Our new eyes

Mar 17, 2014 | Before The Great Journey, Updates

I know, a blog with many pictures is nicer than ‘only’ plain text…
Actually I wanted to write this article when my new camera has arrived. But as it has to be, the delivery is delayed. Well done! Now I have to wait until next week… Maybe it has to be that way. Maybe I have to get other things done until I can shoot pictures and movies… 🙂 Sure I could cancel and order it somewhere else. But that’s too stressful to me. I’ll just practice some (New Zealand-ish?) patience, that can never be wrong.

I am sure that especially for my blog will be enriched with that new camera. For then I’ll have some presentable pictures (unlike the ones from my smartphone) in order to take you with me.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Cheesy, but true.

My 2nd Apprenticeship

Mar 2, 2014 | Before The Great Journey, Thoughts, Updates

Life continues. After all the apprenticeship stress and 2 weeks of the kindergarten internship, the daily routine settles in. Every day I go to work and back. No further responsibilities. All simple…
But now it’s time to finally pick up on all of those thing that you have been pushing ahead all the time.
Like blogging more often, reading, memorizing your lines for the theatre and so on…

Furthermore I have planned on learning those essential skills you could need as an Au Pair (or even as a mom or a dad).
Until now it went well on the main point of focus, the kids. Inside the family will be many opportunities to take the kids outside or simply to play with them. But there are many more jobs when you are an Au Pair: The household is, at limits, in your hands.
Of course I can’t turn into an experienced household hero just by that. But as I’ve learned in 3,5 years of training, you actually can learn some things.
Especially easy when you are genuinely interested in the subject and always keep your goal in mind.

Some say that the teacher is of some significance when training. And who could come close to my mom in terms of household?
Until now I have been avoiding tasks like cleaning, cooking and doing laundry, but very soon time will come when I have to deal with all of those on my own. That’s why I started my second apprenticeship, as I call it.

Now I will help mom not only because I am such a good boy, but because I want to learn all of those things around the house. And by the way it’s never wrong to be able to do that as a boy…
At least I approach the subject with professional methods and well put basic questions. 😛

Who knows, maybe one day we’ll read about ‘My First Cake’ or ‘Look How It’s All Shiny And Clean’. 😀

Besides, I have sent an early version of my application to the Au Pair agency. They say it’s a little early to start the actual process. I want to go at the end of the year anyway and there’s much time until then.
But it goes on. And that makes confident…

Mivoc Sidekick

Feb 18, 2014 | Before The Great Journey, Photos, Updates

Music is great!
In order to play it, you normally need speakers. They should be able to play any sound well. Especially the bass is of great significance, as every young person might might say. My old setup didn’t deliver too much, so I looked up a decent 2.1 system and was about to buy it.
But my dad proposed another idea. „Just build your own. That’s much better.“
Build my own? That is not easy… And you actually have to DO something, instead of just waiting for a parcel and unpacking.
Well, for the good sound you are willing to do much. So I started looking for a DIY-set and found speakers named ‘Mivoc Sidekick’. They were decently prized and were promised to be very powerful.
Except the wood, everything was included in the set. The result is ‘somewhat compact’, as you can see in the picture.
Let’s do this!!

So here one ‘technical’ post, being about building my speakers

Before the frequency filter, insulation material and the single speakers can be inserted, the housing has to be finished. We chose some 19mm thick MDF board, that has been lying around for years. My father build his own speakers with that exact material back in the days.

First we cut up the walls.

Then all the Openings for the single speakers and the screw terminal. (The speaker box concept is ‘closed’, so completely shut.)

So that the first bass kick doesn’t destruct the Speaker box we chose flat dowels and construction glue.

The speaker box in dry assembly:
(Here you can nicely see both chambers. A big one for the frequency filter and the subwoofer, as well as the smaller one for the sub-midrange-speakers and the tweeter.)

The greater the pressure, the better the glue results.

The corners rounded and completely painted it looks almost done already.

Meanwhile I had finished the frequency filter. As an electronics technician not a thing, even though in the end it looks more practical than nice…
She just has to fit in the housing PLUS I made it without using any additional wires inbetween the components. (The connections: +, -, TMT (sub-midrange-speakers), HT (tweeter))

Then I put it on a little board with hot glue and in the end we screwed them in together with the wiring.

Now for the actual part. After the insulation the speakers themselves. Solder, put in, screw tight. Done!

The 20cm subwoofer isn’t powered through my amplifier, it is powered each side through an own amplifier module. Now they all have enough power. The modules are situated underneath the desk, as to see in the first picture.

After extending my desk, having put cables, amplifiers und so on in place we were about to get it started! To taste the fruit of some days, sorrows and sweat…

Today I sit in my room in front of the speakers and I am happy every time. I crank them up so that the room is shaking, the quality is exquisite and the bass mighty. Keep in mind the size of them.)

I officially would like to thank my dad as without him, the project would never have been initiated and forget about finished.

Thank you daddy, you were so right!

So Au Pair

Feb 6, 2014 | Before The Great Journey, Thoughts

Now I would like to write something about my plans on the Au-Pair-Thing itself.
How did I first get that idea? And why New Zealand out of all?
Well, I always wanted to go abroad. But I didn’t have the opportunity yet, neither in school, nor during the apprentieship… But one day, when I calmy surfed the waves of the internet, I stumpled across work and travel. A known concept. There’s even sites that offer specific placements all over the globe. Oceania always fascinated me as a place. So I tabbed myself through the offers and was soon stuck at New Zealand. After I added some further information to my basic knowledge, I knew exactly where I wanted to go for one year.
I noticed pretty quickly what was important to me in all of the placements: Preferrably ‘taking care of kids’ and to stay at one place for as long as possible. I am guy who likes to know where he will be in the few months…
And what fits all those needs?
So Au Pair. First step: Read the internet empty. Some questions were answered that way. For expample that male Au Pairs DO exist and that every Au Pair recommends their stay abroad fully.
There is a big difference whether you design your stay with an agency or whether you look for a family yourself. I would like to try an agency because then you have support with all the formalities of the trip, a backup when you’re there AND (depending on the agency) contact to other Au Pairs who share ‘one’ fate with you.
But to get to the goal, to find a family, you have to meet some requirements. Next to basic and trivial points like the immigration requirements and that you are willing to live as an Au Pair, there’s the thing with the references of previous child care experience. As a family you doN’t want to get someone who just states to likes working with kids. So you have to prove you have worked (mostly a minimum of 100 hours) with kids outside of your own family.
As an trained child caretaker it is well possible to reach 1000 hours even. But what if you only have a technical training? If you haven’t given any private tutoring or don’t have regular contact to kids outside of you own family?
I solved that this way: On the short day of the week at school I went to a kindergarten after. Some days off I spent there as well. Currently I am taking two weeks off in order to rest a little after the apprenticeship and to have this two week internship in another kindergarten. And half of that already passed.
In the beginning I didn’t know that internships are far more than only collecting hours on record. Suddenly you see yourself in front of you, stubbornly and carefree living through the days. Play, eat, play, sleep, play, eat, play, go home. Suddenly you are important as a go-to person and in some case you mean a lot to the children.
„Only when you’re here it’s nice.“
Sadly in the first kindergarten I was there only for afternoons. But now I spend whole days with the little ones. It warms your heart so well, when on your very first day that little girl promptly says: „Oliver, I like you.“ It just makes you happy to see children happy.
From the disciplinary point I can well imagine myself being an Au Pair. You even have the chance of concentrating on only 2-3 kids instead of 16 and preferrably all at once… You can take on the role of the father, the mother, the older brother and through that you can learn much for your personal life. Next to the language (English as one of my hobbies…) you learn many things about traveling, independence, ofreign cultures and not the least you get to know yourself…
That’s how I imagine it and I am very curious how it will work out in reality.

Tasty Moments

Jan 31, 2014 | Before The Great Journey, Thoughts, Updates

Yesterday it was time.
3,5 years, at first it seemed an eternity, are finally over. The official acquittance takes place in our workshop, the place we learned things, we spent long days, we took exams at. You sit there with you whole class and await your certificates.
The examination board standing in front of us, the certificates are being handed out, the results are being named. My turn.
„Frontrunner. No one is better.“ Applause. 94 percent. A.

I still don’t get it fully. Those three and a half years are gone. I sure look back gratefully. I might haven’t been the simplest classmate, I admit. I’d rather do my own thing, than sticking to those unwritten rules. I didn’t ever ask about it, but I understood I sometimes was considered a ‘freak’. All I can say is: I had a good class, good colleagues and a really good time. Thank you guys, I will always like to look back on the days. Not the least because we did it!

Without god I could have never gotten such results. I think behind that completion ist more than just a guy who is good at taking exams.

After all the formalities (those at home, too) we four colleagues went out for dinner. We ordered a bunch of ribs and the munching began. Meat is the right thing for real men! Here my personal motto:

What tastes good, has to get you dirty!

It’s kinda funny. You walk into a decent restaurant just to rip gnaw meat of bones like Asterx & Obelix in the end. Your fingers are covered in grease, you barely want to touch your knife to seperate the single ribs. It has to be that way. And real men WITH their certificate in the pocket eat much! Should be worth it for sure! And it truly tasted phenomenal. Even the teeth wanted to keep as much as possible as long as possible.
All in all a superb finish! We have spent some years of our lives together and that doesn’t past without marks.

Now I have started on my new job already and I am very satisfied. In my apprenticeship I was put there for longer periods of time and so I already know all the people and the work there.
It isn’t a sophisticated job, but I imagined it that way: Go there, work, go home. No thoughts about solving urgent problems at work. At most maybe who is the next to shout a round of coffee…
The relationship to my coworkers is the most important thing at any workplace in my opinion. And it works great there. Like in a dream…

Sometimes I feel like my life is going on railtracks.
Elementary school, secondary school, apprenticeship, work.
You almost have no choice. It just goes. And it goes undeservingly well! I hope I will be able to value that one day.
But I don’t want to stay on those tracks. That’s why I plan the year abroad. I see it fixed on my resumee.