Internship at SMA Italia

Hello to Cold Germany!

I can't complain, at least about the weather. At the moment it is 30*C under clear blue skies, although it feels even warmer.
Unfortunately I don't get to enjoy it much here at work, though I would like to take a moment and personally thank the inventor of the air conditioner. The first few weeks here took a lot of getting used to, at least the heat, but I have finally stopped arriving to work drenched in sweat.

SMA Italy

Katrins house in Italia.

Since we're talking about work: my colleagues here are all amazingly nice and I was greeted very warmly. My workday doesn't start until 9:00am and it's still a little new to have so much time in the mornings, but the office doesn't even open until then. My commute to work is really simple and takes just 10 minutes with the street car.
The first three weeks for me at SMA Italy were spent in Marketing, where I was responsible for a customer data base. Then it was off to the order center in MPS and then on to the service department. Due to the language barrier, there were unfortunately a few boring tasks for me to perform.

Free Time in Italy

Katrin at the Public Viewing.

I was fortunate that two trainees from my school were in internships in Milan as well, so we were able to watch the European Championship games together or do other things together on the weekends. We went to Lago Como together, for example. It's a lake with a beautiful surrounding and a type of street car which travels along the mountains. From there you can (almost) see the entire lake.
In order to escape the hot temperatures, we planned to visit a swimming pool. After visiting the tourist information center we found one, too, though it turned out to be a little disappointing. There was almost no grass to lay out on and there was a rule that you had to wear a swim cap (something we promptly ignored ;-)).

Thankfully I get along very well with my colleagues and really enjoy the tradition that every Friday, 2 colleagues cook for everyone who wants to join. It's just like a family, I have to say. It's just my luck that they have served pasta with seafood twice (which is just not my thing ;-)), but as I learned in intercultural training, you don't decline an invitation, so I made it through. 🙂

Solari Saluti,
Katrin