Visiting the Yupees

Yesterday (May 29) was Memorial Day, an official holiday in the US. So we had a great long weekend! :o)

I went up to the Upper Peninsula with 7 friends. Upper Peninsula is in North Michigan at Lake Superior. Jack told me, that the people living up there are called the Yupees (UPs). It's about an 8 hours drive, but it's worth driving that long way. We had a cottage in the Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore. It was like beeing in the Middle of Nowhere. The cottage was between the woods right next to a small lake. We made a boat trip to see the Pictured Rocks. It's amazing. You have to do that!! All that different colors in the rocks and between them really nice beaches. Waterfalls. Caves....
The next day we went to the Two Hearted River next to Newberry and started an 5 hour canou trip down to Lake Superior. That was lots of fun and a "back to the nature" feeling as I never had it before. After that long, great and also exhausting trip I went "swimming" in Lake Superior. It was freezing, really freezing. You can just jump in and have to jump out again. It's too cold to stay in there. But it's an amazing feeling when you come out of the water.
We also went to the Tahquamanon Falls, the White Fish Point and had "Pasties" (miners had that for lunch with them, it's great).
I can just repeat it. It's an amazing nature up there and you will never want to go back...but you have to. ;o( I'm still overwhelmed of all what I saw there.
I will add some pictures as soon as possible.

If you would like to know more about the UP just visit www.exploringthenorth.com.

Sunny and relaxed greetings from
Bianca

Collecting possibilities to sell an interns car

Hi there!

Although I still have 3 months left before I will go back to Germany I was just thinking about possibilites for selling my car.

This is especially addressed to all former interns:
Would be great if you could give me some ideas how you tried to sell your cars. Like special newspapers, websites and so on. After I have collected some ideas I can post again with a summary of all that.

This would be a great help for all future interns (including me)! :o)

Thanks!!

Bianca

New York City Tour Guide

I am planning a trip to NYC during the Memorial Day. As usual, I consulted our dearest supervisor, Jack, who will never disappoint you and the following are the online resources from him. I'd like to share the infomation with you guys and save him some energy for Bianca's NYC trip in July and maybe Markus, Linda and Susanne's potential trip!! :)

www.nycvisit.com--- I like it most.. They have an events calendar, where you can check out what's going on during your stay... then you can also type in keywords. For example, when you key in "Free", a list of free tour and concerts will come up... A good way for students to save~~~~

www.nyc.com I get broadway info from here~~~

www.metmuseum.org MET Museum info.. one of the three most famous museums in NY

www.theinsider.com/nyc/index.html I get a list of top attractions from there... Http://travel2.nytimes.com/top/features/travel/destinations/unitedstates/newyork/newyorkcity/sight_listings.html a place to get an overview and the history of some sights...

www.jimsdeli.com Great sites look alike~~~

www.officialsite.com/index.asp?RegionId=45&CategoryId=38 I feel overwhelmed with great stuff to do when I come to this one

www.letsgo.com/destinations/north_america/nyc/ Not only good for NY~

www.bigapplegreeter.org/ An interesting local blog~~

After all these, I get so excited that I wanna go right now~~~~~~~~~

By Lei

Markus first impressions

Hello Detroit!

Leaving Germany in early summer, arriving in Detroit in rainy fall was my first impression when I found one’s feet in Detroit last Wednesday.
Bianca picked me up at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (greetings to Linda :-)

The first days Bianca helped me handle all the stuff every new intern has to do:

- Check in at the Oakland campus
- Apply for the social security number
- Get a bank account
- Get a car
- Having the first American burger with
- Bianca, Lei and Maggie
- …
Due to the current interns support everything is easier than I expected!

Really interesting was looking for a car:

Bianca and I went to Pontiac and stopped at different used car dealers:
People there where a bit strange; five or more sitting in a really small office, giving you car keys for test drives and saying nothin’ expect “this car drives perfect”.
(One had hardly working brakes; one had a bad wheel and another didn’t start)

My rescue was Biancas’ idea going to Wayne, who sometimes repairs cars for AutoCom.
He showed us an old Volvo, a red family car with a huge trunk.
I will buy it tomorrow, after he has repaired different things and did attendance.

Now it’s my second official workday and everything is going on well, the staff is really nice and I got the first instructions from Bianca, Lei and Dee.

On Friday Bianca, Lei and I will go to the Detroit Press Club Foundation awards event at six in the morning, which was arranged by Jack.
Once a week we have a “PR-Lunch” with Jack to discuss about public relations and Jack tells us about PR-Events we could attend as well.
Another event, which Jack offered us last Friday, will be a Public Relations night in June in the Palace (Pistons Basketball Stadium) where the Detroit Shock (Detroit female basketball team) will be playing.

But now let’s finish this post and hope the first exciting projects will come soon!

Markus

Marc got married

We recently heard from Marc Borufka, an outstanding former AutoCom intern who currently is completing an apprenticeship at a newspaper in Germany.

Marc recently got married to his beautiful wife Eva.

Anyone interested in getting directly in touch with Marc by e-mail is welcome to do so by writing to him at borufka@web.de. We are hoping to get a note directly from Marc for posting here at our internship blogsite in the near future.

Congratulations Marc and Eva from all of us at AutoCom!

Larry

SAE World Congress 2006

From April 3 till April 6 there was the SAE World Congress in Detroit. A lot of AutoCom Clients attended this congress and so there were also a lot of exciting things for me and Lei to do. SAE is the shortcut for "Society of Automotive Engineers".

During SAE AutoCom supported some press conferences of clients and also organized a dinner for media and for clients.

Tuesday April 4th: SAE Media Dinner
On the second day of SAE AutoCom organized a big dinner for media and clients at the Coach Insignia, a great restaurant at the top of the GM Towers. And as Ilka said in her post about the International Autoshow, how great the view up there is, I won’t repeat all of that ... I don't want you getting bored. ;) I just second Ilkas recommendation to visit this restaurant. It’s really amazing and the food is also amazing, you’ll wish to have dinner there every day… =) And although it was not that good weather we had a great sunset.
After a short reception we had dinner. As it was my first time attending such an event, nearly everything was exciting. All the preparation you have to think about and so on. I can say that I’ve learned a lot during that time. And another good thing on that was that you had the chance to talk to different clients and media people…so you have a face of the persons you always are talking on the phone or by email. I think it’s nice to know them in person.
Although it was a long, hard and stressful day, I appreciate that I had the chance to attend the dinner.

Press confrences:
Lei will wirte about the Behr press conference in another post ... I think she has to tell some interessting things. I attended the MANN+HUMMEL and the Hella press conference, but I think one report is enough ... thank you Lei! ;)

By Bianca

Lots of fun things to do this summer!

Kathi, Larry's wife contributed this post for our interns!

1. There is a great In the Park concert series in Shain Park (downtown Birmingham), just a few minutes from AutoCom and free.

Here is the list of concerts this summer:
June 9: Battle of the Bands (locals bands duel)

June 14: The Birmingham Concert Band and Straw Hat Band

June 21: Tally Hall (energetic band based in Ann Arbor and is known for humorous, diverse music). Preceded by Groove, a high energy percussion band using instruments made from everything.

June 28: Polish festival: food and ethnic dance

July 5: Arizona Sun Country western band

July 12: Greek festival: An evening of traditional Greek food, dance and song.

July 20: Jazzfest Kickoff with Alexander Zonjic and Friends

July 26: Motor City Brass band. An evening of Broadway show tunes. Preceded by the BBSO Honors String Orchestra.

July 29 (Sat): Special performance by the Air National Guard Band of the Great Lakes 555th Air Force Band. Preceded by the Gentlemen Songsters Chorus.

Aug. 2: Air Margaritaville. An adventure in paradise with this Jimmy Buffet-style band. Preceded by Lorelei.

August 16: Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise. An all-out vintage car parade and happening on Woodward and throughout Birmingham and Royal Oak.

Aug. 23: African festival. traditional African food and entertainment featuring Mady Kouyate and his Kora music from West Aftrica. Costumed dance by Papa Hanne's West African Dance Ensemble. Preceded by the Art of Motion Dance Company.

Aug 30: Birmingham's own Michael King, with special guest Sonia Lee will perform an evening of eclectic songs from King's new CD.


2. Here are a few other events:
Fine Art Festival
Date: Saturday, May 13, 2006 Time: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM Location: Shain ParkBirmingham, Michigan
For additional information, contact the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce - 248.644.1700 or the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center 248.644.0866.

Village Fair
Date: Saturday, June 03, 2006 Time: 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM Location: Shain ParkBirmingham, Michigan For additional information contact the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber - 248.644.1700.

Summer in the City - most Friday nights during the summer
Date: Friday, July 07, 2006 Time: 6:30 PM Location: Front Steps of City Hall151 MartinBirmingham, Michigan 48009 Contact the Principal Shopping District for additional information - 248.433.3550.

Band Jam
Date: Friday, July 28, 2006 Time: 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM Location: Shain ParkBirmingham, Michigan For additional information contact the Principal Shopping District - 248.433.3550.

3.Some useful links:
Here's a link to an excellent concert series in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. They have a couple of remaining performances in May and then they start up again in September.
www.ums.org

Here's a link to the International Freedom Festival annual huge fireworks show over the Detroit River.
www.theparade.org/freedomfest

There are lots of concerts, plays, etc at DTE Music Theater, Meadowbrook, etc, popular and classical. Check out the schedules at:
www.palacenet.com

A link to some local activities for the month of May, that may be of interest.
http://detroit.about.com/od/activitiesattractions/p/may2006.htm