You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2006.
Internet
I’ve checked into a few different ISPs, but haven’t settled on anything yet. Actually, after thinking about it logically I might not get service at home for a while. AOL cost me €29.99/month, DSL (the only way to get Flat Rate) cost €19.99/month and my phone line cost €15.43/month. That’s €65.41 I could save, so I might. I’ve talked with my bosses and have been permitted to bring my laptop to work and connect it to the network to use the internet, so I don’t really need access at home (or at least I’m trying to convince myself). After all, it’s summertime. I’m usually busy at work during the week and have things planned for most weekends for the next two months (and cycling will fill the voids). I might get a dial up service with no monthly service charge (pay per minute) for emailing, or I might just pop down to the local Wifi internet cafe and use theirs (€0.04/minute) from time to time. Or not.
Moving
I’m not moving to Bonn. After talking to many people about it, the decision has finally been made. No more paralysis by analysis. It’s not happening. I’d been having trouble finding a place, been worried about DB’s reliability to get me to work on time, not to mention the added expenses of a nicer flat and commuting. There really were more minuses than plusses, so I’m staying put. This means you’ll have to deal with more incessant whining about the large village I currently live in. At least I’ll still have plenty of money for travelling (I plan on being out of town at least once a month). I’m not at all happy about my decision, but know that it’s the right one to make (for now).
Other
I’ll definitely be buying season tickets to the symphony if I can get them for the reduced (student) rate of €50. There are ten performances, but I’ll have to miss one in January due to the fact that I’ll be in Thailand and one in May due to the fact that I’ll be in Poland (but I’ll find a friend to give those two tickets to). Still, €6.25 for eight concerts is a good deal.
Ikea opens to the public today in my town. It opened on Tuesday for Ikea card holders and Ikea Queen went. She told me that it was smaller than the one that she usually goes to (near Wiesbaden) and that it was a mob scene. She’ll be taking me there in the not so near future after the initial Ikea fever dies down in this area.
Baseball season is winding down. The Caps are now on hiatus til the first weekend in August and the Cards will be playing their last game on Sunday before a taking a similar break (after all, baseball players need time to go on holiday too). There are very few games in August and at the end of the month are the playoffs (locations to be determined).
I can’t seem to bring in email through my Yahoo.com account to Outlook when I connect my laptop the LAN at work. Someone said that it might have something to do with the LAN using a proxy server on all computers except one.
Does anybody know if there is a way to configure Outlook to get around this?
I’m still working on getting back online.
Exam Season has just about finished. All of the written exams are finished and corrected (I corrected 70 last week in addition to my regular workload) and oral exams happen next week (nothing to correct).
As far as the internet goes, Thanks for all your suggestions. I’ve just discovered how to use wifi on my laptop and am posting this from a cafe in the centre of town (there aren’t any public (free) wifi spots here as far as I know). I’m not what I’m going to do about internet access, but I have a few ideas. I did visit a T-Punkt to find out about T-Online today. The guy gave me a disk, but told me that after I signed up I’d have to wait about 10 days for a ‘key’ to come by post so I could use the service. Also, he couldn’t answer a few questions I had due to the fact that the T-Punkt’s internet service was down!
AOL pissed me off, so I’ve cancelled my service and will be offline at home for a week or so.
Which ISP do those of you in Germany use for flat rate DSL service, and would you recommend it?
Based on the two rounds of voting, it boils down to either Bonn or Düsseldorf. Either of those locations probably won’t be a problem for those of us that live in the Dus-Fra corridor (a term I just made up that is similar to Bos-Wash in the USA), so let’s hear about the distance from some of the people farther away. Munichers? Berliners? Cloppenburgers? Dresdeners? Swissies (if any are planning on coming)? Etc?
I’ve consulted our Weekend Worker and have found out that he’s off the following weekends: 7 & 8 October, 18 & 19 and 25 & 26 November. I’ve also consulted our Part Time Expat and have been informed that she’ll be on holiday (nowhere near Europe) during the first of those weekend. Mid to late November is the beginning of autumn exam season for me but 18 November is doable (if I have any that day, they’ll be in the morning).
What about the rest of you? Which of those dates can you not attend?
I don’t regret moving to Germany.
I came here from Poland for three reasons:
1. The restrictions on foreigners were getting to be ridiculously bureaucratic (many of them were even unclear to the civil servants at the time) and expensive due to the fact that Poland was changing its requirements to conform to EU laws;
2. Job opportunities;
3. Money so that I could travel more.
The bureaucracy here is nothing in comparison to what it was in Poland (I don’t know what it’s like there now). I have had many excellent job opportunities since I’ve been here and also have money for travelling. I’ve achieved what I originally came here for. However, Germany is a lot different than I thought it would be. Sure, it has wonderful castles and great cities, but I still don’t understand the people and don’t know if I ever will (or want to).
As frequent readers know, there have been many unexpected and unpleasant things that have happened in the time I’ve been here, which I’ve let have a negative impact on me. It’s as if Dark Cloud follows me everywhere in this country with the intention of preventing me from being happy for too long by causing some kind of problem. This quote from the song Just Another Day by Oingo Boingo sums it up:
And just when I think–that things are in place
The heavens are secure–the whole thing explodes in my face.
I’m a different person than I was when I first came here. I’m no longer the happy-go-lucky guy I used to be. I regularly get annoyed with the frequent idiocy that I have to deal with and even though the light of optimism and the hope for a brighter tomorrow still exist within me, they are just flickers now.
I started this post several days ago and coincidentally enough just after that, Christina made a post that linked back to one similar to this subject on her anniversary last year (she and I have long known that we have similar opinions about this subject), and with her permission I’m posting a couple parts of it here.
After all these years the balance of power has been tipped too far to one side to ever get it back where it belongs and I feel as if living here has made me lose a huge part of who I used to be.
Maybe I’m just not as adaptable as I thought I was. The way this country has made me feel about myself (or more aptly – the way I’ve chosen to allow this country to make me feel about myself – because it’s all about choices, isn’t it?) has had a huge impact on our relationship.
So, on the fourth anniversary of the day I moved here, I’d like to ask expats in Germany and other countries how they have changed (positively and/or negatively) in the time they’ve been living abroad (be it a month or 30 years).
J: ‘Vince, what time does England start tonight?’
V: ‘Well the game starts at 9, but England won’t actually start playing til 10.’
*Laughter from many people*
