Good Bye & God Bless!

To Whom It May Concern

...'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
I don't know when I'll be back again...

Dear all,

although it may come as a surprise, the three months of my internship with Hertz will be finished next Friday, November 10th.

When I started here on August 14th, I could not know - and did not expect - how many nice, interesting, caring people I would get to know.

Thank you all for your kindness, support, and the good times we had together!
(Some of you might also remember the beer-drinking, pasta-boiling, Burrito-wrapping, Tortilla-frying, Karaoke-singing, Salsa-dancing, lefthandside-driving.... :o)

As a way of saying "Thank You" I would appreciate it very much if ALL of you could gather at my desk on Friday 10th, 2pm to pick up some sweets.
Additionally, I offer to spill some tears, give a couple if hugs, shake lots of hands, and kiss the ones goodbye who are not afraid of my beard.


Greets,
Marcus

Farewell-Agenda includes also:

• Saturday Nov 4th "Howl At The Moon", Dublin, Mount Street
  
• Tuesday Nov 7th "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan", Cineworld, Dublin, Parnell Street
  
• Thursday Nov 9th "The Slaughtered Lamb", Swords, Main Street
  

Dublin Soundtrack

Try to make me go to rehab/
I say No! No! No!

Amy's hot. Who the f***k is Christina Aguilera?

To The Left, To The Left

The radio played Beyoncé's massive new hit Irreplaceable, telling me to keep "to the left, to the left" when I drove a car for the first time here in Ireland last Saturday. Left hand side, of course.

On our way to Kilkenny, we (Ricardo, Alianne, Noortje, and me) went southward down the coastline through Wicklow, Arklow, Enniscorthy, Waterford.

We stayed at the Tourist Hostel, downed some pints in the Pumphouse, had dinner at Ripley's Steakhouse and then just dropped into some different bars, pubs,...

The following day, we went back to Dublin, including a detour to Dungarvan and the Mahon Falls (see above).

Farblich eindeutig

Nur, falls noch irgendjemandem schleierhaft sein sollte, wieso sich dies' winzige Eiland inmitten des Atlantischen Ozeans auch gern mal als Grüne Insel titulieren lässt... (Vorsicht: der Klick auf obiges Bild öffnet es im Format 1024x768 — psychedelisch!)

Keine Ahnung, womit die Iren düngen :o)
Und: Ja, auch hier ist Oktober.

Steven Hawking

There was a young lady of Wright
who traveled much faster than light
she departured one day
in a relative way
and returned in the previous night.

Steven W. Hawking

Back again

The bygone weekend
Westward I went
To Limerick first
To Kilkee with thirst
It felt all so good, I'd never repent!

An Taoiseach

Even here in Ireland, I simply cannot avoid interfering with political issues. At least, I am more into consumption rather than taking action.
So, this one was passed around through corporate e-mail this morning:

A man died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him.

He asked, "What are all those clocks?"
St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie, the hands on your clock will move."
"Oh," said the man, "whose clock is that?"
"That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie."
"Incredible," said the man. "And whose clock is that one?"
St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life."

"Where's Bertie Ahern's clock?" asked the man.
"His clock is in Jesus' office. He's using it as a fan."

remarks: Bertie Ahern (above picture, left) is the current Prime Minister (An Taoiseach, pronounce "an-ti-shack" ) of the Republic of Ireland, being involved in some (made up?) bribing scandal.

Rauchfrei

via SPON:

SPD-Gesundheitspolitiker bestehen auf Gruppenantrag zum Rauchverbot
Die Gesundheitspolitiker der SPD-Bundestagsfraktion setzen ihren Kampf für ein absolutes Rauchverbot in Gaststätten fort. Sie bestehen weiter auf dem fraktionsübergreifenden Gruppenantrag. Die Mehrheit der Fraktion habe ihn unterzeichnet.

Die Iren mögen ja generell etwas langsamer sein. Aber in diesem Fall haben sie die Nase vorn: Rauchverbot in Pubs und Restaurants herrscht hier längst. Und es ist herrlich, wenn am Morgen danach© die Klamotten schlimmstenfalls nach menschlichen Ausdünstungen müffeln.

BTW: Deodorant kennt hier offenbar leider noch nicht jederman(n).

Germans don't miss

As Chelsea defeated Werder Bremen last night 2 goals by 0, it became quite evident why they really hired Ballack. When the referee pointed to the spot, Lampard immediately handed the ball to the native Saxon. You know, when it comes to penalty-taking, you will be always better off with a German rather than a Dutch, English, Argentine or Swiss :o)

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Nachdem Michael Schumacher nicht nur in Monza gewonnen, sondern auch gleich noch seinen Rücktritt vom Motorsport zum Ende der Saison erklärt hat, bin ich an der Glotze hängengeblieben. Und hab' mein erstes Hurling-Match bestaunt.

Der irische Nationalsport erinnert entfernt an eine Mischung aus Hockey und Eierlaufen. Vor der Kulisse tausender tobender Fans dreschen Jungs wie Mädels eine entfernt an einen Baseball erinnernde genarbte Kugel mit einer Art überdimensionierter hölzerner Fliegenklatsche unmotiviert in Richtung gegnerisches Tor. Zwischendurch wird der Ball geworfen, gekickt, mit dem Hurley getragen (siehe Eierlaufen) — wasauchimmer.

Bemerkenswerterweise fließt kaum Blut — was definitiv für die sportliche-faire Grundeinstellung der Iren an sich™ (geschütztes und eingetragenes Vorurteil) spricht.

Imposant

Yesterday I took waited 90 minutes for the bus to Portmarnock, walked the beautiful beach, tanned a little — and dived naked into the cold, cold Irish sea :o)

Podolski at Brannigan's

Bin ja weit davon entfernt, hier emphatische Ausbrüche zu zelebrieren. Aber
in diesem speziellen Falle: Ja! Jaaaaaaa!

Und: Die bedröppelten Gesichter meiner italienischen und spanischen
Kollegen heute morgen haben die Freude nicht wirklich geschmälert.

Streetside scamming

A couple of days ago, I was walking to Malahide. Suddenly, a white van stopped close to me, and a young man asked me: "Hey there, let's see if I can make you happy. Wanna buy a laptop computer? It's just 300 Euros!" Since I was kind of surprised — and wasn't carrying that much money in my wallet — I rejected the offer.

The next day, I was just again walking towards my home, another car stopped right beside me. This time, a fat guy sitting in a dirty red '96 Toyota yelled at me: "Hey! Wanna buy a laptop computer? Just 300 Euros!" I, again, rejected and went on.

When I told my trainer at Hertz about the story, she was immediately upset: "You know, this is a well-known scam. They normally take you to the nearest ATM — since no one carries that much money around —, and while you get the money, they replace the laptop by, say, four boxes of milk. So all you get is a nicely printed box, containing four litres of milk."

Sometimes I am quite happy being such a poor boy...:o)

Language Issues

When I first arrived to Swords, I was immediately introduced to some first Irish words. This means, I had to learn, that, for instance, the place I am staying in is nothing but pronounced as you would expect it to be. Instead of something like "Bo-roy-mah" I was told by a Taxi driver to pronounce the name of this so-called "estate" Boroimhe like "Bo-ree-waah".

At least, this taxi driver knew where to take me. What is not some kind of usual here. The village of Swords (again: Sord being celtic for "spring" or "well") is growing so fast, many of the inhabitants even do not know exactly where some of the newly built places are located.

Once in a while, I had the convincing idea of Swords being the place U2 did sing about in "Where the Streets Have No Names" — guess why... :o)

Update

Nach der ersten Woche in Irland wird's Zeit für eine kleine Zuammenfassung. Bei Hertz bekomme ich zur Zeit eine Einführungsschulung ("Induction"), die im wesentlichen die Bedienung der relevanten Computer-Systeme umfasst (Debitorenbuchhaltung, Dokumentenmanagementsystem,...).
Ein wirklich netter Nebenaspekt des Jobs ist die Kantine. Für im Schnitt weniger als drei Euro gibt's täglich die Auswahl zwischen traditionell irischer Küche (Truthahn, Steak, usf.), internationalen Gerichten (von Indien bis Mexico, Italien bis Spanien), div. Suppen, Aufläufen, einer Salatbar oder nach Wunsch belegten Sandwiches. Angesichts der regulären Lebensmittelpreise in Irland ist das Essen hier geradezu spottbillig.
Komischerweise sind die Preise in Pubs und Clubs recht moderat. Hier in Swords trifft sich die Hertz-Meute regelmäßig im "Slaughtered Lamb". Da kostet im hausinternen Club wie auch in der Bar oder im Pub das Pint (ca. 570ml) reichlich 4 Euro - da kann man nicht wirklich meckern.
Die Woche über war das Wetter hier recht feucht, zum Wochenende hin besserte sich das ganze jedoch erheblich. So hab' ich dann gestern erst mal meinen Rucksack gepackt und bin in knapp 2 Stunden nach Malahide an den Strand gelaufen. (Während meine housemates über's Wochenende nach Belfast gefahren sind) Die Sonne hat zwar nicht gerade gebrannt, es reichte aber, um sich ein wenig wärmen zu lassen. Abends hieß es dann nur noch chill out auf'm Sofa — bei "Dr.No" und einem Berg Spaghetti arrabiata :o)
Heute dann bin ich noch ein wenig im westlichen Teil von Swords herumgestreunt, habe mir die alte anglikanische Kirche angesehen um dann beglückt festzustellen, dass ich tatsächlich auch am Wochenende Zugang zum Hertz-Internetcafé habe.

Here I Am!

Finally, I have reached Dublin. After gettin' up at 7 in the morning yesterday, I caught the airplane at Hahn at half past 11 and landed safely at 5 past noon in Dublin. After picking up my keys at reception, I took a taxi to my temporary home.

So, for all of you reading this and wanting to send me something by mail, address your letter bombs, care packages and so on to

Marcus Bitterlich
12 Boroimhe Laurels
Swords, Co. Dublin
Republic of Ireland

Or, as it is advised by Hertz:

Marcus Bitterlich
c/o Hertz Europe Service Center
Swords Business Park
Swords, Co. Dublin
Republic of Ireland

I live in a "Hertz House" (I hope I can post some pictures some time), that means I share kitchen and living room with a guy from Holland and one from Italy.

That's all for the moment. I'll come back to you.

Fly, white dove

Paloma ist vorgestern gestorben. Am Abend, bevor wir aus La Bresse zurück gefahren sind.

Gestern, als wir in der Nähe von Güdingen die deutsch-französische Grenze überquerten, hatte ich kurz geglaubt, ihn in seinem silbernen alten Fünfer vor mir zu sehen. Zu Hause las ich dann die E-Mail mit der Nachricht von seinem Tod.

Wir vermissen Dich.

Marcus has left the building

Today has been the last working day for me with the Institute for Information Systems at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.

On Monday, I will leave for a two weeks holiday with Laura+Noah+Birgit in La Bresse, and, finally, on August 14th I will take the plane to Dublin. As stated before :o)

Lack of precision in scheduling

Why the heck was the Euro 2008-qualifying game Germany vs. Ireland scheduled on September 2nd in Stuttgart?
Hey, I will be in Dublin that day!
Hopefully, I may watch the Irish beat the Czech on October 11th...