Prelude:
Visa: As told before, I had completed and sent all the necessary paperwork for internship with DHL way back early in April. Since then I waited for a month to receive the work permit/authorization from DAAD. Upon receiving, I immediately tried to make an online appointment with the Germany Embassy, which thankfully is a walking distance from my home. But surprisingly, in this land of technology online appointment is unheard of in the German Embassy. Bad enough, one MUST call a number and pay $2.49/min to make an appointment. Worse still, you may end up waiting endlessly for the agent to be free and serve you. And yes, no word on how long it may take while they suck the money out of your card! In all, I paid like $36 to get two appointments. Absolutely ridiculous! Though the visa itself was easy to get except that I had no medical insurance for the last 15 days of my visit. The consulate promised to process the visa while I got the insurance.

Ticket: That the air prices fluctuate is no wonder; a one-way ticket being more expensive than a return ticket is surprising; but the prices range from $500-$3000 for similar flights is simply stupefying. Just for the stupid reason that I can’t take a one-stop cheap flight via Toronto without a transit visa to Canada, I was left with booking a flight that cost $1844. Fortunately, DHL is paying for the flight.

The Journey:
I must admit I have experienced a lot more Germany this time around than ever before. The reason is that during all my previous trips I lived in the same hotel, had a car on weekends, and pretty much most of the things were taken care of. In contrast, this time I am in a different city – Bonn – and have to take care of myself in every way. Certainly getting used to public transportation was one thing but there were a few other stuff that were different. It started with Lufthansa-Deutsche Bahn partnership. After an awesome business class travel from DC to Frankfurt (Lufthansa upgraded me for free once again!), I was in for a surprise. My boarding card for the “flight” from Frankfurt to Cologne/Bonn, LH-XXXX, turned out to be for a train journey where I had to transfer and carry the luggage myself. Not that big a deal, especially after Lufthansa greeted all international arrivals at their new Welcome Lounge with shower, breakfast, etc. Anyway, the frustration started at Cologne station. With only a couple of Euros with me I looked for banks to exchange the dollars. Apparently, only Reise Bank exchange currencies but at exorbitant rates (and charges: €2 + 2% up to €10). Then the fun started. I had to schlep my baggage all across the station to different platforms in search of a train #16 that goes to my destination. Finally someone told me that the train I am looking for is a subway-train and is stationed at the other side of the station. Ironically, just before I boarded the subway I saw the majestic Koelner Dom standing right outside the window bringing back the wonderful old memories from my trip of 2002. Too bad I had to leave.

The Internship to date:
I started the internship – at least officially – on May25, 2009. Project seems to be going smooth and easy. My manager is not very demanding and gives me enough space for myself – just like I had wished. There was already a laptop ready for me. Turns out it was IBM T41 – predecessor to the today’s much popular T61. Regrettably I didn’t like it a bit. The worst being the absence of windows and right-click buttons. Even the placement of home/end/pgup/pg dn/delete is absolutely non-ergonomic. Ideally, delete should be placed near to arrow buttons and home/end buttons. For certain reason there are forward/back buttons that no one needs. Not to mention, I never understood the need of track pad AND point mouse in one. Anyway, I am not complaining for the three months that I am here. Apparently IT, together with many other integration issues among Detutsche Post, DHL and Exel, is still in its infancy in this organization. Perhaps that’s the reason even DHL employees have to pay the same market rate for couriering official documents anywhere! Although, I believe the CEO (Frank Appel) is doing a great job.

In and around Bonn:
Even before we started our internship, DHL had warned us that we need to register ourselves at Bundesamt (federal office). Since I never did that in any of my previous stints, I took it easy and only after a week did I complete the one-minute registration process. Apparently, one must do that every time the residence location has been changed. In any case, the good thing is that they gave me a booklet full of coupons to different museums and other niceties. Last to last weekend against the drizzling rain, I went to the Beethoven Haus – the birthplace of the legend. It was a nice tour, except that most of the descriptions etc was in German. The last part of the trip was a 3-D video rendition. What’s interesting is that you could actually move the mosaics floating and dancing to the tune of the Beethoven’s composition using joysticks – an awesome experience. Apropos 3-D, heard that UP is awesome in 3-D. I can’t wait to see that… am in no mood to watch that in German, though.

Coming back to the story, subsequent to B-haus I visited City Museum, Egyptian Museum, and Arithmeum. Unfortunately, all except Arithmeum were predominantly for German speaking people. Arithmeum was awesome. It depicted the evolution of numerical computation since the pre-historic ages. Old mechanical calculators based on cams and mechanical levers were simply worthwhile. Even better, people were allowed to try their hands on them. There were also some displays related to microprocessor and its evolution.

Last week we had a small nice party at the other hotel where most of the MBA interns are living. It was nice to meet them. I was glad though that I am in a better hotel sans Internet. I mean, even the other hotel had no Internet, as is usual in Germany even in this age, but they provided a few netbooks with internet connection upon zillion complains. Not sure who came up with this brilliant idea to provide a couple of netbooks for us to surf the internet instead of just installing a cheap wireless router!

Currency Exchange:
Frankly I had not exchanged any currency in Europe (except for unusually tiny amounts). I had assumed that Europe being a melting pot of so many tourists must have had fair exchange rates. Since DHL will be paying directly in dollars, I brought dollars with me to exchange it here. After the initial shock in Cologne, I thought it might be different in Bonn. But I was wrong. Apparently I have to have an account with most of the banks if I want to exchange currency. Where would you suggest I go? Reise Bank at the central station was the unequivocal answer. But my ever-critical mind told me that there must be a way. And so I found a lead at Sparkasse Bonn, a bank that had absolutely fabulous base fee and exchange rate – e.g. 1.4 as against 1.55 at Reise Bank. Alas, they don’t take $100 bills unless you have an account with them. I enquired to open a Giro account but left the thought when they needed residence proof and €3.5/month fee for the cheapest account. Just as I was about to give up, I saw a sign – Deutsche Bank. Well, that looks familiar! And voila, they have good exchange rate, accept $100 bills and even low base fee. Can’t believe no one of over 20 people that I asked would refer me to Deutsche Bank instead of other Sharks.