CIAO DEUTSCHLAND / WHAT'S UP PORTLAND - THE END AND THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND ERAS

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Ciao Deutschland

Six months went by really fast. A few weeks ago, it was my last little bit of time in Germany during my project stint. It was a helluva time, and it was quite bittersweet to wrap it all up and move away. But, here's what I was able to do in my last week in the great city of Karlsruhe, Germany.

Monday

Work was boring. I found a way to stay occupied and not go crazy, but I still left early because I had nothing to do. Went home and did a little packing.

My last mixed practice turned out to be great. High energy, great spirit and fun all around, and then drinking beers with everyone afterwards. I love these awesome guys and gals. The frisbee group in Karlsruhe is filled with such great people! As a bit of a going away present, I got a frisbee with everyone's names on it, as well as a hat! Then, one of my good friends on the team, Filip, a fellow Pole, surprised me with a jersey from the Polish national team as a going-away present. What a baller.

All in all, it was great to hang out with everyone after a great practice. Of course it was sad that this would be the last time I'd see a good number of them for a while, but it's been an absolute blast with all of them over the last few months!!!

Tuesday

Another day at work. This time, I had something engaging to do. As sort of the last big project, I got to build some EU equipment into the only US test vehicle in Germany as a sort of feasibility study to take this back to the US. It was pretty good. We installed it, and all of what we could do worked on the first go. Unfortunately, one of my colleagues (who I found out during my feedback discussion that day never really considered me a true colleague during my time with the group) was being unreasonably stubborn and wouldn't let us borrow some test equipment. Some people are just born stubborn. But we tested what we could and everything looked good.

After work I went home and took a quick nap, then drove up to Heidelberg to go hang out with Ben, who joined Leadbelly the year I bowed out. He's over here on the RISE program with DAAD doing cool stuff growing carbon nanotubes. I had an awesome time hearing about what he's been up to and what adventures he's got coming up next. He's definitely a very bright and positive guy with a lot of options available to him, and I'm excited to see where he takes things!!!

Wednesday

A slow day again at work. Spent my time trying to get prepared for my role once I get back to Portland. Not a ton of resources for it, but I did my best. Then during work I had to go to the city office and de-register. It was super quick, but a pretty definitive sign that I'll be outta here pretty soon. End of the day my boss walked me around some stations that were set up for the next day to essentially cater to an executive showing what projects are being done under his roof. What an absolute waste of resources. Essentially everything that was planned and setup could have been achieved through a powerpoint. But because it's Daimler and these are executives, the red carpet gets polished for them. So dumb.

Frisbee practice after work, my last one here in Karlsruhe. I did a running workout for the beginning, but joined for a bit. I was feeling a little lazy, so I didn't play much, just kinda hung around and jumped on the field when I was feeling like it. But the end was kinda sad, saying goodbye to some really amazing friends that I've made over the last few months.

Thursday

Last day at work. It ended up going by pretty fast thanks to cake cake cake cake cake. It being my last day, I went to the bakery and got some cake to take in and thank everyone for the great six months in the office. Well I got there, put them out, and everyone was surprised and ready to eat. Then, one of my coworkers surprised me with a surprise. He came over carrying this big white box, mentioning something I wanted to do during my time there but never got to. I knew it right away, it was a Black Forest Cherry cake. OOOOOOOOHHHHH BABY. Delicious. Ended up having way too much cake and then a super light lunch with Christoph before saying my thank yous and goodbyes to all the great people at the office. I'll be back at some point.

After work, I went home and did a load of laundry. Waiting for everything to wash, I decided on selling my bike, and got a good amount of dough back for it. Then, while waiting for my clothes to dry, I just sat outside under the awning and did some five-star people watching as the rain came and went. That was extremely enjoyable, watching all the kids and parents walk by, the many bicyclists braving the rain, and all the cars just going left to right and vice versa.

With everything all cleaned up and ready to go, I got to packing. Even after a year and a half of seemingly constant moving and change, packing is still a pain in my ass. I kinda shuffled around a bit, but figured I just needed to get everything laid out in some form, then I could decide how I wanted to throw it all into bags. I did that, and came away quite impressed with how I was able to fit everything all together. I also got lucky with Malte coming by and snagging a bunch of stuff I didn't need anymore, saving me a trip to the dumpster.

As my last bit of action, I ended up meeting for beers with Christoph that night. First we went to a rooftop beach bar for a beer and the sunset. Then went to Stövchen for another beer and dinner. It's been an absolute pleasure getting to know and working with Christoph, an amazing colleague and an amazing person. Already looking forward to the next time we see each other!

Friday - Time to Jet

I woke up quite lazily, knowing it was time to tie up all the loose ends. I showered, got ready, and then went to the local butcher to get some Mettbrötchen for breakfast before returning my rental car. With my breakfast in hand, I watched some John Oliver, drank the rest of my milk, then got all the rest of my stuff packed into a bag.

Everything was ready. Bike was sold, car was returned, room was clean, bags were packed, all was ready to go. I jumped in a taxi and had a nice talk with the taxi driver on the way to the train station. Fun facts from the cool taxi driver: the inventor of the bicycle comes from Karlsruhe, Karl Benz was born in Karlsruhe, and although Karlsruhe is home to the two highest courts in Germany, it does not have a law school or a law program. Lugging all of my stuff, I made it to the airport, checked in, and got through security seemingly stress free.

When I sat down at the gate, I was ready to write in my journal, but couldn't find my pencil, which was quite a bummer. So, instead, here's some of what I would've wrote…

Well, here I am. It's another end of an era here in Germany. I'm currently sitting at my gate, B45 to be exact, at the Frankfurt Airport, waiting for boarding to start for my flight back to Portland, and essentially the closing flight of the dynamic and moving around part of the career program. Over a year and a half since I started the program, and holy shit it's gone by fast.

As is become the norm, it's been a while since I last wrote, and a lot has been going on. The two weeks in Charlotte were wrapped up with a quick weekend with Peewee in DC, then I made my way here to Deutschland. The six months here have absolutely flown by.

In terms of work, it was a really great experience. Stephan was an amazing manager, down to earth, cool and calculated, easy-going, but an extremely well-versed leader. I could definitely learn a good few things from him if I'm ever going to be some kind of leader. Then on top of that I really hit it off with a coworker named Christoph, another awesome world-traveler type who was always ready not to take work more serious than it needed to be. The rest of the group was all together great, and I really learned a lot during the time.

Non-work-wise, it was also an amazing experience. For starters, just being back in Germany was great. I got to reconnect with a good number of close friends while I was there, including Lutz, Elke, Mischa, and more. And then I made a ton of great new friends through frisbee in Karlsruhe, who all showed me a great time in my new city.

I gotta say though, it's quite bittersweet to be moving back to Portland. Bitter: it's been awesome living in Germany again. Another chance to be on my own, to find my way around in a (this time a little less) foreign country, discovering things and relationships for myself, and everything else. Now after a super quick six months I've got to leave it all here and move on. Sweet: heading home, to foreseen stability, a summer in the PNW, some real responsibility at work, and a slew of other things. So overall I can't complain, just the whole leaving such good things and great people behind makes me a little sad.

While the waiting continued, I got called up to the desk for a random security check. No big deal. I go to some other area, lay out all the contents on my person, the stuff gets swabbed I get x-rayed, again, no big deal. Until the cop comes back to my station saying the swab tested positive for an explosive substance. Wait, what!?!? Long story short, I explained all that I had on me, what I do, why I was in Germany, where I was going, and they didn't see anything suspicious out of me. But seriously, what the fuck turned up in my bag causing a positive test on that? I was freaking out, what the fuck happened.

But I eventually made it on the plane and headed back to the USA. My flight was with Condor, and I learned that they really cheap on a few things. There were a total of two (2) movies and two (2) individual TV episodes that were free to watch. Thankfully, one was Toy Story 3, but for an 11 hour flight, that finishes up realllly quick. So the flight felt like it took forever.

Eventually, we landed in Portland, and had a weird and another frustrating US Customs experience. But eventually I got to see my mommy and head home! That afternoon was nice. I got in, unpacked, repacked, and then we went grocery shopping together so I could make some macaroni salad. It was super chill, I made some macaroni salad for a potluck for the weekend, she made scones, and we just had a great time cooking and chatting. Something we haven't been able to do for a while.

Road Trip!!!

Saturday morning I was able to get some random stuff done and then I hit the road. I had a week of work up in BC, but had a full weekend of people to see in between. First stop, Millersylvania State Park for a throwback summer camp weekend with the crew from high school!!! We had the whole place rented out thanks to Curtis and Kelly and had a helluva time swimming, kayaking, playing sproutball (oh FUCK yeah), eating, drinking, and having an absolutely great time!!!

It was great getting caught up with so many great people. I hadn't seen a lot of them in years (weird saying that), but they're all doing some really cool stuff. That weekend definitely brought me quickly back to earth in realizing how detached I have been from the people I value in my life. But hearing all the cool stories and trips and weddings and everything else helped me get slightly back up to date on all the happenings of some really great people.

Sunday morning was cleanup then back on the road headed north. I made a pit stop in Lacey to see my honorary uncle John, then made it through Seattle with surprisingly little traffic. Soon afterwards, I said hi to a Canadian border agent then hit up my hotel, ready for a week in the lovely Vancouver, BC.

I was there for work, to see how a truck dealership operates and all the ins and outs of the place. That aspect of my time there was pretty ok. It was kind of slow, but the people at the dealership were extremely helpful, friendly, fun, and had tons of stories regarding dealerships and Canada and other stuff. Fun fact, 85% of their clientele in the Greater Vancouver area are East Indians from the state of Punjab. Crazy!

Well, the outside of work stuff I did there was pretty killer. Monday, I was dead and just slept as soon as I got back to my hotel from work. Not much I could do there... But Tuesday I went downtown to a Whitecaps game!!!

Always good to go see some sports, but apparently the atmosphere was not quite what it could have been. The game was not an MLS-Season game, so the crowd that was there was not the normal crowd, and it definitely was pretty subdued compared to what I was expecting, and what most people there were used to. BUT, all things considered, it was fun! The first half was pretty shit, but then both teams figured out how to play in the second half and made it a match. Also, I chowed down on some ok Poutine and a local beer to top the whole thing off with a Vancouverian flare. Money.

After the game, with a full moon just coming up for the night, I took a short walk around the harbor. There were a ton of people out enjoying the great night, and I'm glad I was out there with them. Then towards the end, before I headed to the train, I walked past (I think) the same falafel restaurant me, Zach T., Evan Y., and Andy F. gorged on when we came up for the week back in 2008. Blast from the past.

Wednesday night I whipped out my trusty two-wheeled steed and went exploring. From my hotel in Metrotown I rode out to the beautiful, modern, and very picturesque campus of University of British Columbia. I meandered around their campus, watched some summer league frisbee, enjoyed the beautiful architecture and art of the region, and then walked down to Wreck Beach to look at the beautiful sound.

From there, I continued biking around the peninsula, headed towards downtown. I hit it on a perfect night, because everywhere I looked was gorgeous. The path I was on was leading towards downtown, but provided a great view of downtown the entire way there. To pair with that the sunset turned out to be gorgeous. Not a bad night I'd say, beautiful views of a beautiful city with a beautiful sunset. What a night.

On Thursday I followed a similar vein, but this time not as intensely. I threw my bike in the Skytrain and biked around downtown, first through Gastown, then along the north side near the convention center/cruise terminal. I stopped off to pick up some food from Safeway (oh how I've missed Safeway), and then started on the short loop around Stanley Park.

What a cool park. I remember in our trip in 2008 watching a cricket match there and then biking around the park, but it's just a giant park right next to downtown Vancouver with tons of nature and some fields and a great pathway that loops around the whole thing with great views of the inlets surrounding Vancouver. Picturesque.

At a certain point I posted up and got to work on my delicious dinner with an amazing view. This night was filled with more beautiful views, more ocean breeze, and more general enjoyment of this beautiful city that I honestly wouldn't mind living in at some point in life. Who know's how that'd end up, but never rule something out, right?

On Friday, I scored a big one and got let out of work early. They had an 'itinerary' setup for my week, but I went through it a little faster than expected, so they gave me the afternoon off. With that kind of freedom, you bet your buns I took advantage of it. I packed up Marvin with a backpack and headed north to Squamish, along the gorgeous highway leading up to Whistler.

The highway: gorgeous. The area: reminded me a helluva lot of Norway. The day: bright and sunny as you could wish for. I made a slow drive of it, but explored around the town of Squamish (checked out some windsurfers and parasailers doing their thing), and then parked at the base of the Stawamish Chief, allegedly the 2nd largest granite monolith in the world.

Long story short, I made a great afternoon of hiking up The Chief and it's three peaks, at 610m, 655m, and 702m. The majority of the way was made up of stairs, but the workout was great and the views were beautiful. As I said, the whole area reminded me of the fjords of Norway, and at the top, that recollection was affirmed.

After I hit all three peaks, I headed down and took a slow drive back down to Vancouver. As I was a little pooped from climbing a shit ton of stairs, I found a small Indian restaurant in town and totally pigged out. Holy cow was it delicious. Some shrimp curry with rice and naan bread, DAYUM. That hit the spot.

For Saturday, I had a similar plan before I hit the road back down through WA to OR. This time, it was Dog Mountain and Mt. Seymour in my sights. I packed all my stuff and then headed up to the trail. Up on the mountain (started at about 1000m) it was pretty cloudy and overcast, so the 360-degree views weren't quite there. But it was a very representative grey and fresh day, typical to the PNW.

First was Dog Mountain. The hike was pretty calm, and with the cool weather it went by pretty fast. This peak was supposed to have a gorgeous view of Vancouver, but with the clouds pretty set in, I was a little bummed on the way that I'd miss it all. Well, as luck would have it, as soon as I got up there, some of the clouds parted ways to show all of Vancouver. What a beautiful sight.

The rest of the hike took me to the three pumps (peaks) of Mt. Seymour. The hike was pretty scenic, with a good mix of rocks and trees, stairs and slopes, as well as a little snow showing face. At the first pump, there was a group of people my age-ish having a birthday party for someone. Their party brought up a full-size Costco cake and were very intent on not bringing it back down. So I was given a piece of frosting with some cake inside to share in the merriment!

The second and third peaks also turned out to be pretty scenic. Unfortunately the clouds were a little more socked in on these ones than on Dog Mountain, so no panoramic views made their way to my eyes. One fun thing along the whole hike was the friendliness of chipmunks in the area, and also on The Chief. They're a wirey little bunch, but a few of them let me get pretty close to say hi.

From Mt. Seymour, it was time to head back down south. I spent the night in Mt. Vernon with some old family friends, and then on Sunday I headed down to Seattle to meet up with Frances! We biked around the Fremont area, I got yelled at by a park ranger on the Ballard Locks, but we put together a mini brewery tour of the area. All in all, we hit up Stoup, Bad Jimmy's, and Fremont Brewing with a b-e-a-utiful day to do it.

After Seattle and getting caught up and seeing what Frances is all doing in the PNW, I headed back through Olympia and had dinner with John and Patty before wrapping it all up and pulling into the driveway at home.

The End of an Era

As I rolled into the driveway back from BC, that was the last leg of my amazing world journey over the last roughly 18 months. It all started in Portland with a very surprising but amazing job offer, and turned into a whirlwind of a world tour. But now I'm 'on hold'. I'm back in Portland for the foreseeable future with (for the first time in a very long time), no planned move-date to a new city. This is both reassuring and slightly terrifying.

Reassuring - one thing that's been missing and has been one of the downsides of this program has been the lack of stability. But now, being in Portland, I'll have a consistent place to call home. I can make friends and not have to directly say that I'll be leaving in three months. I can get back to exploring the beautiful PNW and my 'neighborhood' of the US. I can be there for friends and family as they go through life events and stay in touch with more of the people that mean so much to me. I can finally bring my life out of a storage container and put it in more-or-less one place, to set up a place I can call home. It's exciting to have all of these things now at my finger tips and so much more just a little work and effort away.

Slightly Terrifying - I've become accustomed to having SOMETHING lined up on my calendar for a next big event. I haven't been in a country for more than three months over the last year+, and now that's kinda the plan. I'm here in the US, with no intentions to shake things up drastically on the itinerary. I've got a hankering that in about 2-3 months time, I'll sit back and ask, "Ok, what's next?". I'll have to do a good amount of adjusting to not being constantly on the move, not being the new guy wherever I go, not being in this development program, and so much more that is now a whole lot different being in a consistent role/department/company/country. "It's not good, it's not bad, it's just different" is something I'll have on repeat in my mind as I adjust to this completely different chapter of my life.

All-in-all, it's been a helluva ride. Now it's time to start that next chapter, time to dive into Portland and see what comes my way.

First Weeks Back

Work (as is always the case) has been ok upon returning. I'm slowly working my way into the role, but am already frustrated at how much of an afterthought operations are with my group in the US compared to Germany. My system in the US is currently 8 months behind what is being tested in Germany. Yeah, all about global synchronization my ass...

But outside of that, some things have happened. On a general note, I paid off two of my three student loans, checking the "Pay off Entire Account" box and hot damn that felt good. I also signed a lease to a room in a house in Portland, with a scheduled move-in next week. I'm pretty excited about this, as it's a pretty good setup for the time being: inexpensive, month-to-month, big room, close to work, and with 5 roommates with stuff going on but still some people to interact with at home. I was really hoping to get my own place to start, but this will help me save money in the mean time and will leave the door open to see where the wind blows me when January rolls around.

Outside of that, I've been playing some pickup Goaltimate with an old buddy of mine I met in Indianapolis, will be starting up Swing Dancing this week thanks to my buddy KC, and am looking to get back to climbing in the next couple of weeks, essentially after I move-in. Slowly but surely, I will be making a little niche for myself here in Portland. It's not an easy city to move to and find a circle for yourself, but I've done it a helluva lot in the last few years, so I just need to buckle down, ride the wave, and start doing some cool stuff.

This past Saturday I jumped in the car with KC and his sister Kristina, and we headed out for a day trip to Cannon Beach. Even after having camped along the Oregon Coast nearly every year of childhood, I'd never been to Cannon Beach, so this was a new trip and something I was looking forward to!

We rolled in mid-morning, and started off with a nice walk along the beach. We got to Haystack Rock and wandered around the tidepools, then walked to Public Coast Brewing for lunch and a beer. KC was dying for ice cream, so we jumped on that train after lunch, then headed back to the beach. There, we did some acrobatic stuff, and KC taught me how to be a base and stuff and that was really cool. I'd never done anything like that, but it was awesome holding people up in the air and stuff like that. I'm contemplating joining a circus class once I get into a routine, because why not, right?!?

Well, a nap was had after that, then we went and hiked at Ecola State Park (Ecola, terrible name). But we enjoyed the many lookouts of the coast line and the beautiful Pacific Ocean while meandering through trees and along cliffs on the short hike. Afterwards, we wandered around town trying to find a reasonably priced place to eat some dinner, and found a place with a nice patio, chowed down on some clam chowda', and then hit the road home.

A great outing with some great people, this showed me how much I have yet to explore in the beautiful wonderland we call the Pacific Northwest. In that spirit, I'm starting to piece together a To-Do list of some cool stuff here, including summiting Mt. St. Helens and the Three Sisters, heading back to Astoria to explore, and many more to come.

Another thing I've had a bit of fun with over the last few weeks has been working on Marvin, my trusty green machine. The radio needed an upgrade, so I replaced the stock one with a radio I can plug my phone into and actually read the display! I also cleaned him all out with a very thorough vacuuming, and have a new fan motor on the way so I can get some air circulation inside, just in time for fall and winter.

What's Next

Well, another week of work is on its way, which could be meh, could be ok. But on Tuesday I get the keys to my new place as well as start swing dancing! Then on Friday I'll start moving some stuff over, and then on Saturday hopefully get all cozy and moved-in to my new place in NE Portland!

Long-term though, I'm interested to see where things go. I'm here in Portland now, with no official plans to move or change anything. But I know that that's not permanent, and it's merely a matter of time before I'm ready and on the road again. I'm giving myself until at least January to stay in the role, as that is when I'll be flying back to Germany again for another week-long training module. But I've decided that if I find something after that point, be it with my current company, with a different company, or in a completely different place, I will definitely entertain the option, and if the opportunity is a good fit, jump off to something new. But, for now, I'm in Portland, and looking forward to what that brings.

Short-term, in two weeks I'll be flying back to Wisconsin for my cousin's wedding, sometime this fall I'm gonna head back to San Jose for a weekend with Zack to go see the Shark Tank, Laura's coming into town in a week or so and I'll be joining her and Ryan for some Oregon shenanigans (mountain climbing and clamming is so far on the itinerary), and then who knows what else will come up. I'm looking forward to meeting some new people here and getting involved in some new things, but definitely plan on exploring more of this great area of the country, getting lost and exploring all the wilderness and awesome nature we have at our fingertips.

Thank You

To all you readers out there, thank you for joining in on my adventures. It's been an absolute blast and a huge privilege to be able to do and experience all that has come my way over these last many months. I know traveling will always remain a part of my life, but I've been really blessed with all of these amazing experiences I've been able to do through this development program. Unfortunately that has now come to a transition, but it's been a helluva ride, and I thank you all for tuning in along the way!!!

As for this blog, it will likely become a much more sporadic thing. My life is on a bit of a stable trajectory now, which is a HUGE change from the last few years. I know new adventures will surely come by, new people will find their way into my life, new experiences will continue to form who I am and what I believe, and all of it will continue to build upon a lot of the things I've learned, done, witnessed, and become over these last not just 18 months (CAReer Program) or 3 years (CBYX), but last few stages of my life. I'm looking forward to what does come my way, and can't wait to see where it takes me.

With this, I wish you all a wonderful day, wherever you happen to be in the world. Take care, and I'll talk to you all soon!!!

Original Publish Date: August 7th, 2016