This Post Is Not Bipolar.

On September 9, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn Life In Germany8 Comments

Over the next few months, the sun’s magnetic field is going to reverse. This happens roughly every eleven years. It’s a significant event, cosmically speaking, but it doesn’t affect us at all like a bad SyFy disaster movie.

Rara says that every time this happens, every eleven years, it heralds huge changes in her life. I’m a big fan of the concept of circles, cycles, renewals, and the like, so this got me thinking about where I was eleven years ago, and where I’ll be next year.

Eleven years ago… it was September of 2002. I was 29 years old, and I had no idea what the next eleven years would bring.

I was two months into employment with my current company. We had been given six weeks of training, so I was about two weeks into taking customer phone calls. I’m a UNIX systems administrator now, but I started out as a tier 1 technical support rep, and crawled my way up. In the eleven years since then, I’ve had six title changes, including one stint in management. I prefer solving problems to managing people, though.

I had just become single after breaking things off with someone who wasn’t a good fit for me romantically- this was an excellent judgement call though. Eleven years later, she’s still one of my closest friends, and we’ve seen each other through a lot.

In 2002, my father had been remarried for a little over a year- he remarried at age 62, so I know there’s still hope for me. 2002 was just before my elder brother started dating the woman who is now his wife. It was before my other brother started dating his boyfriend, and they’ve been together now for roughly seven or eight years. In 2002, my oldest niece was twelve years old- she’s a high school teacher now.

2002 was before I bought my condo in South Florida, the one that I sold in 2011 just before I moved to Germany. 2002 was before I acquired my passport, and now I’ve been to fourteen countries, including living in Germany for the last two years.

Today, I’m forty years old and I’m roughly fourteen months away from a move back to the United States. Anything could happen in the next year, though- and that’s the point. Big changes are coming in the solar system, and I’m really curious to see where the next eleven years will take me.

Where were you eleven years ago? What do you think the next eleven years hold for you?

August Break: Break Time Is Over

On August 31, 2013June 29, 2014 By StevenIn Life In Germany4 Comments

I’m on an August Break from my regular blogging schedule. Here’s today’s picture.

This shot was taken of me in Essen this summer, looking pretty much how I always look when I’m traveling- jeans, t-shirt, camera bag slung over my shoulder, and sunglasses perched askew on my head.

This month has been a fun and interesting deviation from regular blogging, but it’s time to go back to my regular twice a week bloggery, at least for now.

If they made an action figure of you as a traveler, what accessories would you come with?

August Break: A Regensburg Weekend Afternoon

On August 30, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn Life In Germany2 Comments

I’m on an August Break from my regular blogging schedule. Here’s today’s pictures.

On a weekend, I like to go out to lunch with my friend Jenny. One of my absolute favorite places in the city is Lola.

I usually get the Warm Noodle Salad. I tell myself I’ll try something new on the menu, but this is just so damn tasty.

After lunch, while walking back from the Altstadt to my apartment, sometimes I go on the other side of the little green area near the Bahnhof. This is where the Kepler monument is. The last time I posted pictures of it, the entire thing was covered in snow.

There’s also this little drink stand in the park- it’s only open in warmer weather, and it’s just the cutest thing.

Are there any fun little green spaces near where you live?

August Break: Thursday Nights

On August 29, 2013August 26, 2013 By StevenIn Life In Germany6 Comments

I’m on an August Break from my regular blogging schedule. Here’s today’s picture.

A big chunk of my limited social life takes place on Thursday nights. There’s a regular Stammtisch that I attend. Tisch is German for table, and one of the many meanings of Stamm is regulars. In other words, Stammtisch is a word which is loosely based on the idea of a table of regulars. In America, this would just be called a Meetup.

Mine is a bunch of people who meet regulary to drink and socialize, and I’ve made some very dear friends through this group. Included in the lower half of this photograph are the kick ass Converse boots (and left knee) of Cat, one of the just mentioned dear friends. This photograph was a happy accident, by the way- I accidentally start the camera on my phone quite often, and I usually wind up with pictures of my pocket lining, or of artful blurs. Sometimes the camera records a happy accident, like this kind of nifty shot of a regular Thursday evening Stammtisch.

Thursday nights are also the one night a week that I’m almost always in the Altstadt, which gives me a chance to walk past this view. It’s easy to get jaded, but this set of buildings is amazing, and I try not to take the scenery for granted.

Have you ever been to a Stammtisch? How about a Meetup? What kind of group was it?

August Break: Feelin’ Blue

On August 28, 2013August 26, 2013 By StevenIn Life In Germany

I’m on an August Break from my regular blogging schedule. Here’s today’s picture.

Submitted without much comment, really. I haven’t seen any of these movies, but I kind of want to because why not. Also, it cracks me up that they’re not The Smurfs in German, they’re Die Schlümpfe.