F.C. Nürnberg

On Saturday I was invited to go see FC Nürnberg play against Stuttgart with my friend Johnny.  It was quite the ruckus and I enjoyed it a lot.  The corner crews of these two teams put RIT's to shame.  It ended 2-2.

going once, twice, three times, sold!

So this weekend was the bike auction.  I had never seen a real auction except in movies so it was a cool experience.  The auctioneer spoke slightly slower than he was supposed to but otherwise it lived up to expectations.  It drove me nuts though that you only had to outbid by a euro at a time so sometimes it went really slow.  5€, 6, 7...then I would jump in and bump it up to 40€ so it could continue for real.  The bikes all ended up just outside my price range so I didn't manage to get one, but it's getting too cold anyway.  Oh well...


and I may have miss translated a few numbers at the end. 

It Takes A Long Time

It takes a long time to kill a man

55 years at least

until he breaks down 

starts to look underground

and go off and get him some peace.”

I want to die a lot quicker than that

if it’s my only way out.

I’ve been counting up the cost

getting up on that cross

I want to know what this is all about.

A friend of mine, Peter, talked to me about this song during my sophomore year of college.  It’s Jon Foreman (Switchfoot) “Resurrect me.”  He’s talking about the mid-life crisis.  I personally don’t have a lot of experience with these sorts of crises but I’m trying to have mine sooner rather than later.  My perspective is that we have the dreams, goals, ideas, things we live for, that we spend a lot of our resources chasing after.  Maybe we get there and maybe we don’t.  We spend more time chasing though than developing the goals well in the first place.  Then after a while of chasing, we start to wonder why we were chasing what we were chasing in the first place.  A new set of priorities moves in and replaces the old set.

I have definitely had those goals and been chasing them quite systematically.  My senior project, my major, my university, learning Germany, studying abroad were all steps leading up to my goal of developing athletic shoes.  As an intern now at PUMA, I find my goal drawing rather close.  As college draws to a close, I will have some big decisions to make.  I could take a job at PUMA and reach my goal.  I mean, who doesn’t like achieving goals?  Or I could re-evaluate my goal.  Even now I am beginning to step back again and look again at where I am going.  I don’t want to get 20 years down the road working at PUMA and then notice that there are more important things I could have and should have been doing.

I realize this is pretty vague, but that gives you an overview anyway of what’s in my head.  I’m not at all sure where the thought process will lead yet but you can expect to hear more about it over the coming year.

Observing Those Further Down the Road

“That’s it! I’m moving in with Freddy!” declared TJ as he came in to work, a little later than usual...  Freddy (my supervisor), already at his desk, was a little surprised.  TJ went on to explain that the 3 hours of commuting each day to work was too much.  If he moved to Herzo (where Freddy is), he could have 15 hours a week more with his newborn son.  I made a mental not of the conversation as something that might be valuable to remember someday.  Sure, sometimes a long commute can be a nice thing to clear your mind or think, but if that’s what you need then just go for a drive or a walk.  Living far away means you are forced to take that time, even when it can’t be afforded.  I’d like to keep all regular commutes in my life under 30 minutes.

Glad I finally got that figured out.

Hey Look!

So I've been drawing a good bit of attention around Erlangen in the past month and thought I'd mention it here.  So longboards aren't particularly common here.  They have skateboards, but most people notice that mine is different as I cruise gracefully through the streets, quietly, quickly, and smoothly.  Little kids turn point and stare quite often, or sometimes the other way around, the parent points me out to their small child.  It makes me grin.  Longboarding is fun, and it looks fun.  That's how I got hooked myself.  Maybe I'm inspiring lot's of young Germans to pick up longboarding.
Make it through the first 30 seconds, turn on your speakers, sit back.  Enjoy it.  Pleasant. 

Mist on the Moores

On Monday I went out to capture the view that I'd seen only from the bus for many days in a row.  Unfortunately I took the best ones on low resolution, forgetting the settings from the day before.  Fall is here now and I may not have a chance to get these again til the end of my time here.  This is a 5 minute walk from my apartment.

oh I'll make it I reckon.

God can always be counted on.  Did I say that before?  Here I am going through the month, money is just barely going to last me until my first paycheck and then my bank card stops working.  I managed to get it all scratched up in my wallet.  I go to the bank to deal with it and the lady at the counter says, “Okay, that’ll be 20€.”  ... “Okay,” said I, “hold that thought, I don’t have 20€ this second.”  So I go home in a rather stressed way inwardly, and get to counting all my loose change and doing a little math.  If I’m super careful, I could possibly make it to next friday when my paycheck comes, but who knows, it’ll be close. Then I remembered that Monday being a holiday, everything would be closed, including the bakery where I get some free food on Mondays for the week... Eating will be even a bigger challenge.  I think God tried to remind me that he was God and could handle it that evening when I was so stressed, but he said it in German and it didn’t really sink in. So I decide I can just maybe kind of afford the card, which I need actually to collect money when it does come so I can pay for my visa on next Monday.  Well I get to the bank all ready to buy a new card, and what should I find, but it’s a different lady who gives me a card for free, along with a case that will protect my card from future scratches!  With an extra 20€ in hand, I can undoubtedly make it through the week.  God has yet to leave me hanging.  Maybe I’ll start trusting him soon.