First day at work!!!

Angel Fco Jimenez and me (Michael) are doing our internship at Talanx / HDI-Gerling. HDI-Gerling is a big insurance in Germany. We meet there a spanish guy who lives here for 18 years now, he is called Iñaki. He introduced us into our new jobs and helped us a lot. There are 2500 employees in this company and the building is very large!! All people are very kind and they help us a lot too. We are going to make some applications in Java and XML. Here are some photos.

 Angel in the office

 Michael in the office

 Angel in front of HDI

Michael in front of HDI

The life in Köln

Esperando el avión en el aeropuerto de Málaga.
Waiting for the airplane at Malaga Airport.

First of all I want to say "thanks" to Michael Kunze for all the effort and attention. Without his help, we only would stay at home. He explained us all the train stops and all the streets. He translates us from German and English to Spanish at any time. Tomorrow we will start the work. See you in Köln.

Yesterday was the first day of work and Alberto and me saw the company. The name of the company is Rewe and is a supermarket. I have search information about my work because this is new for me and I want learn.

The road from my apartment to my work more or less is 40 minutes but with music good is more short. You can download my music for do it the way more short in this link.

DaniCFlow - Contraste

I hope you like it.

First Impressions of Cologne

When we arrived in Cologne, two teachers from our partner school, Matthias and Regina, were waiting for us at the airport to take us all to our residences.  During the drive, we were given our first view of the city where these six students will spend the next nine weeks of their lives.  We all agreed that Cologne looks like a beautiful city and a great place to live.  

Today, we met the same two teachers again at the cathedral and got a special tour from Matthias through the inside of the cathedral and around the old area of Cologne.  Afterward, we went to a typical German restaurant, where the students were given their first taste of the typical beer of Cologne called "Kölsch" as well as some authentic German food. 

Afterwards, the students had some things to do in order to get settled into their apartments.  I, on the other hand, was able to do some more sight-seeing on my own around the city. I took a long walk through the park along the Rhein river, saw a few of the 12 Roman churches scattered throughout the city, and even had the chance to do some shopping along the main shopping street in the center of the city.  


Tomorrow, we'll go to Georg-Simon-Ohm-BerufSkolleg for a welcome meeting, where I'll introduce myself and the students and give a brief oral presentation about our IT vocational program at IES Campanillas.  The rest of my time in Cologne will be spent visiting the companies where the students will be completing their internships and completing important paperwork.  The students will begin working on Monday.  


After spending only about a day and a half in Cologne, I can say that I am entirely enchanted by this city.  The architecture is gorgeous and to me, the location of the Rhein river and grassy parks make the city seem a little less city-like.  Also, it seems like there are plenty of things for the students to do in their free time in the city as well as outside of Cologne.  It almost makes me wish I could stay with the students and live in Cologne for the next nine weeks! 


Sarah Odebralski
IES Campanillas English Language Assistant

Köln ist ein Gefühl / Cologne is a feeling

6 Students from the IES Campanillas Vocational School in Malaga (Spain): Jorge, Daniel, Alberto, Manolo, Ángel and Michael, will go to Cologne for 9 weeks to do their on job learning period.

They go through the Erasmus Program (Mobility for Training).

Is our seventh consecutive year sending students to Cologne.

Our partner school in Cologne City is Georg-Simon-Ohm-BerufSkolleg

We also receive students from Cologne in Malaga. This year we will receive 12 students for 4 weeks.

This year our Language Asistant Sarah Odebralski, from USA, will go the first week with the students to assist them with all the paperwork and will leader the group in the wellcome meeting.

She will also write in this blog all the interesting things she and the group will do in this first week.

And then, the 6 students, will use this blog to let us know how they will handle with this amazing city.

We wish them all the best,
Sergio Banderas
IES Campanillas EU Coordinator