Ingrid's Going Away Week

We have a very special blogging addition today. Four for the price of one. As always I’m WAY behind on taking notes about my life. Here is what happened recently.

I am both saddened and excited to say that Ingrid found a job in Denmark. She left last Thursday.


As part of a weeklong celebration/going away party we did all sorts of things. One of my favorites was a visit to MauerPark. Despite knowing Berlin rather well, I’ve never been to this rather important place. Not only did we have all sorts of fun (swinging, doing stunts on our bikes, racing down hills, having strangers want to be in our pictures then insisting to delete them cause they’re not a tourist attraction) but we found a new feature on our camera … the 2-in-1
Another highlight of Ingrid’s going away week was seeing a cabaret at the historic Friedrichstadtpalast. Last year my parents took us all out to the ‘Lion King’ when we visited them in Boston and man was that an amazing show. It really sent the bar high on other such plays/theater pieces but Casanova definitely cleared it no problem. I went through a great discount agent located near Zoo Station called Hek Ticket. We got FIRST ROW SEATS at 50% off ! The show was hilarious and stage was amazing.

Last but not least my good friend Marcelo turned 26 on the 26th of last monthes. He and Kerstin have been using Ingrid's DVD player for the past couple month. Problem is, Ingrid needs it back because she is moving to Denmark. There is no better present that to give something you were going to take away ... so Baris, Genevieve, Ingrid and myself gave him a new DVD player.

To see more pictures about the past weekend, click on any of the pictures in this post, or here.

My new apartment in Neukolln.

I think this is the 7th place I’ve lived since I’ve moved to Berlin but until all the other places, this one is mine. Before I was always staying in some guys room who would be coming back in a few months. Finally, I found a place of my own, with interesting roommates and an apartment with a whole lotta character. Lemme break it down for you. I like my new WG because:
1. The kitchen is way cool. Still no microwave (few German kitchens have) but the wall is 1/2 brick, 1/2 stucco
2. Despite wanting to live in East Berlin, I managed only to find a place 5 minutes from the wall. As a nice consolation, we have this way cool ‘History of the Soviet Empire’ mural on our living room wall.
3. Kids write in chalk in our courtyard almost every day
4. I have a cool (albeit small, room) with lofted bed and closet built into the floor.

For more pictures of my apartment, either click here or on the picture to the right.

Happy Birthday to ME

One quick note: you'll see on the frame to the right that I'm going to New York City to the ad:tech convention! Yippy !!! Actually, that’s not a sure thing yet … but its in the works, more on that later. Anyway, back to LAST WEEK. I had a birthday. Hurry for me ! It was a good one too. Since Ingrid and I just got back from our little tour around Tuscany, we decided to have an Italian themed dinner. Ingrid did it ALL … from antipasti, to salad and two types of pasta (gorgonzola and tomato pesto) and for dessert tiramisu and those almond cookies you dip into Vino Santo wine.

Afterwards I was hoping we all (my tried and true friends Marcelo, Kerstin and Anna) were going to play some board games … however once again Ingrid had something up her sleeve and we went to this WAY COOL board game bar called ‘Mystery Island’ where we hung out and place Mr. X (Scotland Yard … my favorite game as of now) and Monopoly Star Wars version (Ingrid joined the dark side and won). We closed the bar down around 2am and called it a night. Its friends like these that really make birthdays so special. I cant thank each of you enough for all that you've done.

BDAY 2004 ... Best Birthday Ever

Speaking of birthday parties … there will NEVER be a day goes by where I think about my birthday, that I don’t recall my Birthday 2004 celebration. From the moment I woke up to the wee hours the next morning the day just kept getting better and better. I woke up to Ingrid throwing a mini celebration complete with presents and breakfast in bed. When I got to my language school, everyone sang “Happy Birthday” (in numerous languages) as well as wrote it on the board in about 10 different ways. Afterwards we celebrated it in my favorite café Garcon where we ate Popcorn cake ‘just like mommy use to make’.
Ingrid and I sorted out my birthday plans. I decided to go to some random restaurant with Marcelo, Kerstin and Anna. Unfortunately Ingrid had to babysit but could hang out before and after dinner. To make it up to me, she wanted to give me a surprise before she began babysitting. We went up to this really cool building called Panorama. For some reason I always thought it was a Chinese restaurant, but low and behold it was a building that gave amazing view of Potsdamer Platz and Berlin. After watching the sunset there, it was time to go. Ingrid was going to drop me off at the restaurant when we had a slight fender bender.
Ingrid bursted into tears and confessed that she did NOT have to babysit and we were NOT going to the restaurant of my choice, rather she has prepared this great huge surprise birthday party and ALL my friends are waiting for me. Unfortunately she had to wait behind and take care of matters while I rushed ahead to restaurant ‘Yo Soy’ where they serve something I’ve always wanted to try … paella. There I found over 20 of my friends there … from old friends to roommates to classmates; Ingrid invited them all. Shortly thereafter Ingrid arrived along with my birthday cake. I don’t think I have ever been so surprised and so caught off guard as that day. It was a day I will never forget. As if a guy could be any luckier, I was off to Munich the next day with Ingrid to meet up with my old college roommate Brian to kick off Oktoberfest ! For more pix of the BDAY 2004 click on the picture above or check them out in the "My Photos"

Tuscany, Italy

After three years I have finally started to develop a routine J I am way behind on blogging, but as part of my brand spanking new routine I plan on updating my pictures one day, then blogging about them the next. I should be caught up in less than week.

Last weekend Ingrid and I had some misadventures in Tuscany, Italy. Ingrid found some cheap tickets from Berlin to Pisa, Italy AND for only 15 euro more we can bring our bikes along! Our idea was to fly to Pisa across the Tuscany countryside to Florence. For a much more detailed description you can check out her blog, but … the short n’ sweet way I see things are as follows:

LOWLIGHTS

• EasyJet lost our bikes L This took the heart out of our plan. But we had to make due without and decided add another city to the end of our trip.
• The added city to our itinerary ended up being Siena. We arrived late at night, ends up they had the concert of the year and the city was totally booked out. Walked up and down the streets begging hotels to put us up, called all the hotels in our guide book, called all the places in another couples guide book, we luck out and found the number to an old olive oil villa on the cities outskirts in a picture I took some hours before. Despite not having any other option, Ingrid managed to take the lady from 145 to 115 to 100 euros.

HIGHLIGHTS

• We all have heard of Pisa’s famous tower, but nothing beats weebling and wobbling your way up to the top.
• Siena is my new favorite Italian city. Pisa was quaint but small. Florence is beautiful but touristy. Siena however, is timeless! A beautiful medieval city with winding streets and a LOT of charm.
• Tuscany countryside. Although Ingrid says I missed some of the best parts (and has video footage of me sleeping, mouth open and drooling, to prove it) the parts I did see were breath-taking.

Big Bang ... the story of my life

In the beginning there was but a speck of ‘life’ and from it, with a thunderous explosion, came forth all other things. That little speck is a gringo hanging out in Berlin and that thunderous explosion is the here and now.

Life is happening so fast, I’m having a hard time keeping up with myself and I am loving every minute. I still haven’t recoped from my three weeks gallivanting around the Middle and Far East. Despite that, I still had to find a new apartment (which I owe Ingrid a fair share of gratitude for helping me find). Without even being completely moved in, over the weekend I celebrated Vincent’s birthday (an old roommate of mine) in his lake cabin located about 150 km from Berlin. Go here to see some of the pictures. While you're there, look for the one where Ingrid and I are carrying a mattress on our heads through the streets of Berlin.



The next day (which was yesterday, Monday) I had a job interview that went swimmingly well. There is a VERY good chance after 3 months of training in Berlin, I will be assigned a position in CHICAGO, USA!!! But I am putting the cart before the horse and need a few more days for things to develop before I really know what I’m talking about.

Even after juggling all that, there is an old plan in the works that Ingrid and I would like to follow through on. We found some cheap tickets to Italy, and for only 15 euro more we could bring bikes!!! So … with a little luck, tomorrow Ingrid and I fly to Pisa, Italy! After checking out their famous leaning tower, we hope to bike around half the width of Italy, to Florence (that’s only about 100km or so).

I’d like to write more … but I have to figure out how to take the pedals off the bike, try and introduce order into my room, and prepare for my first day on the job (tomorrow) … just another average day in the life for me.

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.