Exploring London through Lights

January in London doesn't just mean chilly days with history sprawling around you. At night, the city comes alive with sparkle and magic. 

With displays around the the central parts of the city, London hosted an intriguing light festival. Some of these installments could be found around Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street, but you'd have to do some good, old fashioned exploring to find the others.

Discovering Hanover: Café Culture

The German culture embraces sweets in a way that Americans will drool over; cafes and bakeries fill the corners and hot, delicious beverages are served at all hours of the day. 

Wandering through any new city brings new discoveries, and that is exactly what happened in Hanover, Germany today as my Dutch roommate and I explored the city's winding streets by bike. One particular gem revealed itself with its tantalizing cake displays and vibrantly colored window decorations offering happy moments for all. But really, the cafe is called "Glücksmoment," which directly translates as Happy Moment.  I highly recommend you waltz in to find your own such moments with great company--that is if you can find a seat. This not so little cafe is often packed with friends, couples or even families during all opening hours, all of whom seem to be engulfing in decadent treats while smiles spread across their faces. I suppose the name is true!

Four things I love about this place:

1. The customer service is superb. They may be busy but they are the friendliest German staff I've seen in a while.

2. The cakes and drinks are original. They even offer variations with less or more of what makes our hips so luscious, or even free trade labels and creative titles for their specialties.

3. Each place setting and room decor is different and of top quality. Real plates that are hand painted, beautiful decor inspired by fairy tales and toy traditions, and excellent lighting from the large windows and meticulously placed bloom lanterns makes for a bright and imaginative Happy Moment for all.

4. They offer classes! You can sign up to learn the art of cake making and decorating for yourself. Though they probably won't reveal their best kept secrets, you can at least try your hand in the kitchen.

Click here to check their classes, hours, and location.

*this review is my personal experience and recommendation. I did not receive any free cake for these words, though I wouldn't turn it down if it came later on, because it is divine. Check out this place for yourself on your next wander through Lower Saxony...

 

"King among Farmers." October 10th, 2015. Stuttgart, Germany

In the midst of confusion, stress, and frustration with work permits, I was put on temporary unpaid leave in order to sort of the mess. Thus, I decided to make my way south to visit a wonderful friend of mine who (ironically) was one of my mother’s best friends freshman year of college in Kansas (Rock Chalk Jayhawk). Facebook and fate brought the three of us together and a lifelong friendship and mentorship was born. While my reason for the original visit was actually so that we could go to Oktoberfest together, my work permit process allowed us an entire week.

Sarah Cooks provides a great Schupfnudeln
recipe translated into English on her website:

In Stuttgart, we celebrated the final weekend of Oktoberfest; in this particular city, this three week-long event is called the Canstatter Volksfest (peoples’ festival) and lovingly referred to as the “Wasen.” There were massive beer tents, glittering carnival games, and colorful dirndls galore! We made it a point to wander between all of the food tents, sampling beer and dishes representing the best of German party food. We were warmly greeted by piles of sautéed mushrooms with a garlic sauce, bratwursts, roasted potatoes, and a mound of sauerkraut that revealed Schupfnudeln beneath (known in Austria and Germany, this is a thick-dough noodle similar to gnocchi in Italy).

Learn more about the festival!

The festival is also, of course filled with music everywhere you go. Sometimes these are the typical dance songs that migrate across borders in a chart-topping delay after they’ve launched in the US, sometimes these are German festival songs created just for that purpose and are therefore both obnoxious and beloved. In the massive beer tents, hundreds of people sit along hard, wooden benches and tables to enjoy too many liters of beer and heavy, delicious food. Often, people will pop onto the table to dance to a particularly endearing song or to partake in a drinking dare where they have to chug an entire liter in one go. There is even a mascot running around -the bunny so lovingly referred to as the Wasenhasi- between tents from the different breweries to spark love and laughter between party goers at night, and giggles between kids during the daytime family events that take place.

The festival emblem:
Fruchtsäule

This festival has been around for as long as we can all remember, especially since it started way back in 1817 as an agriculturally-focused event with horse races and livestock, similar to a 4H event or stock show. Even more interesting was that the festival was thrown a day after King Wilhelm I’s birthday and he really wanted to be there in person. King Wilhelm was known for being the “king amongst the farmer and the farmer amongst kings” and this whole festival incorporated that idea. Covered with fruit, cereal and other agrarian items, you’ll find a fruit column “Fruchtsäule” towering above the mayhem and fun. They even still do parades and exhibitions to showcase new agricultural technology and developments as they have all these years.

Naturally, I will recommend that everyone experience a massive German festival sometime in their lives. Until that time, I’ll keep sampling them and reporting back.

I sampled a dark chocolate-dipped
apple then rolled in coconut flakes. Yum!

"Thirsty for Lemonade." Somewhere in Baden Württemberg, Germany

It did not work out as I had expected, though I suppose that is no news to those of you who have experienced reality for longer than I have. The city somehow mixed up my paperwork and fell through on some responsibilities, so when I went to pick up my work permit, I discovered that it had not even been started. Following the shock of that little announcement came a swift pause to my position and I was immediately placed on unpaid leave pending my documentation process. After nearly three weeks of being in the Trading department for TUI in an orientation mode, I anxiously awaited an assignment and stalked my colleagues to observe their work in the meantime. Why the three weeks? It seems that Trading didn’t quite have a specific task arranged for my three month placement in their department, but that’s simply part one of the story. Part two? TUI Germany was shaken up on the 1^st of October, the beginning of the new fiscal year, by the announcement of a major corporate restructuring. One of the departments hit the heaviest was that in which I was placed, as the company decided to combine the elements of Product Management and Trading so as to be supervised by one joint manager.

Colleagues from TUI Germany fill the
foyer for the corporate announcement

As my mother and a few mentors of mine have so auspiciously stated during this conundrum, “everything happens for a reason.” I suppose the fact that I haven’t actually been able to work yet helps the fact that I wasn’t allowed to work this whole time, despite the fact that we didn’t know it. I suppose the fact that I am simply an International Management Graduate “trainee” helps the fact that my position is unaffected, despite everything else being affected around me. I suppose the fact that I have money in savings but no vacation time until Christmas was actually not the obstacle that I presumed, since now I have both money and time on my hands.

Keeping positive and making
the best of the situation!

Therefore, I left. No, I didn’t break the temporary government request to remain in the borders of Germany while my paperwork processes, but rather I jumped on one of those fancy speed trains and am wandering into southern Germany. Let’s call this a surprise leave, rather than an unpaid leave. It gives me a chance to regain my motivation and spirit after the three weeks of uncertainty and overwhelming German language immersion. It allows me to view the montage of fall colors as they fly past my train window, to taste the traditions of the south at their annual festivals, and to visit with one of my dearest friends who lives near Stuttgart. I plan on making the most of this situation, of making a whole lot of lemonade out of this pile of lemons that have been tossed my way recently. I hope you’re thirsty, Germany. 

"Here I am. Here we go." September 9th, 2015; Hanover, Germany

Welcome to the town hall,
"Rathaus" that (mostly) survived
the bombing during WWII.

I sit here nestled in my duvets with the pattering rain on my window, a fresh coat of nail polish on my fingers, maps taped to the wall, and a smart casual outfit hung across the door of my new apartment. I’m in Hanover, the time is 9:38 pm; everything is ready. Tomorrow, my career begins. At 7:37 I will rise to shower briefly and meet my Dutch roommate, Valérie, -who is equal parts hilarious and brilliant- for a healthy breakfast and a brisk bike ride to our new corporate headquarters for TUI Germany, the office that handles all tourism and branding operations for the German-speaking source market. After four years of family events and parties with my boyfriend Björn, I have apparently picked up enough German language (with his patient instruction and correction) that my position begins with a 3 month assignment in Hanover.

Following the famous "Red Thread" that
was painted on the ground to showcase the
city's most interesting sights, we stumbled into
this beautiful café street. 

This journey begins promptly at 10 am (not bad for a first day) due to meeting schedules. Needless to say, butterflies have taken up residence in my digestion track over the last few hours. Their origin undoubtedly has something to do with the fact that walking into that building tomorrow will launch the next step in what will hopefully be a prosperous and fulfilling career in international business management. However, I must say that I am not daunted by the challenge. Rather, it invigorates me! Finally all my hard work is paying off. All of those sleepless nights of papers and projects, working two or three jobs to put myself through my undergraduate in the US and finally my graduate program in Europe. All of those applications for scholarships, visas, competitions, references and positions.

Here I am. Here we go. I am absolutely prepared and yet have no idea what tomorrow will look like. Therefore, I am simply reminding myself that I have always given my best and my hardest, that there is a company who went through the ringer with costs and effort to bring me here as the only American ever hired for the International Graduate Leadership Program here with TUI Group, and that I can do this!

For the last year, I have repeated this mantra to myself based on Sophia Amoruso’s famous quote; tonight is no different:

“If I believe what I am doing will have positive results, it will - even if it’s not immediately obvious.” 

My first training will take place at
TUI Germany's headquarters in Hanover

"Flying By." July, 2015; Leaving Antwerp, Belgium

They always say that life flies by when you’re young, when you’re having fun, when you’re not paying attention; so the idioms carry on. What might surprise this third person plural entity to which we give so much power over our behavior, is that time also flies by when you put your nose to the ground and work tirelessly toward a goal that is so very close to heart.

All four family members
gathered for the first family
photo since the divorce.

After five intensive years of my Bachelor career to earn two degrees -one B.Sc. and one B.A.- working two jobs simultaneously to pay for them, studying abroad for three semesters, and taking two summers of extra classes, I thought I had clearly understood the definition of exhausting yet rewarding ambition. I was wrong. There was still that itch for something greater, something which I had not yet uncovered, that I had to do. I had countless meetings with advisors and respected professors at the University of Northern Colorado as well as career mentors with whom I had associated along the way; this led to a clearer idea of the field to which I felt called: international, cross-cultural, innovative, and strategic management implementation. The problem was, none of these professionals nor myself had the faintest idea of what this actually could mean, but we had a tracing of a path that might lead to this Bermuda triangle into which I would quickly yet not quietly disappear. Rather than desperately job-seeking in the trenches alongside all my fellow colleagues following our basic qualification of a diploma, that path etched out the idea of a graduate degree. Abroad. I knew that if I wanted a career to stretch across the borders of the United States of America and the united countries of Europe, then I would need to stretch my accredited education as well. The perks of that include a new adventure and a slightly more affordable tuition bill. Tireless hours of searching and applications led to a full calendar of interviews and deadlines during a pressured final semester at UNC, but it was all worth it when the Antwerp Management School said yes. AMS was my top choice in European universities for its location in Western Europe, AACSB and European accreditation so that I could repatriate when and if need be, and a clearly outlined leadership development track. It was in Belgium, which was a land in which I had not yet in my life set foot. Not only that, but I accepted and moved there (after painstakingly following toilsome visa documentation procedures) without knowing a single soul within the Belgian borders.

How’s that for a sense of adventure?

The Ferris Wheel at Antwerp Central
Station made for an astounding welcome.

So here I am, 10 months after I began lectures at AMS. I just completed the most difficult year of my life financially, academically, relationally, and mentally. The laudable news is, this challenge has shaped me in ways I am still struggling to comprehend. I have two new, incredible best friends from Belgium who invest fully in my life and future. I have an outstanding long-distance relationship that we have managed to build to extraordinary heights over the last four years. I have visited so many new places and deepened my understanding of the French and Germans languages, as well as added some basic understanding of Flemish. Not only that,

Antwerp's MAAS area made a great place
to picnic and bike-ride with my new friends.

 but after applying thoroughly for 35 positions, I was invited to join the team of an inconceivably amazing firm which just so happens to be my dream job, a dream which shaped itself over the last several years. Needless to say, my life flew by this year. It wasn’t because I was too young, because I was having too much fun, or because I wasn’t paying attention. It was a combination of being young and ambitious, having a life-changing experience, and working to the constant best of my abilities in order to achieve unbelievable heights in my personal life story and my career.

Voted Vice President of the Student Council,
I was honored to share the graduation speech.

Idiomatic expression or not, what comes next will be one for the history books. 

Unterwegs. Journey home. July 25th, 2013

Flying back to the US; feels so surreal

As I watch the tiny icon of an airplane inch its way west across the virtual Atlantic on the screen in front of me, I can feel each inch as it tugs me farther away from the German borders to which I have become so accustomed. Each time the friendly, multilingual staff drops by my row, the words that slip off my tongue have defaulted to Germanic tendencies despite the Anglican fluency of all those around me. Preferential, you might say. Flight after flight, checkpoint by checkpoint, I cross the point of no return, or do I? My heart is unable to adjust in such tumultuous situations as it is beckoned in many tongues from many lands; how can it find method of settling if I have no solid plan, no final destination as of yet? Denver. That's where I'll start. Then what? I have two final semesters of my double bachelor's degree at the University of Northern Colorado that will be complemented by workshops, conferences, visits to my family, rebuilding my harp callouses and desperately seeking both franco and germanophones to keep the polyglot, that is multilingual, version of myself adrift.

Managing to take root on rock
(Mallorca, July, 2013)

A word of my own language struck me today as I mindlessly glanced at the episode of the Big Bang Theory playing on the airline's entertainment program: Roots. I picture a tree, a flower, a tracing of origin to that which fed and built you. Trees grow, harbor life, shelter life, give life, but they do not move except when adjusting to wind patterns and changing climate. Flowers can be moved, picked, transplanted just as a tree. Traditional doctrine teaches us that roots are the beginning, the foundation, the lifeline, the nourishment. Can we ever change our roots? Can we take them with us or will we always leave some piece of us, some straggler of a memory or life behind in the ground from whence we came? Pardon the extended metaphor, but I feel completely uprooted and am also contemplating the notion of searching for a new garden.