Alot has been going down since last time I talked to you guys.

In early March one of my best friends, Ryan Lynch came over for about 4 days.  Ryan was my homie / roommate at Embry Riddle from August 02′ – December 03′.  He’s the one roomie out of 8 that I’ve remained in contact with from Embry Riddle (sadly, but that’s how it goes I guess), and we’re still tight.  Ryan is a pilot for an airline, so he gets to fly worldwide for free!  While he was here we hung out, showed him some stuff around the old city (Marienplatz from my photo-album), and went to a few restaurants including an Italian place called Bei Raffaele, that is now one of my favorite restaurants.  Here’s a link to the restaurant website so you can get a feel.

http://www.bei-raffaele.de/ueber_uns.html

I was happy to see Ryan and hope that he can come again, or move to Greenville/Charlotte man!  Right after Ryan left, I got sick.  No need to get into the details, lol cause it ain’t pretty.  I ended up needing to go to the doctor so I began looking for an English speaking doctor in Munich.  Thank goodness for Google, and Toytowngermany.com an online forum for english speakers and american/english expatriates in Germany.  There I found a recommendation for a Doctor / practice that had English staff and a fluent speaking Doctor and got hooked up.  She prescribed me some medicines, and a slight change in my Diet (which has been far and away the healthiest i’ve ever eaten the last 2 months).  I have to go back tomorrow actually for my post-checkup.  Hopefully everything will be A-OK!

In other news, I am very happy to announce that last Friday I got an engineering job offer from BMW Manufacturing in Spartanburg SC for when I return.  I have enjoyed my time at BMW MC, and BMW AG in Munich and look forward to being in the Greenville area.  I think that I’m just the first of many of my ICAR peeps to get job offers, and I am praying and trust that Emily will find a great job soon as well.  She’s infinitely smarter than me, extremely organized,driven and ambitions, and as soon as she gets an interview it’s a lock kids! (Hey she does interviews for a living).

I am also coming home early.  My original flight was July 6th from Munich, but now I’m coming back June 16th!  Woo hoo.  I am looking forward to seeing the good ole USA again, and most definitely to see my friends, family, and Emily!

Let’s see what else can I tell you guys.  Umm, it snowed today? haha.  It’s officially spring and today it was like a Blizzard.  It was just warm enough that only about an inch or two stuck, if it had been a bit colder I would’ve been snowed in at work, haha.  It is forecast to snow tomorrow but not supposed to be cold enough to accumulate so we will see.  Personally, I’m ready for it to warm up a bit so I can see more of the city and surrounding area.

I haven’t taken many pictures since my week off of work where I took ipictures of English Garden and Olympic Park.  Feel free to check them out at m SmugMug site (just click on the sidebar where the pictures are).

I promise I will try to do better on the posts people!

Hope all is well with everyone…

Philip

P.S. Emily and I haven’t set a wedding date, but we’re thinking May-ish of next year.  It can’t get here soon enough!!!

Things have been rather busy for the last couple of weeks, hence the lack of postings. It’s difficult to write these blogs because I do it in Microsoft Word, and then copy>paste into the WordPress blog writer. But when I do that it throws in all kinds of crazy HTML tags and code and stuff that I don’t want in there. So it usually takes me only an hour or two to write my blog post, but it might take me 4 hours to “clean it up” when I post it. Very frustrating.

It’s been snowing here lately, almost for the last week. We haven’t built up much accumulation though because a lot of it melts during the day then freezes over at night. But there’s nothing like waking up and walking to work at 6am when everything is whisper quiet and there’s nothing but fresh powder all over everything. It’s kind of surreal, makes me want to skip work and make snow angels.   Here’s a couple of pics from outside my apt balcony.

I still have yet to go snowboarding, but that’s scheduled for Feb 28th so don’t worry! We’re going to a ski place called Garmisching which is in the southern part of Bavaria in the Alps. Elevation: 16,000ft and from the picures I’ve seen it’s going to be a blast. I will be taking my camera with me to take pictures of me falling on my behind all day, and maybe some pictures of the landscape.

Also, last weekend I went to the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, which is about 230km (2.5 hrs) west of Munich. One of my buddies here Karl, who works for Magna Steyr an automotive supplier and they also make the X3 for BMW, has gotten the HOOK UP. This kid drives a 2009 Mercedes C-class Diesel, given to him by his work! It had 29 miles on it before we left for Stuttgart and he even gets free unlimited gas! So Karl is our DD for the next 5 months and we’re going to hopefully take a lot more interesting trips. What the heck, where’s our BMW, BMW?! Haha oh well. Maybe when I get home.

I won’t go through the trouble of writing up all the stuff about the Porsche Museum, because there isn’t much to say just lots of beautiful Porsche’s to look at. Plus, only 6 people have looked at the BMW welt post, so what gives!?

Here’s a couple pics to get you started, then just click the picture to go to my SmugMug gallery and look at the rest of the Porsche pics, and any other pictures you may not have seen.

Porsche GT3 RS (Drool!)

Porsche 911 Turbo (997) I'll take one in red please

Again I hope everyone back home is doing good, and has a happy Valentine’s Day.

Philip K.

BMW Welt

BMW Welt (World) is a brand new building constructed across the street from the BMW Museum and the famous “Four-Cylinders” BMW World Headquarters building. The architecture of the BMW Welt is very strange and futuristic. I hope to have captured some of that with my pictures.

The purpose of the BMW Welt (just from what I saw) is to showcase the latest and greatest in BMW designs, features, technologies, and models offered for sale. You can’t buy a BMW there (at least I don’t think) but every make and model they offered is on display for you to observe, poke, prod, and sit in.

There are also displays of different current BMW technologies like BMW i-drive, BMW hydrogen technology, Dynamic Stability Control, and Turbocharger technology. The displays are kind of “gimmicky” to try and feature the BMW technologies and convince you that you need to drive a car with these features. But it’s true…everyone should have the pleasure of owning a BMW.

To display the greatest of automotive technologies the 2008 BMW Formula 1 Petronas race car is on display. For those that don’t know Formula 1 it is the Pinnacle of automotive technology, and in many areas of research (materials, lightweight engineering) it is 3-5 years ahead of the military and aerospace industries. Every Formula 1 race is the most watched worldwide television event. Coming in 2^nd only to the Olympics (Every 2 years), and the World Cup of Soccer (ever 4 years). Not to mention there are over a dozen races a year. It’s too bad that this isn’t in the US because these monsters look and sound amazing!

There is also a 2008 season Formula 1 engine on a stand, with its twisted headers gleaming in the mercury vapor lamps inside BMW Welt. It’s a beautiful beautiful site.

This engine costs more than an entire NASCAR Cup Series car, and makes 100-200 more HP with half the displacement and no forced-induction.

In addition to all of the amazing technologies and the super sweet BMW Formula 1 Petronas car, there are also artistic type displays featuring BMW specific items. There are “sculptures” of oversized headers. There are two walls featuring every interior color and fabric combination, as well as a wall with all the BMW exterior colors on display. Below are my favorite interior and exterior color combinations. I would love a manual transmission 335i, or 135i with one of these color combos (if anyone wants to buy me a welcome back present).

Also at the BMW Welt are a couple of very expensive café, restaurants and then a small BMW motorcycle exhibit (everyone knows that BMW started making motorcycles before cars right?) Also a note…a lot of people will call a BMW car a “Beamer”. This is incorrect, a BMW Motorcycle is called a Beamer…a BMW car is called a “Bimmer”. Moose (Schober) made sure that I knew this back in the 10^th grade, so now I’m telling ya’ll while I’m on the subject of Motorcycles (Motorrad in German).

BMW makes dirtbikes, touring bikes, and sport bikes. I personally like sport bikes and BMW has two main types to offer. One is called the BMW 1200KR, which is a semi “naked” bike meaning it’s missing a lot of the plastic fairings, fenders, and pieces that you would see on most crotch rockets. I’m not so much a big fan of the naked look. This Bike also has a V-type engine similar to most other motorcycles.

The bike that I came to love was the BMW HP2 Sport. Man oh Man she is sexy. Very edgy, very sleek and clean lines, and I just…Wow. If I knew I wouldn’t get myself killed I would have one. Some pictures and Stats.

Displacement: 1170cc

Power output: 98kW or 113 HP at 8750 rpm

Torque output: 113 Nm peak

0-100km/hr (63 mph): 3 seconds

This bike is comparable to other “liter” bikes and crotch rockets. One unique feature that I have a Love/Hate thing going with is the horizontally opposed boxer engine. If you notice the engine isn’t “invisible” as it is on most crotch rockets. Instead of a V that you see from the side…the cylinders are 180 from each other…in other words the engine lies on a flat plane from side to side. This to me takes a while to get used to visually, because it protrudes from the body work on the sides of the bike. But they’ve covered it with Carbon Fiber caps (I love carbon fiber!) and I actually came to love the look of this bike. Also there is a drastic improvement in stability because some of the weight of the vehicle gets distributed to the sides (like a tight-rope walker with a longer balancing pole.). Here’s me on the Bike..what do you think is it me?

Another BMW vehicle which I have come to love is the new BMW 1er (1 series). This particular car is a 135i. Black Metallic with beige leather interior and aluminum trim, 6-speed manual transmission, M-sport steering wheel, lip spoiler, and black nickel plated exhaust tips. The 135i has the N54 engine, which is a 3.0L inline six twin turbo that produces over 300 HP. This car will SCOOT! I want one….badly. A 135i here in Germany costs 55,000 Euro (multiply by 1.36 to get that in Dollars). In the US this car can be had for about $40,000 similarly equipped). Looks like I’ll have to wait to get it back in the states. For now though, I’d like to rent one and take it to the Nürbergring!

The latest vehicle that BMW has brought to market is the new 7 series. There was a lot of hoorah at BMW about the new 7 series and I must say it’s a pretty attractive car. It features all the latest and greatest BMW tech too much of which I care to name. I think the car has an optional 5.0L V12 too if I’m not mistaken…might have to double check that if your thinking of buying one. Just so you know this car is over 100,000 Euro in Germany (roughly 130k).

Alright, so now we’ve seen most of the latest and greatest that BMW has to offer. My next blog post will feature the BMW museum and we’ll look into BMW’s past!

I miss everyone and hope that you enjoy this BMW stuff as much as I do! Ciao!

Here is a little snapshot of my upload/download speed for those that might be interested. Alice is pretty fast! (Upload speed is poop though, might have to load all my pictures up at work still)

Speed Test for my Alice.de internet

So now I am much much more accessible. I hope by the end of today to have my Blog post up about BMW Welt with lots of pictures and stuff. And I’m going to streamline the blog layout now that I have much more internet time.

Please feel free to skype me at RedVenom97 if you want to talk to me (that means you Mom, Dad/Lou, Shannan/Drew, if ya’ll ever got it up and running).

I know i haven’t been posting in the last few days but I am waiting for my own internet to show up (any day now Alice.de!).  I have got internet access at work but I am not able to get on for personal stuff much.  I will try to make a new post with some decent content in it (got some ideas) BUT today I did take a big step and create a SmugMug online photo sharing account.  SmugMug is an online gallery that isn’t like those free sites…you have to pay a small yearly fee of around $35, but you get unlimited storage space and unlimited uploads.  Some free websites (like Flickr) say that you get unlimited storage space, which is correct.  But they limit the total number of photo’s you can have online to 200, and you can only upload 100 MB per month.  As you will see in my SmugMug account, today alone I loaded up 538 MB of pictures, and I have 2.5 GB worth of pictures from the BMW Welt and BMW Museum to go through, but those will be posted online too.

It’s snowing here too!  I heard that it’s been very cold back home, even snowing there but I haven’t seen 1 flake until today…and boy is it coming down!  They look like Goose Feathers falling from the sky.  It isn’t really sticking to the pavement yet, but the roofs and cars out my window at work are covered in snow.  I am loving the snow.  Wish they would cancel work, but they don’t do that here…besides work isn’t too bad.

In the future I will start to put pictures in my blogs and explain some of the stuff, hopefully i’ll have my own internet soon.

Anyway i’ll give you the link now to my pictures and I hope you enjoy!!  I miss everyone back home and wish you all could be here.

http://redvenom97.smugmug.com/gallery/7143257_7Serw#458288703_dKS9M

Ciao!!

Monday, January 12, 09’ “My first day of work”

Did I mention that it’s cold here? The temperature this morning was COLDDDD. It got warmer as the day went on, and it was 15.8°F when I got off work.

Anyway…Day 1 of work! You must imagine that it was crazy being in a new city, a new facility, face-to-face with an entire population of people that have no idea how to communicate to me what I need to do.

I had an appointment to be at the BMW Human Resources department at 10am this morning (also known as PersonalWissen or Personal Direkt in Germany). There were a lot of people like me, students for the first time reporting for their internship and filling out their contracts. Today I met a kid named David, a Sophomore from the University of Colorado. He seemed like a nice enough guy and commented on how it was extremely cold here. Now I don’t feel so much like a Wuss with that coming from a native “Coloradian.” He works in another department so I don’t think I’ll see him much, but I did invite him to what I hope to be a continuing Monday night Stammtisch or get together. I noticed over the weekend that the PizzaHut here as an all you can eat Pizza buffet for 6.99euro on Mondays. So it looks like every Monday will be a PizzaHut day! Considering how little I’ve eaten I bet my stomach has shrank to the point where I might down a Personal Pan pizza tops, but hey…at this point even the thought of an endless supply of good old American Pizza makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

OK so back to the topic of the day….my first day of work! I signed about 10 pages of a contract that I had no idea what it said. Hopefully before I leave I’ll be able to translate it. I then told the nice lady that I had no idea what I was supposed to do next. The only instructions I had received up to this point was to report to HR, which was 5 miles North, off-site of the BMW plant in Munich. She then called my Supervisor Dennis Spalk who drove up to get me. Thus I got my first ride in a car here in Germany! It was an 09’ BMW 3 series Sportwagon, pretty nice! Driving here really is much the same, except for the snow (no biggie), and the stoplights aren’t over the intersection, but on the curb on lightpost looking things. We drove for a few minutes and I realized where I was, at the north end of the plant beside the Deutsche Bank that I opened an account with. It’s amazing how short a drive seems after you’ve walked the same distance in -15°C weather.

Upon arriving at the BMW plant we went to the building that I’d be working in. I am working in the TM-52 department, which in Munich is the exact same department as TS-52 in Spartanburg (the S in TS is for Spartanburg, the M in TM is for Munich). This area is for vehicle analysis and total vehicle validation….basically meaning the investigation and validation that the vehicle is performing and functioning as designed. I found out today that my particular task is to simply procure as much of the knowledge base in a particular area here in Munich and be able to transfer it to the Spartanburg plant. Foreshadowing of a Job maybe??? It sounds in line with “rumors” of a job offer they had for me last year. Seems good to me, I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

So upon arriving at the plant I was given a 200 page PDF document (in English thank Goodness) about specific considerations for chassis and suspension systems in BMW’s. A lot of it looks like elementary vehicle dynamics and suspension topics which I’ve had in-depth classes on, but even so there are a lot of interesting points I didn’t know about BMW systems. Cool.

My Boss Dennis seems cool, my old colleague/boss Ken Wright at Plant Spartanburg knows him and spoke highly of him. He’s a younger guy, just a few years ahead of me in age and has been at Plant Munich for a couple years. His specialties are in driving dynamics and suspension/chassis analysis (uhh Holla!) so this is a great person for me to be hanging out with. He is excited to practice his English with me, and so far has been pretty good at communicating in English. He is a little sick and has been going to the doctor getting blood work on some kind of liver-stone or something, so he said today would be a light day and tomorrow we’d get to work.

So, really that was my day. I was at the BMW HR from 10am – 11:45am. Then talked to Dennis at BMW today from around noon to 3:00pm when he had to leave for a doctors appt. He said I can come in whenever I want and that my schedule is very flexible, I just have to work 7 hours a day for a total of 35 hours a week. I think I’m going to go in around 7:30 or 8 am and work until 3:30 or 4pm.

An interesting note about work here is that everyone wears Jeans to work!! I packed all these dumb work clothes wasting tons of space in my bags and I have to wear jeans now. Oh well, it’s a lot more comfortable and really laid back so I’m digging that.

Well I’m probably boring everyone to death, but I want ya’ll to get an idea of what it’s like for me here. I’ll be posting pictures and stuff as soon as I get my own internet, and these posts should be more interesting! Until then…PEACE.

· Stay off the Farradgah (Bike-Path). Stand clear or you will get run over by a grandma on a Bicycle! They may look the same, but it is clear here that half of the sidewalk is for bicycle riders and the other half for pedestrians.

· Das ist Typisch for typing. Be careful typing on German keyboards, there are some key differences.

For example:

English Keyboard: What is that? Well I don’t believe it, that zebra covered couch is the ugliest piece of furniture in Winston-Salem.

Deutsch Keyboard:
What is that_ Well I don#t believe it, that yebra covered cough is the ugliest piece of furniture in WinstonßSalem-

· “Honey the toilet is running, go jiggle the handle”. In Germany they do a little more then jiggle the handle. They do not push a handle that flushes the toilet. There is an on-off switch on the toilet. The water will continue to flush for as long as the switch is set to on. Move to the off position to quit flushing.

· The water here is, well different. When you go to a restaurant there is no such thing as a cup of water. They will bring you a bottle of carbonated mineral water, that to be honest, isn’t to my liking. If you must get water be sure to ask for “Stilleswasser” or non-carbonated water. The water from the tap is perfectly fine, some say it’s better for you then tap water in the United States, but don’t ask for it in a restaurant or they will look at you funny. Don’t expect to see any water fountains either. On that note Coke is popular here! I’ve heard they have good beer too, but that could be just a rumor.

· Be prepared to walk. The transportation here in Munich is fantastic with their train stations and subways; it’s amazing how fast you can get across the whole city. There is a lot of walking involved however as there is so much to see in Munich and you climb a lot of stairs going up and down from/into the subways. Also, the Germans love to go on a walk or stroll. There is a verb for it like “Wandern” or something I can’t remember exactly. But anyways, pack your New Balances and Thorolo socks.

· Nothing is free in Germany. When you go to a restaurant you’ll find most have some form of Brotchen (bread) or Brezen (pretzels) on the table for you to eat. But unlike the US these are not free, and you won’t find out until you get a bill with an extra 6 Euro. They will look at you funny, then kindly point to the tasty pretzels that are no longer in the basket and say “Sechs Euro”. Same goes for drinks, so don’t get hasty with the refills. Ketchup or Mayonnaise(yeah they love mayo on fries here) with your Pommes Frittes (French fries)? Sure for 0.50 euro cents. You’ve been warned!

· The Chick-Fil-A syndrome. “Never on Sunday” is the motto for Chick-Fil-A restaurants in the US and I think I know where they got it from. Nothing is open on Sunday here. Maybe a bakery or coffee shop earlier in the morning. But around 1pm everything is closed. In the tourist areas there may be some restaurants, coffee shops, or Konditorei (Dessert shops, mmmm MMMM) open but in most of Munich this isn’t the case. So what do people do on Sunday you ask? They go for walks and ring church bells ALL day long. Don’t plan to sleep on Sunday b/c they ring bells like they are going out of style, and there is a church on every block. But why waste your time in a store there is so much cool stuff to see in Germany!

· There are no school buses. Kids here are seen on the underground trains almost all day and into the night traveling by themselves. Instead of having buses run around picking up the kids, they simply use the subway system unaccompanied by their parents, even at an elementary age. I found this very strange and I could never see this happening at major cities in the US. It says a lot about how safe things are here, which is a great thing.

· The toilet paper is like sandpaper. Enough said. Charmin needs to “holler” at Europe, there’s definitely a market here for some extra soft double-ply with aloe.

· Pack your own medicine and toiletries. There are stores here called “Pharmacie” but they are kind of like Rite Aid or CVS without any over the counter or prescription medicine. The only “over-the-counter” medicines you can find here are vitamin type items or supplements like omega fish oil or something. I haven’t had to use any of my medicine yet (knock on wood) but I can imagine how dismayed I would be if I came down with something and had no way to stop it.

Other than that, things are surprisingly similar here! It’s an absolutely beautiful place with much to see and do. I can’t wait for Emily to get here so we can explore it together, I think she’s really going to like it. For the rest of you don’t worry. I’ve already taken hundreds of pictures and will document all the Munich and Greater Europe has to offer. I will have the internet sometime during the week of January 19 – 23. Until then I’ll try and post as much as I can. Work starts tomorrow so until take care back home everyone!

I arrived on Wednesday morning around 8:30am local time in Munich. I almost had the chance to participate in a Voluntary Do-Not-Board, which would’ve put me up in a hotel overnight, paid for 3 meals, and given me 600€ (euro) cash to fly out Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Being the broke college student that I am, I opted to participate. But when it came down to the last 4 people we were chosen to board the plane rather then stay. Oh well.

So upon arriving in Munich I noticed immediately that it is COLD here. I’m so glad I spent the money on the coats, gloves, and beanie’s I’ve got b/c I’d be freezing without them. It was -3°C at the airport, and got no better towards the center of town.

My first impression of Munich is that it is different in many ways to the USA, but then again I’ve never lived in a big city such as this (within the city) so it probably isn’t so different then life in New York, Philadelphia, DC, Chicago, etc. There are little market shops all around the area where I live; selling fruits, vegetables, and bread. I’ve thus far eaten dinner at a Italian/pizzeria, a Meat Shop that sells lunch specials (spare ribs, wurst, and what I thought was a chicken sandwich.). The pizzeria was good, except I asked for a pepperoni pizza and got a pizza with Banana peppers on it. Then came the mystery sandwich I had at the meat market. I asked the lady if the sandwich was “Henchen” (chicken) and she said yes. Taking her at my word I fully expected a chick-fil-a type experience only to find that it tasted like fried fish sticks. It actually wasn’t terrible, but not quite to my liking especially considering I wanted some dang chicken!

Wednesday was kind of a blur, I had not slept the previous night during the flight, and finally got to go to sleep around 10pm. Today (Thursday) I woke up at 7am to go downtown to the Kreisverwaltungsreferat (KVR for short). The Germans have a way of making extremely long words. They just pile it on. Anyway I don’t exactly know how it translates into English but it’s essentially a city hall where you register for and request residence in Munich. Oddly enough waiting in line here was no different then waiting at the DMV at home. I also went to the Deutsche Bank to open a bank account so I can get paid by BMW, and also transfer some funds over here. I did find out that my ATM/Credit cards work over here. But I need to call Wachovia and tell them that charges in Germany are ok since they aren’t aware of my whereabouts. I also arranged for my own internet today by Alice.de, a technician will be coming out in two weeks to hook me up, so sit tight people I’ll be online soon enough.

The transportation system here in Munich is awesome. They have so many subway trains scattered throughout the city. Usually at the connecting stations they time the trains so that the passengers from each train switch in about 10 seconds. Sweet. We did find out however that the subways aren’t free…but you wouldn’t know it from trying to get on one. There are no turn-stiles and no ticket checkers. From the airport we simply got on the train and went to the station nearest our apartments, oops! If we had been caught it would’ve cost around 40 euro’s. So I ended up buying a 1 month unlimited pass for 50 euro’s. This will allow me to go to 90% of the city with ease.
I have so much more to tell, and I haven’t even taken pictures yet…but I want to go out tomorrow and do that if the weather is as sunny as it was today. I’ll post this up as soon as I can but I hope everyone is doing well. I am missing home a lot already, things are just a little different here. And of course no Emily . Anyway I’ll keep everyone updated….

Tschuss!
Philip K.

In 5 days I will be embarking on a 6 month trip to Munich Germany.  The purpose of this trip is an international internship as a part of my Automotive Engineering Masters Program at CU-ICAR.  During this trip I will be an engineering intern at BMW AG at the Munich Plant.

In order to keep in touch with my family and friends back home i’ve decided to start a blog for my trip.  In it I’ve posted widgets on the right side of the page for interesting links, maps of where i’ve been in Munich, a  Photo Gallery, and other tools.  I’m new to all this “blog stuff” so bear with me.  I’ll update a few more times before I leave on Tuesday Jan 6th @ 5:30pm.

To all my friends I hope not to bore you with this and feel free to comment…i’ll miss everyone and the USA while i’m gone!

Cheers

Philip K.