PUDDLE JUMPING, THEN IN THE B(E/OU)RGS

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Meine Liebe Putzfrau

Although we don't see each other all that much, I've come to really like my cleaning lady. She's super jovial, has provided me with some great tips and tricks of the city and area, and has just been all around great. For my birthday, she even left me a little bottle of wine to celebrate. How cool!

As I was packing and getting my stuff ready to fly to Chicago, she stopped by and said hello. I was finally able to thank her for the well wishes and gift. Well, long story short, I had bought a number of bottles of wine during my Vine and Ride, and they'd been sitting around my bed for a while. She thought they were just sitting around, and inquired if she could have one. I thought she meant the little bottle from the hotel, but in fact she meant the good bottles I'd got. We had a nice laugh, as they were already packed and ready to take to the states, and we had a nice funny misunderstanding.

We said a quick goodbye, she wished me a good trip and I wished her a great day. It's a nice relief, having random people riddled throughout your life to keep the atmosphere light and things positive. Cleaning lady, you rock.

Dual Language Difficulties

There is a downside to knowing two languages. Now, every time I fly with a German, Swiss, or Austrian airline, I have to listen and understand all the announcements twice. Gah! It get's really frustrating when I already have a movie going, and then they have to do the safety thing in two languages. First world problems, right?

Family Time

The reason for all this trip-stuff and language thing, I was headed to Chi-town to celebrate my older sister's Masters graduation! Definitely a great time to all be together and celebrate a little bit.

Well, I took off on Thursday afternoon, and landed in The Windy City then on Thursday night, welcomed to the city at the airport by three lovely ladies, namely my Mom and two sisters. We had a nice ride back to Alicia's place, where we all hung out for a good bit. We then decided, together with my brother-in-law, to go walk around Evanston, where we found some food to eat and beer to drink. It was a laid back night, and we eventually made our way back to my sister's place.

Friday was errand-day, with a lot of them to keep the day pretty full. Costco, Target, and a couple other big-name things were on the list. We mosied our way through them all, and got a good number of stuff done. Afterwards, the four of us went down to DePaul to see Alicia's campus and walk around for a bit. She had a few things to do, but was able to show us around for a bit. While Alicia had a rehearsal, Mom, Peewee and I went and grabbed some margaritas at a local mexican joint. Great choice or best choice? The rest of the day we did some stuff, and then went to bed.

The next day was the big day! We had a relaxed morning getting all done up and ready for the ceremony, and then headed over to the Rosemont to see Alicia graduate. It was a small, but short and sweet ceremony. Successfully showing she can walk across a stage, we hung out and took pictures all together with the graduate and then headed back to their place to set up for a picnic.

Rather than some big event, Ali decided to just hang out and grill at a park and have people stop by to celebrate. An awesome idea I say. Well, it was a good bit of work setting up, so before going and joining I took a break at their place. Me and Paula eventually made our way over, played some cornhole, ate some good food and beer, and then wrapped it all up.

Sunday was fun. We had an early start then chowed down on some delicious breakfast together. I can't remember what I got, but it was dead tasty, especially when paired with a nice bloody mary. After we were all satisfied, we headed downtown to go on an architectural tour along the river. First we walked through the Americas Cup pavilion along Navy Pier, then headed to the cruise.

It turned out to be a really cool cruise, along the north and south branches of the river right in the heart of downtown. On top of it all, we learned quite a bit during the trip! After we regained ground, we first stopped off and did our traditional visit to Billy Goats Tavern to chow down on some delicious Double Cheesborgers. Then we headed back to Navy Pier and ended up taking a ride on the new Ferris wheel. It was quite the ride, getting a great view of town from up above. Mom had a quick little freakout on the first time up, but no one passed out or anything.

After all that fun, we headed back to Alicia and Aaron's. It turned out to be a very laid back afternoon, we just hung out, watched TV, and didn't really do much. Unfortunately, I had to bid adieu that evening, due to work the next day (also in Chicago), but on the other side of town.

Back to the 'Real World'

That's what an individual said to me as we were discussing what was going on in my life, once I said I'd be coming back to the US in July. What an ignorant piece of shit. If you consider the US the only 'real world', how you got to be so fucking close minded must be an absolute work of (horrific) art. Needless to say, this really pissed me off, two big reasons why.

The biggest reason, it felt like a direct personal insult. It's like me being off in different parts of the world has been like I've just been blowing my money and my time and getting nothing out of it, as if coming back to the states would mean I'm just now putting something together with my life. No, idiot, I've worked my ass off to get to where I am today, and the fact that I've been elsewhere is the perfect sign of that. The 'Real World' is exactly what I'm living in, so go fuck yourself and your…

…limited world view. Seriously, this is one of the reasons why other societies find the US such bunch of crackpots. We're a great country, yes, but holy hell we are not the best country, we are not the only country, and every time someone portrays that type of opinion, it further entrenches the assumed ignorance of American citizens. It's a sad slope, but unfortunately won't be going away any time soon.

Needless to say, I was pissed off and quite flabbergasted at this comment. Thankfully, I don't need to interact with this person, so that just further reduced any interest or intention of doing so.

Work in Chicago

After a long and coincidental story involving company executives, random conversations, and a good bit of luck, I was invited to attend a customer event that happened to be in Chicago that week. Well, I ended up getting the first date wrong, but I got a lot of work done at my hotel and then grabbed dinner at a delicious hole in the wall taco joint a couple blocks away.

The event actually took place on Tuesday, where I met some cool new colleagues and people within the company. One manager was extremely helpful, and we had some good conversations about work and stuff. Overall, it was quite an interesting event, seeing one of our company brands bringing in customers and essentially telling them about our systems. It was definitely good to see positive feedback from our systems, but weird to contrast what's on the market right now with the current development work I'm involved with. But sure enough, it went by pretty quickly, and then that night I was off to Portland.

On the way, I had an awesome ride to the airport with Alonso. A bit of a promiscuous guy, but we had some lively and fun discussions about a lot of things: pizza, burgers, the Cubs and bears (his gf is a Packers fan. Woot!), and a whole slew of stuff. That whole experience, you'd never ever get in Germany.

Then, while I was chilling in the airport, I got an awesome random phone call from one of my Zach's (Kaufmann)! So dope!!! Through the convo, I let him know I'd be in his neighborhood during the week, so we set up a time to catch up. Cool to hear how he and Michelle are definitely making plays in life. So great to hear!

Work in Oregon

As luck would have it, I informed my manager about the thing in Chicago, and then she told me, while I'm in the US, to come out to Oregon and take part in some testing at the end of that week. So I flew into Portland on Tuesday night then early Wednesday I was off to Madras for a round of testing with my home department. It was a busy but productive three days, where I gained a better idea of what's going on at the home department with a slew of stuff and information to take back and communicate with my group in Germany.

While in Madras, I pulled off a quick trip on Thursday night to go to Bend and see my aunt and cousins for a bit. Both of them are just shooting skywards, and really growing up. Max, my younger cousin, grew at least a foot since the last time I'd seen him about a year before. It's crazy. Then after that I headed to downtown Bend to grab some beers with Zach and Michelle and their friends during the US Copa America game. It was great to catch up with them and hear all the cool stuff going on with their lives! Really making plays for themselves!!!

Friday night I made my way back to Portland before my flight back to Germany that next morning. Before that though, I met up with a few friends in Portland to celebrate some of their friends' next steps in life (aka grad school and new jobs and such). I was tired and for a couple other reasons, I called it an early night. Headed home, finished packing, slept, and then the next morning I was sitting in business class on the upper deck of a 747 on the way back to Frankfurt.

One cool thing, due to the business class thing, once I arrived in Frankfurt, I got access to their welcome lounge. Essentially a business lounge, but for people that just arrived. It's got food, nice comfy chairs, and even showers. Being the thrifty and opportunistic guy I am, I took full advantage of it, and I gotta say, it was awesome. Being able to take a shower directly after landing in a new time zone, it makes quite the world of difference!

The Outsider

One of other reasons I headed home from the bar that Friday night was something I definitely didn't expect. I felt like an outsider while I was there. I guess I should have expected that to some degree, but it was weird being there with friends I've been fairly close with, and being so out of touch with what's going on in their lives, and them with what's going on in mine. That's not really the weird part, but the conversations felt strained and difficult for some reason, it was just really weird.

Granted, it's kind of expected, this feeling. After being out of town for just around a year and a half, everybody has a ton of stuff going on, and people keep doing cool stuff and evolving as I'm not in town. So that's no surprise. But just the vibe that I got really threw me off. I guess I need to start for preparing myself for the culture shock that will eventually be coming once I do head back to the states 'for good'. I didn't really have it when I came back the first time, but I think this second time is definitely going to be something different. Who knows…

Me, a Loner?

In some ways, this event got me feeling like I've morphed into a loner. Sometimes I feel that's the case, but overall I know it's not. I do know that I need more alone time than most people, which is just a part of who I am. But that doesn't mean that I'm slowly isolating myself from everyone and everything. So although this ate at me for a bit, I rationally realized it's got no weight to it.

Family Feud

Over the last half a decade or so, it's always a big event when me and the family see each other. Lately it's been all graduations for the last few years, which come with their own fair bit of stress and headaches and itineraries and such. That or I see them for ten minutes as I'm passing through from one place to the next. I'm sure it's a unenjoyable whirlwind for them, as much as it is go-go-go for me. All of this usually leads to stress and spats and problems in the condensed time that we're together. Well, unfortunately, this time in Chicago wasn't much different.

Airport Ärger

Lately (aka the last few years), it feels like every trip to the airport or every drop-off somewhere has produced some kind of confrontation or hefty conversation. Unfortunately, this trip was no exception, in fact, it happened twice, really driving the consistency home. And I gotta say, it really puts a damper on a departure. Granted, I've got plenty of things I need to work on in life, in all aspects of life. But saving all the deep talks for right before I say bye makes things a little hard.

United Airlines SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS

This is no surprise. I've known this since time began, and nothing has changed to make anyone anywhere think otherwise. Well this time around, it was on the trip back to Germany.

I was scheduled for business class with Lufthansa, which normally would be hassle free. But, the leg between Portland and Chicago was operated by United.

Sidenote: I hate that Lufthansa and United are airline partners, Lufthansa could really do better for itself.

Well, this is another first world problem thing, but I tried to go into the United business lounge in Portland before my flight, but they denied me access. They said that because my flight was technically booked through Lufthansa, I couldn't get into their lounge, although United is the only partner at PDX. Made and makes no sense to me, just another case of United being a bag of dicks. Avoid at all costs!

The Week After

I was pretty tired for the whole week after I got back to Germany. Somehow I made it through with nothing super spectactular falling either way for me.

On Thursday I headed up to go say hi to another former CBYX-er, namely from the year after my group. I met her while I was back in Germany after my year when I was invited to come and talk to the incoming group right after they landed. Well, she moved to Heidelberg for the summer, so I went up there after work one day and we biked around town. It was a beautiful day, and I'm glad I finally made it up there, cause it's a beautiful city! The Neckar (river) flows right through the town, and the castle up on the hill really provides a picturesque view throughout the city. We enjoyed a great evening biking around, eating some ice cream, and exploring the all-around cool city.

For the weekend, I initially had a roadtrip planned with a number of colleagues from Stuttgart in my Trainee program. But due to weather and a little bit of poor planning, it got cancelled. I was pretty bummed with this decision, as I was really looking forward to the trip with some really cool people.

In place of the trip, I spent a day in Stuttgart hanging out with Martin. I read a message wrong from some buddies and came into town thinking things were starting at noon, where they were instead referring to night. But Martin, being the super awesome dude that he was, had me over, and we just hung out the whole day. We cleaned up his apartment a little bit, went grocery shopping and got dumped on by some rain coming back, made some amazing fish and veggies, I got to explain to him ultimate frisbee (we watched the open finals at WUGC), and then eventually headed out to Marienplatzfest to drink some beers, hang out with some other friends, and have an overall awesome time.

Food-wise, there were a few things that were introduced to me. First, with the fish and veggies, he used a thing called Brotaufstrich, which is some kind of paste, but it was simply delicious. Secondly, I've always been a fan of avocados, but Martin showed me an awesome snack that initially turned me off. Half of an avocado, Quark, salt, and pepper, put the last three on top of the first and eat it out of the shell. Delish.

Now Quark and I have an interesting history, see my trip to Sylt from a few years back, but this really made me open my eyes to this sour-cream-type thing, and now I regret not being more open to it sooner. It's plain but is a great supporting agent, and that snack is wonderful.

After a chill breakfast at Martin's I hit the road and headed back to Karlsruhe. I took a wonderful nap, ran some intervals at the track, and then met up with a coworker to watch the Germany-Slovenia match. We had a chill time with some other workers, but then right after the win, I had to hit the road and go pick up Katherine!!!

Strasbourgers for the Day

That's right, my good 'ole buddy Katherine was back in Germany, and it being roughly 6 months since our last visit, we had to refresh the clock. Kat came in and we had a chill walk around town on a very calm Sunday night.

The next day we loaded in the car and headed down to Strasbourg for the day. We were both quite excited for it, and it turns out the city definitely did not disappoint! We had a nice leisurely time riding down south on the Autobahn, and took advantage of an absolutely mind-blowingly awesome deal that Strasbourg has. If you park in a city garage at one of the train stops on the outside of the city, your parking ticket is good for a day pass on the train network. How dope is that!?! So we parked, jumped on the train, and headed into the city.

I didn't really have any expectations going into it, but as I said, it turned out to be a great little city to check out. It's got a bunch of waterways weaving through the inner part of the city. We started off right next to one, and worked our way further into the center, where we headed to the Strasbourg Dom, aka the cathedral. It was pretty cool going inside, but as per the recommendation of a number of people, me and Kat took the 363 (I think) steps up to the top of the tower to get a spectacular view of the entire area. And we got lucky with a beautifully clear sky in the morning, so we could see all around the area.

From there, we stopped by the tourist office, got some maps and some info on the city, and then found a café to snag some breakfast. I was on the hunt for some quiche (also highly recommended), but got laughed at by the lady at the tourist desk when I put quiche and breakfast in the same sentence, which I feel was completely unwarranted. Quiches are perfectly acceptable and welcome at the breakfast table. Nevertheless, we found a café, and chowed down on some delicious pie, namely rhubarb and apple.

Continuing with the waterway thing, we walked down to the main channel, and eventually made our way to the area called 'Petite France'. What a gorgeous little area. Full of older buildings right on the channels, mostly with wood accents and unique colors, it's quite the little spot to go take a walk. We weaved our way up and down the little channels, enjoyed all the beautiful view points, little groups of kids going crazy on playgrounds, old people sitting and contemplating the world, and all the other many details that combined to make a very tranquil, enjoyable, and beautiful walk through Le Petite France.

We eventually got hungry, and enacted the plan that had been evolving all day. We wandered around and eventually found an extremely quaint, low-key, and awesome café/restaurant, and set our plan in motion. With a table right on the water facing the tranquility, we scoured the menu to put the reputation of french cuisine to the test. Long story short, we were both sitting in hog heaven at the end. Red wine, smoked salmon, veal with a creamy mushroom sauce, ooooooooooooh baby. As I said, hog heaven.

From there, we continued wandering around, but then made our way to the European Parliament buildings on the north side of town. Katherine was super stoked to head over there, and I gotta say, it was pretty damn cool being there. Buildings where some major decisions for Europe are made and stuff. We even got lucky and scored a way into the inner courtyard of the main building, which we were quite surprised to be able to do. The building was quite large, and getting to read some of the cool stuff they had posted and checking out a photo exhibition of life in the EU parliament, all quite intriguing.

To wrap up our day in Strasbourg, we found another café, had some coffee and snacks, and then wrote some postcards to a few people we were missing right about that point in time. Hopefully those three enjoy them :-)

Unfortunately we weren't able to stay too long, because I had to head back to town for frisbee practice. Katherine was super chill and hung out, watched, enjoyed the weather during practice. For us, however, it was the last practice before our big tournament. There was some good energy flowing through, but it was the first time we'd all played together in a good number of weeks due to Worlds the previous week. A good practice though all around.

Afterwards, Katherine and I made an awesome night out of things. We walked over to a local corner bar with a really awesome atmosphere, drank a few beers, watched a Fußball game, and then grabbed some Döner to put a nice capper on a quick day. That next morning, Kat made her way back to DC. But as always, it was such a pleasure and a blast to be able to see her and explore a new place together! As always Katherine, it was a pleasure, and I look forward to seeing you again, just like always probably in about 6 months. ;-)

The Week

The rest of the week was pretty normal. There was some stress and annoyances that popped with regards to the testing in the next week. But other than that, really nothing too extravagant.

Friday night after work, I was hanging around getting stuff ready for the weekend, and then decided I needed to get out and do something. So I hopped on my bike and headed for the Durlacherturm, a little part of town over on the west side with a nice hill and view of the whole valley.

It was a relaxing ride, the weather was great, and I really had no complaints. After a little while I made it up the larger-than-expected hill, with the sun about an hour away from sunset. Kindle in hand with The Count of Monte Cristo nearing the end, I pulled up and finished the excellent book, almost perfectly timed with sunset. A successful night for sure.

Deutsche Meisterschaft

The next day, it was frisbee time. More specifically, time for us (the Colorados from Karlsruhe) to head up to Heidelberg and play in the German Mixed National Championships. We were all quite stoked to jump in and play, especially at the top level of mixed ultimate in Germany.

Well, we started our first game against Stuttgart. Unfortunately, it didn't go as we wanted to. It took us a while to get into a rhythm, especially after not having played or practiced all together in such a while. For me, it took me about 3 games to get my head and body to do what I was supposed. Well, we lost 2 of our 3 pool play games, but ended up getting second in the pool due to a handy three-way tie and point differential advantage. What's that mean? Cross-over to get to the championship bracket. WOOT WOOT.

We had the second team from Munich on the line, and it turned out to be a pretty clear victory for us. Hot damn! Top 8 in Germany!!! That meant a morning match up with Mainz in the quarter-finals to make our way to the top.

We ended up losing 10-12. It was a very well fought game, with hot-streaks on both sides. We fought hard to get back in it, and kept it close, but we just ran out of time. In the back-side of the bracket, we then went on to beat Düsseldorf on universe point (game point, essentially, tied ball game and next point wins). The cool part of that? I threw the winning huck. That felt pretty good.

To end the weekend, we ended up losing to Munich's first team for the 5th place game. So coming out of a long and hard-fought weekend, we ended up getting overall 6th place, which was pretty damn good, considering the top four spots were all teams from our region.

As I've said to the team, it was an a absolute blast playing with the Colorados. The team played the entire time at a very high level, which I absolutely loved. But at the same time, the atmosphere and positivity with the Colos on and off the field was something that really made me feel welcome. Such a great balance between these two aspects was something I'll always remember. What a great time, and a great finish to a successful mixed season!

Another Week

The week after the tournament went by pretty well. That Friday before, I sat down with my manager and essentially compiled all of the tasks I had ahead of me for the next two weeks. So with all of my duties outlined, I just got to work on those. Unfortunately, a lot of them are for my very last week or dependent upon another person. This translated into an unfortunate amount of just sitting around in between tasks.

But on Tuesday I had to head to Stuttgart for a meeting, and ended up timing it up well with a Stammtisch for the CAReer trainees there in Stuttgart. My meeting went well, discussing the program with my Key Account, things I liked, didn't like, what I've benefitted from, stuff like that. Then we headed down with one of her colleagues to the Stammtisch.

That ended up being a great time. As soon as I got there, I bumped into a trainee buddy of mine from Sunnyvale, and we ended up branching off with a bunch of his friends and found an awesome table on the patio and had a great evening eating, drinking, and enjoying some great company.

I headed back to Karlsruhe after that however, and it went by REALLY fast. The great thing about driving at night, fewer cars on the road. The great thing about driving in Germany, no speed limits. Combining the two is AWESOME. I broke my previous personal best of 236kmh and hit 245kmh in a Black E-Class wagon on the way home. That is some fun stuff.

Wednesday was pretty ho-hum, the frisbee practice after work. Thursday I had a bit of a long day and drove up to Alzenau to watch some testing going down with the US vehicle, namely the testing that I'd helped arrange through the last few months. It was pretty productive to be there and see what was going down. But then afterwards I had to make it back down to Karlsruhe for the evening, as my coworkers planned a little going-away evening for our group!

Abschiedsfeier and a Great Coworker

As a bit of a send-off for the end of my time in Karlsruhe and Wörth, my awesome team set up a night for us to go out and do something chill outside of work. The plan - biergarten then Fußball. After I got back into town from Alzenau, I met up with Christoph and we rode over to a biergarten to meet up with the rest of the team. It was a really laid back few hours drinking some beer and eating some good food with the guys on my team in Wörth. Afterwards, we walked over to the Karlsruhe soccer stadium to watch the Germany-France semifinal in the Eurocup. Unfortunately, Germany had a pretty unlucky game, but we had a good time all watching the game together.

Afterwards, we slowly made our way out of the stadium and said our goodbyes. Christoph and I were then riding home, but changed plans for a little spur of the moment awesomeness. Christoph's a really awesome, down to earth dude and it's been an absolute pleasure working with him over the last 6 months. I can easily say he's one of, if not my favorite coworker I've had to date.

We headed over to Pendel, a local awesome dive bar, and had some absinthe. That was my first time having it (it tastes like sambuca, aka like shit. Not recommended), but we got into some awesome conversations. One that stuck out was his first impressions of me as I started with the group. We also had a long conversation debating the translation of 'quälen', which I translate to something on the lines of enduring, or fighting through regardless of the adversity that comes. And we touched on career plans, his long trip to Uruguay coming up, and a number of awesome stuff. It's pretty damn awesome when you can relate to a coworker and human like that, and I'm really glad for the friendship that's developed between me and him. Definitely looking forward to seeing him again soon!

The laid-back weekend.

As my last weekend approached, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I decided not to play with the open team in Karlsruhe for the weekend at the qualifications for a few reasons. They took the decision well, and I just needed a bit of a break. I thought about going hiking or wandering around somewhere in the Alps again, but didn't really plan anything regarding that. But, long story short, I ended up heading back to Norddeutschland, namely to the small village of Bothel to hang out with my man Lutz. He had a Sturmfrei weekend, so I decided to mosey up towards him for a laid-back, chilled out, awesomely gastronomous weekend. It turns out to be exactly what I needed.

I took off a little early on Friday and thanks to Lutz's advice, I snagged a there-and-back ticket for 94€, which is a mind-blowing steal! I made myself some snacks and then headed over to my ICE. On the train I got some reading done, wrote a good amount of this post, ate my delicious snacks (the kid sitting across from me was jealous as hell), and rode on nearly all forms of the Deutsche Bahn train system to eventually get to Rotenburg, where Lutz treated me with a Döner and a ride to his house.

Friday night was super chill. We sat around and talked, drank some wine I brought up, and as always, it was really great to get caught up on all the stuff going on in his life today. As we had a relaxed but full day planned for Saturday, we hit the hay ready for some fun.

Saturday ended up being the geilste Tag der Welt mit Lutz. Consisting of:

• An awesome bike ride in a huge circle around his moms house
• Beautiful roads and bike paths along absolutely picturesque fields
• Biking along streets lined with giant trees and beautiful greenery
• Stops at calm ponds and a big lake to enjoy the beautiful weather and creatures within eyesight
• Amazing kaffee and kuchen at a farm café with time to sit around and enjoy it all
• Finding out what a nice racing bike feels like, hitting about 50km/h on it, and deciding I probably do need one for myself at some point
• Picking raspberries at a local farm with a higher quantity purposed for immediate enjoyment rather than delayed ingestion
• A geil nap on the patio beneath the clouds and blue skies
• A nice time on the patio with his grandparents just being present together
• A baller fire with steaks and veggies and Stockbrot to grill and chow down on

Literally couldn't have asked for something better; easily the best way to spend my last weekend here in Deutschland.

Sunday turned out to be another, even more chill day. We both woke up, he made some pancakes, and then we ate on the patio enjoying some more beautiful weather. Afterwards, we planned on going to the park to throw the friz, but ended up just lounging around reading and napping outside. After he came outside, he summed up life in a singularly awesome sentence:

"Leck mich fett, das Leben ist geil" aka "Holy shit, life is awesome"

And wouldn't you know it, he it the nail on the head. We somehow moseyed our way over to the bustling metropolis of Rotenburg, got some ice cream, walked around, had some more deep conversations, and then I jumped on a train to take me back down south.

Lutz, you're an awesome friend. It was great to hang out with you for the weekend, and as always, I'm really looking forward to the next time our paths cross in life!

The Defining Decade

If you can call two books being on a bit of a reading kick, then I'm on a bit of a reading kick. During the weekend at Lutz's I wrapped up another book, this one talking about how the Twentysomething years are really the starting point and the dynamic time range where people establish their lives.

There were three topics: Work, Love, and The Brain and Body. Going through the Work section, I felt pretty good about myself. I've set myself up with a great start to my career, gained some really foundational experiences with huge potential for growth, and really done a good job at taking advantage of most of the opportunities that have come my way. I still don't know where I want to go or what I want to do with my overall career, but either way, I'm putting some work in now to provide some different options for what I might want to do later.

Brain and Body stuff, that's something I've started to concentrate a little more on. I'm working on getting a more steady and me-driven workout routine in place, and getting some muscular stuff going that will help me live a long life. This is stuff meant for the long-haul, but I'm glad I'm actually putting some motivation and intention into it now.

And probably sharing now a little more than I normally would, but on the Love side of stuff, that's pretty much been a lost cause / abandoned ship for a while. On the one side, it's hard for me to imagine going through all the moving and new jobs and change that I've had in the last year with a partner at the same time. So much change would make it hard to really find a good balance for it all. But on the other hand, I'm really itching to find a partner in crime, one I can really get to know, enjoy, and develop a close relationship with over years to come. And honestly, it's been something that's always been hanging around in the back of my mind.

Well, my personal issues aside, it was really a great book. Meg Jay, the author, really made a great number of good points. I felt somewhat proud going through reading it and seeing how I've set myself up in many ways for good things to come. Either way, I highly recommend this book.

Conversations and Communication

It's friends like Lutz that have helped me come into my own, helping me develop an opinion, tackle and converse on difficult and diverse topics, and shown me just how valuable open and honest communication can be. That was one thing that came out and always has come out when we hang out. The conversations we have are very true and honest, and we speak very freely about all topics. This kind of communication is something I've come to know and cherish, regardless of who I can share it with.

Next Up

It is now only a matter of hours until I will be packing my life up into some backpacks once again, taking a train to the airport and then flying back to the US. Oddly enough, this is the last big flight I'll be taking, with my life in tow, headed back to the US wrapping up the dynamic portion of my trainee program.

As of Friday, my project and time in Germany will have come to a close. Now it's back to North America for me, where I'll spend the weekend with (mostly) all of my Oly peeps then head up to Vancouver, B.C. for the week for work, then finally starting back up in my home department two weeks from now.

This past year and a half has been an absolutely amazing whirlwind. More than anything I could have expected or hoped for. But now it's back to a little stability, back to my corner of heaven in the PNW. Although I'm slowly getting more and more sad that I'll be departing Germany again, I'm looking forward to the summer in the PNW, to a little more stability, and to whatever else decides to come my way as I move back to the US.

Original Publish Date: June 8th, 2016