Been an even longer while

Well, so much for keeping a blog, eh? It's been over two months since I've posted. But truth be told, not much has happened warranting a blog entry. But I thought I'd post something just to keep current. So here's the latest:

Still looking for an apartment. I have put in for 3 apartments already, but each were given to someone else. And a couple of those I wasn't excited about at all, so I guess it works out. I finally found something that meets my top two requirements (a kitchen and downtown) and I'm praying that it works out. I still have to interview with the owners and they're at liberty to approve/reject as they see fit. So keep your fingers crossed for me.

On my birthday, February 1, there was a parade here in Ulm. It was for Narrenzunft. To be honest I have no idea what that is, but if you're interested you can find more information here. It was a very interesting parade as most of the entrants were dressed in outfits, wearing wooden masks. Below are some pics. You can find more on my Ovi site.




Then Feb 19-24, there was Karneval aka Fasching. In short, this is a festival leading up to Ash Wednesday...so similar to Mardi Gras. The real party is in Köln (Cologne), Germany where they really get down. It's not that celebrated here in Ulm except on the opening Thursday and a little on the Tuesday leading up to midnight. But nonetheless Thursday, the 19th, was fun as everyone dresses up (like Halloween in US) and pretty much gets hammered. My friends here had some elaborate costumes which Kym actually made. I couldn't stay out too late as I had to work the next day.

In my one of previous posts I mentioned the Nokia Christmas party. For entertainment they hired these "dancers." These guys were actually breakdancing...too freakin funny. I'll give em props for the talent, but c'mon...breakdancing? Check out these vids:




Last Saturday, Feb 28, the weather was quite nice and my friends Kym and Neil asked me if I'd be interested in taking a day trip with them. Since I haven't been out of Ulm since I've arrived I was more than happy to get out. We went to Blaubauren and Zwiefalten. Blaubauren is a small town where the spring water forms a very small lake (more like a pond) that creates a river that flows all the way to the Danube which separate Ulm and Neu-Ulm. It's crystal clear as you'd imagine from a spring. It reminded me of Itchetucknee though not as elaborate. It was still quite nice. After spending a bit in Blaubauren, we headed to Zwiefalten. Zwiefalten has a local Brewerie (as a lot of small towns in Germany do). We had a late lunch at the local restaurant located near the brewery (which was not open). After lunch we cruised over to the church, which was just absolutely beautiful inside. See pics below:



More can be found on my Ovi site.

I'll try to update something soon regarding my apartment status. Hopefully I can get settled in soon.

Been a while

Well, it's been over 2 weeks since I've last posted to this blog...sorry about that. There's several reasons why: laziness, Ovi.com and others. There's been a few things happen since I last posted:

1) Nokia's Christmas Party - December 17, 2008
2) Moved into temporary apartment
3) Restaurants and some night life

So as you can see, I haven't been too busy. I'm still trying to get settled in around here, but that really won't be until I get my final accommodations. I have until March to get my own apartment so there's a little time, but I really need to get on that. I'll update the above 3 "big things" in their own blog as not to run this on too long.

Just a note I will not be including pictures until I get my account straight with Ovi.com. They've really upset me recently and unfortunately many end-users as well. In case you don't know, ovi.com is Nokia's solution for users to upload content, share files, synchronize your device and many other things. But what happened recently, Share on Ovi (picture uploading site) and Ovi.com use to require two separate logins and Ovi fixed that last weekend. But what happened in the meantime is if you have an account with Share on Ovi and Ovi.com with the same username (which I and a lot of other folks did) they had to change your username. And with the change of username, you may or may not be able to login. And, of course, with my luck I was not able to login. I am still battling to get this straightened out. Some of it is my fault for not having it fixed yet, but Ovi didn't make it easy to straighten out either. Ok...enough of my rant. But why that impacts this blog is I upload all my pics to Ovi and then link them to this blog. So once that is fixed, I'll have some pics to show.

Another rant I have is that my new bank, here in Germany, finally sent me my bank card a few weeks ago. Didn't matter at that time cause there was no money in there at the time. But now there is. AND I DON'T HAVE A PIN TO GET TO MY MONEY....AUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! I've got a telephone pin and on online pin but what good does that do me???? Geez. And to make matters worse, my banking contact is on vaca until the new year. So now I'm living off of my funds in the US that I had saved to take care of my house and other things. And this currency exchange is RAPING me. Last I looked 1 Euro = $1.40...OUCH!! So when things get settled I'll transfer some money back over to US and it will look like I've made money :-) (Hopefully)

The Work Finally Begins

Ok, so I won't bore you with all the details of what's going on at work...unfortunately not a whole lot yet. Still in the process of getting "processed" so I'm still signing forms and figuring out what I want to sign and this and that. Plus HR is so busy with end of year payroll, it's been hard to catch them and ask any questions. Just a note: In Germany we only get paid once a month, so HR is trying to get everyone paid before Christmas.

Thursday and Friday are the official Induction days from HR, so not sure exactly what to expect from that as I have gotten most of my paper work filled out.

Some quick highlights so far from the week:

Monday: Started work here in new office. Not much else this day.
Tuesday: Got my new bank card and was able to log-in via the internet...but no balance yet as I won't get paid until Dec 22 or so. ;-)
Wednesday: Met some new folks within the concepting team. Oh, and today it has been snowing all day long, the ground is completely covered and the forecast calls for more tomorrow and Friday. I have included some pics from the 3rd story balcony of the Nokia building. Enjoy...

Sunday December 7, 2008 - A Bust

Still fighting sleep or whatever, I finally woke up a little after noon. My only goal for the day was to check up on email and do laundry and read what ever I could about Florida's win over Alabama. It was a long day knowing that I wouldn't get the BCS picture till after I was already asleep for the next night.

Fighting the extremely sloooooow wireless internet connection, I attempted to check email and watch highlights from the game. After all this, it's now time for laundry. I head back over to Mueller's and pick up some laundry detergent and dryer sheets. Unfortunately everything is in German, so I tried to stay away from the BO scented detergent. Now I head back to the hotel to get my "wash-tokens" from the front desk of which I have to pay for. (I put that on the room tab tho ;-)

So with tokens in hand I grab what I want to wash and head down to what mimics a dungeon. First off, you have to use the room key to get to this level and then once you're down there, there is no button anywhere to indicate that your ready to get back on the elevator, nor any instructions. I felt like Indiana Jones where he gets trapped in a secret room and has to figure a way out. After looking around for a moment, I see this tiny slot which seems to be the size of my room key. A-Ha! I stick my room key and then a light flashes on the elevator and ultimately the elevator comes back down to pick you up. All-in-all it wasn't that difficult to figure out, but a little instruction would've come in handy.

Ok...so now to the wash room. There is 1 (one) washer and 1 (one) dryer. Are you kidding me...in a hotel, where over half the rooms are considered short-term apartments????? Anyway, I get down there and SURPRISE there are clothes in both the washer and dryer, plus some just hanging from a small clothesline. So naturally I head back upstairs with clothes in hand and to go and try to fight the slow internet again.

So, long story short, after the third trip I head back down to wash room, the clothes in the washer are gone, but there are clothes still in the dryer. I throw my clothes into the washer, which is an extremely small front loader...it barely held 3 pairs of jeans. Well, after the wash was complete, I check the dryer and again, someone's clothes were still in there. So I took them out and set them on top of the dryer and threw mine in. Just a little note about the dryer, it is a completely out-dated piece that literally looks like an old oven. And to add to that, you can set the timer, but once you open the door to see if your clothes are done...you are, whether the clothes are dry or not. You'll have to chunk in another token to continue/start-over. Sucky. Luckily the majority of my clothes were dry at this point minus a couple shirts which I was able to layout across table in my room to continue drying.

So Sunday turned out to be an uneventful day.

Saturday, December 06, 2008 – Trying to Fit In

A momentous day in my new home town. Either battling jet lag or time zone change, I woke up a couple times only to roll over and fall back asleep not getting out of bed until 1 pm. After showering, I made it down the Christmas market to meet up with some of my new colleagues here in Ulm. There I had one of my first tastes of the German dish; a Feuerwurst (a long skinny spicy bratwurst…it puts the footlong hot dog to shame. :-) with some non-alky Gluehwein (a traditional hot spice wine served at Christmas festivities.).

The Christmas market is a yearly festival that runs the month of December. It consists of a makeshift town square selling merchandise and food. It is located in the big square in front of the Ulmer Meunster. There is a huge Christmas tree approximately 50 yards from the doors of the church. A nativity scene is set up around the tree which features live sheep and donkeys.

After leaving the festival, I made it over to Mueller. It is one of the main shops near the hotel where I’m staying. It is set up similar to Dollar General Store where you can pick up household items such as laundry detergent or dish soap among other things. After dropping off the items I picked up, I then headed over to one of the markets, Norma, where I purchased some groceries. It wasn’t as difficult grocery shopping as I though it would be since most off the items show on the box what you’re buying ;-) However, there were a few surprises at the grocery store. First you had to “rent” a shopping cart. Like in the US, each cart is pushed into the next, but here each cart is locked via a chain to th

e next. You have to insert 1 Euro into a mechanism on the car

t
to
remove the locked chain. Once you’ve completed your shopping and returned the cart, you’ll get your Euro back. And there was at this store than just groceries. If you need to cut those bratwurst down to size, you can always pick up this saw. ;-)

I get back to the hotel and unpack my groceries. Unfortunately the 6’er I bought is completely hot and need to cool down before enjoying. But never fear, in Germany you can get COLD beer!!....in a vending machine…get the hell outta here…lol. I bought my very first vending machine beer here in the hotel. Too funny.

Well, off to listen to the Florida vs. Alabama game. Go Gators!!

Friday, December 5, 2008 – What a Day

I wake up around 3 am local time and couldn’t fall back asleep. I looked at times in the states, and decide to call mom as it was only 9:30pm on the east coast. After chatting with mom for a while I get up and go check my email. I mess around on the internet for a bit a notice I am getting tired around 5:30am, so I decide to nap since I don’t have an appointment until 8:30.

About 7:15 I crawl out of bed and head to shower. My relocation guy met me in lobby of hotel at 8:30 as we had an appointment at 9am to open a bank account. This lasted about 45 minutes. This is where my day gets sort of interesting.

After bank account is set up, I ask my relocation guy how I get to the Nokia office via public transportation. He tells me I need to take the number 5 bus and shows me where to wait and that it will cost 1.80 Euro. GREAT!! But here’s where my first adventure begins…

Having never taken public transportation without purchasing a ticket in advance, I was clueless on how to pay once bus #5 arrived. I just follow the locals onto the bus and most just sit down, except one who inserts a card into this device and punches a couple of buttons…crap…I don’t have a card…I’m now a bus going somewhere and haven’t paid. Then we make another stop and I notice at the front of the bus right beside the driver there are two different lanes where the one lane has toll bars which won’t allow you thru until you pay. “OH NO!!!! That’s how I pay,” I thought. Geez, I’m in a foreign country on public transportation which I haven’t paid to ride. What a way to make a first impression. At this point now, I’m trying to figure out how to let the driver know I didn’t pay knowing he most likely didn’t speak English. So we keep tooling thru the route and I’m not sure where I need to get off. We keep on going making several stops. Finally after one stop I look up and see the Nokia office fading away in the distance. Dammit…first I didn’t pay; now I just missed my stop. At this point I am completely lost. I just keep riding the bus hoping that we’ll make the route again. Well, after about an hour riding the bus, we make what seems to be a final stop. The only people on the bus at this point were the bus driver and me. Here is where I decided to make my confession and ask the bus driver what bus I now need to get on to get to Nokia. As suspected he spoke no English, but he did recognize “Nokia” and told me what bus to take and what stop to get off. I offered him 2 Euro for my bus fare, but being a nice guy he refused to take it and told me to get on other bus. Lessons learned:

a) public transportation does you no good if you’re not fully aware of where you’re going

b) ask how to pay ahead of time when you’re not sure…lol

So finally after hopping on the next bus AND paying my toll, I finally make it to the Nokia office just before noon. I head up to the receptionist and show her my Irving badge and ask for my new boss. He is unavailable at the time, so I ask for the HR rep with whom I’ve been dealing. She meets me at reception and I hand over my bank account information along with other things needed for me to get paid for the month of December. After meeting with her for a moment, my new boss comes in and intercepts me to go meet my new team. One of the guys gives me a tour around the facility. I finally settle into my new desk and suddenly I feel relaxed. There’s nothing like the Nokia culture to make you feel at home. I mess around a bit and answer a few emails.

Since almost everyone on my new team is new, there are some folks who are from out of town like me. One is Cindy who is from Beijing. She has been here in Ulm for only two months. And lucky for me she is in the same hotel as I am, but she is moving out soon now that she has found an apt. So she helps me with the whole bus thing and tells me where I need to get off in downtown Ulm. She also showed me where to go shopping for groceries and other things. So HUGE thanks to her.

After dropping my things off at the hotel, I step out to get some dinner. I find this Spanish joint called Tapas y Mas. It was on ok place. After a couple beers and dinner, I head back to the hotel where I call it night around 9:30 pm local time.

Germany Blog

Thursday, December 4, 2008 – Finally Here

I arrive in Frankfurt approximately 6:30 am, over 30 minutes ahead of schedule. And naturally due to time zone difference and a plane’s comfort or discomfort ;-), I didn’t get any sleep. Passing through customs was a breeze and I picked up my luggage where I was one of the last to get mine. Around 7 or so I make my way through the airport over to the train station. There I have to pick up my reserved tickets through a machine :Now I have to wait until 9:54 which is the time my train heads down to Mannheim. For whatever reason, whoever booked my ticket had me switch trains in Mannheim to continue my travel to Ulm…what a PITA.

At 12:06, I make into the Ulm train station. From here I hail a cab who takes me to my hotel, the Comfort Hotel. I arrive about a quarter after noon. My room is actually considered an apartment here as it has a small kitchenette. I unpack some things and decided to try and catch a quick nap. After about a 30 minute nap, I wake up and shower and eventually meet up with the relocation guy around 2:30. We head down to a local photo shop where I get my mugshot to hand over to the “home-office” for my work and residency permit. At the home office I fill out paper work which includes residency permit and police registration. After this I head back to the hotel where I finally fall asleep for the evening around 5:30 pm local time.