Settling in...

Hello again... in case you forgot in the TWO MONTHS I have not posted, I am the sometimes-annoying, always (I hope) entertaining blogger waxing on about his time in Europe.

Oh, you say... that Brett guy! Ha, ha... that is my "handle" (user ID) on a social networking group I organize events for as well... people never quite remembering who you were until someone would say "You know, that Brett guy, the one who organized the move event?" Ha, ha...

A lot has changed since July... I moved to the city (Frankfurt!) finally, on September 1st. It has already proven itself a great decision. For a single guy trying to meet new people, it is one of the better places in Germany to be I think... a cosmopolitan city that is 1/3 expatriate (not born German or living here from abroad), and more than 1/2 single...

While I know that some deride Frankfurt as "Bankfurt" due to all the commerical enterprise in downtown, or "Mainhattan" due to all the skyscrapers... it is a great city with several interesting, and unique neighborhoods. Frankfurt is also often referred to as the "smallest big city in the world" because it was cobbled together over time from several independent smaller towns... which have become those great neighborhoods today - Höchst, Bornheim, Sachsenhausen, Bockenheim, Nordend, Innenstadt-Altstadt, etc.

My German is better everyday... as before, every evening and on weekends I seek out people in various businesses (pubs, museums, book shops, asian bistros, cafes, trains, etc.) I am still having problems with the difficult German grammar("O mein Gott - die Grammatik!!), but although "der-die-das" and the cases & tenses still bedevil me, I am acutally getting complimented now that it is quite "good"... as in crappy compared to a long-time student of it or a native speaker, but quite decent compared to the vast majority of expats or tourists... I'll take it!

I have been here in Frankfurt for less than a month, and already I have been able to attend two different social networking events and met several great people... I love MeetUp! Of course, there is also Toytown, Yahoo groups, etc. With the aid of great groups like these, you should never really be bored in Frankfurt... worlds apart in options for a social life than tiny Griesheim near Darmstadt.

That is a nice town, but a place where it is very hard to meet new people... especially if you are over 30. There are a lot of places for the 18-25 crowd, but not much more and almost everything shuts down after 6PM! Here in Frankfurt, I have a cool streetside cafe and pizzeria (both open late on weeknights and open most of the day on Sundays! Then there are internet cafes, asian bistros, used book stores, an English-language theater with multiple (new) releases, etc. - all within a 10-minute walk! That is of course, unless you want to use the U-bahn (subway), whose above ground tracks in this area run down the main street (Eckenheimer Landstrasse) just a block from me... and yet, the street I am on is still very quite at night so you can sleep. AMAZING location.

I have to say I am still surprised that I am still single, though. Of course, a lot of the reason comes from living in small towns comprised mostly of 18 to 25 year-olds, married, or retired people... with few social options, internet-based or otherwise for people who don't already know somebody.

That said, Germany is not for the "I need to have social success quickly" kind of person... someone who needs to be dating someome and have a lot of friends they see often right away. It is "travel-difficult" to be sure, but also very much "travel-worth it" in the end. Often, the things that turn out to be the hardest are also the most rewarding... and sometimes also not - but we still try, and we don't let the "glass is half empty complainers" or naysayers who never really make much effort in the first place, dissuade us from trying.

You never know until you try - but you have to mean it when you say wou will try... not a half-hearted effort. The group events I attended the last 2 weeks were full of Expatriates... but out of more than 40 people combined, only 5 (including myself) were American, and only 3 were German.... a VERY cosmopolitan collection of people who probably represented more than 20 nations. The point of that is that there are a lot of people from around the world here in Germany, especially in a place like Frankfurt, and all are seeking to make their way, to integrate into this new society, but are finding it difficult at first... and we all need people in our lives, so... we seek out other travelers and expats making the same adjustments we are and learning from them. Eventually though, we will find I think that we all have more German friends and adapt easily (or much more so) to the differences in how people socialize here.

All this having been said - due to the expense of the new apartment and the many moves (my permanent Frankfurt apartment is the 5th place I have lived in since moving to Germany 6 months ago) - I have not been traveling! At least, that is, outside of Germany... that 24-hour sojurn in "country number 9" - Luxembourg - is the only exception. With Christmas approaching and the apartment unfurnished, it appears that I have to take the "long view" here (I am a resident, not visiting)... and start traveling my butt off in January of the new year 2010!

Then, it's all over the place... Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, Bruges, Barcelona, Athens, Copenhagen, Dublin... you get the idea! Ha, ha...

Hope all is well out there on the grapevine... keep traveling!

Brett