Installment #1

Dec 3rd, 2006 Day 1

Well that was quite a trip. I haven't learned to sleep on a plane yet,
so I have basically been awake for 28 hours when I hit Frankfurt. Big
airport. Took about 45 minutes to walk to the other end (through customs
as well). The airport has designated smoking areas. Something you don't
see back in Canada or the US. I made my connection to Dusseldorf, but I
left my notebook on the previous plane. Luckily they found it, and I
will pick it up later. By the time I hit Dusseldorf, I was very tired.
Very windy part of Germany. Lots of windmills. It was a tad disconcerting
when the plane seemed to tip over by 30 degrees when we were 300 feet
off the runway. Between that and the onset of the flu, I was a little
queasy upon landing.

Sylvain St-Pierre met me at the airport, which was nice. We drove out
to GK (GeilenKirchen) in about an hour. Evidently the train makes the
trip faster and stops right at the airport. I will be taking this method
home for Xmas.

First stop was the apartment, which was way better than I thought it
would be. Bigger and cleaner anyway. Next stop was the hotel, if you can
call it that, basically is closed between 3:30 and 5:30pm. Then you
check in at the restaurant on the main floor.

So, seeing as it was that time when we arrived, we walked around in the
rain for a few hours. At 6pm, they still were not open. Welcome to
Europe. No rushing around in this town. There was a Christmas fair going
on, and food vendors everywhere. I had a bratwurst. Very tasty.

Eventually, they decided to open the restaurant, and I was able to
check into the room. The elevator was the smallest I have ever seen. It
stated a limit of 4 people and 340kg, and I felt crowded and
claustrophobic on my own. Floor area was 3'x 3'. They only have twin beds as well.
The stair wells are so narrow, they would never get a bigger bed up.
Evidently this is a European thing.

Decided to go to bed, and managed to get a whopping 3 hours of sleep.


Dec 4th, 2006 Day 2 Monday

Talk about jet lag. I arrived yesterday and basically explored the city
in the rain. I was able to stay up until 8pm, but woke up at midnight
with my mind racing at 100+ mph. Didn't really get back to sleep until
5. Woke up late at 8:30 and had to run around town like a madman trying
to find a razor (as I forgot to bring one with me)

I did spend my first day at work. I met with most of the financial
group and I think I will really enjoy the job. I will have a huge learning
curve with the finance data, and the new application I will be
managing. I know I will understand it sooner than later, but with the jet lag,
retention is a problem today. Learning German is not an issue as most
people can speak a little if necessary. Everyone at work speaks English,
so language is not an issue at least. I am still inclined to learn it
anyway. They do offer courses on base.

Decided against going to Belgium tonight as I knew I would be too
tired. Especially to get up "early" and drive 2 hours before work. I did
manage to figure out the wireless issue, but my converter does not accept
a rounded three prong adaptor plug (only 2). I will have to locate
another soon before my laptop runs out of batteries.

Went to the shop tonight for the first time. The local "superstore"
sells everything. I can buy a bicycle for less than 90 euros, though the
better ones are about 140 euro. I will most likely buy one when I
return. I doubt I will get a car right now. No need to.

The base is also closer to the dutch border than I thought. About 500m
from the far gate and you are in another country. Pretty cool. There
are no more border guards with the advent of the EU, so that is a plus.
Roads are a little confusing as signs are few and far between. No north,
west, south, east markings at all.

I decided to have a good dinner tonight. Pepper steak and a salad. Came
with a huge backed potato, and they even served some warm apple brandy
at the end of the meal for free. Very nice way to finish dinner.

So far, I think I will really enjoy it here. More later. Off to bed.

Dec 5th, 2006 Day 3 Tuesday
Dec 6th, 2006 Day 4 Wednesday

Wow, interesting turn of events. Turns out I have the flu. Add in the
time zone change for jet lag, and you got one sick puppy on your hands.
Typical of me, I still had to go in. I only have 2 weeks with the guy I
am replacing and need to learn a lot. There is a lot of accounting that
I have to understand and the challenge of doing it on my death bed has
been fun  There are times I feel fine, then others I can't
seem to focus my eyes. Got to love the effects of being ill coupled
with stress. My accounting knowledge is, thankfully coming back really
fast. I have remembered more than I thought I would, but I am definitely
not 100% yet. There is very little to do technically with my job. I am
currently being fast-tracked on the accounting procedures at NATO and
learning all the modules they use here. I will also have to learn the
back-end of the system so I can fix some of the more major issues.

I am definitely going to like this job. The staff here are great (even
if they are accountants --- Note to self: Laurie will probably kill me
for saying that). Very little stress for this opportunity. The biggest
bonus that I didn't expect is that I have an office! Two big windows
and my own cabinet for stuff. Moving on up to the east side! (bonus
points for whoever got that obscure reference). Still lots to learn before
Sylvain leaves, but I think I will be OK.

I have to catch the train to Dusseldorf on the 21st, so that should be
an adventure on its own. It will give me some practise for the weekends
to come. Turns out that there are some fantastic attractions not to far
away. There are castles, churches, memorials and monuments, etc...
Should be fun exploring.

More eye openers that you are no longer in Canada: hard liquor is very
cheap (about $5 for most bottles), beer is good (so is Canadian beer
but I couldn't resist the jab), very few preservatives in the food. Going
to the supermarket is almost a daily occurrence. Though that is not a
bad thing. Makes you watch what you eat.

I also visited the pharmacy (called apotheke here- reference is
apothecary). You can get antibiotics without a prescription here if needed.
Hopefully I got some flu remedy, and not Viagra or something else to do
other nasty things.

Gas is expensive here. Basic unleaded gas is about 1 euro per liter
($1.40). Unless I rent a car on base, I can't use the base gas station to
fill up. Which would be nice as it is subsidized and would be half the
price. There are some things on base that I can't use even after I get
my pass as I am not a NATO employee. They have some nice perks for
sure, besides the subsidized commodities. Every employee is entitled to 30
working days of holidays a year. How sweet is that.

Dec 7th, 2006 Thursday

Probably my worst day so far. Stayed up late so I could sleep
uninterrupted. That worked for about 5 hours. Then I had to go to work. The flu
is definitely knocking me down. I left work early today so that I could
get some sleep. I was able to nap from 2 until 5 and feel better. I am
still tired at the time of this writing (8pm) so I should be able to go
to sleep at a normal time tonight, and hopefully feel relatively normal
and not exhausted tomorrow.

Sylvain helped me setup a vonage line as well. I have a local number in
Ottawa that people can call, and it will reach me here. Even has voice
mail. Man, I love technology. I watched a movie last night as well. The
joy of laptops with dvd drives. It was a movie about spin control, or
distorting the truth for corporate ends called "thanks for smoking".
Funny part is that most of what happens in the movie is close to the
truth.

Coffee is very good here. We have a $1500 coffee maker at work, and it
is all the coffee I want to drink for $4/month. Nice! Even the small
coffee shops have good coffee here in GK.

One downside that I have found is that everyone smokes. Cigarettes are
cheap, and the smaller hotels don't have a "non-smoking" room
generally. I noticed the couch and cushions like smoke here.

Cars in general are small here. Much smaller than north american
vehicles anyway. I went by the "dead car" lot at work. This is were the
people going to another posting generally put there cars. There is a Nissan
in good shape for 900 euro or a very cool 1992 BMW 730i (leather heated
seats) for 2300 euro. Hard to guess which I would want!

Some of the windows are very cool. Turn the handle upwards, and the
window opens at the bottom (top comes towards you). Open the lever
horizontally, and the window swing in normally (ie pivots from the wall).
Lever down locks it. Pretty nifty.

Dec 8th-10th, 2006 Friday to Saturday

Well 13 hours of sleep seemed to do wonders for me. I am not hacking up
a lung nearly as bad and I seem to be much more alert. Had a good day
absorbing information, and feel better prepared for when Sylvain cuts
the apron strings. His last day is the upcoming Friday.He leaves, I get
the apartment, and a permanent internet connection. That will be a
relief. I almost feel withdrawl coming on. Serves me right for being an
internet junkie.

Did the typical bachelor Friday night. Yup, laundry. Party on! I
decided to relax and try and get over this cold. I rented a bunch of cheesy
movies and flaked out on the couch. Since the meals are so big at the
IDH (International dining hall), I wasn't all that hungry. A few beer,
some bad movies and I was asleep by 9. Living la vie da loca, that's
me....

Upon reviving from my coma on Saturday morning, I ventured out into the
world. Had a nice waffle breakfast at a local cafe. Everything here is
very reasonably priced. My breakfast was 3.5 euro with coffee included.
The waffles came with a nice berry sauce. After I finished up there, I
met Sylvain and decided to catch a train to Aachen, a town about 20 km
away. With my luck, the infallible german train system wasn't. Delayed
heading out, and delayed back. Pretty amusing if you think of it.

Anyway, we made it downtown Aachen in fairly good time. The train
station, according to Sylvain, was recently modernized. There was marble
everywhere, glass and brick. Very modern. And a McDonalds. I can't say I
was surprised. No, I did not eat there. We proceeded to the city center
where old King Carl used to preside. There was no separation of church
and state so the cathedral was the center of everything in Aachen back
in the not so ancient days. I believe that Sylvain mentioned that it
was the capital a very long time past.

The city still has some remnants of the old roman occupation. In the
center of town, there are 3 pillars connected like archways. To me they
look a lot like the ancient gate entrances. Event the stone work and
stained glass in the monasteries are amazing. Very intricate, and
fascinating when you think about how long ago they where made. The floor of the
cathedral has marble inlaid in patterns, which I understand was rare
back when King Carl ruled. Granted, it's good to be the king.

European cities are interesting as they mix the old and new, but also
seem to use up every little bit of space. A unique blend that we are not
accustomed to in Canada. I really enjoy walking down the cobble stone
streets, and feeling a bit like you were there. I plan on visiting Koln
and a few other cities soon. Sylvain has been an amazing source of
information regarding history and places to visit. I already have many
places in mind to bring Laurie and the kids. There is one stretch (on the
Rhine?) that is about 33 km long and contains 25 castles.

I was surprised, and happy to find a Thai restaurant in Aachen. I
didn't eat there (or anywhere in Aachen) as the city was in the midst of
their christmas festival. Every restaurant was filled to the brim with
people. Sylvain and I just has a snack at a local bakery and headed back.
I decided to have another steak at the restaurant below my hotel. Still
amazing. Yum.

I also walked over to the other hotel in town, the city hotel. I was
able to buy a 2 hour segment on the internet for only 4 euro with a much
better connection. I called Laurie and talked over my Vonage phone for
45 minutes. What is really cool about this, is that you can set up a
local Ottawa number, and connect to it via the internet. So, anyone can
call from ottawa to an Ottawa number, and my computer here will ring. I
even have voicemail. That is cool. I will still use skype so I can see
my kids as well, but the phone is always a good idea.

Today, Sunday, is the first really sunny day we have had. There has
been a large amount of rain and wind here for the past week. I am going
for a walk in the local park. Hope all is well with everyone, and I hope
you enjoyed reading about my first week in Germany.

Steve