Blog Posts for International Co-Op
As a part of the International Co-op Program, I'm keeping this blog updated with my experiences while working in Germany.
March 5th Update
So far, my time in Germany has been very busy. Getting here was easy enough for me - I’ve taken flights on my own in the past and already had a visa- so the process was as I expected. It was exciting to sit on my Lufthansa flight and be met with German announcements, but also a little intimidating. To make matters worse I walked on the plane and said good morning instead of evening to the flight attendant as I thought that was the greeting they used (and was laughed at).
Once I got off the plane, my first struggle was figuring out how to get a train ticket and then catch said train. Thankfully everyone was helpful and I was able to make it out to Jülich, the small “village” where my housing and work is. Now I put village in quotes here because that is how everyone refers to it. However, I was surprised to see that this “village” is actually pretty big by my Kentucky rural standards. You can walk everywhere, get all kinds of public transportation, buy anything you may need, and visit a street market on the weekends. The city surrounds an old citadel, which is odd to walk through on your way to other things, but brings an added quirky charm.
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I then checked in to my housing, which is similar to places I’ve lived in the states. I was interested to find out that normally apartments come unfurnished and that includes all kitchen appliances as people move their ovens, fridges, and stoves with them when they leave. My apartment also has dryers, which is uncommon here, but the dryers don’t dry your clothes fully. That means you still get to use the drying room (a room with clothes lines and racks that is another somewhat new thing for me).
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Overall, my experience has been going well and I am learning a lot of German and German culture. My biggest challenges have been the language barrier and navigating the public transportation system. I expect the effect of these difficulties will decrease as I live here for longer. I also had to admit I need more help than I’m used to. I think being able to admit this to myself and others is helping me to face my goal of becoming less sensitive through this experience. Learning how to ask for help when I need it includes learning how to talk around things and ask understandable questions.
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All of that being said, with every difficulty the reward has been tenfold. I am learning so much about myself and others, visiting super cool places (including Innsbruck, Brussels, and Berlin so far- see pictures below), and doing really interesting work on Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners.
March 5th Photos
Citadel in Jülich
Photo of me at work in all of my FZJ PPE
Famous Köln Dom (Jülich is only an hour train from the city)
Me with a Karneval society member in traditional dress
Puppets from the Rosenmontag parade
One of the guilded buildings from the town center in Brussels
Photo of me in front of the East Side Gallery in Berlin
Top of the Austrian Alps in Innsbruck
Local Culture
As I’m settling into Germany, I’m leaning a lot about German culture and how it differs from the states. In terms of cuisine, traditional German food is a lot of meat. As a vegetarian, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the vegetarian version of the meat dishes I’ve tried, including schnitzel and bratwurst. I’ve also found the German supermarkets have a lot more variety in terms of meat substitutes. There are vegetarian versions of a lot of traditional dishes and they even have vegetarian deli meat! Outside of meat, there are a lot of pickles and potatoes. I’d be remised to mention potatoes without mentioning how much I love German potato salad. Potato salad in the US has never been my favorite as it’s very creamy but the potato salad here is often vinegary instead. This version is so good and offers an acidic bite that pairs perfectly with all the meat consumed.
Understanding German traditions/ customs has been a bit of a learning experience for me. One norm is that you have to make strong eye contact with every person and say Prost when you’re cheersing people. I often have to remind myself to do this and to hold the contact for a longer time than I’m used to. Additionally, I’ve observed that Germans generally wait until everyone arrives to start eating and they do not leave the table until everyone is finished. Although I think this is polite in the states as well, it is not as strongly enforced as it appears to be here. They also always use silverware when eating. I had no idea how often Americans eat with their hands until I made the conscious effort to eat most things with silverware instead.
In terms of my German progress, I’m still improving but I feel that my progress has slowed since the beginning. When I first arrived, I was forced to learn a lot of German, on the fly, and very quickly. I had to figure out the public transit system and announcements, understand polite phrases and when to use them (ex: Mahlzeit, which is a greeting used at lunch time), how to order in stores, and much more. Essentially every situation I was in had a large learning curve and was completely new to me. However, as I’ve gotten into a daily routine, I find myself confronted less with these differences / new situations. Of course I’m still learning a lot every day, I’m just learning less than I was. I also find it really odd because I can understand the gist of conversations now without directly translating every word. I’ve heard people mention this when you become more fluent in a language, but it feels weird to experience firsthand. As a result, I also think my ability to read situations and context in general has drastically improved.
In terms of holidays, it seems that a lot of the holidays by me revolve around drinking. Specifically, I was able to experience Karneval in Cologne. This local holiday has religious origins but is a long season culminating into one large celebratory weekend. To celebrate Karneval, people dress up in costumes, drink at local bars, watch parades (many with political statements), receive free candy and flowers, and dance to music meant to elicit pride for the city of cologne. Although the aspects involved in this holiday are similar to holidays in the states, the overall event feels very different. There are also celebrations for Labor Day. These celebrations involve giving decorated may trees, drinking, watching the towns may tree to ensure it isn’t stolen by another town, stealing another towns may tree, etc.
Local Culture Photos
 Public transit is very accesible and well utilized in Germany |  Cycling is super common in Germany with many biking to work and showering once they arrive |  A traditional vegetarian dish of hot egg pasta with cheese and fried onions |
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 Potatoes are a staple in German cuisine and these fried german pancakes are no exception |  Another common form of potato in German cuisine is potato noodles like the ones pictured here. In my experience, brussel sprouts are also very common |
Employer Profile
For spring and summer semester 2025, I am co-oping at Forschungszentrum Juelich (FZJ). It is a national lab owned by the Hemholtz organization. This organization owns 18 centers across the country.
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The campus is located in a small town called Juelich. The 1.7 square kilometers campus is largely surrounded by woods. The town and campus therefore, feel quite remote. That being said, it is actually located only about an hour and a half from Cologne. The location and somewhat remote surroundings were intentional due to the history of this campus. Originally, the campus tested a new nuclear reactor type following the lifting of the nuclear research ban on Germany after World War II.
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I work in the Institute of Energy Technologies Electrochemical Process Engineering (IET-4). More specifically, I work with passive autocatalytic recombiners (PARs) for hydrogen safety in nuclear power plants. These nuclear safety devices recombine flammable hydrogen and oxygen into nonflammable water vapor. With current investment into hydrogen technologies for clean transportation, these devices may also be used in liquid hydrogen applications without adequate venting - like in submarines or tunnels.
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My tasks have included: helping on a PhD thesis, new PAR development and qualification, REKO Direkt updates, data analysis, and mathematical derivations. For the thesis project, I helped conduct experiments to investigate the performance of devices in cold climates and edit the final paper. For the development and qualification of new PARs, I supported PAR qualification tests for third party customers. For the REKO Direkt project- which is a FZJ made code for simulating PARs- I am investigating a code update for PAR simulations. I used Outlook, Word, VBA, Excel, DeltaV, Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners, and Linux to accomplish my goals.
​The workplace culture is very diverse. Since the research center hosts around 650 visiting scientists from 58 countries work every year, most people in the research center speak English as a second language. As English is the international scientific language this also makes sense from a publishing and networking perspective. My department is very cordial. We eat lunch together everyday and have an atmosphere that’s quite unique because of this. I think the opportunity to discuss non-work matters has let me get to know people a lot better. There is also very low power distance within my department and I’m lucky enough to work directly with the manager. The discourse surrounding our project work is very open. It is obvious that everyone’s opinions are valued and all decisions are well thought through and discussed- important due to the potential danger involved in the work. I worked with hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and iodine during this semester. These compounds all pose some danger as hydrogen poses an explosion risk, carbon monoxide is toxic, and iodine can be a skin irritant and aquatic risk. Due to the dangerous nature of these compounds, we discussed safety protocol in depth and thought through every possible situation that could arise from our experiments before starting them.
Compared to my US co-ops, my team was much more diverse. I learned a lot about the cultures of my coworkers and was able to realize some of the cultural differences that lead to professional differences. I was also able to see that the team was more creative than past teams I'd worked on because of this. Every time we began problem-solving, it seemed every single team member had different ideas on how to proceed. This led to very thorough problem solutions based on some combination of various different ideas. I also learned that I like working in an environment like this and I found it pushed me to be a better, more creative employee as well. From a country perspective, I have found Germany to be quite safe, and everyone I've met has been very friendly. The history of the country is very evident in how people are quite risk-averse and focus on the future instead of the past. The history also means that people seem to be more willing to help each other and more focused on working to live than living to work.
Facts and figures adapted from: https://www.fz-juelich.de/en
Employer Profile Photos
 The Forschungszentrum Juelich campus is 1.7 square kilometers and surrounded by scenic woods. It houses state of the art technology in a multitude of fields. Source: https://www.fz-juelich.de/de/innovation/gesellschaft/gemeinschaft |  This is the typical setup for a Passive Autocatalytic Recombiner. Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/A-typical-passive-autocatalytic-recombiner_fig9_321110776 |  This is the REKO 4 facility I often work with. It simulates real world nuclear containment structures. Source: https://www.fz-juelich.de/en/llec_subsite/research/hydrogen/hydrogen-safety |
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 During these semesters, I've gained experience operating a process control system via DeltaV. An example of such a system is shown here. Source: https://control.com/news/emerson-updates-deltav-automation-platform-to-enhance-process-control/ |  Example of a REKO Direkt output. Source: https://glc.ans.org/nureth-16/data/papers/13895.pdf |
Local Exploration and Favorite Places
My host city (Juelich) is very small, so I would say I’ve explored most of the city in its entirety. In the middle is an old citadel which influences the landscape and life in the city drastically. When I go to the center of town (2 main streets with small shops), I have to walk through two tunnels, the courtyard of the citadel, and over the moat, which is now a small stream with a walking trail around it. Then there is a large park and then the town center. The city in general has a lot of seemingly random historical monuments and sculptures sprinkled throughout. To name a few (past the Citadel of course) there is a roman archway, a segment from the Berlin wall, and the old witching tower (see photo below). In terms of sculptures, there is a massive piece with a wolf and two terrified ducks (see below), a fountain with marionette puppets that actually move, and a large frog. I think the existence of these landmarks show the city’s appreciation of history and art, past cultural and trade importance, and diversity.
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Juelich is also by Aachen and Cologne. These two cities are much larger than Juelich and explain Juelich’s historical importance. Aachen is on the border of the Netherlands and Belgium and was the home of Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne. Now it hosts a lot of tourists and a university. Cologne is a very large city with lots of tourists and a very famous cathedral. I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the charming Juelich, expansive Cologne, and busy Aachen.
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For getting around in Juelich, one can travel by bike, walking, train, bus, or car. The city and surrounding cities are very accessible and have well developed transportation systems. For my daily commute, I either cycle or take the train. My coworkers who live close to the campus also cycle to work. In fact, my work has shower rooms on campus for employees who cycle, run, or walk to work. On weekends, I often take the train into Cologne. This involves one transfer in another city called Duren. Weekend transportation schedules are a bit more limited than during the week, so one must plan accordingly. The buses and trains are often late or canceled, so one must also be flexible and leave plenty of time for travel plans.
Local Exploration
 My mom and me in front of Hexemturn in Juelich. |  Photograph of a minor street in Aachen. |  This larger than life size statue in the center in Juelich features two very panicked ducks and a wolf that doubles as a slide. |
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 This is the Juelich Citadel located in the middle of town. This picture is from inside the moat but there are also places to walk on top of the structure. |
Excursions and Travel
During my semesters here, I have been very lucky to travel all around Europe and Germany. Within Germany, I’ve traveled to Berlin, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Koblenz, Bremen, and Freihung. Berlin gives off a very young feel with lots of night life. It also has a very unique history due to the wall. It was fascinating talking to people who had experience living in Berlin when the wall was up, and the differences between the two sides of the split city are still evident. In Berlin, I got to see historical sites like Checkpoint Charlie and the East Side Gallery that gave me further insights into life within the city. This was an especially impactful trip for me as when my mom was about my age, she lived in Berlin. Getting to talk about her experiences living there as an American student while the wall was still up was really cool. Bremen is another larger city I visited. It has various UNESCO world heritage sites due to its unique political history. When I was there, Breminale just happened to be going on. Breminale is a large, free music festival with lots of German artists. I got to meet a lot of people and learned a lot about German music through this experience.Freihung is a very small village in Germany. It consists largely of farming and American soldiers from a nearby military base. Although Freihung has a lot of Americans, it is much less Americanized than Frankfurt. The places I saw within Germany varied a lot, and I got a good overall impression of German culture through these trips.
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Outside of Germany, I went to Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Innsbruck, Interlaken, Vienna, Budapest, Dublin, Paris, Florence, Prague, Edinburgh, and Cambridge. Amsterdam was very similar to Berlin, in my opinion. It is a very young city and very touristy. Innsbruck and Interlaken were both absolutely beautiful. I went to Innsbruck during winter while it was still snowy and went skiing with some fellow ICP people. I went to Interlaken in the spring and went hiking and for a very cold swim. In Vienna and Budapest, I met my friend from pre-school that was studying abroad in Vienna. Getting to see her in this completely different environment was special and it was evident how much our time abroad had made us grow. My trip to Dublin was extraordinary. My whole life I have been told stories about my Irish cousins, most of whom I’d never actually met. When my Grandad was in the Nursing home all he talked about was riding horses in the Irish countryside with the cousins and how fond he was of those memories. So, I knew when I was abroad, I wanted to finally meet and properly get to know my cousins. This semester gave me the opportunity to do so and I am so glad it did. Life in Ireland is quite different from the life I’m used to. Their recent independence and large reliance on farming leaves them with people who find contentment in their lives instead of a constant desire for more material things. I think there is a lot we can learn from the Irish and their mentality. Edinburgh and Cambridge were very fun and familiar. My dad is from Cambridge, so I have been to Cambridge a lot and his family still lives there. It was amazing getting to spend more time with my cousins, aunts, and uncles, especially without any jet lag! It was also my first time visiting on my own. In Edinburgh, I went to see the Fringe Festival. I have heard a lot about the Fringe festival over the years and I was overjoyed I finally got to attend. The Fringe Festival is a massive month-long arts festival. It hosts theater, comedy, musical, and many other kinds of performances at very low prices. It’s a place where new people try out the arts and professionals test out new material. I learned a lot about Scotland, the city of Edinburgh, and what kinds of art and artistic themes I resonate with. I got to push myself very far outside of my comfort zone through crowd participation shows and gained a lot of confidence and self-understanding.
Excursions and Travel
 Image of crowds at Breminale free music festival in Bremen, Germany |  View from my family friends' house in Freihung, Germany |  Snowy scape in Innsbruck from mountain top |
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 My childhood friend and me in Vienna butterfly house |  Feeding my cousin's lamb in Ireland |  |
 Saint Anthony's Chapel at Arthurs Seat in Edinburgh, UK |
Transition and Reentry to the US
As I conclude my co-op, I am confronted with mixed emotions. The fact that my time in Germany is ending fills me with sadness and joy. As is common with experiences such as this, I am very sad that it is coming to an end, but I am also so happy this experience happened. I have known I wanted to do a co-op in Germany since I heard about the International Co-op Program in my freshman year. At the time, it seemed so far away and I wasn’t sure if it would actually come to fruition. Then once I arrived at my co-op, eight months felt like such a massive amount of time that it would never end. Now as it’s really ending and my final year of college looms on the horizon, I feel scared but excited for what the future holds. I have learned so much about myself and the world through this experience. I have learned there are so many opportunities, places to see, and people to meet. I am so excited to apply everything that I have learned abroad to my life in Cincinnati and finish out my final year with a newfound perspective.
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I expect this reentry will also be challenging as I experience reverse culture shock. A lot has happened in the time I've been away, including some of my closest friends graduating. I am excited to catch up with them and see how their lives have changed while I've been away. It has also been a longer break than normal since I've been in school, and I am nervous for that transition, as well. That being said, I have a fear that I will go back and it will be as if I never left. The people, places, and day-to-day activities will be the same as pre-ICP and it may quickly fade into distant memory. However, I believe that this fear also shows how much I've grown and my commitment to sustaining this progress.
Cultural Awareness Conclusions
Now that I am officially back in the US, I feel removed from the whole International Co-op Program process. I believe I am in a unique position now where I am viewing my experience abroad and experiences at home in a much different light. This has given me adequate space and clarity to reflect on my experiences. Through this reflection, I am able to make conclusions regarding my personal growth, cross-cultural competency, and global awareness pre- and post- working abroad. Firstly, I can compare Germany and the US much more directly.
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In terms of similarities between the two countries, there are a lot of similarities. This is due to the heavy historical US involvement in Germany. I found that Germans, of my generation especially, grew up surrounded by massive amounts of American culture including American music, movies, and TV shows. This has led to an expansive influence of American culture on Germany, including use of English words and phrases even while speaking German. It also meant that people I met in Germany understood my culture a lot better than I had understood theirs before the International Co-op Program. Another similarity I found was that both cultures are very friendly. My experiences in this regard directly contradict the classic stereotype that Germans are closed off. Although Germans don’t compliment or smile at strangers- like Americans might- people still say hello (or hallo in this case) when they pass someone they don’t know, occasionally make a funny aside about a situation both are experiencing, and are more than happy to provide help when asked.
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Although I was surprised by how similar US and German culture are, there are of course differences, as well. One difference that was very evident is that Germans tend to like and follow rules set for them. This contrasts Americans evident desire for independence and thereby larger likelihood to break rules, especially when they don’t see how they serve them. This is also seen in Americans tendency to be more wasteful and less environmentally conscious. I think German culture places much more weight on community than independence. I believe this difference largely stems from Germany’s increased risk avoidance. This risk avoidance is likewise evident in how German’s approach money. I was interested to find out more about the banking system in Germany and how most Germans (especially from older generations) do not choose to invest their money. In my experience, this is very different from the US. In the US, investing is seen as necessary and the only real way to accumulate wealth, which there is a lot of societal pressure to aspire to as it is a large part of the American Dream. I also found the American Dream idea pushes Americans to have much worse work life balance than the Germans.
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Being able to reflect and see these similarities and differences has made me much more confident in myself and my culture and has shown me much more clearly my priorities in my future career. Additionally, I have become much more culturally competent and aware. As shown in my last post, I was lucky enough to see a lot of new countries and cultures during my time abroad. I truly think the best way to increase global awareness is to meet people from other places and put yourself in their shoes. Through my travels and experience with working abroad, I was able to do this on a deeper level. Before I participated in the International Co-op Program, it felt weird to me to change the way I spoke or acted when working with people from a different culture. It felt offensive to not act how I would act around anyone else, simply because the individual is from a different culture. That being said, I learned that I was able to have much more meaningful connections and improved understanding when I made these changes. I found that due to the difference in sentence structure between German and English, my German coworkers were more likely to understand me if I structured my English sentences the way they structured their sentences. I also slowed down my speech over time without having to think about it. At the beginning I was intentionally speaking slower, but as the semesters progressed, I didn’t focus on it at all. However, I went back to the states for a week during my time abroad and when I returned, my coworkers suddenly couldn’t understand me and asked me to slow down. This was because I had requickened my English pace when I reentered the US.
Although Germany and the US are different cultures, interacting with one allowed me to learn a lot more about the other. I’m sure that if I’d been from a different culture, I would have interacted with German culture in a completely different way. I find this so exciting. This means that every person may have different takeaways from experiences abroad and interacting with others who have had similar international experiences may allow me to reach an even deeper understanding of both cultures and how my personal background influenced my experience. I cannot wait to interact with more people who have had similar experiences. I believe these interactions are important to making the most of an experience abroad and ensuring that one applies everything they have learned to their life back at home.
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Being back at home and in my old environment, I can see very clearly that it is easy to slip back into being the exact same person one was before an experience like this. You’re no longer being challenged on a deep cultural level like that every single day for the entire day. During my time abroad, I was asked questions about my culture and the English language I would have never considered. I thought more about my day-to-day interactions with people than I had ever before. All this thinking, led me to think more about myself and who I am. Who I want to be. I have always wanted to be an understanding, culturally competent, and globally aware person. I’ve taken multiple classes on the subject. I’ve participated in short term organized travel abroad. I’ve participated in cross-cultural events. But now, I can safely say that I did not understand culture and the world as deeply as I do now. There is a famous thought experiment that asks the question, if someone had never seen the color red, but knew everything about the color red, would they truly understand red? The simple answer is of course no. Noone could understand color on the level of people who can see that color, without actually seeing it . Yet, it’s sometimes hard to apply this same thinking to life. We can quickly dismiss people’s experiences because we think we understand; instead of understanding that we will never truly understand. However, going out of your comfort zone and trying new things gives you more and more experiences to pull from. And thereby, more and more things you truly understand. I am so grateful that this experience has opened a whole new door for me in terms of my level of true understanding, by giving me these incredible experiences to pull from.