Meeting with Strauss

Okay, so we got some details about this whole trip.

The Flight:
Lansing to Detroit to Frankfurt, Depart at 130 PM Arrive at 750 AM
Vienna to Amsterdam to Detroit to Lansing, Depart at 11 AM Arrive at 8 PM
We'll meet Strauss in Frankfurt.

The Project:
A design charette for a big site (by German standards) in Dortmund. On an abandoned mine near a river and with highway (autobahn?) access. Technically we're preparing what's known as a preparatory Land Use Plan. We are also expected to write about Berlin and Vienna redevelopment practices.

The Accommodations:
In Dortmund we'll be staying with students. Because its a newer university there are few dorms. There was an attempt to get all of our host locations relatively close together.

Closer and Closer

I bought a watch from Eddie Bauer. I decided that I won't get any new headphones for two reasons. 1) The ones I have work okay and 2) I might be able to get some for cheap/free on the plane.

I also met somebody else who's going to Germany. He's a grad student named Ryan who has been working in the lab over the past several days.

I was down by Goodrich (the grocery store on Trowbridge) paying the electricity bill when I remembered something my English professor said last fall. Our coursepacks were at a little print shop in the Goodrich plaza. The class was all about orientalism so the professor made sure to point out that this hole-in-the-wall printer was between Woody's Oasis (Mediterranean Food) and Korean House: Between the Near East and the Far East. I thought that was funny at the time.

Plain Beat.

I'm exhausted. The Chicago Practicum paper got to Kinkos last night around 1:30 AM. Let's hope we got all the typos and problems out of it. It is nice to know that we can't make any more changes even if we want to. It's finally done.

(Optimistically, last night Ken and I joked about how our paper would be a model of a total salvage job that got done in half a semester. I imagined Rex and Z telling future planning students, "Now this is what your report could look like even if you don't start until March!" Now that'll strike the fear of God into them!)

The final presentations are Monday in the International Center. I'm pretty sure anybody can come. Email me if you want more details.

(You're probably wondering where the Germany stuff is by now...)

This morning I got new wiper blades for the Paseo. Since they're predicting thunderstorms and such today I figured it was high time to fix that. So I walked into the gas station and realized I had no idea what size of blade I needed. I tore the rubber blade (which was already 85% detached) and used it to find the right size. After 20 minutes of finagilaing around like a jackass I asked the gas station attendant to give me a hand. She pulled my old blade off in seconds and got the new one on. Then she went back to selling gasoline.

(Now here's the Germany update.)

I found out what sort of plane I'll take across the Atlantic. The Airbus A330-30 sounds pretty nice. Here's the wikipedia article it.

Northwest 52

I kept drifting off to sleep in my Ecology class. Luckily this whale next to me had coughed about every 15 seconds. So I didn't get any good sleep.

I finally got an email with the flight number. We're flying from Lansing to Detroit then to Frankfurt. I don't know the time. You can go to NWA.com and enter the flight number (52) to see some of the details.

Our big meeting is Thursday so expect a big post then.

I also bought a small notebook at Office Depot.

To Do: Week of 18 April

• Find out the details about my flight.
• Financial stuff at credit union.
• Buy notebook and watch.
  
• Haircut.

Maps

Maps
Originally uploaded by Helmers.

I bought the maps I plan to use while abroad. The Dortmund map (left) was sent to me from their tourism board. The other two were purchased from bookstores. I am a big fan of these Streetwise maps. They're laminated and small enough to keep in the back pocket.