Internship story: How robots and alphabet books create friendships

If i need to sum up the internship in Germany in one word is … mindblowing.

During my final year of bachelor studies I had a wonderful chance to go and experience Germany in Augsburg via internship in MRK – Systeme GmbH.

I have my own robot. I named him Gida. It is smallest robot in the firm but it had the tallest worker.

Maja, my mentor, was and still is cool. She showed me the ropes of the system integrator industries and am eternally grateful for it. And others have cool projects but all top secret with XXXXX, YYYYY and ZZZZZ.

My internship was special compared to the rest of the group because it started 2 months earlier. During that time my reach to visit other places were mostly limited to Bavaria.

I have visited a lot of museums, in Augsburg, Ulm, München, Ingolstadt, Nürnberg and Memmingen. During my travels, I have met many friends and pen pals.

German Museum of Science and Technology in Munich

Because my German was very bad at the time, I took night classes at local school. It is very funny to explain to my teacher that we in Serbia speak and write like we are spelling (one letter – one voice) and that latinica and ћирилица are here normal.

Our Bukvar, a book that teaches kids to read and write in Balkans, was my gift to that school. That inspired other pupils to bring similar “Bukvars” from their native lands and to make that classroom filled with different alphabet books.

Introductory week in Berlin was like a holiday for me. Meeting such a wonderful bunch of people was a blast. Not even the tormenting rain could keep up from having fun.

With new friends new possibilities arose. Many hosted me in their homes in Germany, I have visited Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Bamberg and Regensburg. At one time my apartment hosted more than 10 other interns.

We went to Oktoberfest, many Stammtisches, on top of the 100+ levels high building. We were watching surfers on the river Isar, in the middle of Munich.

A FRIEND OF THE STUDENT DORM |SURFERS ON ISAR, MUNICH

On the professional side, I saw inside of the airplane factories where robots and machines worked as one.

Finally, I saw purpose of all that theory from the school and realised that the documentation of work is necessary part of the job – not some evil thing.

In the end, it was challenging and mind opening. To witness and work in other country expands your horizons, changes you forever, teaches you new cooking recipes (like Bavarian anti-hangover-breakfast) and brings more questions than answers.

After the internship, I joined the Alumni Club of the Programme in Belgrade. Not only that I enjoy participating in their educational and leisure activities, but I also took an initiative and organized several on my own.

On of my ideas was to establish the board game nights in the club. I think we will make this a tradition.

I also had a lovely chance to meet young people from the BH Futures Foundation. My dear mentor from the beginning of this story, mentioned the name of the institution while we were working together.

When these guys came to IT conference “INAT Summit” in Belgrade, I approached them. It was a pleasure to get connected with brilliant students from the region again and to share my internship experience with them.

They were delighted to hear how much I have learned in such a short time period.

I am looking forward to seeing them applying for this Programme next year.