Life » germany

Time to wrap things up here in Munich

Chris S. — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:05:07 +0000

I just got back to Munich last night from Berlin. Berlin is a very cool city, which I will have to visit again sometime in the future. Now however, it’s time to pack everything up and say good bye to Munich. Munich has been a great home to me for the past 4 months, and I’ve had a great time here. There’s not much that can keep me away from this city, and I’d love to come back… someday.

I’ve still got a couple of errands to run before I head out to the airport, but that time is fast approaching.

So, with this short entry, I say, “Good Bye”, to Munich and, “Hello!”, to Los Angeles!

Oktoberfest!

Chris S. — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:47:18 +0000

I went to Oktoberfest yesterday with a couple of friends that I met in Germany. It’s hard to explain the level of sheer awesomeness in any amount of words, so I’ll just sum it up as: “Wow”. It was much more than I expected. It was actually more than just a beer hall drinking festival, actually. It was more of a county fair. There were lots of carnival rides, and food stands, and of course, beer halls! Actually, its like a county fair that revolves around drinking.

The beer halls were pretty amazing. There were about 8 or 10 of them, and while it’s usually very hard to get into one of them, we somehow got in. Once inside, you’re taken to a completely different world. It’s bright and very ornately decorated, and so many people you are basically standing shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone.

Even though it’s crowded, the atmosphere inside is great. Everyone is so (understandably) happy, people are singing and dancing on the tables, and pretty much everyone was very friendly. It was a great experience, and I’m glad to have some friends here in Germany that could take me. I will definitely be coming back – that’s for sure.

I’ve included some pictures after the break.

Spaten Bräu beer hall

The Löwenbräu Hall

The interior of the Löwenbräu Hall

If you ever get a chance, go to Oktoberfest!

Time to wrap things up here

Chris S. — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:58:59 +0000

Well, after just a little over 3 months working with Infineon Technologies, in Munich, Germany, it’s time to wrap it up and clean out my desk. For the past 3 months I’ve had a great time working and living in Munich, and Infineon is a great place to do an Internship. During this time I’ve definitely learned more about C#, and programming in general. This isn’t quite the path I’d like to take in the future, but it was a good learning experience nonetheless.

For the last 3 months I’ve been developing a database driven program to create and maintain low-level flash driver firmware settings that get burned into the embedded flash controllers on Infineon’s 32bit Microcontrollers. There, try saying that 3 times fast. I’ve had my fair share of frustrations with C# in the last 3 months, but eventually found solutions to just about all of them. I hope to write about some things I learned at a later time.

I’m not quite saying, “Bye” to Germany yet – I leave on the 30th. From here, Oktoberfest starts tomorrow (!!!). I think I’ll be heading there with a friend I met here. Also, my mom is coming on Monday, and we’ll be going to Berlin on Friday. After that, I fly back to Los Angeles on Tuesday!

All in all though, I’m definitely glad that I came here, and it was a great experience.