rushing through life…

excess supply at the Kaufland supermarket in Neuwied

The last days and weeks were very busy with literature research for my Master’s thesis and with preparations for my relocation. After just 3 hours of sleep in a transit hotel in Doha, I arrived in Bangkok last night. I met Alfred from Berlin, whom I am acquainted with since we met in Bali a couple of years ago, and we had some Thai sweet and sour vegetables with rice and several fruit shakes in a small restaurant nearby. After nine days in the city of angels I will relocate to Ho Chi Minh City where I will live and work at least for the next two years. I will be engaged in product and customer relations management for a large international travel services provider. The job will be demanding and the thesis as well. So it will be a very busy year, a “brave decision” as I was told.

I had so say goodbye to my family and friends, to fellow students, to our teacher and friend Phuong, to university staff and the guys in the Vietnamese supermarket around the corner where I had my flat until last year. Many of them are people with whom contact was rather little, but now that it goes all so fast, it is a bit sad to go away again and to leave the people to whom I got used over the past years in Bonn. I am already missing my friends, not that it is “for serious”, more than ever before.

always confusion - too much food for a decision

Richard is leaving to Switzerland for at least six months and last weekend we had organized some farewell events. The first was our “moronic-night” at Dave’s flat which we titles this way in accordance to old times when we did partying too much. The typical night hanging out at Dave’s flat would start with a walk to the Kaufland, a huge supermarket near the city center. It is always the same story, there is so much food on offer that the three of us can’t make up our minds what to buy and each time we end up shopping around for at least one hour just to get a few snacks. Then we would walk back to Dave’s flat, prepare food, sit there and talk and discuss all night about all the world and his brother, about people, things going on, relationships, our past and our future, about physics…

big discussions: Do two same-sized objects with different weight in an air-filled space fall at different speed? We should remember it from school…on the flight to Doha I met an engineering student, he told me they do.

In relation to the street, is the most upper point on a wheel two times as fast as the lowest point of a wheel? Or is the lowest point even zero speed? ...the engineer said the lowest point is in fact theoretical zero.

The second night on this weekend was Rich’s farewell party, a good opportunity to meet all people from our circle of friends again. There was plenty of German food, a kind of baked pate inside a roll and potato salads, good talks, and it was simply a nice little gathering.

at Rich's farewell party

Rich “going international”

last night out in hometown, good old NR

from Neuwied to Doha, Qatar - property development planning advertisement in the desert

On the final weekend a few of us met again to take a walk in the city and just sit together. It was just now that I started to realize that a whole new chapter in life is imminent. And it means more responsibility and being far away from friends in a modern world which requires or allures with global mobility. Gatherings are substituted by “skype-certified” headsets, mobile phones webcams and computer screens. But I believe we well make the best out of the new and keep the old times in very good remembrance. We will never forget it and always find an opportunity to let it revive for a while.

the Asian Institute of Technology’s SOM – a first contact that will stay in good remembrance considering an MBA or PhD in business administration

on the highway to Rangsit in the outskirts north of Bangkok - long live the king

And of course this new chapter will also mean countless of new people and experiences, it will probably mean friendships, it will be a big adventure and once more an opportunity to cho0se into which direction to go in life. A very pleasant and friendly consultation on my future career with a professor from the School of Management of the Asian Institute of Technology opened up new considerations in my future planning. I even got some hints how to act best in my meeting with our COO in the head quarter here in Bangkok next week. So far Bangkok, this infinite high-rise and concrete jungle with it’s concrete blocks and flyovers, with its bustling lanes, it’s attractive people, the spicy food, the heat, the curiosities and all the exiting life, always and everywhere, starts to inspire…

Khao Sarn Road reloaded - remembering my first trip to Thailand in early 2002