Michael Albert

 

It is absolutely wonderful to hear from you. I think of all of you there quite often. I still receive the Rotary and Chamber emails, so it's nice to somewhat keep up with how things are going with the club and with the area in general.

 

Things here are going quite well. The move was somewhat arduous, but that's fairly typical for an international move, We were under quite a bit of pressure to find a place to live before the container arrived because the moving company, which couldn't really say exactly when our things would get here and pass through customs, would then call and say, "well, it's here. Where to?" If we had not been able to give them an answer, the storage costs would have been obscenely expensive.

 

In any event, we found a really great apartment. It's on the top floor of our building and overlooks a valley called the Filstal. Since we're on the roof, we have a rooftop terrace that's nearly as large as our apartment. Now we just need some outdoor furniture and plants. As nice as it is though, we still want to find a place that's truly our own. We'll have to first see about our finances a little though. Before we look into that with any seriousness, I'll wait until my probationary period is over at work. That'll be sometime at the end of January. I have little doubt though that I'll be staying.

 

My job at TeamViewer is going really well so far, and I have the feeling that they're quite glad to have me. It's a fun place to work. It has an atmosphere very similar to Google and other high-tech, silicon-valley-type companies. We work lots of hours but have a tremendous amount of flexibility to come and go as needed. We have incredibly modern work spaces with lots of monitors, desks that raise and lower (in case you want to stand for a while), and lots of amenities including free, fresh fruit and all the coffee and hot chocolate that you can drink. We even have a really pretty, indoor atrium with real palm trees and other tropical plants. There's also a small stream that flows though the office and then down a waterfall just outside the main entrance. Needless to say, it's a pretty attractive place to work. We also happen to produce some really great software. There are a lot of very talented people who work there. At 41, I'm one of the oldest people in the entire company too. However, it's a great bunch of people to work with. If you've ever seen the movie "The Interns" with Owen Wilson, that provides a little bit of insight into it.

 

Claudia and August are also doing very well. Now that we're settled in and August has daycare, Claudia has started applying to various positions. I think she'll find something that she really enjoys. August is very happy. In Kindergarten (i.e. daycare) they've taken to calling him "little Mr. Sunshine"... "der kleine Sonnenschein"

 

However, all that being said, we still really miss Petoskey. It's just such a nice place to live and raise a family. It's very nice over here as well, but I'd still like it for August to have access to more nature... In that regard, Germany just can"t compete with Northern Michigan.

 

We"re very much looking forward to the holiday season over here. The Christmas markets will be starting in about a week. They have an absolutely wonderful, medieval Christmas market in the town of Esslingen, which is not far from here. There is an entire section of the central downtown area that is the original construction from the 1200s. Needless to say, it has an incredibly romantic atmosphere. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I even took that Thursday and Friday off of work. We plan on making way too much food and watching the Lions hopefully put a stop to their annual late season collapse.

 

I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season, and I very much want to stay in touch with you.

 

Warmest regards and please say hello to everyone for me.