LITMIR.BIZ

      That autumn it was a year since I, in parallel with my main job, began my four-year evening study at a private higher school in the city of Braunschweig with a degree in “Automated Control Systems in Production”. The lack of a recognized higher education in Germany haunted me, and I constantly thought about how I could fill this gap. And now such an opportunity appeared. That’s right – this opportunity itself found me! When I was working at Theysohn Maschienenbau GmbH, the production manager came up to me and told me about the new program that has been in effect this year for those already employed who are ready to invest their time and get a higher education. Without hesitation, I asked where and when I can get it.

      These next four years of study here in Germany reminded me of my student years in Yekaterinburg. I met new people who were interesting to me, who in their goals and views were much further than those with whom I was familiar until now, working at the enterprises of this country. I quickly improved my German, and I had a passion and interest in higher mathematics and mechanics. In higher mathematics classes, I solved any mathematical problems with great pleasure, and especially complex equations seemed to me entertainment. I and one of my classmates, his name was Frank Witte, began to compete in who would solve the problem faster, and all the students closely followed us. At some point, I was even nicknamed “professor” for my success in our group. It was a very friendly company, especially when after the first year of training there were only 14 of the 24 participants left. When I came to study on Saturday, sometimes after the sixth night shift, which ended at 6:00 in the morning, I was already at 7:00 on the campus, and I reclined the back of my seat in the car and fell asleep. At 8:30 sharp, Eric, my classmate, woke me up by knocking on the car window. He was holding in his hands freshly made coffee from the cafe of our institute. “Vlad, get up! How did you sleep?” – he said and smiled cheerfully. All my groupmates knew that I was sleeping in my car at this time. After drinking coffee in the circle of our comrades and discussing the latest important events, at exactly 9.00 we went up to our classroom, where classes began.

      In the next six months after I left N & D-Markt, I managed to work in two more firms – four months in one and two months in the other, and somehow everything was wrong! In the first company, I worked with small parts of the multi-batch production of photographic lenses of the famous Rollei brand in Braunschweig. At another firm, my team of colleagues consisted, in my opinion, of people-“bears” with very limited communication, and the production of brake discs with a small set of simple metalworking operations turned out to be a very boring activity for me. And despite the fact that the last enterprise was located only five kilometers from my house, in the forests of that very mountainous region of Harz, I resigned from there too.