Hamburger??

They say you are what you eat, and apparently, I've been eatin' burgers!

Two days before Christmas I found out I was accepted into the Transatlantic Program, a german-american internship exchange program through the German-American Chamber of Commerce in Chicago. It's very much like how the Salaam program was run: 25 students are selected to intern, selecting between 2-6 months (I'll be doing 6), building relationships between the countries, and entrusting the organization to assign them to internships that match their resumes and interests.

Finding out I got this was awesome, cause I was really relying on it. I had no other plans after graduation, and when people would ask if I had a job lined up yet, I'd just tell them, "nope...don't want one," which is a shocking answer for some people here who scoop up crappy jobs from the 5 same companies at the campus job fair, buy a house, get a goldfish, a spouse, 2.5 kids, and a beige corolla...all in the same year. I want to do fun stuff first; the corolla can wait, haha. And mine will be black! ...with flames painted on the side! ...and have dual exhaust! (but suped up so that the exhaust pipes stick up in the air, like a semi, and rumble real loud!)...then I'll be set.

So I'm prepared to go into this experience at the will of the trusty folks in Chicago. BUT... enter my dad's long-lost friend, who after 5+ years of no contact with my family, came over for dinner at the house over the Christmas break. We talked, and turns out he was the former US rep. for a German dental supply company in Hamburg. (he's also had the craziest life ever...used to be big into drugs, sister murdered, cleaned up, became very successful, got sick, lost a lot, became a merchant marine on the freightliners at sea, not seeing land for months at a time, attacked by the same PIRATES that attacked the cruise off the coast of Somalia, came back from that life, moved to New Jersey, and then back to Milwaukee) I told him about my experiences, what I want to do with my life, and that I just got accepted to this german thing... he told me then about his good friend Wolfgang, the president of this company in Hamburg.

We've been in contact since, and my resume is presently in german hands. Hopefully things work out that come summer, that old saying will prove its truth and I'll be a Hamburger!!