It's just another manic update
Ok, another week down.
This week is a little shorter than usual since tomorrow is the annual company retreat. During the day there will be some sort of team activities (but exactly what is a secret), then we’re spending the night on Germany’s famous Baltic Sea coast, a popular vacation spot. We can only hope for better weather tomorrow, though, as today has been all thunderstorms.
This week’s projects have been more or less similar to those of previous weeks. I did some work on another update to the court, but this time the case had a bit of an international flavour, since the client is employed by a British firm. I ended up having to send a letter requesting more information to the company headquarters in Bristol. It wasn’t so difficult, since I just translated the more or less formulaic letter they have written in German, but my colleagues figure they’ll be grateful to have the letter in English and not need to find a translator. Office American I may be, but at least it’s proving useful.
Another international touch this week, on Tuesday I went along with Mr. Brockdorff and one of the clerks to a meeting in Berlin where they first introduced themselves to employees of an insolvent company as the court-appointed insolvency managers. Rather a larger meeting than what I saw last week in Leipzig, but the same idea. Since the plan is to restructure the company, Mr. Brockdorff was able to give them an idea of how they would get their back pay and their chances for remaining with the company (very good). He thought I would be especially interested since the owner of the German company is an American, as well, and they have received a takeover offer from a firm doing similar business in New York. He also thought I would be good to have along for the 10% of the English discussion he might not catch, since he hadn’t done negotiation in English for several years. My language skills were primarily tested later when I translated the first draft of the takeover agreement that had been prepared last week, before the insolvency proceedings began, from English to German. Still, I was glad to get the chance to see how those sorts of deals get made. Mr. Brockdorff expects the international portion of his business to expand in the next few years, as Germany is reforming its insolvency laws to bring them closer in line with neighbouring EU countries like France and Poland, and because globalization will result in more companies having foreign assets or receiving foreign takeover offers in the insolvency process. Good news for someone like me.
Finally, I turned in a draft of the English translation of the Brockdorff Firm’s website, work that I might be able to show everyone when I get home, depending on how soon they code it for the Internet.
So, a fairly productive week. I hope this trend will continue.
The secret portion of the retreat ended up being the sort of team-building exercises you might expect on such an occasion. Still had fun at it, though. The themes of the event were military and GDR (former East Germany). Part of the team activities were a point tally for every piece of camo or East German memorabilia you had on. Sadly, I struck out on this one. Most people were able to pull out their old Young Pioneers outfits (sort of like Communist Boy and Girl Scouts), and some still had their army uniforms. Obviously, all of the above were problematic for me. Someone said I would probably have gotten bonus points for my old Scout uniform. Too bad I didn't know to bring it in advance. Oh well.
The actual activities took place at a museum of automotive and aeronautical technology. Everything from everyday cars up to MiG jets at this place. The activities were to push a Trabant backwards around a track, switching drivers after every lap, pushing a giant truck tire (probably weighing about 150 lbs) through a slalom course, driving a Ural truck around a mud course with the goal of stopping as close as possible to a marker line without going over (not easy, the brakes were shot). Coincidentally, when looking for a picture of the truck up there I found the website of the place we did all this stuff. That picture is of the exact truck I drove, in other words. (Site is here if you can read German or trust Google translation to get it close enough.) The last item was to pull an 18 tonne (not misspelled, it was metric tonnes) tank about 5 yards. Fortunately, we just so happened to have the tools at hand to jury-rig a block and tackle (6 wheels = 1/32 the power needed, if I understand correctly), and with 10 of us on the team it was actually surprisingly easy. And I can say I pulled a tank. Hoo-ah.
We spent the evening and a "traditional inn", which just means it's an old building and the waitstaff dress the part, in this case about 150 years ago, I think. Much drinking and dancing, and it was a good time. I finally gave up around 2 AM, but my roommates didn't stumble in until closer to 6. Germans do know how to party.
Saturday we had to cancel our plans to go to the shore because of thunderstorms. This happens a lot in Germany. Napoleon is supposed to have said once, "Germany is a terrible country: either it's foul weather, or it's raining." There you have it, then. Since we got home much earlier than expected, I went to a movie at the film museum. It caught my eye mostly for having Gerard Depardieu in it. The title was "La vie en rose", and it was a biographical film about Edith Piaf, who made that song famous. Lots of singing and music, as one might expect. If everything in the film is correct, she seems to have had a pretty terrible life, growing up more or less an orphan, drug and alcohol abuse, lots of deaths of important people at very inopportune times, etc. Mostly you felt sorry for her. Still, it was good enough to not feel like a two hour and twenty minute film, so in that regard, I can recommend it if you like art cinema.
Sunday I tramped around the New Gardens here in Potsdam, and took a tour of the Marble Palace therein. Plenty of photos. I didn't get inside Cecilienhof Palace this time, but I live practically around the corner, so I'll just go back next weekend, perhaps. One thing I frequently forget about Europe: nudity is much more easily counteanced. The New Garden surrounds a large lake, so of course you have some swimmers there. I didn't count on them being skinny dippers, and coming around the corner onto a group of middle aged men drying themselves in the sun after a quick swim is not something one should stumble onto unprepared. Yipe!
Oh, and a couple observations I've made here over the last couple of weeks. First, there are a lot of Russian tourists in this part of Germany. I guess it's not so surprising, really, but it's interesting. I think I've heard more Russian than English in terms of tourists speaking. It's still early for American tourists, though, since school is just getting out, but still surprising. I could be wrong about the language, too. They might be Polish or Czech, but it sounds Russian to me. Second, I guess German trademark law allows this in a way American trademark law wouldn't, but they've really picked up on the whole "Mc(whatever)" idea here. I've seen McPaper, McMöbel (furniture), and for ultimate absurdity points, a McFit gym right next to an actual McDonalds. Good times.
I guess that's all for this week. Time to get back to the heap of photocopying I have to deal with. Real intern work this week. ;) 'Til next time.
This week is a little shorter than usual since tomorrow is the annual company retreat. During the day there will be some sort of team activities (but exactly what is a secret), then we’re spending the night on Germany’s famous Baltic Sea coast, a popular vacation spot. We can only hope for better weather tomorrow, though, as today has been all thunderstorms.
This week’s projects have been more or less similar to those of previous weeks. I did some work on another update to the court, but this time the case had a bit of an international flavour, since the client is employed by a British firm. I ended up having to send a letter requesting more information to the company headquarters in Bristol. It wasn’t so difficult, since I just translated the more or less formulaic letter they have written in German, but my colleagues figure they’ll be grateful to have the letter in English and not need to find a translator. Office American I may be, but at least it’s proving useful.
Another international touch this week, on Tuesday I went along with Mr. Brockdorff and one of the clerks to a meeting in Berlin where they first introduced themselves to employees of an insolvent company as the court-appointed insolvency managers. Rather a larger meeting than what I saw last week in Leipzig, but the same idea. Since the plan is to restructure the company, Mr. Brockdorff was able to give them an idea of how they would get their back pay and their chances for remaining with the company (very good). He thought I would be especially interested since the owner of the German company is an American, as well, and they have received a takeover offer from a firm doing similar business in New York. He also thought I would be good to have along for the 10% of the English discussion he might not catch, since he hadn’t done negotiation in English for several years. My language skills were primarily tested later when I translated the first draft of the takeover agreement that had been prepared last week, before the insolvency proceedings began, from English to German. Still, I was glad to get the chance to see how those sorts of deals get made. Mr. Brockdorff expects the international portion of his business to expand in the next few years, as Germany is reforming its insolvency laws to bring them closer in line with neighbouring EU countries like France and Poland, and because globalization will result in more companies having foreign assets or receiving foreign takeover offers in the insolvency process. Good news for someone like me.
Finally, I turned in a draft of the English translation of the Brockdorff Firm’s website, work that I might be able to show everyone when I get home, depending on how soon they code it for the Internet.
So, a fairly productive week. I hope this trend will continue.
The secret portion of the retreat ended up being the sort of team-building exercises you might expect on such an occasion. Still had fun at it, though. The themes of the event were military and GDR (former East Germany). Part of the team activities were a point tally for every piece of camo or East German memorabilia you had on. Sadly, I struck out on this one. Most people were able to pull out their old Young Pioneers outfits (sort of like Communist Boy and Girl Scouts), and some still had their army uniforms. Obviously, all of the above were problematic for me. Someone said I would probably have gotten bonus points for my old Scout uniform. Too bad I didn't know to bring it in advance. Oh well.
The actual activities took place at a museum of automotive and aeronautical technology. Everything from everyday cars up to MiG jets at this place. The activities were to push a Trabant backwards around a track, switching drivers after every lap, pushing a giant truck tire (probably weighing about 150 lbs) through a slalom course, driving a Ural truck around a mud course with the goal of stopping as close as possible to a marker line without going over (not easy, the brakes were shot). Coincidentally, when looking for a picture of the truck up there I found the website of the place we did all this stuff. That picture is of the exact truck I drove, in other words. (Site is here if you can read German or trust Google translation to get it close enough.) The last item was to pull an 18 tonne (not misspelled, it was metric tonnes) tank about 5 yards. Fortunately, we just so happened to have the tools at hand to jury-rig a block and tackle (6 wheels = 1/32 the power needed, if I understand correctly), and with 10 of us on the team it was actually surprisingly easy. And I can say I pulled a tank. Hoo-ah.
We spent the evening and a "traditional inn", which just means it's an old building and the waitstaff dress the part, in this case about 150 years ago, I think. Much drinking and dancing, and it was a good time. I finally gave up around 2 AM, but my roommates didn't stumble in until closer to 6. Germans do know how to party.
Saturday we had to cancel our plans to go to the shore because of thunderstorms. This happens a lot in Germany. Napoleon is supposed to have said once, "Germany is a terrible country: either it's foul weather, or it's raining." There you have it, then. Since we got home much earlier than expected, I went to a movie at the film museum. It caught my eye mostly for having Gerard Depardieu in it. The title was "La vie en rose", and it was a biographical film about Edith Piaf, who made that song famous. Lots of singing and music, as one might expect. If everything in the film is correct, she seems to have had a pretty terrible life, growing up more or less an orphan, drug and alcohol abuse, lots of deaths of important people at very inopportune times, etc. Mostly you felt sorry for her. Still, it was good enough to not feel like a two hour and twenty minute film, so in that regard, I can recommend it if you like art cinema.
Sunday I tramped around the New Gardens here in Potsdam, and took a tour of the Marble Palace therein. Plenty of photos. I didn't get inside Cecilienhof Palace this time, but I live practically around the corner, so I'll just go back next weekend, perhaps. One thing I frequently forget about Europe: nudity is much more easily counteanced. The New Garden surrounds a large lake, so of course you have some swimmers there. I didn't count on them being skinny dippers, and coming around the corner onto a group of middle aged men drying themselves in the sun after a quick swim is not something one should stumble onto unprepared. Yipe!
Oh, and a couple observations I've made here over the last couple of weeks. First, there are a lot of Russian tourists in this part of Germany. I guess it's not so surprising, really, but it's interesting. I think I've heard more Russian than English in terms of tourists speaking. It's still early for American tourists, though, since school is just getting out, but still surprising. I could be wrong about the language, too. They might be Polish or Czech, but it sounds Russian to me. Second, I guess German trademark law allows this in a way American trademark law wouldn't, but they've really picked up on the whole "Mc(whatever)" idea here. I've seen McPaper, McMöbel (furniture), and for ultimate absurdity points, a McFit gym right next to an actual McDonalds. Good times.
I guess that's all for this week. Time to get back to the heap of photocopying I have to deal with. Real intern work this week. ;) 'Til next time.