I apologize for the absence of blogs lately. I have just been in Berlin for a week for my final year seminar with my program. I will definitely write about that next, but wanted to catch everyone up on another trip I made in May to Vienna with Alex, a fellow Vanderbilt MBA student! Alex had planned to come to Europe to travel around and we decided it would be fun to meet up for a weekend and see something new and different. I had always heard fabulous things about Vienna and it was fairly easy to get to from Germany, so we decided that was a great destination. I couldn't get any more time off work unfortunately, so Alex and I met at the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof in the evening and headed together to the Airport ... read more

I am narrowing down on my last 6 weeks of work, and 9 weeks on this lovely continent. The weather lately has been fantastic, actually I dare say kind of warm, and I have been trying to change up my wardrobe a bit (remember no air conditioning - not even at work!) I have a few more trips planned over the next 6 weeks, but I want to hang around Germany and Karlsruhe a bit as it is now pool, parks, and grill season and who would want to miss that plus a couple of beach bars. (They dump a bunch of sand somewhere and turn it into a bar. Awesome concept) The big finale comes in July and there have been some tentative changes to our plans as we weren’t able to acquire our Russian ... read more

Spring is here. The trees are regaining leaves, flowers are blooming, its raining...a lot...oh wait thats just Germany. :-) As spring approaches and the idea of Summer is infecting this town, I can not help but realize that my days here are numbered. So much to see, so little time!! I have lots planned over the next 3 months, trying to squeeze in everything I can, see friends again, and try to just take in the beauty of a German Summer. (Beergardens, beach bars, Swimming Pools) I am in amazement at how fast this year has really gone. It is already the middle of my 8th month here...unimaginable. Don't get me wrong, I miss everyone very much and am excited about returning home, but its nothing like a light at the end of the tunnel to ... read more

After a harsh German winter, Megan and I could think of nothing better than a long weekend in the Turkish Riviera. Actually, really all I said is that I wanted to be warm, and well there was a really good offer for Antalya, Turkey, so we booked it! :-) I was fairly exhausted from all my previous travels around Germany and Italy, but as I ran through the ice and snow falling from the sky to get from train to train and off to the airport in Stuttgart, I was absolutely thrilled to be heading to 20 degree celcius weather! Megan and I met in Stuttgart and slowly found our way to Terminal 4 at the airport, the well...ghetto terminal...It took forever to check in to our Sun Express flight, and then get through security, but ... read more

We were very lucky with weather last weekend, which was an enjoyable change, but almost too nice because now we are wishing it was spring. Megan, my friend from Australia that I met in Hamburg, flew down for a beautiful sunny weekend in Southern Germany. We had a quiet evening on Friday night as we were both tired from work, but Saturday we were "up and adam" and off to Heidelberg for the day. I hadn't been to Heidelberg since 2002 when i was traveling up to Weimar for the first summer. I also was able to visit in 1998 with my family on our first trip to Germany. The town holds a special place in my memories, it is one of my favorite cities in Germany. Luckily now I only live about 45 min by ... read more