My good friend Luke P. has started a Travel Blog since his arrival in Munich as a collaborative blog among our group of friends. I’ve decided to post my travel experiences over there. You can find it at http://besttravelblogevar.wordpress.com/.
I’ve made it to Germany and I finally received my luggage back from the airline after they conveniently managed to lose all of it and spend 4 days finding it and causing significant damage to it. But I’m not bitter. It’s just funny how once they lose your luggage, they pool all their resources together, get on this huge tracking system, find the luggage, get it sent on the next plane directly to the destination, and personally deliver it to your house, no matter how far away you are from the airport by the time they find it. That is excellent service, I must say. A funny thought crossed my mind.. what would happen if they put only half of that energy and those resources into just not losing it in the first place? Oh, they would obsolete their luggage tracking department and put people out of jobs. That makes sense.
Anyways, so I’ve been in Munich for about two weeks, and I decided I should visit my brother in Prague this weekend. This is always a fun experience, because i always experience something new when I go to Prague. I tried mead for the first time. That was great. How can one not appreciate fermented honey! It was a little on the sweet side, but definitely worth trying if you come across it! Secondly, I found out that in Prague, there is no requirement to wear a seatbelt. This is a little unnerving, when I imagine that everyone in the entire city is driving around without a seatbelt on. I took a cab from the train station to my brother’s place and got the strangest look from the cab driver when I put on my seatbelt. All the cars have seatbelts… they just aren’t required. And nobody that I saw was wearing a seatbelt. That is definitely strange. Even the cab drivers, who tend to drive a car for a living, don’t wear them. Another really strange thing I noticed here, was when you buy a bag of potato chips, you get the same brands and other ones than you find in American grocery stores, only the bag is a lot smaller, but you get the same amount of chips. That’s right, they don’t package up 3 gallons of air for every 5 potato chips. What a country!
I’ll head back to Munich tonight so I can get back to work. I have a busy week ahead of me with getting into the German health care system, filling out forms for the Aufenthaltsamt (Immigration Bureau) and hopefully getting into my new apartment.
That is how many days I have waited, looked forward to, and thought yesterday would never come. I still clearly remember my very first day of school. I entered the 1st grade at Riemerling Grundschule in the outskirts of Munich, Germany on September 11th, 1990 at the ripe young age of 6 years old. Every single day for 6122 days between now and yesterday, I looked forward to that day, in which I could finally say I am done. 6122 days of dreading the grueling torture that is school.
I have struggled through math class, learned to write perfect handwriting with an ink fountain pen, learned, forgot, and re-learned the rules of grammar in English and mastered the German language, as well as gained a solid grasp on the basics and fundamentals of the Russian language, made and lost many good friends, moved many times and attended 8 different schools between 1st and 12th grade, attended college for 6 years, at two separate colleges through 5 different majors, accumulated over 300 college credits and finally, finally walked across the stage yesterday as a diploma was handed to me in front of my father, mother, stepfather, uncle, grandmother, some very close friends, and most importantly, my girlfriend, Karen, who has conquered my heart. Indeed yesterday can count to one of the greatest days of my life. No longer will I be dreading class tomorrow or the essay due next week. I have finally achieved a status in my life that I have been longing for for 6122 days. What comes next?
Tomorrow morning I will leave what has been my home for the past 11 years and embrace what has been my home for many years before that. I will be flying into Munich after a long flight and jump right into work. I am overwhelmed with sadness and joy at the same time. Joy for finally finishing something of significance in my life. Joy for going back to my favorite place on earth, for getting to see my little sister, and my brother and some close friends. Sadness for leaving behind my mom and some other close friends, and most importantly, my girlfriend, with whom I have fallen in love with.
It has definitely been an adventure, and for the first time in 6122 days I feel that I am truly free and the world is just another adventure waiting to be explored. There is nothing holding me back from pursuing my dreams and my future. I have succeeded. I have graduated. I am done. I am now Alumni. However, if the University thinks I am going to join their Alumni Association and give them even more money, they are definitely mistaken. I am already in the possession of the most expensive piece of paper I have ever seen, I don’t need another. 
I have made the decision to return to the place of my upbringing after I graduate from Oregon State University. Approximately one month from now I will be walking at my commencement ceremony and two short days later I will be boarding an airplane to embrace my new home in Munich, Germany.
This is going to be a rather interesting adventure for me. Although I grew up in the Munich area, I left there when I was only 12 years old and in the past 11 years that I have spent in the US, I have, for all intents and purposes, become very americanized. I have visited Munich many times since moving to the US, but it has only been as a tourist. I have spent the last 5 years or so brushing up my German skills and will be receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in German (language and culture/history/literature) this June. I won’t be going through the culture shock experienced by most expatriates, however this is indeed going to be a major change in my life.
I have done a lot of soul-searching throughout my time in College. If nothing else, I have learned a lot about myself. In studying German, I have learned a great deal about the English language. In studying German culture I have learned a great deal about the American culture. It’s funny how that happens. In drinking American beer, I have learned to really appreciate German beer.
When looking back over the last 6 years since graduating high school, my first thought is that I didn’t really learn anything at University. It is just a huge bureaucratic mess that tries to shuffle as many students through it as possible so they can take our money. I definitely didn’t end up where I started out. I have changed my major more times than some people change their clothes in a week. I have changed my views on life many times and my interests have changed significantly from when I first started. So looking back and realizing that I spent an enormous amount of money on a degree that probably won’t relate much to my chosen career path at first is a little disheartening. But taking a step back from this initial thought, I realize that I wouldn’t go back to change any part of it, given the chance. I have learned a great deal about Business, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Liberal Arts. But mainly, I have learned about myself. I now know what I don’t want to do with my life. I’m still not sure what I do want to do, but I know where I want to start out. That is the first big step. It took me 6 years to figure that out, but along the way I have met some amazing people. In the last few years I have made friendships that will probably last a lifetime. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
So in the last month that I am here, I have really taken some time to think about life in America. The things I will miss, the things I won’t. Of course people say the grass is always greener on the other side. I look forward to moving to Germany and somewhere deep down I think that everything will be perfect and I won’t ever look back. Well these were my thoughts 11 years ago, when I decided to move to America with my mother in the first place. At first everything was great and fun. A new culture to get used to, new people, new school. But I started missing things about Germany. Things that were more important than Root Beer or Dr. Pepper (hope I can find that stuff in Germany). At this point in my life, my friends hear me raving about the great food/beer/cities in Germany, but really that stuff isn’t worth moving to another country for. And I would hate to try to convince someone that they should move to Germany because they have better beer. Everyone has to do what is going to make them happy. As a third-culture kid, I can only say that home is where the heart is. I find myself disgruntled with American laws and politics frequently (will devote a separate blog post for that), but I think at this point in my life, my main reasons for leaving are family, friends, and career opportunity. Food, Beer and Fun are a close second. I think this will be a great opportunity for me to really reconnect with my father, see my brother frequently and hopefully be a part of my little sister’s life. She is 7 now and I have only spent very little time with her in her short life. Some of my best friends that I have made in college have somehow found their way over to Europe. In fact, all my friends are leaving Corvallis this summer, so I won’t be missing anything here (other than my mom, of course). So I’ll be leaving all that is familiar behind here, but I think my heart is in Munich right now. I will be closer to some of my family, I will be closer to most of my friends, I will be enjoying a brand new life German-style. I have re-established contact to some of my friends from grade school in Munich. It will be interesting to see what these people are like now, if we still have anything in common. Yes, it will be a great adventure indeed.
So for now I am trying to make the most of my final month in Corvallis. I will be spending a lot of time with some close friends here, and my mother, and I will be taking a small trip to visit my grandmother before I go. Aside from that, most of my time will be spent preparing for a move across the ocean. I can only take the bare minimum with me, so selling stuff and giving stuff away and asking my mom to store some stuff for me has been a little sad. But I am excited for what might await me in the new city. I am mostly bummed that my toaster oven won’t be coming along with me.
That is all for now. Goodbye, Corvallis! Germany, here I come!
While down in Mountain View, CA this last weekend, I couldn’t help but notice the following group of signs:
Let me translate this: “You are not allowed to smoke. You are not allowed to ride your bike. You are not allowed to use your skateboard. And yes, we are indeed watching you right now!”
But that’s okay, because we live in a “Free Country”.
For lunch on Friday, I went down to the Mozilla Foundation. They were doing a presentation for some Stanford students and had a bunch of pizza. I got a tour of the office and met some of the people there. Everyone seemed really friendly and the work environment looks awesome. If I could program any more than a good old “Hello World”, I would definitely want to work there. I was so impressed with the company and their mission, that I decided to help out in a small way. You’ll notice I have a slick looking “Firefox 2″ button over on my sidebar now. If you’re not using Firefox now, I strongly recommend you give it a try!
Today, I am writing from the beautiful city of Mountain View, California, home of Google and Mozilla. I drove down last night to visit my very good Foreign American friend, Fred. It was a long trip, but totally worth it. Today will be spent catching up on things with Fred, whom I haven’t seen since September. Tonight will be spent catching up on some liquid bread. Tomorrow we’ll probably see if we can’t find something to do in San Francisco. Right now, while Fred is diligently coding away at work, I’m shamelessly raiding his kitchen and watching HBO on digital cable. It sure is great to get away for a while! 
Well, all good things come to an end, I guess. The last day in Stuttgart didn’t yield much entertainment. We mostly relaxed and took long naps, since we had to be up at 4 the next morning to catch our respective trains. The flight home was pretty eventless, save for the annoying immigration, customs, baggage check, and security stuff they make you go through. But after a total of 14 hours of flying time, I was back in Oregon. After an additional three hours of traffic filled highways, I ended up at home and ate dinner and relaxed. Due to jet-lag, I didn’t actually get to sleep until around 6:30 the next morning, but hopefully that will pass in the next few days.
Classes and work start again on Monday, so I have two days to fully relax and get re-Americanized. I’m currently coping with the absence of Bavarian beer and European food. Perhaps I’ll make a quick stop down at the grocery store and see if I can’t fry up a Bratwurst or two. And I believe there is a store in town that sells some Munich beer. Maybe the good times don’t have to end right away…
I’ve been spending my last two days in the city of Stuttgart. This city is very beautiful with many sights to see, a beautiful downtown square, two castles, and it is the home of Daimler-Chrysler, so we’ll be checking out the museum there today.
The beer in this entire state (in my opinion) doesn’t quite compare to the beer in Bavaria, and Hefeweizen seems to be the beer of choice around some parts. Well, yesterday I was introduced to the Cola-Weizen. I can’t even explain the sensation. Who would have thought that mixing cola with Hefeweizen would yield such an amazingly good flavor? I’m definitely sold on this new concoction, and am no longer angry at the inferior beer over here. In fact, my first mission when I get home, is to try to make my very own Cola-Weizen. It’ll be interesting to see if Widmer’s Hefeweizen can hold up to the challenge.
In order to get a seat at one of the beer tents at Oktoberfest, one needs to get up pretty early in the morning. So after the night train from Prague, we made a quick pit stop at my dad’s house, to take showers and change clothes, etc. By 9 a.m., we were standing in front of the biggest beer festival in the world. I met some good friends at the designated meeting spot in front of one of the beer tents, and by 9:30, we had found one of the last remaining empty tables. It didn’t take long for that place to fill up. Some of the folks we were with, are from Baden-Württemberg, so we had to teach them how to properly hold the 1-liter beer mug. I guess Bavarians do things a little different. We all had a great time. Five hours, three liters of beer, and a half a chicken later, we decided to catch some fresh air, and go see some other parts of Munich. I took my friends to the Augustiner Keller Biergarten, where we had coffee and cake. It was a good day.
Something interesting to note about the Oktoberfest: Sitting in a beer tent with literally 10,000 other people, who are all drinking the same brand of beer and squished together on uncomfortable wooden benches, one really feels a connection to his fellow man. It is an amazing phenomenon to see so many different kinds of people all sitting together, drinking together, singing together, and just getting along. These same people could be enemies the rest of the year, but all differences get put aside, and everyone just has a good time together. On rare occasion, I’ve seen a “bar fight” almost break out, but usually a simple raising of the glass and a loud “Prost!” resolves all differences. That is a beautiful thing.
