Today was probably my best day in Germany so far. My colleagues have really started to open up to me and include me in as much as possible. I attended a meeting today that was held in German last week, but today they held it in English to ensure I could be included. I also branched out a bit and covered some new topics.
Late in the morning, Joachim, my colleague from India, Manas, a handful of others and I walked over to BayKomm. It is a communication center that was created 26 years ago to provide positive information regarding the chemical industry to the public. At the time the chemical industry had a pretty bad reputation. BayKomm opened their doors and educated the public by providing them an inside look into where Bayer came from, what they were doing today and what they were planning to do in the future...all while highlighting the safety and proactive measures put in place.
Today we received some information on how the focus has shifted to Life Sciences. We saw a lab open to all local schools for experiment driven field trips. We were given some facts and figures regarding the global population, the food supply and the projected problems by 2050. We saw a packaging room with a special suit that simulates an elderly persons range of motion and dexterity. This allowed us to see the access problems encountered with normal packaging compared to specially designed packaging.
Above is a photo of part of the Leverkusen ChemPark. Bayer moved here in the early 1900s (the photo is much more recently) and Leverkusen didn't exist at the time...it was all farmland. Lots of planning occurred before the first building was constructed. The campus was laid out in a very systematic way.
Buildings dealing with raw materials were set near the river and buildings dealing with finished products were more inland. The streets were designed with future expansion in mind and greenspace was preserved to be used by employees for relaxation. BayKomm is just off the bottom-left corner of this photo and the building I am working in, B151, is a little ways off the bottom-right corner.
One room at BayKomm has items of significance from each period of the company's history. The touch screen highlights the item on the wall and provides much more detail about that item and time period.
Bayer sponsors a soccer team and had a long history of successful athletes. These four medals are Olympic medals from various years won by Bayer athletes. There are some details underneath them (which you can't see in this picture) talking about the 6-7 years Bayer athletes competed.
This is a model of the 150th Anniversary blimp that took off from Leverkusen and flew around the globe to celebrate Bayer's 150th in 2013.
After our tour we had some lunch at the cafe attached to BayKomm. I had some tomato soup, even though it was another hot day. It was very tasty none-the-less.
We walked back to the office and spent the afternoon catching up on some tasks left over from the morning. As I was preparing to leave for the day, my former bosses boss, George, messaged me to let me know he was in the building. We agreed to meet in the lobby and he offered me a lift back to our hotel with one of the German managers, Peter. I graciously accepted for two reasons:
1) I didn't want to walk to the train in the heat.
2) More importantly this would offer me a trip on the surface streets between Leverkusen and Cologne...something I hadn't seen yet and would be different than the same railway that I've been watching the last week and a half.
George and I agreed to have dinner together. It is great to not only have someone to eat with, but a familiar face at that! We walked a little bit before dinner and George showed me the lay of the land. I had found some on my own, but he put the pieces together. We ate at a restaurant called XII Apostel. I enjoyed some tortellini with spinach and tomatoes. It was a good opportunity to chat with George one-on-one for a couple hours. After dinner we ordered dessert. We saw chocolate and vanilla ice cream listed in the menu so we ordered it. The waiter left with a smile on his face. When he returned with our dessert we knew why.
We had ordered from the kids menu! Either way it was the perfect treat on a hot summer evening. After dessert we walked around a bit more before stopping by a nearby hotel to meet George's counterpart from Singapore, Ivan. Then we walked back to our hotel and now it is time for bed. Here's hoping tomorrow is another great day!
Late in the morning, Joachim, my colleague from India, Manas, a handful of others and I walked over to BayKomm. It is a communication center that was created 26 years ago to provide positive information regarding the chemical industry to the public. At the time the chemical industry had a pretty bad reputation. BayKomm opened their doors and educated the public by providing them an inside look into where Bayer came from, what they were doing today and what they were planning to do in the future...all while highlighting the safety and proactive measures put in place.
Today we received some information on how the focus has shifted to Life Sciences. We saw a lab open to all local schools for experiment driven field trips. We were given some facts and figures regarding the global population, the food supply and the projected problems by 2050. We saw a packaging room with a special suit that simulates an elderly persons range of motion and dexterity. This allowed us to see the access problems encountered with normal packaging compared to specially designed packaging.
Above is a photo of part of the Leverkusen ChemPark. Bayer moved here in the early 1900s (the photo is much more recently) and Leverkusen didn't exist at the time...it was all farmland. Lots of planning occurred before the first building was constructed. The campus was laid out in a very systematic way.
Buildings dealing with raw materials were set near the river and buildings dealing with finished products were more inland. The streets were designed with future expansion in mind and greenspace was preserved to be used by employees for relaxation. BayKomm is just off the bottom-left corner of this photo and the building I am working in, B151, is a little ways off the bottom-right corner.
One room at BayKomm has items of significance from each period of the company's history. The touch screen highlights the item on the wall and provides much more detail about that item and time period.
Bayer sponsors a soccer team and had a long history of successful athletes. These four medals are Olympic medals from various years won by Bayer athletes. There are some details underneath them (which you can't see in this picture) talking about the 6-7 years Bayer athletes competed.
This is a model of the 150th Anniversary blimp that took off from Leverkusen and flew around the globe to celebrate Bayer's 150th in 2013.
After our tour we had some lunch at the cafe attached to BayKomm. I had some tomato soup, even though it was another hot day. It was very tasty none-the-less.
We walked back to the office and spent the afternoon catching up on some tasks left over from the morning. As I was preparing to leave for the day, my former bosses boss, George, messaged me to let me know he was in the building. We agreed to meet in the lobby and he offered me a lift back to our hotel with one of the German managers, Peter. I graciously accepted for two reasons:
1) I didn't want to walk to the train in the heat.
2) More importantly this would offer me a trip on the surface streets between Leverkusen and Cologne...something I hadn't seen yet and would be different than the same railway that I've been watching the last week and a half.
George and I agreed to have dinner together. It is great to not only have someone to eat with, but a familiar face at that! We walked a little bit before dinner and George showed me the lay of the land. I had found some on my own, but he put the pieces together. We ate at a restaurant called XII Apostel. I enjoyed some tortellini with spinach and tomatoes. It was a good opportunity to chat with George one-on-one for a couple hours. After dinner we ordered dessert. We saw chocolate and vanilla ice cream listed in the menu so we ordered it. The waiter left with a smile on his face. When he returned with our dessert we knew why.
We had ordered from the kids menu! Either way it was the perfect treat on a hot summer evening. After dessert we walked around a bit more before stopping by a nearby hotel to meet George's counterpart from Singapore, Ivan. Then we walked back to our hotel and now it is time for bed. Here's hoping tomorrow is another great day!
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