Hertha BSC--a day of Fussball!

One beautiful Saturday afternoon, Anna and I went to see the first soccer game of the season in Berlin. Berlin, playing Hannover, barely won. Nevertheless, the game solidified our undying support for Hertha, and for all of the fans, who sang 20 or so fan songs for the entire game...!

New Apartment in a Construction Zone

Our new apartment was a wonderful improvement until the construction started...the day we moved in. It is much bigger but the bedroom is in a loft that is only about four feet floor to ceiling with two twin mattresses pushed together on the floor.

We found ourselves hunched over regularly climbing this very steep staircase to reach our bedroom. The scary stairs combined with the fact that heat rises and made our bedroom at least 5 degrees warmer than the living room convinced us to move our bedroom.

Now we daily drop the mattresses from the loft onto the floor in the living room and sleep there in hopes of staying as cool as possible. We're definitely looking forward to getting back to our airconditioned apartment with our fabulously comfortable, large bed.

Happy (early) birthday to me! A somewhat creative and embellished account of an evening in Berlin…

One fine, albeit it slightly drizzly and cloudy Berlin afternoon Anna and I decided to tour around the Olympic Stadium. This great stadium, as you may be aware, was origionally built in 1931 when Germany was awarded the Olympic games. It was commissioned by Hitler, who intended to use the stadium both for sporting and propaganda events. Incredibly, it survived WWII, but fell into disrepair until 1998, when it was rebuilt while maintaining much of the traditional architecture.

We, being the naïve tourists that we were, thought vaguely to ourselves that it seemed awfully crowded on the U-bahn for such a tourist site, neglecting the possibility of any event that might actually have been taking place in the stadium that night.

As we got out of the train, we were immediately herded like cattle up the stairs and towards the path leading to the stadium. One particularly daring “cow” was straining against the masses—much like a salmon heading upstream I might add—waiving tickets and shouting something in German. Not wanting to miss any excitement, I merged over towards him and asked, in my best broken German, what event was going on. He promptly, of course, didn’t understand me and told me that he was selling his tickets for 170 Euros each!! He never did say what the tickets were for, but I was able to glimpse the letter and numeral of our evening: U2.

‘No way!’ I shouted to Anna as we were pushed up the stairs. We were fans of the band and Anna had tried to purchase tickets as a birthday gift for me for this very concert but was turned away because of the price. We had forgotten their arrival date to Berlin and now found ourselves unwittingly moving towards their performance.

Our excitement mounted as we saw dozens of scalpers selling tickets they had already purchased but had, for whatever reason, decided to part with. So, we formulated a financial plan. We determined the highest price we were willing to pay per ticket and then did the most painful thing—we left. We left because these masses were pouring in two hours before the concert. So, we decided to come back after the concert had started, to see if any scalpers would be desperate enough to meet our price.

As we left, we looked in amazement at the piles of people packed into the public transit station headed towards the stadium that could house 76,000 people.

We left the apartment two hours later for the concert. When we arrived, I immediately saw several scalpers—who I like to think looked more desperate than when we had last seen them. I walked up to the nearest scalper, saw her tickets and named my price. She consulted her special someone, who—I’d like to think—nodded his consent in admission, sadness, and relief.

With great excitement, we took our tickets and followed the herd--that was now our pack--and made our way onto the floor of the stadium, where we were left standing for the next four or so hours during the concert. We met some great English speaking people…all of whom asked us our ticket prices and then blushed in shame at what they had paid. And above all, we heard some great music, saw an incredible performance and had the time of our lives. It was one of the best birthday presents I have ever had!

Traveling Fun

Here is a fun video of Anna hauling bags up a long hill on an extremely hot day (probably in the 90's and humid) as we left the bed and breakfast in St. Paul and began the long trip to Berlin.

(Many thanks go to Angie and Joe for letting us borrow their suitcase!)

Our First Apartment in Berlin

Our first apartment was small but brand new. We were told we would only be there for two weeks while they remodeled a bigger apartment in the same complex. It turned into four weeks...

This is the view when you walk in the front door. Notice the washing machine under the counter...that took the place of an oven.

Next is our living/dining/bed room. The closet is where you see something sticking out of the wall. They built the it too shallow so hangers only went in sideways and the sliding doors wouldn't close.

It was a lovely little apartment and we really enjoyed living there...for the first two weeks. After that it became a little tight and we were glad to move into a bigger one.

One Year Anniversary

We celebrated our one year anniversary in Vienna, Austria. It started with an overnight train on Friday night which unfortunately, we missed. We stood on the platform for half an hour when an announcement was made over loud speakers that our train was 40 minutes late. We decided to go get a bite to eat while we waited and although we were back in less than 40 minutes , we cut it too close. The train arrived earlier than predicted and we got there as it was making it’s last call for people to board. We ran up to a conductor, showed him our tickets and asked if it was the right train. Since it was earlier than we expected, we wanted to make sure. He said no and pointed down the train. We were pretty sure it was so we ran in the direction he pointed and asked a female conductor a few cars down while holding out our tickets. The train started to move and she waved us away.

Long story short, they were able to get us on another train two hours later and we arrived in Vienna on Saturday at 11am. We checked in to our hotel, showered, and headed straight to a large outdoor market one of Rick’s bosses suggested we visit. It was almost like going to a huge yard sale because venders were selling everything from old shoes and clothes to artwork, lamp shades, antiques, food, and many other things. It was a lot of fun and we spent most of the afternoon wandering through it.

We then headed to the similar Sacher Hotel for traditional sacher cake. It was delicious!

Rick made reservations at a nice restaurant and bought tickets for us to see the Vienna Mozart Orchestra that evening. We got dressed up, had a wonderful dinner, and enjoyed a fabulous concert in upgraded box seats!

We spent Sunday sight-seeing and took another overnight train that night. It’s quite unpleasant trying to sleep sitting up for nearly 11 hours and thankfully had a chance to spread out for a few hours at the end. Rick had to head straight to work from the train and just took the suitcase and changed into a suit once he got there. He was a great sport but we were both exhausted and ready for a shower.

It was a wonderful trip and quite an exciting way to celebrate our one year anniversary. We couldn’t have chosen a better city for the occasion!

An overview of my 'praktikum.'

This internship is certainly a far cry from any other work experience I have previously had. My first day began when a nice young woman named Nora picked me up at 9:00. We drove immediately to the chamber of commerce where I was to meet one of the partners I would be working under—Martin Dolling. Herr Dolling, however, was running late, so by the time he rushed into the building there was only time for a brief introduction before we ran (literally--this guy never walks) upstairs to a meeting between the various leaders of the chamber. It was a two and a half hour long meeting—in German. Quite the introduction.

After the meeting we proceeded to the firm, which is located in a nice area on the western portion of the Kürfsdamstraße. The firm itself resides in three levels of an old building just off the main road. Each floor is divided into a different partnership, all of which are jointly held together by E. Wagemann and his senior partner, Thorsten Stielow. The third floor holds the most employees, with three main partners and various accountants and assistants. The second floor is a law office of two partners. My office was on the first floor, with Wagemann +Partner New Consulting, which was jointly held by the two partners I worked for—Martin D. and Ferdinand Kögler--and two law partners.

The afternoon of my first day was terrifying. Ferdinand placed a thick consulting presentation on my desk and asked how much of it I could read. Of course, he was trying to determine where I stood in terms of my German. However, given that my single goal of the first day was to impress them, it was a terrible prospect. Naturally, given that the last German I had taken was in high school, I didn’t understand much at all.

Thankfully, the second day I asked for an electronic copy and ran the whole document through Google translator. (I thank God daily for Google!) It was far from perfect, but far better than my previous understanding. I was able to determine the nature of the document and begin doing more research based on my newly found grasp of the material. This now, is what I do, and it has worked quite well. Martin and Ferdinand both make sure to send me electronic copies when possible and I translate them and then begin doing more research for them.

That said, there were two major projects I was introduced to in my first week at Wagemann. The first was a German engineering company that created automatic detection systems for cosmetic defects on cars at the end of assembly lines. The second was a bioenergy company seeking a loan from a bank in order to solve liquidity issues.

In regards to the former, I drove with Martin (going 200+km/h!) down the autobahn to visit their operations site, where I was given a tour and then charged with the task of “doing something to help.” After several requests for clarification, I gave up and am now researching “ways to help.” Martin and I are still working on our communication!

Ferdinand, however, is the person I am working with on a daily basis. He has given me specific tasks in regards to researching the sawmill industry, wood pellet market and German governmental policies on bioenergy. The goal of our research is to determine the likelihood of success for this bioenergy company as it pertains to the risk the bank takes on by expanding their loan to the company. Towards that end, I am currently creating a (rather large) presentation that may or may not be given to the client.

And I am running out of time....so that is my internship thus far in a German nutshell!

Dear Family and Friends,

Anna was kind enough to update you on our most recent trip. However, there are many memories in between that need to be shared. Rather than take up so much time writing all of it, I have selected some pictures I think you will enjoy from each of the places we have been.

We love you all!

Rick and Anna

This first picture is of our visit to Coach Neddo in the French Alps. It was truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen:

The next photo was of our trip to Nice. This beautiful picture of Anna was less strategic than it was the result of her facing the only direction her hair wouldn't blow in the incredibly strong winds (note the horizontal earrings)! The other photo is of our hotel in Nice the night we arrived.

This next photo is a fun panorama I took of a few of the boats in Monte Carlo...

We spent one night in St. Paul, just outside of Nice, at a beautiful little B&B with an incredible breakfast of eggs (from her chickens that morning), bread, cheese, coffee, etc...please note that ALL the food you see in this picture was eaten!

Thankfully all the food didn't sit in our stomachs for long. We did not consider the fact that most people need cars to reach B&B's. So, our trip to St. Paul was a combination of LOTS of walking and hitch hiking!

Our trip to Nice was followed by a looooong (26 hrs total trip) train ride up to Berlin. We only had two days to settle in before the internship started, but we did it beautifully! We were able to tour around a little bit, but it was raining that day. Most days, however, have been beautiful! Here we are at the Brandenburg Gate:

And a rather incredible picture of the storm clouds coming in:

And a fun picture of the car I 'splurged' on:

So, there is a quick overview of some of our memories. We truly have had the adverture of a lifetime. We are loving it but we miss you all deeply!

Hope you all enjoyed! We love you!

Prague!

Sorry we haven't updated our blog since we sent it out to you! We don't have internet at home and a smoky, dirty internet cafe with a German keyboard doesn't exactly invoke the little creativity I have. So, I found a very American/Hippy coffee shop called Coffee Mamas that has free internet and is close to Rick's office. On days that Rick doesn't need his lap top, I order a chai and sit in Coffee Mamas for a couple of hours getting back in touch with the outside world.

Now on to Prague! Rick and I decided last Thursday that our weekends were going to quickly slip by and that we needed to take advantage of them. Since Prague is only a 4 1/2 hour train ride from Berlin, it seemed like a good place to go for a very short weekend.

I spent a few hours that day in Coffee Mamas looking for an inexpensive hotel and getting a feel for the layout of the city. Thankfully Prague still uses it's own currency which the dollar holds strong against so I was able to find a very reasonably priced hotel within walking distance (my definition of that has changed since I now walk for hours each day) of all the major sights and areas of the city.

We arrived late Friday night and were surprised by the old, dirty, closed train station we arrived at. After attempting to use public transportation and failing as well as not wanting to wander around longer than we needed to due to the bad part of town we were in, we jumped in a taxi. We arrived safely at the hotel only to be shocked when the taxi driver asked for 9000 czech dollars. Rick had to find an ATM becuase we didn't have that much. It turned out not to be as outragious as we origonally thought once we calculated the exchange rate but it was indeed shocking.

After checking in we headed to a traditional Czech Pub to catch a late dinner and get a feel for the culture. Someone had recommended this particular place to us and it was quite different than anything I've ever experienced.

We sat down at a long table that nearly spanned the length of the room. Everyone seems to just sit together and before we knew what was happening, a waiter slammed two beers down in front of us without a word and headed off. Two guys in their twenties were sitting just down the table from us and found our shocked and confused faces quite amusing. We started chatting with them and they closed the gap between us and joined us for the rest of the night. They were really nice but quirky German guys who spoke pretty good English and seemed to have a better since for how things worked at the restaurant than we did. We ordered a traditional meal with sausage, cabbage, and horse radish (that's my best guess anyway) and ate while listening to a group of drunk Czechs sing happy birthday to each other in English. (I wouldn't be suprised if that was the extent of their English.)

On Saturday we toured all around and saw the famous Prague Castle, beautiful old architecture, and participated in some kind of a festival with stands serving very traditional Czech food and pastries and a polka band. We had a great time wondering around, tasting the food, and enjoying the music.

It was a fun trip but my overall impression of Prague is very different than I anticipated. While the buildings, castles, traditions, and artwork are beautiful, the culture isn't. The only people that were nice to us were the local Starbucks employees and other tourists.

For example, on our way back to the train station on Sunday we took the metro and approached two ladies with a map to ask if the train would take us to the stop we needed to get to. They waved us off, and kept walking all the while avoiding looking at us. It was quite incredible how unfriendly and rude Czech people seemed to be and the service at restaurants was the same way.

We also learned from another American tourist we chatted with that Prague is known for sex, drugs, and alcohol. It just felt like a very dark place at times. In spite of the culture, it was still a good trip and we're glad we went but don't have any plans to return very soon. Unfotunately we forgot our camera so we don't have any digital photos to add to this posting!

...to Paris!

Rather than returning home to Colorado after our vacation in Charleston, we took our very condensed clothing and flew directly to Paris, where we stayed with Alex and Kate (Anna's best friend from D.C. days) and their beautiful little daughter, Emma (who took a liking to a certain Mr. DeJarnette), as shown here:

Our trip to Paris--beyond the wonderful meals and walks with our hosts--largely included drinking espresso...

...and touring around by bikes, which were rentable for only 1 euro a piece!

Of course, we have many more pictures of many other interesting places, but this will hopefully give you a could sense of the fun we have had as a couple and with good friends!

A final note: Call us fatalistic, but we found the coffin in which we want to be buried...

An Overview of Our Travels

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to our first attempt at blogging! We hope this will be a good way to tangibly keep in touch through pictures and stories while we are away for the summer.

Rather than attempt to catch up on the past few weeks through writing (which we may do at a later date), it would be more fun to share with you a few of our memories through some of the pictures we have taken. These pictures span from the time we were in Charleston, S.C. for Anna's family vacation to our visit with Alex and Kate in Paris, Coach Marc Neddo in the French Alps, and the beautiful Mediteranian coast of Nice and just above in St. Paul de Vince.

Our first "post" will focus on Charleston. We'll send the rest out when we have more time! A fun memory: One night at the beach house all of the couples were divided into segments based upon the amount of time they had been married. We, naturally, fell into the "young married" couple group. What followed were questions in respect to how well you knew your spouse. With great humility, I am proud to state that we won.

And a random, but fun picture of our time on the beach in Charleston:

And now, we are running out of internet time! Be grateful you live in the U.S., the land of large grocery stores, dish and clothes-washers and super-marts!

With Love,

Rick and Anna