On my two-week-trip to Germany I saw a lot of interesting things I didn’t really expect. Going to another country always means a change and comes with learning and seeing new things. But going back to your home country? Can be as surprising as well!

Let me list some things (of course good and bad) I noticed:

• -less advertising. Feels like coming from the western part of Germany to the eastern part. Less colors, less advertising - just simple logos and shop banners opposed to the colorful shopping world in the US
• -More people. Portland is less densely populated and you only notice that when you arrive in Frankfurt airport. It feels like you’re diving in the crowd!
• -Smokers everywhere. Since I stopped smoking three months ago, I really loved the American way of treating smokers. You won’t find them in public that frequently or only in designated smoking areas. In Germany, you have to find your way through all the stinking smokers which is awful.
• -Poor service. Germans have to learn that the customer is king, since he gives the money. But we got used to being treated like the one who interrupts the waiter’s cigarette break. Instead of a friendly smile and a “Hello, what can I get you today?” the guy just turns around, puts on his frazzled face and says “Huh!?” (I guess that means something like “what do you wan, damned!?”)
• -Real glassware!!! Although the waiter wasn’t that friendly, he served the Latte Macchiato in a real glass, not a paper mug. That way, coffee tastes much better!
• -No paper toilet cover
• -War on the autobahn. As much as I hate driving 65mph on the US highway, getting on the German autobahn really needs some time to get used to again. Turning on the traffic service, you’re stunning about the messages about accidents and resulting traffic jams everywhere. But once the autobahn is open, it is soooo good to go faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast!
• -No coffee to go
• -It’s not all about eating. US commercials are mainly about eating, the latest “Delicious cheesy crusty chicken strip salad” and trying to get you into the next Arbys restaurant. Germany is different. Of course we eat, but it’s not everything in life. Which is good.
• -Television news. After watching German news like “Heute Journal”, you realize how dumb US news is. Being worked up as entertainment shows, US news contain only poor information. It’s amazing, how detailed investigation for German news articles is done and how extensively they are presented. Lot of great background information!
• -Diversified TV schedule. Looking at ARD, ZDF and the third channels, you can see what a variety of movies and reports they offer. You get nature and educational program (which is part of the general education) within the daily schedule. In the US you would have to switch to special channels - and who does that?!

After almost one year relaxing my forearms, I went rock climbing again! There’s a very nice gym “Portland Rock” on Burnside and 12th East, Narelle - an Australien friend of ours - chose. It was so much fun again - maybe I get myself prepared again this year to go climbing outside…

What a great weekend of sun! Went to San Juan Island near the Canadian border for whale watching. Since Uwe currently rents a convertible, we could enjoy every bit of sun all the days.

San Juan Island is a really beautiful island. Looks like the Black Forrest with the difference that you can cross it within 30 minutes and can see really big snow topped mountains on Olympic island. We even went swimming in the pacific, which was a challenge at 12°C water temperature!

Although we expected some bigger whales, it was very nice to see them swimming very slowly and calm. Something I’ve never seen before. The salmon they find in those areas must be really good, because they don’t even seem to be disturbed by the boats following them. Blody tourists! See the pictures in my gallery!

I can’t believe it - I only got two more jumps to get my USPA license! Did my low-altitude-oh-shit-things-are-still-big-jumps from 5500 and 3500ft and completet 4 levels with fallrate control and docking yesterday. Next levels will be swooping with diving exit

Guess what the picture shows - my first own rig! A nice Javelin J3 with a Sabre 170 red canopy. Will make two more jumps on the Infinity 175 I use right now to get comfortable with. Can’t wait to jump my own…

Hey dude, this is a really cool name for you being a security expert…

What an amazing weekend! Uli came visiting me from Santa Cruz and we did everything to prevent us from being bored. Although we only roughly specified the weekend, it turned out to be implemented better much than expected. Tell me another project running like this…

Starting with Saturday, when weather finally became good enough to make Uli have a nice tandem skydive! Only got some pictures of him preparing the adventure, but since he has video taken during the dive, you will see some more exciting pics later this week!

Sunday, we hit I5 North to Mount St. Helens, where you can make a hike in an old lava tube. Was very exciting to see the very organically-looking formation which reveals how lava was once flowing down the drain. The landscape around St. Helens, especially the northern part, is still marked by the severe eruption that took place in 1980. This devastating event left miles of moon-like mountains and trees broken tooth-pickers. Go to St. Helens gallery.

Sunday wasn’t just an ordinary day, it was 4th of July. And as it is common to do, we went to the firework downtown at Willamette river. I never saw a crowd like this in the city of Portland!

After two great days, the best was still to come: Skiing on Mount Hood! We got up really early and had a rocking good time with incredibly good snow conditions, sun all day and an amazing view. Being one of the many volcanoes the cascade is littered with, Mount Hood is ski-able until August. This is why many slalom dudes are there for summer camp. See the great pics of our training camp

Cool, you can find a picture of me having fun in WMF on Ellen Allien’s gallery!

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