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Germany another day down.
Posted on March 10, 2009 by Brian under Family, Life, Travel.
Well I am another day closer to going home to my baby. I am getting anxious. I pity anyone that is going to be around me on Saturday at the airport. I am going to be like a kid at Christmas waiting to sit on Santa’s lap. Today i did some more testing and then sat through a few meetings, got some new capabilities in one of our reporting systems and sat through a very lengthy meeting and argued that the process they were trying to cut needed to be left alone because the view they had was not the view of the users and they were working for the users and not themselves. Needless to say, I got my point across and won. Now we will see if it stays all the way to launch.
I am addicted to the Turkish place on the corner. It’s one of the things that I am going to miss about this place. I have eaten there at least once a day every day since I have been here. They are very nice to me and they have accommodated me in every way. I went there at lunch today and ate with the development group. For the first time in my life (and I am not exaggerating one bit) I witnessed an entire table full of grown people eat a pizza and never physically touch a single piece with there hands. That’s right, each of the 4 developers ordered a small pizza each. They then got out a fork and an knife and they cut and ate there pizzas with utensles. I looked around and found a few other people doing the same thing. I got a Turkish pizza (which is like a wrap) and I am cramming this thing into my face while they are all eating small bites with a fork. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen and I don’t think I will ever witness it again. I just racked it up to the differences that I have been learning about between the cultures.
I am so looking forward to getting home. Back to cable TV, fast food, stable internet connections and the most important thing of all, my wife. I can not wait to get back to her. I miss her so much, her smell, her touch, her…….dammed I am getting all worked up just thinking about her. I have her picture on my desk top but its just not enough any more. I have a new respect for those in the military or those that have to take positions that take them away from family and friends for extended periods of time. I don’t know how they do it. If I had to stay here much longer I think I would have gone bonkers. They would have found me standing on the bell tower naked shouting obscenities to people as they walked by. They told me today that they were so impressed with the progress that they made and everything that we had accomplished that they think I should come to Germany for at least one week every year. I proposed that we alternate years. One year some one comes to America, the next I come out to Germany. They actually liked that idea. I don’t think I will need to come to Germany again this year (it was thought that I might) which I am grateful for. As much as I want to get home, I will miss some things about this place. I like the convenience of everything. If I want to go to the store its a quick walk away, if I want to go to a restaurant or fast food shop it’s a quick walk away. Actually just about anything is just a quick walk away, including my office. Everybody walks around here. It’s one of the things that I really liked, the convenience of everything. I thought that we had convenience in the states but I was very wrong. I will miss it, but no so much as to stay, lol.
Well, I think that’s all I got for know. I am going to head to bed so that I can wake up in time to chat with the wife before she goes to bed.
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Germany the Home Stretch
Posted on March 9, 2009 by Brian under Travel.
Well today was another day of work here in Germany. It was not so bad though. Got to work and immediately started testing the system. Got some questions answered and went to lunch with Matthias and a few of his friends (they do this every Monday and they rotate who pays every Monday). I had a really nice pork steak in a dilled cream sauce with veggies and croquettes, I love croquettes. We don’t have them in the states that I know of. They are like Tater Tots, only better. The pork steak was great and I even liked the sauce that was on it.
My wife will be proud of me. I am usually not very adventurous when it comes to food, I have had to adapt (I’m good at adapting) in order to stay fed. I have eaten things this past few days that I thought I would never eat. It may cause me to be more adventurous in the whole food area when I get back home.
After lunch Matthias and I had a tour of the Ennest manufacturing facility. This place is gigantic. I did realize how big it was until about half way through it. I was really looking for a golf cart. Then this dude rolled by on a bike, I was like “Hey, give a brother a ride”. I was SOL, stuck walking. It would not have been so bad if it wasn’t for all the stairs. We went up, then down, then back up then back down, it was never ending. But I have to say very much worth it. They have almost everything automated, its absolutely amazing.
After the tour we came back to the office and it was almost time to leave at that point. I had just enough time to call Ching and my dad and just give them an update on how things were going. At a little after five I decided that all the walking had burned off lunch and it was tie to fill the tank again. Can you all guess where I went. YEP! the Turkish place. Man I love that place. This time i got a Turkish Pizza. This is a thinly rolled pita that’s about 12 inches in diameter. Its got some kind of a curry paste on one side of it. They put that shaved beef on it some veggies and Tzatziki (that’s the Garlic, Ranch, Paprika sauce). then they roll it up like a wrap. I have to say that this has got to be my new favorite. Out of all the places that I have eaten since I have been here I think the Turkish place will be the one I miss the most. We don’t have any places like this in town that I know of, and its a shame, the food is outstanding.
One thing I will not miss is the noisy hotel that I am in. I swear, Germans are not happy unless they are talking loud, slamming doors or walking like they are trying to put there feet through the floors. Its one aspect of the culture that I just do not understand. Its like they think they are the only ones in the entire place. It does not matter what time of the night. I can tell where they are, what room they are in, what floor they are on and if they just walked in the front door or the bathroom. And before any of you think that the place has thin walls I will stop you. I checked, they are poured concrete walls and built to withstand just about anything. Its not cheaply constructed, its solid. Its just that they are seriously that noisy.
Luckily I only have a few days left then its back to the states. I can not wait either. I miss my wife so much. I told her not to plan anything for the weekend because I had a lot planned for us. Most of which involved lewd things in the privacy of our own home.
As always, I have posted pictures on Flickr and the wife should provide a link later to the images. I hope everyone is doing well and I am truly grateful to the friends and family that have been taking care of and looking after my wife in my absence. I really appreciate it.
Well thats all for know. Its getting late here and I am tired fro all the walkig around. I think I am going to head to bed here in a few. Night all.
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Turning Over a New Leaf
Posted on March 9, 2009 by Brian under Travel.
I may be turning over a new leaf. Being here in Germany, I have no choice but to walk to every thing that I want to do. The first few days I was really dreading it. I would get up, get ready for work then think to myself, “God I need a car”. Now a little over a week later, I am not really minding it. You also have to remember that on top of the walk every morning I have been carrying a back pack full of about 30 lbs of computer equipment in it.
I think when I get back, I am going to start walking around my neighborhood. Then maybe branch out and walk a little farther every day. Maybe I can get the wife into it and who knows, it may spark something in both of us to venture to exercise further. I am just worried that I will go home find the joys of driving and slip back into my old ways. There is not really that much to see around home like there is here and the walkways are designed more for exercise and not for pedestrian travel to and from specific points. In Germany, the walk ways are wide enough for all pedestrians to move and are close to the stores, the streets are wide enough for 2 lanes of traffic and because they are so narrow, it makes it easy to cross traffic. Unlike in America where you have to cross multiple lanes of traffic and worry if the people on the street are actually going to stop for you or run you down. That is one thing that I will miss. The convince of everything. If we had towns like this in the states, I would move there in a heart beat.
I noticed that the only cars that you see on the road are for delivery, or they are coming into the town or leaving the town. Other than that, everyone walks everywhere. In the states, everything is so spread out. We have to drive to every location. Its no wonder we have pollution levels off the charts and we are struggling to keep gas flowing in our country.
There is also a sense of trust among everyone. I noticed that no one pushes in line, no one is concerned about someone stealing something from them while walking down the street, no one is mean and hateful to others because they are different or odd. Now this may be isolated to just this town, but I would loike to think that it spans farther than just here. Visiting the Turkish place so much I have learned that a lot of people visit this place. They are always pleasant, always accommodating and the people that come in are varied. Just last night I was standing in the store and there were two Japanese Business men in there, Myself, a handful of Turkish folks and a sprinkling of Germans. I think there might have been a few middle eastern in there as well all crammed into a store a little larger than a standard US kitchen. An not a single bit if hatred in the entire place. In America, some racist redneck would have started a riot within the first 10 minutes guaranteed. That’s if they weren’t trying to fire bomb the store on a daily basis. There are some aspects of America that I hate. But all-in-all, i miss home.
Only a few days left then I am on my return flight and back to my family and friends. Hopefully I can take some of the cultural things that i have learned and bring them back home with me. I hear it all the time, “It only takes one person to change the world”. Maybe that person is me.
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Germany yet another Day
Posted on March 8, 2009 by Brian under Food and Drink, Travel.
Today was a rainy day and on top of that its Sunday. The town pretty much shuts down. There are a few places that are open, the Turkish place on the corner, the Museum and a few pubs. I decided that I was going to try something new from the Turkish place. I have been eating cheese pizzas since I got here. I figured I needed to branch out. Even if my stomach didn’t like what I put into it. I decided to have a traditional Turkish sandwich.
After that I went to the Museum and looked at the history of Attendorn. I really didn’t understand anything because it was all in German, but I could look at the artifacts and admire the history visually. I would like to have shared some pictures with you all but I got in trouble after three pictures and was told that they do not allow photographs. Well not in so many words, the lady that was at the entry came over to me, pointed at the camera and said “NO” with that ever so popular German authority. One of the few pictures I did get was pretty good.
This was one of my favorite things that I saw. Hand crafted from marble and absolutely beautiful. One of the other things that I was going to take a picture of was some beautifully ornate guns from the 18th century. They were inlaid with ivory and gold and were outstanding in there quality. I was about to take a picture when I noticed a camera pointed at me and two seconds later the other attendant from downstairs came walking in. From this point on I was followed every where I went on every floor in every room. I have not had to be followed since I was a teen. It was kind of funny, the girl was really trying hard to make to look like she was not following me but it was really obvious that she was. Especially since she was still wearing her badge and was carrying a portable phone ( I assume to call the police if I continued to photograph things).
I looked at everything the Museum had to offer and was taken away by the religious section. They had some breath taking statues of Christ and Mary and stained glass crosses that were lit from the inside. It was beautiful. The church across the street and the building that the museum resided in are 2 of the oldest in the town. There are two towers left from the wall that surrounded the city that are still standing as well. But they are a little off the path and kind of hard to get to.
I met some other Viega folks from America on the way back to the hotel. I stopped at a confection store and picked up some German chocolate for Ching. Three of the folks from logistics and Quality came walking in. We talked for a little while. It was nice to speak to people that spoke English. I had told them about the things I had learned about food and what not. They had already run into the receipt problem and were a little concerned. i advised them to just keep track of the stuff they spend and talk it over with there supervisors.
Tomorrow I get a tour of one of the manufacturing facilities. It should be an adventure. We will see if I get to take pictures there. Germans seem to be very against photographs for some reason. I got stairs from people every time I was taking a picture. I don’t understand what is so wrong with a few photos. Its not like the camera steels your soul. Maybe tomorrow when i blog I will have some cool things to share.
I will have my wife post a link to all of the pictures that i have taken on my journey. till next time.
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Germany Day……I dont know.
Posted on March 7, 2009 by Brian under Travel.
Today was my weekend. It was pretty good too. Nice and relaxing and full of wonders. I woke up at about 7 in the morning. Laid in bed for a bit then decided to go to breakfast. I didn’t even get out of my PJ’s I just walked down stairs and got food. Before any of you that know me start to freak out and so those of you that don’t know me know what I am talking about, Yes, I was actually wearing PJ’s and no I did not go down in the nude. Normally I wear nothing to bed. I got my usual, OJ and 2 bananas, I opted to skip the eggs this morning. I just wasn’t feeling it. I went back up stairs and ate my banana (still have one for later) and decided to play online for a bit. I chatted with the wife as she was getting ready for bed and finally when she was too tired to chat any more I told her good night and signed off.
Around 11 am I decided I needed to go out and see the town. I was really wanting to see these caves that the town is know for. I looked at the map to see where they were then I went ahead and took off. It was a not so short (but not very long) walk to the caves from my hotel. After looking at the spectacular view over the town I bought a ticket and waited for the tour. I was given a sheet of the tour speech translated in English because the tour is only done in German in the winter time. During the travel seasons the will actually have an English tour for the English speaking visitors. One of the very first things that I saw on the page was “Please No Photography”. I was thinking to myself “Are they freaking kidding”. You are in these beautiful caves and they don’t want anyone to take pictures. I figured I would play the whole language card if I got caught. It works in America why not here in Germany.
We all lined up then headed down this very long tunnel. At the bottom you could see all the wonders of the caves open up. Here I got the speech that i had just read but in German, and with more authority. From the tone of the tour guide, they really meant “No Photography”. I just knew that this would not work. I have friends and family that know that I am going to go to these caves and they are expecting pictures of my adventure. Being a Brubaker, we really don’t like to follow instructions any way and we have mastered the art of devious behavior. So I did what any good Brubaker would have done. I palmed my camera and snuck every photo that I could.
I had started out at the beginning of the line and quickly realized that this was not going to work. I decided that the first opportunity I had to linger I would and wouldn’t you know it. Right after the first section I found a spot to stay behind and stare at the rocks. From this point on I took every opportunity to take pictures. I had turned the flash off and muted the sound so that it was not obvious that i was taking a picture. I used the red light that came off of the camera as my sight guide and felt the whir of the motors that auto focused to gauge if the image was in focus or not. If my wife had been there then I would have run interference and watched out while she stole as many shots as she could. Or we would have acted like we were not together and she really could have pulled the language card. Since she speaks another language other than English, I doubt they have a translation in Tagalog, lol. All-in-all I got some decent pictures being sneaky.
After that i went to the local store (which is nothing like what we have here. In Germany they have individual shops for everything) and picked up some chocolate for the Grandparents. I want to get something for Ching but I don’t know what to get. Chocolate seems kind of cheesy and clothes are actually expensive over here. The US dollar is so bad that it actually cost more for crap here than it does in the states. After shopping I ran the stuff I got back to the Hotel and decided that it was time for some grub.
The other day one of the CRM developers showed me a Hamburger place near my hotel. I decided that it was time to try that out and see if the burgers here matched up to the ones at home. Luckily the waitress spoke enough English to get me seated and get my order. The burger came out and looked so yummy. After a week of eating things that did not look that good or things that I just could not eat at all, this burger was like a slice of heaven on a plate. I did have to defunk the burger because Germans like to put sauces on everything. This burger had some kind of celery and onion mayo on the bottom. It wasn’t bad and a little refreshing but I just didn’t feel like being that adventurous. I slathered it in Mayo and Ketchup and dug in. It was a frozen patty that was not too bad, it came with country fries and I got a coke. It was $8.40 Euro which is around 10 buck us. So it was a little on the pricey side for a burger. But it was pretty good and I am defiantly going to go back there again.
On the food front I also found a place that makes really good fried chicken. Its not the traditional fried chicken like you get in the states but its pretty freaking good and cheaper than the burger. For $4.50 Euros I get a half of a chicken and fries. I have eaten there twice now and will probably eat there a few more times. The only draw back to the whole thing is that this place does not give receipts for anything. I have had a hell pf a time getting receipts out of people. I even learned the word for receipt and it still does not work. Several of the places that I have visited don’t even have machines that print receipts, and when I ask for one they look at me real strange then tell me no or that they don’t print receipts. My co-workers told me that it was pretty common for a town this size to not print receipts out for anything. I have just been keeping track of everything and hoping that I can get credit for it when i get home.
I think today was a pretty good day. Tomorrow I am going to go visit a museum that is across the street. It is a museum that covers the history of Attendorn. I was told that it was very cool and had some great information about the town and its surroundings.
Till next time.
(P.S. I will have the wife post a link to the pictures i took later.)
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