tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79966946034172382412024-03-05T05:00:19.386-05:00Andrew's Cologne BlogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-16264111730811209522008-10-27T16:47:00.003-04:002008-10-27T16:49:51.563-04:00I Have Moved!!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeNIDRIUoYw1FA_bEKzwUMPDFjN3sOhEw8hi7EVk0M1noc367JxsaufdRiuTB12Mxo4bk2FJRW4TUvA-QFODL-J3CK5VJxvkZPIP5wKWlImllsXbsz-kbn_OByHIe3nAt9q-OYzpQjN8Qu/s1600-h/Served+Fresh+Banner.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 204px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeNIDRIUoYw1FA_bEKzwUMPDFjN3sOhEw8hi7EVk0M1noc367JxsaufdRiuTB12Mxo4bk2FJRW4TUvA-QFODL-J3CK5VJxvkZPIP5wKWlImllsXbsz-kbn_OByHIe3nAt9q-OYzpQjN8Qu/s320/Served+Fresh+Banner.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261938751106783298" /></a><br />Hey! I have moved this blog over to the new, much more clean, and exciting blog Andrew's Breakfast!!! All new posts about my trip in Cologne will be here, and I will continue to post there once I am back in the US!<br /><br /><a href="http://andrewsbreakfast.blogspot.com">http://andrewsbreakfast.blogspot.com</a><br /><br />Bookmark it!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-23665689428715191242008-10-06T16:52:00.000-04:002008-10-16T17:01:54.638-04:00A Short Trip Back to Baden-WürttembergA few months ago, while on the phone with a friend of mine's mother, she and the family had invited me down for a visit to celebrate Michael's father's 50th birthday. A large party was planned, and of course I said I would definitely be there. As time got closer, and the birthday nearing, I started to look for a way to get back down to Berlichingen again. The last time that I went, I found a ride on a ride sharing website called <a href="http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/">mitfahrgelegenheit</a>. The guy driving me, Dennis, was very friendly, and the cost of gas was quite cheap, however, this time I had no luck finding a ride that way. My next option was to look at trains. Most train tickets were pretty expensive going that way, but the Deutsche Bahn does offer a “Schönes Wochenende” ticket, or “Have a Nice Weekend” ticket. Honestly, they should be more careful with what they call this ticket, because even though it is relatively cheap, it is only good for one day, and only good on the slowest possible trains that stop at every known train station along the way to your destination, and even some stops not so along the way. Anyways, I bought two schönes wochenende tickets, one for Saturday, and one for the return journey on Sunday. Michael had arranged for me to meet up with his cousin, and her boyfriend in Frankfurt, and after I took a train there, got on a city tram, I met up with them, and they drove me the rest of the way to Berlichingen.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAlaXKS_1Qexw4KrE6JEmmlwADU0oPBIh88l_mRifiWnba0Iv_ZMd2Scko4IScQ3EklgxQxPm3qpcsRKm1SiPlxcEUw2PcHNd7M-KHGjclwn2QcGISguIMXqe4zomiEHOXh6zKt0GpqfUe/s1600-h/IMGP4013croppedAGK.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAlaXKS_1Qexw4KrE6JEmmlwADU0oPBIh88l_mRifiWnba0Iv_ZMd2Scko4IScQ3EklgxQxPm3qpcsRKm1SiPlxcEUw2PcHNd7M-KHGjclwn2QcGISguIMXqe4zomiEHOXh6zKt0GpqfUe/s320/IMGP4013croppedAGK.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257859669188070018" /></a>As soon as we arrived in Berlichingen, we went directly to find the party. After some directions from some villages folks, and after a humorous parking spot search we finally walked down the steps into the cellar of what is the village community hall. The cellar was actually what appeared to be a converted wine cellar, well over a hundred years old. I spent time with Michael, his family, and all of their friends (about 50 people were there). They had a great dinner of schnitzel, spätzle (soft, thick noodles popular in Baden Wuerttemberg), and a plethora of cakes made for dessert. I ate a piece of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (black forest cherry torte) cake made by Michael’s grandmother, and was rather delicious.<br /><br />The night went on until about five the next morning. It was a night full of old German singing, eating, drinking, and happy people- an experience that I am sure is not typical for a foreigner.<br /><br />The following day, Sunday, I woke up a little bit late since we were awake for so long. We ate breakfast, and before I knew it, after spending some time with the Haak family, it was already time for me to leave back to Cologne. This time I would take a train from the nearby town of Möckmühl all the way back to Cologne. The car ride from Michael’s place to Cologne is generally only about three to four hours long depending on traffic, however, it took me about seven hours to get there by train, and I had to switch to different trains four times! Oh well, the important thing is that I was able to be there for the party, and have some relaxation time outside of the big city with Michael and his family.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-4776848145102906702008-09-28T09:28:00.003-04:002008-09-28T09:42:58.606-04:00Fußball Brötchen mit Nutella!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGTJDXLjpMXSeV12qfzLRanybNB4htrFuKbBh1tpbQlxPqUlh30Tv9wX9IjCY5SbmWFdxhyQhQDirew6Qd7T-sGjttTh9Pt1H1-dLYQnfLY8xNN3L6u4GbgTYmlqmrucjfb63VxYKlF2F2/s1600-h/Fussball_Broetchen_20080928_002edited.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGTJDXLjpMXSeV12qfzLRanybNB4htrFuKbBh1tpbQlxPqUlh30Tv9wX9IjCY5SbmWFdxhyQhQDirew6Qd7T-sGjttTh9Pt1H1-dLYQnfLY8xNN3L6u4GbgTYmlqmrucjfb63VxYKlF2F2/s320/Fussball_Broetchen_20080928_002edited.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251066986298302098" /></a>Sometimes it really is the small things that excite me about being in a different country. I went to the grocery store yesterday, a store called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Real</span> that is really great, because it is huge, and they have everything that you could imagine. I was there with my roommate Melli, and we were getting our usual shopping done, when I went to the bakery section, because baked goods in Germany are absolutely the best, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw bread called Fußball Brötchen! Now, I know that most people are aware that outside of the US, the rest of the world is soccer crazy, but this was bread that was shaped like a soccer ball, which pretty much amazed me, and of course I bought a pack of 3 freshly baked "soccer breads". <div>My favorite bread here in Germany is of course Pretzels . . . the big soft kind. The fußball brötchen was great because it is the same kind of bread that a pretzel is made out of but just a big fluffy piece of it. What makes it even better is a bit of Nutella. If you don't know what Nutella is, it is a nutty chocolate spread. It is pretty expensive in the US, but here in Germany it is the staple for any snack. Nutella on waffles, on apples, and of course on my fußball brötchen. As you can tell, I am having an exciting week, and I just wanted to share my good find!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-71550907810331726782008-09-24T18:10:00.004-04:002008-09-24T18:18:15.150-04:00Warszawa, Part 3: Day Two and the DepartureSaturday was a much more relaxing day in Poland. After the late night out in downtown Warsaw, I slept comfortably on my huge air mattress so wonderfully provided by Anna and her sister. I had slept in until almost 11:00, and was greatly needed. Between an uncomfortable night on the train, walking around Warsaw the day before, and dancing in the cellar of who knows where, I needed the extra hours of sleep. Anna again played the role of the good host, and made a delicious breakfast of breads, cheeses, meats, and jellies. We then got ready to go out to do some more sightseeing. <div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiner9qEPEgTJfMdtH-aOs4HwZPnTfMTYkCa0y6Hd2a8tcl_lZxkvV9PqX6Ft7QBpw5k5MLF7R896ZNVBHAwV9FyLIknIFeU8fQIiymsDfmvqORx9vZjyZ3_7zo9XW1GPKDnh-S-yt-OSLK/s1600-h/Warszawa_20080913_092.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiner9qEPEgTJfMdtH-aOs4HwZPnTfMTYkCa0y6Hd2a8tcl_lZxkvV9PqX6Ft7QBpw5k5MLF7R896ZNVBHAwV9FyLIknIFeU8fQIiymsDfmvqORx9vZjyZ3_7zo9XW1GPKDnh-S-yt-OSLK/s320/Warszawa_20080913_092.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5249714747292420690" /></a>Our main event for the day was a visit to the Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego, or the Warsaw Uprising Museum. The museum is a tribute to the uprising that took place in 1944 of the civilians and military in Warsaw defending their town against the Nazi invasion. At the heart of the museum was a large wall that emanated a loud heartbeat and sounds of the uprising as a tribute to those involved. The museum also contained several moving exhibits that gave lots of information on all aspects of the Uprising. It was a really good experience, as in the US, Polish history is not generally taught in normal studies. It was a good opportunity for me to learn more about the place that I was visiting. </div><div><br />After the museum, Anna and I went off to a restaurant, one of her favorites, called the Greenway. It was actually a vegetarian restaurant, and even though she is not a vegetarian, she is quite the health nut. The food was a lot to eat, not too expensive, and my vegetarian enchilada was actually quite tasty. I didn’t know what to order, but that is what the cook said that most people from “England” order. Anna did me the favor of correcting him, but I ordered the enchilada anyways! </div><div><br /></div><div>Our next stop for our sightseeing was the Łazienki Park, which is said to be Warsaw’s most beautiful, and I am definitely not one to argue. Although Łazienki actually means “bathroom” making it the “Bathroom Park”, it was one of the most odd, yet pleasing parks I have ever been in. It was established in the 17th century and lies in the middle of the city. The park is absolutely huge with winding trails, old trees, and several old fashioned, beautiful buildings nestled into green corners. We walked through the park, and actually got a little bit lost because it is so ginormous (not a real word, I know), and then went home because it was raining, and a bit chilly.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi75vdC1cH7eSUucpCD9kdBCanIzUuaU8J9p-093Hci-tJDTtPZLnSLh02amjuZ_a4o8PXiHkEWs2RqeUlhbyMgWaU0S4oZzfDFffUBIsTg-P64HupmXq69gUb-PsRgY0SsIa4WXGRi7PEE/s1600-h/Warszawa_20080913_110.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi75vdC1cH7eSUucpCD9kdBCanIzUuaU8J9p-093Hci-tJDTtPZLnSLh02amjuZ_a4o8PXiHkEWs2RqeUlhbyMgWaU0S4oZzfDFffUBIsTg-P64HupmXq69gUb-PsRgY0SsIa4WXGRi7PEE/s320/Warszawa_20080913_110.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5249715156289644754" /></a>Speaking of the weather- I suppose it is a stereotype of Poland to imagine it as a constantly cold place. Summers are apparently quite nice there, but I brought the cold weather with me, or actually Hanna did. That’s right, what was left from Hurricane Hanna in the US, had floated it’s way across the ocean, and brought with it cold weather and rain. The weather in Germany and Poland was surprisingly abnormal, and not so pleasant. Although the weather was not perfect during my trip, it didn’t keep us from having fun.</div><div><br />After taking a rest back again at Anna’s apartment, we went out with some of her friends again to a restaurant called Tam Tam in the Old Town for a drink and talking. After that, we went early back home once more, to wake up for my departure home.<br />Although the night train seemed quick because I could sleep the whole way, the train back was twelve hours of absolutely nothing special. It was just a long trip home, and took up the entire day. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was definitely a great trip to Poland, and I am really glad that I got to see Anna again, which was the most important part of my trip. Even though I hadn’t seen her in over two years, it was just like our friendship had never parted. I am really looking forward to the next time that I can visit again.</div><div><br />Thanks for reading! That is the end of my Warsaw posts, and I hope that it wasn’t too long. As always, comments are appreciated, and welcome! More posts coming soon!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-38594953992876686392008-09-19T13:05:00.003-04:002008-09-19T13:11:15.050-04:00Warszawa, Part 2: Day OneLike all train stations in Europe, the Warsaw train station is no exception. After walking out of the train station you find yourself thrust into the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city. Even here in Cologne, the main train station is situated directly next to the famous Dom Cathedral, and is in the middle of everything. It is also more than just a train station as there is shopping and restaurants inside where non-travelers might have an interest as well. So, this is also how the Warsaw train station was.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGKhJ1ryksK82RJOETgv9QjWugz9lfSzGFpmSgf9nslNcNswr-OpEahRuYxHv4lTm7sUMvbJ2-4ObS6N-62VJi9ckT_w4OZnl7nOLLgwY6hVGa_kRtPBUd93NoDHUdnWzQde1ySiy9dclZ/s1600-h/Warszawa_20080912_027.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGKhJ1ryksK82RJOETgv9QjWugz9lfSzGFpmSgf9nslNcNswr-OpEahRuYxHv4lTm7sUMvbJ2-4ObS6N-62VJi9ckT_w4OZnl7nOLLgwY6hVGa_kRtPBUd93NoDHUdnWzQde1ySiy9dclZ/s320/Warszawa_20080912_027.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247780565755637170" /></a>My first impression of Warsaw was amazement at how big the city was. After chugging along hours of endless fields and crops through Poland, one may not expect to find such a big development out so far from everything else. The next thing that hit me was the language. Very seldom is it that I have found myself in a situation where I do not know a single word of the local language, and hearing Polish all around me was very strange. Polish sounds very much like Russian, and does not stem from Latin, so every word sounds extremely unfamiliar to me.<br /><br />Before I talk about what I did, I would like to give a little bit of history of Warsaw and Poland. The city’s history dates back all the way to the 9th century, but what is most important when visiting Warsaw today is in some of it’s most recent history. Poland became an independent country in 1918, and later in 1920 defeated the Russian Red Army defending Warsaw. During World War II, Poland suffered the most casualties of any country involved at over six million Poles, half of whom were Jewish. After World War II, Poland fell off of the map and was then controlled by the Soviets. Poland remained Communist, and still not independent from Russia until 1990, when Communism fell and Poland elected it’s first parliamentary president. Much of what I saw in Warsaw greatly reflected it’s rich and dark history.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_YSjI_E-98xDWke4LIPju1OwRM7Bn_jzKELYVSmyAyetV9XP1vjgFG3cpMUcoIBlp03YePnxBwWw6VqU-EGw5Cfy36PV2XlJrDw7Ax-t8f2QPS69TlFpTS4sDuyl23YOsT73Y1_RfP-s3/s1600-h/Warszawa_20080912_076.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_YSjI_E-98xDWke4LIPju1OwRM7Bn_jzKELYVSmyAyetV9XP1vjgFG3cpMUcoIBlp03YePnxBwWw6VqU-EGw5Cfy36PV2XlJrDw7Ax-t8f2QPS69TlFpTS4sDuyl23YOsT73Y1_RfP-s3/s320/Warszawa_20080912_076.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247781026765930770" /></a>I am extremely lucky that I was there visiting with Anna, because for one thing, she is the best tour guide one could ask for. Before my arrival she had prepared herself with several books, and pamphlets all about Warsaw, and the different sites to see. After visiting her very nice apartment, she took me out into the city by way of the underground metro to take some pictures, and see some of the important sites of the city. We walked throughout the old town that had been carefully reconstructed since WWII. We saw the President’s Palace, saw ate a real Polish lunch, and she showed me some of her favorite places to visit. We ended our sightseeing with a climb up to the top of the Palace of Culture and Science, which is a huge skyscraper, constructed as a government building from the Russians, and now has been turned into a museum. At the top, one can look out and get a beautiful view of the city.<br /><br />After all of our sightseeing, we made it back to Anna’s apartment, and at dinner with her sister, and a friend of theirs. After that was one hectic night on the town. First we went to a friend of Anna’s apartment, and had a few drinks. I think I should have known that the Polish drink of choice is plain old vodka. After that, we went back out into the city where we found ourselves in a club for a short time before heading back, getting some rest, and getting ready for another day of full activities. All of that will be in part three of my trip to Warsaw.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-62160009365766501752008-09-15T18:30:00.009-04:002008-09-16T02:02:06.345-04:00Warszawa, Part 1: The Night TrainBecause I have a lot to say about my trip to Poland, I have decided to split it up into three different parts. This is just the first part describing my peculiar Journey this past weekend:<br /><br />During my stay here in Germany, I have been given a wonderful opportunity to visit a good friend of mine, Anna, in her home country of Poland. There is a lot that I want to write about it, so because of that, I will write it in three parts, and this first part is about my exciting adventure to Warsaw from Cologne, by means of the night train.<br /><br />Because it takes so long to get to Poland, especially Warsaw, which lies on the far East side of the country, I decided that I would take the night train there so that I would be able to get the most time out of my trip. I had asked my boss off of work for Friday, September 12, and I booked my train to depart on that same Thursday night. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTFbaTKOaN5vseNJdWGnO8zsX-LiSxTlOpC3IeaC4BwOzS61A27yGYM3kHcDMR2yRZQfMIr5t50myp3eFa55BDOOVP2xfzq3WNaZlBCSPXZeeapfZ-azYLjB_ENfQuN1SkF9NOUilDn0z2/s1600-h/IMGP3985.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:10px 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTFbaTKOaN5vseNJdWGnO8zsX-LiSxTlOpC3IeaC4BwOzS61A27yGYM3kHcDMR2yRZQfMIr5t50myp3eFa55BDOOVP2xfzq3WNaZlBCSPXZeeapfZ-azYLjB_ENfQuN1SkF9NOUilDn0z2/s320/IMGP3985.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246383851609880354" /></a>I arrived at the train station rather early, and my train left the Cologne Hauptbahnhoff at a punctual 10:28pm. I found my way to my cabin, where four beds were made ready complete with pillows and blankets. There was a khaki jacket that had been left sitting on one of the beds, but other than that, nobody else came and I moved the jacket to the upper storage area and made myself comfortable.<br /><br />After about twenty minutes from leaving the station, a Deutsche Bahn employee arrived to collect tickets. What was really strange, and had me a bit scared was that he took both my ticket for Poland, and my Eurail pass that would permit me to travel within Germany. He claimed that he would keep them, and give them back to me at a later time. After telling me that I should lock my cabin door to prevent from being robbed in the night, he wished me goodnight. <br /><br />I had no problem falling asleep-- it had been a long week, and I was exhausted. I slept virtually the whole night, waking up about every hour, or hour and a half, only because of normal train noises, and trying to make myself comfortable. I woke up at about 8:00am, and started to put myself together in my empty cabin. I then proceeded to the doorway, and pulled the curtains open to find a very strange man staring back at me through the window. He had very short brown hair, and was not so tall himself. He was skinny, with a pointy nose, and looked about 30 years old. I opened up the door for him, and he just walked right into my cabin, grabbed the jacket that I had stored above in the storage space, and sat down on one of the beds mumbling in what I assume was Polish. Assuming that the jacket was his, I can only guess that I had locked him out of the cabin the entire night, but luckily so. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqpVYDJsZOSq8PDf6a3oxRRF4UpbMnIRDZvWpTKpjhHm-jQp-qWvZOyoRo3kU1X47YtO7y3CPh01HwNY1gMfp4hQ023omix3M1WDHFE4KAEo8i33gVZBJM7L624ngIRoeSf_G2OTMuz0Y/s1600-h/IMGP3989+edited.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqpVYDJsZOSq8PDf6a3oxRRF4UpbMnIRDZvWpTKpjhHm-jQp-qWvZOyoRo3kU1X47YtO7y3CPh01HwNY1gMfp4hQ023omix3M1WDHFE4KAEo8i33gVZBJM7L624ngIRoeSf_G2OTMuz0Y/s320/IMGP3989+edited.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246384109989530450" /></a>He sat on the bed with his head in his hands continuously shaking. After a while of sitting, he tried several times to jump to the top bunk before finding the ladder. When he finally made it up to the top bunk, which I was sure he would fall out of, he didn’t lay down in the bed, but instead laid down in the storage area that hangs over the aisle outside of the cabin. After he laid there for a while, he then moved over to one of the beds where he reached for a big red knob on the wall, and proceeded to pull the emergency brake. The train came to a complete stop in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of Poland. I immediately left the cabin and pointed out who had pulled the brake to the train employees running down the aisle. The man was arrested outside, and was not allowed back on the train. Luckily, I had my cabin back to myself, but unluckily, I arrived in Warsaw about an hour later because of this man.<br /><br />I later found out that the train had actually started in Amsterdam, and this man had been causing trouble all night since the train was in Amsterdam. I am glad that there are locks on the doors, otherwise I would have had one long night on the night train. With all of that said, I arrived in Warsaw in one piece, and I was greeted by my good friend Anna on the train platform. We haven’t seen each other since we met two years ago in Bremen, so it was a fantastic reunion in Eastern Europe, with a peculiar start to my journey.<br /><br />I will have more about my trip posted shortly in two other installments, and hopefully with some more pictures. Comments are always welcome!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-70261407192439208732008-09-07T18:23:00.009-04:002008-09-07T19:07:29.501-04:00Neue WG und der Kölner ZooSo I suppose I have a habit of not updating sometimes, but really I have been waiting for something really exciting to happen, and the past couple of weeks have been pretty mundane for the most part, or at least not worth writing about on here. So now, I wanted to put up a post on my new apartment, and about my trip to the zoo today!<div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrJiDNDCkZ2JgT7PLf6EttCU1EtvMZbJkqER1i-6ChFs6M_zgmz36eLEK2D-TcR-vdQvKTO580DpkMwk0bbq1Y7DAEoCbgyViMhf2lTAqSJQTV1axpjBKEP6cJ7TY0AcaN7APYMU5RsWWj/s1600-h/WG_OttoFischerStrasse_20080907_002.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrJiDNDCkZ2JgT7PLf6EttCU1EtvMZbJkqER1i-6ChFs6M_zgmz36eLEK2D-TcR-vdQvKTO580DpkMwk0bbq1Y7DAEoCbgyViMhf2lTAqSJQTV1axpjBKEP6cJ7TY0AcaN7APYMU5RsWWj/s320/WG_OttoFischerStrasse_20080907_002.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243414403763033762" /></a>About three weeks ago, I moved into my new apartment. I had to move because both of my other roommates were leaving, and it was easier for us to find three people to take the apartment than it was for us to find two people and have me stay. My reason for leaving wasn't because it wasn't working out, because everything in the old apartment was great. In the long run I am glad that I moved, because I am in a really great place! My rent is cheaper, the building is nicer, and I have great roommates again. The apartment is student housing right by the university, and it is very roomy inside. I have posted a link at the bottom of this post with the pictures I just took of my bedroom and some of the rest of the apartment. There are five of us living here, and we all get along very well. Most days after work, we are all cooking food together, and chatting for a few hours. It is very much like a family atmosphere, and enjoy spending time together. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another thing about my apartment that I am thrilled about is having my flags on the walls of my bedroom! Whenever I go to a new country or city, I always like to buy a flag from there. Anyone that has ever walked into my bedroom in the past few years will know what I am talking about, because my bedroom walls used to be covered in giant flags from the world. Now, I have about eight flags from my time here so far this trip, and have put them up on the walls. They are great reminders of my travels, and they also remind a bit of home, because it feels like my old bedroom. Check out the pics to see them on the walls!</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqXk49Pi2Z2K_2C1k9oxdS7BqxYyCl4TdHqSDra5n0OThb6dm0ojhZT9tNORJeBhmLsLRyzQlXXvZQU93FtrSO5kKn4rbcP1kEvVfLAOisx2i0ADI5y9Uz2PvbFTpfwsEnKa0X4smECmO/s1600-h/Erdemaenchen.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqXk49Pi2Z2K_2C1k9oxdS7BqxYyCl4TdHqSDra5n0OThb6dm0ojhZT9tNORJeBhmLsLRyzQlXXvZQU93FtrSO5kKn4rbcP1kEvVfLAOisx2i0ADI5y9Uz2PvbFTpfwsEnKa0X4smECmO/s320/Erdemaenchen.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243414911708228178" /></a>Today was a fun Sunday, as two of my roommates, a friend from Scotland, and I all took a trip to the Cologne Zoo. It was great fun, and was pretty much like any zoo, even though maybe not as great as the NC Zoo (for all of y'all back home!). I got to take lots of pictures, since I haven't really gotten a chance to use my camera in a while, and got some good shots of some of the animals who were actually quite active. Another benefit of going to the zoo, was that it really helped my vocabulary with learning how to say some of the animals' names in German. We had a lot of fun, and came back to the apartment to cook dinner this evening.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's about all that I have for this post. I am looking forward to writing my next one, because this coming weekend I will be visiting my friend Anna who lives in Warsaw, Poland. She says she is going to show me around Warsaw, and Krakow, and possibly her hometown. It's a lot to fit in in a weekend, but I am taking the night train on Thursday evening, and will arrive Friday morning. I guess I will have more on that later!</div><div><br /></div><div>I like reading comments! Let me know that you're reading!</div><div><br /></div><div><center><a href="http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112827&l=6c9de&id=40500293">New Apartment Pics</a></center></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-5856649206336184432008-08-16T11:13:00.004-04:002008-09-05T16:29:06.084-04:00Ein Herde von Schafen in der Stadt . . .So I really ought to keep my camera with me when I am out and about in Cologne. Today I had a small errand to run on the complete opposite part of town, and my route to get there involved riding my bike along the Rhine River. There is a path that runs along the whole river, and there are lots of bikers, runners, rollerbladers, and weekend strollers scattered along the whole way. The really strange part was that I was riding along and there is a bit of grass in between the path and the grass, and in this grass I heard a simple <span style="font-style:italic;">"baaaa"</span> coming from behind some bushes. I investigated further down another little path towards the water, and there was a whole entire heard of sheep grazing in the grass and in the bushes! This is in the city mind you, with the Dom Cathedral only a few hundred meters away. I asked some folks who were also checking out the curious critters, and they told me that it is completely normal. The sheep graze along the river from a neighboring town, and they are seen quite often apparently. <br />Sorry I don't have any photos. It would have been cool to show the sheep with the city in the background. If I see them again, I hope I will have my camera. That's all for this post, I just wanted to share!<br /><br />EDIT: Thank you to Stephan for finding a great link to the photo that I didn't get! <a href="http://home.fotocommunity.de/waldo/index.php?id=5600&d=1247096">Click Here!</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-61707096139878981182008-08-15T18:07:00.014-04:002008-08-16T11:13:37.550-04:00Amsterdam and Brussels . . .<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxoWm2vNkX7b0VJdNUJdORIVBgDvGfE2IMv3kDdnkRS7UDN0jLcXsuEMWg2sKAhgYpKGuU85qZi-oLY1TMojCoVWB8YFyTp7ZsrQdWBOSrcUAHwPJiNAMOPgvMSAHrM2HBClW6lphL0kES/s1600-h/Amsterdam_20080808_004.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxoWm2vNkX7b0VJdNUJdORIVBgDvGfE2IMv3kDdnkRS7UDN0jLcXsuEMWg2sKAhgYpKGuU85qZi-oLY1TMojCoVWB8YFyTp7ZsrQdWBOSrcUAHwPJiNAMOPgvMSAHrM2HBClW6lphL0kES/s320/Amsterdam_20080808_004.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234875745388243698" /></a>Well I've been meaning to post about my weekend trip to Amsterdam and Brussels all week now. It has been a crazy few days with trying to work some extra hours, and also moving to a new apartment here in Koeln. Now, I am all settled in, and it's the weekend, so I have a moment to finally crack down on this.<br />To start things off, this was the second weekend that Kelly and Matt were here, and we planned out a trip for the weekend to see some new sites. We originally wanted to include Paris in our plans, but France, being the way that French people are, require reservations on their trains, which were all full. For the other countries, even if the train is full, you can still spread out on the floor somewhere and get to your destination. Anyways, so we had decided to take an afternoon on Friday and go to Amsterdam, and then spend the rest of the weekend in Brussels. <br />Since we were only in Amsterdam for a few hours, we didn't see a lot of it, and I am sure that there were many things that we had missed. We went there without any kind of plan, and after leaving the train station we found ourselves in the red light district by complete accident. It was different (that's all I will say on the red light district, because everyone already knows what is there). After finding our way out of there, we found ourselves pleasantly strolling along canals and over bridges since Amsterdam is made up of about 900 islands, much like Venice. The one thing that we did in Amsterdam that was really worthwhile was we visited the Anne Frank House. It was really fascinating to walk through the hidden rooms of the house, and be in the same place that Anne Frank wrote her famous diary. It was definitely moving, and before long we were also moving along our way to Brussels, Belgium, not really knowing what to expect!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkQj6WI9Cwvhu6LH6GuKS7ri1CHmHj7fY1OcciCwLqr0RnLVr5UOIGeNme0ZF-bDZV0CFvPpuMp-TNDScuTnKxz-qBcdSz3EcR1wlFMIYLPFZXpGYqHaTOB1dKgqm03AZvjzUexjJ4ow3a/s1600-h/delerium.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:10px 10px 0 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkQj6WI9Cwvhu6LH6GuKS7ri1CHmHj7fY1OcciCwLqr0RnLVr5UOIGeNme0ZF-bDZV0CFvPpuMp-TNDScuTnKxz-qBcdSz3EcR1wlFMIYLPFZXpGYqHaTOB1dKgqm03AZvjzUexjJ4ow3a/s320/delerium.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234874920906974642" /></a>Brussels is a very odd city to say the least. It is the seat of the European Union and so therefore, a very international city. Belgium has two official languages; French, and Dutch, and in Brussels, French was most prominent. People were very friendly and helpful, and the city was a blast to explore. Our first stop was in the Delirium Cafe after we arrived in our hostel. The Delirium Cafe is a world famous bar due to the fact that it houses the most beers in the world in one place. With a menu the size of an encyclopedia, the Delirium Cafe boasts almost 3000 different brews from around the world. We tried a few, and had a great time mingling with locals and other foreigners alike. The rest of the time we spent wandering around the city. Brussels is a beautiful city, but none of it's architecture seems to fit each other. A beautiful building would have an ugly building just added directly onto it, and that sort of thing. However, as in order not to disappoint anyone, I did buy some German chocolate, and I did eat a Belgian Waffle for breakfast. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvUI_VeTk9NL7lI6PQqK9Bu08ISUrYbKcyK5VJ_B_bO0XMy-Khr7yHh3t8Ah1ne02I8t4kXhtt0_6gt691XUSb9xMgRIWI1SrWokoAUMpAU2F4Qx41mZxp9d7WSLfjmiiYNi3rvsBmLw-/s1600-h/Belgian+Waffle.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:10px 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvUI_VeTk9NL7lI6PQqK9Bu08ISUrYbKcyK5VJ_B_bO0XMy-Khr7yHh3t8Ah1ne02I8t4kXhtt0_6gt691XUSb9xMgRIWI1SrWokoAUMpAU2F4Qx41mZxp9d7WSLfjmiiYNi3rvsBmLw-/s200/Belgian+Waffle.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235051237567058706" /></a>Both were delicious!<br />I had a great weekend, and after a long week, I have finally moved into my new apartment. I am living in student housing here by the University. It is a large suite for 5 people, and I seem to have great roommates. My room is bigger than before, I have a larger kitchen, and all in all better place for cheaper rent. It should be a good few months! <br />I'll be giving more updates soon! I am going to try and post in here more often. I also have some more trips up my sleeve within the next couple of months. <br />I hope all of you readers are well, and everyone from back home, I am thinking of you. Oh, and in case you thought I was avoiding the subject, the answer is "No, I didn't try any of the wacky weed in Amsterdam!" Y'all know me better than that!<br />I look forward to reading comments!<br />Leibe Gruesse aus Koeln!<br /><br /><CENTER><a href="http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2110073&l=d70ad&id=40500293">Amsterdam Photos</a><br /><a href="http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2110075&l=f4137&id=40500293">Brussels Photos</a></CENTER>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-59559133746342967502008-08-05T17:38:00.007-04:002008-12-09T14:06:06.613-05:00Visitors, Interlaken, and Munich . . .Well, as usual here in Deutschland, I have been busy doing this and that. I have been working hard at work, and in addition I have some visitors here from the United States for a couple of weeks! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDggl4JhiCjzCttINWoSXhOLUezkR7_WJVv_siJpsl7FZf4A8xSOQ46Vcj8mKCgy2x3xt6xlmUsaOCb7uKYNIhjFcMT8WXtSbz8zP9szxl3la3N8p3yJZKZLGe5ZtxCOenWio3bR7ZcMsB/s1600-h/Muenchen_20080803_066.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDggl4JhiCjzCttINWoSXhOLUezkR7_WJVv_siJpsl7FZf4A8xSOQ46Vcj8mKCgy2x3xt6xlmUsaOCb7uKYNIhjFcMT8WXtSbz8zP9szxl3la3N8p3yJZKZLGe5ZtxCOenWio3bR7ZcMsB/s320/Muenchen_20080803_066.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231161363333711890" /></a>Kelly and Matt arrived here this past Thursday, and things have been quite busy since.<br />Thursday night we did a little bit of celebrating in the park nearby, and also at a party hosted by my new roommates. We then got up early on Friday morning to get going on our big trip to Interlaken, Switzerland!<br />Interlaken is nestled in the Alps in a valley between two lakes. It is in the middle of the country, so the spoken language is German with an extremely heavy dialect. The German there was definitely a bit hard to understand. I realized before going to Interlaken that there would probably be a lot of tourists there, and the one only disappointing part about it was that it seemed like it was virtually all tourists. Sometimes it felt a bit like a college frat party even. All in all though, people were friendly, and we enjoyed our activities there. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3InLkwO_95zjO9lIPBB6vXAAeOsQ31VFJLXlrUQvjlz5XLDLhZunaU-zGczx-WSv3X0yquCxa3y44Y67eyqe97mXGAtBKqQVUijsFqhx6F5Yiw_g1jcQHFBomqUWkpzSr9OpJnk3rF35t/s1600-h/Interlaken_20080802_021+edited.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3InLkwO_95zjO9lIPBB6vXAAeOsQ31VFJLXlrUQvjlz5XLDLhZunaU-zGczx-WSv3X0yquCxa3y44Y67eyqe97mXGAtBKqQVUijsFqhx6F5Yiw_g1jcQHFBomqUWkpzSr9OpJnk3rF35t/s320/Interlaken_20080802_021+edited.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231162888137772226" /></a>Our one major activity in Interlaken was going canyoning nearby in the alps. It was a really cool experience that I wish I had some pictures to prove what we did. The purpose of canyoning is basically making your way through a small mountain canyon by rappelling, walking, sliding, and of course, jumping. The best part about the adventure was a seven meter jump down into a narrow canyon into a shallow bit of water. I'm not really sure how I did it, but there was no hesitation for me jumping off, and I wish that I could do it again! <br />Besides the canyoning, we did a lot of exploring of the town. Everything, and I mean everything is really expensive there. The Swiss Franc and the US Dollar exchange is almost equal however, the average meal at McDonald"s was about 11 Francs (yes I looked at their menu, and no I did not eat there). For our sleeping arrangements, we actually slept outside in tents, and had tentmates from both South Korea, and India, so it was a fun international experience. Before going to bed I asked my roommate how to say "Goodnight" in Hindi, and he looked a bit puzzled and replied "well we just say goodnight." Then in the morning, I heard him say goodmorning to his buddy among the garbled foreign words. Of all the words I could have asked him to translate, I sure picked the wrong one!<br />We arrived in Interlaken by way of train. We had bough Eurail tickets, which allow you to pick different countries and a set amount of traveling days, and they basically give you unlimited access to trains. This is good because, last minute traveling decisions are made very easy. With virtually no security in train stations, and a Eurail pass, one can literally just walk onto a train and head off wherever you want within a few moments of deciding where it is you want to go.<div>So Sunday morning, we decided we had seen enough of Interlaken, and we decided to hop on the next train to Munich that morning. About 6 hours later we arrived and had probably the most rushed travel experience ever. We saw Munich in under three hours! We saw lots of buildings, biergartens, etc. and snapped some pictures and moved on. It was a lot of fun, and we are definitely glad that we got a small taste of this famous, beautiful city. One of the rules with our Eurail pass is that we have to be back by midnight, so we hit the next train ride back to Cologne exhausted, and wondering what just happened!</div><div>This coming weekend we are headed off to Paris, Brussels, and Luxembourg. I'll have info on that later!</div><div>Here are some links to photo albums from both Interlaken and Munich. Enjoy!</div><div><br /><CENTER><A HREF="http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108644&l=a7f22&id=40500293l">Interlaken Photos</A><br /><A HREF="http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108645&l=69352&id=40500293">Munich Photos</A></CENTER><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-24288599384166620302008-07-26T12:32:00.006-04:002008-12-09T14:06:07.409-05:00Mein Geburtstag und Sommerfest!So this week has pretty much been a week of celebration. This week I turned 23 years old, and to answer the big question, no, I do not feel any older! The first notion of my birthday was on Tuesday night, before going to sleep I heard a few whispers outside of my bedroom door, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY5emDCp2ZlDEfgpyvKeWL6bPPbIgvQ-b4iDm0EHe6wNdWardtbOHiU79GVEZGcKPGH17RV-pX8v3AiH6riIOC7Lli0MUuSos6rmJP-Ogj3gyP_U-mkN8MY32BEinmt__Sza26vm2ZUS4t/s1600-h/GeorgiasBdayCard.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY5emDCp2ZlDEfgpyvKeWL6bPPbIgvQ-b4iDm0EHe6wNdWardtbOHiU79GVEZGcKPGH17RV-pX8v3AiH6riIOC7Lli0MUuSos6rmJP-Ogj3gyP_U-mkN8MY32BEinmt__Sza26vm2ZUS4t/s320/GeorgiasBdayCard.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5227368213766192418" /></a>and in came my roommates and some friends singing Happy Birthday to me (yes, they sing the english happy birthday song here) with a candy bar on a plate with a candle in it! They wished me a happy birthday, and we all drank some wine together to celebrate.<div><br /></div><div>On Wednesday, I still had to go into work on my birthday. When I walked in I opened my mouth to say my usual "Morgen!" when everyone in the office began to sing to me again! Everyone, even from the other offices of the company came in to shake my hand, and wish me "Alles Gute zum Geburtstag". They also had on my desk a HUGE muffin and candy for me to enjoy. In addition, a good friend of mine, Georgia, at work, who is an intern from England, had also placed an awesomely creative card on my desk. You can see this cool birthday card (Outside and Inside) in the picture to the right. Click to make it bigger! Sorry, Georgia, to make your card so public! It was great how everyone at work helped to make it a more enjoyable day . . .</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxA5Cpx667NKVBdhVokkkFDZT3y3MUgRNj-3Usw8rhL3WyvkSUlZslvxj0jdiS-dyOG6tQHnoj7y7zWJ84Fs1cwBeN-G2aBG2BNHuyxPGarHURE2C_V5EnepEzcpFT6OXtO4FYfALpy29N/s1600-h/IMGP3919.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxA5Cpx667NKVBdhVokkkFDZT3y3MUgRNj-3Usw8rhL3WyvkSUlZslvxj0jdiS-dyOG6tQHnoj7y7zWJ84Fs1cwBeN-G2aBG2BNHuyxPGarHURE2C_V5EnepEzcpFT6OXtO4FYfALpy29N/s200/IMGP3919.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5227374535966419490" /></a>That night, I also went with some friends in the park, and we played a nice civilized game of beer pong. It is not a common game in Germany, so we of course got many looks, and even quite a few people who wanted to try to throw the ping pong ball into the cups! It was a lot of fun and a relaxing way to spend my evening. Don't worry, Mom, we didn't drink much. We needed to keep our energy up for the next day . . . Sommerfest!</div><div><br /></div><div>The atmosphere at work is definitely a work hard, play hard one. I gave an example earlier of the Internet Marketing Conference that was really just a great party, but to top it off, on Thursday evening after work, all of us at Hitflip geared up to enjoy the annual Sommerfest party. </div><div><br /></div><div>We all left the office together and walked a few meters down the street to find the "Party Bus" waiting for us. We all boarded this big blue remodeled school bus which had a bathroom, dance floor, and of course a keg of Koelsch. The bus also had roll up windows, so we could cruise down the road with the breeze rolling in. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM6z4FQ8R3nIBqgktDw3ZTtR2KV50JTxR8QASmgfNHv5GVORlh28KysfYCSj9f7O-uFGF6KG0qk6JHO72J_kymdmQqZrXUdFNXXR7JnYKivjyb-tHJae8rCd7kT4CToZw3VkPawcgqN7Rt/s1600-h/IMGP3928.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM6z4FQ8R3nIBqgktDw3ZTtR2KV50JTxR8QASmgfNHv5GVORlh28KysfYCSj9f7O-uFGF6KG0qk6JHO72J_kymdmQqZrXUdFNXXR7JnYKivjyb-tHJae8rCd7kT4CToZw3VkPawcgqN7Rt/s200/IMGP3928.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5227374531434446194" /></a>We were probably on the bus for about an hour, and made it to our first destination, a typical Koelsch (the word that describes the Cologne culture, the beer in Cologne, and also the dialect, but in this case, I am talking about the culture) restaurant. It was a beautiful restaurant with open ceilings, and even a tree growing out of the middle. It had typical German, and Cologne items on the menu, and the company picked up the tab. </div><div><br /></div><div>After the restaurant, we took a short walk over to an asian themed Karaoke bar. The bar was completely empty until the 30 or so of us waltzed in, and we made it a party. Co-workers sang everything from good ol' American classics to traditional German tunes. We also had plenty of beverages to go around!</div><div><br /></div><div>The last stop of the evening was at a club called the Cent Club. The club is located on Zulpicher Strasse, the street that I wrote about before, and is a typical young dance club. There really isn't a lot to say about this stop of the night, but that it was a blast. Lots of dancing, socializing, and again, the company picked up the tab. I left the club at about 3am, with only about a five minute walk home, but from what I heard some co-workers were there until almost 6am. And, yes, I had to be at work the next morning. Yes, I made it in. No, some people did not. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's about all I've got for this one! I look forward to hearing from all of you readers! </div><div><br /></div><div>Also, check out the music player that I added at the bottom of this post. I am going to keep updating it with popular songs from here in Germany, and also here in Cologne so you can get a taste of the music here! Enjoy!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-4509967753617009232008-07-21T14:35:00.004-04:002008-07-27T06:06:08.315-04:00An Old City, Rebuilt . . .<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">I wanted to write a blog post not so much about what I am doing, but with a little bit of the history of Cologne. One thing that is exciting about Europe is the immense amount of history that is within it. Talking about an old house in the United States might mean that it is fourty to eighty years old. Talking about an old house here in Germany, may mean that the house is a hundred to three hundred years old, or possibly more. I wish that the same could be said for Cologne, but the truth is I can't. Most buildings here are no older than forty to sixty years maximum. </span><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">During World War II, along with much of Germany, Cologne took a serious hit by the American military. Virtually the entire city was completely leveled to the ground, leaving only the cathedral standing in the middle still intact. That is one thing that is strange about this city, is that so much here is new, but in the middle is a humongous piece of architecture that is extremely old. Although the cathedral was finished in 1890, the construction actually began in 1248. The office that I work is about a 2 minute walk to the Cathedral (known here as the "Dom"), and can be seen from most parts of the city. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Here I have posted a video that I have found on youtube showing tanks in WWII moving throughout the city. You can see the immense amount of destruction that took place. The video is slightly graphic, so you are warned. This is actual wartime footage taken by American troops.</span></div><br><br /><CENTER><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZycXwzheGXM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZycXwzheGXM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></CENTER><br /><br><br />In the video, the tanks are moving through right where I work here. Now this area is full of trendy shops and restaurants, and definitely not the buildings of old. You can also see a couple of other structures that still exist here. There are pictures of another church that still stands here, and you can also see a castle-like structure that is still here in the city, also embedded within all of the new cityscape.<br /><br> <br />More posts coming soon! Thanks for reading, I enjoy reading the comments!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-65700539231471367332008-07-13T18:40:00.007-04:002008-12-09T14:06:07.649-05:00Kölner Lichter und Besucher . . .Well, I would have to say that I have never seen a firework display quite like it. The Kölner Lichter (Cologne Lights) takes place annually in July along the Rhein River which runs through the city. People from all over Germany line the shores of the river to see the large fireworks that it is famous for. I can say that it was definitely not a disappointment!<br />We arrived at about 8pm even though the fireworks were not scheduled to begin until around 11:30. We got there so early because once the area fills up, security people block off all entrances to the river area because of the large crowd of about 800,000 people on either side. There are also many restaurants and bars along this ancient part of the town, and they had also brought in many festival-like beer and food kiosks. We sat on the lawn relaxing until it got dark.<br />I wasn't exactly sure what to expect besides fireworks, but as it got dark outside I realized the magnitude with which they celebrate the Kölner Lichter. <br /><br /><CENTER><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Hu_3jJ-14jM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Hu_3jJ-14jM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></CENTER><br /><br />At 10:30pm (it gets dark here much later in the summer) a boat parade began, with all of the huge ships decorated in lights. As the boats passed, very loud "new age" sort of music was playing. (You can see this in the beginning of the video), and sparklers were handed out to everyone. As far as the eye could see on both banks of the river, people were holding their sparklers in the air, and cheering the boats passing by. When the sparklers all died, and the boats had all passed, we waited for the fireworks to begin. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBklTmFeJoSPs2gBxLRSRe_7G05HW5lRdhsXAxjexOkYdumI0flcYDCRgkLSvfM-bpyCn2LYbQ2tGFJafqQj4skSSfnX_qOqvuva3sB8I6VM0wQECjdP2waLBNLdR2IWE2uuMNZW4rcgP2/s1600-h/IMGP3894edited.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBklTmFeJoSPs2gBxLRSRe_7G05HW5lRdhsXAxjexOkYdumI0flcYDCRgkLSvfM-bpyCn2LYbQ2tGFJafqQj4skSSfnX_qOqvuva3sB8I6VM0wQECjdP2waLBNLdR2IWE2uuMNZW4rcgP2/s320/IMGP3894edited.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222637736512253570" /></a>The show began with a barge silently slipping into the center of the river, and a very narrative voice scripting the theme of the show, that spoke during transitions throughout the display. You can hear the voice speaking at the beginning of the fireworks in the video. The fireworks lasted for about a half an hour, and every second seemed like the grand finale. The show was accompanied by music from highlander music, asian music, rock 'n' roll, to opera. Fireworks were launched off of the barge up into the sky. Fireworks even drifted by in the water, as they fountained up, and some even launched up to the sky from the water as well. Even the bridge next to the display had a cascade of fireworks coming off of it like a waterfall. It was unlike any fireworks I had seen before. The show ended with great applause from the audience . . . and called for a night out on the town.<br /><br />We were front and center for the fireworks, but sadly, as you can see in the video, there is a couple of trees in front of us that kept us from having a perfect view of the higher up fireworks. You can actually go on youtube and find the full show posted, but this is just my video. Oh, and all the videos that I make while I'm here, you'll have to forgive me for the bad quality. All I have to shoot video with is my photo camera, which only takes 60 second clips, and is about 6 years old. However, I think having the video helps describe the event, even though it doesn't do it any justice!<br /><br />To add to the excitement, friends of mine who live in Baden-Wuerttemberg (who I posted about visiting before) came up to Cologne for the weekend, and we had a great time around the city, and watching the fireworks.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-56641643217183435512008-07-09T17:25:00.008-04:002008-07-26T15:19:16.061-04:00Why yes, I work in Europe . . .It's actually been a bit long since my last post, which is too long than I wanted. I've finally got myself feeling a bit settled in here in Cologne after my first month of living here. It's actually a bit hard to believe that more than a month has gone by, and my time here is already shortening. It's really been great knowing that a lot of people have been reading, and the blog has actually started to see some worldwide traffic, which is also really great! Please keep commenting, as I enjoy reading the comments. It's a good way for me to hear from you, and it's always a pleasent surprise to know who is reading!<div><br /></div><div>A lot of people have already asked me how work is going, and I have been hesitant to post on here about it until I had really spent some time there and felt comfortable there. Working at Hitflip Media Trading, has just been great. The people are all young, and friendly, it's in the center of the city, and everything is going smoothly. I don't know exactly how much detail I can go into about what I am doing, but I will try not to be too vague.</div><div><br /><br /><CENTER><embed src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/487838/.swf" width="400" height="345" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> </embed></CENTER><br /></div><div>One thing that is really difficult for a lot of online companies to deal with, is that the reliability on Google is just so huge. Especially for a company whose business is solely run online, Google controls the market, and if you are not appearing on search results, or in Google advertisements, your business will surely take a hit for the worse. So a lot of what I am doing is maintaining and improving the company's services showing up on Google searches. Besides that, I am also doing some customer service work for Hitflip's UK site, and doing some translations that are still remaining there. As of now I am the only American working there, and the only other native English speaker is a co-worker from England. Everyone else in the office is German, but all really helpful with my German, and understanding that I can't speak perfectly. </div><div><br /></div><div>Last Thursday was an exciting day for work, as we were hosting Cologne's Internet Marketing Conference 2008. It was held in a VIP section at the local soccer stadium. There were a couple hundred people that showed up, and plenty of fun. I think the idea was for a networking event, but I think that the German idea of networking is mostly just an open bar, and a lot of young people. I left the stadium at 3am. It was great fun! There is a link at the bottom of the post where there are some photos.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are also links already added to the side column of the blog. There you will find the three projects that we have at Hitflip. I am currently doing work for Hitflip UK, and Hitmeister. Check the pages out to see a bit of what I am doing. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sorry I don't have any pics or anything for this post. I hope to add some to it shortly. Maybe a shot of my desk or something, we'll see. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave comments!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://www.whiteside-seo.de/suchmaschinenoptimierung/internet-marketing-koeln-2008/">See Pictures from Internet Marketing Koeln 2008</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-22031296987772169832008-06-22T07:49:00.006-04:002008-06-28T07:17:16.451-04:00Zulpicher Strasse . . .I wanted to show a little bit about what it's like here with the European Championship going on here in Germany. Here is a video that I found on YouTube from Zulpicherstrasse here in Cologne. This is a street with a lot of bars and clubs, and is famous here in Cologne for where you go for nightlife. Oh, and it's about a one minute walk from my apartment. I am somewhere nearby in this video, but don't think I'm in it. Oh and don't forget, the Euro Cup is taking place in Switzerland and Austria, but this is just Germans celebrating here . . . .<br /><Br><br /><CENTER><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/c2LlEwXF-yE&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/c2LlEwXF-yE&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></CENTER>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-85341731233038183312008-06-18T17:04:00.007-04:002008-06-18T17:34:52.287-04:00Eine Wochenende in Baden-Wuerttemberg . . .So I am going to try and keep this post a bit shorter than some of the other ones. I am going to try to cover several topics but in several posts, instead of many topics in one post. Yes, I have finally begun to work here in Cologne now that I have received my visa, but I am going to cover that later, when I finish out my first week. <div>Over the weekend I had a really great time in Baden-Wuerttemberg. I went there to visit my friend Michael who lives in Berlichingen, a very small village there. If you are not aware, Germany is made up of several "states" or "Bundeslaender" just like in the United States. Cologne is in the Mid-West of Germany and is in the state Nordrhein Westfalia. There are other states such as Bayern, famous for Munich and the "Black Forest", Hessen, Saxony, and also Baden-Wuerttemberg. All together there are 16 different Bundeslaender. </div><div>Michael is a really good friend of mine who was an exchange student in the US for a year, and since then I have seen three other times; in Rome, Germany in 2006, and also again when he visited the US for a second time. It was great to go down to his village again, and spend time with him and his family, who are all extremely welcoming. </div><div>It was a three hour drive to get there, and once you are outside of Cologne, Germany is completely different. Cologne is very much a large city with big streets, big buildings, and it's fair share of graffiti. Once you travel a bit south of Cologne, the cities become much smaller, and you can experience much more of the German culture.</div><div>I think that every American who has not been to Germany has an idea in their minds of what it is like, but they don't actually believe it exists. I know myself, before I came here, I thought about biergartens, burly men playing accordions, sausages, people drinking and singing songs, and of course lederhosen. Well, let me tell you, in Baden-Wuerttemberg it really does exist! </div><div>Michael's village and surrounding villages only have a couple hundred people in them, and they are far out in the countryside. There are rolling green hills, streets with no middle line, and little clusters scattered about where people live. In the villages, the streets are all cobblestone, houses can be as old as the 1600's, and some villages even have a great big wall that surrounds them, from medieval times. It is truly an incredible experience to see, and believe me, they don't have many tourists here.</div><div><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FDSw64PnY0o&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FDSw64PnY0o&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><Br><Br>One thing that was cool, was that during the summer time, all of these villages hold small festivals. The area is known for it's vineyards, so the wine season is typically a reason to have a party in the streets. I went to two of these festivals, and it was really incredible to see. The main road was turned into a biergarten, there were all kinds of vendors selling sausages (wurste) and beer. There was a traditional German band playing, and the whole village was attending. </div><div>I tried to capture some of my weekend, but didn't take too many pictures. I did however take a couple of videos with my camera, even though they are not the best quality. I have linked up a video I made to the blog post for you to see, and just combined all of the video I took, and some of the pictures within it. The video is taken while riding a bike into Michael's village, Berlichingen. </div><div>I better end here, as it's time to get to bed so I can get up for work in the morning! There's another blog post coming very shortly! </div><div>Keep the comments coming!</div><div>Tschuess!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-8139189901101314622008-06-09T07:34:00.007-04:002008-12-09T14:06:07.975-05:00Neu Fahrrad Und Deutschland Gegen Polen . . .<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFSUUff4DAB0RWj1j0wWUqFjH_sPnEkY10br4r-IciltITWcIQdYrQzCJbo8zT_VlRbeY1S1CVGaNb-2h7mUCBvZ97r1Dompnpa867VND1YTCIzbxBVDIAej0mb7scwHAFrPnwYL4hJ9__/s1600-h/IMGP3877.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFSUUff4DAB0RWj1j0wWUqFjH_sPnEkY10br4r-IciltITWcIQdYrQzCJbo8zT_VlRbeY1S1CVGaNb-2h7mUCBvZ97r1Dompnpa867VND1YTCIzbxBVDIAej0mb7scwHAFrPnwYL4hJ9__/s320/IMGP3877.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209851860175148578" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Saturday morning I woke up at about 7:30am Cologne time, and I hopped on Deutschland's premiere public transportation (no really, it's great!) and made my way to a part of town I'd never been to before. I was going there to try my luck at the city bicycle market that apparently occurs once a month or so. After getting off of the bus I took the first street that seemed like it would lead me in the right direction, or in other words other people were walking that way too which is a very good indicator of how I get around here in Cologne. Walking a couple hundred yards down the street, I eventually, and very luckily, made it to the market. There were about a 100 bicycles lined up from different vendors and I began to parooze through them all. I was actually amazed at how expensive second hand bikes were going for. Most decent bikes were up around 100 to 150 euros, which is way out of my budget for a bike that I'm only riding for six months. Right before I was about to leave I saw a few bikes that one man had brought in, and saw a silver mountain bike among them. I asked him how much, and he told me only 40 euros! "Nur 40 euro?" I asked. "Nur 40 euro. Alles ist in ordung" "Only 40 euros. Everything is in order." He let me try the bike out, and before selling it to me, he of course asked "where are you from?" I told him I am from the US, and just like every German here, when I say that I am from the US, they ask me about one of three things; Obama, Hillary, or Bush. That brings me to another topic that I will divulge into in a moment. Anyways, he was very nice, and he sold me the bike, and I rode my new bike all the way home. Everything was great! </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The next day, I was riding my bike when much to my surprise the left pedal just fell right off. It fell off right on the street as I was riding, and my bike had hardly lasted 24 hours before it was out of order. I don't know if the man knew that it was going to break or not, but what can I do. Today I took the bike into a bike shop to be fixed, and luckily the repair will only cost 15 euros. Still not a bad deal for a bike! </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I can already tell that I am getting a bit lengthy with this, and I still have so much to tell. On the topic of politics; like I said, when someone finds out I am from the US, they immediately probe me for my thoughts on Obama, Hillary, or Bush. "Are you a democrat, or republican?" "Who do you want to win the election?" The questions get much more complicated. I would take a gander to say that most Germans know more about US politics than 80% of Americans do. Not just Germans, but other Europeans as well: A guy I met from Ireland told me "It matters to me more who is running the US, than who is running Ireland." I can even turn on the TV here and see two different TV channels covering the election news, and see no other channels covering European politics. Luckily, I have set my homepage to CNN.com so that I can stay up to date on what is going on, and prepare myself for any bombardment of political questioning.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The last and most important part of this lengthy blog post: The European Championship. If you aren't watching at home, you probably need to! I have never been to a place that lives a sport like here in Germany. The current Fuessball (soccer) tournament is the UEFA European Cup, and it's a big deal. It is similar to the World Cup, but just for Europe. Last night was the first game that Germany played, and it was against Poland. Germany won 2:0. I watched the game in a park within the city, with about 50 or so others. During a game day, you can walk down the streets, and you can hear all of the TV's that are on in all of the restaurants, and peoples' homes. You can hear drums banging from fans a mile away. Faces are painted, everyone is wearing their team's colors, and it seems as though the whole town has stopped. This was just for their first match in the tournament. Hopefully, Germany will continue to do well! After the match, my roommate said we were going to stay out, so I went with her around to where our apartment is, and I was amazed again. It was about midnight, and the streets were just filled with thousands of Germany fans. Everyone is singing songs, and drinking beer. There were a group of fans kicking a soccer ball into an open window a couple of stories up. When they finally got it in, everyone on the street cheered . . . "GOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL!!!" The picture above is from this street party. I wanted my picture with the police car. And yes, I have an open container outside. It was a wild time, and the games are a lot of fun to watch. From what I hear, you can also watch it in the US. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">That's about enough for this long post. Next time I will be a bit more brief. Feel free to leave comments, because I have no idea if anyone is reading this unless you let me know! I of course miss everyone back home, and can't wait to get a Flaming Amy's burrito, or order a Hungry Howie's Pizza. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Oh, I think I may have joined an Aussie Rules Football club. . . . training for that is tomorrow. We'll see how that goes . . . .</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Bis Bald!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-46521277748101777872008-06-03T12:10:00.004-04:002008-06-28T07:12:14.961-04:00Meine Reise Nach Koeln, Und Lebe Hier . . .<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.bunitedint.com/portfolios/producers/reissdorf/koelsch/_images/koelsch-bottle.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.bunitedint.com/portfolios/producers/reissdorf/koelsch/_images/koelsch-bottle.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">So I have been in Cologne for a few days now. I have been getting myself adjusted on the six hour time difference, and just adjusted to daily life here. With the visa problems that I had I am truly lucky to even be here. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Less than a week ago, I was still in the United States, and thinking that I wasn't going to get to leave for Cologne for another three weeks. The problem was that the German powers-that-be were being slow with processing my working visa that I had applied for at the beginning of March. They said that it would take an extra three weeks to process it and get it sent to me. They were also holding my passport since your visa has to be issued with your actual passport. So the day before my flight was supposed to leave I was in Charlotte and got a phone call from the German Consulate in Atlanta that they would send me my passport overnight and I could fly the next day. (To change my flight was going to be over $800.) Apparantly my friend's father (a german with some political presence) had asked for a favor, and I would be allowed to enter the country. So the good news is, I saved $800, made it to Deutschland, and alles ist klar! The bad news is that I still don't have my visa, and have to wait a couple of more weeks without being able to work. Ok, so I am in Germany and can't work, doesn't sound so bad, but keeping myself from spending money while I am waiting for my visa is hard to do, and I have a negative income! But that is the story of how I was able to get into the country. My flight was alright, and my roommate's boyfriend was kind enough to pick me up at the airport. I feel really lucky that everything fell into place like it did!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">So a little bit about what life here is like . . . I am living in an apartment just outside of the city center, with two others. My roommates are very very nice and very helpful with getting me adjusted to everything here. My first day here, I spent the majority of the day sleeping since I had not slept the entire flight. It's safe to say I was exhausted. The next day was the start of a good few days. Several of my roommates' friends came to the apartment to make a house party before going out to a kneipe (club). They taught me a little bit about German drinking culture, and more specifically Cologne drinking culture. In the picture, you can see the typical and popular beer here in Cologne, Reissdorf Koelsch. Koelsch is the type of beer that is specific to this region, and Reissdorf is one of several brands sold here. Those of you in Raleigh, if you go to the Flying Saucer downtown, they have Reissdorf Koelsch on tap, but I believe it is a good six dollars for a pint, and it is probably not served in the traditional Koelsch glass as seen in the picture. After having a drink or two, I also learned that it is NOT illegal to just carry your beer with you on the street. Upon leaving for the club, I left my unfinished beer in the apartment only to find everyone else just casually drinking theirs on the way to the "Purple Club" just a short one minute trek from our front door (yikes). When we got to the club, they had 200 liters of free Koelsch. I am going to stop the commentary here for that night.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">It is important for me to mention that while I have been here, the commodity of speaking English has been refused to me. One of my roommates does not speak English, and the other roommate refuses to for my own good, and so do the rest of their friends. It is exactly what I need, and has been good so far. A lot of times I have to ask for someone to repeat to me, and hopefully communicating with me has not been too frustrating, but it has been a great learning experience, and I feel like every minute of the day I am learning something new and my German is improving. I never realized, however, how mentally tiring it is. All day long to comprehend, and try to communicate back, it takes a lot of energy, and I've never felt my thoughts feeling so tired before. Fluently speaking in language is a gift that we probably take for granted.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Well, I am already writing too much for one post, so I am going to stop here and continue with more later. I miss everyone at home, however, I am having a great time here as well. The first week is almost over, and I can tell that these six months are going to go very fast.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Bis Bald!</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-53236208969800455792008-04-04T13:35:00.003-04:002008-12-09T14:06:08.188-05:00Praktikum in Köln<span style="font-family:arial;">I still have not left for Germany, but some folks have been asking me as to what in particular I will be doing for my internship there in Cologne. So I thought that I would give a little bit more information on that, and also some information on my current situation. </span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Just to be accurate, I will post up some pieces of the job description that I applied to to help explain my internship:</span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8jg3ihRO8e_6E7HYJEFd7DzhyIJw2pNcbiP_g_Ts2rsUJOYETjiwOwDPIv4_LZBo-qcY7W2trx4k5dOkcLr69VahZ1Y8ww49Xyc1ffHd81NDY6UHUFLCvIySv1MsBRQoieYvH3kUCANx_/s1600-h/logo.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5185463789604161842" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8jg3ihRO8e_6E7HYJEFd7DzhyIJw2pNcbiP_g_Ts2rsUJOYETjiwOwDPIv4_LZBo-qcY7W2trx4k5dOkcLr69VahZ1Y8ww49Xyc1ffHd81NDY6UHUFLCvIySv1MsBRQoieYvH3kUCANx_/s320/logo.png" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>"Do you love the internet? Then we would love to meet you! We are looking for an intern in our headquarters in Cologne to help placing Hitflip in the United Kingdom. You should be available for at least three months. </em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>Help to develop the UK market. </em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>Build up and maintain relationships with media partners and webmasters in the UK. </em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>Advertise Hitflip through various marketing activities and channels. </em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>With your help we want swapping on Hitflip to become even more popular in the UK!"</em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Hopefully that is more clear than I was on my previous post!</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Here is another tidbit coming from bizreport.com:</span><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">"Hitflip's swap exchange is the largest in Europe, offering consumers a vast database of DVDs, CDs, games and books from other consumers. More than 300,000 users have created accounts. Each year 125,000 DVDs, 20,000 audio books or plays, 40,000 games, 65,000 books and 85,000 CDs are exchanged by users."</span></em><br /><p><span style="font-family:arial;">As far as my living goes, I am still searching for a place to live. I have been keeping in contact with an intern currently at Hitflip, and she said that most interns do not find a place until they arrive, and usually stay in a hostel nearby until they can find something. She also mentioned that they have a couch and a shower in the office. . . . the adventure begins! I am still e-mailing lots of people who seem to have openings in their apartments, but most of them don't like to rent without meeting the renter first which poses a problem for me. With some luck, I will hopefully find a place before I leave, but if not, I feel confident I can find something when I arrive. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;">Right now I am working on classes and still swimming a lot. I have a swim meet coming up next weekend at UNC, and I am currently working on a joint video project with a team from Virginia Tech. Filming for that began on Wednesday, and we'll be filming and doing post-production throughout the rest of the semester. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;">That's all I've got. Feel free to leave comments! I cannot wait to get back to Deutschland!!!</span></p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;">Bis Spaeter!</span></p><br /><br /><em><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"></span></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996694603417238241.post-12118462139275789172008-03-25T01:24:00.000-04:002008-12-09T14:06:08.705-05:00The First Blog Post! - Herzlich Wilkommen!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkbndelzdLQ2Me2wgkYqEcCfPDvBtMV-0zDoQeYug7lxCdl4hbLet90pM3GK9bGKbXqmHJ29TIhFPuo48HW5Uew376BT7RnLOK7uWBa-CgiMMyhprFqucBnYMemw8W-HXz-kYvUo_q4qBQ/s1600-h/IMGP2163.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5181553436629518626" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkbndelzdLQ2Me2wgkYqEcCfPDvBtMV-0zDoQeYug7lxCdl4hbLet90pM3GK9bGKbXqmHJ29TIhFPuo48HW5Uew376BT7RnLOK7uWBa-CgiMMyhprFqucBnYMemw8W-HXz-kYvUo_q4qBQ/s320/IMGP2163.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX4TO8H-3Ucs2YaqKF_uDo4SBdu9FMhcSWuogeIRBZmT-pQDy0ltAOQTiNHNwB3g5VH-tDd_YX66PdVJLU627u6EVocWFfnslyHEO0fV86fU2V1uIvoHe_gyBm_hEO9GbBwLgV6cg1rdw0/s1600-h/IMGP2163.JPG"></a><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">So if you are reading this, I probably gave you my blog address so that you know more about my life in Germany. There's also a slight chance I suppose that people may stumble upon this blog from google, in which case, if you find this interesting, go nuts! I know that there are a lot of people who will want to see pictures, or hear about what I am doing, including friends, relatives, and probably even my parents' co-workers. All are welcome! </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">The title of my blog is "Andrew Gegen Koeln" which translates to <em><span style="color:#ffff33;">Andrew versus Cologne</span>, </em>and even though I do not consider myself against Cologne, it sounded like a fun name for the blog! </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">One thing that I am really sad about is that I will be leaving all of my friends, and family behind for the next six months. I am currently still at UNCW, and the thought of finishing and not coming back in the fall is really hard to deal with. I have had so many experiences here at school, and have met so many wonderful people. There is still so much at UNCW that I would like to do! However, one cannot stay too comfortable for too long, so I am moving on to other things. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">A couple months ago, I accepted an internship in Cologne with a company called <span style="color:#ff0000;">Hitflip Media Trading</span>. You can visit their website at </span><a href="http://www.hitflip.de/"><span style="font-family:arial;">http://www.hitflip.de/</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> or at </span><a href="http://www.hitflip.co.uk/"><span style="font-family:arial;">http://www.hitflip.co.uk/</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> for more information on what they do. I will be living and working in the city center of Cologne and marketing the company's services in the United Kingdom. I have signed my contract, and I begin work on June 2, and my last day is November 28. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">Luckily, I am not too unfamiliar with the city. I have spent a couple of days there before during my travels in 2006 while studying abroad in Bremen, Germany. The city is absolutely beautiful, with lots and lots going on! The picture attached to this post is a picture I took in 2006, and is taken from a bridge on the Rhine River looking at the city center, where I will be working, and living.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">I will have plenty of time to experience a different place, with a different culture, improve my German, see old friends, and make new ones! Most importantly, however, I want to be able to keep in contact with all of you. This is my communication to you, and I hope that it will open up an opportunity for you to communicate back to me. Please feel free to leave comments on the blog, send me an e-mail, message me on facebook, or catch me on Skype while I am gone! </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">Thanks For Reading!</span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1