Last week I visited the Switzerland once again. The winter retreat of the swiss Churches of Christ took place in Adiast, again. This meant skiing every day and spending time together and playing card games in the evenings. Also there was a lecture on the topic “Was Jesus a revolutionary?” every evening, which were sometimes more, sometimes less interesting. I also took some pictures, but not so many.

A few others and me bought a 6-day-ticket that allowed us to go to other skiing areas, as well. We used them to do a detour to Laax, a pretty large skiing area with a glacier at the top. We had partly sunny weather there, but somehow the sun seemed always to be in places that we weren’t at that very moment. But of course we didn’t let this spoil the party. I recorded some videos of our trip to Laax and also of Waltensburg, from which I created the following movie for you.

It was pretty warm in general, and it didn’t snow very much during the week. But on the highest place of the Waltenburg skiing area it was pretty cold sometimes, anyway. You were really happy when you were able to quickly go down where it was warmer, then. The last two days sun shined a lot and made me sweat while I was skiing in the “deep powder snow” off the piste. Even though the slopes were pretty icy because there was not much new snow coming down, it was still a good week and riding was comparatively easy.

During that week I was informed that our flat hunt was successful and that we had a commitment for a flat in Hattersheim am Main. So this is where Michael G. an I will reside in the future, directly at the marketplace. We’ll have an ice cream parlor below our flat and a pizzeria in the house next to ours. :D We will already be allowed to move in from the 18th of March. The rental contract, that we signed the following week, officially begins at April 1st, together with my new job.

During the journey back to Darmstadt on Saturday we did a little side trip to Vaduz, the capital city of Liechtenstein and visited the occupied castle. Yet another country that I’ve been to. After church and a mini-potluck we went to Heidelberg on Sunday. There Vanessa, Chrisch and me were at Starbucks and and afterwards went to Heidelpraise with Carolin, who is living near Heidelberg, and some others. Heidelpraise is a worship event that takes place in Heidelberg regularly. Many worship songs were sung there, of course, in a kind of concert with a band. Also, we heard an interesting sermon with the topic “Has Jesus overslept?” that focused on the long wait for the return of Jesus. Even though I didn’t agree with all the things that the preacher said, I still liked it. The preacher made every afford to perform the cermon in an interesting and humorous way. I’m going to go to the next Heidelpraise in May, as well.

November was pretty calm. The only thing to mention is a job interview. I applied for a job near my old home city. Successfully! From April 1st, 2011 I will work for my new employer, HLP Informationsmanagement GmbH in Eschborn. :)

In December all of a sudden Christmas was coming up to me. Because of a lack of creativity I had some troubles with buying presents. But I found a fitting present for everybody, in the end. On Christmas Eve I sang Mary, did you know in the Church of Christ in Kelkheim, which sorrily failed a little. After I forgot a line of the text Chrisch, who accompanied me on the piano, and me had some troubles of synchronizing ourselves again. But when we finally managed to do it, after quite some embarrassing moments, the rest of the song went pretty well. All in all I got the impression that the piece appealed to the audience. December 31st, I’ve been to Kai and Susanne’s New Year’s Eve party with Michi, Chrisch and Vanessa. It was really amazing and we had lots of fun! :D

January 3rd was my birthday and I turned a quarter century. For those, who always hated math: Means I turned 25. ;) I celebrated this in the premises of the Church of Christ in Kelkheim. One day later I went to Chrissy’s birthday party in the Sausalitos in Darmstadt. This was where I drank a Laserschwert (German for laser sword) for the first time. I had to realize that it’s a pretty nasty cocktail due to the fact that it contains absinthe.

Of course I got some Christmas and birthday presents, as well. Many people used my Amazon wish list for this. Others simply gave me Amazon gift coupons. Here is, what I got besides self-made stuff, money and gift coupons:

I’m staying at the customer in Darmstadt for a longer time now. I will work there until the end of March. As I will move to the Main-Taunus-Kreis afterwards, Michi G. and I want to establish a flat share. This is why we’re flat hunting heavily at the moment. There are still some showing appointments scheduled. Afterwards we’ll have to decide.

Last weekend I was at the choir retreat of SurpriSing 2002, the choir that Edi, Brigitte and Christina go to and where I also go to regularly since October. The retreat has been absolutely amazing. We sang all kinds of hits at the piano and guitar for nights on end. We’re now also singing Run by Leona Lewis resp. Snow Patrol and I like the choir sound a thousand times better than the original version. ♥ Next Saturday Edi, Brigitte and me will be driving to the winter retreat in the Switzerland. I’m really excited about it, even though it means: 6 days of stiffness in a row. ;)

As you can see I set up a new layout for my blog. I hope you like it. Also I worked on the translation of all blog contents lately, so that you can read it either in German on www.renet.tk or in English on www.reneschubert.net now. That means double work for me, but I don’t want to neglect my friends, who can not or not so well speak German. ;) My English is not perfect, so if you find any mistakes, feel free to tell me, for example via the comment function of a blog post.

See you later!

It really seems like I have to read my own blog, so I can see what I’ve experienced and have not told you, yet. Or short: It’s been some time, again. In the meanwhile I’ve experienced a lot, of course. I think I’ll cut it short this time, so that this blog post won’t become a novel.

From the end of August to the beginning of September I’ve been to the twen retreat in Gemünden for the VERY first time. It was the first retreat in Gemünden where I knew everyone. Well, except Damaris’ husband. It was a lot of fun, relaxing and I also gained some weight, thanks to the great food and cake every day. But we didn’t only relax, we also had some action! We played soccer and volleyball on several days and one day we were on an adventure climbing forest of sorts. There you had to climb between trees and over obstacles, fixed with a rope and at a dizzy height of up to 24 meters. And believe me, the good old chain bridge was the least hard challenge. ;)

After one week of bothersome work that interrupted my vacation, Michi G., Kai-Uwe T. and me went to the Ryanair-Plane and flew to Tenerife. It took us only two days until we managed that our rental car got towed. Luckily the fees were not that high, so that we got away with a black eye. Apart from that we had a really great time. It may have been cloudy most of the time, but the sun came through pretty often and it was midsummerly warm throughout our whole stay. We then were visiting all kinds of cities and beaches, climbed the volcano Teide and visited an aqua park that offers some kind of a “tidal wave pool” where one could be hit by a tidal wave that was several meters high. In the evenings we always went to a bar at the beach where we indulged ourselves in a few glasses of sangria. :)

Of course, I collected a lot of video and image material. It may take some time, until I find the time to cut the videos. But here you can already see the pictures:

After Tenerife I’ve been to Oldenburg for two weeks. And afterwards the youth weekend was on schedule. The topic was “Superheroes of the Bible” and all in all the retreat was really cool. Once again I got to know some awesome new people and pulled an all-nighter with Elli K., Emil N. and some others from Saturday to Sunday. My body thanked me with microsleep during the sermon, that I still liked a lot, anyway – at least as fas as I recognized it. In the evening I collapsed into bed like a stone at 5:30 pm and slept through the night.

And no, I did not drive back to Oldenburg before that – I didn’t have to. Because from the week after the youth weekend on, I’m on duty for customer in Darmstadt. And I will be for at least the next 2 months, so at least until the beginning of December! :) During that time I’m living in a former basement party room in the house of Brigitte, my dad’s girlfriend. This is why I was and will be able to drive to the youth home group in Kelkheim. And this is why I also have been there last Tuesday and now am part of the planning team of the Church of Christ in Kelkheim for the Easter retreat 2011 in Bad Marienberg. ;) Click to Facebook and register for Plug into the Power. The retreat will take place during the Easter weekend, between 22nd and 23rd of April. I look forward to seeing you there!

Right now I am in Darmstadt and use my laptop to go online. I’m working for a customer here, but stay with Brigitte and Edi. A zebra finch just flew to them, by the way, and they bought a second one. Now the two built themselves a nest and established a gay’s living community. ;) Those creatures are really cute, and sound like an old horn of a child’s bike.

Next week I want to visit the teenager retreat in Gemünden. Actually Julia and me wanted to go there yesterday, but in the end it didn’t match our plans. We’ve been to the movies instead, and I’ve seen Inception for the second time in 4 days now. An absolutely ingenious movie from the director of The Dark Knight. In my opinion it’s one of the best movies of the year (Harry Potter 7 Part 1 is yet to come) and I shouldn’t wonder, if that movie gets some Oscars.

Probably I will go to the movies one more time this week (when and what movie isn’t decided, yet) and on Friday we’ll do some bar-hopping after work, destination Sachsenhausen. I’m curious what it will be like. On Saturday I visited my brother with my mom. And there’s some more that I could tell you, but I am sure that I will find some more time soon, so that I can tell you what I’ve experienced and what is still to come. Until then you will have to be patient. I wish you a nice week and that it’s not as rainy, wherever you are, as it is here, at the moment.

I already mentioned my choir, Crossing Borders. For those of you who want to get to know us, I recorded a little video of our latest choir practice on how we (maybe not in perfection, but still pretty good) sing Mas Que Nada. Here it is, enjoy! :)

After I got spammed with criticism about Facebook’s privacy policy from all sides, I want to put in my two cents, as well. The two main points of criticism are:

• Facebook would want to share certain information of its users with selected partner companies. This information would be shared with the partners without asking permission from the users.
• Very open privacy settings would be assigned to newly registered Facebook users by default. In fact, the users would have the possibility to change those settings to fit their requirements afterwards, but on the one hand this would be too complicated and on the other hand Facebook would be obliged to protect the users from being too careless with sensitive data.

Now here is, what I think about these points of criticism:

We have to be realistic. Facebook is a company, and, as a part of the economic system, is condemned to aim for the senseless goal of profit maximization. It’s only natural that such a company wants to get the most out of its goods. And the good of Facebook simply is information. Facebook would shoot itself in the foot (and for the costs that Facebook causes, certainly ruin itself), if it spoiled new ways of advertisement by deactivation of this new way of advertisement for all users by default. Deactivating advertisement on a page, if you have the possibility to do so as a user is one thing. But activating the advertisement voluntarily, though it already is deactivated by default, and you actually wouldn’t even have to lift a finger, is simply unrealistic.

And the fact that Facebook is such a company that is thinking economically, is actually an advantage for the user, in the end. Imagine Facebook based on students working in a voluntary capacity. If you don’t earn money for what you do, it doesn’t matter how much your heart would be in it: Sooner or later other work that earns you money would become more important. And then Facebook would suffer from little innovation, too little time for solving bugs, too little consideration of user’s feature requests, too few resources to serve the rush of visitors. Even if many people would donate even more money, such a site would become uninteresting and disappear from the screen fairly quickly. A giant network with 400 million users, where everyone can find most of his friends, would have never become reality that way. And all innovation that Facebook shows at the moment to conquer the internet, actually is a good benefit for the users, because: Social rules.

Those, who don’t like that Facebook shares some their data publicly by default resp. forwards them to its partners, feel free to change your privacy settings anytime you want. For those who scream that Facebook has to take over responsibility for its users’ naivety, I can only answer with a shake of the head. All privacy settings aside: It should be taken for granted to be at least a little considerate with the information that one shares on Facebook. Somebody who tells Facebook everything, just like a best friend, is just to blame as much as somebody who trusts his bank clerk as much as his psychologist.

I read an article lately, that was about a chat log where Mark Zuckerberg was quoted on what he allegedly said about the first 1000 users on Facebook when he was a student: They “trust me”. Dumb fucks. – At first I also stumbled. But let’s face it: Even I would have said something like that if hundreds or even thousands of people willingly gave me their contact data when I was a student. Everyone who knows me, also knows that I would never abuse this information. But the upside is: Facebook became a company that is under close surveillance. It can’t afford to use the data of its users in another way than it’s written in the privacy policy. And Facebook does offer the possibility to determine exactly which data is to be offered and which not resp. who may not see it.

And I really can’t comprehend the criticism that says it would be too complicated to change the privacy settings. Due to the latest changes in the privacy settings it became even more clear with whom which information is to be shared. But also before these changes it was clear enough, in my opinion. Sure, it wasn’t done all by one click and one had to look a little closer. But isn’t that obvious? If you want to control your privacy settings on the highest level of detail (even broken down into every little post), you have to accept the respective complexity. I’m really thankful to have the possibility to determine exactly who is able to see which information and who is not. Facebook already tried to make this as simple as possible, and I have to say: It did a good job. Regarding intuition it’s only inferior to Apple’s iStuff.

In short: I decide on my own and voluntarily, which information I share on Facebook. To reproach Facebook with not acting responsible enough is wrong, in my opinion. I have all the possibilities I need, regarding privacy - I only need to do it myself. And it’s a good thing, too. We don’t really want a mindless society where nobody has to care on his own, what information he gives to others.

By the way, for those who haven’t realized yet, I have integrated Facebook into my blog now: Now you can simply use your Facebook accounts to login to the blog and write comments. Or tell me and others, whether you like a blog post, using the “Like” button. I’m happy about it. And for those who say that this is too invasive, I can only say: Have the courage to use Facebook’s privacy settings to prevent, that anyone can see something that you don’t want him to see. It’s actually pretty easy. ;)

Wow, what a great time the last few weeks have been! The day is Friday the 14th of May 2010. After spending a day with my brother and not having slept much at night, I head for Frankfurt airport. After way less stress with the 1000 security checks than I had expected, I enter the plane to Boston. 7 hours and 3 movies later, the moment has come: I take my first steps on American ground. That’s one small step for me, one almost insignificant nothing for mankind. Welcome to the USA!

At the airport I am welcomed by a Dunkin’ Donuts and have to realize that American coffee tastes as crappy as the one in Germany. However the donuts are unsurpassedly great! Well, enough details. If I go on like this, I won’t even be done writing tomorrow. ;) The Holiday Inn Express hotel was pretty good. The first culture shock hit me in the morning, where I was offered eggs & cheese with bacon & sausage for breakfast. Afterwards we visited the Harvard University and students showed us the historical events of Hahvahd during a very funny and higly commendable unofficial tour. Afterwards the day was topped off with a shopping-session (much to my dad’s chagrin). The following day we had a little boat excursion where we were able to see Boston’s skyline and even the MIT. Afterwards we walked through the old English district and afterwards the Champs-Élysées of Boston. This is where I got a little depressed because of the prices of $ 250 or more for only one denim short. ;)

Monday morning, 17th of May 2010, we flew to New York City in a pretty small and cute airplane. The same day we went to the Yankees Stadium in the evening, where we watched a game of New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox that went down to the wire. Last minute, the Red Sox were up, the Yankees were able to change tack with a home run to finally win the game. Pure entertainment! It was the right day to watch a game, ’cause the next day the Yankees bitterly lost a game. The Hampton Inn hotel in the heart of Manhattan was quite okay. Only the breakfast left a lot to be desired.

The next day it was the weather that left a lot to be desired. The perfect day for shopping! After only a few t-shirts, of course including the famous I ♥ New York, and a visit at Macy’s, the world’s largest store, much of the day was already gone. But the greatest event of the day was yet to come: A visit at The Lion King on Broadway in the Minskoff Theatre. First New York’s taxi drivers left us out in the rain. It was pelting down with rain and not even one taxi driver seemed to have a free seat. We were standing in the rain for about 15 minutes, before the driver of a black taxi took pity on us and chauffeured us to the theatre. Inside the theatre a big surprise was awaiting us: We already knew that we bought tickets for the first category – but we didn’t know where exactly our seats were placed. When we stopped in front of the stage to realize that the only four free seats were in the middle of the front row, we were all astonished. That was the greatest birthday present that someone could have given me! With that the stress and the rain from before was completely forgotten… :D

The following two days we did some power-sightseeing. Almost every must-have-seen of New York City was included. First of all the Madison Square Garden, the world’s most famous ice hockey and basketball stadium. Also it is the most favored stage for the great stars of the world, where giants like Elvis Presley, Elton John, John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, Eric Clapton, Bob Marley and so on have already performed. We participated in a guided tour through the stadium, including an original cheerleader (evidence photos existing! ;)), right before Pearl Jam had a sold out concert in the evening that we sorrily got to know about way too late. Then we’ve been in the Central Park, of course, (unbelievable how many squirrels they have in the USA) the New York Public Library (the location of the movie The Day After Tomorrow) and took a look at Ground Zero, where you sorrily can only find a large construction site at the moment. Also we have been on top of the Rockefeller Center, where we were able to enjoy an unbelievable view over New York City and especially the Empire State Building. We visited the Statue of Liberty, walked along the Brooklyn Bridge and have been at Tiffany’s, where they didn’t offer any eggs and bacon, to my disappointment, but wickedly expensive, though amazingly beautiful rings and other jewelry instead.

When we ordered our taxi to get to the airport on Friday, 21st of May, we had another surprise: Instead of a ordinary taxi a white stretched limousine arrived in front of the hotel and Manhattan glamorously kissed us goodbye (evidence photos existing, as well). That’s New York!

After a short flight of “only” 2 hours, we arrived in Orlando, Florida. When we walked outside, at first we hit an almost impenetrable wall of glowing heat. With a corresponding humidity 30 ° C (86 ° F) are not, what we were used to… With the rental car we then continued our journey southwestbound to the beautiful island Anna Maria Island where we thankfully received the keys to our villa with pool in the placid town named Holmes Beach. Therewith the exhausting part of our vacation was done. During the following days we visited several beaches and sun bath at the dream beach with white sand and blue clear water were on the schedule. Even though I had a steep sunburn right after the first day at the beach, it was a really great time. Thanks to newly bought snorkel utensils we even were able to spot some schools of fish and crabs underwater. We even saw a few dolphins at the beach on the first day. In between times we’ve been to St. Petersburg and Tampa and were able to visit America’s most beautiful beach of the year 2005.

All in all it was a really great vacation. And even though I took a cold in between times (you can take to the water unhesitatingly with the temperatures in Florida) and had some night or another where I was hardly able to sleep because of my sunburn, we had a great time and I was able to relax. It’s a miracle that I haven’t been to Mc Donald’s even one time in Boston and New York City. Not before I was in Florida, and only one time during the whole vacation, I indulged myself a menu at McD. And only, because I didn’t want to leave the USA without having been at McDonald’s - this just isn’t on! Sorrily I barely got to speak English during the whole vacation, as we talked German amongst ourselves. But I have to go back to the USA, anyway: Apart from the fact that discovered the most beautiful of all beaches on Anna Maria Island only the very last day, I want to visit some people, have a road trip from city to city and visit some must-have-seens like California, Texas, Las Vegas, the White House and many others. So you can be sure: This was not my last time in America! ;)

I also recorded lots of video material with my new digital camera. However, it will for sure take some time before I will have cut it all together as a movie. As soon as it is ready, I of course won’t withhold it from you.

The title says it all: I won’t go to the Switzerland. After waiting for a feedback for weeks, whether the customer wants me to go to the Switzerland or not, they finally said: We actually don’t need another consultant over her. But okay, at least now my boss knows for sure that I’m still available for other projects. There are other projects to come, but as I don’t wanna tell you something that I have to revise later, I don’t say anything at all, until things get more tangible.

That also means for me that I won’t come to the Football Weekend in Thayngen (which rather should be called Soccer Weekend, actually ;)). The journey from Oldenburg to the Switzerland and back for only one weekend would be a little too much for me. Instead I’ll go to Kai-Uwe T.’s birthday on Friday evening. The topic is “Bad taste” and I’ve already got an idea what clothes I’ll be wearing that night. It’s gonna be fun and I hope to be able to show you a few pictures later. I’ll stay in Frankfurt for the rest of the weekend and am going to visit Julia, which I’m really looking forward to. :D We didn’t fix anything yet, but actually we have to go to the movies again – it kinda became a tradition to go to the movies every time we meet.

If everything goes well, I will visit Diana R. the following weekend. Whether in Bopfingen, where she studies, or at home, isn’t confirmed yet. But I’m flexible. I’m looking forward to that, as well, and am sure that we’re going to have lots of fun. :D

I finally, after a long time of back and forth, decided for a digital camera. But it’s neither the Canon SX200 IS, nor the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7. Lately the successors for both cameras have been released. Both of them removed some of the biggest disadvantages that I didn’t like about their predecessors. But that didn’t make it much easier for me: Now I wasn’t able to decide between the two successors. Finally I watched some video examples on YouTube and realized, that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 is a lot better for concert recordings (regarding image and sound quality) than the Canon SX210 IS. That’s why I decided to buy the Lumix camera, despite the lesser number of megapixels and the missing manual focus. As in Germany she costs as much € as she costs $ in the USA (where she is called ZS7 instead of TZ10), I ordered it on Amazon.com to ship it to Christina B., who is studying in the USA for one semester at the moment. It already arrived there and I can’t wait to unpack it on the 14th of May, when I’ll arrive in Boston. :D

It’s been exactly one month since I wrote the last time. As long as it’s not longer, I don’t need to have a bad conscience. ;) The last news that say I’d go to Bern aren’t 100% up-to-date any longer. I’m still in Germany and that won’t change until the end of this month. As things turned out shortly after my last post, I was to go to Bern at the 24th of April. But as I will go to the USA two weeks after that, Bern is still in the balance. It depends on the customer and the cozy Swiss allow themselves plenty of time to give us a feedback, whether I should come or not. So, you Bern people who read this, shame on you! ;)

I’ve been to Peine, visiting Lorena D., at the 19th of April. I got to know her last year at the Easter retreat in Bad Marienberg. That Friday we had gaming night at the church in Peine. On Saturday we did archery and Sunday we saw Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief in the movies. And last weekend there was the Easter retreat in Bad Marienberg, again. Without Lorena, but with her brother, instead. ;) It was a reeeally great weekend and I finally got to meet Diana R. again, who I hadn’t seen for years. The topic was “Stairway to Heaven or Highway to Hell?”. I took some pictures that I’m going to put online soon. Also, I recorded some videos when we sat at the bonfire on Saturday evening singing some songs. Thanks to Brett, who did great in accompanying us with the guitar! I will put the videos online together with the pictures within the next few days, as soon as I find the time. Promised! ;)

Next weekend I will be in Buxtehude (near Hamburg) once again, to visit a good friend, who unexpectedly became a daddy of a little girl. Both, father and mother, were surprised when the child was born all of a sudden. That sounds a little strange, but when I was told how this happened, I was able to comprehend it. But I won’t go into any detail here. I’m excited for the weekend and look forward to meeting the little girl. :)

And one last thing. Over the weekend I spontaneously created a website for my choir, Crossing Borders that I am in here in Oldenburg’s school of music. Tomorrow will be the first choir practice again at 6:45 pm. For those of you who live in Oldenburg and maybe are interested, come and take a look. The web design is simple, but I like it. There’s still a lack of media content, but I’m already awaiting some pictures and videos that are going to be sent to me, so that you can get a first impression. How do you like the website?

See you later,
René

Okay, I didn’t write for a long time and therefore experienced a lot. So let’s start right away: I fiiinally, after 3 long years, have been skiing in Andiast in Switzerland. After lots of fun on my skis in deep powder snow while the sun was shining brightly I also snowboarded for one day. Meaning I have tried. And after a half-involuntary ride downwards to the valley station I already had enough for the time being. :D My knees and butt hurt. But actually that didn’t really make a difference, as I already skied for the past 2 days, so that all other parts of my body were already hurting, anyway. All in all I’ve been on the piste 6 days in a row. You can’t imagine, how my body felt. Even climbing the stairs in the morning to get to the dining room was almost too much.

My first tries on the snowboard – like almost everything else on the retreat, as well – have been recorded by René Stoverink on his HD camera. Sorrily (or luckily?) I am not able to show you any of his recordings. But I also made some videos with my cellphone. After all we needed a proof that Vanessa, who came with my dad and me, was actually able to ride a snowboard. Altogether we have been three Renés. The 3rd René (van Erp) was a Dutchman. Sorrily he had a serious crash on the piste the day before he wanted to leave. He had to be brought to the hospital by a helicopter with 3 broken vertebrae and a double-cracked bladebone. Luckily he’s already able to walk again and his injuries can heal without any surgery. :) Here are the three videos that I recorded during that week.

Vanessa on the piste:

Free ride off-piste:

Complete ride downwards from the Alp Dado to the valley station Waltensburg:

After one week in Oldenburg, in which I visited my last lecture as a student, I again was off to Maastricht, Holland at the weekend. I’ve visited a good female friend of mine there. Joyce is going to marry in July and I just had to see her unmarried one last time. ;) I help a little with organizing the wedding. So I will be in Maastricht again by July at the latest. And, even though some may not believe, I’m looking forward to it. :)

The week next to that (last week) I went to Darmstadt on business. That wasn’t that easy, as I unfortunately had a breakdown with my car during my way back from Holland. So I had to drive back to Oldenburg with a rental car. Today, on my way back from Darmstadt, I picked up my car from the frontier of Holland and relieved my wallet of round about € 300. Well, life is expensive. So what, money is not everything that matters.

And last but not least, I will go back to Switzerland. Not immediately, but in the beginning of April. I will work there for 2 month for a customer in Bern. I am really looking forward to it. If everything goes well, the move back to Frankfurt, resp. the branch of my employer (BTC AG) in Mainz, is within reach. The Easter retreat in Bad Marienberg and the Soccer tournament in Thayngen are coming up next. So there are quite some things that I can be exited about this year. I hope you’re excited with me. :)

René