Ya ha pasado una semana!

I am sitting by the Rhein! In Mainz. Die sonne sheint, and it feels good, it is windy but warm at the same time. I have been walking since 11:00am and it is 5:00pm I sat for 20 min to get something to eat then kept walking. I am exhausted and after this I am walking back to the train station and going back to Ingelheim. Mainz was a good place to spend the day, it is a big city and there are tons of tourists. There are tons of shops, restaurants, cars, bikes and everything! It is a big city. I will definitely come back here soon.
I realize that I haven’t told you why I’m working at BI and what exactly I’m doing here. Well I consider myself quite the traveler of the family. I grew up in El Salvador, I have the best geschwister someone could ever have! Yeah I’m talking about my brother and my sister. Maine Eltern are awesome too since they’ve always been helping me out in all the crazy decisions I have made in my life. I started adventuring the world since I was 2.5 years old, I decided to explore the roof of my house by myself while not telling anyone! Haha got the neighborhood and my family looking for me for a while. I always look for new things, adventures are my favorite things to do and I push myself until I do it, most of the time.
Long ago, when I first heard about this place Calvin College, I had dreams about going there. Year 2003 (wow 6 years ago, I’m getting old) I was in 9th grade and I remember saying to my highschool friends: “yeah in 2005 I’m leaving SAL and I’m going to US to this place called Calvin College” well everything was almost just a dream at that point. Now I’m a senior (WOW that is really really weird to say) but yes I am a senior now.
At the beginning of my junior year, I went to Prof. Nielsen’s office, knocked on the door and waited for him to turn around and stop playing solitary. Well I walked into the office and said: “I am interested in an international internship for next summer”. He explained what the situation was, and to my surprise he had two possible places where I could apply this was on a friday. I walked out the office, but had promised to come back on Monday with a decision about the place where I wanted to apply. I chose Germany over the Netherlands just because it was more of a chemical job than mechanical as in the Netherlands. He said: “I will send your resume today”. A week after that, I got an email saying: “stop by my office”. Went back to Prof Nielsen’s office and he said: “they want to offer you the job” I was sooooo excited!!!! Walked out the engr. Building and first thing I did was called my brother and said: “I’m leaving! I’m going to Germany next summer!!!!!” then walked back to the apartment but on the way there I texted my dad and said “Me voy para Alemania el otro verano, es de verdad”. He texted back (First time he had ever texted me back to my cellphone in US and said: “Que? Como? Explicame?” well so I called my family that night.
Now I am here in Germany working for Boehringer Ingelheim, I’m doing research for them. Our lab (4 of us) one of many labs at BI, works on the research for a drug that can cure Hepatitis C. This drug will be out on the market next year. So people next time you see a pill think about how much work there is behind that! About 200 recrystallization processes, about 10 reactions and years of work. I am happy to be here, I am happy to be where I am and most important I am happy to know the people I know, to have the friends I have and the family I have. I owe them all much more than I can ever offer them. Now I’m in Europe but this was a dream I had last year in January of 2008 when I came to Europe with the Engineering department interim. A year and a half ago I visited BI, and thought: “This is a way to big place for me to be” I thought I was never going to be able to make it into this company, but I decided to send my resume, and now I am here.
Year 2003 seems long ago, but at that moment I never thought how many doors were to be opened. I always think that everything is possible if you want it to be possible, you can make things work around you sometimes, you just have to move the right pieces and think ahead. I am thankful for all of what God has done in my life and for all the blessings to come.
“Solo una cosa vuelve un sueno imposible: el miedo a fracasar”
Hope you all are having a great summer, I’m about to start the real traveling in a couple of weeks, I think Munic or Berlin trips are coming up. Amsterdam and Bremen, Brussels and MAYBE Barcelona have to fit somewhere in there too. Well talk to you all later.