The Booking Department

Hey everyone out there from Germany, Sweden and surprisingly from America !! (Whoever you are ;))

It was a very interesting day, but first I have to apologise, that I won't be able to accentuate everything with nice pictures from Schenker. Tomorrow I have to ask the manager, if I'm permitted to take some photos... And I have to admit, that somehow it's hard to move today, because Frida and I went to the gym yesterday and we did some spinning and some excercises for the body ;) Anyway, let me tell you a bit about this Monday.

Today I joined the booking department. Here, all customers call or send an e-mail to let the persons in charge know, if they want their consignments or parcels being transported from Sweden to another country or if it is within Sweden etc...
This department is devided in some small parts with one person each in charge. The most surprising thing is, that those 6 or 7 people can choose on Mondays, which part they want to take for the whole week. There they can decide between: Import, Export, Sweden, Finnland, Europe or E-mails.

That's really interesting for me, because at my company, everyone has to read and convert the e-mails into bookings etc. within his or her department. Like there are two persons in charge of Germany, so they wind up those affairs until it comes to the dispatch, where I am going to be, when I'm back in Germany ;)

At 12 o´clock the lunch-break started until 1 o´clock. Some of the people went home, others brought their lunch to work, and others again went out to buy something at a restaurant or so.
I had my lunch with me, because Frida and Jocke always are such great chefs, that I have no other option than taking the leftovers with me ;)))
The room, where you can eat, is pretty amazing. There is something like a kitchen with three fridges, seven microwaves and some dish washers. You can use everything you need! Moreover there are two big facilities where you can get some coffee, cappuccino and hot water for tea. (So, perfect for fika ;))

Afterwards I continued to watch the people from the bookings. I got to know Maria, who is responsible for the Import this week. She didn't hesitate to explain me everything she did. If it was writing an e-mail, responding to a call or just looking at some charts, she always told me how it works, or what the problem was and how she was going to solve it. I think I stayed three hours with her, haha... 

Today turned out to be a perfect day to learn something for my future as a freight forwarder, and I'm relieved that the people are very kind. Most of them say, that it's hard for them to talk in English, but after a time it works and I understand most of it. Maybe not all, because I don't have all that background knowledge. 

Tomorrow I'm going to see the traffic department, and then I will continue with the warehouse, support, mistake-correction and bills.  I'm so curious!!!!!

(I put some pictures in here, otherwise this entry would look very lifeless.. As you can see, spring is arriving here as well !)

Visiting Schenker and a diving competition

Good morning lovely people out there!
I think I have to tell you something about the last 2 days, don't I? The sun is shining, it's really warm outside and I have nothing better to do, than writing a blog entry. No, just kidding ;)

Let's start with Friday. It was the first day we went by train to get to school. The school was almost empty, I think, because e.g. the 3rd year has to work on Fridays.

At 1 o´clock Jocke and I had an appointment at Schenker. The whole place is highly secured! About 180 cameras are installed and you can't go anywhere without permisson. That's why we had to get such a sticker for visitors. I have to use such things the next days when I'm going to work there as well ;)...
After smalltalk, we took a walk and were informed about the different departments in Värnamo. The funniest part for me was the department, where mistakes e.g. the adresses were corrected!
The most impressing part might be the warehouse. They have around 75 loading platforms. For me, that's a lot! But I can't compare Schenker with ECL Rostock. We've got very huge paper reels and Schenker uses to spread various other things, especially small parcels. So if we would have 75 loading platforms, we might use the whole international port of Rostock, because I think our loading platforms are much bigger o.o... Maybe I should measure that.
I can't recall many things of that walk, perhaps I was tooo nervous ><... But next week I inform you  about everything in more detail, especially about the several departments. I will visit each department and after that I can decide which one impressed me most and I'm going to start there for the remaining time.

After a calming ice pop, we got back to school, where Jocke wanted to prepare some lessons for the next week and I wanted to do a bit of sight seeing.
I was wallking around without intention, explored the home town of Bruno Mathsson, called my Mum for the first time after almost a week and enjoyed the very nice day of spring.

Around 5o´clock Frida fetched us at the school, because on Saturday Pontus attended a diving competition in Malmö!





First we drove to Trelleborg. There we spent the night at Jocke's Mum's flat. She has the perfect view over the harbor! It must be very nice to live there and observe the ferries every day ;)

Yesterday, we got up quite early, although we said that we want to sleep as long as we can, haha. So, after fetching Jocke's Mum, we drove to Smygehuk, Jocke's hometown. In addition, it is the most southern part of Sweden ;)
I liked it there. The smell of the sea, seagulls, ... It reminded me of home.

Afterwards, our journey continued to Malmö. First we stopped by the beach. From there you can see the Öresund brigde, which was pretty amazing. It is HUGE!
We continued by visiting the town, where Frida wanted to buy some thights in a special shop. I've never seen a store just for socks and thight, I think. But they had some really good stuff. 
Eventually, after a perfect meal at Mando, we had to drive to the diving competition immediately, because Pontus missed his parents and he was quite nervous.

So the next four hours we spent there. In my point of view all of the kids did a reeeeeaaaally good job, especially when they jumped from the 3 metres diving board. How could all of them be so brave? I was always afraid, that they would get hurt in some way during the 'German jump'... like jumping backwards and plunging into the water forward.  Thankfully nobody got hurt!

Afterwards we drove back to Jönköping. We had some dinner and then I was falling asleep almost immediately I touched my bed...

Young Entrepreneurship fair 2014

First thing I have to say and what summarises everything: AWESOME!

This morning, I accompanied Frida to a huge fair, called 'Young Entrepreneurship'. She and Jocke told me a lot about it and so I wanted to see what this really is, because I have never heard of something like this before. I dare to say that Germany doesn't have such an event (correct me when I'm wrong ;)).

Main idea of the whole fair is to let young people, from schools all over Sweden, establish their own company (real companies! including registering and everything). They have to form an idea of what they are going to do with this opportunity and then they have to get some starting-money e.g. from their families. From now on those young poeple have to do everything to get their company working.
Today it was the big day of around 180 young entrepreneurs! It is said, that around 25% of those will later start a company again!

The event took place at Elmia, a huge bilding where actually concerts and conferences take place.
The whole fair is build up like a job-fair in Germany, so you have a lot of companies on one space ;)

The students were very eager to sell their products. You were not able to only pass by and look, no, as soon as you reached their space, they talked to you, explained everything about their products and how everything works. That was pretty amazing! Those folks were around 18 years old (some in the 2nd year, the rest in the 3rd year), and they acted so mature by presenting their company!!

I interviewed one of the teachers, and she said, it's always a great opportunity for the students to show how good they are. They can be average or below that at school, but here, they exceed everything. That's pretty cool, isn't it?

The range from very innovative to only selling products of other companies was wide, but everything was special and most of them did a great job in producing themselves.

There were e.g. two girls, who sold special towels for women. They bought the towels and attached some cloth, so you can fix it and the towel wouldn't slip.
Another group sold handmade cases for laptops and ipads, but as Frida and I have experienced, you can use them as bags as well ;)

Another example for handmade stuff were small cases you can attach to the bra. It could be very handy for a women when she doesn't like to walk around with a bag the whole evening on a party. 

A very handy device you can see on the right side. Everyone knows the problem: You use a tube of mustard, or stuff like that, for lunch and you don't want to close it right now, because you are continuing to use it. So a very keen guy presented this nice device to prevent the tube from dipping on the table, but it can be used to spread the mustard on a slice of bread as well ;)

A lot of companies collected some money for charity by selling their goods. So the avail goes to e.g. the red cross, the breast cancer- and diabetes research.

All in all, this was an astonishing day for me. I think I've never seen so many intelligent people on one place! It was fun to talk to them, althought in some cases they didn't want to speak English. It's always hard to present something in English when there was not much time to prepare it. I know it by myself. Sometimes you really don't know the special terms. For me as a German it's even harder, because everything is translated and dubbed. It's always a pity, when someone asks me if I have seen some special film and I don't really know, because I only know the German title =/... But that's not the topic ;)

I think the idea of such a fair could be very fruitful for students and their country and maybe even for the older people who already established something like the young people did today. A large amount of small companies exist in Sweden and this country is very important for export, so it's even more interesting how they stuggle to offer great perspectives for the young generations.

There is so much to say, but I didn't know where to start and how to go an and how to end and I still don't know if I got everything right, because there are so many information!! I hope everything is understandable and you folks out there perhaps want to attend the fair next year as well ;)

Over and out for today :3

An ordinary schoolday

Fortunately it was only snow and rain last night, but on the other hand there was a bad storm outside. We survived it, that's all what matters;)

I'm getting used to school now. Most of the people accept me and I like to come here in the morning. Unfortunately it's my last day for now, but I will be here in two weeks again for one or two days;)

Finally it's time to start my real internship on Friday. I'm very excited about that!! How will the people react? Are they nice? What am I going to do there? How is the working athmosphere?

Tomorrow I will attend the 'UF-mässa' or, the 'Young Entrepreneurship fair'.
About 170 groups of young students pesent their companies which they established durig the last 8 months. It's a huge school-project so it will be interesting how the young people were getting along with that task and how mature they really are ;)
Let's see if I will make a whole blog-entry on this, because it's my task tomorrow, to interview the people and to take a lot of pictures so a presentation can be made of it :3

Yesterday was Waffleday so we had some waffles after dinner. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take a photo, because they looked too delicious and we had to eat them immediately ;)...

Getting to know each other

 Hej!

Today it was freezing cold outside, when we were on our way to school and even the radio forecasted snow in the evening, but I don't wish for it..
I hope it will be like yesterday. The sunset was beautiful <3..

My first lesson started with Petra. The class was talking about the behavior of customers, like...: Where do the costumers go first? Where are there spots in the store where nobody wants to go and how can you change this matter,... It was really complex. I never thought that someone working in a store, analyses the psychology of his or her customer that much... So they have to analyse if they are in a hurry, coming with friends or kids or husband, is there someone waiting outside,...

Furthermore I got to know the 4 students in that class. All of them are working in stores. One sells electronical devices, two are selling sportswear and another one is into hydraulictools.

Next lesson I was with Marika. Her class had the task to analyse the leadership-techniques of some famous leaders e.g. Barack Obama, Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King,..
But the class seemed to have problems with their Swedish class so they were complaining almost the whole lesson without thinking about the excercise.

During the lunch break I got to know some girls from the 3rd year from Marikas class. One of them works at the hospital as a secretary and in her spare time she helps older people with everything. They can do an extrajob if they want to, not like us, who have to ask the employer if it is allowed to do so.

Afterwards I had a small presentation on the dual educational system. They asked some questions, so I hope it was enlightening for them ;)

How time flies! It's already my 4th day here and I didn't realise it!! But somhow I still miss home, at least my hand and biro miss it :3...

This was now my fourth part... I hope it is like a blog.. because I really don't know what I would have to write otherweise... Writing is so much fun!! Thanks for reading!! <3

First day in school

It's Monday, so my first day of school!!

At the beginning, I got to know some people of the staff (Marika, Hanna and Petra), they are lovely!! After experiencing Jocke's first lesson, I continued participating in Marika's class(economics). There an "education master" informed the pupils on the possibilities after graduation. If they are going to study, or looking for a job etc... Reason for that was: all of them are in the 3rd and last year.

Some differences to Germany came up to me.
First, only a few number of the people puts out a pencil and a piece of paper to take some notes.
Second, everyone got a PC at school, which is property of the school.
Third, the classes are pretty small (approx. 15 students).
Fourth the doors are closed during the lesson, so if someone comes late, which happens a lot, he or she has to knock until the teacher lets him/her in.
Fifth, many pupils come late to school, up to 30 minutes...

Similar to Germany seems the magnetism of the places in the back of the classroom, like "if i'm far away from the teacher, he wouldn't pick me!"
And they seem to have a similar dual educationsystem like we have. The 3rd year e.g. have their practicedays on Thursdays and Fridays. Maybe this is compareable to the ecolea school in Warnemünde.

11.30 we had lunch.
Instead of taking a plate from a huge staple, people have got a code, they have to type in and a hand-scanner to be able to take a plate...high tech!!! That's because the school had problems with non-school-related people who ate for free here before.

Afterwards Jocke showed me the grounds. It is huge. The school offers many kinds of specialisation. I'm in the logistics part now, but there are in addition parts for: electrics, mathmatics, chefs, disabled/ handycapped, sports,...
On the picture you can see the culture-part (theatre, music, art,...) and the handycapped.. Unfortunately, there are too much buildings to fit into one picture ><...

The whole day showed me, that Swedish and German are quite similar. Sometimes I'm surprisingly well able to understand something, funny isn't it???
And, as you can see, it's always time for Fika again :3

"It's a lovely day for Fika!"

Hello again,

it's Sunday and in addition to that, my first complete day in Sweden.

It wasn't hard to find some sleep after yesterday, but even though, I woke up at 7:00 am this morning again. I'm glad, when there will be a lot to do next week, and I will get to know the places around here, because on the first day, everything looks the same and you always think 'I will never manage to remember everything!'.

The day welcomed me today with such a beautiful view.
From my room I can see the lake 'Vättern'. It's completely awesome to wake up in the morning and you see such an amazin landscape. I thought such views are only possible in movies on TV!

After a small breakfast, Jocke and Frida showed me a small part of Jönköping. It consists of several areas and Bankeryd is one of them.



We drove all the way, because it was raining all the time, although the sun is shining from time to time.
They told me about houses, earlier made of wood, instead of concrete, we've seen the 'Stadsparksvallen' with a huge playground for kids, there was the 'kristine kyrka' and a huge shopping district called 'A6-center'. Actually it was an artillery-district but it was reconstructed into a shopping mall.In the end, there was a nice café we went for 'Fika'. It's the activity of having some cups of coffee and something to eat during the day, seems quite funny ;)

Now the day is coming to an end, and I'm very excited to go to school tomorrow. I will accompany Jocke and hopefully the people will be nice to the German intruder ;)))

The wallets...

Yesterday, 22nd March 2014, my exchange started.
At 7:30 am the ferry left the harbour of Rostock and 6 hours of complete boredom were waiting for me, but in the aftermath I can say, it came completely different.

15 Minutes before the ferry arrived in Trelleborg, I recognised, that my wallets were gone.
Some minutes ago I had changed some money into the Swedish currency, so there were two wallets with different currencies and all my ID´s.
I went to the bathroom, after changing the money, a last time, because there would be another hour by bus and 2 hours by train, but then I saw, that my bag was open. So I ran down the stairs again and saw some guys running upstairs. They were really excited. I knew them from earlier. They had asked me for money before when they were playing games in the casino-area.
When I was looking around, another passenger asked me, if the wallets, the two boys found recently, were mine.
Shock.
She took me by the arm and we were searching on the ship, but without finding them, so we went to the reception, where a security officer helped us.
We found the two boys outside, and our first thought was: *They have thrown everything into the water*...
First thing the girl and I had to do, was identifying the persons. It was difficult, because they answered *We don´t understand English!* in English and were playing very dumb.

The ferry arrived in Trelleborg and the Captain was introduced to everything and he called the Swedish Police. They came after aprox. 30 minutes.
Suddenly one of the boys said, he would get the wallets, if we wouldn´t inform the Police. The Security Officer and the boy went into the ship and came back with... surprise... two female wallets!!
I was so glad, being a complete person again, with all my cards and everything, but most of the money was missing. After a few minutes, right before the Police arrived, they gave back some money, but it was'n all.
When the Police interviewed me, I suddenly realised, how much money I had lost and especially, how lucky I was, to get the most important things back!!... We got off the ferry almost two hours later, so I had to hurry to find my bus to Malmö and then to catch my train to Nässjö!...

When I arrived in Malmö, everything confused me. Somehow I wasn't able to think clear. I walked around the central station three times and didn't find a notification for Nässjö. Then I left the station to get to the tourist office in the other side of the street, which was... closed. Next to it, there was a souvenirshop, which I entered.
The salesman felt so much pity for me - don't ask how I looked like - that I got a coffee for free and then I continued to find a train. Actually I had to look for a train to Stockholm, not Nässjö. That's the reason why I thought there would be no train that day. Fortunately I got a ticket for the last train at 17:11 and I arrived at  19:00, where Jocke and Pontus fetched me.

We drove to their house, where Frida and Frederik were waiting for us with dinner.

All in all it was a very exciting day. Starting with saying goodbye to my loved ones (=/), continuing with some thieves (Ò_Ó) and ending with a lovely family in Sweden (<3). Thanks to all people who helped me and still do!!!
Best regards from the wallets ;))