YouTube Bonus

After 6 o'clock, things get pretty casual in the office. Aside from the mandatory foosball game that always happens at 6 o'clock sharp, someone is always sharing some racy picture or funny youtube clip with the office. Today it was youtube.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you what Germans think Christmas in America is all about...

Cheers.

How to Make a 'Proper' Espresso

First, get yourself a glass (about the size of one that you would serve juice out of to a guest at your house) and add the desired amount of sugar cubes (I use four...and if you don't know why, you betta aks somebody).

Next, place the glass under the milk-steamer spout.


Before proceeding make sure that the steamer gauge on the side of the spout is set to the 12 o'clock setting.


This allows for the proper ratio of steamed milk (as evidenced by the milk foam or 'head' that is created) to liquid milk. If the gauge is not set correctly here, you run the risk of getting either all steam (literally, all steam and not even the semblance of liquid milk or a 'head') or all liquid (which comes out room temperature, if not cold--in either event its not warm enough to properly heat the sugar cubes into dissolvency).

To the right of the main coffee spouts, above the turning gauge (which should also be set to 12 o'clock), push the button on the right.

After some huffing and puffing, the milk-steamer spout should start spewing out warm-foamy milk...

*At this point I think its appropriate to state a big 'NO HOMO' to anything in this entire entry that ya'll's 8-year old brains can't be grown-ups about.*

Anyways, when the foam reaches the spout, push the button again to stop the spout.

Next, place the cup under the coffee spouts.

But first, check to make sure there are enough coffee beans in the grinder at the top of the machine...

There are four buttons to the left of the coffee spouts for single and double shots (for espressos) and single and double cups (for regular coffee). The two buttons on the top row are for espresso. Pick your poison, but always go for a double shot...

As with the milk spout, there's a bunch of noise before liquid begins to come out the spout (this time its the grinding of coffee beans). When the coffee does finally come out, the 'head' begins to visibly separate from the liquid below...

When the spouts finish, find yourself a spoon.


Now, while maintaining as much of the 'head' as possible, use the spoon to mix the liquids at the bottom of the glass (i.e. the espresso (coffee) and milk). The best way I've found to do this is move the spoon back and forth as opposed to stirring it in a circle.

And there you have it.


Cheers.

Heidelberg

Do you know what this is...?

If you said, "That can't be Frankfurt Freddie on the Autobahn, cause he's in the right lane,"...you'd be right (no pun intended)

And I should hope you know my photography pedigree enough to know there's a reason why this picture seems a bit out of focus.

Now, lemme dispell some myths about the Auotbahn before you begin to think its Gumball 3000 all day, err'day out there (although a Ferrari did gun past by me though =). First, the Auotbahn is not some small stretch of unrestricted speeding, its the German highway system and it goes all throughout the country. If you're traveling between two German cities, there's a 99 percent chance you'll get on the Autobahn at some point (if not for most of the trip). Second, there are many stretches of the Autobahn that have speed limits, it's not totally unrestricted. The only problem is, for American drivers, the speed limits are in km/hr. So when you see a red circle with '80' or '100' in the middle, you have to do the quick calculation that that means the speed limit is roughly 50 or 62 mph, respectively.

That said, as long as you remember to always and only pass on the left, and if you're in the left lane, you better be pushin' it...you're good to go. To where you ask? Heidelberg.

If you want a detailed history on the city, go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg

Truth be told, history/significance-wise, all I know about the city is this,

"Approximately 600,000 years ago, the "Heidelberg Man", whose jaw-bone was discovered in 1907, the earliest evidence of human life in Europe, died at nearby Mauer."

And that was from the first and only sentence I read on wikipedia...just now. If it weren't for the numerous people, before and after arriving in Frankfurt, that told me I have to see Heidelberg, this city would have been nowhere near my radar. I wasn't sure if it was because it was actually a picturesque city, or that it was the closest "traditional" German city to Frankfurt and the place people who find themselves in Frankfurt go for a weekend trip (sort of like Mount Vernon or Annapolis is to DC). But I had the company "pool" car for the weekend and an hours drive is nothing to a DC-born and bred road warrior, so I was going to find out.

Before leaving, I was able to get a close-in map of downtown Heidelberg from a lady in our office who happened to be from Heidelberg (or at least the surrounding area). So, with the help of the "absolutely-would-NOT-have-been-able-to-get-around-without" GPS deivce that was hooked up in the pool car, I was able to find the intersection at the end of the main drag and parked in a nearby underground lot. FYI...there was a Sirocco parked down there too (shout to vwflix.com)


I was told by the lady who gave me the map that the best thing to do was park around this area, and walk down the main drag towards the castle at the other end. The "main drag" I keep referring to is called "Haupt Strasse" ("Main Street") and basically consists of a long strip of modern-looking storefronts on the ground levels of old-time looking German buildings of 3- to 4-stories.


But it's after no less than a block that you see one of the reasons why people are drawn to this German city...

If you look to the right, you see the city is literally at the foot of a mountainside.

Make that two (this is the view to the left). And yes, the mountain extends into the clouds (it was an overcast/drizzly day). What you also can't see is the Neckar River, running between the mountain and the city (just on the other side of the turret).

The lower portion of the castle begins to come into view about half the way down the strip.


And at the end of the strip...you see who wears the crown when it comes to why people venture to Heidelberg.




A funny thing happens not long after looking up at the castle. You see a camera flash...from up at the castle. Its then you realize the castle is open to the public. Two seconds later, it sinks in...your calves are finna be sore tonite. But the payoff is the money shot...


Honorable mention...


Ironically, walking down was almost as difficult as walking up, given the millenniums-old construction of the steps and sloped cobblestoned walkways (not to mention the wet the weather conditions as well).

It was getting dark and I wanted to get back so I didn't get a chance to check out some of the other attractions at the top of the mountain around the castle (I think you can go inside, there are a number of street-side shops up there as well, there's a tram that goes around the upper portions of the mountain, etc.). I guess I'll consider using my German Rail Pass to revisit the Heidelberg area in the coming weekends.

Also, I would have talked more about the shops, but its really nothing to Skype home about. A couple "Schokolade" (chocolate) shops and a number of bakeries and gelatto spots (really no different from Frankfurt) were the bright spots to me. The bulk of the stores were mainly geared towards womens fashions, and they didn't look all that fashionable (but I'm no critic on women's fashion...heels make pretty much anything look sexy to me). But most importantly, I really didn't go there to shop, I came to give ya'll the picture reel that is this blog.

I'll leave ya'll with the last picture I took out there, as it was getting dark. I think I like this one just as much as, if not more than, the money shot.


Cheers.

Stuff That Should be on the Tape

Yes, I will make a post about my trip to Heidelberg last Saturday. It's just that I have found that "picture reel" blogs take the longest to write because, quite anti-intuitively, uploading pics from a Mac is very user unfriendly. You have to go into the iPhoto Library, but you can't search for pics from the folders that you create in iPhoto. Nor can you search from the "end-product" film rolls that you separate your library by. You can only search by "Originals" and "Modified." So lets say you want to upload 6 photos from a given roll--3 are portrait shots (meaning, in iPhoto, you have to rotate the landscape photo your camera took--in other words, "modified") and the other 3 are landscape. In order to upload them all, you have to constantly switch between your "originals" and "modified" folders. In other words, they don't allow you to just select from the "final cut" roll that has modified and original photos how you want them to be. Furthermore, blogger only lets you upload one photo at a time...so the more photos, the longer. Back to iPhoto uploads though. I could go off on how the actual screen that you have to scroll through to find the pics is cumbersome as well, but the real kicker is this...if you rename a photo in iPhoto, it doesn't carry through to the upload screen. So you basically have to remember that alpha-numeric camera designated name for each and every uploaded photo. Then to top it off, blogger doesn't input the photo where your cursor is, it always puts it at the top of the blog. So needless to say when I'm on photo number 10 and am a good ways down the blog, I have to scroll to the top, highlight, Ctrl+X, then scroll to the place at the bottom of the document, Ctrl+V.

But this isn't even supposed to this blog's rant.

I could write about today's tiff between myself and the landlord (and his non-English-speaking-but-English-understanding wife).

I could also write about how a little email I sent to my boss in DC, detailing how my time in Germany has been thus far, made it all the way up to the company's top brass (including the CEO). This is a good thing.

I could talk about how I struggle with internalizing the differences in how valuation in Germany and valuation in DC puts together ARGUS models. I mean I fully understand how they do what they do and, I think, why they do it like they do it...I'm just wondering is it, dare I say, incorrect...or is it acceptable in that is adheres to proper valuation methodology and/or financial modeling. Going further,

1. I need to understand this for the paper I have to write when I get back; and
2. I thought I was going to be building models from scratch, but I'm actually just updating a lot of their models. If it is indeed incorrect, should I say something and if so, how without sounding like the arrogant and/or condescending American?

I could talk about how I didn't go out on Saturday (when I had the company car mind you) and the primary reason why was because it was outside my comfort-zone (I really didn't feel like going out, I was tired, I'm typically not a "club-person" and I felt this atmosphere was going to be all American soldiers and their sprung German teeny-boppers, I was enjoying my Skype-chat with Kadija, etc.).

The thing is, all this has less to do with an actual foreign experience, and more to do with my internalization of normal situations that just happen to be overseas. And that's not cool.

As for the landlord thing...I REALLY don't want to get into it cause it'll get me heated, but it basically has to do with people forcing your hand, given the circumstance, but still doing so in such a way where respect is given but not reciprocated because it's not necessary on their end.

The email thing basically shows how well-placed things, no matter how little, go very far.

The ARGUS thing deals with a recurring problem of mine in when I try to explain myself. If I go in my natural format, people who don't know me or aren't familiar with me either think I'm speaking too fast or too aggressively. Me knowing this, I try to slow up...but then it can come off condescending to others as if I'm talking down to them like they're stupid. Furthermore, I end up missing/forgetting some of the rapid fire points that shoot through my brain because I'm still busy explaining the point from 5 minutes ago. So in actuality its me that comes off looking stupid when I forget what my next point is.

Finally, my comfort-zone. Good and bad things can happen when you venture into the unknown. Unfortunately, its the pessimist in me that typically prevails. Knowing that I'm outside the country, now's definitely not the time to play scaredy-hermit-crab. *But what if you're car gets stolen* *What if you drink and leave thinking (and knowing) you're sober and get pulled over on the Autobahn* *What if its wack and you end up leaving like 30 minutes after you get there?* *Its raining, what if you get in an accident?*

YEAH, well what if you go and have a GREAT time...regardless of how it transpires?!

See, this type of stuff has nothing to do with Frankfurt...it should to be on the tape, not written here. Yet here I am, explaining my personal trials and tribs to you all...and still a day behind on blogs.

Cheers.

Thanks to Viewers Like You...(pt. 2)

It is now 3:40am, and I have seen American Gangster.

Two things:

1) Yes, I will see it (again) in the theaters if it is still playing in the U.S. when I get back; and

2) Lol to the other viewer at home who thought Firefox would crash...and the quality was spectacular.

I'm not gonna dry snitch and give up the site or the viewer in particular. All I'm gonna say is...

"Danke."

Cheers.

P.S. I still got love for the 'Skins...they're just in time-out for the moment.

Idiosyncrasies #1

What's a good blog without a recurring series?

Since I've arrived in Frankfurt, I've complied a list of interesting differences between American and European (more specifically, German) cultures. I'm sure over the course of my time in Europe I'll come up with more (hence the "#1" for this blog), but as of today, this my list thus far...

• The ground floor and the 1st floor are not the same floor...the 1st floor in Europe is what we would call the second floor. All subsequent floors are also one number less.
• If you want a plastic bag from the grocery store, it's 10 cent Euro
• All taxis in Germany are Mercedes Benzes
• When going up or down, via escalator, in a department store, you don't have to walk all the way around to the other side of the floor to find the next escalator that's going in the same direction. In America, they make you walk all the way around the floor so that there's a possibility your eye will catch some merchandise that you'll purchase. In Europe, they don't play those games.
• When they show Jamster commercials, they list at least 15 songs...and tell you the number code for EACH AND EVERY SONG.
• You have to push a button on the in/outside of the subway train doors for them to open
• While we're on the subject of subway trains, there are no turnstiles in Germany. They just have subway people that come along every once and a ride to check to see if passengers bought their farecards. In my time here, I've taken the train pretty much every day and I've only ran into these people once...in Berlin.
• They put the subway map on the ceiling of the train
• Pedestrian walkways are afforded the same respect as streets for cars...with respect to street signs, traffic signals and maps.
• There is always a yellow light between green and red (i.e. the lights go red-yellow-green as well).
• Everything is closed on Sundays...except for coffee shops and pubs.
• You can go to the supermarket for all of your food/hygiene needs, but why when the butcher, cheese shop, bakery, pharmacy and fruit/vegetable street vendor are all located next door?

I would rack my brain to try and remember some more, but I'll save them for the next installment.

Cheers.

Lost in Translation

So, the planning for this year's Christmas to New Year's "escapade" is finally underway. I'm not going to spoil it for you all, don't worry, but I will say that one of the cities that will be visited is...

*drumroll please...*

Köln, Germany (or as we Americans pronounce and write it..."Cologne").

Yeah, doesn't it just conjure images of rolling hills along the German country-side and local open-air markets with fresh-air tinged with aromatic scents of fresh baked bread and "only found in Germany" spices? Well, truth be told...I can't really tell you one way or the other cause all I know is what I've been told since I got here (cause it wasn't until I got here that people told me that Cologne is a must see before I leave). Truthfully, all I really know is that the city has good shopping and that there's a castle...or two. Dusseldorf is located close-by to the north and I believe that is really the more "traditionally" of the two German city. Anyways, that's beside the point...and if you reeeeeeeally want to know about the city and its history, demographics, coat of arms, etc....then here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne%2C_Germany

As the plan goes, Cologne is a one- to two-night stopover city between two other cities (hint: neither of them are located in Germany). As such, I'd like to stay at a nice hotel as sort of an intermission between what will likely be two 4-night hostel stays during two holiday periods (i.e. this will be a much-needed respot between two cramped and funky lodging experiences). And what a resource I have in the people in the office. I mean, these guys not only travel on a whim to international destinations (remember the Alps...?), but also are from the numerous cities/towns found throughout Germany (not to mention they also perform appraisals all throughout Germany). Needless to say, there has to be someone in the office that either has a connect in Cologne, or has a boutique hotel or little-known apartment rental they can suggest. But leave it to Frankfurt Freddie to try to take it to the next level.

Enter Google Translator (http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en).

This handy-dandy website has been a savior for all of the office-wide emails in German that I get over the course of any given day. Now, from the translations that I get back (when going German-to-English), I could tell that the translating application was anything but perfect. But I could at least decipher the nouns and verbs of a given sentence and piece together what was trying to be said. So, I thought, this would be the perfect chance for me to compose a little 2 sentence email in German, via the Google translator. The way I figured it, this would be my little "cute" way of showing the office I was "trying." I knew there would inevitably be errors in the German translation, but in the same way I was able to piece together the broken English spit out by the Google translator, I surmised they'd be able to do the same...if not better. So I wrote my message into the Google translator text box...

"Everyone,

I am planning a trip to Köln for a day or two at the end of December. Might anyone be able to recommend any places to stay during my visit?

Thanks."

and got back...

"Jeder,

Ich plane eine Reise nach Köln für einen Tag oder zwei am Ende des Dezember. Könnte jeder in der Lage, den alle Plätze, zum während meines Besuchs?

Danke."

No more than about 2 minutes after sending the message, I began to hear semblances of giggles from across the room. Then I heard the low-voiced conversings of people in the hallway. About 30 seconds later I heard the first audible lol. Yeah...it wasn't good. I got an email shortly thereafter, "what did you say?" Then I got a couple more sarcastic, "love the German ;-)"'s. To be sure (so the viewers at home know), no one in the office was mad or upset or offended at my email. They just honestly did not know what I was asking. All they knew was that it had something to do with Cologne. The funniest, yet potentially scary, interpretation was when one girl told me that what it might have sounded like I was asking was if anyone in the office was willing to stay with me if I went to Cologne. Yeah, just what I need in my life--to make things any more awkward for the American black guy in the office.

After I told a few people in the immediate vicinity that I used Google Translator, it was brought to my attention that the application does well with word-to-word translations, but fails miserably when it comes to grammar. Although it makes sense, it still came as a surprise because some of Google Translator's English sentences--from my German-to-English translation entries--were grammatically acceptable (at least to the point where I could put together the semblance of the German author's original intent). Apparently, all translations are not created equal...and Google still has quite a way to go before they can consider themselves "fluent" in German.

Once the dust began to settle, I sent a reply to everyone with the American equivalent of what I meant to say and even got a couple helpful responses...I still don't know where I'm going to stay though. Nevertheless, looking to the positive of the situation, it provided a laugh for everyone in the office...and a lesson for me, albeit via public embarrassment...

email in English.

Cheers.

Du Hast Den Schönsten Arsch Der Welt

Alex C. feat. Y-Ass



They play this song all the time out here on Jamster commercials and late night on this MTV-equivalent channel called VAVA.

The literal translation is "You Have the Most Beautiful Ass The World"

lol...no homo

Cheers.

menufaktur

Point blank period, the Frankfurt office is the bizomb!

Aside from having arguably the most beautiful office across the entire company--equipped with 2 espresso machines and a balcony overlooking the Main River--the office is big on teamwork and team building. As if the Monday morning status meetings (where they go down a list of all the outstanding appraisals and where they are in terms of being completed), the Friday afternoon "knowledge sessions" (where someone in valuation takes the lead to present a topic relevant to the market) or the office shower (where employees can shower after being involved in strenuous activity before or during work) weren't enough; I get word Monday that there was going to be a wine tasting of sorts after work on Tuesday. Turns out, it was a full on 4-course meal with numerous glasses of wine (white and red) that WE were going to play the major role in preparing.

Look...its almost 1am as I start to write this and I have the SERIOUS itis. I'm going to save this as a draft and come back tomorrow and write enough (with pictures) to account for today's (Tuesday's) and tomorrow's (Wednesday's) blog. But right now, I have to get to schlafen ("sleeping" in German).

[Next day, approx. 9:15pm] All right, a bunch of us from work left together to take the U-bahn (U line subway train) to the Huenstrasse station. Oddly enough, this is the exact stop I live at on Berger Strasse, so when everyone else was clueless as to which way to head, I--the guest in their town--was telling everyone where to go. Thanks to my GPS-enabled brain, all I had to do was type the address of "menufaktur" (the place of the event) into Google Earth, look at the map for about 30 seconds, and I knew exactly where to go. The only trouble we had was locating the address (on the street, that is) because, unlike all the other storefronts, the number wasn't visible from the street. In fact, the darn place wasn't visible from the street. We ended up having to walk through this passageway and into what looked like the ground-floor recreation room of an apartment building. However, once inside we were greeted with...

Well...we were also greeted with champagne...and later white wine...and later red wine...and then again white wine. And please, make no mistake, we're talking around two or three glasses of each over the course of about 5 hours. So please, viewers at home, just take for granted that the vino was flowing in the background of this entire episode. Mind you, nothing crazy happened, it just served to amplify what was already a dazzlingly social (and informative) evening.

Once the majority of us had arrived (there were about 25 to 30 of us in total), the chef began to explain (in German) the proper technique for how we were to cut the chickens (shown on the middle of the table in the above picture). First the leg and thighs, then the wings, then the breasts (along the breast-plate seam). As for the rest of the chicken, we were to take the kitchen shears (the horror-flick style scissors that you have in your kitchen that you've probably used to cut a paper or two in your lifetime) and cut up the bones and gizzards to use for a broth. Then he went over to the zucchinis and showed us how he wanted them to be cut for a chutney of sorts we were also going to be making...

He then said something in German and pointed to the dessert area of the table. Shortly thereafter, everyone got to moving to whichever section they fancied. At the time I was conversing with Verena (one of the 10 or so August-to-February interns at the office). Since she said she'd translate what the chef was saying into English and we were right by the chickens, we got to cutting the chickens. By my 3rd chicken, the rest of the chickens were done and Verena had moved on to...

Now, here's the 64 million euro question...What fruit/vegetable is this? If you said, "pumpkin," then you would be in agreeance with Verena, the guy next to us, the chef and just about everyone in there...except for me. Now look, I've seen that fruit/vegetable wrapped up at Safeway during these Fall months and it is not pumpkin. Now, I don't know what its called, but its not pumpkin...and that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Moving along, after peeling this mystery fruit/vegetable and chopping it up into cubes about the size of the tuna on the skewers that Martin (the head of valuation in Frankfurt) was assembling next to us...

I reloaded (i.e. filled up my glass). However, when I turned around to rejoin the action, there must have been about 8 to 10 additional cooking tasks that had started behind my back. It was at this time I figured it was time to socialize. In doing so, I found myself...

• making ravioli FROM SCRATCH. We were taking FRESH dough, cutting circles out of it, placing a small amount of filling in the center (one of us had made the filling, mind you, at some point while I was cutting mystery fruit/vegetable), dabbing the edges with a wet brush and sealing a ravioli pocket with the filling on the inside...

• making gnocci FROM SCRATCH. We were taking some of the mashed potato (that one of us had made at some point while I was cutting mystery fruit/vegetable), rolling it into a tiny ball in our hand, putting it on the back of a fork, depressing a little crevice in the middle and rolling it off the edge of the fork to create the gnocci-shape...

The guy sticking his tongue out is Pascal. He sits right across from me at the office. We'll get to him later...if not in another blog. Also, sorry the actual gnocci is only in a small part of the picture, but...that's how "nice" of night it was.

• and, of course...finger-fighting for cake/pastry batter...
  

It's nice to know that half-way across the globe, some things remain the same.

I also played vouyer (all while "trinken"--German for "drinking") to several other tasks going on around the kitchen.


The top picture contained the ingredients were were going to use in our dessert (the 4th course). As for the bottom picture, the flat pan with the creamish color was used to "bathe" the tuna skewers before pan-searing them. The smaller pots (with the greenish contents) were used to stew the chickens.

I also took some time to eat, without a doubt, the BEST olives I've ever tasted in my life. You know how most olives have that tart saltines to them. Well these were completely devoid of that. They actually tasted like...olive oil. I was eating these by the 4's after he broke them out. FYI...we ended up adding these to the chicken just prior to plating that course (I believe it was the 3rd course).

Well, it was around the time our appetites had been teased to the point of seriousness...seriously...that we sat down to eat. Our first course were the tuna skewers with guacamole and that zucchini/cous-cous chutney. The second course was the ravioli. The third course was the chicken (with olives), pan-fried (but not breaded) chicken breasts and gnocci. The final course (dessert) was this...

(fat-free ice cream (not shown) with fluff pastry and orange ragout)

I know I have a tendency to, seemingly, be anti-climactic (i.e. going though all this trouble explaining what we were doing and then having only a small paragraph explaining the actual finished dishes and only one actual picture of the dishes), but, as with the Cut & Paste entry, the real beauty of this was in the process. Not only did I get to talk, informally, with almost everyone in the office that, until this day, I had only greeted on the first day during my whirlwind tour through the office, but I also got to show everyone my "casual" self. Moreover, I also found out about some things, like...

• how when the weather's cold enough during the winter, they just, on a whim, plan a weekend ski trip to the Alps;
• how a couple people have had their BEST skiing on New Year's dawn--if you get up early and catch the first lift onto the slopes, they are fresh and empty because everyone is drunk from the night before;
• how the white wine we were drinking was from a German vinter and was the 2005 or 2006 gold medal winner from a world-renowned competition in France (needless to say, I ordered 6 bottles);
• Martin, the head of Frankfurt valuation, used to play international league basketball (he can dribble 4 basketballs at once). Now, when he's not killing the game in valuation, he enjoys windsurfing...and soon he is going to some islands, near to the Canary Islands, where the waves reach up to like...a lot of 'meters' high
• one of the interns is a jazz saxophonist
• and so on...(I won't bore you any longer).

I said all this to say...and I'mma close the blog on this...that all of this serves to bring the valuation team closer. Now, the effectiveness of such an event in America is questionable because...we don't work in teams. Sure, we help each other with comps and if we've done a property in the area, we'll guide them in the right direction (sending over our report, passing along contact info of people that might be helpful, etc.), but that's about it; because we're only paid to the extent of the reports WE'VE actually written (i.e. we only get a bonus if our production has exceeded the amount we've been paid). Unlike America, in Germany, everyone's production is pooled together. And the extent to which the OFFICE has exceeded its expenses (rent on the office, salaries, overhead, etc.) is the amount to which all of the valuers are paid as a bonus.

You be the judge of which you think is better. I'm of the personal opinion that when you have people who have worked in the business for a number of years and have developed an expertise in a given property type or area (replete with local contacts and comps), the "DC" set-up is more favorable. However, when you have an office as young as the Frankfurt office, the "German" set-up works better because everyone's on the same level and works together to make everyone better (and inevitably more money). Of course another benefit is that such a set up fosters these "team building" events. Although its impossible to quantify their 'fiscal' effectiveness (in a cost-benefit sort of fashion), its hard to believe that after such a fun and social event, productivity isn't positively affected.


Cheers.

Taking Up Space...?

I'm in a bit of a pickle.

On one hand, I'd like to give to you all a daily blog detailing my experiences here in Europe. I want to do this so I can develop a sort of regular schedule with viewers like you. I also want to do it for myself because I worry that my procrastination/laziness will somehow find a way to justify not writing a blog "right now" each and every time I log onto blogger to check my comments.

On the other hand, I don't want this to become a diary of sorts where I'm just writing for the sake of "making sure I posted something today." Yet, here I am...

Take today for example. Of note,

• I think the honeymoon period is over for "the exchange guy from DC" and they're just going to go it as "business as usual" around me from here on out. That means, among other things, conducting all meetings in their native German. What's funny is that I don't mind and that I honestly am picking up more semblances of German words than I did a week ago. I'm just wondering how many times I can ask them how to say phrases that I've asked them at least 5 times prior before they get irritated. I'm bad with names...sorry.
• I stapled my thumb...and everyone in a 3-person radius laughed while blood trickled out.
• Today's weather was like the reverse of the weather all last week...it was sunny during the morning and overcast in the afternoon. Luckily, I had my druthers about me and went to the European Central Bank to take pictures...

Well, maybe not of the bank, but of the "superstar" Euro in front of the building (I have a bunch of others from where those came from).

• I'm beginning to think people in the office think it's odd (as in, not good) that I drink at least 3 double shot espressos a day. Yes, my job has made me into a bit of a coff-e-holic. But really, coffee is just the by product. At home, I go to Starbucks just as much to get a "fresh-air" break from the office as I do for the caffeine. Over here...WE HAVE AN ESPRESSO MACHINE DAMMIT! This is the type of thing you only hear about from a friend of a friend's job or see on TV somewhere in some rich dude's house. So needless to say, I'm taking advantage. Furthermore, I'm cised that I conquered the machine, with all its bells and whistles and spouts, and can make a Starbucks-grade espresso. Matter fact, that's going to be a future blog..."Frankfurt Freddie Teaches How to Make a 'Proper' Espresso."
• Since numbers are universal and I have a pretty good handle on ARGUS (our financial modeling software), I think that's how they're going to incorporate me into assignments. Case in point, they have a portfolio of 30-some-odd buildings that they need to do update reports for. In this case, they'll basically get the rent rolls for each of these buildings and have me update the last year's ARGUS files. Not saying each assignment will be like this, but I could see them using me in that fashion. They'll probably also have me look over some of their English-written reports and proofread. We'll see.
• I finally made the shrimp scampi I had been procrastinating on making since the middle of last week. It came out pretty good I guess and I have some left overs.
• Finally, the washing machine...

I don't know what the difference between the sides are and some of these words don't come up in the English-to-German translators I've checked. Furthermore, the washing machine has a dial with each of the above letters at different points on the dial. You basically turn the dial to the point where the letter you want is aligned with the "start" position (at 12 o'clock) and then pull the dial out to start the cycle. What I don't get is that because the dial turns in a clockwise fashion once you start the cycle, how is any letter different from the other seeing that say 'F' will hit every position that 'G' is going to hit...just a few minutes earlier (because there are other markings around the dial that signify at what point in the cycle your load is at). FYI...my clothes from yesterday dried fine...albeit without fabric softener.

And there you go. I don't know, maybe some of ya'll take joy from the monotony I just explained...but I feel like ya'll deserve better.

One last thing. It's official...I can't remember the last time I went to bed before midnight.

Cheers.