9 to 5 Work Grind

,,Hallo Commerzbank. Sie sprechen mit Kirsten Brodeen"

Those words will be forever engraved into my memory. Whenever the phone rings at my office, those are the first words that come out of my mouth. That old fear of picking up to the phone and talking with strangers? Completely gone.

So what exactly am I doing?

I am currently an intern at Commerzbank AG, Germany's second largest bank. (I'm slowly collecting facts about the bank and spewing them out whenever possible.) 

 

Now that I have completed my third week there, I can finally explain what I'm doing and why I absolutely LOVE it!

What do I do there?

My internship gives me the chance to work in three branches of banking:

1) Wealth Management- this is where customers with large accounts come. Here, I'm learning banking 101 by working in the front and back office, learning about investment banking, credit and how to manage an account.

2) Flagshipfiliale- The innovative, "future" of banking. Think coffee shop meets bank. 

3) International Counter- Banking for diplomats and other international figures.

(more details to come about the last two...I'm still waiting to hear more.)

3 Weeks in, first impressions

Before I started this internship, I had never considered banking as a future career. I knew very little about the subject. However, my host mom insited that I do an internship in banking, stressing that it is international business in action. So why not give it a shot? 

Another perk is I get to wear a suit
to work and get the"Sie" case
when I eat or shop.

My office!
Located in the "Upper East Side" of Berlin:
Friedrichstrasse/ Unter den Linden
My office is first floor of windowss,
second one in from the left.

Currently I'm working in Wealth Management. Since I knew almost nothing about banking before hand, the past couple of weeks have been boot camp. My commute to/from work has become dedicated to learning all things bank...and in German. It has been pushing me to my limits, but I love the challenge. In order to keep up with the pace of the internship, I've been assigning myself homework. My "homework" has included reading articles on banking, understanding the terminology of banking, usually learning it in German first, then realizing what it is in English and keeping up with the stock market and latest news. It's been helping me put together and better understand  everything going on around me.                                                                    I've learned how to manage accounts, ranging from opening and closing accounts, to transferring money and everything in between. It's amazing understanding how the technology speeds up the process and makes money-regardless of amount- seems like just a number on a screen. I've also been really lucky and have been able to follow and help different workers. Working with Relationship Managers and Specialists in Investing Banking was a game changer...They're all incredibly nice and helpful, and have really taken me under their wing. I've been helping them communicate with their English speaking customers, and in turn, they've let go to meetings and on and off site appointments with customers and teach me how they do their job. Observing them and listening to them explain their jobs has been one of the greatest experiences yet. All of them are very experienced and successful in their fields, and so learning how they organize their day, manage their tasks and communicate with their customers has taught me more than words can express. Plus, I've really started to take an interest in investment banking. It's a primarily male dominated field, but at the bank, a woman is the head manager of it, and she sat down and took almost an entire day to explain the history (in particular the changes in 2001, 2008 and 2011) in the stock market and how it operates on an international level. To be in that profession, you have have to be incredibly sharp, keep up with the news and latest trends, understand politics and cultural relations, all while willing to take a risk (and accept failure and time.) That interests me and now I'm greatly looking into careers in that direction. We'll see how the rest of the internship plays and see if my interest continues to grow.

I'm not going to lie, this internship is incredibly challenging. Working 40+ hours/week is intense. That added on to working entirely in German is brutal. (I now truly value and love sleeping!) Nevertheless, I love having to work hard to prove myself and look forward to going in each day and learning something.

Lunch Break last week-
A few CBYXers and I got invited to a luncheon with the
head advisor to the Secretary of Education, Maureen McLauglin at the U.S. Embassy. 

Münster!

Halli Hallo!

Two weekends ago I took a trip down memory lane and visited Münster!

Münster!

It was amazing to take a spontaneous trip and visit some familiar faces in a city where my adventures in Germany all began.

Julius, my tennis buddy from when I studied abroad two years ago, was the birthday boy, and invited me along to celebrate in the festivities. It was the perfect excuse to take a last minute weekend trip! For the past couple of months, I have been trying to get back to Muenser to visit my friends and family there, but one thing after another, things kept falling through. But it finally worked out and it was an absolute  blast to be back in the city!

Picture with the birthday boy
We got absolutely no good pictures that night...

Directly after my first day of  work, I took a train to Muenster and arrived right when the party began. It was just like the good ol' times with Julius! We caught up, danced and talked a lot, and I also met his new friends from college. They're all studying law and just finished their finals and planned on celebrating all weekend! We all definitely succeeded at that!

I also met up with Caro, one of my best friends a couple of times there. We bounded right back into  talking like we used to and I got all caught up on the latest from our friend group, Most of them are away either in college or traveling the world. In fact, the majority of them are on a gap year too and one is working as an au pair nearby my college so we'll be able to meet up there in the fall! 

The highlight of the weekend was definitely seeing the Beckmanns again!

They are family to me. Our families go back decades to when my dad studied abroad in college and I have truly grown up with Jonas and Flemming. They're my big brothers! Since Jonas visited Colorado this summer, he and I have been debating what to call each other since we've been each others host siblings, exchange students and long time friends. We've tossed around calling each other cousins, my "brother from another mother" and a few others, but siblings sums him, Flemming and I up best.

It was great catching up with them. Not a lot has changed since I left though I did get a kick out of them still going to yoga and pilates (I used to drag them along to it...) Flemming is studying a lot for his Abitur (graduation) this spring and Jonas is doing his dual study and  the entire family still lives and breathes handball. A visit to them isn't complete without going to the market and going to a handball game! 

There was something special about visiting them this time though...there was a click that I hadn't quite had before. I'm not sure what it was but I  came back to Muenser and finally felt like 

 I finally accomplished the project I left incomplete. I was laughing, joking and talking  to them how I would talk to them in English, but in German. They knew me as a kid and how I normally speak at home and had a similar realization and celebrated in the success. 

Fun fact: I was on my tippy toes in this pic and they're all still a head taller than me

Die Zeit vergeht wie im Flug! (Time Flies!)

My oh my! It's February already? It feels like just yesterday was Christmas! It's a bitter sweet realization that I'm half way through the year. On one hand I'm excited to see my friends, family and most of all, my dogs, but I'm also struggling to imagine returning. I've established my life here and although it's much more difficult and at times emotionally exhausting, I honestly can't imagine it any other way. Plus, day by day, I'm falling deeper in love with Berlin, my host family and friends who've  all become family.

On a Sunday walk with Jenny, my host mommy!

Part of the fam (we're missing
 Noah and Rigel)

A lot has of exciting things have happened recently, so it's probably easier to list them off!



So here's what I've been up to:

-My host family got a puppy! Welcome to Familie Friese, Austin!

We're raising him to be bilingual! It's so much fun to have puppy energy in the house! There's never a dull moment and we're all very amused by him.






-Viva Italia!

Bologna, Italy

Venice, Italy

Cannoli time!

-A familiar face came to visit. Neville, a friend from FoCo, visited me for a week of fun in Europe. We were in Berlin for a couple days, then joined Annika and one of her friends for a weekend get away to Italy! Being in Germany in the winter consists of little to no sunlight. This is problematic when you come from Colorado, the state with "300 days of sunshine per year". I'm deprived of Vitamin D. No worries...I found the cure- a trip to Italy ! We saw the sun! We also explored the two gorgeous cities of Bologna and Venice. Venice was beautiful! We explored the canals on a gondola (the old wooden boats with a guy in a black and white striped shirt paddling the boat) and also by foot. We might've gotten incredibly lost and almost missed our train, but hey, that's traveling!  I can also testify that Italy has the best food! We definitely ate our way through Bologna- the food capital of Italy! I definitely hit up McFit upon returning!







-I completed my FIRST internship with Linden Education! The learning curve was exponential . Interning for a start-up was a smart decision. My bosses treated me like one of them and with that, they entrusted me with a lot of responsibility. Since I didn't have a lot of expertise on marketing outside of being in DECA and the three marketing classes I took in high school, I took it upon myself to learn it. My commute to and from work was dedicated to reading books on topics ranging from marketing to copy and proposal writing to branding and even how to starting an online business. I've become entranced in these books. (I didn't like to read before I came here...) The best part about reading these books was that I was immediately able to apply what I read on the way to work into my projects. Seeing the implementation and concepts come to life was magical. I'm very grateful that my bosses gave me the opportunity to experiment and will greatly miss working for them. But I'm super duper excited for my internship at Commerzbank!

Pic with Chi

 -My internship at Commerzbank is going to kick my butt. I will be thrown into the field of international business and banking IN German. Slightly terrified? Quite possibly, but challenge accepted. This internship will allow me to also go on appointments to the various Embassies who hold an account with us and see first handedly, how business in conducted in a bureaucratic setting!

Squad at Mid Year Seminar

-

Chilling in our loft

Susana's suprise party

Mid-year seminar with the CBYX program took place in Berlin. It was a week-long party! We were zombies by the end of the week...It was great seeing the 23 others again and hearing about everyone's experiences. Everybody's changed, but since we're all going through a similar situation, we all came together and had a good time. It was also a blast to stay in the inner city and learn about the rich history of Berlin. On my commute to work, I walk by so many historical sites, but didn't uncover the history that lied within it until this week. It was absolutely fascinating to discover it, and it gave me a deeper respect for what this city has overcome and what is has grown to be.

Holocaust memorial

1936 Olympic Stadium where
the shrine to the Nazis was

Last but not least...

Tirol, Austria

Gold medalist, Leonhard Stock and I

-Today, I just got back from our second ski trip. This time there was actually snow! We went skiing in Tirol, Austria, which, as I've said before, was a dream come true. Growing up skiing in Colorado, I always dreamed of one day skiing in the Alps. If you told me then that by the time I was 18, I would've gone on three different ski trips there, I would say you were crazy. (Ich glaube, ich spinne).  I'm very blessed. This ski trip was a blast. We even had two days of knee deep powder! Plus, I got to spend a day skiing with Olympic Gold Medalist, Leonhard Stock (he owned our hotel).  I'm a big mountain skier, but he brought up my slalom skiing. It was unbelievable! Here are some fun facts about what I learned on the trip:
       *Apres Ski- After a day on the slope, Germans like to celebrate with Schnapps, singing and dancing. Thank you Sprachbad for teaching me all the necessary songs to sing along to the songs! ;p
       *The Austrian-German should be its own language. It was a slight punch to my confidence and was slightly frustrating, but after a lot of concentration and bu the end of the week, I could almost understand them! Wooho

My Ski group!

       *To compensate for not understanding the dialect, I won my ski group and Leonhard Stock's respect by skiing. Everyone in my group was arguably old enough to be my parents, but they were all so nice. They gave me a "German culture lesson" about Apres Ski...
       *Lines don't really exist. It's more of a push your way to the lift rather than patiently wait your for turn.
       *Although the I find the Alps more scenic, I'll always be a Colorado girl and prefer skiing in the Rockies.

Another gorgeous day skiing

So that's the current happenings here! Happy Super Bowl Sunday! My host family and I are hoping for a Bronco win! :)


Deine Kirsten

Weihnachten, Sylvester, Skifahren

Frohe Weihnachten und Sylvester!

Merry Christmas and New Years!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and is off to a great 2016! The holidays here were special and I enjoyed every minute of them. There's something about German Christmas'-I'm not sure what it is-but they have a completely different feeling from American ones, even though my family's Christmas' are heavily influenced by German and Swedish traditions.

Berlin Bitches with Santa 

First off, Christmas here is not a one day deal. It's stretched out into several days with the main festivities taking place on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) and going usually until the 27th. This year, our festivities lasted a little longer than that. We kicked off the celebrations with my host grandpa's 70th birthday party on the 23rd. For being that age, his friends sure know how to party. They danced and performed skits throughout the night. We celebrated at a "Kneipe", a local, very German pub. It was all decked out with Christmas decorations and iconic pictures of Berlin. 

Now onto the holiday festivities...

Putting the star on our Tanne

Selfie with  the host family while
Skyping my fam

Making Spaetzle-
a Christmas tradition of
my family and blending
it with theirs

Here's the truth: in the days leading up to Christmas Eve, I was concerned that I was going to be homesick. This is my second time spending Christmas in Germany, and knowing how family-oriented the holidays are here. Thankfully, my fears did not turn into reality and I felt like a part of the family during the festivities. The entire extended family of my host fam came over for Christmas, ranging from grandparents, uncles and aunts to cousins. It was a full house. Every one of them was nice and really interesting to talk to. They really wanted to meet my family and wish them a Merry Christmas, so we hooked Skype up to our TV and all of them skyped all of my family (put my mom's  German to the test). It was a really special moment. The icing on the cake to me feeling completely at home this Christmas was blending traditions. At home, my family has spends has a three important meals- a traditional German and Swedish meal and of course, benjets for breakfast. For our German meal, we usually make Spaetzle which I mentioned to my host fam, and loved the tradition so they decided to include it in our grand assortments of food...and it tasted great!

Now onto New Years and our ski trip to AUSTRIA!

KLEINARL, AUSTRIA

Hiking on a run

One of the first things my host family and I bonded over was skiing. It's been something we've been talking about non-stop for the past couple of weeks. Fortunately, they were able to squeeze me into their Christmas trip and so the day after Christmas, we made the 10 hour drive to Kleinarl, Austria for a ski trip. Only problem was there was barely any snow! Colorado took it all from us! The Alps have gotten barely any snow this year so about 90% of the snow was skied on was artificial. In the 15 years I've been skiing, I've never seen something quite like this. There was only enough snow to cover a few runs. The rest of the mountain looked liked it would in the spring. We made the most of it and enjoyed the sunny weather and blue skies, and went even back and forth between hiking and skiing one the mountain. I can't complain. We were in the Alps and it was gorgeous. Plus, it was a full week of "germaning" and bonding with my host family, and by the end of the week, I felt like a part of the family. Plus, as my host family noticed, I could finally make jokes (that weren't painfully awkward) in German! That may seem like a really stupid thing to notice, but if you've ever tried learning another language, you know what I'm talking about. Your personality becomes toned down, but I've finally pulled out of that phase. I'm content.

Host bro Arved and I on different parts of the mountain...

Soaking up the sun while eating Gampfknoedls
and drinking "Skiwasser"

New Years (Sylvester) was a BLAST! We spent it at our resort in Austria and it was wild. We first went to a really nice New Years banquet, then to a cocktail party then to a club at our hotel and brought in the New Year there. The great part about where we stayed was it was designed to meet other people staying at the resort, and so I was lucky to find some people my age to party with. It took a while to find them, but we all found each other on New Years and had a good time...It was a lot of dancing and fireworks...fireworks everywhere you looked in the sky. It would never fly in the U.S. but that's what made it so fun! Good times...

Don't be fooled: This is all artificial snow.

The holidays are over and it's surreal that I've been in Germany for 6 months now, but that also means there's only 6 left! It's bitter sweet. The next couple of months are going to be intense. I have a friend coming to visit me from the U.S., going to Italy, have mid-year seminar with my program, another ski trip, and I'll be ending my first internship. But with ending that one, I'm excited to announce that my next internship will be be at Commerzbank (a bank)! I will be working (completely in German=AHHHHHH) in international business and finance AND have the opportunity to visit and consult the different Embassies in Berlin. It's going to challenge me in so many, unique ways but will also open the door to a some incredible opportunities down the road. I'll share more information with you once I hear more! :)

Viele Grüße und Liebe!

Deine, Kirsten

This pic was too cute not to include...Austin+the some of the gang at Schnitzel Tag!

Mein Deutsches Leben mit Familie Friese (My German life with the Friese's)

Viele Grüße!

I can't wait to tell you all about this month! It's been a crazy month, but I absolutely love it! The typical "blues" that strike exchange students in November didn't resonate with me. In fact, November might have been the best month of the program yet!

Arved and our
puppy, Austin

Here's "the latest":

Be prepared for 10000
pictures of Christmas markets!!!

A little over a month ago, I changed host families. My prayers were answered and I was blessed with a wonderful family. My  host brother, Arved (12), is our little German movie star. He's currently playing the lead role of Timm Thaler in Timm Thaler (in German theaters Dec 22, 2016). He's absolutely adorable and a ton of fun to be around. My post parents, Jenny and Hilmar, are also wonderful. We quickly bonded over a passion for skiing (we're going on two ski trips to Austria this year!) and over love for talking quality politics. On the weekends, we nerd out and read the newspapers, then discuss the articles and politics behind the articles. We also discuss a lot of American politics (i.e. Donald Trump and guns) and let me tell you-talking American politics in German can be a challenge. It's made my German really  improve though.

View of the Christmas Market from our hotel room

Adventskonzert
at the Frauenkirche

A pic at a Christmas market

Over the past couple of weeks, I've done a lot with my host family and have really bonded with them. We went to Dresden for a weekend to attend an the Adventskonzert at the Frauenkirche (a beautiful cathedral recently rebuilt entirely from private funds.)  While there, we went to a black tie event and toured a museum at midnight, ate our way through Dresden's Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas markets that look like tiny villages within a city. They are my absolute weakness) and even visited our recently born Australian Shepherd puppy, Austin! I also went on set with Arved for a day and explored the world of cinematography. It was fascinating seeing how movies are filmed and how many takes it takes to nail a scene. I have mad respect for the                                                       system. 



                                                          Gossip Girl- German Edition









Last night, Annika and I joined Arved and his friend at a circus premier. It was a riot! We sat front row and some of the animals (lions, tigers, but no bears, oh my!) were at a arms length away from us. With my luck, I was called on to be a volunteer in an act that. I had to do a little dance and shake my booty and completely roll with whatever the clowns wanted me to imitate (I am also slightly terrified of clowns.) Oh, I forgot to mention, this was in German in front of an audience. My host brother, Annika, and I just about died of laughter. It's one of those strange "one time, when I was in Germany..." stories my friends are going to quickly grow sick of at home. But hey, it was probably on of the craziest nights and guess what? I got to ride a CAMEL! My life = complete! 

Ice skating at a Christmas market
with Annika

From the Berlin Bitches to you,
Merry Christmas and from Noah- Happy Hanukkah

This month was also the first time where I truly feel like I've settled into my German life and established a routine. I go to my internship where I work with three incredible, inspirational women and work on managing their social media, developing their marketing plan and have started working on proposal writing. I'm learning a lot about how the "real world" works. There's a lot off trial and error, but I'm glad I'm learning that now. After work, I meet up with the "Berlin Bitches" and go to the gym to start burning off the German pudge! After that, I normally head home and veg out with the host fam and watch the Royals or Netflix. I introduced them to Netflix and there's no turning back now...On the weekends, I usually go out with my friends or travel. There's never a dull moment.














The holidays are right around the corner. To all my college friends- enjoy pulling those all nighters studying for finals. I'm glad I don't have to deal with those for another year! :p To everyone else, Merry Christmas! I hope you have a relaxing, fun-filled holiday season. :)

Deine Kirsten