Random Day Trip: Kaiserslautern

So bright and early on saturday morning - about 9:17 I woke up and decided to go to the farmers market. It was so cute and there were so many old people. It smelled wonderful, but was actually more expensive than I was thinking. I love the eggs that I got from there too. And the strawberries were fantastic! Still tasted relatively fresh - not quite as good as fresh picked but way better than store purchased.

Then later in the afternoon we were planning to go to Heidelberg, just to do something with our day and not just bum around. So we headed down to the "hauptbahhof" (central railway station) and got on the S1 which we realized after getting on was not going in the direction of heidelberg - we had to option of getting off, but of course my favourite thing to do is go on adventures into where ever. In fact I have plans of one day going to the train station and just getting on the first regional train that arrives. Why not?

So we decided that we could have an adventure. We were just going to get off whenever a city looked interesting. The first interesting looking city was neustadt - but we didn't get off there. We waited another half hour to get to Kaiserslautern. Obviously none of us had been there before, but we just decided to go for a wander and see what was up. The train station had a really odd location in the city - being that there was nothing around it. I'm pretty sure there black community had set up shop in the train station vicinity. Generally I expect to find some sort of activity around the train station but there was none. So we continued upon our walk until we found a pedestrian mall and it seemed that so many of the stores were closed. But the farther we walked the more people there seemed to be (and more stores were open, not that we even went in). So eventually we made it to a cafe where they were showing soccer so we decided to have a beer and then the girls ordered pizza.

I was just excited because I got to try a new beer. It was decent, but pretty generic tasting. I like the generic beer we have here in Mannheim better. But it was fun to just sit and drink - except I was dying of heat sitting beside the window.

We then used the power of technology to figure out what the heck we were going to do the rest of the day and found there was this dino-park where there were dinosaur sculptures everywhere. So again using the power of technology of the blackberry (at least they are doing something for me) I was able to find our way to this park. Once we got there - which was around 5 we realized it was 5 euros to get in. By this point certain members of the group who don't walk that often seemed to be a little tired from the day and all the walking we've already done so we decided to forgo the experience and just take pictures with the sculptures outside. If I had the camera I'd put some pics up here - you'll likely just have to creep my facebook.

So after that I became the master and I successfully guided us back to the train station using an alternate route - without a map!!!

Another favourite hobby! I just love testing myself.

bye bye

So I don't know if you all out there know this - actually I don't really think I understood how much I loved movies until this year. I don't know why I love them so much. I guess it's that great escape from the real world. I have been trying to watch ones that are very inspirational style wise. So one idea I recently got was to watch the musical film bye bye birdie.

It seems to me that actresses back in the day were so much more multi-talented. Movie stars today are really picked based more for look as opposed to pure talent. That's a fact - not to say that some good looking actors don't have talent, but generally no, it's not that way.

Anyways, I won't go as far to say as Ann-Margaret has a really great voice, however she can keep a tune, and man is she a babe.

Needless to say - I really like this movie and honestly wouldn't mind seeing it live.

Date nite anyone?

business school

For getting a business degree it is necessary that one takes a variety of business classes. These included classes like finance, accounting, operations, and so on.

I am currently taking an intensive block course out here at the university of mannheim and it is called value-based marketing.

One thing that came to me while sitting through the five hour lecture yesterday was the fact that in every class that I take, that prof always seems to be trying to prove that the aspect of the business that they teach is most important for success. I remember our prof in my operations class even saying that there was always a constant battle between what comes first.

I guess it also depends on your organizations focus - on whether or not you want to figure out what customers want and then cater to that, or dictate what your customers want by marketing the crap out of them.

I personally think that you can have to crappiest product in the world, but if you are good at marketing then you will be successful.

Example - especially in Canada where we have so so much fresh water, why on earth do we spend so much on bottled water? Think about that.

Munich: Oktoberfest

So there's a lot I can say about Oktberfest

- it's the worlds largest folk festival, last year brining in over 6 million people

- they serve over 5 million litres of beer

...

- and I was THERE!!!

There's not a lot I feel that I should share on this public forum, in order for some self preservation as well as the fact that not all details are completely clear.

I will simply make some remarks

I do not understand how it is a family festival. - The large amount of intoxication is perhaps something I would feel less comfortable keeping my children around. Even in the morning there are drunken baffoons wandering around.

the servers are badasses! - They are renowned for their ability to carry multiple steins of beers at a time but they are more than that. They are some tough old broads and have to deal with idiot tourists everyday, but they really do care for their patrons. They especially are looking out for the ladies. One day belec and syl climbed up on the bench to dance and they guys at our table went under their skirts with a phone momentarily, and the server saw and came over and bitched them right out and kicked them out of the area. They were all just so sweet but you don't want to get on their bad side

There were so many whistles - these ladies are carrying heavy stuff and you have people stumbling around everywhere. Instead of yelling a bunch of them just whistle so loud at people. Then there are cops with whistles. Every time they came charging through everyone in our area just erupted in a cheer.

Basically, it seemed like everyone was there to have a good time. People weren't coming with a bad attitude and there seemed to be somewhat of a sense of community - although the italians were pretty annoying. A lot of people just wanted to meet new friends and gather for songs and fun and drinks and food.

Something else interesting. It was not a very diverse festival. Pretty much everyone was white....

Amsterdam: a bit of our itinerary

Thursday:

Left around 9 to catch a train to düsseldorf, from there caught a bus to amsterdam. It was a horrendous ride through traffic.

I also tried my best to sleep but it was not to great success - I did however enjoy some wonderful ipod time.

We arrived around 8:00 in the evening, and had no idea what to do...it was kind of funny.

We arrived at the hostel, dropped our stuff and then went and looked around downtown for a coffeeshop for activities that I did not participate in.

It was such a cool vibe in there, and we saw some old lady canadians just getting their smoke on which was super random.

Friday: Got up and headed downtown and walked around for a while, then met up for a free three-hour tour which was so fantastic - you really have to be quite liberal to live in amsterdam though, and enjoy poor weather

Then we went to dinner and it was the strangest place and the decor was just strange. It so difficult to explain why the dutch are so weird - to much tolerance for me I guess...

After I had to find a shirt for going out that night

Then we went home and napped for a while and then headed out to rembrandtsplein and wandered, not really sure what bar to go to. We chose based on where we could get in for free. I did not enjoy the music, and it was a huge sausage fest. And as weird as the dutch are, they are even odder dancers. We had one drink, and then left. It was not a successful evening. I think we got back home around 2 but not much of that.

Saturday

Wandered around for a while. Where going to go to Anne frank house but decided against it due to the enormous line. Opted for heineken factory instead.

Went to the i amsterdam sign next for the classic tourist pictures.

Then off the three sisters pub which had the most amazing fries. Even better was the frites sauce!

Afterwards we wandered a little more until our red-light district tour which was so so good.

profiling

So I don't know how many of you have worked in retailing, but I feel like I was the subject of profiling today. Even if you don't work in retailing I'm sure may have some idea. By profiling I mean those moments when people walk in the store and you are pretty sure that they are going to steal something.

When I was working at bootlegger we had a special code for trying to indicate someone we thought was suspicious to other co-workers. The first time someone did it to me I had no idea what they were talking about. Anyways - when someone like this comes in you don't want them to be left alone so that they feel suspicious.

So todays experience began after class and I had to go to the bank to take out some money, so I decided to walk through the city. I wasn't in a rush so I walked through a couple little shops and there's this place called douglas and it's like perfume and cosmetics and nice smelling things kind of place. I am thinking of getting a new perfume before I leave because I want to get something special so I wanted to go and see what the deal in there was.

So I walked in and I hate talking to people in stores because my german isn't really that great so I just kind of keep to myself. There was a male worker that was clearly a poorly hidden security person type guy that just gave me a weird kind of look, but I thought whatever and moved on. I was looking over at the chanel makeup because I know that one of my roommates liked her mothers blush so I was going to see what the prices were (still exorbitant). A lady asked if I needed help and I replied in english that I was just looking around.

So I kept making my way around, picking a few things up here and there. Before I knew it I was near the back of the store smelling some more perfumes and I realize this fella followed me all the way to the back of the store. Most places have people staying in kind of "zones" and his spot I felt would have been in the 'welcoming area' of the store. It made no sense for him to be back where I was. I felt immediately uncomfortable and kept smelling the perfumes and gradually left the store feeling like I was a criminal. As I was at the front, the guy is back! Clearly he was suspicious. If I find a better place you are screwed Douglas!!!

By the way - if someone would like to mail me lord of the rings I think it's high time I actually read the books.

my presentation

This is how I felt after my presentation today

First off...the group that started off the presentations was soo organized and professional. Ordinarily at Brock professors will indicate whether or not it will be a formal presentation and whether or not we need to dress nicely or not.

I emailed, and no response was given. So we had some nice jeans and decent shirts.

The group after dressed a little bit more classy with blazers and nice shirts.

Their presentation then began and it was just fantastic. I sat there and just wanted to laugh because they were presenting on the exact same paper that we were given. I just hung my head and went with a craaaappppp.....

So as mentioned, their presentation was clearly worked on for more than a half hour. Our powerpoint slides really could have used some improvement. At one point we had one of the charts from our case and we hadn't cited it because we've never done that before and they were laughing.

All in all - our presentation was fine by brock standards, but perhaps we will see what a masters evaluation would be.

I also think that ours was much more focused on explaining the article to the class than actually analyzing the article.

The whole thing made me feel like I was staring in my own degree commercial because boy did I start sweating!