Gold Fever

If you want to stay up til the wee hours of the morning, not go to ‘work’, and have your girlfriend to leave you, boy do I have the perfect thing for you !!! It’s a little online game called ‘Gold Miner’. It pretty much only used 1 key on your keyboard but its more addicting than crack. Give it a go … IF YOU DARE :D

Christopher Street Day & Sandsation

mon mon mon, time flies when you’re having fun! Can you believe its already been one year since my favorite week in Berlin 2004. This past weekend was Christopher Street Days. One of the biggest pride parades in the world (over 425,000 participants). It’s a colorful display of people, both gay and straight that bring gay rights into the spotlight. Below is a picture of Marcelo, Ingrid and myself from CSDs 2004. Click on the pix for more from this year.

Berlin is hosting its 3^rd Annual International Sand Sculpting Festival – Sandsations. What these guys can do with your average beach sand is AMAZING! This years theme is fairy-tales and there was some pretty creative pieces. One of my personal favorites was two collages, one of good fairy tales (like Yoda) and one of bad myths (like George W’s weapons of mass destruction) :D Below is a picture from last years theme ‘The Elements.’ Click on the picture for pix from 2005.

HP Wroclaw

I’ve been pretty excited about this potential job lead as in Intern for HP in Poland. The first phone interview went great. The second phone interview was ALL in Germany. Y-I-K-E-S ! I was very happy with my listening comprehension but I made (at least) one significant error. The interviewer asked “Do you have any experience in Buchhaltung?” I said “Yes, of course.” Then the interviewer said, “Would you care to elaborate?”

My mind was running circles trying to recall what Buchhaltung meant. Alas, my brain wasn’t quick enough and I was forced to ask “Could you care to elaborate on the word Buchhaltung?”

Four hours later I got an email saying I didn’t get the job. Back to the drawing board. Click on the HP logo to try your chance at a career with HP.

Moscow

Its so great to visit a country/city filled with so many stereotypes and see how they really compare with real life (yes Russians really do love vodka, no its not filled with boring grey buildings and sad people). We had a direct flight from Berlin to Moscow. We knew it was going to be an interesting trip when we thought FOR SURE we missed our plane not once, but THREE times!!!

1. We got a late start and left for the airport not 30 minutes before departure.
   
2. The security line was longer and slower than I have ever saw.
   
3. Ingrid has issues with her passport and got escorted to some sort of police office before realizing everything was just mix up.

If you want to see some picture from my trip, click on the one below. To keep this short, I’ll just tell you the highlights/lowlights.

Highlights
Russian Anna. Having a Muscovite on the inside is an invaluable asset. From giving us a place to stay, taking us to restaurants where you have to know a ‘secret password’ to get in, and experiencing dinner with a typical Russian family, I can not thank Anna enough for all her help

Lenin. Unable to make to see Lenin’s embalmed body on Red Square the first time I was in Moscow, this was the #1 I wanted to do this time around. After getting a late start, we arrived at the mausoleum 20 minutes before close to find a line of over 200 people. Realizing it wasn’t going to see the great communist revolutionary, I was deeply saddened. As always, my red-hot Latina girlfriend was NOT going to let me down. I am still fuzzy on the details, but somehow Ingrid approached a shady character and after some negotiation, lots of arm waving, and a few Rubles to smooth the transaction we were escorted to the front of the line and hurried past numerous armed guards literally seconds before they turned the rest of the line away.

Lowlights
Metro. The subway stations were entirely marble, have the stature of a museum, and the transportation came every minute and a half. However once inside, along with their great speed came great noise allowing you to scream the national anthem yet your neighbor sitting all to close to you wouldn’t hear a word.

АБГs (ABCs). The Russian alphabet takes some getting use to. Trying to remember that H is pronounced like N, P is really R, and π is no longer 3.14159 is difficult under pressure. As a result, we ended up taking pictures with our digital camera of the word on the menu and showed it to the cashier. More than once they got a chuckle outta it.

Life Unplugged

Due to the endless circles of German bureaucracy and red tape, a small mixed up left me and my roommates internet-less for a week. It’s sad to admit, but I realizing very quickly that life without internet access was unacceptable. I frequented an internet café throughout the week. Interestingly enough, I noticed a huge increase in my productivity … I applied for over 23 jobs over the week … far more than usual.

I already got a little taste from the fruits of my labor. I had a phone interview yesterday for a potential internship with HP in Global e-Business Operations in Wroclaw, Poland. I’m pretty excited about it. But first I have to pass a German fluency test by phone, sometime next week, yikes !!!

Essences of Berlin

Los Tres Amigos were sitting around Winterfeldtplatz, eating some good Habibi falafel, watching the sunset, and wax philosophical over Berlin. For better or worse, we had some funny first impressions and insightful observations as foreigners in what we all agree is one of Europe’s best cities.

Top Unusual First Impressions of a Foreigner Living in Berlin

1. When you order a Hotdog (or french fries or any number of other things) you have your choice of Ketchup OR mustard. The thought of wanting more than one condiment doesn’t seem to register.
2. The use of ice doesn’t exist. You wont get any with your pop and there is no sense in asking for some because they don’t even have the capabilities of making any!
3. German men have the exact same potty training of their female counter parts. Which is to say, while going #1 or #2, both should be done while sitting. They expect the same from everyone else as well.
4. Receiving tap water at a restaurant is sometimes difficult. On numerous occasions I have been told they don’t have any!
5. There is seldom any pressure for you to leave the restaurant/bar. The downside to that is, getting the check can sometimes be a time consuming process
6. The above problem is compounded by not knowing your servers name. They NEVER have nametags, NEVER introduce themselves, and on occasion take offensive when being asked for their name.
7. Tis an interesting place when you can drink a beer WHILE driving a car, public nudity is common place in major parks or beaches, and four letter words like sh*t arent really swear words.
8. One should NEVER cross a crosswalk without first consulting the 'Dont Walk' light. One should NEVER cross when it says 'Dont Walk', even if there are no cars in sight.
9. Clothes dryer and microwaves are NOT products that Germans like to use. In fact most places I’ve lived DONT have them.
10. The per/minute cost to call a European cell phone (from a land line) is about 20 cents. HOWEVER, when calling a cell phone overseas, it costs about 3 cents per minute.
11. Air conditioning does NOT exist ANYWHERE in Berlin. Heat solely provided by radiators and windows NEVER have screens on them.

Top Ten Things a Foreigner Living in Berlin will come to love.

1. Safety! Berlin has a VERY low crime rate.
2. Perhaps best public transportation in Europe.
3. A very low cost of living but VERY spacious rooms (12’ ceilings and 180 sq ft rooms are common)
4. VERY casual dress code. While listening to a symphony your neighbor could be gothic or punk and you will never get turned down at the door of a bar or club.
5. Rich ethnically diversity leads to colorful festivals and a wide range of restaurants.
6. Relatively low traffic makes the city easy to drive and somewhat bike friendly.
7. Caters to families, meaning lots of parks, playgrounds and a slower pace on the sidewalks.
8. Abundance of Higher Arts. The historic call divided the city, causing each to develop/grow independently. Now after reunification, there are twice the museums, opera houses, and universities.
9. Unusually quick queues in the airports due to the decentralized structure. (check in, security and gate number are all pretty much the same thing).
10. A modern history bigger than any roller coaster ride. The city retains its past while still being progressive in its future.

Fun with Food

Last week was a pretty food filled weekend. On Friday, my girlfriend and I check out my roommate’s band, Ganz Grosses Tennis. What a great concert. It’s like a show and comedy routine put to some fun music! Check out their website to hear the first 5 songs on their CD.


On Saturday, Ingrid hosted a great backyard barbecue (aside from our charcole having the same flammable properties as granite). The pix can be found here. Everyone brought their countries favorite food to grill: shish kabobs from Turkey, Hamburgers from the States, Sausages from Germany and South American Steaks from Colombia. It was a great success.

Finally, on Monday, Ingrid and I tried to satisfy our new found fancy for sushi by rolling it ourselves! Aside from buying WAY to much food (but still not spending more than what we would in a restaurant) everything on our romantic night turned out GREAT. Not to mention it was so much fun! We found the best website taking us step-by-step on how to Rolling Your Own Sushi.

Siedlers Update

OK ... so ... I guess we all learned a lot of lessons last night after playing Siedlers
1. Never boast on your blog that you are going to win a game before you actually play the game
2. Colombians are not only beautiful ... they can also play a mean game of Sielders
3. Russians are significantly friendlier than Hollywood may depict.

After the two superpowers (Anna and Chris) suffered a defeat at the hands the lil Latina (Ingrid), we decided to respect each other’s differences and finalize our trip to Moscow !!! That’s right, Anna was gracious enough to welcome us to her home. We found some pretty good tickets from Berlin to Moscow and back. We’re even done with the most difficult part … getting an invitation and visa. Anna couldn’t invite us because she wasn’t currently in Russia (plus the process takes even longer). Ingrid had to pay twice as much for her visa 'just because' she is Colombian and I had to fill out four times the paper work 'just because’ I’m from the US. If these is any foreshadow to the misadventures awaiting us, this trip is going to be GREAT.