Karl Benz erfand das moderne Automobil.

Well we have officially been residents of Germany for a month and things are looking up. This weekend has been a busy one that began with drinks in downtown Stuttgart at a fellow trainee's place Friday evening. We headed into the city early to confirm our train reservations to Amsterdam in April and buy a month train pass for me since I will be taking the train at least four days a week for work. We had interesting experiences with the train Friday night. There were notices of construction, our train from Boeblingen was 10 minutes late and then there was an accident on another train that delayed and detoured our friend joining us for drinks. I thought these things NEVER happened in Germany. The train is supposed to be on time every time. Well the Germans aren't perfect either.

Saturday morning we headed out downtown again to meet friends for lunch and then venture to the Mercedes-Benz Museum. My original lunch plans had to be changed because a train line was under construction and I was prompted with a warning that the train was not running. Soo we had to walk from a different stop. In other news, the sun came out yesterday for the third time in the month that we have been here. Unfortunately this winter has been the darkest and gloomiest winter in Germany in 43 years. Awesome!
*The picture to the right - We went to the museum with Stuart and Tony, two other JMP trainees in the program with Ryan. Stuart had been here for one week and Tony had been here for 36 hours.

The museum was actually pretty cool. You pay 8 Euros and receive a headset (in English!) with prerecorded audio information and get to keep the complimentary lanyard. All visitors take a futuristic elevator to the 9th floor while watching a picture video projected on the wall. The top floor begins with the invention of the motor and you work your way through history to the present on the lowest level. The printed displays are in both German and English and the museum is overall put together very well. It has 1500 exhibit items and covers 16,500 square meters.

 *The picture to the right is the world's first motorbike invented in 1885 by Gottlieb Daimler.

The museum also has the first Mercedes car from 1902. After Karl Benz patented the vehicle he took it for a drive in the village with his son running alongside carrying extra gasoline.

So I learned a very valuable lesson on Saturday...do not go to a very large and educational car museum with an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer and a financial advisor that work for a company in the auto industry. We were in the museum for a very long time and I was getting hungry and burnt out on cars. Luckily we left for dinner and drinks at our favorite Swabian restaurant Sophies.

Tonight (Sunday) we are relaxing at home during the day and then heading to the North side of Stuttgart for dinner at a friend's place. Ryan desperately needs a haircut and lucky for all the trainees, the other wife here is a hair stylist. She has offered her hair cutting services for all the American trainees. I am bringing wine and dessert and joining them for dinner and a haircut for Ryan. The number of female significant others is increasing rapidly and I am definitely excited about that. There is currently one wife and one girlfriend here. A girlfriend is joining her boyfriend next week for three months and another girlfriend is arriving in June for three months. Unfortunately all the trainees are spread out throughout the city but it is nice to be able to have conversations in English with other young women. Hopefully I will be able to plan some day trips and get to know them.