Interns@AutoCom

2012, a year full of adventures, is about to end and we plan to celebrate that as well as the start of the new year together: Cooking and having a great time together with some of the other interns will make this day unforgettable and a perfect start full of New Year’s resolutions!   We say goodbye for 2012 and wish you and your families a successful, wonderful 2013:

Christmas, the most important holiday for the Christians… During my time in America, I realized that Christmas is not the same and not even really similar in Germany and the US. I would like to take the time to share some of the major points that caught my eye: In Germany we celebrate the time before Christmas Eve. So, we have Christmas Calendars, calendars with mostly chocolate for every day in December until Christmas Eve to sweeten the time until the big day.   We also celebrate the Advents season where we light one more candle every Sunday before Christmas Eve. And last but not least there is Nikolaus Day on the 6 th of December where we celebrate St. Nikolaus, a Greek saint that gave his money to the poor people. In remembrance of him we still fill each other’s shoes with candy on the night of the 5 th . The major difference however is definitely that we celebrate Christmas on the 24 th of December instead of the 25 th and have three days of celebrating. After...

“How do we celebrate Christmas this year? Do we visit grandma? Do we invite Uncle George? What are we going to eat?” All those questions come up every year, but this year will be special for Nina and me: We won’t be spending the holidays with our families in Germany; we will stay in the US and experience the celebrations here! Although our plans are different, we are both really excited and can’t wait to explore the differences between the cultures and countries! Nina will visit her former host family in North Carolina, where she had a great time during school. On the other hand, I am planning a trip to New York with some of the people I met here. Both of us are expecting a great time and wonderful holidays! We wish you a merry Christmas and happy holidays J Jana and Nina

As another holiday season approaches, the whole AutoCom team wishes you and your family the very best. May the Christmas season fill your heart and home with joy! "Remembrance, like a candle, burns brightest at Christmastime." Charles Dickens

The Christmas Market- what a nice German tradition! Nina and I followed Jacks advice and went to the annual “Traditional German Christmas Market” in Birmingham. German everywhere, but would these white plastic tents host the same huge amount of different goodies as the frame houses in Germany? Actually the answer is no. We had Gluehwein, a hot and spiced red wine, saw Bratwurst and Weisswurst as well as German Potato Salad, but most of the sales booths, offered decorations or presented the work of their organizations. We missed roasted almonds, the warmly decorated booth and the smell of Christmas all over the place, but overall it was a really nice day and a great experience! We enjoyed it and it was interesting to see how German traditions are adopted here in America, although there is still some work to do. ;-)  

Last Friday, Craig invited Austin, Nina and Jana for a lunch at the Athens Coney Island Diner. We all had Coney Dogs (Hot Dogs with Chili served with fries (also with chili and cheese if you like that, too)) and a lot of fun! After some enquiring gazes, Jana and Nina enjoyed their lunch and tried their best to avoid a huge mess. We could argue about their success, but let’s leave it at that……… It was a typical American lunch and a great new experience for us interns!                                                                              Thank you, Craig!