FINALLY

I would like to welcome you to my blog for my summer of 2008 in Germany. Deutschland ist sehr schön! My name is Bill Near. I am twenty years old and will enter my junior year of college this fall. My favorite thing to do with my time is play ice hockey. I play the saxophone and harmonica and love all kinds of music (except some country).

Although this is my first post, I have been in Germany for nearly one week and there is already much to be said. Let me preface my summary of the past week with a quick description of what brings a small-town New Hampshire native to Europe.

My trip begins at MIT where I currently study Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. It is here (well there) that I found the gem of a program called MIT Germany, one of the branches off of the tree that is MISTI (MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives). Here's how the program works, at least from my experience. Last fall I was doing something (not the important detail) when I thought, "I think that I want to be in Europe next summer doing something related to my major and travelling. How can I get there?" From the sky an answer came--"MISTI"--but I needed more. After attending a few information session for the different European countries that had placement programs, I began discussing the process with MIT Germany Managing Director, Dr. Sigrid Berka. Dr. Berka basically has a list of all the companies that she has "connections" with. You tell her what you like or a particular company that you are interested in, and she tells you where to begin. Basically, if you already have a good resume and a draft of a cover letter, all you need to do is refine the cover letter for the company that you are interested in, fill out some simple background forms, and Dr. Berka will wave her magic wand to get you there (well here).

When I began looking into the MIT Germany program, I sent an email out to my fraternity, Phi Sigma Kappa, and others immediately jumped on board. There are now 6 Phi Sigs (Matt, Toan, Lawrence, Gleb, Ian, and myself) in Germany among the other 35 or so MIT students here. I am working for OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, as is Ian. Matt is working for Deutsche Bahn (transportation), Toan for Siemens, Lawrence has a research position at the university in Würzburg, and Gleb is working for BMW.

I arrived on Friday May 30, 2008 and will stay until around August 16, 2008. My blog will document the "interesting" details of my work, travels, and random times while here. The stories will most likely contain unnecessary, excruciating details from time to time for which I will apologize once. I'm sorry. I am an engineer, and to us, details matter.