KARLSRUHE HO!!!!! UMMMMM.....

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Hey folks. Shout out to all you great people reading this sentence right now. You're awesome. Keep doing your thing.

Karlsruhe

Well, I officially moved out of Kandel and to Karlsruhe. And leading up to it all I got super pumped! Kandel was great and all, but finally back to a city, to life, to civilization! I got a little jittery and notably excited at work the day of. Finally, Feierabend, and it was off to go check in.

I got there and had trouble finding parking, it was no biggie, cause I'd eventually get a key to their garage. But I got to the place and checked in. Wah wah wah...

I'll call it the downtown letdown. It's a tiny little shoebox of a hotel room. That's right a hotel room, it's not even an apartment. It's only slightly bigger than my place in Tokyo, which is a bit weird comparing a city of 13 million to 300,000.

There are a number of really irritating features and aspects of this place that are going to prevent me from feeling really comfortable and zu Hause here. Such as: the clothes hangars are the ones that you can't remove, there's only two mini burners and a total joke of a kitchenette, there is zero cupboard space for a pantry because the few dishes I do have take up all the space, the shower is smaller than the tiny one I had in Tokyo, the bed is about as comfy as a stone, and the nerve-racking icing on the cake - the wi-fi costs 70€/month and doesn't auto-connect. You've gotta be kidding me.

The plus side of all of this? I live in Karlsruhe. Wahoo!

(Later) Going back through and reading this little snippet makes me feel like a greedy prick complaining about living all over the place and stuff. I hope it doesn't come off that way. It's just provided me with a number of aspects that make me feel not as at home as I would have hoped for the place. I've got things to complain about, but I really shouldn't.

Good Circulation Curses My Bad Circulation

One day last week or the week before, it was a really nice day outside. Because of this, Heike, the E3's secretary and all around fun-side of the office, wanted to circulate some O2 in the office and asked around to make sure everyone was ok with it.

I hesitated a little, which caused her to ask if I was cold. Pause on that, I gotta send a huge thanks to my Mommy (Love ya!!!) for the bad blood circulation. But yeah, my feet get cold in the office, so I told her that, and then three people went to work talking me through it and one guy got the kaputt heater next to my desk working so I could have some warm air going on my feet. It's makes a world of difference having good colleagues :-) Plus, now I've got a heater under my desk that helps to keep my feets cozy during the day. Not bad I say, not bad.

Java Me Timbers

Kinda weird to admit, but I think I'm finally starting to like coffee. I've always used the fact that I don't drink coffee as something of a unique tidbit about me. Engineering Undergrad, Engineering Grad School, those and being from the PNW, you'd think I've got coffee in my veins. But no, that's not the case.

But now I'm getting into a routine of having a cup of it almost every day (sometimes two. I know, be still my beating heart...). It's starting to become a regular thing. It definitely helps that there's an espresso machine in the tea-kitchen, and the beans that they've got there smell pretty damn good, and having a warm cup of coffee in your hands while going through a vehicle camera reading with 20 signals on screen watching for errors and stuff is just kind of a comforting thing to have in hand. I don't know, I think this might actually be a thing (especially when it's free. If I have to pay, might be a dealbreaker).

I'm gonna assume this is one of those things where your tastes change with age. Like Dark Chocolate (the only good kind of chocolate), Beer, Pistachios, and who knows what else. I'm just hoping Whiskey finds its way onto this list sometime in the future.

RED ALERT

I just opened my last bag of Dark Chocolate M&Ms. It could be a long few months over here...

Germany, Warm Up a Bit...

The day after I moved to Karlsruhe, I had to go back to Germersheim to pick up my 'green card' (Aufenthaltstitel) to officially legitimize my time working here. The experience was the epitome of a German customer service experience, aka a shitty customer service experience.

To get in the place went by actually pretty quick, which was a bit of a surprise. I got up to the floor, and was greeted again with a hallway as a waiting area (seriously, open spaces people... it's not that hard). I looked for the room I was supposed to go to, and got a little confused. Thankfully, there were some other people there that showed me I had to check into this automated check-in thing that was tucked away in an alcove a little out of the way. Ticket in hand, I went to sit down around the hallway because the other seats were filled.

Minutes slipping by and my planned appointment time slowly becoming a thing of the past, I wondered what was up. So I went back to the check-in alcove and noticed there was a TV (the only one on the floor) with my name on it telling me to go to a certain room. Good thing all the waiting hall seats knew this was there....

I got into the room and the lady handling my case immediately gave me a random letter and provided no clear explanation of its use or its role in the whole thing with quite the cold tone and atmosphere. Naturally, I was a bit confused, but I soldiered on. She gave me some stuff, I signed some stuff, and then she pointed back the letter and was like, "would you like to do this now or later?", and I was like, "wtf are you talking about...". Well, it turned out to be a PIN code that I could set up to use with my card for id purchase or god knows what, she didn't explain that very well either.

Eventually I got everything squared away and could go back to work. But honestly, how the hell can people still be so cold to random people on stuff like this. Seriously? This is one thing that always blows my fucking mind and will probably be one of the few things that would prevent me from trying to stay here for a longer time. I like positivity and some sort of welcoming atmosphere when I go to people for help or to interact with someone, regardless of if they're a stranger or not.

On the plus side, the actual card itself is pretty cool. It looks more official than any ID I've ever received before (exception: passport). It's got a hologram of my face on it, and it's colorful, and it's got one of those movey-reflector thingys on it with my face and the date I have to leave the country on it. Silver linings, right?

Radio Realization

I've been listening to Spotify lately to give me some variety while in one of those funks where I don't know what to listen to. So far, I've had it happen to me a couple of times, but a radio ad will suddenly come on and I realize it's from Daimler talking about the CAReer program.

I gotta admit, it's kinda weird already being in the company and hearing them advertise 'international career opportunities' and 'development opportunities' and the like. Yeah, they're pretty correct on those items, and I am pretty damn lucky to be experiencing them...

Berlin with Lutz!!!

After a pretty quick week at work, I was finally off on my first visit within Germany!!! With the 15:00 train out of Karlsruhe, I was headed up to Berlin to hang out with my great friend and former roommate Lutz. Needless to say, I was excited to get up there and catch up with that guy and here about what's all been going on with him!

Every time I come into Berlin, crossing over the bridge just past the Zoologischer Garten stop, looking to the right and seeing the Siegesäule, night or day, really lets me know I'm in Berin. It's such a cool sight to see upon arrival, and for me, really reminds me of where I'm at and all the cool things I've done and people I've been with in such a cool city. (Shoutout to my original Berlin Buddy, Zach T. Can you believe it's almost been 4 years since we first rode into Berlin!??!!?)

After getting in, I jumped on the tram to see my buddy. On the way, I overheard a fun-sounding Irishman talking to his buddy and snagged a great quote from the guy:

"Life's just a bunch times getting kicked into the bullocks, it's just a matter of how quickly you can get back up."

Ain't that the truth. So here's to getting back up.

Got off the tram and bam, whaddup Lutz!!! So pumped to see him again!!! We dropped my stuff off at his place then headed to The Bird, a burger joint where he works and chowed down on some really good burgers (the weird part, they use english muffins for the buns. Still tasted phenomenal). We did a good bit of quatsching around with the bartenders, some other people, and then ended up hanging out after the place closed down and playing some pretty intense Jenga with everyone. A great night.

There would be no other correct way to start the next day than with a nice, relaxed, delicious breakfast. We strolled to the local bakery, picked up some rolls and chocolate croissants, came back and dined just as we should have. The Touré-Raichel Collective, great conversation, and a table full of goodies. Just like in Hamburg auf der Wendlohstraße...

Satisfied and ready for the day, we jumped on some two-wheeled mechanisms and started an awesome bike tour through Berlin. For the few times that I have been through Berlin, this was the first time on a bike there, and it was awesome. Bikes really do make the world go round.

Through Alexanderplatz, down Unter den Linden, through the Brandenburger Tor and the Tiergarten then past the Siegesäule, we put together a pretty awesome tour all through town. Eventually we made it over to Tempelhof and threw the friz around on the tarmac-turned-park (super awesome place, definitely check it out next time you're in Berlin).

Afterwards, a little tired and ready for a break, we found a nicy, cozy cafe in Bergmannkiez on Bergmannstraße and chilled out with a little coffee and people watching. From there we pedaled through Gendarmenmarkt, through the Nikolaiviertel, and then ended on a pitstop to Dolores Burritos, an absolutely beautiful mexican-food oasis over here. They made some killer burritos.

That night, me and Lutz kept it pretty chill with a self-guided craft beer pub crawl. We started the night off at Pfefferbräu, where I had the pleasure of tasting a true american-style stout in my last visit there. Unfortunately, the stout was a 'seasonal' and not on tap. I settled for their Schwarzbier, and was a little disappointed.

From there we went to another craft beer bar not far down the road. Here, I was pleasantly surprised to see a wider variety of actual craft beers (shout out to Nogne Ø making an appearance). The beers were pretty good, which was a nice surprise. They also had a couple shuffleboard tables downstairs, super awesome, right? One would think so, but they were hosing people out of 18€ an hour just to play! Are you fucking serious!??!?! What a bunch of losers. That is an outrageous price, and outrageous that there even is a price for such a thing.

To end the early night, we headed to "3". It was chill, packed, and a great place for some good conversation. A little pooped from the bike riding all day, we decided on calling it an early night.

The next day, another awesome, chill breakfast was a total given. Afterwards, despite the cold and the rain, we rode over to a bouldering gym and got our climb on. Climbing is awesome, but a little less awesome when you do it for the first time in almost a year. I was a little bit useless, but had a great time (as always). Tackled some tough routes, failed a good number of times, but got to see Lutz go all monkey-style on a pretty cool overhang route. Killin it.

Sidenote: For those that don't know, here are the three rules of climbing:

1. Crush
2. Look Good
3. Safety First

Pumped out, we then headed to this super tiny but super chill cafe to meet up with another old roommate of ours and Lutz's buddy from Uni, Timo! He's now living in Berlin and working his way into the radio world, so we chatted over a good cup of coffee. It was cut a little short because Lutz had to go to work and stuff, but we set up a nice plan for the next morning.

Lutz off at work, I set off on an adventure. First off, I met up with Anna, an exchange student that stayed with some family friends in Olympia. We met up with a few of her friends, got caught up on what we're both doing with our lives, and got some AWESOME Korean food. And I mean awesome. And they even had Makgeolli!!! Deeeeelicious.

Hunger satiated and bike ready to go, I started off on a little night tour of Berlin with Rick and my camera ready to capture this one-of-a-kind city. It started off great, but it was wayyyyyy colder that night than I anticipated. I ended up cutting things a little bit short, but got a few decent shots before I did so. Hopefully you like em.

Bright and early that next morning, I had to get ready to take the train back to Karlsruhe for the work week. But, before I did, Timo joined me and Lutz for a final chill breakfast. Great conversations and food with those guys.

Overall, it was another successful and very enjoyable time in Berlin. I've got an absolutely awesome friend in Lutz, and it was great to go back to our time in Hamburg and the great conversations we'd have, the great food we'd share, and the fun adventures we'd start. We did a little bit of planning for our bike ride in 2024 from Vancouver, BC to San Diego, which is gonna be awesome, but I'm sure we will and I can't wait to see him again before then!

German Internet is Shit

On the train back from Berlin, I had my work computer with me and was planning on paying the 5€ to get the coveted access to Wifi on the ICE train. I did so, and clearly should not have had such high expectations. The connection was terrible, and at least every half hour, the connection would disappear altogether, leaving me to question why the heck I spent 5€ for a non-existent service. Duped again by the Deutsche Bahn, and Deutschland altogether really...

Ignorance is Me

At work, I got embarrassed by my country and my lack of knowledge of it. I was talking about the election with my colleagues and one of them asked me if its true that we had Wahlmänner in the USA like he learned about in school.

I had no idea what he meant by that, but told him my understanding was that each vote in the US was a singular vote. Well, I ended up looking like a fool. Clearly my elementary school lesson on the electoral college didn't stick with me. After reading Wikipedia and learning how weird and fucked up the electoral college is, I had to admit my pretty bad error and ignorance. One vote does not in fact mean vote, it means a vote for someone who will hopefully vote for who you want. Yay for one vote note really being worth one vote!!! :-(

I'm a Douche

I'm a fucking douche. I was at the laundromat last week cleaning my smelly clothes. To pass the time I was going through some pictures from my trip when an older guy walks in. He's a little unkempt and has a bit of an unorderly voice. He starts asking for directions and I just assume he's a drunk, a little tipsy, and unaware of what he's doing. Long story short, the guy clearly seems lost and another guy at the laundromat ends up calling the guys friend who agrees to come get the guy picked up. The guy then thanks the generous caller and heads on his way. Not ten minutes later, I'm going to switch my stuff to the dryer, and as I'm doing that, I see a guy with his pants dropped to his knees and adjusting his underwear. A little disgusted, I continue on my way. Well not a minute after that, as I'm trying to figure out the payment thing, he stops me and tells me the right way to use it.

In both cases, I auto-assumed that these gentlemen were either strung out on something or a little off their rocker, and let that assumption negatively impact my impressions and attitude towards them, subconsciously steering me away from having anything to do with them. Once, it kept me away, and the second, it came against my will.

Then not two minutes after I started writing these last two paragraphs, the first guy then approached me, asking for help. With my guilt and shame, and a slight bit of the correct willingness to help a fellow human being, I talked to the guy, called his friend to come pick him up, and had a little bit of small talk.

I'm still a dick. The fact that my first impression of someone without any interaction with that person can be so negative is quite shameful.

Sorry for the Destruction

At work, I needed help with something. All of my coworkers are always extremely busy, and me being the new guy trying to learn the ropes, I feel a little bad and hesitant interrupting them for my normally pretty insignificant questions.

After one of those times last week, I sent my coworker a quick email saying sorry for the disruption and thanks for the help. A couple minutes later he came over and said that a) he was glad to help, and b) I didn't destroy anything. Welp, turns out what I thought meant disruption (Zerstörung) actually means to destroy. Störung was the word I was actually looking for. Yay for crash courses in German!

Duzen vs Siezen. It's Annoying

I don't know why, but the whole two-ways of saying 'You' has really started to get on my nerves. I still do the formal one with people when I should, but I don't enjoy it.

To me, it just seems superficial and stand-offish in a way. I get it that it's meant to show respect to authority and people higher up than you. Even so, it feels way old fashioned and in some cases a little bit confusing.

Weekend Wanderer

This past weekend, I had a free Saturday, so I made the absolute most of it. A somewhat early rise paired with some baller breakfast sandwiches got me out the door and ready for an eventually great day.

Reggie and I hit the road and headed first off to Burg Trifels, only about an hour away from home tucked right inside the hills of Rhineland-Pfalz. It was a really pretty drive there, and the weather ended up working out the entire day, which was really awesome. But with a short drive through winding roads, I made the correct decision of parking a little further off from where I was trying to go, and taking the hiking trails for the remainder of the way.

The hike was gorgeous. Bare trees, leaves all around, sun shine breaking through when it could, and tons of cool rock formations with a few climbers here and there. It was a short few kilometers to the base of the castle, and then a quick few minutes up to the top. I gotta say, what a cool location for a castle.

Burg Trifels sits on the peak of a jut in a valley, and has a 360 view of the whole area, in and out of the valley and all that jazz. The castle was built starting sometime in the 1000s, and has been destroyed and rebuilt a few times since then, including during the Nazi era. But works after the 1950s have put it into its current state today. I was lucky to be there when practically no one else was, so I got to walk through the place at my own leisure and peace, and it was quite a cool place.

There was one room, (which I later found out from my coworker Jens that they host Jazz and Classical musical concerts in), that really impressed me. It was an open gathering hall, and really gave off a cool feel to the place. Other than that though, they had a barred off chapel, a room with the King's Jewels and Crown and stuff, and on the roof a great lookout of the whole valley and surroundings. Definitely a worthwhile adventure on such a beautiful day.

From the castle, I wandered back along a different hiking trail and explored a few climbing crags and another old tower before getting back to Reggie and heading off on my way. From Burg Trifels I meandered through the Süd-Pfalz by way of windy highways and country roads. My next destination I chose almost exclusively for the name, but ended up enjoying a helluva lot more than that.

The great town of Bitche, France ended up being quite the place. The name is one thing. I have no idea how to properly pronounce it, but got a great kick out of it nonetheless. But other than the name, I was actually pleasantly surprised with what I found. I drove in, got a few obligatory signs of the commune's wonderful name, and planned on just walking around the town center for a bit before continuing on. But lo and behold there stood a sign for a Citadel, so naturally that's what I audible'd to.

At some point I turned a corner and BOOM, there was the town's citadel jutting up from the tiny skyline all on its own. How it wasn't more prominent on my journey into the city, I don't know. Either it was hidden somehow or I was that enthralled by the name of the place. I drove up to the place, parked, and walked around it. I wanted to go inside, but the gate was shut. :-( I later found out that it doesn't open up til the end of March, which would ring true for the last placed I stopped on the day... Damn cold season...

But the thing was YUUUUUGE. Seriously, I think the citadel in and of itself was twice the size or close to the size of the town it was encircled by. The walls were massive! I was really bummed it wasn't open for tourism cause I would've loved to go in and check it out! But I think I might be coming back to Bitche (hahaha) when the place opens up for the year. What a cool place!

Hungry and ready for a quick break, I took a quick pitstop at the tourist info center to get a map and find out that the place wouldn't open up til March, then headed out to find some food. I ended up at an nondescript place I thought was just a bakery but ended up being a full restaurant. Then, I don't know why, I got hit with something I wasn't expecting.

In Germany, people speak German. In France, people don't speak German but (you guessed it!) rather French. Well, when I was greeted with a cute lady speaking French, I had a little pause where I had no clue what I was doing. Long story short, I found my way to a seat and did the 'ole point-and-order to get some sustenance coming my way.

Turns out that the point and order can be quite trusty in times of need. I had a small salad with some kind of salmon pastry that ended up being deeeee-lish. Looking back, I'm not sure why I didn't order a glass of wine to go with it all, but stupidly ordered a beer. Rookie mistake, I know. To redeem myself, I forced myself to choose from the wall of sweets at the bakery, and boy was that a hard decision. Mom, you would really like France...

So this Raspberry Eclair was the one thing that kind of stood out to me, and OOOOOHHHH BABY was it the right choice. ZOMFG so delicious. No words, just beauty.

From Bitche I made my way back East planning for an adventure in an historical landmark, a former location of the Maginot Line (Ligne Maginot). Well as I said before, it doesn't open up until after March (Boooooooo). But I climbed on top of the two entrances and was pretty blown away at how big the thing(s) was/were, but a little confused at the positioning of the place in relation to the local landscape. I thought it would have a little bit more prominent location, but was placed in a fairly flat area. I don't know, but that's what they did. Either way, another place for me to come back and visit.

A little touristed out for the day, I headed back to Karlsruhe. It wasn't a long day, but it was for sure a great day. Tons of great and warm sunshine, exploration and adventuring in a beautiful part of two different countries, and overall a great day doing my thing.

Frisbee Tourney

That next day, I joined a few other guys to play some frisbee for the Rhein-Neckar Trophy, a closed tournament of a handful of teams in the Baden-Württemberg/Rheinland-Pfalz area around the Rhein and Neckar rivers.

It ended up being a cold and notably windy day, but we had a good time. The 10 of us ended up winning one and losing two, but overall played pretty decently. The one game we one, there was a big douchebag on the other team who was good but played like a dick, fouling in escalation with no regard for the rules or how much of a dick he was being. Those kinds of people piss me off, especially when the guys he was playing with, a bunch of U20 kids, were likely going to pick up that kind of playing style and play like that. That's super frustrating to see.

But yeah, a good day of frisbee. But dayyyuuummm I'm out of shape. I've got a lot of work to do...

Can You Swing It?

Thanks to a little motivation from my friend KC, I made the decision before I came to Germany to take a Swing Dance course while I was here. Well, I had my first class this past week, and it was awesome.

I was a notable bit nervous before the class, and I'm not sure why. Yeah it was something new, and I'd have to break out of my shell a bit (which is a good thing), but I was a little anxious going into it.

Work wrapped up and I headed to the dance course, and long story short, it turned out to be a blast. I definitely need something like this in my life, a little care free, something I can learn, and something that will help me interact with people on a regular basis. And to top it all off, despite only learning a couple of things, I can see swing dancing is gonna be a helluva lot of fun. I'm pretty excited to see what I learn!!!

Next Up

I'm headed off to a Team Workshop for a day tomorrow to see how working groups here help stay on top of things, optimize roles and processes, and build cohesiveness within the team members. That'll be something fun to get a feel of an experience.

This weekend, I'm gonna have to find another adventure location, this time I'm not sure where I might head to. Who knows!?!

The weekend after is Easter, so I need to come up with a plan for a little bit longer trip. I'm thinking maybe Marseilles, or Portugal, or maybe just taking Reggie through Switzerland and getting lost somewhere in the Alps. Who knows, but I've got some thinking to do...

Then after that, it's off to the Philippines. Crazy how fast time flies!!! I fly out to Manila on the 8th of April, and then I get to do some island hopping with Doug before heading to Boracay for some beach frisbee. Oh baby, that's gonna be quite the adventure!!!

Original Publish Date: March 15th, 2016