Journey and Host-Family

After a few days in Berlin and three stressful days at home in between, our plane took off to London Heathrow. From there a coach took us to Brighton where we got to our host-families. Stefan (a friend of mine) and I are sharing a host family. The family consists of a host-mum, a host-sister and if you can state it like that: a host-dog. Our room offers plenty of space and in general the whole house is very big. The hosts are very friendly and were glad that our English is good. They expected having to accommodate somebody with no real English skills at all for four weeks.

Now! Charity

Monday, we had an initial meeting with Stages, the agency that organized our whole stay and work placement. Work started at 2pm this day so I got on a bus to Lewes then. My boss Michael Ryan immediately welcomed me and showed me my workplace. My first impression was excellent and I am really looking forward to working for this company the next few weeks. Michael told me about my flexible working hours and even organized a trip to Wimbledon (one of the biggest tennis championships in the world) on Friday. That is amazing!

Tuesday was an exciting day. Michael picked me up from my host family at 9 and then we went to a gardening project in Eastbourne. Since Now! Charity supports this project, we wanted to make sure everything is fine over there. The gardening plot is nicely located in a very calm area which really helps people in need to relax and plant their own fruits or vegetables. I had some nice talks with the people there. Everybody was just so friendly and relaxed – fantastic. After the gardening project we headed back to the office for some Marketing tasks I had to accomplish. I finished work at four and immediately took a bus to Brighton. In the evening I had some beers at the beach with my friends from school and the excitement for the next day was massive.

Wednesday: Michael again picked me up from my host family. This time a little earlier – we had to be at the Hailsham Community College at 8:15. The “Creative Café” there should give the students in 9^th Grade (13-14 years old) an insight in some companies – as e.g. Now! Charity. I had a great time introducing students to their tasks they had to do at our desk and later assisting them while they were working them out. After this we visited another gardening sight in Hailsham this time. Again, it was very impressive, and I really got an eye for where the company makes a difference.

Thursday was my first merely office-based work day – I did some Marketing tasks and made myself comfortable with applications that I am going to use in the next few weeks. In the evening I might try to get to sleep a little earlier, because tomorrow is already a big day: Wimbledon. What my experiences at one of the most prestigious sports events will be, you are going to read in my next blog.

Daniel Zettl