On July 10th

Hey everyone,
I am officially past the midway point of my internship, and the job itself is not bad. I got to use a band saw yesterday to cut up the car parts that I am going to be testing, and I usually have plenty of time at the end of the day to surf the internet. I can't get over how cool the Olympia park is. I go there and relax by the lake nearly every weekend.

Getting the visa was a real hassle. I went to the municipal office with Ryan McKown, a fellow CDS intern at BMW. I don't know where I'd be without him. He always seems to know where he's going, while I aimlessly wander around. Anyway, there was a glitch in the computer system, so even after being there for four hours, I had to come back the next day to get the visa. It turned out okay though. I ended up getting a sizable discount. The normal visa fee is 50 Euros, and I only had to pay 15. At first, I thought they were just being nice, because I had struggled so much the day before, but I was told later that's not really the German way. So now I think they might have just messed up. Either way, I was happy to have that over with.

I have been reading a lot of novels over the past few weeks. Before coming here, I had not read a novel in about a year, and I've read maybe 5 here. If there is anything good to come out of the fact that my voltage converter messed up my laptop and my Ipod, that's it.

I have been studying Sheet Molding Compound, which is the material that the hatches of cars are made of. I have learned plenty, and I can see the experience being useful.

I've made a few friends among the others in my living complex, so that's good. I play soccer on Sundays. Even though I'm not very good, it's fun to go out there and make an effort. Last weekend there were a bunch of ten-year-olds playing, and we joined in their game. I was almost as good as the ten-year-olds.

One of these weekends, I will be going to a city called Wels, Austria. I think I'll probably do that on my last weekend here. I was an exchange student there when I was a junior in high school, and I'd like to visit my host family again.

I'm going to go to a guitar shop this weekend. Not to buy of course, but to try out every guitar there and then say, "hmm, I'm not sure which one I want, I'll have to come back later." I played about 3 hours a day during the first few weeks of this summer, so I've kind of been having a withdrawal effect.

Anyway, that's good for now. Expect another post in a week or two.

Ramsey