Alive, In Tune, and Sort of On Time

So as that picture right over there might lead you to believe, I am in fact in Germany. That's the view from my place, well when it's not cloudy. Stuttgart appears to have elected to exist in a perpetual state of late-mid spring this year, meaning that moisture and big dark scary clouds abound. Hooray!

Ok, I'll be honest, it hasn't been that awful. Yes the weather is rather conducive to the lush greenery, but all in all it's a rather nice place. Sure I've only spent one weekend here (more on that later), but what I've seen is pretty nice, not that the abundant good beer has swayed my opinion, nope, not at all. The city is nice, and I'll get some shots of the Schossplatz up on ye olden flickr in the near future. It's easy to wander around downtown for hours and run into all sorts of things. Stuttgart is undoubtedly industrial, as the large spinning Benz logo atop the Nuremburg-esque Dailmer (used to be Chrysler) building might suggest. However, it remains surprisingly welcoming with a lot going on downtown.

Of course with all of this comes the minor question of 'well why are you here'. Which of course brings us to the topic of the dreaded W-word. Work here is interesting, as it's a mix of people on TDY and people who might be here a bit longer. The SI Centrum where we all live is kind of like a college dorm with better beer and way stranger stories. Really what can you expect with our mix of guys plus the folks headed to or from Iraq. Saturday morning story time is one of those must attend sort of affairs.

Work itself is interesting, certainly keeps me occupied with the patented 'drink from the firehose' concept. I've learned a lot about what we do in the past few weeks, and I'm still making that uphill spring. Briefs, reports, white papers, guess my skills with writing are being put to use, so that's good. My coworkers really help though, as they've not only been in my shoes but are also awesome. That second part is a good thing and has been a huge help. On that note, as the Benz logo is now lit, I'd best seek dinner and some chores before bed since apparently I am not only 6 hours ahead of many of you but also in the real world (I don't know either, I just woke up one day and here I was).