Nike Flyknit

So I realize that I work at PUMA but I can't help but recognize genius when I see it, this time from Nike.


This shoe is knitted, which means they can put more fabric exactly where it is needed and take it out where it's not.  It doesn't need lining.  The laces are wired directly to the outsole.  I imagine the materials are super cheap but super quality, and since you are not cutting the shapes out of a roll of fabric there is practically no left over scraps aside from a few inches of string.  They are coming out in July in time for the London olympic games and I can't wait to try on a pair.

Go here for nike's version.  There is another video and more thorough comments.


On a side less important note, it also looks sweet so they will be integrating the technique into their lifestyle shoes too.

Birthday - Rounds 1 and 2

I had a birthday again a few days back and quite enjoyed it.  I decided I might as well celebrate twice.  Round 1 was well photographed as seen below.  That was with a group of friends from SMD, specifically people I know well from worship team or International Student Group.  We went first to 3 Linden for lunch.  There was something about "Crap" written on the sign, but word on the street was that it was just a name.

3 Linden is known for their schnitzel.  I ordered half of one (see below).  A full one is just another one stacked on top.  It's a good deal of food and it is one of the few places in Germany where take out is encouraged.  When the waitress noticed us slowing down she promptly brought out the aluminum foil (which we used for decorating eyeglasses).  We then went to a café room at a church nearby and I cooked up an apple crisp, and brought vanilla ice cream to go on top.  We played and listened to music, played crazy mind games, and a version of Mafia.  When it was time for presents they blindfolded me and gave me a "weapon," really a spatula, and made me look for it.  The idea at first was that happy piano music meant I was closer and sad that I was farther away.  We resorted to hot and cold though in the end and I found a nice bag of gifts hiding away for me.  I could go into details but you would all be jealous.  Eventually we all split and headed our separate ways.  Just as I was getting ready to say goodbye to everyone, my family called, so I did speed goodbyes and then talked to my family a bit.  It was so great to hear everyone's voices from home.

When I got home I mixed up some chocolate chip cookies to bring into work the next day.  Chocolate chips are super expensive here though so I bought a giant chocolate bar.  It was too fat to break so I melted it and let it cool on wax paper so I could break it in pieces.  It made really cool swirls in the cookies.  For some reason, my experience with German ovens has been that they always cook slower, which meant my first two rounds of cookies were crunchy all the way through before I adapted and got them crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.  There was just enough to cover my dinner that night (oops), work in the morning, and a few for my landlord and his family.

After work I went to an Italian restaurant with friends from PUMA.  I forgot my camera though.  Schade...  It was fun, mostly interns, some old and some new.  One was sick and volunteered to breathe all over my food as a birthday present for me.  I declined.  Instead I got a beautifully illustrated card with fun notes, and a rad PUMA keychain.  Afterwards a couple of us headed to a bar nearby to hang out a little bit.  It is Carnival time now, and so there were quite a few peculiar costumes wondering around.  I love people watching.

After all that fun, I still made it to bed by 11.  Impressive I know.  Enjoy the photos below!

Thursday felt like Friday

Just a regular Friday afternoon (except that it was actually only Thursday)

Impromptu photo shoot with the other interns.

Freddy sporting my sweet hat.

Me sporting Lisa's sweet hat (which Freddy pointed out looks like one of those toilet paper covers you see at your grandparents house)

Even the plough thought it was Friday.

And then on a side note, here is the "America" display at the mall.

A landscaping company doing some advertising.  They also have

an Asian garden amongst other displays.

And in other news, my bike is fixed!!  Less than 30€ and I have a sweet bike

Contagion

Not a movie review, this is much better.

Going through the work day and look out the window to see an emergency vehicle pull up at PUMA right outside the brand center.  The brand center is a section of the building where we have all shoes from Spring ’13 set up right now.  People from all over the world are here this week having meetings to talk about the shoes, and make final changes.  That makes it a very busy exciting week around PUMA.  With all those extra people and stress etc. I wasn’t totally surprised to see an ambulance, but then 4 more pulled up...

Time for our meeting.  We went down to the brand center to discuss the shoes that our group was responsible for.  We cover all the shoes, then most of the team heads back to the office.  My supervisor though insisted that we stay longer and look at the whole range of shoes.  Normally great, but I really wanted lunch.  As we were looking through the shoes a guy walks in and announces that some people had come down sick, and we were not to go into show rooms 1 or 3.  The people were going to the hospital to see what was wrong.  I didn’t see the big deal since they said it was just some throwing up and diarrhea (admittedly unpleasant).  We finish looking at the shoes and go to leave the brand center to go to lunch (20 minutes late).  Coming to the door we learned that sometime between when my colleagues escaped the brand center at our meeting's end and the present time they had decided to quarantine us.  Not cool.  Hungry, and I needed to leave early for the day anyway and they weren’t letting anyone out.  I checked around, and they had people guarding every exit and there were people with masks and medical equipment wandering around.

After a while of this, the head doctor called us all together.  He opened with, “I’m sure you have all heard what is going on here.”  Which was followed with an immediate rejection of the claim from the 150 or so of us locked in there who really had hardly any idea what was going on.  He went on to explain that 18 people had come down sick at once and after examining them in the hospital for the cause, decided it was just an ordinary bug, that makes you uncomfortable for 8 to 10 hours and then passes.  Thank goodness.  They let us all go after only about an hour with the advice to wash our hands regularly, not to kiss anyone, and to drink lots.  Most people assumed he meant beer.  Germans...

Anyway, we were released upstairs to explain what was going on to the people who had been on the outside and confused.  They were all terrified to come near us lest we be infected.  Shortly afterwards we all got an email saying that after all the commotion, we should all just head home for an early weekend.  I caught the bus at 13:30 and enjoyed an extra couple hours free.  Just as well, I was going to leave by 14:30 anyway.  I got out earlier and with a story.

Side story:  The meetings this week for the new shoes has been quite memorable when combining the story above at closing with the alarm during the opening ceremonies on Monday.  A pipe had burst and flooded shoes stored in the basement (which I got to clean up with the other development interns), so we all evacuated a little bit and stood outside in the -5F weather (-20C).  The people at the meeting of course didn’t have coats with them.

Unterschiedliche Kulturen

A Subjective Comparison of the United States and Germany 


Normally I don't just post links here but this site was fascinating when trying to understand the difference between two countries.  Americans will notice fairly promptly that the rider is biased towards Germany, but nonetheless has some interesting points to make and gives a better understanding to us about how we are perceived and why.  The writer was born and raised in Germany and then spent a large amount of time in the States.  The writer has a better understanding of the States than most Germans do, though some things I think you have to be raised with to understand.  Enjoy