Welcome back from your long weekend (for some reason, they don’t celebrate our Independence Day here in Germany), and as you can see I have tried to represent the red, white and blue the only way that I know how. That is what I wore in the biergarten for the USA vs. Germany game, as well as in the office during the day before we went to watch the game (I think I may have violated their dress code?). I ended up walking home at about 1:30 in the morning wearing that, and I can say that I never felt in danger. Think about someone wearing a Green Bay Packer jersey in Chicago after a game between the two teams…. I’m pretty lucky, really.
It’s hard to believe that in just 10 days, I’ll be back in the states (my birthday is in 12 days, in case you wanted to get me a gift. It should be noted that the word ‘gift’ in German translates to mean poison, so please don’t confuse the two). Time has slowly picked up its pace as I near the end of my time here in Munich which is pretty usual, but I think it’s because I’m fully comfortable in my environment now. It’s almost a shame that it’s almost time to come back to the states. I’m ready to come back, but it’s not as if I am wishing the next few days would hurry up and pass.
A bunch of quick notes-
– To update a previously mentioned item, I will not be winning the World Cup inter-office betting pool. I’m currently in 14th, and will not be able to catch the leaders. I’m a little bummed about it, but my coworkers are way too pleased about the result of me not winning.
– This past weekend I travelled to Salzburg in Austria. There was apparently a famous musician born there.
-We got an email today saying that we don’t have to come into the office until 9 on Wednesday, because of the Germany soccer match starting at 10 o’clock local time. The next time the Blackhawks play on the West Coast late during a playoff game, can I come in late? Thanks in advance.
-I was talking to a German about the fact that America will win the World Cup someday, to which he replied: “I hope that I am old and dead before that happens.” Okay then.
-I am going to miss the German weather. The average high temp has been in the upper 70s for most of my time here with little to no humidity.
-I’m going to a German rap concert tonight, should be interesting.
-One of the funniest things about my America outfit is that the German’s were saying that I was wearing a ‘full body condom’.
-The worst part about the biergartens is that you are always sitting on hard wooden benches. It’s like I’m back in high school ‘playing’ basketball again.
Later this week, I’m going to try to take a stab at describing my Dachau experience from a week ago now that I’ve had some time to think about it. I hope that everyone had a great weekend celebrating Freedom, that not everyone gets to experience.
Alex Krog, CPA is an Audit Associate and participant in Mueller’s Global Employee Exchange Program
