Interns@AutoCom

December started and fortunately Michigan’s winter seems to be on a break now. Even though it is always around 0 degrees Celsius, the snow melted. The last two weeks haven’t been less exciting than the weeks before – quite the contrary.  Last week I was invited to Nadine’s farewell party in downtown Detroit. As a former intern of AutoCom, she was living in a big apartment building in the center of the city, where we had a rooftop party. After my 50 minute drive around the blocks of Detroit (Redwings and Tigers were playing this evening), I was fortunate enough to find a parking spot. View out of the sky lounge. Enjoying an awesome view out of the sky lounge, we spend an amusing evening with nice people including funny stories and some bottles of beer. After a short billiard game in the end, I left very late.  As usual I tried to find the way back to Royal Oak with my mobile, but recognized very quick that I was driving through other streets than on my way to Detroit. M

Two more weeks have past and right now I am in my fifth week in the USA. Meanwhile I got used to the daily American life, so far many things are already quite normal for me, which have been very overwhelming in the beginning. Now I am feeling comfortable in stores with all the grandmas and grandpas sitting and cruising around with small electrical caddys through the widths of Walmart. When I hear a beep in the store, I know that it might be a granny backing up around the corner. I am always prepared for a caddy crash ;-) Another thing is: cars and trucks in a bad condition wouldn’t have a chance to get a wheel on roads in Germany. In the U.S. it is not a problem driving a car which is falling to pieces. I pass those cars everyday but still with an uneasy feeling right next to them. On the other hand there are many luxury cars and pickups, more than twice as high as my car, glaring at me through my rear window with their headlights on every traffic light :-D. I think I should get

Hi guys, this is Martin again..  Time is running by so fast – it is my third week at AutoCom. A lot of exciting things happened in the meantime. Find some of my most interesting experiences below.  Wednesday, October 22nd, was an awesome day: After a couple of days looking around for a car, I was finally successful and bought a 2002 Taunus with comparatively few miles. Now I am happy to be more flexible. I am proud to drive my car with the Michigan plate on a cruise where and whenever I like to.  The next event on Wednesday was the Oktoberfest: The Detroit Press Club celebrated their Oktoberfest at Jacoby’s Biergarten, downtown. AutoCom and two of our clients sponsored the band, so Merle and I attended the celebrations as AutoCom representatives. It was fun to be there and I never would have guessed to drink some German beer so close to my arrival ;) This was my first time in downtown Detroit and from now on all the prejudices were reduced since I had been driving through the

Hello everybody! My name is Martin and I am the new intern at AutoCom for the next six months. I joined AutoCom’s team on Wednesday, October 15 th and I am totally excited about all my new colleagues, tasks and the office at its own/itself. Since I arrived from Germany on Monday, October 20 th , every single day was new and fascinating. I will mention some happenings later. Originally I live in a small village a couple of minutes away from Kassel, right in the middle of Germany. But now, compared to the American places I was already driving through, everything seems to be so small where I come from. At the University of Kassel, I studied political science and finished my master thesis last week – just in time before my departure to Detroit. After I successfully passed the visa application and finishing up all my travel plans I was absolutely relieved, sitting on the plane - grinning broadly. I have to add that I have never been before to the USA. Nine hours late

Meeting on a Saturday to hang out with co-workers?    Yes, with such a wonderful team you can also have a nice day on the weekend . Denise our business manager was friendly enough to invite us on Saturday to go with her to the winter fest “Aqua freeze,” which took place close to her house.  The SCS Aqua Freeze Festival got its start in 2013 when a few friends came up with the idea of having an ice festival in the city. Although it was really cold because of the wind coming off of the lake, as the festival was of course was an outside event, we all had a lot of fun seeing all the different types of ice sculptures. There was also an area where it was possible to see the sculptors cutting the huge ice blocks and the different figures in front of everyone.  For those who wanted to go ice skating there was also the possibility to play pond hockey on the frozen lake.   And for the people who couldn’t get warm enough trying to catch the few rays of   sunlight there was a

Having had the chance to experience a lot of snow in Detroit, and even more up north in Indian River, it was now time to check out the amount of snow even further north in another country-   Canada!!! Our destination was the township of Muskoka Lakes in the Canadian province of Ontario where we wanted to meet up with some friends. One of our friends has a cottage up there right next to Lake Muskoka in the city of Port Carling. Muskoka Township with over 1,600 lakes is known for being a popular tourist destination with lots of cottages. A lot of people love to come here in the summer time as well as in   in the winter, just as we did. Without traffic and snow it usually takes about 6 hours to get there from Royal Oak, but since it was really snowy we didn’t arrive in Port Carling before midnight, having left at 4:00 pm. After we arrived, a late night dinner in front of the fire in the very pretty and warm cottage was a nice ending to the day. Saturday, after a wonderful

  Winter in Michigan can be a lot fun, especially because we are enjoying one of the snowiest winters ever :-).   According to the snow records in the Detroit area, 31.1 inches of snow has fallen in January around here. These bounds are making it the snowiest January in Detroit in history (The old record of 29.6 inches is from 1978). We picked this weekend to go even further north in Michigan, to a city called Indian River. Friday right after work we packed-up our stuff, got in the car and took the four-hour ride to Indian River where we had rented a cabin with 14 people. It was a huge cottage with everything (Living room with an awesome fireplace and view over the frozen lake, billiards, darts, sauna, a hot tub outside and of course sufficient bedrooms and bathrooms for everyone)   that was necessary for a wonderful and relaxing weekend with even more snow then we had seen before in Detroit.  Arriving late at night, we enjoyed the rest of the day with a wonderfu