For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “bootstrap” - by bootstrapping friendship I mean meeting one person, then meeting his/her friends and eventualy friends of his/her friends, social networking kind of thing.

It’s very hard to find someone interested in going out during the weekend. People I know are all nice, but kind of superficial in their way. This is especially true in case of my flatmate who seems to be a nice person and probably doesn’t have anything against me. It’s just like he just wanted to have as little to do with me as possible.

Now, this is something I had taken into account. I am a big boy, I made the decision and I am facing the music now. But don’t worry, I’m not suicidal ;-)

So, if you think of emigrating (temporarily or not), try to:

• go with other people, that’s always somebody to fall back to
• go to a place where you will meet others in your situation, they will want to meet other people as well
• go to a heterogeneous place, higher probability of meeting the right people
• live with lots of people in an apartment or house, There were around 7 people in my previous place and it was hell of a fun!

* Wow! The ultimate inverted pyramid. Jakob Nielsen would be proud of me ;-)

All this by a single Amazon.com order, mere two books, $53 including shipping and handling. Well, there is German Amazon, but because of the exchange rate (USD is cheaper) and the price difference (books were cheaper is USD, even ignoring the exchange rate) I went for Amazon.com instead of Amazon.de. [The difference, excluding shipping and handling, was whopping 40%, and settled at 25% after shipping and handling fee was added]. For those interested - the duty for books in Germany is 0% and the V.A.T. [referred to as Mehrwertsteuer here] is 7%, but… one doesn’t have to pay anything if the amount due is below 5€.

The problem was, it took 6 weeks for the books to arrive in Germany. What is worse is that it took 3 weeks before they were dispatched, even though they were available and would have been shipped within a day or two if I were in the US. This is despicable, I think Amazon pushes more expensive shipments this way. However, the books were unavailable at that time in Amazon.de, so it didn’t matter much.

Today I placed another order with Amazon, but it was German Amazon this time. Having considered the price difference (only $5 in favor of Amazon.com) and near-instant shippment of Amazon.de it was a no-brainer.

I just wonder how I’m going to get all this stuff back to Poland… ;-)

Short Kreisverwaltungsreferat (KVR) howto:

• don’t go there on Monday, I’ve heard it’s the worst day to go there. I tried Friday, and it worked
• take U6 line, get off at the Poccistrasse stop, follow the “Kreisverwaltungsreferat” signs
• enter the Kreisverwaltungsreferat building, make sure you’re at Ruppertstraße 19 and not 11
• you have to register youself first, this is done on the first floor [American English] (ground floor [British English], Erdgeschoss [German]) behind the door that says “Meldebehörde”. You take a waiting number and wait for your number to appear on a display. You may need to fill out a form, which is available on the second floor [AmE]/first floor [BrE]. I had it because I went to the second floor first
• when you’re asked about religion you must bear in mind that if you declare yourself as a believer you will be subject to church tax, which is something like 8% of the income tax
• the funny thing is that you just state where you live, you don’t need any kind of rent contract to prove it
• once you’re done there, you go to the second floor [AmE]/first floor [BrE], and look for a desk with the first letter of your last name
• a lady there will ask you for your passport, photocopy it, give you a waiting number and a form [which might be needed to register your address in the first place]. The number will have “Ausländerangelegenheiten” written on it. You fill out the form and wait until your number shows up
• the servant will ask you for your passport, Anmeldung, do a couple of thing and you will get your residence permit in no time

All in all, a piece of cake. But of course, take all the documents you have, just to be on the safe side [e.g. work contract, rent contract, work permit (new member states), etc.]

* I think it was that easy because, after all, I am a citizen of the European Union. Your mileage may vary.

I actually had a number of reasons. First of all, I guess I always wanted to live for some time in a different country. And a lot of my friends took some time off their university to go to another country, be it an internship abroad, summer job in the USA or whatever. So if I didn’t go I’d probably regret it as some point. And you know, “a funny thing about regret, it’s better to regret something you have done than something you haven’t done”.

But it is not only about being a wannabe. I guess the main reason to do it was fun, meeting new people, seeing new places, discovering differences, having a life in a way. Obviously, at some point everything will be familiar, even now the novelty begins to wear off. But I like new things and I had lots of them here, both good and bad ;-)

And there is a professional side to it as well. Before I came here I thought I would lose [instead of gain] professionally becasue I would be an intern and in Poland I could apply for a regular position in some well-respected company and gain regular work experience. It is true in a way. But the company I work for turned out to be better than I thought :-) And right now I’m involved in a couple of interesting projects for remarkable clients and I hope my involvment and impact on each of them will grow with time. No name-ddropping right now, but I’m sure that my resume will have to be severly reorganized once I finish the internship.

It is also a way of postponing one serious decision - where do I want to work and who do I want to work as.* At the time of making the decision of going for an internship I was a project manager in a web agency, which was pretty far away from my dream job. At that time I didn’t know what my dream job was, but I was sure that it was not this one. [The stupid thing is that I knew it before I even got employed]. I still don’t know what my dream job is, but I have a better idea, I still have some time and I will be a lot more likely to get it after this internship.

I also hoped to improve my German skills, which has not happened yet. But I hope I’ll eventually take care of that as well. Obviously, such an internship will not make me even intermediate in German, but it may make me interested in it, and that would be enough.

* Make no mistake, your job has a huge impact on your life and, thus, happines. If you despise your job and the mere idea of going there revolts you, there is no way you could be happy.

Over and out.

It doesn’t look that difficult after all. Photographically speaking, it’s just backlight, [not too] shallow depth of field, urban location, central composition, pretty wide angle lens. [Interestingly, most of those things would usually be considered bad practice/advice] Indeed, it’s not that difficult. But it’s not easy either. However, the results are encouraging. Here’s what I found.

It feels stupid. In the beginning.

Girls always think it’s a pickup attempt. Guys are surprised as hell, “apprehensive” is the word. You feel stupid asking if you can take a couple of pictures of them. But it passes, after the 4th or 5th attempt [at least in my case].

Actually, it takes a proper attitude on the subject’s part. The person needs to be very open, optimistic and friendly to enjoy it. It has nothing to do with you. Unfortunately, it is not all that common.

You can approach single girls, girls with their girlfriends, guys, but not girls with their boyfriends, at least I won’t try until I really get good at this game.

The dreaded “why?” question

You need a really plausible reason to do it. It doesn’t suffice if you say it’s your hobby because people will not believe you. You’d better say a couple of sentences, they’ll be more open and willing to cooperate. And there’s the business card option [see below].

You gotta be fast. Real fast.

I usually had 3 snaps before the subject really wanted to go away. I mean, they wanted to go away after the first photo, but I managed to get three. It amounts to about 15 seconds. There is no time to think much, let alone play with your camera. Things like aperture, metering system, sensitivity need to be set before you ask anybody. It needs to be turned on, right in your hand, ready for action.

Try to spot a potential subject from far away. You’ll have more time to think about the background. Proper background is essential. If you wear glasses don’t even try to do it without them. Contact lenses would be better, because they don’t interfere with the camera’s viewfinder.

Technical stuff

Scott Schuman uses Canon Eos 5D and 50/1.4. I use Nikon D70 and 50/1.4. I guess you need something in the range of 35-85mm, depending on the intended crop. Mind that if you walk away too far to get the right crop your model may start to walk away.

F2.8 is a good starting point I think. I wouldn’t stop down more, as we want to have a pleasant background, but at the same time i’m not into very shallow depth of field if background is interesting.

Indeed, background is probably as important as your subject here. You really need to think about it. In the beginning you’ll probably fail miserably, but it will get better. Just try to think about the background before you ask.

Because of the backlight and central composition I used spot metering. Sometimes I’d dial in some exposure compensation, sometimes not. It usually worked out well, or could be tweaked in postprocessing. You really need to be proficient in light metering as you need the time to think about the background.

You have to consider things like the minimal shutter speed. I had to stop down to f2.8 at iso200 to be able to fit within the limits of my camera [1/8000s]. Lens shade needs to be attached all the time [think backlight].

Business cards

It might be a good idea to have business cards with you. They would make you seem more legitimate, more like a professional and not some guy who just wants to snap photos of hot girls. However, they are not essentials so I recommend not to make them until you are totally sure you need them. And don’t let them hold you back from actually trying the thing.

I always asked about the model’s email address so that I could send them the pictures. Half of them didn’t want them. Or they didn’t want to give me their email address [as if it was a pickup attempt]. If I had business cards they’d probably accept it, check out my site and maybe write me later to get the pictures. The deal is that if they did, and liked the pictures you could maybe arrange a less impromptu photoshoot some other time.

Please note that most probably I will alter my opinion on this topic heavily as I gain experience.

And here’s an interview with Scott Schuman

Firstly I went to English Garden to see what it’s like during the summer. I met some guys dressed up like pirates and asked what wass the deal. I learned that one of them was going to get married the next day. The groom had a cart and was supposed to sell the content of the cart within 30 minutes and get 30 euros. Anybody could buy anything for whatever price the buyer was willing to pay and the groom had to accept it [”nothing”, however, was not considered to be a legal price]. If the groom didn’t manage to get 30 euros, he would have to sing karaoke. When I met them it was 7 minutes to go and 12 euros left. I don’t think he made it. I spared him half a euro but took around 3 minutes. However, his buddies probably had a great time listening to his performance.

I also went to Olimpiapark, to see the view from Olympiaturm. The platform is 185m high so if the weather is fine you can spot Bavarian Alps. Yesterday the weather was not that fine, but still I snapped some photos. I also visited Olympiadorf [Olimpic Village], to see the colorful bungalows students live in. [More bungalow photos on Flickr]

I also made the mistake of going to Olympiaeinkaufszentrum. It was horrible, twice/thrice as many people as in Poland, very low ceiling [kind of like in an underpass], total mess.

However, going to Olympiaeinkaufszentrum has a stellar point as well, and this is seeing Westfriedhof and Georg-Brauchle-Ring subway stations. This FloSchMUC guy has marvellous U-bahn photos on Flickr. Definitely worth a peek. Yup, I’m using Flickr not only to upload my pictures, but to find nice places in Munich too;-)

I would like to get a gym membership. Half a year-long stay here is enough for this idea to be sensible. However, it’s far from being that simple. The first problem is that most (all?) fitness clubs require you to sign up for a certain amount of time, like 12 months. Some of them allow 6 months-long memberships, but then the second obstacle sets in.

In most cases it is impossible to look up the price on the website. It pisses me off soooo much. I am an Internet guy, I won’t call them, I won’t drop by to ask about the price. It is their damn business to inform me. It’s kind of similar with language schools. There are some that don’t list course prices on their websites. Are they ashamed? Is money some kind of a taboo here? I dunno. But it is so weird…

And yeah, language schools have their own quirks. Most of them offer intensive courses as their main product. Intensive course is usually 20 hours a week, e.g. 5x 4 hours. I wonder when do you start to puke with German. There are regular evening courses that are usually 10 hours a week. Still, it means that a working person has no opportunity to buy any food, because shops close at 8pm. I just distinctly remember that 4 hours a week, if you take them seriously, can generate a hell lot of work.

Campeon (a portmanteau of camp and Infineon) is the hedquaters of Infineon Technologies. Infineon Technologies is a semiconductor manufacturer, has almost 40000 employees worldwide, 7000 of them work in R&D, Infineon obtain about 7 patents every working day.

This change is something really great, I mean there is absolutely nothing wrong with my current job, I like it more and more every day [see below]. It’s that I will have an opportunity to work for two companies at the same time. It’s a huge skills (and resume ;-) booster.

Indeed, I’m getting some real things to work on at my job, and I must confess they are getting really interesting. I don’t want to say anything about them yet, as it is far too early, but I enjoy them. I really enjoy them, because they are related to analysis, consulting, devising things, and not organizing or management.

And yeah… the pasta with salmon and asparagus at Campeon is delicious. Especially if it’s paid for by a company credit card :-)

Sorry, no photos this time.

* Auswärtsspiel means “away game” in German

Yup, there are some different things about Munich/Germany. For example ecology and health, that’s for sure. A lot of people jog here but in Olimpiapark it’s so popular it’s getting scary. Healthy food is denoted by a special sign and a deposit of 0.15EUR is charged for every beverage in a recyclable bottle. There are bicylce road everywhere and a lot of people actually commute in this way. Bicycle are not as ubiquitous as in Denmark, though. We have 4 different trash cans [plus one box for paper] but we get charged only for the garbage that cannon be recycled.

People speak fluent English here. Well, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people do. People at my company are really good at English. Advanced, precise vocabulary in an appropriate context, that’s something I really like. On the other hand, it means that one has little incentive or pressure to communicate in German. And yeah, watch out for those folks who’d rather speak French than English, because they pronounce “very” as “wery” and “project” as “procheckt”.

Mineral water is not cheaper than Coca cola, I think it is actually a bit more expensive. There are several styles of beer [not brands], but I guess you can’t buy Heineken at my local supermarket. Which is not a problem when you can have a Paulaner or Augustiner.

Everything closes pretty early. Banks are open 9am-12am and 2pm-4pm, how the hell am I supposed to pay the rent? The last moment to buy some food is just before 8pm and don’t try skipping the shopping on Saturday, otherwise you’ll starve on Sunday. I guess you can get used to it. Everything seems strangely cheap. Maybe it’s because everything is so expensive…

Cars, obviously. The cars… I guess they merit their own post. What I may say right now that it is very disturbing to see an elderly lady in a Porsche (either 911 or Boxter, can’t remembet now). Speaking of Porsche, I don’t consider anything worse than 911 Turbo to be a Porsche, because all 911s non-turbo or Boxters are so… plain.

I have also seen some really ingenious things here. Something I particularly like is the dynamic train/subway timetable that lists a number of trains to depart within next 20 minutes (along with the time to depart, obviously). Other thing that really impressed me was some sort of soft concrete used in a kids’ playground so that they wouldn’t get hurt.

Germans seem to really like order. Maybe that’s why house rent contract is so detailed, including the number of mirrors or toilet paper holders (sic!). I guess this is the reason you usually can’t have a short fitness club membership. There is one fitness club that prides itself of its one year long membership length.

There are also some other things about Munich that make my flatmates don’t like it. But I’ll write about it some other time.