The Engagement

This blog desperately needed an update. I've heard the saying "happy life, crappy blog". I can now confirm that the adage "happy wife, crappy blog" is equally as relevant.

I've been wanting to write for a while, but since ignoring the last seven months would definitely get me in the doghouse (and not just from Veronika), lets start at the beginning.

The Rings
Wedding tradition in Germany is different. For one thing, guys wear engagement rings too. Engagement rings are similarly worn on the left hand, but wedding rings are worn on the right. A noticeable difference is that the engagement rings in Germany are typically subtle - no big diamonds here. Perhaps most importantly - if you surprise the girl when you pop the question she will say no. Fortunately I happened to find this out beforehand.
We decided to go with a mixture of both cultures - Veronika chose a diamond ring, and I picked out a simple white gold band. She knew it was coming 'sometime', but she didn't know when or how, which was good enough for me to feel like it was a bit of a surprise.
I ordered the rings from my friend Wayne Fisher at Richardson's Jewelry in Lloydminster (and definitely recommend them to others!), and he shipped them over to Germany for me. We had actually tried to find rings here first, but could not find a diamond ring we liked since it is not so common. I gave my work address for the delivery, since it would be coming during the day, and prepaid the shipping. Sure enough, a few days later there's fedex at my office. That's when the first surprise came.

"We need 200 euros for the delivery."
"What!" I said.

Turns out there had been a few border taxes along the way. I told her I could pay with credit card. No dice - she needs the money in cash right away. I look in my wallet - nothing - not even a five.

"Can I go to the bank?" I ask.

Nope, either I pay now, or I have to travel to the distribution center to pick them up later. OK, I say and start going around the office. First stop, my boss' office. He's in a meeting but I don't care.

"Hey Willi, can I talk to you for a sec? It's urgent."

He comes out in the hallway and I try to explain.

"Willi look, I ordered some engagement rings, and they're here, but they need 200 euros and I don't have any money, can you lend me some, I'll pay you back!"
"Hold on a second, you ordered what kind of rings?"
(Keep in mind this is all in German.)
"Engagement rings!"
"Fitting rings you mean? For your test bench?"
"No Willi, not for pipes - for fingers!"
"Oooohh!"
"Ya, OK, let me take a look. Well I have 100 euros, that'll get you started."

And then I was off to the next office.
Five minutes later the post lady had 200 euros in her hand, and I had the rings.

If only the drama had stopped there.

Never one to do things the easy way, I planned the engagement as a sort of treasure hunt. I wrote up five clues to different parts of the city - in code - and hid them. Then I wrote a big letter - in code - explaining the game to Veronika. I secretly called up her best friend in Cologne, and she took the train up to Braunschweig. Veronika thought that we were going to a friend's house for a movie night, but when our friend pulled up to pick her up, he just gave her the letter and took off again.
The plan was that he was going to follow her on a bike to make sure that she didn't get too lost. If she got stuck, she had a green flag that she could wave for help. If she wanted company, she had a red flag that she could wave (and then her friend Charlie would come help her - though she didn't know that).
Of course it rained. At some point while Veronika was still decoding the letter, I realized that I had put one of the clues in the wrong spot - and of all things had locked it in the garden house and given Veronika the keys. Fortunately my buddy Thies was just a phone call away, and he went and got the keys from Veronika. I swapped the clues no problem. On my way to the garden I hear loud chanting - soccer game - again. The large crowds of rowdy drunk people typically wouldn't have been a problem, had I not hidden a clue in the stadium! Oh well, I think, Veronika can handle it, and besides, the clue is outside the ticket area. So I head off to the final clue area to get ready.
Sure enough, sooner or later the clues lead Veronika (who has Charlie with her by this point) to the stadium. For those not familiar with soccer in Europe - basically think of a hockey crowd, with twice as much booze, and riot cops all over the place. Veronika tries to go in the stadium (where we train for running). No chance - the security guards won't have any of it. Fortunately Thies is nearby and sees the trouble. He gives me a call and I let them know where the clue is.
I'm already waiting at the end of the treasure hunt. I planned to pop the question in the botanical gardens - a place where Veronika and I spent a lot of time when we first moved to Braunschweig. At this point I'm panicked, and not just because I'm going to pop the question, but because the gardens are locked. Well, the wall wasn't that high, and Veronika is agile, so I figure she could probably just hop the fence anyways. As planned, Thies gives me a call five minutes before Veronika is going to arrive at the gardens, and I hop the fence and go find a place to light candles.
Five minutes later I get another call. It's Thies again.

"Alex we have a problem. I'm not joking. A security guard with a flashlight just went into the gardens."

That left me with two options. I could either go find the security guard and explain to him - in German - what I was doing, or I could run. Well I happen to be a pretty good runner, and anyone who's popped the question before knows that I wasn't really in the mental state to make myself understood anyways. Thies is outside the gardens and delays Veronika for a few minutes while I bail out the back through a bunch of fraternity houses. I get him to point Veronika in the direction of a p u b l i c park in the area, and I take off running. Of course, Veronika is on her bike, and has a 400m head start on me - so I have to book it. As we get to the entrance of the park, I yell to her and she hears me and stops.

The rest went as planned. :)

For a summary of the next six months, see the following video!



Alex

So far becoming everything I've never wanted to be isn't that bad...

It's been six months since I moved to Germany, and four months since I've been working as an engineer. Long enough to realize that it's incredibly tempting to become comfortable in a privileged lifestyle, get focussed on getting a car, or a better apartment, or even starting a family. This time has served to make me a little less judgemental of other people and how at ease everyone seems to be with the way things are in the world. It's just too easy to get in a bubble and become content.
On the outside, things are excellent.
My job is as good as this type of job can be. I do consulting for Audi and VW... maybe even BMW in a while. How many people get to go into the main Audi and VW headquarters in Germany - and then give them advice? My school debts will be paid off soon, and the work is even interesting.
A couple weeks ago I was actually going to write this blog to boast a bit about how cool my job is, and how well things are going here in Germany. Now I am writing a request. Do not let me forget what I believe. Do not let me forget that there is more to life than a car or a house or living happily.
So yes, my job is excellent, things are going great in Germany, but this is only a stepping stone. Soon I will give it all away, but for now becoming everything I've never wanted to be isn't that bad.

Alex

I'm the 'M' in TLK

OK... so my name might not have made it into the company name yet, but at least my picture made it to their website! www.tlk-thermo.de (click on the TLK-Thermo link and scroll all the way to the bottom (of course)).

Last time I wrote on my blog I was dodging pine trees and waiting for my work visa... and health insurance... :S . On December 1st I received my work visa and became an official employee of TLK-Thermo Gmbh. My job is pretty cool, I play with fire, and ice, and gases at high pressures... and then after lunch ;p I'm a cross between a code monkey and an Excel junkie. Another advantage of this job has been going to programming/modelling courses in a very luxurious hotel in downtown Braunschweig... three times already!

I haven't written in a while, mainly because I was working two jobs, finishing up a prior programming contract, but also because nothing really funny happened. In fact the funny highlight of December was pretty much when I told the Foreigners Office that I was born in 1958. (In German numbers are backwards. For example, I would say I am 3 and 20 years old... which makes it really easy to mix up.) They took it pretty well, considering, and complimented me on my youthful looks.

Most of my miscommunications unfortunately happen with Veronika's parents. In fact most of them would probably be hilarious to you, but are just too embarrassing for me to actually write. Let's just say that at different times they've thought that I wanted to steal their farm and had sexual tendencies towards men.

Over the Christmas holidays I was in Germany with Veronika's family. Veronika and I also travelled for a bit, to Berlin and Dresden. Dresden is a totally underrated German city. You never hear of it, but I think it has been my favourite city so far in Germany.

There's not too much else going on at the moment, other than I think that I will start training for running again on Monday. I haven't trained in four months now... which has been awesome. I definitely needed a break and am just starting to feel some motivation to run again... and no Fehr, that motivation does not have to do with my waistline.

The last two days I was at another sweet programming course at the luxurious hotel. For a nice change, this course was in English with people from Denmark, USA, the Czech Republic, and of course Germany. Surprisingly, I was actually looking forward to the Americans coming to hear correct (well, close enough ;p ) English again and make fun of some Germans. Unfortunately, even the Americans had English as their second language, and it turned out that I was the only native speaker there. The result: every time the presenter wasn't sure of a word, he asked me in German how to say it in English, and half the time I didn't know, because frankly, I don't know a ton of advanced thermodynamic vocabulary in German yet. One time I got busted for not paying attention when I said that the opposite of capitalized letters was undercase... until a German corrected me with lowercase. oops. The cool thing was that there was also a Mexican there. We had a blast speaking Spanish amidst the other conversations, but by the end of the first day I couldn't speak any language at all, except Spanglan.

If you're interested in seeing some videos of Braunschweig, I put up a Christmas video on YouTube. A warning though, it's 15 minutes long and I made it for my family, so you might find it boring.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zScsDgvdloU
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BClX_D9ztIo

Christmas was good. Most depressing moment: when a 15 year-old said to me "yeah, but you're an adult already".
Damn, when did that happen?

Alex

Mr. Geffers and the Pine Tree

On Sunday we were in the garden cleaning up the lilac bushes when Mr. Geffers came stumbling down the path. (I will choose to believe there was a branch on the path, although his stumbling may have been influenced by other factors… ;P ) He took us out for lunch to a Greek restaurant near the garden and kindly offered to pay – even though he didn’t quite have enough money in his wallet to do that. After explaining that his wife often takes money out of his wallet, he warned me to keep an eye on Veronika. No problem I replied, I like looking at Veronika anyways.

“When are you going to cut down the pine tree?” he asked.

I told him that next week some time we would probably get to it. But that wasn’t good enough. He wanted to come and help us cut it down – he could pull the branches over, he thought, so that they didn’t fall on the fence. (Keep in mind he’s 73 and still working on walking down the path straight.) Not wanting to hurt his feelings, we agreed to meet him Monday in the garden to cut down the pine tree.

On Monday I got to the garden a little early to see what we were up against. This was a big, gnarled pine - as ugly as the Conservatives and as crooked as the Liberals.



To me, the easiest way to take this sucker down was to climb up in the tree with a handsaw and start cutting down the smaller branches to make the tree lighter. Unforunately, I didn’t get very long along this path before Mr. Geffers showed up with his plan. After showing me how to put oil in the chainsaw (again), we stood under the tree, ready for battle.

“Ok, the method is simple,” he told me. All you have to do is climb up in the tree with the chainsaw and cut down a couple of those big branches.”

I told him I didn’t think it was the best idea to climb the tree with the chainsaw – and especially not to cut down the big branches while in the tree with the chainsaw. Instead I told him my plan of using the hand saw to cut down the small branches.

“No,” he said. “You best use the chainsaw or I might as well do that myself.”

Not wanting the death of an old man on my head, I quickly told him I would use the chainsaw, but convinced him it was probably a better idea to do that from ground level.

“Ok,” he said, “the method is simple. All you have to do is cut down that big branch above you, and when you hear it crack, then get out of the way.”
I wasn’t convinced that that was the best idea either, but figured my chances of surviving were better on the ground than in the tree, so I agreed.
The chainsaw was nice and sharp and ate its way through the pine quickly. About halfway through I started getting pretty nervous. The branch I was cutting was about a foot thick, weighed about 400 lbs, and was about a half a foot above my head. Not to mention there was also a running chainsaw to think about. At 2/3 of the way through I started getting ready to run and at 3/4 of the way through I heard the crack. In a flash I had my finger off the chainsaw trigger and was running the other way. Two steps later I passed Mr. Geffers who was also running away at about the same speed he was stumbling down the path earlier. Uh oh, I thought – and looked back to see the tree stop falling just as Mr. Geffers cleared the final branches. Whoof.

The giant branch had caught itself on two of the lower branches still attached to the stump. We stepped closer to investigate. We tried to push and pull the giant branch free, but it was stuck.

“Ok,” he said. “The method is simple. All you have to do is cut down the two big branches that it’s resting on.”

I took a closer look. The lower branch wasn’t actually bearing much weight, so after making sure Mr. Geffers was well clear this time, I cut off the lower branch. No problem.

I didn’t wait for Mr. Geffers to take another look, but went to the other side of the tree with a hatchet, and cut off as many of the little branches as I could, from the giant fallen limb that was still suspended in the air. This reduced the weight considerably. I then took a handsaw quick and cut it in half – and by the time he was back from his smoke break, the limb was pretty much on the ground.

Now there was only one large limb left hanging from the tree, but that one was pretty straightforward. Besides, I figured with how much we had survived so far, today must be a lucky day. Fortunately I was right and the rest went smoothly.



It’s incredible how much mass there actually is in a tree. Somehow, when the branches are on the ground they multiply considerably. At the moment our garden looks more like a woodlot than a garden, but we’re working on that. Our plan is to sell the branches to the crazy city people at the upcoming Flohmarkt (basically a free-for-all market in the parking lot of the German equivalent of Walmart). I really must write later on the difference in thinking between city people and country people – incredible.

Alex
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I heard through the grapevine that people want me to update my blog more often… As a good friend once told me: “Ok, the method is simple, all you have to do is …” leave more comments on my blog!!! I am way more motivated to write when I know that someone is reading, so if you’ve left me a comment on my blog or on Facebook, consider this a big pat on the back. :D

Alex the urban farmer...

Today a partially deaf lady told me that I have almost no accent. I wasn't quite sure how to take that, but I figure life is always sweeter when you take everything with a grain of salt. Wait... that doesn't make sense at all.
Anyways. Veronika and I bought a garden in Braunschweig. If there is one thing that is certain about Germans, it's that they love paperwork. We met last night to sign the contract - forty-five minutes later I walked out with pen-blisters on my fingers and a backpack full of forms. It was worth it though. We are now the owners of 385 sq. meters of garden just ten minutes walk from our apartments. The garden also comes with a small house on it, with power and water hooked up. Additionally, all of the tools that the previous owner used were also included - including his TV and satellite dish (which we're planning on selling). Perhaps best of all, there are four mature fruit trees on the property - three apples and a sour cherry. Since we're still operating under the assumption of a relatively short (ie. a few years) time here in Braunschweig, mature fruit trees are awesome.
The previous owner's name is Herr Geffers and he's a character. He's probably around 80 years old and has made it his personal mission to show me how each and every tool works. He's one of those guys that tells so many stories, you're not quite sure what is actually true. The fact that he has alzheimer's probably doesn't help either.
I've met a lot of foreigners in Braunschweig already, even though it's not known as an international city. Fortunately it's easy to tell who's from Braunschweig and who isn't: If they're scowling, they're from Braunschweig... if not, then you have an Auslaender. Today, I was briefly very excited that I was able to understand someone speaking so easily - until I realized that they were speaking Spanish - not only Spanish, but Mexican Spanish (Qué onda we, y hola a todos mis amigos del Tec!!).
The garden brings with it lots of work. We have to remove five trees that are either too big or are diseased. Fortunately, swinging an axe actually does a lot to remove the daily tensions I experience here in Germany. Once I get tired, then fortunately Herr Geffers also has a chainsaw - and believe me, I know very well how to put oil in it. In addition, we're taking out most of the lawn and turning over the soil to put in vegetables next year. If my facebook status wasn't currently a link to my blog, it would read: "Alex has a love-hate relationship with shovels."

Life changes quickly...

Life changes quickly, but lately it has been changing even quicker than normal. I now live in Braunschweig, Germany. Veronika has also moved here with me and is continuing to study for her diploma exams. It’s a lot easier for her to study here since she has access to the library, the university, and also her friends are also studying. We would prefer not to live in a city, but for now it seems to be working out just fine.

I’ve already found a job. I’m still waiting on my work visa to go through so that I can officially start, but the delay is actually somewhat of a good thing as it allows me to learn the German terms that are necessary for my project. The job was actually remarkably easy to come by. We were sitting in the cafeteria, eating with a few of Veronika’s friends when I mentioned that I was on the job hunt. One of her friends mentioned that his workplace seems to be always looking for new people, so after lunch we walked on over to see the place. That turned into an hour and a half interview with the boss, in a T-shirt and jeans, with no resume or transcripts, in German. Yikes. Somehow we pulled off a miracle, and after sending in my documents later that day, I had a job offer within the next few days. I now work (given the work visa goes through) for TLK-Thermo as a Thermodynamics System Engineer. They are a thermodynamics consulting firm connected with the Institute for Thermodynamics at TU-Braunschweig. It’s pretty ideal actually. There are about 10-20 people working at the firm, and they are all nice, which in Germany is a bit of a miracle in itself.

Kanadier aus Briest läuft auf der kurzen Strecke allen davon!

It's my third week here and I already made the newspaper: "Canadian from Briest runs away from them all on the short course". Yesterday I won a seven kilometer race in a town called Schönhausen about 20km away from Briest. It went pretty well. Until the gun went off, my plan was to run with Veronika, but then I got a big rush of adrenaline. She was cool with me racing out front, so I took off after the leaders. Fortunately the pace was pedestrian in the first kilometer, so I easily caught up. I almost decided to take it out hard right then to try and drop the rest of the pack, but I decided to hold back to see if there were any other fast runners. There was, and at the 1 kilometer mark he made a move. I followed right on his shoulder and we soon left the rest of the runners behind us. The next few kilometers it was just him and I. He actually dropped me a bit by the three kilometer mark, but I hung back about 40 meters, still in contact. At the four kilometer mark I could see he was hurting and started making a bit of ground up on him. My plan was to get within ten meters between the fifth and sixth kilometer markers and then outsprint him to the finish. There was no need. At the five kilometer mark he stopped, fell to his knees and started puking. A course martial was there to help him, so I kept going. I was all alone now, and ran steady in to the line to finish in 22:29. Not bad for a first run after not training for a month. The next guy (puker) finished in 23:26, and the third place finisher finished in 24:28. Veronika also ran very well, finishing ninth among the women, and first in her age category in 32:38. Not bad for never training and running in soccer cleats!
In the afternoon we went to make apple juice from all of the apples we’ve been picking over the last week. We picked a lot of apples. We didn’t even bring them all and we still made about 110 liters of juice. Today we have to bottle it all.
Volker and Christa Magdanz, my Great Aunt and Uncle who live in Schermbeck are coming to visit me today on their way back from Berlin. I’m really looking forward to it. I haven’t seen them since I was in Germany last time in 2005, and they’re really nice people.

Random comment: My favourite band of the day is Underoath.