Deutschland

Hello again,

Another 2 weeks have passed with very few noteworthy events. Luckily, Elizabeth has done a great deal of planning our future vacations. We should have good stories shortly. Beginning with a brief trip to Barcelona!

We are very excited to see Barcelona. Of course, the area is beautiful and I will be running/walking a potentially visibly breathtaking marathon. But we are also excited because my old boss lives in the area. She has agreed to spend some time with us during our visit! She is the number one reason why coming to Germany was even an option. It has been far too long since I have seen her.

Aside from that, I have been sick, so I've not been getting into too many shenanigans. We didn't even go to the Flohmarkt this week. We are just twiddling our thumbs waiting to meet my new nephew!

So, instead of our own stories, here are some German things.


Jetzt haben wir den Salat / Now we have the salad



This saying is used when a mess occurs that was entirely avoidable.


da steppt der Bär / there's a tap-dancing bear



"Come on out with us tonight. You'll have a great time!"


seinen Senf dazugeben / they add their mustard



This is a person who always gives their opinions, whether requested or not.


da ist Hopfen und Malz verloren / Hops and malts are lost on that



It's a lost cause.


And I'll end with one last simple word...

It has been a long time. Let's just say, I wanted to guarantee that no one was "over-Kyled" after spending the Christmas break with me. I also needed time to collect enough stories to keep everyone entertained (myself included).

Most everyone knows of the biggest event so far this year: bringing the 2 cats to Germany. It was better than I had imagined. In fact, not a single thing went wrong. Fascinating story, right?

Honestly, I had never been more exhausted than I was that day. It wasn't about what WAS happening. It was about what COULD happen. For all 18 hours, my attention was glued to the cats. I didn't sleep. I hardly read or watched anything. All I did was stare at the cats, looking for signs of distress, waiting for the worst to happen. I took the cats into the bathroom as often as I could, trying to encourage them to pee. To no avail. Instead, the cats simply never peed. Like, at all.

After arriving in Stuttgart, Liz and I spent the following hour scouring the airport for someone to tell us what we needed to do with the cats. There was sweat, there were tears. And the final answer was, "Nothing". We didn't need to do a #@&!$ thing with the cats in the airport.

Anyway, the it took a few days for the cats to be comfortable with the space... and a few weeks for them to be comfortable with us leaving them for any amount of time. However, I sincerely believe they are happier now in this space. I believe Liz is happier. And can only suspect that Eric is much happier.




What else...
Liz has been on a scheduling rampage. I think every vacation for the next 2 years has been completely planned out. It is fantastic. We should have plenty more pictures and adventures to share in the future.

Babies are happening this month. I could be an uncle any day now. And Liz's dear friend delivered only a few days ago. So, while we are back in Germany now, it's hard not to wish we were in Kentucky again. I'm sure this will be just the 1st of a great number of significant moments we'll miss while we're here. I'll try to convince Liz to spend more time in the US when things like babies are happening... but she can be quite the stubborn lady.


Anything else?
Our German-American friends invited us over to their home again. Mostly because of their great generosity, and partly because we had thousands of dollars worth of their Christmas presents in our luggage :) I'm getting back into the rhythm of work. It has been a rather difficult year so far, but I expect it to improve soon enough. And I'm running casually these days, to build a solid base for the summer, when Eric will kick my behind.

Our German lessons have begun again. Our speaking skills look less and less promising with each passing lesson. I know I can't expect more, considering we have 3 hours of classes per week. That's half the amount of lessons a child receives. In other words: we should be as good as a kid who has taken a language for one semester. Or even worse, considering kids learn languages much more quickly than adults. Still, I deeply despise being this publicly bad at something. Something that I'm constantly reminded of and quizzed on.

Egal.
Here's a cat playing with my coffee:

Happy Holidays!
As we will travel home by the end of next week, this will likely be my final blog post of 2015. I cannot speak for Elizabeth... but odds are that she won't be posting anything either.

The past 10 days have been extremely eventful. I'm sorry for not posting anything over the weekend, but we were busy making memories! I don't have much in the way of photographs, but I'll see what I can dig up.

The fun began last Tuesday, when we visited the Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). We hopped on our usual train to Stuttgart, plus another short subway ride to Esslingen. Esslingen is a town near Stuttgart, which hosts a large, medieval-style Christmas Market. We were very impressed by the hundred+ booths and several stages of medieval performers (acting, dancing, torch-throwing, racquetball eating...).

Of course I don't have any pictures of that cool stuff. Elizabeth does. Bug her.

When it became simply too cold, we found a fancy Glühwein establishment which included an inside section, rescuing us from the cool drizzle outside. There, we found some FIREBALL Glühwein. Clearly, they had good taste. So far, Elizabeth and I have not found any Fireball whisky (or anything similar) here in Germany. But we have not given up hope!

Then work happened for a few days...

On Friday afternoon, Elizabeth and I left for the Netherlands! There is a direct flight from Stuttgart to Amsterdam that is unbelievably inexpensive. We traveled there so I could run a small marathon in Spijkenisse. I wasn't prepared at all, but that's never stopped me before!

The Netherlands is beautiful. The landscape is completely flat and covered with water. There are plenty of windmills around. Elizabeth probably has some pictures of those as well.

Spijkenisse itself was very cute. It is surrounded by water, and we immediately came across a public petting zoo. Of course, we were the only adults not accompanied by children. The food in the town is more expensive than I'd prefer, but that's to be expected. Our little town Schwäbisch Gmünd isn't exactly a tourist hotspot.

The race, late Sunday morning, was killer. The flat terrain seemed like a good idea, and being surrounded by water sounded nice. But I have never run against so much wind. The smartest of the runners stayed in close packs, in order to benefit from each other. I tried that for 40 minutes, but I grow bored and too competitive... to my own, slow, steady, gruesome demise. You can see me in the picture below, having just passed one small group and about to catch up with (and pass) another small group. Because I'm an idiot.



Long story short, at mile 23, the race turned directly into a strong wind, once again. My body erupted with a strong protest. The final 3 miles of walk/running are ones I'd like to forget.

But as always, the race ended, and life went on. Elizabeth and I celebrated briefly with a literal bucket of french fries before jumping back on the subway to Amsterdam.

With our remaining time (half Sunday, half Monday), we took in all that we could. We ate fresh seafood. We drank craft beers. Walked all around the city. And visited both the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum.

Although we spent little time there, Amsterdam was a terrific place. I wouldn't mind returning for another visit.

The best part of the story was... "Nothing happened"! Despite the fears of travel, we went everywhere we wanted without incident. I hope this will be a big step in making us feel more confident that we can travel places without fear of dying. The only thing that sucks is that we were told to buy subway cards - which cost of 15 euro and gave us the privilege to pay for subway tickets. They expire in 2021. Hopefully we'll either use them again or at least find 2 people who'll make use of them.

Lastly, we did come home with a virus. It caught Elizabeth first, and then dragged me down a few hours later. We were lucky that it didn't hit until right as we arrived home. After spending all day yesterday in bed with fever, we dragged ourselves out to the scary German doctors and got medicine. It was unbelievably easy. We should've done it sooner.

At this point, I still need to figure out where to send different things (I have a receipt for medication that I think I need to mail to the insurance company), but that's the easy part.

Anyway, that's all I have. Here - I stole some Netherlands pictures from Elizabeth:

Greetings! The holidays are upon us.

Although, we miss out on a lot of them over here in Germany. No kids running around in costumes demanding candy. No pumpkin pie or turkey with stuffing for us. It was strange not having a Thanksgiving. To not see our families, to not play games and overeat. To actually WORK. It was weird. I hope that never happens again.

I might talk Elizabeth into a Thanksgiving trip home rather than a Christmas trip home next year. The biggest argument I have is: it'll be our only chance to experience a German New Years Eve (Silvester). I think Christmas will be special no matter where you are. Thanksgiving is decidedly not special over here. I want it back.

On the plus side, the Christmas season (Weihnachten) practically begins in October over here. Everything is all gingerbread and hot spiced wine (Lebkuchen und Glühwein). And now that it's nearly December, the real fun begins. Cities all around the country have put up charming decorations and Christmas-themed outdoor markets.

Look at Schwäbisch Gmünd, for example. They've even turned the city building into a giant Advent Calendar. How cool is that?




That is just a small glimpse of the market. You can get a better look from the city webcam, here:

http://www.schwaebisch-gmuend.de/353-Webcam_Schwaebisch_Gmuend_Marktplatz_I.html


Take a look between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM EST when it's dark and full of life. We'll wear bright colors and wave to you :)

The rest of the city, outside of the market, is beautifully decorated as well. Here's a picture of the street that leads into the city center.




There are many Christmas markets that, we're told, are too good to miss. On Tuesday, Elizabeth and I are spending the day in Esslingen, which has a particularly famous market. Very medieval and festive. There are others we hope to visit next year - like Nuremberg and Strasbourg (not Germany, but close).

In other news, Elizabeth had a disappointing birthday last Sunday. It's not nearly the same, not being able to spend the day with everyone we miss from home.

Yesterday it snowed in Schwäbisch Gmünd. I really enjoy watching the snowfall. Elizabeth and I went for a snowy walk over to the Fleamarket (Flohmarkt - held once or twice per month)... only to learn it was cancelled due to the snow! We were very disappointed. So we went grocery shopping instead. I bought "American" brand chocolate chips cookies to numb the sadness. Before you ask, yes, American brand foods are very common here. I don't know if they are popular or not. Heck, sometimes cannot even determine what the products are (the "American" sauce is a good example). I'm pretty sure our peanut butter is "American" brand.

Did we tell you about peanut butter over here? It only comes in tiny jars, perhaps half the size of the smallest jars in the US. Compare that to Nutella, which we can buy here in the largest jars imaginable.

But that's not the worst of it. Take a random poll, and many German people wouldn't be able to tell you what peanut butter is used for. Our German teacher, who is a mother of 2 teenage boys, hadn't even heard of pb&j before! Combining pb with j had never occurred to her.

Is there anything else?
Our short marathon trip is quickly approaching. I'm nowhere near ready (which might be good if it causes me to slow down... very bad if it doesn't), and Elizabeth is anxious about traveling anywhere due to possible threats of violence. I can admit, it feels unsettling to be closer to some threats, with no ocean between us and ISIS. However, I'm still confident that I'm safer here than in the US. The US might not have ISIS, but it's certainly not free from extreme and unpredictable violence.

On that cheery note, I'll go for now! We miss everyone. Be safe, and embrace the magic of the holiday season!

Hello Everyone, and welcome back to your favorite weekly German blog (in English, obviously).

This week, I was co-leading the "New Controller Start-up Training" at work. Sixteen Bosch employees from around the world came together to learn about the company (Hungary, Brazil, US, China, Germany). It was a really fun week, despite being long and exhausting. It takes a lot out of me to interact with new people. Three days lasted until 21:00 or later. So of course I didn't do any running at all. It was quite shameful.

It wasn't entirely the fault of the training. On Thursday, a few of us voluntarily went to the Mexican restaurant for happy hour (we invited everyone, but only had a few takers). I'm not usually a cocktail-drinker, but they turned it into a game that no one could resist. With each drink, the waiter handed you a die. Whatever number you rolled was how much you paid for the cocktail. Of course, it's a little less fun when Elizabeth rolls two 6's!

Elizabeth and I went to our first Weihnachtsmarkt on Saturday! We also rode our first German bus!! And it was the first snow of the season!!! It was a big day for us.

The Christmas market was in a little town, Wissgoldingen. We were invited there by one of the members of the training (Anika). Unlike the market in Gmünd, it only lasted one day. It was so much smaller than I could've imagined, haha. There were a few booths selling various Christmas-themed items. And others selling the typical German market foods. However, the main attraction was the Glühwein (hot, spiced wine). It was sold by the local fire department, and was very inexpensive. Each glass cost only 1,5 ‎€. We also learned about Glühwein variations - which are far superior to standard Glühwein.

"Nikolaus": Glühwein with Amaretto and whipped cream.
"Feuerwehrmann": Glühwein with vodka.

The afternoon quickly grew cold and dark, but the Glühwein kept us toasty warm. And then it started snowing!



Snow was forecasted this weekend, but it didn't seem possible. I guess weathermen are correct every once and a while.

Anyway, the bus was super easy. Apparently it only costs 1 ‎€ on Saturday. We should take the bus more often. Maybe to Heubach so we can hike up the popular hill. I'll try to talk Elizabeth into it next weekend.

Needless to say, today was the ONLY day that I ran this week. I made it longer, but it still doesn't feel like enough. But it'll have to be because the rest of the day is to be spent with Elizabeth for her birthday! Today she turns 1 German year old!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

First of all, I must apologize to everyone. I have no new photos to share with you. While several new pictures have been taken of our cat visitors, I don't feel the need to share them with everyone. Anyway, these cats will be leaving us in a few days. It will be sad to lose the extra life in the apartment, but it won't be very long before we bring our own cats over here.

Running is becoming difficult over here. It grows dark by 5:00, making running on the trails much more treacherous (with or without a light). Besides, sunlight itself is a strong motivator. Without it, it's hard just to get out of the door. I'm experimenting with leaving work early, with limited success so far.

Elizabeth is still eating healthy! It's very impressive. Sadly, it meant that I had pizza night while she had beans. She deserves a medal for her restraint!

I finished book 3 of The Codex Alera series. 3 more books to go. It's a delightful little tale with well-rounded characters in an intriguing setting.If I can convince Elizabeth to read it, then I'll be able to talk to someone about it!

I fell off my bike this week! It doesn't compare to getting into an accident, of course. I'm just limpy and embarrassed. I was on a paved trail, which had developed a thick layer of leaves. I was approaching a tractor and began mimicking its path. And you can guess the rest of it.

My wheels slipped off the hidden curb. Catching me off guard, I took none of the appropriate actions. I flipped off into a front roll, looking up just in time to see the tractor staring back at me with wide eyes. Of course they (father and young son) stopped and asked me if I was okay. It was ridiculously embarrassing. I confirmed that I was fine (in German... so they likely suspected minor brain damage).

I banged instead of scraping, so everything is intact! My clothes have no holes. And my laptop is completely untouched (holy crap that was frightening). My bike is wonky right now. It makes squeaky and crunchy noises from various places. But it'll work itself out.

Das Wetter ist wunderschön. Es regnet nicht. Es war warm und sonnig (bis 17 Uhr). Das ist gut, weil ich keinen Regenmantel habe. Nächste Woche führe ich eine Schulung. Die ganze Woche. Drückt mir die Daumen!

Greetings everyone!

Nothing happened over here this week. Sorry to say, we won't always have exciting stories to share. It will likely be the case more and more as we settle in. Our surroundings lose their magical qualities, and our lives fall into routines. We still will travel on occasion, but the truth is that vacations are very draining on our resources, so we must do it sparingly.

Elizabeth was vegan again this week, and I was vegetarian... except for Monday. What started as a temporary "challenge" has relaxed into a no-pressure decision. I prefer it that way: I chose today to eat vegetarian, but it's not who I am. Success/failure in doing so has no effect on my self image.

We still have the kittens. They will be here for another week or so. It is wonderful having life in the apartment (I'm certain Elizabeth feels that to an even greater extent than I), but those boys sure can cause trouble. Since they are only a few months old, every day they are growing. Every day they learn something new. And every day they can jump just a little bit higher than the day before. That is an especially dangerous situation. Our once cat-proof apartment on Tuesday becomes a deathtrap by Thursday. But regardless of their shenanigans they are fun to have around.



I am officially signed up for the Netherlands marathon, but anyone could have guessed that. I especially want to take this race easy, so nobody say anything about my pace, or I'll be encouraged to push my limits!

We are still 4 weeks away from learning if we are going to the Berlin marathon next year. If we are accepted, it will be a genuinely difficult decision how to train... because today I consider myself in a much more relaxed and noncompetitive state of running. However, Berlin is perhaps the fastest course around. It will be hard to not train for the best race that I can run (and then to be horribly disappointed because my 2013 running achievements are an unrepeatable phenomenon).

I have a new boss boss at work. It's a new position, so I'm not entirely certain what role he will play (they probably explained it, but the explanation was in German). He reminds me of a younger brother to Benedict Cumberbatch. He has only spoken to me in German so far. I'm afraid to disappoint him and tell him that I'm stupid.

Speaking of: I attended a ridiculous, 3-hour meeting on Friday. The room was stuffed with 14 other people, all higher up than me and all German. No fewer than 15 times were conversations interrupted but the phrase, "Let's switch back to English so Kyle can understand". Besides the fact that I clearly become a burden... the switch to English is made with complete disregard to other people in the room. What if someone in the room isn't comfortable with English? That question is never brought up, even though it's painfully obvious that some people are less than comfortable with the switch. I don't like it.

It's time to study German. As always, our teacher will be here tomorrow evening, and I'm tired of disappointing her. She is very nice, and we should at least attempt to meet her halfway.

While I may have rested this week, not running whatsoever, it didn't stop me from signing up for races.

Yesterday, I entered the lottery for the 2016 Berlin Marathon in September. In December we will learn if I made it in. If we aren't successful this year, then we'll just need to try again next year.

The Berlin Marathon is a very large (nearly 40,000 runners), popular race, known for its breakneck speeds. The last SIX men's marathon world records were set in Berlin (2003 - 2014) [For the record, the women's world hasn't been broken since 2003 because Paula Radcliffe is one of a kind]. If Berlin happens, I don't expect to run a personal best. I want to run it for the experience, which I'm sure will be out of this world. Maybe we'll witness history being made.

I also chose one more race to squeeze into this year: Spijkenisse, Netherlands. We are still ironing out the details, but hopefully it'll work out.

http://www.avspark.nl/marathon/english/general-information


We have cats! Scotty and Finnigan are living with us for the next 3 weeks. They are brothers who are only a few months old. The apartment is now filled with pitter pattering, squeaking, and snorting (Finnigan has a breathing problem). Seriously, breathing through his nose results in loud pigs sounds. It is as cute as it is pitiful.



This is a picture of Scotty because he is infinitely more cuddly than Finnigan. That is also heartbreaking - a kitten who doesn't want to be touched. Poor wheezy, loner Finnigan.

So, while Scotty is getting tummy rubs, Finnigan is pretending to be furniture.



I actually did run yesterday, the first time since last Saturday. Everything start out well. I was groggy, but even the annoying Schwäbisch Gmünd uphills weren't problematic. But, oh my, were downhills painful. I might have pulled or torn something in my butt. I'll be sticking to flat running surfaces for another week or two.

Deutsch Lernen ist noch schwierig. Wir haben zwei Klassen pro Woche, aber ich vergesse immer die Vokabeln. Die Arbeit ist normalerweise auf Deutsch, und ich verstehe fast nie. Es macht keinen Spaß. Vielleicht nächstes Jahr.

Macht's gut!

Hello again.

Yesterday I ran the first half of the Alb Marathon 50K. That's 31.1 miles, in case you were wondering. (Good luck to Keith today in his own 50K!!!)



It was a delightful romp through the local giant hills in the area surrounding Schwäbisch Gmünd. Good grief, it was rough.



I pride myself on running on hills these days, but I can tell you that there is no dignified way to bound up and down between 1,000 and 2,300 ft elevation. It required everything in my power to not walk. I spent a large portion of the time with at least one of my hands on my knees, keeled over in a pathetic heap.

I handed off the race bib to Other Kyle at the half (the red line, shown above), and he led our team the remaining 25K to the finish. We were a team of 2... however, most teams consisted of between 6 and 10 members, so we were at a disadvantage even at the start. I think Other Kyle took that to heart, and pushed hard. Racing those monstrous downhills is much more structurally damaging than uphill, and Other Kyle definitely paid the price for it. I hope him a safe and speedy recovery!



All in all, it was a great experience! We only received 1 medal for finishing, which sucks. I'll need to talk Other Kyle into racing again next year so that we can both have a medal.


Has anything else happened?

- Germany's time changed today (1 week earlier than the States). So we are currently only 5 hours ahead.
- We might be watching 2 kittens in a week!
- I'm almost finished with the 2nd book in the Codex Alera series (it's what I've been doing when my brain cannot handle more German).
- Elizabeth will be eating vegan starting tomorrow, which means that I'll be eating vegetarian. That's always fun because, try as one may, it's hard not to feel something when eating meat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45nYyUn6Ya8
- We are already arranging plans to visit Esslingen's Weihnachtsmarkt in December (Christmas Market).
- Elizabeth was in London, but she has to share that story herself.
- I'm on the lookout for one more (slow) marathon that I can run this year. It might not be possible to schedule, between increasing work load and our trip home in mid-December.

Lastly, here's a picture of me, very delighted to see the first ("first" as in: "not second") aid station:

Greetings! And welcome to another episode of "Durhams in Germany".

It has grown much colder here in Deutschland. Last weekend was sunny and crisp... but that hasn't happened since. I can't help but wonder if we've seen our last ray of sunshine for a while. Even if it weren't cloudy, the sun is only "out" from 8:00 AM until 6:00 PM. Every day I show up to work damp and chilled. I'll need to begin wearing gloves soon. I'm dreading the time change next week (1 week earlier than the US). Come winter, it'll be dark by 4:00 PM. Blech.

As I said last week, we had a wonderful time with Carole and Dave. They only stayed for two days, but I can't blame them. They had already been traveling across Europe for 3 weeks. I can remember Elizabeth and I were unpleasant and grumpy after our 2-week vacation. A third week might have been enough to kill us.

I studied some Schwäbisch Gmünd history before showing them around. It was fun learning about the landmarks around us. I don't think they believed all of the stories and dates that I told them, but that's understandable. We Americans barely ever encounter things more than 200 years old. My favorite part was sneaking into the Heilig-Kreuz-Münster, which is the old (but newer) church in town. It was built in 1320, 100 years after the Johanniskirche was built. History is not my best subject, but I do occasionally enjoy it.

Since then, there's not been a lot going on. I ran to keep up the habit, but short distances since I'm resting up for next week's 50K with other Kyle. He and I are allowed to split up the race however we choose... so we really need to discuss that this week before it's too late! I think I should take the most uphills and he should take the downhills. He's younger and stronger, so he's more suited for tackling those harsh downhills. They could very easily tear my body apart.

We didn't take any new pictures this week. Instead, here's a picture of Buddy from April 2015. We miss him bunches.



We had one German class this week, and we'll have one German class next week. We can feel ourselves grower dumber. It's unpleasant. If I were more disciplined, I'd probably be studying right now. But no. Shucks.

Last night we hung out with the Seegers again! That is always a wonderful experience. I played soccer with little Finn (he kicked my behind). He and I didn't break a single thing in the house. You should be impressed. We ate excellent food, drank some Amazon.de rum, and discussed the unequivocal hilarity of TV sitcoms. Afterwards, we caught the last train home to Gmünd (the smallest train I've ever seen... only one car long). Germany is lots of fun!

That's all I have this week. I can't stress it enough: you must urge Elizabeth to write a blog post in the middle of the week. She has some exciting travel plans coming up soon. Ask for pictures, too!

Tschau tschau!