To everybody who might care. Enjoy the reading!

You are currently reading my first impressions of my travel to Lynchburg, VA.
I’m not sure yet whether this will be a one-time report or developing into a somewhat regular account of my experiences.
Maybe I should introduce myself first. My name is Marcus Schreiter. I’m one of the two initiators of the Lynchburg Sister City project. I am currently in Lynchburg, starting an internship at M/A COM Wireless Systems tomorrow, July 9th.

It all started a few months ago. At first there was an idea. Why not do an internship during the summer break? So far so good. But why not make that an even more interesting experience by doing an internship abroad? With the help of “Friends of Lynchburg e.V.” and our American partners, in particular Manfred Mibus, contact was established. Soon after I received a job training offer and everything seemed to be going well. Just a few more pages of paperwork for the company and the visa application and I was ready to go. Well, it didn’t go that easily.
I’ll spare the details to you. In the end, I had my visa in hand, after dozens of phone calls, book-filling pages of e-mails and a lot of help from Consul Sheeland and his employees at the Consulate General in Leipzig.

So I arrived in Lynchburg, VA yesterday around 8 p.m. Angela and Manfred Mibus who picked me up from the airport, offered to stay for the night. I was to move to my apartment the next day. I was very grateful of their hospitality.

Today Mr. Mibus showed me around in Lynchburg. We went to the Downtown area, which of course was empty. (Keep in mind, it’s Sunday) We then drove through the historic district with beautiful, privately owned houses, dating back to I guess the 19th century, maybe even older. The concept of preserving these houses is simply but ingenious. The houses that need restoration are sold cheaply. The new owners however are bound to restore these buildings within a fixed time frame on their own expenses. As a result most of these buildings are in great shape, despite of their age.
We then drove to the old city cemetery and visited the Pest House, which is a small museum displaying Lynchburg’s first “hospital” where people with contagious diseases were quarantined.
Of course we also stopped at Starbucks. A must-do when you’re in the U.S. and a Coffee-lover.
After lunch at a Chinese Restaurant, I took a walk around the development where Angela and Manfred Mibus live. Most homes are built in a colonial style looking like smaller versions of Southern Mansions of the 19th century: red brick walls, white roofs and white columns in front of the entrance. The huge gardens surrounding these houses are fenceless. Some houses lie deep in the woods almost undetectable. Some driveways are so long, you need a car to get to the mail box.
The city itself is very widespread. There is no way of getting somewhere without a car.

I’m looking forward to starting my internship tomorrow.
I hope you enjoyed the reading. If you have any comments, feel free to mail them to nacknu(at)web.de

Marcus Schreiter

12.07.2007 Marcus Schreiter

Welcome to the part 2 of my Journal

I’ve been working for M/A COM for a couple days now and I think it’s time to share my first impressions.

I started on Monday July 9th and spent most of the day with orientation, signing paperwork and generally getting to know my co-workers, the facilities and everything you need to know to get started.
Everybody is really nice and offered help whenever needed.
My supervisor is a great guy. He has studied in Munich for a year. He is very patient explaining SAP Software to me and also gives me a general idea about the different jobs in Supply Chain Management.
My job is to run various reports, using mainly SAP Software and Excel, to bring the Buyers up to date with the latest news on our suppliers. Besides that, different people are showing me what they do on a daily basis.

Today was a special day for Tycoelectronics (That’s the company of which M/A-Com Wireless is a part of).
On this Wednesday, July 11th we celebrated our seperation of Tyco Int.
At 9 a.m. we watched the live webcast of the bell ringing by our CEO Tom Lynch at the NY Stock Exchange.
At Lunch time the company went to a park and had a big party, which included a Southern BBQ and various sporting activities. Unfortunately, it started raining just as the celebration got started. Luckily a giant tent had been erected.

I’m really enjoying my time here. I’m fulfilling interesting tasks and I am surrounded by really nice and very helpful people. So far, this has been a great experience.

Comments? → nacknu(at)web.de

17.05.2008 Felix Gabathuler
Das Wochenende diente dazu, Felix Gabathuler Zeit zum Eingewöhnen zu verschaffen. Wir sahen den Festumzug der Feuerwehr, unterhielten uns mit Polizisten.
In Zwickau und Mosel besuchten wir VW, um erste Eindrücke für sein Praktikum zu sammeln. Das Studentenwohnheim gefällt ihm gut und den Zwickauer Dom fand Felix beeindruckend.

Lassen wir Felix selbst sprechen:

I was blown away by the hospitality that greeted me as we walked into the firestation. As I saw the Lynchburg Firefighter uniform, I had to be proud of the relationship between these two cities. I was given the task to send greetings from the Glauchauer firefighters to their Lynchburg counterparts and this I will certainly do. I also met two very nice ladies that were willing to have their pictures taken with me.

wie Sie vielleicht wissen, hatte ich diesen Sommer die außergewöhnliche Gelegenheit, als erstes Mitglied unseres Vereins ein Praktikum in Lynchburg, VA zu absolvieren. Die dabei gewonnenen Erfahrungen werden mir in meiner zukünftigen Karriere sicherlich von Nutzen sein.
Dieses Praktikum hat mir einen interessanten Einblick in die amerikanische Geschäftswelt, insbesondere den Bereich Supply Management (dt. Einkauf) gewährt.

Ich arbeitete für Tycoelectronics, im Teilbereich Wireless Network Solutions. Dieser produziert und entwickelt Kommunikationstechnologie für die Bereiche öffentliche Sicherheit, Katastrophenschutz und Militär. Tycoelectronics beschäftigt fast 100.000 Mitarbeiter weltweit und hat in Lynchburg 2 Standorte mit ca. 600 Mitarbeitern.

Besonders ist mir die flache Hierarchie und der sehr kollegiale Umgang der Angestellten und Führungskräfte miteinander aufgefallen. Als Beispiele seien hier ein Bowlingabend mit anschließendem Restaurantbesuch sowie ein Geschäftsessen, zu dem ich wie selbstverständlich eingeladen wurde, erwähnt.

Neben den beruflichen Erfahrungen war es mir ein besonderes Vergnügen, sehr viele Mitglieder unseres Partnervereins persönlich kennen zu lernen. Die bereits gewohnte gute amerikanische Gastfreundschaft wurde dabei wieder einmal bestätigt.
In den Gesprächen erfuhr ich, wie sehr sich die Amerikaner freuen, wenn Mitglieder unseres Vereins zu Besuch kommen.
Ich empfehle jedem, dem sich solche eine Chance bietet, diese zu nutzen!

Ich möchte Allen, die mich während meines Aufenthalts unterstützt haben, sehr herzlich danken.
Ein besonderer Dank gilt Manfred und Angela Mibus, deren Hilfe von unschätzbarem Wert für einen gelungenen Aufenthalt war.
Auch der Vorstand unseres Vereins und unsere Partner auf der amerikanischen Seite haben sehr dazu beigetragen, dass dieses Experiment ein Erfolg wurde. Dies könnte ein neuer Abschnitt für alle Beteiligten sein!

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Marcus Schreiter

Er hatte intensive Kontakte mit Terry Babbitt (Belvac Productions Machinery Inc.)
Zum Stammtisch September werden wir ausführlich berichten.
Barbara Batchelder sandte mir folgende Einschätzung:

“We are glad that Marcus returned safely, and we want to tell you how much we enjoyed the time we spent with him. In fact, everyone I spoke with who met him, could not say enough about him. He definitely was a “big hit” in Lynchburg! You must be very proud of him.”
Natürlich sind wir stolz auf Marcus! Er hat auch unseren Verein in Lynchburg würdig vertreten.