Look on the Floor

Gotta keep up - My new favorite new song...

Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Angel City Mix)

On the Verge of Vacation

I spent all day Monday and Tuesday at an international trainee conference at company headquarters in Stuttgart. Long days, as I didn't get a hotel room there so was waking up extra early to arrive on time and getting home extra late. Although not a huge fan of such events (conferences are better suited to people who mingle well, which isn't me...well, at least not outside the realm of a bar), it was nice to see some friends and overall the event was well organized. I was one of the few who posed a question to the keynote speaker - a member of our Board of Management. And the first thing he said was "Good question!" I think I sat up a little taller in my chair after that. But I still think his response was a pile of two day old doggy doo-doo.

For the afternoon on Tuesday, we went to Tübingen for the day and rode the gondola-like boats for a couple hours. Turned out to be quite nice - had beer on board, appetizers, etc. Was quite a time with all of us climbing aboard as the things were rocking more than you'd expect. Funny moment during the trip when the "driver" asked me of all people to move to the opposite side to balance us out. I think it was the first time ever that I was the one whose weight was throwing things off. Some of the others tried their hand at pushing us along with the pole. We ended up along the banks a few times with branches in our faces, but it was fun anyway. I think it's definitely harder than it looks.

All thoughts now are on meeting up with my parents and oldest brother next Monday in Cologne. I'll have a week and a half out of the office, so that'll be nice. Just booked a room for Sunday night so will travel there on that day and bum around the city. My goal is to get a great night picture of the cathedral lit up from across the river. I've seen pictures and it's very pretty, so I'm not leaving until I get the money shot! We only have a general plan to see Cologne on Monday, spend the next two days on the Rhine River, and then head back to my apartment and maybe do some day trips from there. They'll be flying to Amsterdam on Friday.

So I'm still running around making sure the apartment is ready for 3 visitors - blankets, pillows, towels, food, etc. And I should clean it up a bit, although it's in fairly good shape already. Just one more workday before the craziness ensues...

Having My Way

As we approach the end of the month, my mind has been thinking about the fact that I'm basically halfway through my time in Germany. Amazingly, I've been here 10.5 months already, which is how long I stayed the first time I studied here. Back then, it seemed like an eternity. But this time around, the time has flown by as if it were no big deal.

Well, get this. I decided over the past week that I want to relocate to Chicago after returning to the U.S. next year. After spending numerous working hours looking over our internal job postings, considering the feasibility of living here or there and commuting to one of our offices, and contacting former roommate Jeremy for his ideas, I committed myself to making it happen. I was thinking I'd probably ruffle some feathers by switching - or wanting to switch - divisions, but who cares? I'm all about ruffling a few feathers these days to get what I want.

Then, a day later, I find out my mentor back in the U.S. is leaving the company. So on Friday I had a final telecon with him and he actually flat out asked me where I wanted to go after returning. Weird stuff. The timing of all this is almost creepy. I mean, how often does somebody directly ask you "What do you want?" right after you make a decision knowing exactly what that is? I couldn't have been more prepared to answer. So I let the cat out of the bag and he seemed to think the company would be very open to relocating me there. His advice was that I should focus on saying I'd like to gain experience outside the automotive sector, which would naturally lead me to Chicago, where our other business units are located and/or headquartered. So he was going to make a note of it and plant some initial seeds with both HR and the vice president, who will, at least temporarily, take over mentoring duties. I was one happy camper after that discussion.

Wow. So far so good. This just might work out after all...

New Year's Eve?

So I'm a little early, but I have to have a lot of things planned out in advance. At the moment, I'm trying to decide how long to stay in Michigan for Christmas. The best part is that the company pays for this trip. At issue is whether to spend New Year's Eve in the U.S. or back here in Germany. Last year was a bit of a dud - ok, it was a major dud - so I wouldn't mind doing something a little more exciting this time around, either in the U.S. or Germany. But I'm sure nobody else has given it any thought yet, so I'll probably just have to pick one and zero in on a plan later.

Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo...

This and That

My favorite new song at the moment!
Flipsyde - Trumpets



There's an older gentleman who often rides the bus I do in the mornings. He's always talking to himself. Aloud. Quite loud. I was thinking to myself, "That's totally me when I'm older." Then it dawned on me. That's me now. I already do talk to myself. Aloud. In public. God help me.



Does everything have to be a reminder of what's coming up next year?!? Sheesh.



Ok, people. This is war. Everytime someone comes to my desk to give me a new assignment or explain something at work, I usually end up losing or gaining a writing utensil. More often than not, I end up losing one. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the cabinet to get a new pen because people take mine with them. It really shouldn't be that difficult to know if the pen is mine or yours, should it? The issue has only recently reached heightened proportions because we don't have any extra pens in the cabinet anymore, so I'm guarding the one I have with my life. Maybe I should write my name on it. Either that, or buy one of those with the troll on the end (You know, with the crazy pink hair). Then nobody should confuse it with their own. Plus, I could braid the hair during slow hours.



Und man sagt, die Deutschen verständen keinen Spaß…




I've been buying these packages of multigrain rolls at Aldi where I throw them in the oven for 8 minutes and they're good to go. There are supposed to be 8 in each bag. Recently, I realized there were 9 in the bag I had bought. Nice. Then, when purchasing another last week, I realized there were only 7. Although that would've evened me out from the previous week, I decided to search for a different bag. Next bag - 9. I know Aldi keeps prices very low, but perhaps they should consider introducing a MEAP test or something for its employees (If you're a product of the Michigan public school system, you'd know what that is!). Actually, do people or machines count out things like that? I dunno.

This Used To Be My Playground

My weekend was just dandy. Went out for drinks on Friday night at our new secret location gathering point. They were discussing where everyone could meet up and go this Friday. As mentioned 50 times, we're (well, not sure if I'll partake this Friday) "meeting up first at Steven and Karsten's and then walking over to the new location." Got it? Good.

On Saturday, I hopped on a train to Stuttgart and spent the day there. Whereas I was there for the German National Gymnastics Championships, basically everyone else in the city was attending the Germany-Ireland soccer match which was taking place in the stadium right next to the other sports arenas. Didn't they just finish the World Cup? Sheesh, give it a rest already. It seems a bit early to already start qualifiying rounds for EM 2008. But what do I know? Needless to say, the place was abuzz with both German and Irish fussball fans, groups chanting in the streets, etc. And the beer was flowing. Clearly the gymnastics championships weren't the hot ticket in town, and the turnout reflected that. But this worked out in my favor. Bought tickets at the door and got great seats - 4th row for the women in the afternoon and first row for the men! Nobody even sitting directly next to me…Must have decided to open up a new section and put me there. Had it all to myself!

Anywho, I thoroughly enjoyed myself as it had been a few years since I last attended a larger scale gymnastics event. It was a good day. And during the two hours I had free in between sessions, I walked over and found a mall (which aren't that common here!) and dropped a few Euros. That's always fun. I think I bought 6 shirts total.

To wrap up my weekend, I met up with Mario in town on Sunday for an ice cream and we walked around the park. I didn't know we had a mini zoo here in the city. Craziness. And I mean mini. There was also a mini monkey in the window, running around the office. I have to go back and snap a picture of him. I finished off the day watching Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." Interesting. And scary. It's inevitable that this world will have to make some changes in how things are done. It's obvious we're tearing up this planet and the effects are revealing themselves at an increasing rate. We're all responsible!

Of course, my mind now is already looking forward to the coming weekend. Still nothing planned, though. But I'll figure out something. I must. Maybe I''ll break into the zoo and steal mini monkey...

Picture of the Weekend

This is what I encountered at an intersection in Stuttgart on Saturday. All I can say is, it looks like someone has quite a story to tell about Friday night...