Ryan J. Allen

My visit in Halifax so far has been something else.

It has been great to see many family members that I see infrequently, but I am definitely not used to them. It is a different experience. My grandma is very eager to show me everything that is new in Halifax. Her excitement is about the only draw that I have to this activity; this city is not one that I have any emotional attachment to and I don’t really remember the old versus the new.

On Friday night my Aunt Lisa made a delicious dinner of meatballs, rice, and carrots served with some great bread. Yesterday I had some pancakes made with fresh picked blueberries for breakfast, some fish and chips at Fisherman’s Cove, and then steak at the Keg for dinner. After dinner my great grandparents served an apple crisp with home made whipped cream. And today, home made blueberry muffins for breakfast, a small piece-meal lunch, and then a crazy mix of delicious finger foods for dinner. This included finger food desserts. I am so full right now it is unbelievable.

Tomorrow will be a nice day as I will return to Ottawa. I will still have the morning and afternoon in Halifax, and this will lead into my evening flight home. My time here has been relaxing, so I am hoping that relaxation will continue into Ontario but it will be back to work on Tuesday. Perhaps with the weather we’re expecting in Ottawa and this relaxing weekend I will continue to feel good.

How could I ever think it funny how
Everything you swore would never change is different now?
Like you said; you and me; make it through;
Didn’t quite; fell apart; where the fuck were you?

This week the Munich International Community Church was supporting a day of fasting. The point, Pastor Steve Henderson said, was to show God that you love Him more than you love whatever it is that you are giving up–food, TV, cell phone, etc. I guess the idea is noble but it strikes me as being a little bit…self-serving. It may sound weird, but you giving up something serves you more than it serves God.

Here’s a better plan, I thought: how about using this day of fasting to replace something you would normally do with spending time in God’s Word. But don’t do it because you want to show God that you love him more than Grey’s Anatomy–do it because there is so much to learn, and so much of interest in His Word. Don’t trick yourself into thinking that you’re doing it for Him–do it for yourself, and be happy to be doing so.

I don’t think God wants us to starve for Him today. But maybe I’m wrong.

Bethel Church in Kingston has a new pastor, from what I’ve read. I listened to one of Mark Kotchapaw’s messages and have downloaded a second one to listen to (Bethel only has the two up right now; he’s really new). I like that I can do this. I’ve asked Pastor Wallingford at Parkdale if we could do the same. I know that the weekly message is recorded at Parkdale so it’s just a matter of putting it online.

This weekend I’ll be attending Church in Halifax; the next weekend I’ll be in Ottawa; the weekend afterwards I’ll be in Kingston. So that’ll be four weeks in a row attending service in different cities. Neat.

I’ve listened to three “learn German” lessons. Out of 90. Oh my.

I went for another little jog in Olympiapark this morning. I got lost and ended up on a “fitness” course, which involved going up a huge hill…twice.

When I was at Real on Saturday I bought a 1.5 litre carton of milk. It is now all gone.

Two more working days; two more sleeps.

So I got up nice and early today and enjoyed the breakfast at the hotel. I had purchased a ticket for a guided tour around BMW Welt today at 11 a.m. The tour was nice–about 80 minutes long. I took some photos afterwards, then visited the BMW Welt gift shop and purchased Dynamic Forces, a book about some of the science behind the architecture of BMW Welt.

I had lunch at Restaurant International in BMW-Welt. It was a delicious red curry. I had hoped to go to the BMW Museum afterwards, but I only had about an hour when I was done at BMW Welt before I had to leave for church so I skipped the museum (it’s 12 euros).

I went from Olympiazentrum to Goetheplatz to attend a Sunday Service at Munich International Community Church, an English church here in Munich (one of a few). I sat beside a Canadian, coincidentally, and we had a good chat. I joined her and a group of others for dinner at Hofbräukeller. I had a wiener-schnitzel. One of the girls in the group was an au-pair and it was fun to chat with her. Everyone had an interesting story as to why they were there.

I took the subway from Max-Weber-Platz back to Olympiazentrum and settled back into the hotel room for the night. A few phone calls to the important people and a blog post later and I am ready for bed.

Not as many photos today, but there are a few in the 2008-08-Munich-BMW_Welt_und_MICC directory.

Call me domesticated, but I love extra wide ironing boards. I’m not sure if this is a hotel thing or a Europe thing, but I am sure that I would like to have one.

On Friday I left the office at a reasonable time of 5:30 p.m. or so. I took advantage of this “early” time off work to go for a little run in Olympiapark. For the first time on this trip I had the “this is cool” feeling during my run; I was running through Olympiapark in Munich, Germany. And it turned out to be a good start to the weekend.

Yesterday I slept in until 10 a.m.–a huge sleep-in for me. I got ready for the day and then went to Marienplatz. I wandered around for a bit until I got hungry, which prompted a visit to the Hofbräuhaus. There I ate a pork knuckle with potato dumplings and a cabbage salad. I continued to wander around the city centre for hours, stopping in at a Starbucks to enjoy a mocha frappuccino. (Grade was 4,30 euro.)

When I had enough of the city centre I took the U-bahn (subway) back to Olympiazentrum and went to Olympiapark to take some photographs. I even went up Olympiaturm to get some photos of the city from above. How very touristy of me.

Exhausted, hungry, and itching for a snack I (about 6:30 p.m.) I decided to walk down to where the office is. When a co-worker in Ottawa was giving me directions to the office he said it was right across from a grocery store. So I assumed that OBI was a grocery store. Imagine my disappointment when I walked in and found out that it’s a do-it-yourself store, akin to the Home Depot.

I walked back to the hotel and decided that I must satisfy my itch for some groceries. I went to the website for Real–or as I commonly refer to it: the Real German Superstore. I found the nearest Real was only a few kilometres away and, with an hour before closing, I acted quickly to get to Real before it closed. I was able to buy some milk, Smarties, water, Pringles, Coke, and pistachios, among other things. I wish I had more time there, and also wish I was there with someone who has a comparable love for hypermarkets.

I wound down the day with a meal at the hotel and some sleep. I could barely walk after the day.

I have fielded many requests for photos so I posted a lot of them in the photos section under 2008-08-Marienplatz_Olympiapark.

This marks the end of working day 3 in Munich. The major problems I am here for have been resolved. I have been asked to stay as a “safety” for the next few days. Unfortunately, I am here with no real agenda so I am just sort of floating around and helping out.

The weekend is now ahead of me. I have a few ideas of things to do. Sleep in is at the top of my list.

Hallo aus Deutschland.

On Sunday I flew to Germany for this week for work. The last time I did this I went to the airport 2 or 3 hours early, as recommended for International flights, and ended up waiting the entire time. I was checked in and through security in 5 minutes. So this time I went a little later. But, I went late enough that I didn’t leave much room to spare. And the bus was quite late (I could have taken a taxi, but find the bus to be comfortable). I ended up at the airport at 4:35 p.m. for a 5:10 p.m. departure, and they said that I missed the flight.

So then a lot of time was spent while they changed my ticket. Instead of flying Ottawa to Frankfurt direct, I had to go through Montreal. This added a few hours to my total travel time, but was better than not getting to Germany on Monday. By the time I finally passed through security, even with the delay at the airport, the original flight I was on was still boarding. This was very frustrating as I felt like I could have made it. But, that’s how it goes.

So I drove from Frankfurt to Ittersbach, directly to the office and put in a full day’s work on no sleep. Then a long day Tuesday. And for Wednesday I was requested in Munich. So yesterday morning I drove to Munich from Ettlingen, which took forever because the entire A8 seems to be under construction, and arrived here quite early at 9:30. I was, again, at the office quite late and had the pleasure of being asked to extend my stay–both here in Munich, and here in Germany. So I am stuck here for another week.

So far, I was happy on Tuesday, but annoyed on Monday and Wednesday. Let’s see how Thursday goes.

Oh, and I have my NIN hoodie with me.

About a year and a half ago I fulfilled my desire to purchase a pair of jeans (with some help). I suspect that around this time I also gained an interest in owning a hoodie. I cannot remember if this was an original idea of mine, of whether it came from some persuasion, but I do vividly remember the suggestion of what would make a great hoodie: a Nine Inch Nails hoodie.

At the Nine Inch Nails concert I fulfilled my desire to own a NIN hoodie when I purchased a hoodie bearing artwork from the Slip era. But there is something even more interesting about this hoodie: it has no hood. What it does have, instead, is a high collar with “nine inch nails” printed on the back. It’s a great, great hoodie that may take the place of my favourite hoodie.

And in other great Nine Inch Nails news, NIN will be playing in Ottawa in November of this year. Unfortunately I will not be able to make it but I encourage anyone with an interest to check it out. It is a great show. Familiarize yourself with Year Zero, The Slip, and Ghosts to maximize enjoyment.

Another great Trying is Hard.