It's Christmas time in Germany

It is definitely now Christmas time in Germany. Despite no Thanksgiving (yes, I had to work on Thursay and Friday), it seems that Germans begin the Chrismas season around the same time as Americans.  On Thanksgiving day, there was the pleasant surprise of a Thanksgving meal in the cafeteria at my client for lunch.  There was carved turkey, mashed sweet potatoes, carrots, and cranberry sauce (more of a thin sauce than the traditional gelatin type thing).  It was quite good, and fun to show my German colleagues what a typical American Thanksgiving meal is.  Also, they do not have cranberries in Germany, so my team got to try something new, too!

On Saturday, I went to Cologne to visit the Neumanns (Chad, Kelly, and Will).  Chad is a manager with PwC in the Cologne office, and they are originally from Milwaukee.  Will is their 17-month old son, and Kelly is pregnant with another boy due in January.  Also, Kelly's brother and sister were visiting from Iowa.  And, they had their German friend, Anna, and her daughter, Rosie (who is the same age as Will) over.  It was a fun time.  We ate chili, cheese and crackers, brushetta, Christmas cookies, and puppy chow!  Kelly's sister brought a suitcase full of American groceries, including Crispix, and Kelly made puppy chow.  Everyone had a great time, and it was really fun to be around Americans (especially from the Midwest).  I'm sure I will see the Neumann's again soon.  They are extremely nice and helpful to me.  I even offered to babysit, haha!

Also this week, I added the following things to my list of accomplishments:  unpacking the last of my boxes, figuring out how to take out the trash (in Germany you have to separate everything - different colored glass, plastics, paper/cardboard, and pretty much everything else), and going to the dry cleaners (which is really expensive here). 

Finally, I visited the Christmas market in Dusseldorf for the first time.  Germany is famous for its Christmas markets.  There are booths set up all over the city center and vendors sell everything you can think of (Christmas decorations, toys, artwork, etc, and then tons of food and drinks).  The famous drinks at the markets are gluhwein (mulled wine) and feuerzangenbowle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feuerzangenbowle).  I had a feuerzangenbowle and it was quite potent, but a nice warm drink for the wintertime.  So, I understand why it is a traditional Christmas drink. 

See my new pictures posted on Picasa at right (including some pictures that I took of my apartment).

Another week

Well, another week has passed here in Dusseldorf.  Work is going just fine.  It's a little frustrating to not understand the language and to not be given the amount of responsibility that I am used to, but I'm sure it will come with time.  And, after all, work is work.

Some other things that happened this week:

• My shipment was delivered on Monday morning.  All of my furniture, clothing, and belongings arrived, and it's so nice to have everything again.  It's great to not have to be living out of my 3 suitcases anymore.  The best part is that I can sleep in my very own bed again!  It had been 7 weeks since I had slept in my own bed, and I had missed it a lot.  I still have a few boxes that I need to unpack (mostly kitchen things)but I still haven't decided where I'm going to put everything.  That is going to be Sunday's project.
• I joined a gym about 3 blocks from my flat.  It's just like a gym in America, with treadmills and weights, etc.  I have been twice so far, and it seems like it will work just fine to keep me in shape.  I think I have decided to run another half marathon in the spring.  This will give me motivation to keep running and stay in shape (see below for why I need to stay in shape, haha).  The Bonn half marathon is April 25, and the Dusseldorf marathon is on May 2.  I still need to decide which I will run (and confirm whether there will be a Dusseldorf half marathon this year, or just the full marathon).
• I met a fellow PwC "secondee" aka someone else who is here on an international assignment.  His name is Mauro, and he arrived from Milan, Italy in October.  So, I guess now I have a friend.  We met up with some other PwC colleagues for a few beers on Tuesday night.
• I experienced my first "Waffle Wednesday" at my client.  There is a cafe (and also cafeteria) on the first floor at my client's office, and there are always cakes and coffee.  But on Wednesdays, they make waffles, and you can have ice cream, whipped cream, powdered sugar, or other toppings.  So, my team went on Wednesday for an afternoon snack.  I was so full that I didn't even eat dinner that night.  Which brings me to why I have to keep working out, so I don't get fat.  The lunches here are so big and filling, but luckily, I have discovered the salad bar at my client, and am now trying to avoid all the meat and potatoes every day. Not that it is a bad thing... just not so good for my waist :)
• I found a cycling group online that rides every Saturday.  I met up with them today, and it was a nice group.  They start at a nice bike shop, and the route changes every week.  There are about 3 old guys that lead the group and know all the roads around Dusseldorf.  There were about 10 of us today (mostly old German guys, a guy from the Netherlands who works in Ddorf, and another expat guy who had just moved here - I think from Norway), and of course, I was the only girl.  The ride started out intending to be about 65 km, or about 2.5 hours of riding.  This seemed fine to me, especially since the terrain is very flat.  Well, we ended up riding for 4.5 hours and 95 kms!!!  And, we climbed up the biggest hill in Nordrhein-Westphalia (the state that Ddorf is in).  It was about 2.5 kms long and a 6% grade.  After climbing the hill, we stopped at a little shop for a coffee and snack and then headed back into town.  I was so exhausted, especially since I have definitely not ridden that far in years and am a little bit out of cycling shape.  Oh well, the weather was nice, so I wanted to take advantage of that, and I got to see a lot of the countryside.  We saw some wind turbines, a power plant, a surface coal mine, lots of cute little villages.  But, now I am so tired and sore that I am about to fall asleep on the couch, and it is only 7pm.
• I had my first German lesson on Friday.  PwC HR suggested a private tutor, named Luca, and she met me at the office on Friday morning to have the first lesson.  She is also a cross-cultural instructor, so she is able to explain all of the cultural dfferences that I am facing.  She uses a similar style to Berlitz (where I took my lessons in Chicago), which is mainly asking questions and having dialogue.  I like this style, since there is very little memorization or translation, and much more useful, day-to-day conversational skills. 

Hope everyone is doing well, and have a happy Thanksgiving.  I will be working on Thursday.  :(

Sunday and Rain

I was hoping to go running today, but of course, it poured down rain all day.  And, on Sundays, all the stores are closed in Germany.  So, I pretty much hung around the apartment and figured out how to use the washer and dryer.  The washer is great, but the dryer takes forever to dry clothes.  I guess I will be using the drying rack a lot. 

Karnevale! (and lots of productivity)

On Wednesday, 11/11 at 11:11 am, the Karnevale season began.  In this region of Germany, this is a big holiday which kicks off the time from now until Lent.  There will be a large parade on the last day of Karnevale in Feburary.  On 11/11, there were big parties in both Cologne and Dusseldorf.  My team from work and the E.ON Corporate team got together after work to celebrate.  We met at a brauerei in the Altstadt to have some Alt beer, listen to German music, dance, and enjoy the atmosphere.  There were many people in crazy costumes, and the bar was completely packed.  It was such a fun time, and a great way to welcome me to Germany!  Most of the music was sung by live bands, and the songs were generally about Dusseldorf.  There is a large rivalry between Cologne and Dusseldorf, so this is a particular time of year to celebrate your town.  The team was so much fun, and I got to meet everyone on the Corporate team, including some people that I had corresponded with when I was working on E.ON back in Chicago.  I think this will be a very fun team to work with, and it reminded me of the "good old days" going out with the Exelon team in Chicago.  And, they told me that the end of Karnevale season will be right after we complete our year-end audit, so we will have a great reason to celebrate again then. 

Also, this week I have been very productive.  I now have a mobile phone, yay!  I won't get my PwC Blackberry for a month or so, and they also only allow you to use it for business calls and business emails, so I probably won't use that phone too much anyways.  So, I purchased a simple prepaid plan that will be cheap since no one really calls me anyways!  It took some time to get it activated, and I had t go to the T-Mobile store today, but my phone is up and running now.  I don't feel quite so disconnected from the world anymore. 

Second, I purchased and set up a wireless router.  Now, I can watch TV and surf the net on my computer anywhere in the apartment.  Before, I always had to sit at the kitchen table.  I can sit on the couch and be comfortable now.

Also, I have mastered going to the grocery store, post office, and ATM (geldautomat).  Being able to do the day to day activities that are necesary in life - these are the small victories that make me happy these days. 

More pictures to come, stay tuned!

"A curry of a life"

I am currently reading "My Life in France" by Julia Child, and her husband calls their life "a curry of a life" because it is so interesting and different.  I think this is a good way to describe my life right now. 

On Sunday, Juliana's friend, Jana, met me at my hotel and we walked around and stopped for a coffee.  She is really nice and it was great to have someone to talk to.  She and her boyfriend also live only 2 blocks from my apartment, so I think we will get together again.  And, we are both hoping that Juliana will come into Dusseldorf soon, and we might even have a girls night out!

I have now survived my first 2 days of work at PwC.  Unfortunately, 95% of the first 2 days, I was without my computer.  I arrived at the office on Monday morning and picked up my computer, but none of my passwords worked.  (In addition to the keyboard on my German laptop being a little different which does not make typing very easy, haha.)  Anyways, it turned out that when my start was delayed from October until November, IT got the wrong message and thought I wasn't coming at all, so they turned off my account.  It took an entire day for my computer to be turned back on, so in the meantime, I went over to my client (E.ON Energy Trading or EET for short) and met the team, learned about the client, and tried to keep myself occupied until my computer was ready.  The team is really nice, but I am finding it a little hard to fit in since everyone pretty much talks in German except when they are talking to me.  I am not very happy about this because I can't participate in conversations about what's going on with the audit or even every day conversations at lunch.  Hopefully they will get better at including me in discussions, or I will have to get better at understanding Germany very quickly.  But, my senior manager is really cool.  He has done an international assignment in the Calgary, Alberta, Canada office, so he knows what I am going through.  He's really laid back and actually swears in English which is funny.  I think I will like working with him, but he's seems a little hands off, so I'm nervous about the actual work.  It seems like the guy I am replacing knew everything that was going on with the client and when everyone wanted to know something, he was the one that knew the answer.  I can only hope that the new lead senior knows what she is doing (I hope). 

As with everything these days, I will just have to see how it goes. I can't really predict what will happen or how things will work, but luckily, I am good at adapting and going with the flow. 

Also, today I checked out of my hotel and am now fully living in my apartment.  My furniture has not yet been delivered, though, so I don't have my bed.  I am sleeping on the couch for now, which is fine, I suppose.  It is nice to have internet all the time (which I didn't have in the hotel) and not have to eat out all the time.  But, I don't have the wonderful breakfast which was included with my hotel.  :(  Such is life!

I have arrived!

I arrived in Dusseldorf Friday morning.  The flight was just fine, except the woman at the Lufthansa check-in counter told me that I had too much luggage, but let me check it all anyways.  She said that next time I would have to pay the fee.  Oh well, it worked this time!  Haha.  I would recommend lying Lufthansa to everyone coming to Europe, though.  They serve alcohol for free!  They serve wine with the meal, and then come around again and ask if anyone wants a refill.  I didn't drink any, though, because I didn't want to feel awful when I got to Dusseldorf and didn't want the jetlag to be any worse than it would be.

My relocation agent, Gabi, met me at the airport.  She has been quite helpful during the move.  She picked me (and all my lugagge) up and then we drove to a city building to pick up my paperwork and permits.  I first received my residence permit.  Every resident in Germany is required to register their current address with the government.  Then, I received my work visa.  It takes up two pages in my passport and permits me to work for PwC here in Germany. 

After this, we went to the bank (Stastparkasse) to open a bank account.  The poor girl helping us at the bank wasn't very confident speaking English, so she would often speak to Gabi who would then translate it in English to me.

Then, Gabi took me to my new apartment.  It is actually quite spacious - a living room, kitchen and dining room, a bedroom, and a bathroom.  I am renting this apartment from Jens, my counterpart at PwC who I am swapping with.  He will be working at PwC Chicago for the next 2 years, while I am working in Dusseldorf.  He has left several of his things here for me to use, including all the kitchen items, couch and other living room furniture, and some other shelves and cupboards.  I think the apartment will work out quite nicely. 
Finally, after looking through the apartment, Gabi took me to check in at the hotel (the Courtyard by Marriot Hafen).  It is a very nice hotel, and the breakfast this morning was excellent.  I had an omelette, yogurt, juice and cappucino.  Yum, that is one thing that I love about Europe - the coffee! 

After checking into the hotel and doing some unpacking, I took one full suitcase of things to my apartment to unpack there, so that I do not have to move everything at once.  After this, I stopped at a little stand for some currywurst, fries, and a coffe (trying to be very German, haha).  It was alright.  I'm not sure I will ever grow to like wurst as much as Hal does!  Then, I walked around the city center, including up the Konigsallee which is the famous shopping street here.  It has lots of designer shops, such as Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc.  Then, I wandered through the Alstad (Old Town) and then walked back to my hotel along the Rhine River.  I was very tired after all this walking, so I just stopped at a little shop to pick up a bottle of water, a snack (chocolate biscuits), and of course, a beer (Paulaner Hefeweisen).  I took all of this back to my hotel room and read my New Yorker and watched some TV.  I think I will try to watch some German TV, and hopefully this will help me to learn the language.  I was so tired and almost fell asleep at 6:30pm, but forced myself to stay up until 8pm.  I'm trying to get my body used to this time zone as quickly as possible.

This morning I woke up around 8:30am and had my breakfast at the hotel.  Then, I used the hotel gym to run on the treadmill.  After getting ready for the day, I took my first bus ride.  I knew the price of one trip, thankfully, so I had my money ready.  I got on and looked at the driver a little confused, so he showed me where to put the money, and then he handed me my receipt.  Reading all of my maps paid off, as I knew exactly where to get off.  Then, I ventured into the Aldi for my first grocery shopping trip.  I picked up a few things, then got in line.  When I was up, I made sure to have my money ready and my bags (you must bring your own) because I had heard that the check out goes very fast.  Boy was that correct!  I could barely hand her my money before she was done scanning all of my items.  And then I frantically tried to throw everything into my bags while she hand me my change and then started scanning the next customer's items.  Eek!  I will have to get used to this and come up with a good system to not be so slow. 

Well, that is all for now.  Until next time, tschuss!

3 days!!!

Well, I'm down to just 3 days until I head off to Deustchland!  I can't believe that it's finally time to move.  For so long, the actual move date has seemed far off, but now it is really here.  I'm particularly thankful to Renae and Ryan for letting me stay with them since the end of September when I had to move out of my apartment in Chicago.  They have been so nice to let me live there and hopefully I have not been too much of a hassle to them.  They are truly great friends that I hope to have for a very long time to come.

My last few weeks in Chicago have been very fun.  I've tried to spend them doing things I enjoy with the people that I geniunely care about.  I got go boating down at IU, run the Chicago Half Marathon, go to a Blackhawks game, cheer on my friends in the Chicago Marathon, tailgate in South Bend with the Wacker family, dress up for Halloween, and spend some quality time with my family.  Here are some fun pictures from my last few weeks:

Labor Day boat trip 2009 with Jen and Josh

After the Chicago Marathon (Julie, Jess, Jill, Sarah, and me)

Tailgating at Notre Dame with Jill and Sarah

Legends of the Hidden Temple costumes for Halloween (and Jess as Pebbles)

Great times with great friends.  I really am going to miss Chicago and all my friends here.  But, I suppose it is time to move on to the next adventure which is Dusseldorf.  My flight leaves Thursday, November 5 and I will arrive on the morning of the 6th.  I will then start work at PwC on Monday, November 9.  It will be a crazy busy next few days, but I should be able to post an entry to the blog within a few days of my arrival to let everyone know how it goes.  If you want to add me on Skype to talk over the internet, please do - my username is k8joy121.  Until then, auf wiedersehen!