Settling In

Hey all,

I guess its been a while since I've written.  I've been having fun finding grade-school classmates on Facebook.  This was a long weekend, but unlike the one in January when I went to Prague (I still need to finish uploading the photos) I stayed home and got a couple things done, plus reading for my class next week on the Middle East.  

I am rather delighted I finally got a wardrobe (or schrunk as they call it in Germany) for the closet.  It is weird that I even happen to have a closet, but it is just an empty room.  I had been using my old laundry hamper to hang clothes, but it wasn't the most stable thing.  Friday, a co-worker helped me get the wardrobes from Ikea, I worked on assembling them in the evening, but as I set to the second one, I realized that it was missing most of its hardware.  This required a return trip to Ikea.  Too late Friday, and Saturday is miserable at Ikea, since it (and most everything else) is closed on Sunday.  I managed to go pretty late in the day Saturday to get the parts and some extra shelves.

The other major accomplishment was taking a framing class on Saturday.  It lasted 4 hours, but I have to say that it was pretty interesting to learn how to frame my own stuff.  The amazing thing is cost.  All my supplies totaled $46, and I have some left over matting and glass should I happen to have a real small project.  This is something that if I had taken it to Michael's or JoAnn's it would have cost around $100 and that would be with a 40 or 50% off coupon.  Now I just have to remember everything for the next project, which will be a second water color picture from Prague.

I keep forgetting about this, but since a couple folks have asked what my job is here, here's my attempt.  Africa Command is the newest idea that was dreamed up only about two years ago.  Responsibility for Africa from the U.S. military stand-point was divided between European Command, Central Command and Pacific Command.  Africa Command consolidates all of U.S. interests under one umbrella.  I work in the Intelligence directorate, which one might think of as spook type stuff, but I look at more just information gathering, organizing and analysis.  My job is to work Reserve Affairs, which right now is mostly about finding military reservists (mostly Army and Navy) to come fill manning short falls in our staff.  Most we bring for 6 months.  The second task that is emerging is the construction of the manning document that will have the positions and structure of our supporting reserve unit(s).  This second task is a real pain.  There is a fixed number of people in the military, so to give us people, other commands have to give them up.  There are conflicts between (a) what we want, (b) what the Joint Staff at the Pentagon thinks we should have, and (c) what the other commands are willing to give up.  Once we get the manning document built then we will have to fill it, and eventually run the program of one weekend a month and two weeks a year, coordinating the people coming and going, etc.

Finally, I'll mention that the picture is of me, in Carlsbad, Czech Republic, drinking hot spring water.  It's supposed to be good for you, it was funny tasting.  But I did buy the souvenir mug, that you fill then drink from the straw/handle.  That's about it for now, take care.

Back Online/Small World

Hey all,

I've got my internet working at the apartment again, it took the technician all of 5 minutes, I suspect a wire was loose, or else someone had disturbed it and put it back in the wrong place. Very frustrating the whole process, the holidays also served to extend how long it took.  I was also finally able to get the wireless router hooked up and working, so rather than sitting at the kitchen table to surf, I can now chill on the sofa and surf.

I need to make a few posts, Christmas weekend I went to Paris for a three-day trip, it was great to finally get there, but it was mighty chilly.  Never the less, I'm glad I finally got there.  I need to finish downloading the photos then I can post some.  This coming weekend (a three day, MLK Jr day) I'm taking a trip over to Prague, Czech Republic.  It will be cool and perhaps snowing, but it will be another country to see.

So my small world story.  I need to write about what work is, but my boss, a full bird Army Colonel, and perhaps the best boss I've ever had, grew up in Bloomington, MN.  A few years ahead of me, or perhaps more than a few.  The world gets smaller.  

Back in early December, I had a dental cleaning appointment.  I was settling into the chair and I noticed the hygienist had a certificate from the University of MN, I asked if she was from MN and she was like, yeah, she grew up in Fairfax, out west where it is very flat.  A week later my boss had a cleaning appointment.  He sat down, saw the certificate from the U and said he was from MN, she replied that just last week she had this guy in from MN whose boss was also from MN...

Thats about it for now, I need to charge the laptop and I'll probably go ahead and download the photos too.

Cheers,

Evan

Still Breathing

Hey all,

Just  a quick post, I've been without internet at home since 20 Nov.  Now I have a technician coming 5 Jan, hopefully that will get it fixed, now that I have a key for the telecom closet.  Rather frustrating, German customer service just isn't the same.

I wish all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, hopefully I can get back to blogging regularly after 5 Jan.

Evan

Still Hey

Hey all,

Just a quick note that I'm still alive and well.  My internet is down at home and with German customer service standards being what they are, I have an appointment next Thursday to get it fixed. 

Thanksgiving was good, spent it with a co-worker and her family and friends.  I'm also currently borrowing her husband's computer to make this posting.

Tomorrow evening I'm going to a dinner with the German American club celebrating St. Nicholas day.  It is a bigger thing here in Germany, and children are supposed to put out boots for St. Nicholas to fill with candy.

Take care,

Evan

I've got gas

Hey all,

I guess it's been a little while since I've written, I haven't been feeling all that well.  I have colds that have morphed into ear infections, it took two courses of antibiotics to knock it out.  This afternoon I realized that I felt better than I've felt in a long time.  Being under the weather hasn't been limited to me, Bella, my beautiful kitty had a bad eye for most of the last week, it was either a real infection, or her eye may have gotten scratched by Spooky while they were "playing."

My title is from this afternoon, I had stopped on base to get some groceries and gas.  At the gas station they have an express check-out line for people not getting gas, the clerk motioned me over to that line and I remarked that "I've got gas" which I quickly corrected to something like "I'm also paying for petrol."  He laughed, noting that many people will make comments similar to mine and not realize what they are saying.  

While I am on the topic of the car, last weekend, which was a long weekend, I drove up to the base in Heidelberg for their Christmas bazaar.  I was my first trip out of the Stuttgart area, about an hour, so it was also a first for my little car.  It did well, I probably averaged 80 mph, which is pretty tame as the German autobahn goes, and I did get it up to 100 mph once, it was all traffic dependent.  The bazaar was okay, nothing real notable there for shopping.  

But my point is about the car.  When I put gas in today, it had been two weeks, I drove well over 600 km on the tank and filling it only cost about $34.00.  Not bad when compared to the Bimmer which I was putting $65-70 worth of gas in once a week before it was totalled.  Granted gas prices were higher then, but still, even a cheap tank of gas on that thing was $40.  All in all, I have to say I am pretty happy with the little car.

Evan

Election Night

Hey all,

So it's about 4:45 in the morning, I woke up early to watch the election results.  I finally got a TV last weekend so I could watch the results.  The building has built in cable, 39 channels, only two are in English, CNN International and BBC World News.  They both have election coverage, although they are a bit divergent.  As I flipped through the channels, there is election coverage on the one French channel and 5 German channels (although one was retransmitting MSNBC with a live stream of translation).

It is interesting the level of interest in the election over here.  Nobody likes the Bush administration, it is amazing how much support there was immediately after 9/11, then Bush followed his own path and burned a lot of bridges.

There is a German American society that was holding an election night party for Americans and our partisans.  I've been fighting an ear infection for a few weeks so I opted to stay in.

Evan

Life in Germany

Hey all,

It's been a little while since I've written.  It took me a month after I moved into the apartment to get my things, and a few more weeks beyond that to get internet.  The German sense of customer service is very frustrating.  It used to be that you call Comcast and they tell you early morning, late morning, etc.  Germans just say "all day."  I've also kept myself busy with school, two classes for a Master's program (Economic Development and the Making of American Foreign Policy) and an undergraduate class on African Politics and Government, all interesting, but they kept me way busy with reading and writing.  The last class was last weekend, for a little while, although I did go ahead and sign up for the basic level of Conversational German they hold on base, it starts Monday and is Mon and Wed for about six weeks.  I need to learn the language here, it will make functioning much easier.

I got my car, a neat little MINI Cooper Clubman.  I made a short road trip to the Ritter Sport chocolate factory, about 20 minutes south of here.  They have a museum and a store.  I took a picture of the factory, above, not sure what to expect with a chocolate factory, no big cranes, no trains waiting to transport the finished candy across the continent.  The store was interesting, the prices were okay, depending on the exchange rate when compared to the prices on base.

I've got a couple pictures of the car below.  The top one is of my parking space in the underground garage here at the apartment.  It is the one on ground level.  The rack above it rides down and holds two cars.  There are four or five of these racks in the garage.  I guess it just shows the value of real estate here.  I'll have to get a picture of parking on the street, it is insane, especially how they park in the corners, I'll be fortunate if I make it through my time here and have no incident at the corner.  Add to that that it is an uncontrolled intersection, so the odd German rules on right-of-way apply.  More on that later.  The bottom picture is from the MINI website.  I haven't had the chance to take a picture of the car when it isn't crowded by other cars, or in the dark or rain.  The car looks the same, no roof rack (probably wouldn't fit in the parking spot) and different rims.  One other thing, I had to replace the 12" antenna with a 2", otherwise I would have been removing the antenna every time I parked. 

One final note, I mentioned dark and rain.  It's been exceptionally cool here and we are lucky to be in the 50's during the day.  Europe did the whole "fall back" a week ahead of the states.  I was looking up the sunrise and sunset here.  Stuttgart is about three degrees further north than Minneapolis/St. Paul, so come Dec 21, we will have about 30 minutes less daylight.  I was a bit bummed to learn this information, knowing how desperately short the days are back in MN.  I do take comfort in how much longer the days will be come June!!

That's about it for now, hopefully I can get a bit more regular with the posts again.  I still have some unpacking to do, and that also includes needing to get to Ikea to buy some wardrobes for the closet.

Cheers, Evan