Jason's Daily Notes

Still staying at Nico's. Woke up late as usual. There wasn't much food around, but we made do with what we had and made pan-grilled chicken with panang curry-seasoned risotto. It was great. Oli was off to work pretty early, and he returned in the afternoon.

The three of us chilled, each with our laptops, in Oli's room. I helped them with a market research survey they were constructing for their startup.

I finally got a confirmation from the company that my work contract would be sent asap - I gave them Nico's address. Boom!

In the evening, Oli and Nico had a business seminar thing at their university. I had plans to meet up with Selcuk (and others) at 8pm, so I left around 6:30 to explore the city. I took the spacious Munich U-Bahn to Odeonplatz, from where I walked around to Marienplatz and tried to find the Hofbräuhaus.

I made it to the Spezlwirtshaft before everyone else, so I just hung around for 10 minutes before Sandra arrived, and then Selcuk. We went up to the table, and I had a rahmkäse. We caught up, chatting about the different Duke people and so on. Oli and Nico soon joined us. Then, the Colombian girl Marcela joined with her fellow au pair friend Edni (from Mexico). We had to find a way to accommodate everyone; we ended up partly sharing a table with the neighbors until the other adjacent table left. Selcuk left first, then we all dispersed.

The Vernal Equinox.

The weather was cool but not bitterly cold. Woek up late; Oli soon arrived, back from his road trip to Amsterdam. We chilled in the afternoon, as some of Oli's friends came over: Simon and Sara (neighbors), Nora, Nora's flatmate Manu, and Fabian. We all made our way to the rooftop (again) to chill and enjoy.

Despite having drunk so much yesterday, I employed a "hair of the dog" strategy for today and put back a beer and a little more. Nora made pesto spaghetti, yum.

I was checking my email the whole day, waiting for a job contract to arrive, but nothing yet. :/

Around 6pm the crowd dispersed, going into the city, or to McDonald's. I stayed back with Nico for a few minutes and then went out into the city myself. I got off at the Hauptbahnhof and walked around, taking some pictures of the city at night.

As I took pictures of the city, I put my camera down and saw someone in front of me "This can't be..." said the familiar face as she stared right at me. It was my friend and classmate Uta! I couldn't believe it.

Naturally, we spent a few minutes just astonished that we both happened to be in Munich at the same time and bumped into each other. We then walked around for an hour or so, chatting and catching up. She is currently applying to PhD programs in the US (and not getting much positive response from them). We got a little bit lost walking back, but no problem. She accompanied me all the way back to the Hauptbahnhof.

I met up with Dominik there, and said bye to Uta. Dominik had surfed my couch in LA over 2.5 years ago. He's now continuing with his medical degree, doing his work placement, and is entering his final year. We went to Cafe Kosmos (again), where several of his coworkers were having a drink. It was insanely crowded, more so than even London. There was his coworker, Daniel, who joined us as we left for another bar near Gärtnerplatz. I was tired, so I kept it to one drink as we headed home. Dominik invited me to stay over at his place anytime, including during Oktoberfest, which would be great.

The next train home from the Hauptbahnhof didn't leave for another 17 minutes, so I decided to walk back. It was a long walk in the chilly midnight air.

I stayed in for much of the day, again chilling with Nico. We had some breakfast (eggs) and then went out in the afternoon to walk around the city in the sunshine. We took the U-bahn to Odeonplatz then walked toward the Englischer Garten. We saw the Eisbach, where there were about 5 guys taking turns surfing the wave on the river. Then, we had a beer in the biergarten by the Chinesischer Turm. We discussed the startup that he and Oli are developing, and I threw around some ideas.

We returned to the apartment, where we chilled on top of the roof as the sun went down. The sun was shining on the Alps, which we could see clearly in the distance. Amazing. It was a bit precarious as we climbed down off the roof.

I had arranged to meet up with (my friends in Munich) Sascha and Sandra at the Augustinerkeller around 8pm, and so there Nico and I went. We got a table downstairs (where there was no phone reception), but nevertheless Sascha and Sandra found us. We threw back a few drinks before continuing onward to Cafe Kosmos for one last drink and then going home.

Today, I traveled from Stuttgart to Munich. My rideshare was at 12:00 at the Hbf. Felix left for work; we said bye and agreed to meet in Munich on Friday (to have a drink at the Hofbräuhaus).

I showered and got my things together, cutting it close for time - and again, I just missed the S-Bahn that would take me into the city center. (D'oh!) So I had to wait for 17 minutes until the next train. I was about 5 minutes late to my rideshare, but it was ok.

The driver was Annika, studying some sort of civil engineering in Hamburg. Along with us was Bianca, studying something in Stuttgart (?) - honestly, I'm not remembering a lot of details about these people anymore. We just make small talk about the world for an hour and then sit in silence for the rest of the ride. We chatted about the educational systems in both countries, how nice everything is in the summer, blah blah blah. We stopped at a rest area, where using the toilet cost €0.70 but included a €0.50 voucher at the food shop. Smart marketing, but annoying for me who just wanted to pee (but it worked; I bought myself a coffee).

Also, there was a Columbian girl, Marcela, who was an au pair just outside Munich (Starnberg). She and I exchanged numbers when we arrived in Munich. I then bought a 1-week ticket and made my way to my host's place. Nico greeted me and was very welcoming, with a beer included and all. We bought some food, cooked some weißwurst for dinner, chilled inside for the rest of the evening. We watched Idiocracy.

It's St. Patrick's Day.

I was awake with Felix around 10am. We had some breakfast and then I went out into Stuttgart's center to explore. Felix stayed home; he had to review Lutz's thesis, and then polish his own job application.

I walked around the city center for hours. I climbed to Karlshöhe. My legs got tired. It was raining on and off. I had lunch at a kebab shop.

Felix let me know that he would need a few more hours to meet me. So we arranged to meet at 7pm at the Stadtmitte station. I walked around some more, through the Hauptbahnhof. I exited into a big construction site. I wanted to walk through it, and it was pretty open, but I couldn't tell how long the road would be, so I turned around and walked all the way around it. With my headphones on, it was no problem.

I returned to the city center and had a coffee (and sat down). The café's wifi didn't work. Argh! I met Felix promptly on time and we went to the Irish pub. It had a €10 cover charge - no way. So we walked like 15 minutes to the Feuersee and went to the other Irish pub. No cover, but it was naturally packed. We smashed our way through and started putting the pints of guinness away. We met a bunch of foreigners - a Greek girl, and a big group of Americans, including Justin (who introduced himself to everyone). Then there was Keith, an army guy who stuck around for most of the rest of the night. Properly tipsy, we returned home. I got a St. Patrick's hat somehow, haha. And one last pinklen in the river before arriving home!

I went with Felix to Tübingen, a small city about 1 hour (by train) south of Stuttgart. Felix and I had chili for breakfast and then took the S-Bahn to Esslingen, where we changed to the regional train. I couldn't remember the name of the Jake Gyllenhaal movie in which he was trying to stop a bomb on a train (I later found out that it was Source Code).

Once we arrived in Tübingen, we met Felix's friend Anne. She showed us around the city. She is going to (hopefully) work in LA for 6 months (if she sorts out her visa) this year.

My phone still doesn't work. Whatever.

We got a coffee (or smoothie, in my case) and sat on a ledge on the riverside. The city has a lot of ice cream shops. The weather was nice, not as cold as the previous days. We saw the castle. The buildings are colorful, and there are plenty of fachwerkhäuser. It was nice. We grew tired of walking around and had some flammkuchen, salad, and bruchetta at a cafe.

It was evening, and Anne needed to pack for her upcoming trip to Valencia. We said bye at the train station. Felix and I walked around Esslingen for a bit while waiting for the S-Bahn to arrive. We bought some eggs and spätzle before coming home to make the spätzle for dinner. We watched a few episodes of Family Guy, Parks and Recreation, and Community before going to bed.

Felix went to work. I stayed in. Washed some clothes in the shower with me. Walked to the grocery store (and had a kebab along the way - good). It was cold but sunny.

Did not hear back from Jon regarding their counter-offer. :/

Did not get through to my mom before her flight to the Philippines (via Japan).

We went out for drinks at night in central Stuttgart - at El Tormento (?).

The S-Bahn only runs once an hour overnight! Annoying, so it helps to have the app so that you can plan when to leave.

We left the window slightly open in the hostel room, which meant that cold air kept pulsing in as I slept (which felt good). Most of the hostel room was awake and getting ready at 7:30am, so I did too. Jonny was still drunk, having returned to the room around 6am or so. :/ Anyway... Got breakfast with Arisa, Cecelia, and Humberto.

Arisa and I packed up and checked out, leaving our bags in the luggage room. I said bye to her, and I set off to walk around the city by myself. I walked around the inner city, south to the river. Some snow flurries were falling in the morning, but they soon cleaned out. Nevertheless, everything was still covered in snow, slush, or ice, making walking treacherous. I cut my finger on a bush that I tried to wipe the snow off of.

Around 12:00 I got a missed call on my phone. Fuck. It was Jon. I called him back - no answer. I was in the middle of the city, and there was a lot of noise around me - not exactly the best place to have a business phone call. About 20 minutes later, he called me back, and we had the talk. Things went as I could expect - the offer was below what I mentioned. I simply could not accept. I responded with a figure much higher - what I should have done from the beginning. "No way" was the response. So I told him to assess and respond to me tomorrow.

I left the phone call feeling regretful - one small sentence last week could have cost me thousands! :( I did not have a good feeling. I felt that I would reject their offer and return to California. And it would all be my fault. I had no idea what I wanted, and I didn't feel that I could take anyone's advice seriously, because everyone in Europe was pushing me to stay and everyone in America was pushing me to go back.

So it is. I walked back to the hostel, getting a wurst along the way. (Actually two, since Arisa graciously gifted me with a €2 food voucher at the station). I surfed the web in the hostel lobby for a bit, and then headed off to my rideshare at 14:20 at the station.

There was no name on the ride on the website. That should have made me suspicious. The ad that they would drive with either a blue BMW or a red VW, so I approached the red, slightly beat-up VW van with people loading their stuff into it. The driver didn't speak German or English, but did confirm that the ride was going to Stuttgart. 4 people were already in the van, and 3 more people crammed in, making it a total of 8 riders and the driver.

The ride became an adventure. Mainly because the driver couldn't communicate with us. We started driving out of the city, then he stopped at a gas station and asked us all to pay him. The Germans in the car were put off by this. Then, he drove the wrong way, going down an empty road near the arena. Then, when were finally on the Autobahn, he took an exit that led us onto the wrong Autobahn (headed toward Würzburg instead of Darmstadt). We were all shouting at the driver that we were going the wrong way. FInally, he turned around, and we reset the navi device to Stuttgart. But we already lost nearly an hour. Also, the driver was driving way too slow - people kept honking at us from behind and passing us.

In the van with me was Verena (studying in Gießen, originally from near Stuttgart), Klaus (works at P&C), and Sophie (Tunisian descent, didn't talk much). Two backpackers got in the car with us: Anjali (German, blond with dreadlocks, was born in India) and Simon Schmidpeter (from Allgaü in Bavaria, working as an engineer at a paper factory in Freiburg). Anjali and Simon were on the same flight from Panama, both having just completed several months backpacking through South (and Central) America. They were excited to have a German beer again (and surprised/disappointed that there was still snow). We played some road trip games that involved asking each other sexual questions.

Sitting in the front was Tobias and some older man who didn't really talk to us.

Finally, we made it to Stuttgart. We dropped off Verena in a surburb. The rest of us had to insist that we get dropped off at the airport. Anjali offered a ride (with her mom) to me and Sophie, since we were all going to the same part of town. They droped me off at Esslingen station, where I took the S-Bahn one stop to Felix's stop.

Felix met me at the station. We got some groceries and made our way to his place, company-provided housing. There is no wifi in his flat; I have to plug in my laptop to connect. This means that I'll have to adapt to unplugging for a few days!

We watched some videos online. Felix prepared a job application. Had a couple beers. I slept on the floor.