Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
looking back, my favorite posts
I spent 24 hrs. homeless in boston and kept a detailed journal of my experience. It is amazing how much you can learn in 24 Hrs. about yourself and others with just a pen and paper. This is one piece I love to re-read.
I spent over a month sleeping on random peoples couch’s while traveling through France. The graciousness i received while traveling on a tight budget is something I will never forget. I met some of the most inspirational people I have ever met in my life on this trip. (August 28th makes for a great story ;-) )
Other good ones:
Italy Trip (The story from Ali on Jan 28th is wild.)
Turkey Trip (Another awe inspiring trip)
No commentsFamily Eurotrip!
EURO TRIP JOURNAL
TUESDAY
- Wake up, 5am.. Mehri then Answering service
- 7:40am departure, breakfast: Bagel. Breakfast again on the plain
o 4 boys with PSP- 3 white, 1 pink. “Mike” contact irritation- keeps playing. Asks “David” if HE has drops- drops contact on floor. No backpack.
- Flight to
WEDNESDAY
- Arrive
- “You can’t bring luggage here”- waitress in restaurant in airport
- Train to
- Meet David at McDonalds, with chicken in a bag- Hauponhof
- Dinner: Rice, chicken stir fry, tea
- Walk- Sternschanze, riot, gelato
- SLEEP
THURSDAY
- RAIN
- Mom and Ramesh with David on train to work. Tried to exchange travelers checks/ dollars to Euros- unable-
- Bakery smells amazing!
- Dad ASLEEP
- Walk around- Find tour
- Lunch with David @ Italian Restaurant. Tap water?
- Double decker tour- private- harbor- 10 Euro returned to family
- Spices museum- Saffron- Persian/ Afghan rug
- XING- David’s German has improved since internship
- Harbor again. “We are almost there” Boat. Stairs. I’m looking for a special place. Turkish. Afghan. Turkish. Yum!
FRIDAY
- David work
- City Hall- LA reporter/ photographer
- Brunch buffet- with a view
- Jochen made us dinner- Salmon trout- garlic-sabzi. Salad/ yogurt dressing. Potato. White asparagus. Stories. Stories.
- St. Pauli… Reeperbahn!
SATURDAY
- Depart
- Tom/tom … Navi… Khanoom Koocheek
- Bird vs windshield, windshield wins. David is a traumatized.
- Feri’s house- Persian store- is this carbonated? Let me check
- Konigs Alle- Champs de’lysse of
- Pari’s brother- Ali- airport security
- Dinner- Sabzi- Bademjoon
SUNDAY
- Mothers Day
- Breakfast with Feri (Goly) and Mahmood
- Drive to
- Festival of tall buildings, street fair and sausuges!-
- Café- croissant sandwich/ tuna salad
- Goethe museum
- Drive to
- Intern working at hotel
- Mom, Ramesh, Mike Falafel, Dave asleep
MONDAY
- Mom and Mike out to get bread, feta, tomato, muffins
- David and Ramesh tried to go to gym… non- existent
-
- Town Hall, fruit stand, city hall,. david cant resist fruit he is allergic to.
-
- Drive toward
- Drive to Salzberg (Austria)- BEAUTIFUL drive- happened upon Ferrari show- pulled in- we thought it was a hotel…. or wedding?!
- Begin hotel search…
- Spa, steam room, sauna, relaxation room
- Pizza 12am
TUESDAY
- Organic breakfast buffet
- Sound of Music Tour bus
- Bought sugar pourer/ Ramin’s keychain
- Church where Sound of Music was filmed
- Gazebo- closed because 80 year old woman broke her hip jumping from bench to bench
- Walked in rain- saw fountain from Sound of Music
- Mozart’s birth house
- Drum Festival
- Crazy Monkey for dinner
- Mike and Dave looked for Brewery (Monk) walked around
WEDNESDAY
- Organic Breakfast- Fresh OJ
- Festung Hitensalzberg
- Lunch at Indigo
- Modern Art exhibit (Ramesh, Mike, Dave) 9/11 exhibit
- Grocery shopping
- Drive to
- Park by Persian/French/ Italian embassy
THURSDAY
- Sun/ rain
- Police gave directions to Hopshlong (sp?) Palace— Schönbrun summer palace
- Call Jamshid- plan to meet for dinner
- Lunch (best of trip!)
- Dessert/drinks
- Gardens
- Appel Strudel show
- Train to Jamshid and Jewyandeh o Burned church- Jamshid found us hotel
- Dinner at Kosher restaurant
- Ramesh, Mike, Dave back to embassy to pick up car- gelato on the way (David- “greatest Nougat ever”, Ramesh- raspberry)
FRIDAY
- Sunny!
- Breakfast buffet- left car in garage
- Hapsburg Art Collection o KISS by Klimt o
- Belvedere- good view o Maria Teresa – 16 children
- Falafel- outside- Turkish owner
- Gelato
- Drive to
- Hotel search
- Radisson
- Mike and David casino- tripled $, saw fight, hotel concierge offered drugs and women
SATURDAY
- Sunny!
- Breakfast outside
- Walked around- statues
- Dad played $700 violin
- Mike, David, Dad took nap on park bench
- Mom and Ramesh bought lunch
- Boat ride/ lunch
- Bad Gelato
- Mike/ Dad played chess- life size board
- Drive to
- HOT restaurant
SUNDAY
- Breakfast at Café Liberty
- Jewish quarters
- “Best chocolate ice cream in Prague”
- Ramesh, Michael, David- walked- pizza, chocolate
- Roohi, Mansoor- supermarket
- Dad- Chinese to-go
- Mike/ Dave- appetizer
- Ramesh/ Roohi- Walked.. Italian dinner.. table next to us
- Mike/ Dave- Pizza—home @ 12am
MONDAY
- breakfast- pizza
- Persian mom with daughter from Irvine
- Gift shopping
- Drive to Frankfurt
- Depart 3pm
- Achieve global conversation…
TUESDAY
- Depart for home - luggage incident…
inspiring dinner
I was on the other side of town when my roommate called and invited me to dinner. At first I was hesitant because I did not feel like making the short trek but after his persistence I agreed. The phone connection was weak and I didn’t fully understand why he was so adamant about inviting me to dinner but he gave me and address and at the end mentioned that someone wanted to meet me.
From the get go conversation was great. We sat down for a homemade dinner of fish, rice, and some tomato based salad. Throughout dinner we touched upon just about every topic. Religion, politics, travel, love, life, culture, evolution, our pasts, futures, and & present. After a great dinner and even better conversation the woman left the room to get something to show me. She came back with her “Poisie”, a book filed with poems, advice and decorations from her grade school friends. Despite the fact that the various poems were dated back so the 1950’s the book seemed to be in perfect condition.
We continued on to a small room with bouquets of fresh roses. She told me to smell one bundle then another. She worked as an organic botanist. She had a request to provide a company with the best smelling roses. We went on to the next room. The ceiling was filed with dry flowers hanging upside down, an amazing site in itself. Then we continued on to the backyard to see her outdoor garden. Just before we left she showed me one last thing. It was a type of plant sitting in a cup of water. She said “most people use this drug daily, do you know what it is?!” I thought for a minute and guessed coffee. She then showed me a jar of dried beans we cracked on open to see an actual coffee bean. After that we left and walked home.
The dinner reminded me of a couple important life lessons:
1) Never decline an invitation to meet someone new.
2) As much fortunate as I have been to see so much in my life, I still have much to see, learn, and experience.
Then I began to wonder what if I do see more and more, aside from understanding more cultures how would I apply this my life, my career my interests and goals. A couple of hours later I was thinking about dinner and I realized that understanding coffee at its simplest form is the only way to fully understand why it has become a phenomena and why places like star bucks come to be such hits. Of course there is much more to it. But something I took away was to understand something fully you need to be able to understand it in its simplest form and through travel and experience there is often the opportunity to appreciate, observe and understand things in their simplest, original and natural form.
clearing my head
I had a lot on my mind the last few days, so i just now decided to take some of it off, literally…I gave myself a haircut :)
hamburg rewind
Lets take it back to when I first moved to Hamburg. I rented a car with my buddy Ruppert and we put it to the test as we drove up the autobahn from Reutlingen, in the bottom of Germany, to the top, here in Hamburg. I was moving to Hamburg to begin my internship in Business Development with XING.
I moved into a WG (shared apartment) courtesy of XING. Because of how nice the apartment was, the people at work always refered to it as “Melrose Place” The apt was in in Eppendorf, a wealthier and and in some areas rather stuck up. The apt itself was very impressive, old construction, crazy high ceilings, and a modern kitchen. I lived in what was referred to as “the aquarium” a small room meant to be a garden room with large windows on all sides…not much privacy but great natural light. I lived at Melrose for about 2 months while I tried to land a place of mine own. I quickly learned getting a good apartment in a nice area in hamburg is much harder, than one would think. People are constantly moving apartments, the supply and demand are both good but the market moves fast. I eventually moved into the apartment I am living in now. A great place that I was able to land with the help of a boss of mine at work. Im living with 2 twin brothers and their father. A very laid back apartment.
I lucked out again with the beautiful Hamburg old construction. My room is the largest in the apartment (about 25ft by 15 ft), boasting a king size bed, a chandelier, an antique furnace, and two huge windows. I felt more comfortable in this apartment within the first week than i did at the end of the two months at Melrose. The atmosphere is much more inviting here. Not long after moving to this apartment I bought my first boat. Well it is actually more of a raft. I bought the raft in Mallorca…
Let me sidetrack quickly to explain why I was in Mallorca. Mallorca (the small island off the coast of spain) was home this year to IBWE. IBWE is short for international business weekend, an annual weekend where each of the partner schools that my international business program works with, meet up for spirit and sport contests as well as a couple great parties. This was my second IBWE, I also attended IBWE in Skaggnis, England as a freshman. It was a very different experience being 3 years older, having lived abroad, being able to speak german, and knowing people form both germany as well as my northeastern friends. In short it was one of the greatest party weekends of my life ;)
Back to hamburg…so I bought the raft in mallorca and brought it back to hamburg to take it on the lake in the middle of the city, the alster. I have yet to take it on the main alster but I have taken it through the canals that spread through hamburg including across the street from my apartment. The raft didn’t come with oars, so I ventured out to make some. And I bought some bamboo broom sticks, trimmed them down with a saw and bagged and taped the bristly part so they would be firm and water proof. The oars didn’t work sooo great. A couple weekends later, I went to a nearby flea market. To my surprise I saw some oars that would be perfect for my raft. I picked up the new oars and a large painting of a Spanish matador, oil on canvas for the ombo bargain price of 8 euro. The painting now stands proudly in my room.
I spend my weekends exploring all hamburg has to offer, which is a lot. The reeperbahn, is our redlight district but it also offers lots of wholesome opportunities for a good time. Good bars, clubs and dance clubs. But you wouldn’t start the night off there, we normally start off in Sternschanze, an area popular with students, liberals, artists, hippies, punks, and ultra leftists. It makes for a nice scene. When I say “we” go out, im referencing a small tight group of friends that I have made in hamburg. Mostly students from my university in Reutlingen that are also doing internships in hamburg. Namely: Achoo, Zone, Import, Jojo, and guest appearances by Deuce. And of course we randomly meet up with people that we have come to meet here in the city or other places. thats a good overview of life in the Burg, but of course i have not included any of the numerous anectdotes that make life interesting. ill get some more stories out soon…