Back from Asia

I've been back from my trip for about a week now. I'm moving a million miles an hour trying to get my life sorta, still have a lot to do ... here is a short summary. You can also check out some picture of the wedding in Heidelberg, Abu Dhabi, Laos, and Thailand.

Highlights
Thailand - Philosophizing with a monk in Bangkok about the worlds problems, while sipping my favorite ‘Thai Ice Tea’

Laos - Seeing the hobby/passion of a monk that carved a fusion of Buddist/Hindu deities into stone.

Abu Dhabi - Staying in a nicest hotel I’ve EVER been in … I had a room on the 14th floor, corner suite complete with kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom, 2 TVs all with a view of the Cornish (Abu Dhabi’s ‘Central Park’) and the Marina

Lowlights
Laos - That’s a toss up. On my bus ride down a mountain from Luang Prabang to Vang Vien, I was inconvenienced more than once. I’m not sure if I was more annoyed with the first or second mud slide … where we had to wait for bull dozers to clear the path, or the road collapsing, impeding the buses … making us walk across to the buses on the otherside, or the guy with the rifle riding next to me the whole way there. The trip was suppose to take 6 hours … instead it took around 20 !!!

Abu Dhabi - If it wasn’t the heat, then it definately was the humidity that got to me. Both days I was there the temperature was over 110 F with humidity somewhere in the 90s !!!

Globe Trotter V3.0

This will be the last blog in a while … I’m off on a nice 17 day mini world tour. My itinerary goes something as follows

Aug 7th (Germany) My two good friends Erik and Ariane are getting married near Heidelberg, Germany. Afterwards I hope to enjoy a day in one of my favorite cities, Heidelberg, with Ingrid.
Aug 9th (UAE) I am off to Abu Dhabi, capital city of the United Arab Emirates (on layover). On the return flight I get to spend the night and a good chance to explore the city.
Aug 10th (Thailand) I will finally arrive in Thailand and will travel directly to visit my friend Rod in Pattaya for his big birthday celebration.
Aug 16th (Laos?) Having seen my share of Thailand, I am hoping to peter off somewhere else for a week, I’m really hoping to spend a week of so in Laos.
Aug 21st (Germany) I want to get back to BKK a day or two before I leave to recover some of the pictures I lost. The last time I was in SE Asia, one of my bags was stolen. The dirty laundry made it home safe and sound but my souvenirs and photos didn’t L.

When I get back I'm sure I'll have a few blogs worth of stories.
PLUS I return to an internship with Jamba! and I get to move to a new apartment. Lots of exciting stuff. Til next time ...

My Purple Backpack

The past week has been a busy one for me. The core group I hang out with has started to feel were approaching the beginning of the end. We’ve been doing a lot of big group activities thinking ‘this is the last time we’re going to get together like this’. Aside from that, shortly after I return from my trip I have to find a new apartment. So I’ve been busy packing up all my stuff. Lastly, not only am I trying to iron out the details of my trip to Asia, but forefront on my mind is Erik and Ariane’s wedding.

I have some sad news to report. It looks like my favorite backpack ... the one I got for my high-school graduation ... the one that has been with me on EVERY trip I’ve ever made, is on its last leg. We’ve been together for over 10 years now, and I’m quite confident that this will be the last journey together. There is a fun song (I changed the lyrics a little) to fit the relationship I have with my backpack:

I got you when I was only 18,
the brightest purple backpack I’ve ever seen.
It was extra large so I wouldn't grow out,
"That's too big for you!" the other kids would shout.
But we stuck together, we didn't quit,
and now the children say, "What a perfect fit."
Remember that long bus trip when I needed a nap?,
I used you as a pillow on that Spanish lady's lap.
Oh what is it about you that makes me so jolly?,
Is it your fifty cotton or your fifty poly?

Oh purple backpack we been through a lot together
like that time I played in that shirts
and skins basketball game and I had to take you off
and throw you in the corner of the gym.
I was midway through the game when I saw you looking at me.
You were staring as if to say
"Chris, you suck at basketball, you dribble like a damn woman.
"I was so mad I challenged you to a game of one on one
and you know backpack, even though I beat you 11 to 9,
deep in my soul I know you missed those lay-ups on purpose.
You let me win and that why I'll forever feel this way.

I love you baaaaaackpack
One pocket baaaaaackpack
dip dip dip
baaaaaackpack
shama lama ding dong
baaaaaackpack.

-Adam Sandler (Remix of Red Hooded Sweatshirt)

Normally, me ‘n my purple backpack travel alone. I take only the essentials: passport and plane ticket, Lonely Planet book and one or two changes of clothes. My newest acquisition is a battery charger (to power my digital camera and electric toothbrush). I was amazed how expensive it was (60 euro), but I know it’ll be worth it and its high time I stop mooching off other peoples anyway. This trip I am also going to bring my uni-wheeled suitcase too (to carry suit, wedding present and birthday present).

Hide and Go Seek

‘Hide and Seek’ is the classic game we all played as kids. At times I can’t help but think I’m still playing it, only now I’m not sure whose team I am on. Lemme try and clarify. What is the typical ‘traveler’ doing? Hiding or Seeking? One way a travel could look at it is:

My name is Chris. So what else do you need to know? Stuff about my family, or where I'm from? None of that matters. Not once you cross the ocean and cut yourself loose, looking for something more beautiful, something more exciting and yes I admit, something more dangerous. So after eighteen hours in the back of an airplane, three dumb movies, two plastic meals, six beers and absolutely no sleep, I finally touch down to the next new thing.
- Richard in The Beach

Now there is a guy on a mission, right? He is acting, not reacting, right? Therefore we have ourselves a Seeker. Lets add a twist. I’ve been on of those three year self-appointed self-financed sabbaticals you might have been hearing so much about … you know, to increase my international exposure.

At what point does the seeker, after not seeing what he is suppose to find, become the hider? Why doesn’t he find it? What is he running away from?
Alls I can say is I’m definitely not lost, I’m just not found.

'Morality of Preemptive Strike' or 'Is all really fair in love and war?'

I’ve been chewing on the idea of ‘Preemptive Strikes’ ever since George W. used it as a means to go to war with Iraq.

Are preemptive strikes an acceptable means of defense? Can you define ‘defense’ as ‘striking first’? Or are preemptive strikes somewhere in the family of paranoia? I don’t know any of these answers. Seldom are my opinions black and white, usually more a form of grey. Seldom, the questions I ask myself yield answers, usually only more questions.


George W. by no means invented the concept. For example back in WWII there was the highly controversial Fire-bombing of Dresden. Just prior to the bombings, Dresden was regarded as a beautiful city and cultural center with no direct military presence.

Near the end of the war, after the Allies bombed all the German cities full of bad guys, they got to thinking “What are all the bad guys going to do, now that we blew up all their cities?” The conclusion was “… they will probably move to a city we haven’t blown up yet.” The debate I have with myself: Can you blow up cities that DON’T have bad guys in them, but you think MIGHT eventually be used by the bad guys. To me, that has some parallels to firefighters using ‘controlled burns’ to limit the impact of forest fires.

What am I really rambling talking about?
Ingrid and I have broken up.

Check here for the short ‘n sweet version. Keep reading for the more incoherent one.

When is it time to call it quits on a relationship? Should the captains go down with ship? … futilely trying to salvage what they can, only to drowned in vain? Or should there be intervention? … which would prevent a worst-case scenario but result in a suboptimal (nonetheless livable) outcome?

Ingrid’s and my relationship has entered a new stage … a very transitional one. About the only thing that IS clear is that we no longer have the titles boyfriend/girlfriend. What our relationship will stabilize to be is still very uncertain. Despite the pains, confusion and frustrations that all moments like these bring, I still hold Ingrid in the highest regard. I truly hope our relationship continues long into the future.

Ingrid, Cyberbabe extraordinaire

This is a Harvard Business Review-esque story about a very gifted woman in the world of computer science who just so happens to be my girlfriend. Less than 8 months ago, Ingrid decided she wanted a computer. At the time, I thought it was a rather expensive paperweight and expected that AT MOST she would use it to chat and write emails to her friends abroad. Little did I know, I had a budding IT tech just waiting to blossom.

Sure, she started off with just the basic computer skills, but quickly learned about the benefits of Wi-Fi; setting up a network in her house and occasionally using the Hotspots around Berlin.

Ingrid’s next big step towards computer wisdom was developing a bit of an online personality. She is caught up in the blogging fad and maintains an online photo archive to compete with any. She is VERY proud that her blogger posts are up a good day or two before mine.

I appreciate Ingrid’s natural flare for computers the most when it applies to LAN games, the most noteworthy being Starcraft. It is a rather difficult game master, but after only a few days playing the campaigns she was ready to network with the big boys and hold her own against as many 5 other players! I don’t know if I will ever be a prouder boyfriend than the day she compared terrorism to the zerg. (that only narrowly beat out the day she could eat more Wasabi Beans than me :)

The epitome of Ingrid’s computer aptitude happened just a week ago. Ingrid, Marcelo and myself got together for dinner and for some reason the topic turned to online storage (a topic that would have put the Ingrid of yesteryear asleep, but now she was VERY engaged). Marcelo enlightened everyone with the fact that all yahoo accounts are automatically registered with a free website from geocities.com. Ingrid could hardly wait to finish dinner before she ran home to try her hand at web developing … something she knew virtually nothing about, nor did she want any help with. She wanted to prove to her dorky engineering friends (and to herself) that she could develop a web page as good as the rest. See the results for your self here and then compare it to mine. The consequence of out dorking the dorks means Ingrid truly desires the title of Cyberbabe extraordinaire.

Not knowing you don’t know aka is England a country?

A long while ago I was trying to tally up exactly how many countries I have visited when I ran into a few problems … namely, is England more like a country or more like a state? Let me clarify.

Reasons why England, Scotland, Wales, North Ireland are countries.

• Because we all call them countries.
• Because they each have their own forms of government.

Reasons why I don’t think they are countries.

• Because I have never heard of the English Embassy or Scottish Embassy … only a British Embassy.
• Because on my girlfriend's Map of the World, it has each countries flag below. The English/Scottish/etc flags are not there, only the Union Jack (aka the UK Flag).
• Because they all have the same passport.

Conclusion? I guess one could consider the UK a country made of four countries, but I’m not happy with that. I’m happier with the international community viewing the UK a country while on the INSIDE of that country, they view themselves as countries.

Wikipedia.org defines both England and the UK as a country.

While Dictionary.com refers to England as a mere division of the UK, avoiding the word country at all times.

Read other peoples take on the situation at LonelyPlanet.com

Amsterdam with Rodney

For the past … ohh … 10 years, I’ve had this great tradition of meeting up with a good friend of mine, somewhere in the world, sometime in early July. It’s allowed us to keep in touch, and to get out and explore the world together. Last year we spent a week in Prague, this it was a long weekend in Amsterdam.

Highlights:

• Got a job! I was FINALLY extended the job from Jamba just a couple hours before I had to catch my train to A’dam. It was nice to know I’d have a job to return to when I get back to Berlin on Monday.
• Just Chillin' Taking it easy with a very old friend, in one of the worlds greatest places to hang out.
  

Lowlights:

• Hide and Seek. My train was late arriving into Centraal Station, making it difficult for Rod and I to connect. I went to his hotel, sent an email telling him my whereabouts, then went to sleep. He arrived sometime later, waking me up staying something to the effect of “I’ve been looking for you for over four hours”. My response was “I thought I’d sleep in your bed while I waited for you!”
• Loosing the aforementioned job. It looks like I dont have a job after all. Due to slight schedule conflicts, I have to wait til AFTER my Southeast Asia trip before I start work.

U2 Vertigo Tour

After missing the chance to see U2 live with a couple other friends, my girlfriend was determined to find something on eBay. After a couple hours of searching she found General Admission tickets for only 35 euro each! (Face value was 55 euro, that’s my girl !!!)

The concert was great. We spotted our friends Marcelo and Kerstin up in the seated section. Opening band Kaiser Chiefs really rocked. The huge screen made of little lights, behind the stage was absolutely amazing. They flashed everything from words, designs, and pictures to real time video of Bono and the band.

Afterwards Ingrid and I went to Nollendorf Platz to eat at an American Diner. I had a salmon filled baked potato because, you know, that’s what all the Americans eat :) On the way home I found 30 euro. Yeah, it was a good night.

Young, Sexy and Unemployed

Found it, waited for it, lost it, redirected it, got it, then lost it again. The cycle is finally complete. So goes my job search in Germany. The longer version goes something like … I found a sexy lil internship. The company was as interested in me as I was in it. The one snag (and a 15 week stag at that) was I didn’t have a work permit. In the middle of the wait the company said they couldn’t hold off any longer and looked for other candidates. The Unemployment Office (simply translated into German as ‘Landesamt für Bürger und Ordnungsangelegenheiten’ … I think I’ll stick to 'Unemployment Office') FINALLY gave me the work permit last Tuesday YIPPY HOORAY HUURAHH. I approached the company again, and once again they showed enthusiasm about me coming aboard. Alas, I failed in negotiating a final condition of my employment and I haven't heard from them since. On the bright side, if I actually did find a job I’d have simply nothing to blog about.

Live 8

Last weekend, my friends and I went to a concert with a million or so other people while a billion or so watched from their living rooms. This grandiose event could be none other than Live 8, a concert demanding debt forgiveness, trade concessions and $25 billion in aid for Africa. For more pictures on the event, click to the left. For a much more vivid stories of our experience, check out my good friend Marcelo’s blog and my beautiful girlfriend Ingrid's Blog.

Movin' On Out ...

Ingrid finally did it! She escaped from the clutches of a host mom who was several falafels short of a Teller. Nine big suitcases later, she was moved into apartment with THE nice couple (who time and time again prove they deserve that title). Here is a picture of Ingrid and I carrying the first load, waiting at the bus stop the BVG hid around the corner from where it normally is.

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.