It has been a while since I last wrote, but I have a good excuse. I promise.

I’ve moved across the world, almost back to where I started. The start to Japan, Korean, America, Australia or a variety of other destinations.
I am not back in the Netherlands, though I was for 2 days. I’ve moved to Hamburg. I started working for Airbus 4 days ago and they required me to physically be here. So I’ve been busy moving here.

When I heard I was moving here I was excited of course, looked Hamburg up on the internet and started to educate myself. One thing that stood out was the it was 13 degrees here. Quite the difference from the -10 conditions of Seoul, South Korea. Everyone that feels jealous of this, let me put your mind at ease: It was below zero when I arrived and it hasn’t gotten any warmer since then. Snow too. At least I have a river I frequent which is quite pretty this way.

I’ve moved to the section of Hamburg that Airbus is also located at, which means I’m south of the River. Apparently, all the cool kids live north of the river. I can deal with that as I’ve only booked a month at my gasthaus. What I’m having a harder time with are the things the gasthaus doesn’t offer. This includes a washing machine, a freezer and THE INTERNET. This would be manageable if these things were offered in close proximity. This morning I took a 30 minute bus-ride to get access to the  first two. In a country where “having over 20 ms latency is a National disaster” –Some German; I can’t find free wifi in my entire city section. What backward hell is this? I do think I’ve found a laundrette closer to home though, but the combination I used this morning of laundry and café with wifi this morning was kind of nice.

Now, as mentioned I started my work with Airbus this week and I’d tell you about it, but . . .
I signed some kind of non-disclosure agreement, and it was in German. So I haven’t been able to figure out what I can tell you.
What should be OK is the rough location of my office building. Mine is next to the airstrip on site. This means I hear planes take off every hour or so. This includes first flights and stuff. If you’re not an airplane enthusiast this probably sounds like a nuisance, but for those of you that are . . . . well, lets just say that the majority of my colleagues still scoot to the window every hour or so, regardless of how long they’ve worked there.
Also: Stress Engineer on Vertical Tail Planes/Vertical Stabilizer. Something something project management something something composite engineer something something Long range. I’ve yet to get a precise title of what role I fill but there is lots of room for variety in the department apparently.

Anyway, I am currently benefiting from the free wifi at Starbucks for international communication and to help look for a permanent place to stay. I will take recommendations on city districts and affordable rooms if you have them. But for now, my cup is empty and I will stop being such a leech and get on with my first weekend in my new town.

Also, we became those people.

Putting our pet in the Christmas card . . . how low we’ve sunk.

I worked during the concert.  Manning the door during, but a host of other logistic things beforehand. As such I got to see and hear the concert over the video/sound system of the church. As such I only got to take 1 picture. I hope I can add some to the album when I manage to get a hold of other peoples’ photographs.

There was a professional recording at the church and the first CDs have been released. I’m sending some to a couple of people, but if you’re interested in a copy, let me know.

Then there was Christmas dinner. It involved a pumpkin (Oh wait, was that supposed to be for Thanksgiving?)

A pumpkin filled with cheese (who would do such a thing) baked to a fondue style.

Luckily there was also a persimmon pudding.

Which, topped with crème Anglaise, is fabulous.

After that there was coughing, drugs, beds and hot drinks.

And I’d like to end this blog post (because we are those people) with this.

Orion’s dog crate. In which we will transport him somewhere one day.

There was, over this weekend, a “European Christmas Market”. Now, I’ve been to these before and they’re quite fun. You may imagine this:

or

Important to realize though, that this is Korea. There is a christmas market here, it’s just not quite that scale.

What we had instead was this.

Raclette

Dutch stand

8 little stalls, passing off Chili con carne as European (or Christmassy for that matter) and the Dutch saying “Fuck you, we’re doing Sinterklaas instead”.

So, here’s from me. Fijn Sinterklaas gewenst.

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Completely unrelated by everything other than it happening on the same date was the Camarata Music Company’s Chamber Singers’ Christmas concert, or CMCCSCC (That’s a lot of capitalization).

Notable songs include the English version of Shchedryk, one of my favourite Choral numbers. I enjoyed my first exposure to the English version though I think someone should have pushed the lyricist for something more varied.

The start of the concert was good. Toward the end though . . . look at those noobs, you can’t get good volume looking down at your sheets like that, blocking off your windpipe. Almost better off having the audiance participate.

More pictures can be found here.

That’s changed now.

Behold Yeosu!

Yeosu is a . . . .  industrial town on the south coast of South Korea. In the middle of winter it’s . . .  not touristy. I will write more of Yeosu some other time. For now, enjoy the pictures under the link earlier and I will add pictures every day I’m here. Well, maybe.

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Quote of the day:

“The bad plowman quarrels with his ox”

- Korean proverb

If we were to look at what we’d find at 37°34’08N 4°21’24″E (Seoul’s latitude, Delft’s longitude) we’d be just north of the coast of Algeria in the eternally pleasant Mediterranean. If I had to put it in holiday spots you might recognise I’d say: Sicily or perhaps Alicante. Both noted for their warm summers and mild winters.

That’s the longitude I live at. Everyone that talked to me during the summer will know that we certainly do have warm summers. Turn it down a tad, would you, I nearly went crazy without A/C.

Winters here, though, are not mild.
Living at a longitude of the southern most Grecian islands one might have expected this.

In the Netherlands we have winters. They’re characterized by some freezing, though not enough to skate 200 km between Frisian towns, a lot of rain but little snow, lots of wind and ludicrously little daylight.

Living south of this I would therefore expect: longer days, less frost, maybe rain instead of snow and a little less cutting wind please.

I was wrong. We don’t get rain, we get snow (which our neighbours clear from the street every time it drops), the pond in our park would have no problem holding a couple of thousand ice-skate enthusiasts, it’s fucking cold here and the wind isn’t helping with that.

Our shortest day of the year was over 90 minutes longer than the one in Delft though.

But seriously. This is our front door (which is made out of metal . . . I’m not sure who thought that was a good idea)

The moisture in the air condenses on the door and then freezes.

And this is the local water tower. Which, as you can tell, leaks

This is what you’ll find underneath it

It hasn’t been above 0° (Celcius this time) for a month now.
I’m conditioned for Dutch winters. Freezes don’t last this long back home, much to the annoyance of the Dutch skaters, and don’t generally go as low as this.

It’s cold here. Proper cold.

I kinda like it =)

More pictures in the winter album. Including those of the ice-skating rink

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- Quote of the day:

Friendship is like wetting your pants, everyone can see it but only you can feel the warmth

- Anon

Many a long year of brain breaking labor at the university but I now have a piece of paper.
A very pretty piece of paper with important writing on it.

I don’t really have anything else to say regarding this except that you may now refer to me as Master Wally.
Though there’s someone looking into the feasibility of Master Wally-kins.

I leave you with some pictures of the day where it all came together. Click on the pictures. Collage courtesy of my Uncle Ben.

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Quote of the day:

Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

- Peter’s Evil overlord list #4