KANDEL IN THE WIND

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I've officially been in Germany now for just around three weeks, and things are going pretty well. I'm adjusting back to some things quicker than others, but anticipate having a fairly successful time here with my job/project, and a very successful time here with extracurriculars and fun stuff.

The Siezen/Duzen Thing

The German language has a different thing than English, two versions of 'you', one of which is formal, the other being informal. Starting out at my job, I knew I couldn't just go in there guns blazing throwing 'du' all over the place, so I strapped on my polite hat and started out with my 'Sie' conjugations as best I could.

I gotta admit, it was quite a relief when each one of my coworkers told me we could 'du' each other (haha, it sounds dirty, but it's actually not). I am much more comfortable and don't have to double think everything when I can speak 'du' with someone. So naturally, it was a great feeling once I got the ok with everyone.

Then when my boss was like, 'hey, let's go by first name', aka allowing us to 'duzen'. It was a big relief getting it from him. I'm not sure why I let it get so important, but it felt really important and as I said, it was quite the big relief...

The Magical Mug

When I'm at home, I spend a decent amount of time at my computer. When so, I usually have my special mug around me, and it's usually filled with water. A.k.a. - Hydrate to Dominate.

I feel kinda nerdish-ly and weirdly cool having my trusty water mug with me and providing me a means of hydration. And for some reason, I feel like water just tastes better from it.

Proactivity People

Getting here was a great example for me of how I tend to sit back and wait for something to happen. But the moment I turn to proactivity and try to make something happen, it's amazing to see the difference. Sometimes I really suck at this, and get into a stupid loop of wasting time on the internet and not accomplishing things. But when I finally get my ass into gear, it feels good.

During the first week I started working here, I forced myself into some productivity on that Friday out of not having much to do. Then, after trying to let the stau (traffic) die out, I drove over to Stuttgart and had a helluva good time in with some trainee buddies making some pizza, drinking, and checking out a couple really eclectic bars. That next day I got home and actually got a good amount of stuff done. Then that Monday I got a ton of stuff done during the day before heading to frisbee practice that night. Baus.

I've been doing an intermittent job of that lately, but I'm hoping to keep that up. I've usually got my OneNote open, with my to-do list and goals and stuff, so having those reminders present usually helps me out. Plus having boxes that aren't checked off yet kinda keep staring at me until they're crossed off.

Task = Focus

It was sure nice to finally get a project at work. Not only that, but I got two small projects to work on in parallel. I gotta admit, they seemed a little menial, but it was pretty damn nice to have something to work and focus on.

Big Theoretical Task = Little Focus

On the flip side of that, one of the projects is a little more fluid and theoretical. For some reason, whenever it comes to tasks like that, where I have to get creative and think outside the box and stuff like that, I kinda suck at them. It's not structured, I have to really work hard at being creative (I'm not an all star at thinking outside the box), and it usually just ends up in me asking people what to do because I feel lost.

I'm not sure if this is a bad sign or a really bad sign. But I need to work on a) my creativity, b) my diligence at completing difficult tasks, and c) just getting shit done.

Kostly Kantine

With the work setup here, I feel kinda forced to go to the Kantine everyday for lunch. On the one side, it's a good thing. It's forcing me to interact with people (99% listening so far), talk with people over a little social time over work, and get some practice with my German. Plus it's all really delicious, especially with the good salads they have, and then of course Nachtisch dazu. Man eh...

On the other hand, it's a bit costly. Don't get me wrong, the food is great, and it's good to force myself into sitting and talking (99% listening, actually) with people. But it costs quite a bit for my standards. I'd love to bring stuff in for lunch and just eat a sandwich or something, which I have every right and opportunity to do so, but I feel a little obligated. The war between saving and socializing continues.

Sprachkenntnisse-Verbesserung gesucht

I got a little angry with myself during a Stammtisch last week because I couldn't understand anything and essentially just sat there trying to figure out the finer details of the conversation for around two hours.

Then turned it around a bit the next day. Had to write up a process description, all in German. Then the guy who asked me to do it, went through every step and corrected my german. Super nice of him to do so.

Frisbee For The Win

Again, frisbee kicks ass. The first week I was here the team here had their weekly winter frisbee practice outdoors and I got an even more open reception than the first two practices. I got a lot of the names, had some good conversations, and hell, they even invited me to come back and play at the German National Championships in September. Who knows, maybe I will?

And true to form, it's just continued on from there. Practices have been fun (one of the guys asked me to lead warmups one time, it was kinda weird because I did it all in English and everyone was silent, but yeah...), through the group I found a place to chill out and watch the Super Bowl, and I even played with the second team at the 3rd League Southwest Germany National Championships!

We did pretty good this past weekend. We went 3-4, and ended up in 4th place. Indoor frisbee is definitely a different ball game than outdoor, but that said, it's quite fun. Much more fast-paced, requires a little more precision and flow, and it's all around a good time.

Frisbee Disfunction of Times Past

One of the first guys I talked with at frisbee and the one that got me signed up for the local sports club in order to play has been a super welcoming and helpful dude. Unfortunately he is the exact Doppelgänger of the guy I thought was my best friend and who my ex-girlfriend cheated on me with.

Literally, he's almost an exact German replica. Same hair, same build, same face-ish, same demeanor, even the same frisbee number. I'm trying to separate that he is not that guy, that they are two completely different people that have never met and likely never will. But it's unfortunately harder to do than it seems. And the worst part of it is it keeps bringing up that annoyance and shitty situation from back then into my mind more than usual.

That dude back in college and the dumb chick I thought was worth something have no role in my life anymore. They were viruses that I thought were somehow worthwhile and I am SUPER glad that they no longer have any interaction in my life. In fact, if they hadn't done what they did, I likely wouldn't be where I am at in my life both professionally and personally today. Not that I would ever wish such a thing on my worst enemy, but it hasn't torn me down. Rather, I learned from it and have moved on.

Yet, almost five years after the fact, that stupid pair and the shit they pulled on me keeps coming up. The Doppelgänger guy here in Karlsruhe is really a nice dude, and all I can do is work on separating him from the guy he resembles.

The Lesson here - get to know people for who they are, not who you think they are.

Bad Chef

I cooked officially the worst meal of my adult life.

It started out really quite great, great pork and veggies turned spicy and delicious as fuck. But I didn't read the label on the rice. First off, I fucked up because it turned out to be sticky rice. Then, unknowing of the first part and assuming it was the standard 2:1 water:rice, it turned out it was 1.5:1, so the rice turned into a shitty sludge. Goddamnit.

As you can see, it looks like shit, and tasted just barely a bit better than that. I was super disappointed, and ended up throwing the leftovers away rather than having to try and stomach that mess.

Why share this? Because I'm going to work on not sucking at cooking. And reading the labels of things. And being a little more patient.

Good Chef

To turn things around, I had a lovely phone call with my former landlady Elke in Hamburg, and she walked me through again how to cook Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes). And I gotta say, I got at least a B/B+ with these ones.

They turned out delish.

Out of the City Walls

Once you get outside of the city and off the autobahn in Germany, everything seems to follow a very structured but interesting script. All of the dorfs have all that they need to do their thing (Metzgerei, Bäckerei, u.a.). The streets look almost all the same. Staggered parking on the sides of the road, the buildings are right up to the sidewalk, the buildings are old and a little rustic but well kept, and it's a fairly relaxing drive through from one end of the dorf to the other.

Then once you get out, it's a pretty black and white switch from dorf to field. The fields are picturesque as well, with bike lanes and roads riddled throughout. The road (as Dietrich told me they're called, an Alleé) is lined usually with some smaller trees all the way until you reach the next village. It could be a long distance, or something that makes you wonder why they're even split. Kandel has a neighbor dorf that's just under 2km away, less than 3/4 mile. It's a quick walk between another, and you can clearly see one from the other. Why then, would the founders of these dorfs decide on a two dorf thing vs. a one dorf setup? It definitely makes me wonder.

Either way, the rural area setup of Germany is much different than in the US. It's quite interesting.

German Internet...

...is a non-existent concept. Seriously. For being the leading superpower in Europe and such a logical, technically-minded country, you think they'd have a way of providing a decent connection to the world. But now and all throughout my CBYX year, I couldn't find good internet to save my life. The struggle continues.

Tinge of Sadness

Being a responsible adult, I was working on my taxes and going through my 2015 finances and expenses and stuff. Well, going through my expenditures for last year, I saw a purchase I made for rawhide bones for Dude. I cried a little. I miss that guy...

Dude and his Stick

Here's a little video of the old man playing with one of his big sticks at the beach.

Dreaming

My buddy Marco got me hooked on a TV show, namely Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It's an awesomely hilarious show and you should all watch it.

Well, [Spoiler Alert] in the show, Jake and Amy finally become a thing which should have happened in Season 1 but takes a while to develop. And I gotta be honest, it really makes me feel like my Mom watching all these hallmark movies. But goddamnit if it doesn't get me dreaming something that good will happen to me...

A Discussion I had at Work

Sometime last week I was talking with one of my many great colleagues, and we got onto the topic of some of the differences between the US and Germany. He had a story of when he was somewhere in North Dakota, and he and a buddy got a warning from a cop for walking on the side of the road, but then went on to talk about how at the bar, any time the military or politics came up into the discussion, things got notably heated.

He asked me why that is, and I tried to explain in my terrible German that (in my opinion), the US does not have a culture of discussion. Things are usually fine when people discuss something and they have a like-mind about the topic, but once someone comes into the conversation that has an opposing view point, things get heated and it becomes more of a mud-slinging than a discussion.

The contrast that I made, and experienced and try to work on still to this day, is that in Germany, people are more open to discussing and contemplating opposite view points. It's not unheard of or out of the normal to have a completely civil conversation with someone from a different world from you even if they have the complete opposite opinion of you. Whereas in the US I feel like this is an extreme anomaly.

I think this can make a huge difference in a person's daily life. I'll be the first to admit that I can definitely be of the US-variety on this. I like to talk to people of a like-mind and shy away from contrasting opinions. As I said though, this is something I'm working on, and when it does come up, I find it to be very rewarding to talk with and actually listen to things that people of an unlike-mind have to say. No, it's not always easy, but it's informative, constructive, and some times eye-opening.

Wrap-up

Well, that's it for now. I'm gonna keep taking notes of my life. It's kinda fun to look back on the things that make an impact during the day. Then looking at it again a week or so later, remembering what happened after the fact. That and I've got a bad memory, so I have to write things down or else I'll forget.

Shout out to all my homies out there. Keep it real.

Original Publish Date: February 16th, 2016