Travel and Work at SMA

Even after five weeks in California, I hadn’t gotten tired of the heat or the air conditioning or the burgers. Why would I? There was’ always a new project on my desk, and ‘ so much to discover after work. 🙂 I hadn’t noticed any big differences but lots and lots of small differences.

Kristin at her desk

What struck me right away is the different layout in the office. There, they’re all together in one big space, and yet each of us had more room in our own private cubicle than we sometimes have in a four-person office in Germany. Even my little cubicle had a big window with a great view.

Lunch with my colleagues

We mostly went out for lunch, because the windowless break room wasn’t all that inviting, and to be honest, I really didn’t have time to make my own lunch at home because most of the time we went out at night. There was nowhere in the building to buy food. For lunch, we could easily go out for Mexican, Chinese, burgers, pizza or BBQ. Barbecue was my favorite.

Yosemite National Park

Evenings in Rocklin

After work was when things really got interesting. We watched sports with some of our co-workers (Anton is even on the softball team), or got something to eat, or had a beer – although until June 29, when I turned 21, it was’ a soft drink for me – or occasionally we went to a concert. Everyone wanted us to see as much as we could of California and really experience its culture. Almost every day, we got suggestions about where to go after work and what to do on weekends. And on Monday morning, we always had to give a full report. By this point we had’ already shared stories about our trip to Sacramento, a bicycle tour at Folsom Lake, San Francisco, L.A. (Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Venice, Santa Monica, Malibu Beach), Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe. As you can see, we’ tried to get it all in, so my shopping trips were a little less extensive than I had in mind, but I could probably have made up for that in a hurry with a few evenings at the outlet stores or the high-end Roseville Mall.