Week Four

The mindless grunt work continues. Not only do we have the trade show coming up this week, but they are renovating the AOO offices and so next week we have to move to another building. That means that this week, aside from stuffing almost 200 folders with product information, I also was responsible for boxing up all loose materials around the office. In between doing these menial tasks, I surfed the web finding articles (see Facebook - I posted the more interesting ones) and researching my travel plans, because my boss had nothing for me to do. This internship has turned into the nightmare I was afraid it would be. I'm not getting any useful experience, I hate it, and I'm bored out of my mind. My boss, Herr Berger, seems to be aware of my frustration, saying that he would have time to give me projects and more work after the trade show and the move are over, but that's still two weeks away. In the meantime, my presence is only necessary at the trade show for two out of five days. That means I will be sitting alone in my office for three days this week doing nothing.

The only exciting prospect there is that I can pretty much make my own hours. If I want to come in a little later or leave earlier, I'm free to do so. Pretty much everyone will be at the trade show, so I'm on my own. Unfortunately, I will be just as underutilized as I am right now, so I have a lot of Facebook/Reddit/online newspaper time ahead of me. So that kind of sucks.

I participated in a company sponsored charity event yesterday, which was the Benefizlauf (or Run for Children). Companies sponsored teams and donated one euro for every lap run around a 400meter track. Each team had to have at least one team member on the track at a time for a ten hour period, so the way my team (made up of trainees and interns) organized ourselves, we formed groups of at least 5 people to take responsibility for a two hour shift. I ran about 10 laps in the two hour period and had a lot of fun. We got free food and massages and cheered on the following group.

The trainees also informed me that next weekend is the big Johannesfest in Mainz, which is the biggest summer festival in the city. Supposedly I will get an email detailing plans to go celebrate along the Rhein. I'm very much looking forward to that, even though it interferes with my plans to do a day trip to München, but hey I can go to München any week. Johannesfest is once a year! My trip to Malaga is shaping up to be a fantastic getaway. I got the go-ahead from Herr Berger to take two days off so I can really make a full trip out of it. I can't wait for August!