Wow! Today I realized that I only have nine days left to work on my projects. Well, I have four weeks left in Czech Republic but only nine days in office. So now I have to use the typical cliché that all blogging trainees seem to believe in – “time flies!”

Two weeks ago I started to feel homesickness; I felt that the language barriers were really disturbing me, my projects were not progressing as I wanted and my boyfriend was too far away. Then I read in an expat guide that this is classic. When the first excitement and love of the city starts to fade away it is very common to get depressed. So how did I get out of this dip? Well, nice friends seem to be the best cure. At first a friend from high school paid a visit and we spend a lot of time on talking bullshit and relaxing. Then three Scania trainees and my boyfriend came to celebrate Swedish Midsummer in Prague. IKEA is really fantastic; they offer everything that is needed for a nice midsummerdinner . We had herring, meatballs, potatoes, sour cream, chive, crackers, strawberry cake and snaps. As you can see in the photo we had a very nice afternoon in the sun (there was only a little accident when two dogs came and licked our plates…).

With less homesickness in my heart I now believe that time will continue to fly; the rest of the time abroad will only be a travel downhill:

• Tomorrow I will meet the biggest Scania customer in Czech Republic, HOPI. I asked for 20min to ask questions but today I was informed that we will have one hour together. I’m really excited but also a bit scared that I won’t have enough questions for one hour…
• Next week we will finally have two days of public holiday. These are the first ones during my stay in Prague. The fact that Czech Republic has one of the least religious populations on Earth seems to be affecting the number of public holidays. It is certainly not giving any bigger number of holidays…
• In two weeks we will have a marketing meeting in Hungary. We will spend two days by the Lake Balaton. It is the largest lake in central Europe and is situated in a very nice wine region. I’m also planning to stay in Budapest during the following weekend, which I hope will be great.
• Last but not least, when I finish my time in Czech Republic I will have my first summer vacation with payment. That actually feels a bit strange. Strange but nice!

For those who are interested in better understanding of what engineers really do at Scania I can recommend the new blog of Linus Kingfors. It is written by a summer trainee whose mission is to bother engineers…