I did not know much about Garmisch-Partenkirchen before I came here. I knew it was a small town in the southern region of Bavaria of Germany surrounded by mountains. The last 20 mins of my bus ride from Munich airport to the town were incredible. I was in awe when I realised that I was going to be living here for the next 2 months. The mountains were incredible, and I felt so tiny amongst them.
During the week I am at work from approximately 9 to 17 either doing laboratory work, field work or sitting by my laptop working on excel and R software. I am helping out in a project on the denitrification cycle, where the amount of ammonia is being measured from different types of farming methods, organically and conventionally. The institute I work in is a 20 min cycle ride from the town centre and the ride every morning passes mountains and waterfalls. The staff are all very friendly and there are a few interns I have had the pleasure to meet and hangout with.
In the afternoons and weekends, I mostly spend my time outside enjoying the wonderful scenery that surrounds the town. I have been on many hikes, in one of them we ended up crossing the German border and went to Austria for a few hours! There are picturesque lakes here were on a hot sunny day we go swimming and have picnics. There were also many evenings where I went to bars to watch football games as the Men’s Euros 2024 were being played in Germany. When I went to watch the Germany games the atmosphere could not have been any better, with cheering, applauding, screaming and excitement when they scored.
This internship has been both an amazing academic experience as I get to learn about potential job positions in my environmental engineering field and also a wonderful international experience where I get to live in Germany and appreciate the culture and language here. During my time here I have started to think about what I would like to do after my bachelor’s degree. The work I have done and the people I have had the chance to talk to here has shown me what I would like to do in the future.
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