Cloudy Germany, Sunny England

I spent last week in Germany for a work trip. I get to go there every three months in order to check up on some of my people there. This time around I didn't spend any extra time there since I just took over two days before I left for Germany. However, in the future I plan on spending at least a long weekend there after every trip.

Germany was good, but since I was working I didn't get to see much. I did have some time on the last day as my flight was in the evening. I went to Heidelberg castle and the Gutenberg museum. The castle in it's current form was built in the mid 1700's. It's claim to fame is having the world's largest wine cask. How big is that, you ask? Just over 58,500 gallons. It is absurdly large and not functional. After only a year or two of use, it started to rot from the inside (they were never able to fully fill it) and it was too expensive to fix. From then on it was empty.


The Gutenberg museum is home to the first books ever printed. Unfortunately they didn't allow any photography, so you'll just have to take my word for it: they were old. The exact date of printing isn't known, but somewhere between 1452-5 Gutenberg started making Bibles. The first ones, which the museum had 3 of, are called B42 (Bible with 42 lines on each page). The museum also had a large selection of other printed works from the 1450's through today. My favorites were the pictures from the 1400-1600's. A lot of them looked like cartoon drawings from today, but (to put it in perspective) some were created when Christopher Columbus was a young boy; almost 40 years before sailing to America. For some reason I always imagine people from the distant past to be angry and without a sense of humor; however, a good number of the pictures had people smiling, making faces, or doing something funny. Maybe it is just that famous German sense of humor that is timeless and unstoppable.

I got back to England last Thursday night and the weather has been amazing. Super sunny, warm air, and almost no wind. It's a bit of perfect, as the Brits (or is it the Aussies?) say. As I mentioned an earlier post, Harrogate is a city of parks. What I didn't mention (because I had no idea) is how crowded the parks get when the weather is nice. It's like every living creature instinctively swarms the the manicured grass and flowers. I have never seen so many pale, shirtless hungover men in my life. I'm generalizing a bit here, but the Brits like to drink. It doesn't really matter where they are or what time of day it is. Walking past pubs at 9:00am on a Sunday, one would assume that it would be empty. In the US, if you saw someone drunk at that time of day you would probably think them to be a college student preparing to attend a sporting event or a raging alcoholic levelling out the shakes. But here, respectable looking people in collared shirts and expensive shoes are cranking away at drinking off their hangovers. No day of rest for them. Later in the afternoon they mosey on over to the park, take off their shirts and sun their white bellies. Their bloated faces are doubly assaulted by the alcohol and sun; it makes for some red faces.


In regards to the question of where I will be living, I put in a bid on a flat (apartment) last Thursday. It definitely needs some work, but it only has holes in the doors, not the walls like the place in Leeds. The carpet is old, dirty, and bunched up all over. Under that are those old white tiles that measure 1'x1' and are most often found in schools built in the 1960's. If I buy it, I would plan on replacing all of the flooring with wood, maybe bamboo. Some of the walls are painted (badly, but that's easily fixed) and some of the walls are wallpapered (also badly and not as easily fixed). There are a couple of spots in the cupboards (closets) where the cement wall is flaking off. The kitchen doesn't have any appliances; no hob (stove), cooker (oven), or refrigerator. There is some water damage in the second bedroom and mold. Hopefully it is just where the last people dried their clothes and not an issue with the foundation or window framing. All in all, it seems livable. Hopefully the realtor gets back to me in the next day or two regarding my bid. I went 5% lower than their asking price and the place has been on the market since last fall. It's a repossession.


Lastly, here is a short video of some bagpipers playing in the park next to my flat. Notice how perfect the weather was for a Sunday afternoon. I read three Mitch Albom books this past week (even though I wasn't a huge fan of any of them) and I started on some Mark Twain short stories today after the bagpipers finished playing. I'm starting to do the same thing I did when I was in Japan: reading too much and not wandering in my new surroundings. I hope to fix that next weekend with a trip to... somewhere.

England So Far

Things have been moving along in England. S...L...O...W...L...Y... Maybe I am just more impatient than I ever realized, but it seems that there are a lot of steps involved in order to get anything accomplished here. Part of the impatience on my part is that I want to buy a house or flat. It is a time consuming process and I would like to get settled sooner than later. There were a lot of steps along the path to buying a place that I glossed over in the planning. When I got hung up on my inability to get a bank account, pre-approved for a mortgage (called a "mortgage in principal" here), phone, and car quickly, it threw a monkey wrench in the whole planning time line.

It took me two weeks, but I finally have a bank account, cell phone (I got an iPhone; it's so good), and a car. I still haven't found a place to live permanently, but I am in a one bedroom apartment for the time being, renting month to month. Since I only got a car a few days ago, I only had yesterday to look at properties. The number one thing I learned is that actually going to the place and walking around the neighborhood is crucial. There are some nice looking houses that are in miserable neighborhoods. On the flip side, some pictures don't do some places justice.

My original plan was to buy a place for around £60,000, but there really isn't much in that range that is livable. My new target is to buy for under £90,000. Even at that price, the search isn't easy. Historically, at lot of the places I am looking at were only 1/3 of their current price 10-15 years ago. The past year has seen about a 20% reduction in real estate value, but many analysts suggest that the housing prices in Great Britain will continue to fall (some say by another 50%).

This is what £55,000 will get you in Leeds. I'm tempted, but it's in bad shape. Note the hole in the wall in the guest bathroom.

I understand that I could be making a costly mistake by buying here, but let me go on record as saying that I understand that and am willing to take the risk. Right now the pound is fairly weak against the dollar. For the past few years it has been around $2 to the £1. Right now the exchange rate is at about $1.55 to the £1. Who knows, maybe the pound will tank against the dollar, but historically, the current level seems to be the equilibrium. As you may have guessed, I'm hoping we get back to the $2/£1 in a couple of years when I will be looking to sell. At any rate, there is my line of thinking. If you ever hear me complaining that I made a bad decision, just refer me back to here.

Enough business time, right? How is England? In a word, it's cool. Cold on some days. It does rain a lot, but not in a bad way. It's also quite nice on most days when it's not raining. The temperature is lower than I thought it would be. I only brought one pair of jeans, so I have worn those every single day so far. I haven't washed them since I've been here, either, which is cool. The pants are starting to become shaped like my legs even when I'm not wearing them.

Back on topic. Ok, so cars here are cheap. I was thinking about buying a BMW, but there wasn't much room on the inside. I also looked at a Hyundai Sonata, but the seller's paperwork was messed up. In fact, the majority of the paperwork on all of the cars was wrong. Great Britain's nit-picky system of constantly filling out forms does not mean things are done right administratively, it just means that people go around the rules in order to avoid the bother. On every car I looked at (which is about 10), the paperwork was wrong. The strange part is that on many occasions I had to explain why I wouldn't buy a car from someone when their name wasn't on the title. People would get upset with me because they thought I was insinuating that the car was stolen. And don't even get me started on customer service here. I walked out on buying a Honda Accord I wanted because the dealer was flat out rude. Anyway, I got so sick of searching for a car that I eventually bought one without even really looking at it. I went straight to the paperwork and it was all correct! I got so excited that I bought it. I didn't even sit in the car. Stupid, right? Yes, it was. The car smells like smoke, the radio doesn't work, the power windows don't work, and it didn't even have the floor mats in it. But, I do have a car. A 2001 Daewoo Lanos. I could have bought a 1998 or 1999 BMW 318 for the same price, but I didn't. Hopefully it was the right choice. Believe it or not, the cost to insure the BMW was about $15 a month cheaper. I don't understand that at all. The Lanos seems to be an ok car, but I have to down shift any time I come to an incline. 1.3 liters doesn't make for a large engine unless it is in a riding lawn mower.


I'm off topic again... England... Lots of stones; houses are all made of stones. So are the fences. If you could see how many stone fences there are, I don't think you would be able to imagine a stone being left over anywhere in the country. Not to mention the thousands of hours of work to build the fences. Thousands of miles of stone fences. I went on a 15 mile walk today in a place called Nidderdale and was most impressed by the number of stones I saw. Countless... There are sheep everywhere. Literally everywhere. I heard today that an adult sheep only costs £14 here. That's about $25. I'm not sure how much a sheep weighs exactly, but that seems like a lot of meat for a low price. Plus you could make an awesome sweater in the process.... The roads are insanely narrow. When you drive through some of these old towns, which could be a thousand years old or even older, you realize that 1) city planners didn't exist during England's glory days and 2) no one ever suspected cars would be so wide. Also, you can park almost anywhere. It's great if you want to pop in and buy something at a store (which no doubt closes at 5:00pm... even most "convenience" stores do.), but it makes driving through the already narrow streets even more interesting... Parks are also abundant. The city I am in right now, Harrogate, is famous for it's parks, but they all seem to be so well kept. Flower beds, trees, ponds, stone walks, and well manicured grass. I think they must have more grounds keepers here, per capita, then anywhere else I have ever been.


I guess that is it for today. I need to get some rest. This will be a big week for me. Up until know I have been hanging out trying to learn my job by watching, but starting this Friday the person I am replacing will be gone. I need to start asking more questions, but I am ready to take over. Oh, yeah; I'm going to Germany the following week. That should be fun as well.

HI / AU / NZ / IL / NY / UK

I flew a few hundred miles shy of 40,000 in the month of April. That's equivalent to circling the earth at the equator over one and a half times. I am happy to report that I have arrived to my final destination of England. The reason for all of the flying is that besides moving overseas, I took about three weeks in Australia and New Zealand on the way. It was a great trip. At a glance: I read some books (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Of Mice and Men, The Maltese Falcon, Slapstick), I went to some museums in Auckland and Wellington (partly because the weather on the North Island didn’t allow me to do my planned mountain biking trip), and I met up with old friends and made some new ones.

One of the highlights was definitely renting a car and buzzing around New Zealand’s South Island for 5 days with a British guy, Lewis, that I met the night before the trip started. We slept in the car and ate sandwiches of olives and sardines and "tasty" (i.e. sharp) cheese. Travel was a bit problematic due to the Easter holiday, when the whole country gets two weeks off. Once we figured out that sleeping in the car was a good bet, we didn’t worry too much about lodging. On our trip we saw a lot of the Lord of the Rings scenery, quoted a lot of the Flight of the Concords, and traded the names of good movies and bands. We also spent some time on the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, hiked around Mt. Cook, and participated in some "extreme" sports. I went skydiving and he went bungey jumping in Queenstown.

In Australia, I was able to get together with an old friend from work, Patrick. He is working down there and it worked out that we spent one weekend around Sydney and another around Canberra. We were able to catch an Australian rules football match, spend some (read: a lot) time in the pubs, and talk about the past/present/future.

After that it was a couple of days in Hawaii to finish up the moving business. That ended last week. Leaving was inevitable and I had time to prepare for it, so I was ready to move on. It’s really only when things are shocking that we are deeply affected, I suppose. I did everything I wanted to do and said my good-byes. I can’t imagine a better place to have been for the last three and a half years. I will always have happy memories of Hawaii, but I am really happy to be in England, as well.

The moves from Hawaii went well. Even when you have professional movers, moving is a time consuming process. I pulled more all-nighters in March than in the rest of my time in Hawaii combined. Say what you will about procrastination, but I somehow manage to get everything done just in time. When I was shipping my stuff, I was given an estimated time of arrival by the moving company of 9:00am. I finished what I needed to do about 12 seconds after that. There is no minute as productive as the last one.

I am very excited to be overseas (in the foreign sense, not the island sense of the word) again. I will be living and working in Yorkshire. I will be working in Harrogate, but I think that I am going to live in Leeds. All of the Brits I met over the past few weeks were well fond of Leeds. Plus, the cost of living is much much lower. In fact, it looks like I will be able to buy a place. The only question is if I get a newer, bigger place just outside the city or if I get an older, smaller place in the city itself. Both have benefits and drawbacks. While I would like to be in the downtown area, the flat I get would have more maintenance and heating/cooling costs associated. Outside of the city I might feel like I’m living in the suburbs, which I don’t find particularly appealing. I think I will try to get a place just north of the city on the metro line. A fair compromise. Whatever happens, I think that I will be living alone for the first time in my life. I have always had roommates. I love having roommates. The thought of coming home to an empty house is a bit disheartening. Especially in the dark, cold, wet England winters; however, I’m sure I will get used to the idea. I have been out of college for almost 5 years now, so maybe it’s time to take the next step in being an adult. If I get lonely I can always buy a robotic dog. Now there’s a genuinely depressing idea.

Unfortunately, my grandmother died this past Sunday, but I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the funeral. She was a great little old lady. She could remember dates and names like no one I’ve ever met. I used to love listening to her stories about the 1930’s and 1940’s. She could tell you who she was with, what they ate for lunch, and how much it cost (and how much she saved because she used a coupon). I will miss her, but I think it was just her time. Right up to the end she lived at home and continued going on her casino trips and bingo nights. She avoided the nursing home, even at 90 years old, so that’s something to be thankful for.

After the funeral, I spent about 5 days in New York. I stayed with Kate in the city and then we went Upstate to plant some trees on my land. Unfortunately, the 24 trees I bought from the online nursery were shipped two days after they were promised to arrive. Despite my multiple emails and phone calls telling them that I couldn't use the trees unless I had them by Saturday, they had them arrive the following Tuesday. Nice work. From the sounds of it, they aren't going to refund my money, either.

Despite the problems from the nursery, Kate and I were able to get up to the land for a day. I bought two trees from Walmart and planted those, along with a bunch of other plants in a little garden. Hopefully they take. A word to the wise about digging a hole: use a shovel. I learned the hard way that sticks and rocks are not as affective. Due to multiple factors (lack of shovel, heavy rain, flies, and a need to cook our food), we took an extra trip to Walmart to get some needed supplies. In the end, it was a good trip, albeit a short one and missing the apple, cherry, pear, almond, and walnut trees I ordered over a week prior. But I'm not bitter or anything.

That brings me to England. I had a lot of connecting flights on the way and my luggage was "held up" by the airline (it just arrived a few minutes ago; 24 hours late), but I arrived well rested and hit the ground running. I have appointments tomorrow to get bank accounts established, apply for a mortgage pre-approval, and test drive a couple of cars. I am also trying to view a couple of flats and get a cell phone (I think I'm caving and going with the iPhone...), but I haven't had as much luck organizing those.

So far everything over here is very nice. The city of Harrogate is exactly what I thought England would look like. Lots of big stone houses, beautiful gardens, and old people queuing for buses.