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

Holiday Weekend

Hey all,

I'm just relaxing after a long weekend, it was pretty good, and of course getting spun up about Gov. Sarah Palin who just needs to go away.  It does matter that her daughter is pregnant.  Enough said.

Last week was the first week of real work, spent it working on submitting about a dozen and a half request for orders for various people to come support the new command.  Thurday went real long and I was there until 6 PM.  I also started a college class, Politics and Society in Africa, it's an undergraduate level, but should be interesting.

Friday I picked up a rental car, in part to get me through the graduate class I have next week, in part to help with the move out of the hotel into the apartment, and in part because of a trip that I had signed up for on the weekend.  Friday evening I toured the local Ikea store and looked at wardrobes, since there is a closet, but it has no shelves or clothes rods.  I had to be back onto one of the bases by 1:30 Sat AM for a day-trip to Vienna.  It was painful to get to base, and then the bus trip was painful, first the drivers had forgotten their GPS, so that took a side trip, then once we got to Vienna, they got lost driving around (in total the trip took 9 hours).  Once we got there, it was interesting, I hit a couple of museums, on for the the State Opera, the other was in the National Library and was on Crime and Punishment.  And I walked around quite a bit, finished the day with a stop by Starbucks.  The service stunk, but they gave me a coupon for a free drink, so I guess I have to go back...  Actually next month they open a big Van Gogh exhibit that might be worth going back for, especially if I can coordinate it with an Opera performance.

The return trip took only 8 hours, but was painful, just a bad experience sleeping.  Sunday was sort of a lost day, I ran some errands stocking up on water, kitty liter and cat food, at the various stores on base.  I took the stuff to the apartment this morning, then went shopping at the local Real (used to be Wal-mart) for an air mattress, so I'll have something to sleep on for the next month, until my real bed gets here.  I was happy that it was cheaper than I thought it would be, until I opened it at home and saw there was no pump.  I ended up back at the store buying the pump, there was another model mattress with a built-in pump, but I figure with an external pump, I can always use it back in the states.  

I took another load of stuff over this evening and then did some general driving around to get familiar.  I have to say that the GPS is a real life-saver.  It isn't always right, but if I get lost on my own, I can tell it to take me back home and boom, I figure out where I am.

I'll post more about the trip to Austria later, I have some pictures.  After I check out of the hotel, I won't have much in the way of internet until I get it established in the apartment.

Evan

Learning about Germany

So this week I attended the German Headstart class, teaching us about German language and culture.  I was quick, and it was more about survival skills, so not a whole lot about language.  We spent the first two days in the classroom, learning a variety of things.  Wednesday we went out into town, the idea was to provide basic orientation on the transit system and of the downtown area.  As we walked around, there were a couple different store windows with Lederhosen on display.  Before I left, I had joked with the nephews, who as children wore lederhosen mom had bought for them, and I joked that I would find some adult ones for them, so here you go boys...

I didn't even want to find out the prices.  The one was in the window of a big name designer store, I forget who, but it was a big name.  We wondered about the various squares downtown, then went to the "Rathaus" or city hall, where the bathrooms are free.  The other thing they have there is a really cool elevator.  It is wooden and runs continuously, there are no doors, you just step on and off as it's moving.  There are two shafts side-by-side, one shaft going up, the other going down.  It was great fun.

After a lunch we browsed through a chocolate shop that was a dream come true.  The nicest thing was that I was unable to unload a bunch of small change Euro coins.  The most annoying are the pennies.  I mentioned previously that on base they don't use US pennies, just round up and down, but the Euro pennies are really annoying, they are smaller than even US dimes, as illustrated in the picture.

The final thing that I got done Wednesday, was to get myself a Verfundpass.  This is a prerequisite to be able to purchase weekly, monthly and annual tram/bus system tickets.  There is little savings between buying a weekly ticket and a weeks worth of individual tickets (about 22¢ per trip, if I only take trips to and from work), but it is a lot more convenient than buying a ticket each trip.  All that was required was give them my ID card, they scanned the photo and printed it out.  I was so excited about finally getting it, I went down to get on the train back to the hotel and I completely forgot to validate my 4-er pass (four trips) and just hopped on the train.  After I got back and was walking back through the hotel, I realized this fact, fortunately I didn't get busted by a cop (Polizei).

It rained for most of the afternoon and there is a 70% likelihood of rain tomorrow.  I plan to do laundry, although it may be miserable having to hump my laundry 20 minutes to the base and back in the rain.  Sunday I meet the guy I'm renting the apartment from, we'll fill in the contract and I have an appointment to get it review next Wednesday by the Housing office.  I guess this next week will be my first week of real work, it will be interesting to see what it will be all about.

Weather

This week a Colonel who's been here for two winters stated that they've only had one big snowstorm, in those two years, I can deal with that.  This morning when I woke up, I looked out the window and saw nothing, just white.  The city was socked in with really heavy fog.  This is a picture out my 10th floor window to the highway below.  Additionally it was only 46° F out, quite chilly for mid-August.

After letting it warm up a little, I went to what is apparently the only English language bookstore in town, called Tom's Books, he sells each book for €1, which is expensive given that most of his stock are pocket paper-backs.  He will also trade 2 for 1 (I bring in 2, get one free) and be buys for €0.25.  His little shop is a tad musty, and good grief did he like to talk.  When I got there he was talking with a couple of German girls, then he started in with me.  While I was there, this Army Colonel and her husband came in, asked a couple questions and started browsing.  I managed to get out as they were leaving.  We talked along the street and they joked that they wanted to get out of there before I left, otherwise they would be the victims of chat.

I then went downtown to try and get a month long tram pass, but the office wasn't open.  I then headed out to the mall I had been to two weeks ago to get cell phone service (the place on base won't deal with iPhones).  I got a prepaid SIM card but it's not working in my phone.  I'm suspecting that something went wrong and my unlock didn't complete.  So now I'll have to spend another evening doing it all over again.

The cats are starting to try my patience.  They are pretty good most of the time.  The other afternoon, I got home a little early (before housekeeping had done the room) so after I dropped my bag, I opened the door to hang the "Do not disturb" sign and Spooky got out.  I chased her and grabbed her pretty quick, but not before the door closed and I realized I had left my key in the room.  The other thing the girls will do is wake early and start chasing each other around.  This may have been fine in a house with multiple rooms, but in a one room hotel room, the chase involves around, over and through the bed on which I am trying to sleep.

Trains, Stations and Slugs

Hey all,

I thought I would throw up a couple of train stuff.  The first is one of the trams, also known as the U-Bahn (oo-bahn), it is the local system, although there are some of the national trains that serve as commuter lines.  The system also hooks into the bus system.  For example, today, I walked off the base to the auto dealership (I ordered a Mini, should be here in 4-5 weeks).  As I was finishing up, I saw the base shuttle getting onto the autobahn.  Do I walk 15 minutes back onto base, wait 40 minutes to catch the shuttle (and then another 15 minute walk from that base to the hotel), or walk to the city bus stop.  I walked to they city bus stop, as I rounded the corner, the bus was leaving, so I had to wait 20 minutes for the next one, then hop on the train to the hotel.  All in all it was a better deal, I got to the hotel about the same time I would have been getting onto the military shuttle.  I had a ticket for 4 trips in my wallet, so all I had to do was stamp it on the bus.

The second picture is of an historic train station (Möhringen Bahnhof), not sure what it is used for now.  A little further on is the historic cargo building.  There is a bit of construction going on in the vicinity, putting more people in proximity to the train station.  

Today was more of the European Command conference on how they do business.  I learned a lot and came up with a lot of questions.  Tomorrow, I am on stand-by for a series of classes and then I can get my permanent badge.  Friday I'm going to spend the day with the European Command folks again, in their office, learning everything they do.

Finally, a picture of a slug, it seemed to have come out because of all the rain the last two days.  It was ugly, and big, I would say 3-4 inches in length.  I have to say, I'm not sure that I've ever seen a slug before; I'm not sure if I care to ever see one before.  I'm just glad I saw it before I stepped on it, that would have been a lot of gooo...

The Weekend and the Job

So this weekend I did get a chance to explore the downtown, Friday I went down there, but then it started raining and I had neglected to bring the bumbershoot and I headed back to the hotel.  Sat was a pretty decent day, so I went down, explored the flea market (mostly junk in my opinion, if I ever buy anything it will either be something to hang on the wall or a textile, they looked to be pretty nice.  After that I ran into a farmer's market, I bought a jar of Rhubarb jelly (kompote) and on the day's I remember to grab an extra roll at breakfast, it is pretty good.  After that I went through an art museum that was pretty much all modern stuff, although the architecture of the building was rather magnificent.  A quick tour of the big bookstore down town, with their 100 titles in English.  Then finally walking through a mall and on to the Sommerfest, which in this case was a music/food/drink festival on the main square and park downtown.

Sunday was a bit more pedestrian, I loaded up all my dirty laundry (filling my backpack and then a net bag, enough for two loads) and walked to base to do laundry.  When I finished with that, I camped out in a restaurant in the basement with some of their home brewed beer and spent several hours writing up my turn-over document for Minneapolis.

Monday I spent half the day doing paperwork to get reimbursed for the hotel expense.  I also signed up for a class on the Politics and Government in Africa.  It should be an interesting class, hopefully give me some background for the job, although my real job is just to get Reservists to the command, especially the money.

Today I attended, and will attend tomorrow, a European Command Intel Reserve conference and I've been learning all the intricacies to the reserves and intelligence.  It is a world unto itself, and I'm not even talking about the work they do.  There is such a multitude of three letter agencies, all with different pots of money and all with something to contribute.  It will be interesting to dig into the job, and I'm started to get an idea where I have to start.

Two final things, I'm getting tired of coins.  On base they use Dollars, so I have to carry both US and EU coins.  The smallest EU bank note is a €5.00 note, so everything smaller is coins.  The €.01 (euro penny) coin is even smaller than the US penny, it is incredibly annoying.  The one nice thing on base is that they don't use pennies, the just round up and down, how convenient.  The other thing is that I have been having these dreams about the house I grew up in in Edina, sort of weird.  I'm just wondering if it has to being "dislocated" and my mind is referencing the most enduring "home" I've ever had.

Another Week Under the Belt

Hey all, 

It's been another week here in Germany, been keeping busy.  As I write, I turned on the TV and there happens to be an Asterix and Obelix movie on, it's in German, but still visually entertaining. (For those who don't know Asterix and Obelix, you will have to google them, it is a series of comic books, etc, originally French, but very popular here in Europe.  We had them to look at in Latin and French classes.)

The week started with a bunch more briefs about how things work here in Stuttgart and with the Army (which provides the infrastructure).  I cut out early Tuesday to register the cats with the base veterinarian and then go to another base for a different brief.  (Keep in mind there are three small bases with all the business, and then a fourth base with housing, so there is a lot of shuttling back and forth,)

When I arrived for the brief Wed morning, it had been cancelled, so I wandered over to the Redcross where a guy had been advertising an apartment for rent, on behalf of a German friend of his.  We ended up going to look at the apartment that morning, as we were flying along on the highway, he was saying, "see how easy it is to get to and from on the highway..."  Good thing I bought a TomTom on sale at the Exchange.

After thinking about it all day, I ran back over to the neighborhood that afternoon to walk around the streets and get a feel for the neighborhood.  I wrote him an E-Mail late that night saying that I would take the apartment, it was even easier since he was willing to come down in price to meet my housing allowance.  It even has underground parking, a real plus since the street parking is terrible, like a lot of underground parking, it has two cars parking between concrete posts, but in addition to that, there is a metal rack that rides up and down, is perpendicular to the other two cars, and holds a third car.  When I get a chance, I'll take a picture and post it; in the mean time, the picture at the top is of the outside of the building, the little "bump-out" is the living room, with a smaller bedroom to the left, and the larger bedroom to it's left and at the corner.  It's a real nice place, lots of sun, high ceilings, nicely updated, it had a kitchen and washing machine.

Thursday morning I went to a dealership to look at cars, right now I am seriously considering ordering a new Mini Cooper Clubman, I've like the cars ever since they came out.  They are pretty inexpensive, even new from the factory.  That afternoon I had to take my driver's training and the license test.  I passed, I was worried, there are a lot of little things, right-of-way is different here, and then the parking distance from stops varies a great deal depending on the type of road.  It would be nice and small to get around in town, and to fit in the parking spot at the apartment.

A final note about the cats.  I'm starting to think they are going stir crazy here in the hotel room.  Spooky has gone out the door three times now, not far, not like she can push the call button for the elevator (I'm on the 10th floor).  The other morning I was awoken by a crashing sound.  It was Spooky, she had jumped up on top of the cabinet with the minibar in it, on top there is a tray with coffee service stuff, and another tray with two glasses and two wine glasses, and somehow or another, Spooky had knocked the tray with glasses onto the floor, after I picked up the pieces, I took the picture below, the very bottom picture is after housekeeping replaced them.

Cheers, Evan

A few more German days under my belt

Hey all,

So I've spent a few more days here, started getting acclimated.  My one big thing is that I keep wanting to use the little spanish that I learned last year.  

Thursday was more of the in-processing, signing up for my computer accounts (unclassified and classified, and not that I've had a chance to log in yet), and signing up for the process of getting an apartment (I spent nearly two hours in the office, most of it waiting).  I've found a couple that I would like to look at, but I have to make an appointment to get an appointment to see the apartments (you just have to love the Army).

Friday started with a 45 minute trip to another base on the local shuttle, then I had a three hour class that was basic introduction to life in Stuttgart.  Some real good information and more to come over the next week.  After that, I went to the Exchange on base, and I am scratching my head as to why they sell nothing but 110 volt lamps; and no the housing on base doesn't use 110.  Stupid exchange system.  I looked at various electronics that I will be looking at if I want to listen to the stereo or watch TV.  I talked to the cellphone place here on base, then walked over to the college office to get some more information on a Master's degree in International Relations.  A quick stop by the USO on some of the trips they offer (there is Italy during Labor Day weekend, Scotland during Columbus Day weekend, and London during Thanksgiving weekend) and they have some longer trips available.  I though the Italy and London trips were particularly reasonably priced.  Then the 45 minute trip back to the local base.

Today was a day off, started with the breakfast buffet here in the hotel (it starts too late for use during the week) and then a slight exploration of the tram line, then I walked to base and caught the shuttle to another base, my goal being to get to a shopping mall over in that area and talk to the T-mobile store about my iPhone.  After the 45 minute bus ride, I started asking and the best option I could come up with was to walk to the mall, that was a 50 minute walk (I was wearing sandals) but fortunately it was all downhill.  I knew I didn't want to use the same option for the return trip.  At the mall I explored, bought some update maps, walked around a grocery store figuring out what is flour and what is sugar (they have these really neat plastic bottles with muffin mix in them, you pour milk into the bottle, shake to mix, and the pour into the muffin tin and bake). 

I've been issued "ration" cards for cigarettes, alcohol, coffee, and other consumables.  But I have to say that I was surprised by how inexpensive alcohol was out in town, even factoring for the exchange rate.  When I talked to the T-mobile folks I found their prices to be 10 Euro cheaper than on base.  Then I had to find my way home.  I talked to the mall info kiosk and took a bus to the train station, then thanks to a couple of helpful Germans, I took the train back to the hotel, total travel time, 40 minutes, as opposed to the 95 minutes getting there.  Just for fun I've attached a picture of the train ticket above.

Tomorrow is Sunday, I plan to explore downtown.  There is an Orthodox church somewhere here in town, I'm not sure where, their website is in German and Russian.  I wrote an e-mail to ask their location, but haven't hear back yet.  Finally I have two pictures below, the first is of a cigarette machine in the mall, just a striking sight given how long ago they were banned back home, second is of a urinal, yes a urinal, but just about every urinal I have seen here has a fly emblazoned down in there, I'm not sure why, but I have three years to figure it out.

Arrival In Germany

Well I have to say that completing a transfer to a foreign country in less than three months, while carrying the load for an absentee CO is a bit of an accomplishment, if I don’t say so myself.

My journey started interesting, at the MSP airport, trying to check the girls into luggage (see picture above of Bella with the kennels).  It turns out that for having talked to United three times about my travel, they never told me that they kennels were required to have holes on all fours sides (the backs didn’t have holes) because it was an international flight.  Fortunately work was close by and DC1 was able to run over a cordless drill and a 1/2” bit to the terminal and I put 10 holes into each kennel.  One boy standing in line commented that I was willing to do most anything for my cats, I told I was moving to Germany and wanted to take them with me.  

We took off to the west, then north up 35W and the the Mississippi.  It was nice to see the view of the construction project.  I also have to note that Target was strategic when they built their new store at 66th and Cedar, the store’s roof is all white with a bit red bull’s eye on top.

I got to Chicago, headed straight to the gate, got my boarding pass and it was time to board.  After they had closed the doors the captain got on the PA and apologized that the dinner service wouldn’t be what it should be because of a strike in Germany, so the workers wouldn’t be there to unload the stuff.  The guy sitting next to me (a German) opinionated that the strike was ridiculous as the workers had been offered a 7% raise.  He also warned me that I probably wouldn’t have my connecting flight from Frankfurt to Stuttgart.  

He was an interesting fellow, I wish I knew German, because he went off on the purser when they tried serving him the meager meal that they did have onboard.  I didn’t sleep very well, in part because he screamed in his sleep, no kidding.  I mostly listened to podcasts on the iPod.

When we arrived in Frankfurt, I was expecting that I would have to do a paperwork drill arriving with the cats, plus take my bags through customs.  Nope, all I had to do was to go through passport control, then I had 2.5 hours to kill waiting for the next flight as the bags and cats were checked straight through.

I did spend 3.15 euro on a 0.5L bottle of water and 2.5 on a paper.  Prices here are ridiculous.  Finally, I made the hop to Stuttgart, the girl sitting next to me was from Belgium, but she had spent 5 weeks on vacation in Oklahoma, Missouri and Nebraska.  I made a comment that those aren’t normal vacation spots...  She really liked the US compared to Europe, prices are more reasonable, you get refills on beverages, people say hello on the street.

I was met at the airport by my sponsor, we had a few hours to kill until my hotel room was available, so we started the check-in process.  They register everyone’s ID card in their system, then anytime you enter one of the bases (there are 4 or 5 small bases) they scan your card to make sure you are kosher.  I got some VAT forms to use to avoid payment of the Value Added Tax, went to the post office (my address is: CMR 489, Box 727, APO, AE 09751) and a few other miscellaneous items.

I finally settled into the hotel, it’s pretty nice, a big development area of three hotels, restaurants, a couple theaters (they have Blue Man Group and Wicked showing now, Momma Mia will be coming soon).  It’s pretty nice, there should be a picture below from out my window of the MercedesBenz headquarters. 

That’s about it for now, internet is costing about $20 for an hour, so I will probably limit my time until I get my government account and can sign on with that.