Updating...

Hey there readers,

Sorry I have posted next to nothing in the last week. There have been a multitude of reasons:

First and foremost, I just haven't found a lot to post or talk about. Preseason for football is just about over. I haven't even bothered to go into this week's games. Team GB gets knocked out on PK's in Olympic Soccer which was tragic. Team GB as a whole is doing rather well. I have not been watching any Olympics really but Twitter keeps me updated.

Second, my week of travel is coming up. I will be going around Bavaria talking to language schools about purchasing Verbwheels which will be quite an experience. Til then, I've been a bit lazier and adjust my sleep too to wake up on time for the trains.

Third, I've been doing a lot of looking into and deciding on what my focuses will be for the yea ror two to come. I have to start deciding soon about job/profession and which country I will be in for this. I have recently started looking into job offerings in the MLS for next year. There is still a lot open but I may need a year or two more of work experience to do the sort of things I'd like.

*Related to this I have decided I may start analyzing Chelsea matches this season and putting them up. I started doing this preseason but more just for the sake of summing it up into an article. It will probably be a good skill to develop if I can put the time into it.

Also not a lot of music has come out this week so I won't really have a Music Monday per say. Maybe I'll throw a recommendation or a few of albums that have been out. We'll see how much time I have.

Time, time, time.

Well that's all for now

Good day,
Daniel

The First Week In Munich

As some of you may know, I have been in Munich for just over a week. I have been extremely lazy about updating here because sorting out work, doing the work, Chelsea Blog, and yes just plain not doing it. But with a bit of down time now, I am forcing myself to make this post. Here it goes:

Munich is a wonderful looking city. The public transport is very convenient (though some parts of the Metro are closed) There are ticket buying machines at stations and on the trams themselves. As with a lot of other cities, you aren't regularly checked on tram (especially for short rides). I just walk mostly because I am literally never in a hurry. The first few days I really only sorted out going to LiDL (on a budget here) for groceries, the slightly aggressive efficiency in this process, and the outlay of my general surroundings. After this and my trip to Nuremberg, my employer was gone to visit his kids in Cologne which meant basically a week off for me minus the tedious excel sheet making I chipped at each day. Admitedly, I did not do much last week but that is also because I don't really know people here and I had to make the money stretch a bit until I could withdraw more. I did got out with a friend from Munich on Saturday who had just gotten back to Munich last week. It was not what either of us expected but at least I was out and met another person who I can hang out with around here.

Today, after withdrawing money and realizing I had walked half way to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), I decided I might as well check the city center out. I have made it a tradition since Barcelona that for any place I spend a decent amount of time, I will get their discount football jersey/shirts. Valencia was the exception (I got the official) because I like them and it was maybe 40-50 Euro, not the 80+ I have to pay for the other official shirts.  So being in Munich, I was in search for a Bayern Munich and Germany discount shirt. My hope was to get Schweinesteiger Bayern and Oezil Germany. In Barcelona, this search took 20 min tops. The stores by Sagrada Familia had these for giv ore take 20 Euro. Palermo, I went to a market and it took again maybe 20 minutes to find the shirt: 10 Euro. here in Munich, no-one even knew where you would find unofficial shirts. It wasn't like anyone even knew that there is a place where these are available. It really is official or bust here. I hope maybe by the stadium but I'm starting to doubt I'll find the Munich one but I did find a Germany one for 20 Euro (shown above). Unfortunately no name on it... Ah well.

But yes this is basically my week. I have become accustomed to this place and hopefully this coming week I will start being a bit more touristy and check out all the must-see sites and such.

gute Nacht,
Daniel

Summary of Importance Of Voting Abroad

Sorry readers for the little hiatus there. Just got to Munich this week and started my internship. I will probably have a couple more posts but this one I wanted to relay the information I got from a meeting in Nuremberg that I attended with my employer on the importance of voting abroad for the upcoming American elections. If you are not interested tin that then stop reading now.

So a little back story, my employer is Chair of Democrats Abroad in Germany but this event was a bipartisan one and part of Vote From Abroad. The presentation was led by Kathleen Burnett, the Chair of the Democrats Abroad Munich/Bavaria. The main objective of Vote From Abroad (which is bipartisan) is to get as many of the approximately 6 million Americans abroad to vote. If all Americans abroad voted, that would be about the amount of people in Missouri just to put that into perspective.

The presentation then brought up a few points on the importance of this election. The healthcare policy is obviously a big deal. The debate on taxes is a case where America needs to decide which they they want to go but both increase and decrease in taxes could potentially work. Jobs have been a term that both parties like to throw around but the Democrats seem to have more direction on what they actually want to do as far as job creation. Foreign Affairs is another topic that seems to be in Obama's favor. Obama has been disappointing in the Environmental department but the Republicans have yet to make a platform that exploits that. Human Rights (such as to women and minorities) seems to be much more of a concern for the Democrats than Republicans.

To bring it back to voting abroad, another big reason for the need to vote abroad is the fact that less Americans in America are being able to vote because of some of the new voting restrictions such as the need of specific forms of identification. Vote From Abroad focuses on the three Federal elections (Presidential, House, Senate).

They then went over the four steps to overseas voting. Changes have been made to the process so that if you request a ballot, you can request it be sent online. You still have to manually mail your vote in but it still makes the process more efficient. Voters abroad are also reminded that they must register for ever election year individually. You are not guaranteed a ballot if you do not ask for one. There are two ways to do this. The FPCA (Federal Post Card Application) and the FWAB (Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot). FWAB should be considered a back-up to the FPCA.

To round up the presentation, they talked about the MOVE (Military & Overseas Voting Empowerment) Act. This is what made the aforementioned process easier and there are many pros to this but as stated before, the cons are the fact that you must register for every election you plan to participate in and there is a grey area amongst local elections.

After this a few people got registered on the spot and that was the day. It was very interesting to me though not at all related to my internship. If you think this information will help anyone you know, forward them this link. For more information on each organization, go to their corresponding website:

• http://www.democratsabroad.org
• http://www.votefromabroad.org 

Until next time,
Daniel

A Night in Mondello

So my friend Sam and I set on this adventure with no idea of what we would get into. Let me tell you, we did not expect the scene in Mondello. We figured it would be sort of touristy and full of young people since it's a hot beach spot but that wasn't quite the scene we expected. It primarily consisted of families, a lot of couples, and groups of people that would be our age. But there were no real bars in the traditional sense of sit in and order and maybe talk to the people around you. It is a lot of patio by the beach where you can sit and have a meal or drinks with the people you came with. The people of our demographic (late teens to mid-twenties) were all sitting in the dark on the beach by candle light listening to music and hanging out. The most interesting part had to be the beach football that was going on. There is apparently a tournament happening of 5 a side. This was still going on when we left at 12:30-12:45. It was pretty entertaining and a lot of people would stop by to watch a match or two before continuing their night. All in all, it was a lot less of an open scene and a lot more of a spot that Italian's just go to visit and hang out. I still really like the place but would love to come back in any of the three types of groups previously mentioned. Tomorrow, we are going to go enjoy the day time scene on the beach.

Daniel

Palermo So Far

I am alive and now in a Bed and Breakfast in Mondello with my friend Sam. Mondello is the beach/touristy side of Palermo. I really like it and this B&B was very easy to find (we didn't have any reservations). We will be checking the night life and heading to the beaches tomorrow. There are a lot of similarities between Italy and Spain except the Italians are less likely to try English with you once they know you don't speak their language. Made for some funny but drawn out interactions. Probably won't be so around Mondello since there are many more tourists here. The streets, mannerisms, environment, etc are all pretty similar though. It is weird being in a country where I know nothing about the language besides what sort of sounds like Spanish. We're getting by though. What is also interesting is that, just like in Barcelona, it's hard to play football in the park or just randomly with people. Well I will try to get a post or two this weekend while I still have internet. Not much going on in sports outside of Wimbledon at the moment and I refuse to talk transfers NBA or football. So til next time,

Daniel

To Palermo I Go

 (I will take my own pics of Palermo eventually).

After a couple days back in London I am off to Palermo for a week bright and early tomorrow. This will be another first for it is my first time in Italy. The place I'm staying at will not have wifi so I will be on the internet more sporadically. I will try and come up with some good posts over the course of the week and get them out a.s.a.p. Sorting out my travel but if I get time maybe I will post something today. A few topics going around now that could be worth talking about. Generally has been mild outside of Olympics and Wimbledon though but we shall see.

Daniel

The Day in Frankfurt

So I got up for the 10 a.m. meeting and around noon we took a tour of the city and eventually got some good BBQ. Won't really go into detail about my specific day because it doesn't really warrant that. What I do want to point out is what I felt about the city.

Frankfurt struck me as similar to Valencia in some ways. There is a lot of renovation going on for the better. It's not really congested. There is a high influx of non German passport holders which makes it rather multi-cultural. They have a skyline forming which brings some to liken it to a German New York City. I found all of this very fascinating. It's a shame I didn't plan on staying longer but I will probably be back in due time.

Sidenote: I am also quite a fan of German beer so far. Lived up to the hype. Can't wait for Munich.

Back to London tomorrow!

Gute Nacht,
Daniel

Frankfurt Beginning

I'll keep this one short but first night in Frankfurt. So far the weather was nice, country is lovely, spoke German to maybe 50% of the people I talked to and made it safely to my room. Considered a success in my books. Everyone is friendly on a general basis. Excited to see how this little mingling thing will go tomorrow.

Sidenote. Television in German is entertaining. I actually quite like CSI in German.

Anywho, more to come later.

Daniel

London At Last

First of all, I have tabbed all my posts so you can read the one's relevant to why you came to the blog. This one is just an update (me being me if you will). Just got back home to London. Should have slept on the plane but watched 21 Jump Street and The Woman in Black. Watched TWIB first and it did give me the heeby jeebies (spell check). 21 Jump Street though was funny as hell. But yes, as expected, things are changing for the Olympics and banners and construction are everywhere. So it goes.

Also, super excited to take my first step into Germany on Saturday. Excited about meeting all these other people interested in interning in Germany. Hopefully will meet some cool people and get some good references for my eventual return. More on the Frankfurt trip is sure to come.

Daniel