Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!

Yes, that's right, I just wished myself happy bday auf Deutsch on my own blog. I can't help it! I am just so excited because not only does today mark my 22nd year on the planet, but it is also my last day of work! Also, tomorrow I jet off to Rome to meet up with fellow ICPer Shane where we will adventure around for a few days before heading to Venice for a couple more days. It's my last big trip before I head back to the states - which is in 8 days by the way. Incredible how fast five months fly by! Ahh!

So birthdays in Germany are a little different than they are in the USA. Parties aren't thrown by friends for the birthday girl/boy... the birthday girl/boy throws the party for their friends. I'm not having a party, but I did bake a cake last night (carrot cake of course, and I hope it tastes as good as it smelled) and carried it all the way to work. At work people just come into my office and wish me well and eat some of my cake and are on their merry way. No fanfare, no fuss, just good efficient happy birthday wishing. It's the German way.

Greenservations 7: Radfahren

I think I may have mentioned earlier that I bike to work everyday.  Well... practically everyday.  Sometimes I'm just too darn lazy.  Or sometimes it's raining so hard that I am literally soaked through to my underwear if I don't cower under an umbrella.  Oh, Wuppertal.  Back to the Greenservation at hand: Radfahren.  The sustainable observations about cycling versus driving are plentiful and apparent.  Since I've been rather scatterbrained lately, I searched for a list of 'the benefits of biking' online so I could organize my thoughts.  Here are a few of my favorites from the list:

1. On-going use of a bicycle has virtually NO carbon footprint.
2. Bicycling can be faster than walking, transit or motor vehicles.
3. Save travel money by biking. If the switch is from a car this includes purchase price, gas, tires, fluids, insurance, maintenance, washing, parking, etc.
4. Regular bicycling helps with personal weight management - new full-time bicycle commuters can expect to lose an average 13 pounds their first year of bicycle commuting if they maintain the same eating habits.
5. Bicyclists can ignore the highway traffic jam reports.
6. Reduces road kill and saves animals.
7. Biking is fun.

You should really check out the whole list for more great and environmentally friendly reasons to bike instead of drive!  Now, I'm going to continue to overwhelm you with statistics and reasons why you should get off your lazy bum (I'm lookin at you Mom and Dad) and get pedaling! According to a study from  Environmental Health Perspectives, if 30 million urban and suburban midwesterners replaced JUST HALF of their short car trips with cycling during JUST THE WARMEST six months of the year, they "could save approximately four trillion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, 1,100 lives and $7 billion in mortality and health care costs for the region every year."  Boom.  Sustainable, healthy, and fiscally responsible.  What more could you want?  Oh, an awesome infographic about the benefits of biking? Here you go: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/bike-to-work-infographic-benefits-health_n_1145815.html

I really hope that the USA adopts a more bike-friendly mentality in the immediate future.  I've observed and experienced firsthand all the benefits of biking to work, and I have been lucky to do so since I live in such a bike-friendly country.  Everywhere I go I see racks of bikes on bikes on bikes!  Just look at what I get to be a part of! (Below left: Amsterdam, below right: Munich, bottom: Heidelberg)

I plan on seeing even more sweet bike action in a few weekends when Michelle and I head to Copenhagen, the city of bikerly love!  I hope this post has inspired you to green up your life by embracing the wonder that is biking.  If it hasn't inspired you to do that, maybe I've inspired you to work on your hyperlinking skills.  Bis später!

Wupperverband: First Impressions

Today marks the end of my first week of work for the Wupperverbandgesellschaft für integrale Wasserwirtschaft mbH, a Tochtergesellschaft (subsidiary) of Wupperverband. Seeing as that name is A BIT of a mouthful, I’m going to refer to my place of work as ‘Wupperverband’ or ‘WiW’, sound good?  So far, my impression of the company is really wonderful, which is such a relief! I know that this is still just a first impression, but I’m going to be working on some pretty cool projects and I’m very excited! 

My place of work is located on top of a hill, where I have a beautiful view of the Wupper valley!  The building is nice and new with big bright windows so that an entire days work can be done by natural light.  That’s assuming that you have a bright sunny day, which today was not. The office set-up is quite nice.  Each floor basically consists of a long, wide hallway with offices on either side.  Each office has either one or two desks (you get your own desk if you’re important) and the door can be closed, but most people leave them open.  I really like that I’m not stuck in a cube all day!  However I still don’t have a permanent desk yet… so a dingier office might be in my future.  Everything is nice, neat, spacious, and like I said before, very bright!  I think it’s a great atmosphere.  I’ll try to sneak some pictures soon…

The main project that I’m going to be working on is an EU funded project called INNERS which stands for INNovative Energy Recovery Strategies in the urban water cycle.  A full description can be found on the website: http://inners.eu/.  Basically, the project looks at the urban water cycle, and optimizes energy usage in waste water treatment plants.  The goal of Wupperverband is to have an energy neutral (or even energy producing!) waste water treatment plant by 2020!  I had a tour of Wupperverband's largest waste water treatment plant today, and believe it or not it was actually kind of beautiful.  The WWTP is set back in the forest and beside the occasional smell of decomposing organic material, it was really cool to explore.  I’m going to be learning about things like biogas, heat exchangers, and activated sludge.  It’s going to be really challenging because most of the material is fairly new to me, and I’m also learning it in a foreign language.  At least I’ll always be busy at work!

So far everyone that I have met at work has been incredibly nice.  Everyone is very impressed that I am trying to learn German, and they even tell me that I speak it really well (which I KNOW is an exaggeration).  I think that everyone will be very patient with my language learning, I just need to not get frustrated with myself.  I still haven’t met my “real” boss yet as he has been away on holiday.  These Germans love their holidays. I’m looking at a four day weekend because of the Easter holiday – I’m not complaining!

So I bet you’re wondering how I get to my pretty office atop the hill… well, in true German fashion, Inka and I have been biking to work together!  Inka bikes to work pretty much year-round, rain or shine, and since I don’t really know how to say “I’m kinda lazy” yet auf Deutsch, I’ve been biking with her!  I have been borrowing a bike from her neighbors until I can borrow one of my own.  Inka helped me send out an email to all our co-workers asking if anyone has a bike I can borrow for five months.  Within minutes we already had three responses, so I think I will be all set in the bike department! And I was only half kidding about the lazy thing… I actually enjoy biking to work, even though I’m a hot sweaty mess by the time we get to the top of the hill.  But hey, it’s a much needed workout to counteract all the cheese I’ve been eating lately. 

I’m very happy that I found a co-op that fits me so well.  It is truly a relief!  I do have some unfortunate news however.  Remember the WG that I found, and visited, and thought I was all set to move into?  Well it turns out that the other roommates decided they wanted to find someone that will be staying for longer, so I still don’t have a place to live.  Back to the search!  Again, I’d just like to thank my lucky stars that I have Inka who has been ridiculously helpful and welcoming and kind.  I would be in a heap of trouble without her! 

I’m trying not to get too discouraged about things.  I feel like my language is improving little by little, but it is still incredibly frustrating to have the language skills of a 3 year old.  Speaking of 3 year olds… Inka and I went over to our co-worker Catrin’s house for dinner last night and she has perhaps the cutest son in all of Germany.  He’s probably around 4 or 5 years old (and of course can speak better German than me) and he was so loud and funny.  Seeing him hang all over his parents made me really miss mine.  I’ve still been feeling really homesick, but it’s getting better now that I’ve got some concrete things to look forward to.  I am also seriously bummed out that my apartment situation fell through, and that I’m basically back to the start of my search.  Ah, such is life.  So for now, I’m very lucky that I have Inka hosting me at her house, and I will try calling people about WGs throughout the next couple of days.  I’m looking forward to a trip to Aachen this weekend to visit Steve and Shane (other ICP students) and I’m EXTREMELY excited to see my friend Helge!  Helge is from Norway and he was a foreign exchange student at my high school.  He now goes to medical school in Aachen, so I’m going to hopefully meet up with him this weekend!  Also, the UC DAAP students are arriving in the coming week, so I’ve got that to look forward to as well!  And what do you, my faithful readers, have to look forward to?  I’ll be posting about my trip to Aachen, as well as some new Greenservations soon!  Until then, Tschüss!