Spending my entire life in one State (.. state of mind?), I always settled on habits and just stuck with them. These weren't always the best habits but once internalized they unfolded into a daily routine. For one, I have a penchant for sitting on my arse. It continues because my career of choice (technology, unspecified) includes a heavy amount of reading and "testing" (ie, Geek Olympics; long, harsh hours of building, breaking, rebuilding, rebreaking all-things-computer) - but let's just refer to it as Golympics (shame on you, Bucky, with your famous marriage of two words into an awesomer, single word [and blast you, John Dorian, for making me explain things in your peculiar and wonderful way..]). That, and like all other kids enjoy the easy answer to our problems of "what now?" - and the Nintendo DS Lite isn't helping anything! Blah, blah, blah
Anyway the point is that my habits are evolving, and it's unquestionably due to our recent lifestyle changes. Jumping right into it:
(a) my new-found ability to actually spend money. Previously I lived under the credit card umbrella (now-now, you know that I generally keep to my frugal (as little as possible!) budget), but now I roll with the EU version of play money. Who'd have thought a country like Germany hardly accepts credit cards? Well, ain't no stoppin me. In fact, why not carry real money as opposed to credit cards? Not only is it a great way to reduce unnecessary spending (can't spend what you don't have), but it's safe, too. Think about it. If someone steals your wallet full of play money, they sure as heck aren't going to snake the 85.62 of EU coins in your pocket! :) Oh, the joy of heavy pockets.. and having to re-learn simple math. Thanks to Brain Age for the DS, I'm once again capable of such complexities as 9 * 7. ;)
But what do I spend my money on? So far, food (but i feel a strong pull to the dark-side of boutique-ish clothing..).
Each day I head to the local grocer and pick up new selections of bread (if I'm out), meat, cheese, and sometimes new drink. I cannot ignore the obligatory chocolate item for me and the Missus, either.
Eating fresh bread is just tops (and kinda expensive at 2+ euros a "loaf"). Making sandwiches with this stuff takes my workin' man food to a whole new level. Pic
k up some good (ie, everyday) German mustard, a few slices of meat (salami, bierschank, bierwurst, fleischkase, turkey, whatever), and slice tomoato and wash the greens. It's so good (and looks so good) I feel like renaming it my uppa' management food. And don't forget the cheese. I see so many people here just eating cheese and bread, I thought "can't be so bad" and jumped on the wagon. Whether I pick up slices of "the daily" cheese or a slice of the wheel, it's in my lunch almost every day. One day I picked up Havarti, which was very different from the havarti I ate in the States (it was much stinkier, but very nice tasting). The next, brie, followed by a hard(er) cheese that that the butcher sliced for me because he liked it, followed by a wedge of Cambozola which rocked! PS: I still keep "normal" bread on hand for PB&J attacks, etc - otherwise I'd be broke.
(b) Consistently visiting the local Farmer's Market. This goes along with spending money, but I'm set on going each week. Luckily for me (cause SAtuday is Lazyday), there's a mid-week / Wednesday (Mittwoch) market. Just this morning I hopped on the bus with my bad German and bought a monster bag of fresh spinach, as well as other things like fresh walnuts, vine tomatoes, herbed olives and some marinated Feta (I think..). The grocers actually don't offer all of this stuff, so off to the Farmer's Market(s) we go (we also went once to the larger Stuttgart market which was also very nice).
(c) More photos! I know, all this talk of food, markets, stinky cheeses and breads without pictures is like Van Halen without David Lee Roth. I'm within reach of a camera much more regularly these days, and I will continue to pop photos for your eyes more than ever! I'll take it to the grocer tomorrow and drop in some savory pics.
(d) My Own Friends ©. I've lived in a world of Material Scientists over the past five years, and it's been fun - but it's hard sharing *everything* with your wife. Friends are no exception. My friends were always a mix of my wife's friends: MatSci's, their wifes, their hubbies, and of course my local tech buddies and friends from around the globe. Ultimately this meant my wife and I hardly had time apart. Shortly after arrival, we clarified that we needed different groups of friends at the lab (which we could combine for bombtastic parties.. muahhahaha). Now we have our own separat-ish social groups, where we chat about all sorts of goodness.. In German. I'm such a dork. Yeah, we don't always understand each other, but I win because I have great bread every day. ;) Then again, she has that infamous coffee club and the peeps that go with it - who are all pretty nice and Euro themselves. Darn you, coffee club with your million dollar cappuchino machine.
(e) A more relaxed attitude. Currently I have no serious deadlines, no true plans, and the work environment around us is: it can wait until tomorrow. I've never felt better. Ultimately I get my work done, albeit I do feel like I'm not focusing on my real job interests, but I think that will change over the next few weeks as people understand what I'm able to do (and interested in doing; there's a significant benefit with actually having interest). Life here is all-around positive. We walk, we eat, we laugh, we watch half-price movies at the Gloria on Tuesdays. I *just* received our first shipment of books, so I now have stuff to read, but I have time to pick up projects and hobbies. Unfortunately with my career choice comes that heavy reading / Golympics requirement, so I still have a slight internal pressure to continue investigating the newest features and products (Windows Vista, Windows PowerShell, the many books and articles regarding those two, the internal workings of those two, blah blah blah). But in the end I just pick up the DS or head to the closest town or Stuttgart for some relaxation.
Can't wait to see the Goritos in December, and looking forward to communicating with some of you over Skype, IM, etc.
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