Biel Clemente Recio · 2025-2026
Getting on the plane to Emden, I felt a mix of nerves and excitement, because I knew I was about to spend a good chunk of time away from home, and I wasn't really sure what to expect from such a small city so far up in northern Germany. As soon as we arrived we got settled in and quickly got in touch with the company where we'd be doing our internship, a really cool company located on the outskirts of Emden. From day one there was a great vibe among the coworkers, and even though in the end we didn't really do much in terms of actual tasks, the overall experience was amazing, both on a personal level and because of everything we experienced outside of work.
Germany surprised me in a good way in many respects, especially the orderliness and punctuality with which everything runs. Emden itself is a small, quiet city, very different from what I'm used to in Catalonia, but that's exactly why it was refreshing, a good place to disconnect and focus on day-to-day life. The language was one of the biggest challenges, since outside the company not everyone spoke English, so we had to get by with the little German we were picking up along the way. One of the things that caught my attention the most was the word "Moin," which people use for absolutely everything: to say hello, to say goodbye, at any time of day, no matter the moment or context, "Moin" always worked. Even so, I got organized pretty quickly: I got myself a German SIM card so I'd have data and could get around without any issues, and before long I already had my routines set up, including basketball, which I kept training there with a local team, and that really helped me feel like part of the city instead of just a passing tourist.
One of the best parts of the stay was being able to make the most of the weekends to travel. While we were in Emden, we arranged trips to both Berlin and Amsterdam, and both getaways were amazing. Berlin in particular took the prize for the most special experience of the whole trip: thanks to a video we recorded reacting to a Heretics win in Valorant, which my friend Yeray posted, an important person from the esports world reached out to us. Thanks to that contact, in Berlin we got to be in the VIP area of a Valorant event and watch a really important competition live, with Heretics playing right in front of us. It was incredible seeing them in person, and we walked out of there completely blown away by what we'd just experienced. Amsterdam, for its part, was another total win, with its own vibe and atmosphere, and it was a great way to close out the trips we took during the stay.
All in all, it was a stay that perfectly combined the great atmosphere at the company, even without much actual work involved, with personal moments I'll carry with me forever: basketball, the word "Moin" repeated a hundred times a day, the trips to Berlin and Amsterdam, and that unforgettable night watching Heretics in the VIP section in Berlin.