the Fressgasse, which a street in the downtown area devoted to cuisine. My favorite sight here was the legions of suit-clad businessmen standing up at tables outside of the small bakery/snack establishments eating lunch. It's pretty common in Germany that most people choose these locations for lunch, despite the fact that there's little if any real seating. I was given bad directions by the hotel to find the Goethe museum (they thought it was on Goethestrasse - who thinks that?) and so discovered the really high end shopping area. Turns out that this would be where you would find Burberry, Emiligio Zegna, and many other extravagantly expensive stores. I enjoyed the walk and the window shopping, stopping only to buy a few things at the local drugstore (including my favorite deodorant, random I know, but you can never find it in the States and I have been out for months). Completely by accident, I did end up finding the real Goethe museum, which I did not go into because there was an entrance fee. However, I felt pretty good about finding it at random all by myself.

On the second day, I explored the old town area. It was quite charming. I started along the museum walk that runs along the Main river and is pretty picturesque, then detoured up by the Römer (city hall). A little further along I saw some cool looking churches, a bunch of fountains, and an old ruin left as a memorial in the city center. It was here where I found a little square where they were having an open-air jazz concert. The band was a little rough, but fun to listen to and I was in the middle of enjoying it when I was interrupted. A guy sat beside me and started to hit on me. When he figured out I wasn't from Germany, he started talking about how nice it would be to have a friend in a strange city who can show you around, etc etc. Even after I lied through my teeth and told him I had a boyfriend who I'd been together with for a long time, he persisted. Finally I excused myself and left, but I was angry that I had to miss the rest of the concert. He wasn't even attractive. Grrr...

The past couple days have been filled with orientation by the company that administers this program. It was ok I suppose, but pretty basic stuff for me, since I've been here before. Today was the icing on the cake though. I arrived in Mainz and traveled via taxi a bit further with Linda (my roommate) to our aparment in Ober Olm. First the cab driver went to Nieder Olm and got completely lost. Eventually though, we figured out his mistake and found our way to the right location. The apartment is absolutely breathtaking - really spacious, free DSL, a gorgeous balcony, two bedrooms (originally Linda and I thought we'd have to duke it out over one bedroom and a bed in the living area). I still won the bigger bedroom in a coin toss, which was pretty sweet. I did leave a sweater at the hotel, so I'll have to call them about getting that back...

Here's hoping that my internship is as awesome as my apartment!