Nope.
Well, after my little life debate on the train here, I got settled down quickly. Nerves were wrangled in and anxiety was kept in check. I was ready for the new stuff on the way.
I got to the Hbf, and was packed like a mule. Really, I felt like a pack horse. I had my backpacking pack on my back, my little backpack on my front, a rolling carry-on size suitcase, a duffel resting on that, and then my bike. WHUH. Beasting my way to a new start.
My new Vermieterin (Elke, landlady) was going to meet me at the Hbf and load my stuff up and take me home. She whistled me down, and we were able to get all of my crap into her tiny little car (thank you world for quick-release bike axles). Boom, on our way to my new abode!
Here's a great sign that things are going to be awesome here. We had to get some gas on the way. No big deal, standard fill up. Well, as she was filling up, she told me about something she has to do every time she goes to a gas station.
Pump 7. She always has to use pump 7. Why? Well, in Germany, there's no way to pay at the pump, so customers always have to go inside. This requires the customer to tell the attendant what pump they're at. So why pump 7? (7 = sieben, 0 = null). So she can go inside. Conversation:
Attendant - Which pump were you at?
Welche Zapfsäule waren Sie?
Elke - My name is seven, 0 0 7.
Mein Name ist Sieben, Null Null Sieben.
Pretty awesome.
So we got back. She had some dinner planned. We chowed down on some BLTs and watched HSV get destroyed by Bayern München. Great first night.
I slowly (emphasis on slowly) worked my way in to town. Thursday I went on a long bike ride, got my bike fixed (FINALLY), checked out a potential climbing gym (super :-( but expensive), and got some groceries. Friday I had to go into work to sign some forms and all that jazz. Saturday I went with Elke to Germany's Wal-Mart (Krümet), and then went and got breakfast at IKEA with a new dresser. Whoever said IKEA is hard to assemble, must not know what pictures are. Easy as hell. Sunday I did nothing. Stayed in my PJs, lounged around. Nothing.
Definitely not what I was expecting. I get in, and one of my bosses (Udo) had to just turn around and head home because his wife got injured. So that was a weird wrench in the puzzle. I'm not sure what I was expecting though, I think I was just ready for super awesome cool stuff on my first day without any kind of intro process. Well, that was wrong. I did a lot of reading on health and safety manuals and helped move around furniture in the office. Overall, it was a kinda boring day.
On the plus side, I got to play some frisbee later on. That was fun. It was kinda weird (although I'm kinda used to it by now...) going to a new frisbee group and having to meet new people. I think it's going to be a while longer until I get to know people here, because there's a much bigger group here than there was in Köln or Magdeburg. But, I got to meet some people, play some frisbee, and have a good time!
Same thing at work. Boring. Helped move furniture, but other than that just wasted a day.
Much better, both of my bosses were in, and they gave me something to do! It's amazing how much better a day at work is when you have legitimate work to do! Well, I was finding numbers and dates for some offshore wind clusters, and in the process learned/picked up on quite a few details and stuff regarding the current state of offshore wind. That was really interesting.
I felt great leaving work. I had a productive day, enjoyed what I did, and it was a beautiful day outside. So I threw in my headphones and was bumping Switchblade--Incubus. Something about the awesome bass line and upbeat-ness of it just fueled my good mood. It was awesome.
Then later I got to play some more frisbee. Despite the winter, practice was outside. And OOOOOOH BABY was it awesome. It was great to get outside and play again! It's quite amazing and annoying, the difference between playing inside and outside. It was rainy and brisk, but there were a ton of people there and it was a great day for frisbee. Follow that up with going to the bar right next to the field and watching the last half of Bayern vs. Arsenal, Wednesday was an absolutely great day.
Ended up trying to drag out my task because both of my bosses weren't there and didn't have anything for me to do afterwards. Boring day.
After work I bought a toaster and then grabbed a beer with Matt after work.
Wrapped up my drawn out task and found out my bosses were in! Got to talk to Udo and Svetlana (my bosses) about what they do. A lot of quality management auditing, and we discussed the process, background, all that stuff. Then they gave me a few books to go through about the process and some ISO Standards. Pretty dry reading, but it all made sense. It's interesting how things need to be so meticulously documented for things like that that just makes sense. Constant improvement, receiving inputs from customers and putting those to use, making sure you output high quality, etc. Common sense, but has to be written out for international standards to ensure everyone adheres to them. So yeah, reading, kinda boring, but a cool insight to a large portion of what my company does.
After work, I came home and lounged a bit. Was making some dinner, and Elke got home so we had a nice little dinner of pasta, played some backgammon, and some nummy yogurt for dessert, and then I showed her some pictures I've taken and we talked for a bit. It's really cool having an awesome land lady.
Now comes the part of the story where I talk about random thoughts I have.
Saying positive thoughts/sentiments in a perceived negative light is something I do all the time. "Not too bad", "No problem", those are things I say ALL the time. I've never thought anything of it, or how that could be taken; they've never been a problem.
Until I come to Germany. I translate my sayings ("Nicht schlecht", "Kein Problem", "ziemlich ok/gut") and go about my normal business. But I've been called out a couple of times for my use of these phrases. Their contention: why do you use negative phrases when you could use positives?
Not bad = pretty good/doing great
No problem = glad to help/my pleasure
As I said, I've never really thought about the implication or connotation of those things. But for some reason Germans really take it down to it's basics. Not sure why. It could be a fundamental difference of culture. Subtlety, understatement, sarcasm, all these are present in the US. Those things are not present, or extremely reduced here in Germany. I think that is one of the biggest differences and reasons for the awareness of these phrases. Pretty interesting.
Something that has been firmly cemented into my core beliefs during this program is as follows:
It's not where you are, but who you are with.
You could be anywhere in the world, alone, doing whatever you want. And you could be having an amazing time doing it. But eventually, you're going to (or at least I will) want some human contact, especially with people close to you.
You could be anywhere in the world, alone, or feeling alone, and having a shit time. Right away, you're going to want some human contact, especially with those close to you.
Both cases, it's independent of where you are. People in your environment are the foundation of life. That's something I've really come to enjoy and understand during this program.
Köln, I was in a completely new city in a new country in a new part of the world. But with the help of the 39 other people from the program and the awesome people I met through frisbee, I learned a lot and got comfortable with my new surroundings.
Magdeburg, I was in a completely new city in a completely different part of that new country, and had to start all over. With the help of the awesome people I met through frisbee and through the University/program, I got adjusted and had a great time. They helped me through my troubles and showed me a wonderful time.
Hamburg, I'm just getting me feet wet, and I feel like it could take me a while longer to get adjusted here than the last two places. But I've got an awesome Vermieterin and great people at work to talk with and see.
What's common in these three? Three foreign/new cities, but all become less foreign as I get to know people and have friends to share time with. No matter where you are in this world, the people around you can be one of the most pivotal aspects of your life.
Cherish those around you and enjoy the camaraderie.
To start, let me just say that I am a BAUS at making sandwiches. All types of ingredients, all types of combinations, I can do it and it tastes awesome. That being said, sandwiches are a pretty dominant staple of my diet. I make one every day for lunch, and when I'm too lazy or apathetic to make a full out meal, I bust out the bread and lunch meats and go to work.
Well, Germany sucks at making sandwich bread. No joke. They're all too wrapped up in their little Brötchens to make good sandwich bread. This pisses me off. I just want a normal loaf of whole wheat with a decent crust and good bread in the middle, that's not too big of a request. But noooOOOOOOOoooo. Their 'sandwich bread' (actually they call it American Bread at the store) is flaky as hell and can't hold up to anything. Seriously. I tried to butter one side of a piece of bread the other day, and the butter just went right through the bread as I tried to spread it. Not on the bread, through the bread. That coupled with any time you touch a slice the crust starts falling off, it is not an enjoyable experience.
I'm really missing Safeway right now. What I would do for a fully stocked Safeway would be unseemly.
Being in Germany I have come to appreciate the quality of journalism. News media actually covers important stories over here. Whereas in the US you get a story of some irrelevant bullcrap instead of hearing about legitimate stories, not only across the country, but across the world. And when they do cover stories, there's usually some sort of bias or opinion in it. The opinion of our government and news organizations can really drastically affect the content that is in a story.
Wasting some time on the intertubez, I found this article on Russia. It's called Distorting Russia, and talks about how the US media does just that, destorts what they say about the country. Granted, I'm no world expert, and in today's day and age, with tons of layers and complexities and interrelations of so many different issues, countries, people, etc., it is almost impossible to know both sides of a story and everything else going on behind the scenes.
Another example is the turmoil, protests, and extreme changes going on in Ukraine right now. One of my friends posted a question on Facebook asking their friends back home what kind of news coverage is being provided on the activity in Ukraine. The responses were depressing. One said he would have no idea what was going on if it weren't for a Ukrainian-American friend he had, others said they didn't know what was going on, some said they heard of something going on in the country but couldn't explain it. I feel like having an unaware population base is a huge disadvantage for a country, and is something extremely prevalent in the US.
Granted, being in Germany, there is much more interaction and relevance between Ukraine and Germany vs. Ukraine and the US. Germany is in Europe, much closer, and especially with the potential of Ukraine joining the EU (the spark of all the protests in Ukraine) the interaction between the two countries are much bigger than between the US in another part of the world. But, this isn't an excuse for people to be ignorant of what's going on.
Sorry if this feels like an illogical or pathless rant. Not sure how all to phrase it. Just upset about the ignorance and unawareness of the overall population in the US, and the relevant side affects.
More work. It's weird getting back into a work routine. I haven't had a real job in a couple years, so it's been an interesting adjustment, not bad in any means, just interesting. I have some health and safety training to do this coming week, and then the following week, I think I'm going up to Denmark to tag along on an inspection. Should be cool!
More frisbee too. I hope to get to know more people soon and hopefully feel more connected with the city and the people.
Other than that, who knows. I might be going to Karneval next weekend, and that could be pretty crazy. I'm trying to plan other places I want to go see, and feel like I might be sticking to Northern Europe. But, as always, things are on a day by day basis, so nothing's set in stone. So I'm just riding the wave here in Hamburg.
Read this article and tell me this guy isn't an arrogant prick (article from ESPN)
Because we play a "foolish sport, like American football"? Are you serious? Speedskating. You're good at speed skating, congratulations. Trust me, I'm not dogging on speed skating, my Grandma was a world class speed skater, and I enjoy seeing the crazy fast people gliding on blades of steel across sheets of ice. But is that really a reason to take a dig at the US?
We put too much effort and attention into football, a "sport that sucks". Whatever, have your opinion. Gah, I don't even know what to say. This is pretty cocky for a country who, so far, has 22 medals at the Winter Olympics, 21 of which are from speed skating. Where's your diversity there punk?
Yeah, we sucked at speed skating, but at least we know there are other sports to compete in. ANGERANDRAGEATTHENETHERLANDS
Original Publish Date: February 22nd, 2014