Twenty-four.

Everything over here is going so smoothly, either I'm extremely lucky or people are lying about "hard times".

I got the first job I applied for, when I arrived here, which was an opening at Apple Inc.. I had to go through five interviews, but it was all worth it and I learned a lot through the process.

Think Different 

Everything over here is going so smoothly, either I'm extremely lucky or people are lying about "hard times".

I got the first job I applied for, when I arrived here, which was an opening at Apple Inc.. I had to go through five interviews, but it was all worth it and I learned a lot through the process.

My peers were surprised I didn't have to go through a group seminar hiring event, so I guess I'm special since it all started with a phone interview!

I can already tell that Apple really cares about their employees and I know they will push me to excel myself beyond my own expectations.

I'm also making about 4x more than I was making at Chili's, which is nuts.

I was also one of the rare full-time hires. Which I'm ecstatic about!
Full health insurance, discounts, 401k match, employee parking, and much more. I sometimes have to pinch myself to check if this is really happening!

I'm also working in the Houston Galleria mall, which is one of the biggest and most prestigious malls in the nation! I might get so see some celebrities and international folk!

Anyway, I'm living the dream right now and am hoping to move out from my friends house in the next couple of months to find a nice apartment downtown.

Also need to go car hunting in the next couple of weeks. Would really like a BMW, but I guess they are even more expensive to maintain over here than in Germany.
Oh well, a Honda can be nice too, haha!

A small part of The Galleria.

Anyway, I'm living the dream right now and am hoping to move out from my friends house in the next couple of months to find a nice apartment downtown.

Also need to go car hunting in the next couple of weeks. Would really like a BMW, but I guess they are even more expensive to maintain over here than in Germany. 

Oh well, a Honda can be nice too, haha!

I'm just so excited and am so unbelievably happy that everything is going exactly how I imagined it. 

Right now, I'm pretty positive that I will never live in Germany again. There is just nothing left for me to achieve there.

Here the world has opened up even more and I am getting opportunities I could've only dreamt of!

Can't wait to travel the country, too. To explore more of Texas and travel to California, Washington State and D.C., Florida and of course New York!

On a last note, I turned 24 two days ago and I feel younger than ever! Haha!

KJG

The Great U.S.A.

I arrived in Houston last Friday and WOW! 

It's amazing. 

Above America

America is amazing. 

Flying over Charlotte, NC

I am absolutely baffled by the people, the culture, the architecture and the economy.

I think they don't even know how good they have it at times! The grocery stores are amazing, my jaw dropped at the variety of their selections. The malls are huge and I mean HUGE and they are everywhere! Convenience is a big thing over here.

I took this picture below on our way to Victoria to visit my Grandparents. It's really something how much space there is between cities.

Texas Country Side

Grandpa gave my Dad and me this awesome truck! Still runs good for a '94 Chevrolet S10!

Our Truck!

This was on our way to get my Texan license and we went under these crazy highway bridges, I'm just in awe with this big city!

Houston Highway

We went to see my first real live Football game on Saturday. It was a High School game, but it was still pretty cool to see the band, players and cheerleaders!

HS Football Game

 The one thing I hate here are the damn Mosquitoes! They got me good while doing some yard work.

Damn you Mosquitoes!

I'm ready for change and I'm ready to adapt and show them all what I'm capable of.

Adjusting

I love it here already. I haven't been this happy in YEARS and I wish I would've done this a long time ago. 

Everyone is so friendly too and the girls are so nice and straight forward. I can't wait to get a car and an apartment to start dating.

I welcome this change and am glad to leave everything behind me, even though I miss my friends and Family in Germany, I know that the people that matter the most will come visit sooner or later.

KJG

Tickets, please!

It's the end of August already? When did this happen?

I had a great little vacation in July, three weeks, to be exact. I helped my parents clean out the house and paint it for the new renters coming in in September.

Boxing up all my stuff was pretty hard. A lot of memories are in those boxes. Throwing stuff away felt good though, it's crazy how much crap you can accumulate over the years.

So now we need to figure out with who we are gonna ship our stuff with, because suddenly everything is happening really fast.

We are set to leave to the states on the 5th of September 2014. Which is in, like, ONE week!

CRAZY!

Bought the tickets last week and I resigned from my internship here in Munich.
Having a last big party on Saturday, mostly for my Dad, since I already had two going away parties in the last two years, haha!

Everything is finally coming to a close here in Germany and it's time for me to get started with my next chapter in life, living in the great United States of America.

I hope I'll quickly adapt to the Houston heat. That's right! We are staying in Houston for the first couple of months. We have friends there, with whom we can stay for free and get settled.

Some time next year I'll be moving to Austin and finish up my bachelor degree. We'll see how everything goes.

I hope so!

Finally this blog will serve it's actual purpose. I'll be taking pictures of the trip and will tell you all about the awaiting culture shock. CAN'T WAIT!

KJG

Party.

So those were the places I took the most pictures of in my last post, but I went out a bit more too, went to some cool restaurants and bars.

One night I ended up in the Atomic Café, which is a night club, and I had a blast there! (Get it? Atomic, Blast? .....Just me?)

Met some crazy Germans, but most surprisingly, I met a cute girl from California. She was really pretty and we hit it off immediately.

Great night, lots of dancing, lots of beer and I got a date out of it, what more could you want?

If all girls are like that in the states, I'll be in for a treat!

Also, I took a selfie in the elevator, because, why not? 

Who could resist this stud?

Enough of this narcissism, ha! 

Just an update on how you change, when you are let free and have the willpower and dedication to change yourself for the better.

So forth I go, will keep you guys in the loop! Much love!

KJG

Tourist.

Hop aboard the Tourist Train through Munich!

Had a great time exploring Munich this past month, so i thought I would share some pictures with you guys.

Enjoy! (click to enlarge)

Olympia Lake with a view of the Olympia tower and BMW HQ in the background.

Panorama Shot - On top of the Olympia Mountain, it's awesome how you can see the Alps in the back right.

Panorama Shot - Pretty cool glare, the other side of Munich with the lake below.

Schloss Nymphenburg, really nice courtyard of this old castle/palace.

Panorama Shot - You can see all the small houses going around the whole vicinity in the back.

Panorama Shot - The main palace in the middle with the gigantic front courtyard with fountains and a lake.

That concludes the tour, thanks for joining! Choo Choo!

KJG

Learning.

I got extended till February, so I'll board the plane beginning March. For real this time! Just me and I WILL pull through!

Can't wait!

That extension will give me some time to save up some money and sell everything I don't need anymore. I should have a good cash cushion when I leave.

Oh, and this job is one of the best things to happen to me. It's nuts how lucky I am.
Currently I'm learning some JavaScript at work, easy stuff. I want to learn as many languages as possible, C & C# will probably be next, or some VBS, since it's more job related.

I want to start dating again, an American girl would be great, short-term dating though. I just want to finally have fun and let go of everything that's in my head. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, I still need to explore Munich a bit more and prepare for Octoberfest. Will be my first time and I already have a bunch of friends who want to join me!

Glad I can scratch that from my list before I go. Maybe I'll make it to Berlin before then too.


I was a bit down in the dumps in my last post, but I just thought to myself:

"You are healthy, you've got a great job, you have an amazing apartment and you've got a plan set out to travel the world and graduate from UT Austin....Why am I crying again?"

I am truly grateful for everything and am becoming stronger by the day.



So, I'll write another post when it's starting to get warmer and I'm at the lakes and rivers in Munich!
Should be fun. Till then, take care.

KJG

Alone?

Hope you all had a great Easter holiday!

I just got back to Munich from my Easter weekend yesterday. Spent time with the family and ate way too much.
Felt good coming home and feeling loved.

Now, I had contact with my ex again a few weeks before the trip and we decided to meet up again and see if it would work again.

What a bust that was.

That stuff is a bit private to put on a blog, let's just say it didn't work out as I would've hoped.
It all still hurts a bit though.

"Relationships are like glass. They are fragile and easily broken. You can pick up the pieces and put them back together, but you rarely find every piece. Even if you do and manage to reassemble them, the cracks will always show. The real trick is deciding if it's worth piecing back together or throwing it away and starting over."

That quote nails it.

Now I'm dead set to graduate from UT Austin.

I feel kind of isolated, maybe a bit lonely and kind of down because of what happened with my ex, but thanks to these guys here;

Great people.

I think everything will be just fine.

I still got till August 30th working for BMW and paying debt off. Just paid off my Chase credit card and it feels amazing! Slowly crawling out of this hole!
All I can do is to continue to strive for the top and better myself any way I can along the way.


This will be a great year. 

KJG

Happiness.

Hello everybody!

A lot has happened and I'm excited to finally write it all down.

We are keeping the house! YAY! Since we would actually lose money if we sell now, we decided to keep the house and rent it out when/if we leave. My dad got a better job, so there is some kind of stability.

And my parents will save even more money since....

I moved away from home!

On the 4th of March 2014 at 0515 and arrived in the big city Munich at 0930! What a trip!
Very impressed with the ICE trains, comfortable and great for napping. Haven't experienced any delays either.

All in all it was a great trip.

So why did I move to Munich?

Well, my awesome uncle gave me the opportunity to start an internship at the BMW IT-Center for the BMW partner company CGF.
It's all about software engineering and coding, so a great start to learn more IT stuff, which I love.
I'm really grateful for this chance and the best thing is my salary is pretty decent so I will have cleared most of my debt when my six month internship ends.
Although I could get an extension too. We'll see what happens down the road.



 Below are some impressions of my first week in Munich.

 

The HQ of BMW. It's about 100m tall!

Picked up my ID card at the BMW Headquarters. Such an impressive building!

My BMW ID card!

This is where I work. The BMW IT-Center.

This is my workplace. Everyday I walk here from my apartment. It's a 15 minute walk, which is awesome.

So I left my car at home, since you really don't need one in the city. It's great to just use the subway to wherever!

Walking through the inner city.

Downtown is really great. Has this old German flair, but still looks modern. Thousands of shops, restaurants and coffee shops.



Beautiful city hall.

Very unique buildings like this one are all over the place too. This is the most impressive one I've seen yet, it extends back quite a bit and functions as the city hall. 

So, yeah, awesome city so far! Haven't had a chance to check out any clubs or bars yet.

Just went to this great Sushi place.

SO MUCH SUSHI!

I accidentally ordered way too much. They have this little ticket where you write down how many pieces you want. So it said "1€ = 3 pieces", so I thought "Okay, I'll write down a 3, for 3 pieces.".
Nope.
I got 3 times 3 pieces, so 9 of each Maki I selected. DUH! I still finished it all and it was delicious! I then waddled off to the subway to go home.

I'm staying in my uncles apartment, so I don't have to pay any rent, which is AMAZING! I already fixed his coffee machine and his fridge, so I'm trying my best to take care of the apartment for him and showing him how much I appreciate his generosity and hospitality. He's the CEO of the CGF Asia division, so he's in Thailand right now. 

After my internship here in Munich I might have a chance to go help out in Thailand too.

EXCITING TIMES!

I'm also still planning on moving to the great, big USA. My dad said he would definitely go with me. We would have to get the Greencard renewal process rolling for my mom so she can come with us. But that's all in the future. 

Right now I'm enjoying this new chapter in life. 

KJG