From Interns to SOC Analysts: Real Cybersecurity Careers Start Here

In this episode of Behind the Shield, we continue our internship series with a real, behind-the-scenes look at what it’s actually like to start a career in cybersecurity.

Host Felisha Daemer sits down with Levi Church and Ben Collins, two former interns turned full-time Security Operations Analysts, to talk through their journeys from local students to working hands-on in a 24/7 SOC environment.

They share how they found InfusionPoints, what surprised them most stepping into a professional environment, and how quickly things shift from theory to real-world application.

From navigating “acronym soup” on day one to building real solutions during live incidents, including a response to the global CrowdStrike outage, this episode highlights just how impactful hands-on experience can be.

You’ll also hear how InfusionPoints’ rotational internship model exposes interns to multiple teams, including security operations, engineering, advisory, cloud ops, and even marketing, helping them find where they thrive.

And maybe most importantly, why culture, curiosity, and being willing to figure things out matter just as much as technical knowledge.

Whether you’re a student exploring cybersecurity, a hiring manager building an internship program, or just curious how talent actually develops in this space, this episode gives you an unfiltered look.

Chapters: 
0:10 Introduction
0:31 Levi's Introduction
1:23 Ben's Introduction
2:12 Inspiration to Enter the Field
3:40 Internship Experiences
6:50 Advice for Future Interns
8:23 Certifications and Learning
10:24 Culture and Work Environment
15:00 Projects and Achievements
21:15 Fun Questions

What You’ll Learn:
What it’s really like transitioning from cybersecurity theory to hands-on work in a SOC
How internships can shape and sometimes completely change career paths
The value of rotational vs. specialized internship experiences
Why “culture shock” is normal and how to push through it
How small teams create faster learning opportunities and require wearing multiple hats
Building an automated emergency communication system during a major outage
Streamlining internal SOC documentation for faster analyst onboarding
Automating employee bio updates for operational efficiency
Why certifications like AWS Cloud Practitioner, CySA+, and tools like CloudQuest can give you a head start
The importance of continuous learning, curiosity, and problem-solving in cybersecurity
How collaboration across teams (SOC, marketing, engineering, leadership) accelerates growth
What makes a strong intern and what advice current analysts would give to future applicants

InfusionPoints Links: 
Apply to the Internship- https://infusionpoints.com/careers/InfusionPoints-Internship
Felisha Daemer- https://www.linkedin.com/in/felisha-daemer/
Levi Church- https://www.linkedin.com/in/levichurch/
Ben Collins- https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamincollins001/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/infusionpoints/
https://www.InfusionPoints.com
https://infusionpoints.com/contact-us

About Us:
InfusionPoints is a trusted cybersecurity, cloud engineering, and compliance partner helping organizations Build, Manage, and Defend secure, mission-ready environments in highly regulated markets.
We specialize in FedRAMP, FedRAMP 20x, DoD, and enterprise security frameworks, supporting organizations from initial authorization through continuous monitoring and optimization. Our team brings deep technical expertise and real-world operational insight to every engagement.
Through our independent, security-first approach, we integrate people, processes, and technology to deliver scalable, compliant, and resilient solutions. From strategy and architecture to operations and defense, we help customers move faster without sacrificing security.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to another episode of the Behind the Shield podcast. I'm your host, Felicia Damer, and this is the second episode of the internship series that we are starting for this podcast. So I'm going to introduce to you two of our interns, and I'll have Levi and Ben tell us a little bit about themselves. So Levi, introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

I'm Levi. I'm a security operations analyst here at Infusion Points. Born and raised in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Also alumni of uh Wilkes Community College and Appalachian State. Wilkes Community College. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Not the App State part. I'm an NC Charlie girl, but the WCC all the way.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Yeah. Uh but met Infusion Points at uh the Cyber Summit at AppState. Um got to meet some of the uh, I believe y'all seen him on the other podcast, Tanner Bailey, uh Aiden. I was also a fellow internship or fellow intern with Aiden. Um but yeah, it's a little bit about me and how I met Infusion Points.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Awesome. Ben, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Yeah, so um just like Levi, I was also a WCC graduate and I've lived here my whole entire life as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Um the way I heard about Infusion Points was actually through my girlfriend. Um, she applied for the internship as well, but um, she decided to go do a different career pathway, and now I'm here. That's it. And she really got me interested in cybersecurity.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

So I love that. And I love that story that y'all both like switched to your paths. You're like, you know what, I actually like that, and I actually like that. Let's switch. That is fantastic. So, Ben, tell me about what you do.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

So I'm I'm a security operations analyst. Um and what we do is we do 24-hour um 365 m sock monitoring for um customers. And we well what we look at, we look at seams, we look at EDRs.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Um Did you know about any of that before you came here?

SPEAKER_02 2:02

I knew a very little amount about that. I knew CrowdStrike was a thing, I knew Splunk was a thing. Yeah, that was my knowledge. That's all I knew.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

What do you guys both think? I want both of you guys to answer this question. So, who do you think did or did you have anybody that inspired you to get into this field? So I could start with you. Did anybody inspire you?

SPEAKER_03 2:23

I would say a little bit when I was younger, at least in the IT part of it. My dad was really into IT. So growing up, he would have the latest technology. I remember when the Blackberry came out, he had it. He could play games on the Blackberry and stuff like that. But he kind of instilled that seed in me to kind of like, you know, pursue a technology related pathway.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yeah, that makes sense. And what about with you? Did you do you have anybody that was inspirational to lead you to where you are today?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Um I would say my parents, they put a lot of influence on, you know, free th free flow of do what makes you happy. Yes. And I'm just I'm lucky I ended up in the field I am because you know, as I stated before, I was going to go do something totally different, which what I was gonna do was radiography. But besides the point, I ended up in cybersecurity and I love it. You know, I've always had a passion for electronics, computers. Um I I owned a computer five years before I decided I don't want to do this.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

And I never thought I thought about you know doing it as a career. So I'm just fortunate enough that I ended up in cybersecurity and I love it.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Good. Well, and I know we're both very both, I said we're both like it was me and you, but I know I'm very grateful to have you here and I know the sock team as for both of you guys, you know. Definitely. Um, but let's talk about the internship. So you guys both you were in a different year, or you, Levi, you were in a different year, and you were Ben, you were in a different year. And y'all both kind of had different experiences because you were a part of the initial really structured cohort um that we had started. So tell me about your experience, Levi, first, and then Ben I'll talk to you about yours because it was a little bit different, you know. Um, you had like a rotational style and you had more focus on the socks. So tell me about that.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Yeah, I know the first couple weeks of the internship was really kind of getting used to like the culture of infusion points. I know I I believe uh you had talked about how we'd use WordSoup, you know, acronym soup. Oh my gosh, yeah. Yes. And uh I remember the first day I heard FedRamp or some or NIST or DFARS and stuff like that, and I was like, this is like an alien language to me.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

It literally is.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

I couldn't figure out what was going on. But once you got first couple weeks of the internship, you kind of get into the flow of it. Then we started rotating through different internship programs or different departments. I believe I started out in security operations. That's also what kind of sparked a little bit of interest for me because I got to work with some of the team members, yeah, got to kind of like threat hunt some IOCs, indicators of compromise, stuff like that, which was really neat, and then moved on to like engineering, uh, advisory, and then then cloud ops was towards the end of my internship.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Yeah. Ben, what about your experience? How did you how did you feel about going through it?

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Okay, so being a non-rotational intern in the SOC, um, you know, my experience started off similar as Levi's did, you know, just culture shock. Um, and then after after that, um having you also did the MOG thing, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

You had the MOG. I remember that document. And I remember like you focusing on that document at the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Um, that was the missions operations guide, yeah. Um that so me and Eric took that and we made it into more of a starting analyst procedure documents that were compressed down into multi-documents um on our SharePoint.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

And with that, you know, newer analysts that come in, something they can follow to learn how triage alerts, um, learn how to query in each environment, each you know, scene we have.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

And that is so incredible to me because you did that from your own experience of we don't have something like this that can that can showcase. I mean, we obviously we had the MOG, right? But it hadn't really been updated. It really didn't have anything that you can utilize, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Well, you could utilize it, but the MOG was about 180 pages long. So it's very hard to find what you're searching for in it. And just having those documents compressed down, I think it helps out a lot. That was pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

I think I remember Ben came in for his internship and you gave him the MOG to work on it. And I remember he's kept scrolling through it and I was like, How long does this thing get? It's like it's like it took me.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, I don't I don't think I knew how long it was gonna uh uh actually be until you know, just looking at him like, wow, this is a lot of information.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

But I just think that's awesome. You know, you were able to take that in from your own experience and then dwindle it down, or you know what I mean? Like you had that impact, and I think that is awesome. So, since you guys, you know, like Leva, you're you're two years in now, right? Um, and Ben, you're a year in now. Um, so what advice can you give to other students who are looking to do an internship with us? What advice can you give to them?

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Oh, okay. Whichever first thing, watch the podcast. Watch the podcast. I agree. Very informational. You're gonna learn a lot about this company and what you're really gonna be diving into. So that means like and subscribe. Like and subscribe, like and subscribe.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Hit that bell button. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

So we are also an AWS company, and diving into AWS would be very beneficial for any intern starting out.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

I believe you had CloudPract before you started.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Yeah, I had Cloud Practitioner, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

I was rushing to get it done right before our start date. I know it's a tremendous help whenever I got it. I was I was like made the internship, at least solutions architect towards the end of it so much easier to pass. Like it was night day difference.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

I agree, and it helped me out with my solutions architect as well. I had a pretty decent gap in between solutions architect and uh cloud practitioner. So you had to take CYSA. Yeah, I had to take the CYSA, yeah. Which that's one of the things that in the SOC it's required to have. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah, exactly. And like company wide, you know, it's cloud practitioner and you and CYSA for for SOC, you know, it's definitely that's the focus on and and each kind of department has you know different needs from a certification perspective. So let's talk about certs for a minute. Um, what do you what can benefit um, or maybe not benefit, but what so you guys said that the cloud practitioner definitely it it's that foundational cert, it helps you with the language. Um, are there any other things out there, any other certifications that you guys have that you feel like can be beneficial as well?

SPEAKER_03 8:33

I would say it's not necessarily a cert itself, but cloud quest. Uh I've recommended that to a lot of people because it's more interactive than uh cloud practitioner. So you learn a lot more and like you actually get to interact with a lot more stuff compared to cloud practitioners. It's just memorizing definitions. Exactly with that.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I actually went through Cloud Quest as one of my classes at uh Wilkes, and it makes you interact with all sorts of AWS services, EC2, Systems Manager.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah, I feel like I remember you telling me that too. Yeah, because I was like, that that was incredible that they offered that at WCC because I know here, you know, like I remember I had my crew of people trying to get through that, and I was like, go through CloudQuest. You like build a game and you learn AWS.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

The best thing about Cloud Quest is it's free. Yes, anyone can go do it. You just need an AWS account, you can sign up for it, and once complete, you get, I think, a 50% voucher for Cloud Cloud Practitioner.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

That's awesome. Yeah, that's super cool. I didn't even realize that. I know Al, Al, I'm gonna plug Al here for a second. He's always given us uh discount codes for the for different um certifications.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

I'll say some some more advice is just to always be learning. I know going into it, like I knew nothing like you you take your classes and stuff like that, and you learn cybersecurity, you learn like some of the frameworks, like miter attack framework, you know, some different like IOCs and stuff like that. But you it's really hard to get that like hands-on experience, like going from standard classes where you're just sitting in a classroom listening to a professor talk to being like in the mix is like being the one doing it. And I know a lot of the time, like during the internship program, you'll have things thrown your way and you'll be like, I don't know how to do this, but yeah, it's the fun of like figuring it out and like being like, Okay, I know I can do this, just let me give me some time and like you you always doing something different.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Yeah, and I always say everything is figure outable. So, and also, you know, with being in the um rotational internship, you're able to also lean on everybody else that you're that you're in with, like whatever department you're in. You're able to then be like, hey, I have no clue how to do this, and this is something that I'm trying to figure out. What advice can y'all give me? You know, because I know that's that's one of the points of being able to push everyone through each department is to get advice from people, learn the organization. Like y'all mentioned uh a culture shock when you first came on. Um, I wanted I would definitely want to dive into that a little bit more, like culture shock of going from school into a professional organization, or culture shock because of our culture.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

What what what I would say professional organization? Um going in from school, you know, school gives you theory. It gives you theory of cybersecurity, theory of networking. Um, but actually doing it coming in is it's different. Yeah. It's totally different. I mean, you can't do that.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

And that's exactly what you were trying to say about you're doing that hands-on experience, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Yeah, like you can grasp the concepts of CIA triad, you know, confidentiality, integrity, availability. Actually doing it and implementing it. Yeah, and implementing it is hard because you've never had to do that before.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Yeah, I would say it's a it was a big culture shock, but mainly it felt like home. I know whenever I first had like started here, because like I knew a couple people here already, and the culture is very like laid, not like laid back. We're still a professional company, it's just not as suit and tie and like always have to talk really proper. It's more of a we get stuff done, but we don't have to be looking professional while we do it, which I thought was like that that gritty kind of attitude where like it doesn't matter how we look, but we're gonna get it done.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Absolutely. Oh my gosh, I love that so much. And it's because we bring our authentic selves to work every single day. Um, and our clients love that too. So I love that that's recognized, you know, from you guys and through the internship and then obviously being here on a day-to-day, you know, now. So I love that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

So another thing with our culture, um, we we all have hungry, humble, and smart uh mindsets, which pretty much the humble, hungry, and smart mentality, it is um it's from that ideal team player.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Yeah, Patrick Lucone. Yeah, we definitely we built that our culture based on that framework. And I think that's changed. I think that's totally changed us as an organization. It's starting from the beginning of that that uh hiring process.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

Yeah, with humble, hungry, and smart, it's kind of like being the ideal team player. You cross-collaborate with so many teams. I know for myself, like I work with like yourself and Caitlin and uh working across different teams, like being that ideal team player where you can like step in and be like, oh hey, I can like help you out, or like working at cohesively as a team is really important here because you never know who you're gonna be working with. Yeah, it could be a whole different team the next day.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

And along with that, you're gonna everyone wears multiple hats. You might have to, you might be tasked with doing something totally different than what you're used to one day, and you're gonna have to figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

I think that's also a big part of us being a small organization. You know, something I I push to people during interviews and things like that is I ask them, I'm like, have you ever worked for a small organization before? Because working in a small organization is totally different than working for a large organization. The multiple hats, true and true through and through. Um, because you're trying to do more with less. Um, and that's that's who we are. So we end up we end up just wearing those multiple hats.

SPEAKER_03 13:41

I will say that's also what makes the internship so valuable because you're learning something new. I think I learned something new just about every day of the internship, like getting pulled into like certain email marketing campaigns and stuff like that, working within the SOC the same way and then learning different departments. So you learn a ton of skills within three-month time period, four month time periods, something like that. But it's uh very valuable and unlike any other internship internship I think I've seen.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah, because I mean, what other internship could you be a part of to where you are involved with the marketing side, you know, or where you are involved, or also that closely related or uh closely in contact with like your leadership, you know, like that's something that in a large organization, like as an intern, I mean, you probably wouldn't have as many touch points with the CEO, you know, or with the COO or any any of the C level folks. It's like you don't have that uh touch with large organizations and then in the small world, you get to get that knowledge immediately from you know the people that have been in this industry for 30 plus years.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

I would say that's also part of the culture shock that we talked about earlier. It's like the first day, Chad, Gary, Jason, all the leadership was there to Mike was there to introduce, like they all introduced themselves and was talking to us like we were interns. I'm like, what why am I talking to C-Suite? I'm like, this is so great. And you learn so much because like you work with leadership more often and they're very knowledgeable and can like teach you little things and it like adds up and it's it's honestly amazing.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Yeah, I I can definitely uh echo that. During your guys' internship, um, was there any like huge projects that you worked on? Or like what was your favorite pro no, what was your favorite project that you worked on?

SPEAKER_03 15:13

I would say for us, um, I know some of the previous interns that had been on the podcast, we were all in the same internship cohort. Um, we had a project. I think a lot of people probably watching this remember CrowdStrike basically stopped the world for a whole day.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Oh, yeah, I think everyone in the yeah, everyone should know about that.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

I know the biggest pain point that we had in the SOC was getting a hold of people, especially customers letting them know that because everything was down, so it's really hard to like get a hold of them at five in the morning and be like, hey, by the way, we have this masses, massive outage with CrowdStrike.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

So the interns and I came up with this idea, we're gonna make an emergency calling system. So you can basically just hit a button and be like, put a script into it. And it was using AWS. We I think we used Amazon pinpoint and then implemented a lambda function that you can just basically hit go and write a script, input phone numbers, and it'll call everyone on that distro and we'll basically give a brief ex explanation. Like CrowdStrike has basically taken down half the world. I'm sorry, but like we're actively working on the city. Yeah, we're here. Yeah, like we're still modern your environment, so but like Yeah, don't panic over that.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

We still got you.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

But that was that was probably the highlight, and I believe it actually got implemented into our command center.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

So it did. And you know what was so incre incredible about that was I'm I remember all of us being so floored and moved because you guys came up with that idea on your own. You came up with that idea on your own, and then you you implemented it, you made it happen, and then you also you learned how to work together, you learned how to present an idea, um, and you you you learned how to how to put something together. I mean, that was that was very impressive and it it definitely set a bar for the rest of the interns. But we also told, you know, the second uh internship that you guys were in. We also told them, like, you have a high you have a high bar to meet, but also that was very situational. You know, we were in a situation. Once in a lifetime for sure. For all of us uh uh here it was definitely once in a lifetime.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

I also really loved Ben Ben's project too. It made my life a little bit easier being the website guy. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

So tell me about so that project, um, our goal with it was so employee bios. Levi has to go in and manually update every single employee bio, their picture, um, information, just but you know, just manually, I guess. Yeah, it's a little bit tedious. Yeah, I'm sure it gets really tedious, especially when you know people aren't able to send you your information and stuff. Yeah, 50 employees, yeah. But anyway, our idea was how do we automate that? And what we did, we tried um making a form to where employ could get sent out to employees, and that would get automated to where it could automatically update on the Fusion Points website.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

Yeah, definitely made my that was also my favorite project. It made my job a little bit easier.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Yeah, because you you were the end user of it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, Levi, there was something unique I felt like with your internship, where uh typically with with and I know we've already explained how the internship goes, but let me just like quickly give a little backstory, right? So the way the internship is is we we typically have CIS students and CS students um come to us and we put them through this rotation. CIS typically is going to be the ones that are broader in the way that they can either um find employment in Security Operations Center, they can find it in advisory, they can find it in engineering, cloud apps, they can kind of find that anywhere. It's very broad degree. CS typically that's gonna be straight engineering. But in your case, um, and then also with the SOC, that's also specific. There's a specific degree like with the SOC, right? So typically with SOC, you already know that's what you're going into. See with CIS students, it's like I said, it's more broad. Um, so in your situation, you came in CIS student, right? And you were like unsure of where you're where you wanted to be, because that's the kind of the point of the internship as well, is you learning us as an organization and then finding out where you can excel the most. Um, so that was that was like when you went through the internship, what do you think was the point that made you determine I want to be in the SOC over kind of any other uh department?

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Yeah, I would say working with the team in the SOC, it's kind of like a close-knit group of guys. So um, you know, just working with them and kind of getting their input on like, you know, day-to-day stuff like that. Um also I feel I felt like having a cybersecurity major, like having CIS with a cybersecurity concentration really helped kind of guide me towards that. Um, I will say I was also at a crossroads when I first started the internship because I had my marketing degree and I also had my cybersecurity degree. And I I was always looking for an internship, but there was never one that had both like kind of implemented into it. And coming to Infusion Points, I was able to work both in cybersecurity and on the marketing team, kind of like help help you guys out with exactly with different like social posts, stuff like that. Which um, as far as going into the sock, though, it was mainly like working with the guys, kind of like having a little bit of background in cybersecurity, because I at first I felt like I I wasn't very knowledgeable. I was like, oh man, I just have this degree, like I don't know, I don't know what it means. But you know, and then actually getting in there and working hands-on, it was life-changing and like it's a really good experience. At least that's how I decided I was like the sock is for me. Yeah, like working with the team, and it's just just knew I fit right in.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

And I love the fact that you know, that you did have for me personally. I remember when we were going through um resumes and I saw that and I was like, wait a minute, he had this is twofold right now. And then um uh Aiden also was the same way where I was like, he's got these multiple where he kind of was trying to decide what he was gonna get his degree in. It was like the same way where he was like, I have you know, um supply chain management under my belt. He had like all these other kind of things that he had. I was like, You are you guys have a diversification in your skill sets, and that's what we look for is diversification. The fact that you had marketing and um had CIS with cybersecurity, that was like, this is perfect. This is what we need because we also needed a way to be able to um get our word out uh from a cybersecurity perspective, but in a marketing way. And I was like, this guy must have this, these two things in his head, and I love it. And you do, and you do, you participate and you help so much on the marketing side. I'm I'm eternally grateful. Um, awesome. Well, guys, it has been a pleasure interviewing both of you. And I shouldn't say interview. This has really been an awesome podcast of flowing conversations. Um, but we always like to ask some fun, off the wall, very profound questions. Um, so be prepared for the profoundness that's gonna come out of this. What do I want to ask you guys? What's a fun one? Let's see. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would be where would you travel with money is not a concern? Say you're a billionaire.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Oh man. That's a tough one.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

It is a tough one.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Does the moon count? It does, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

It could be outside of the world, totally.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

There you go, the moon. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Why the moon? Why the moon?

SPEAKER_02 21:59

I don't know. Uh not that many people have gone there before. I think it'd be really cool. Experience the uh low gravity.

unknown 22:06

That'd be intense.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

That'd be a really cool thing to put on your resume. Yeah, it would be.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Also, also I went to the moon recently.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

I I knew, at least for myself, I would say I would love to go to Germany. I have I have family that over there. Um and I've never got to visit them. So they live uh near like Frankfurt, Germany. So I'd love to go over there and be able to like uh my little brother was actually just over there. Um, but he got to visit like Austria, like kind of near Germany. I would love it so much.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

I did a um study abroad in Germany because German was my um uh not my minor. I think I was gonna make it a minor and then I thought it was gonna be too much. Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

Oh, that's heißt evai.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

Yeah, uh well, I would say uh yeah, yeah, that's so funny. I love that. I always say you can talk to me like a uh like a five-year-old, but I've definitely lost most of my skills, like for sure.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

I took one class in college and I think I forgot about half of it.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Yeah, no, I I took a couple, and like I said, we did a study abroad, but it was like a 10-day abroad study. It wasn't like an entire semester, it was pretty cool. Um, and I fell in.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

What was your favorite part of Germany?

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Oh my um honestly, it was standing on like the Berlin Wall that they have.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

It's like a um I I don't mean to cut you up. My mom was living in Germany when they the Berlin Wall fell.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Really?

SPEAKER_03 23:22

Yeah, she was uh eight, nine or something.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

That happened exactly a month after I was born. I know that because it was November of 89.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

November, but they they were living on the Air Force Base over there and they were there when the Berlin Wall fell. See, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Yeah, I'll think uh that line fine Germany as well. Really? I mean, I didn't even think about the historical factors and stuff. Yeah, yeah, history-wise, that'd be really cool.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And but yeah, that Berlin, the where they have like because you can see, I mean, it cuts across the whole uh all of Berlin. Like it cuts across the whole thing, and it's like um um like a trail of bricks, and then you can like walk that whole trail and see where the Berlin wall actually was, and that was that was really cool. Um, you know, we visited, we visited a whole bunch of places, but I just that I I felt like I could feel something there, you know. It was really intense.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Um and also whenever my family travels over there, they're like they don't have ice over there, apparently. They don't have ice, they don't prefer to like if you get like a soda or something, like they won't put ice in it. No, like it's it's it's I couldn't get used to that, but I think it'd be awesome to travel.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Yeah, oh a hundred percent. And also uh when you're over there, like they everyone wants to speak English with you, but you're like, I want to practice my German with you. So you end up speaking, I'm gonna speak German to you, and then they will end up speaking um English back to you. So it's like you're both getting practice time out of it, which is really cool. And everyone was so welcoming and it was really cool. It wasn't like um, you know, oh, you don't speak German, I'm not gonna speak to you.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

Like, oh, you're a tourist. I don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Yeah, or oh, you're a no, it was complete opposite. They have this huge mall there that's like stories tall. Um, it's insane. It's most insane I've ever seen in my life. Um, but they call it like the New York of um Europe, I want to say. I don't even think it's just of Germany. I could be wrong on that. Don't quote me on that. But something like that. It's like the New York of um of uh Europe. And so being in this mall, it is it's insane. It's like a whole other country itself, is being in this mall. But everyone was so nice. Everyone just they and they want to speak to you too. And I'm like, I like I said, I want to practice my German, so can I practice my German with you? And they will get so excited about it. So even if you only know a little bit, they can definitely make it work.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

My little brother got back from Italy and like they don't apparently they don't like tourists as much. But he went to Germany and they were like, they love them. Yeah, they love them being there.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Yeah. Well, that sounds like you need to make a plan on a trip to get over there, get your passport, make the plan.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

I got my passport, I got it, I got a handy. I just need to I need to book the flight over there.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

Yep, book the flight, put in the PTO request and get on out here. Eric, if you're listening to this, yeah, Eric's putting a PTO for that. Awesome. Um, well, guys, this has been fantastic, I think, since we just dove into that um and had a whole beautiful conversation with it. Um, I think uh I think that was good. So thank you guys so much for being here. I appreciate it, and uh that is all. Cheers.