Ink Kultur

'Tis the season to be half-naked again, with temperatures hitting the high 30s Münchners are heading to the streams, lakes and public pools to cool down and show us how their gym membership paid off, or not.

With all this exposed skin just walking about, we get to discover some beautiful artwork and interesting tattoo concepts. The most coveted one has to be the "tramp stamp"! Briefly popular in the 90s the concept left a lot of women and some men regretting this particular investment and being shamed by those who said thanks but, no thanks to the ongoing trend.

In Germany there are a few terms to describe this often tribal piece of artwork located on the lower part of the back.

"Schlampenstempel" is probably the most literal translation, there's also "Arschvignette" and my favorite "Arschgeweih" which translates to "ass antlers".

"Cool tattoo honey."

What it means to work abroad

A few days ago, I stumbled upon an article on The Local's website. According to this article I'm not the only qualified immigrant coming to Germany for a piece of the cake. Plenty of us find ourselves in the same situation. We move to a country with a 5.1% unemployment rate (lower than Canada 6.5%), we make a few friends to network, start looking for jobs and realize through the application process that if you don't speak German, your options are very limited.

As a native French speaker I pick up English at a very young age and consider myself lucky to be able to fluently discuss in both languages. Europe is different! The proximity between all of the countries is the cause of a cluster of languages. International companies are looking for people who speak Spanish, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Dutch and the list goes on.

Certain skill sets override the language requirements. I've see a lot of engineering and computer science jobs which require only English. Makes me think about a change of career path sometimes.

As far as I'm concerned, I still have to improve my German skills to be able to pierce through the Communications and Marketing field. I've been actively searching for a position in PR firms, Communications Agencies, bigger companies such as Yahoo, Amazon and a few local craft beer companies (everybody has a dream right?)

I'm currently looking at the job market and the internship dilemma. Stay tuned for my next post.

Oktoberfest (Dirndl Edition)

dirndl die, n.,
1. A traditional Alpine women's dress having a tight bodice and full skirt.

To get you in the spirit of Oktoberfest 2014 please enjoy these wallpapers.

Sources:
http://wide-wallpapers.net/country-dirndl-wide-wallpaper/

http://www.backgroundwallpapershd.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Oktoberfest-Deutschland-trip-Beer-Celbrity-HD-Wallpapwe.jpg

http://host2post.com/server13/photos/MGf2CQvAza4BAM~/waitress-carries-beer-steins-hofbrau-tent-during-oktoberfest.jpg

http://www.dailybackgrounds.com/wp-content/gallery/oktoberfest/oktoberfest-girl-wallpaper.jpg

This won’t fit in the status update box...

My 6 month internship is coming to an end in July and the next part of my first year in Munich is about to get a spin. For those who follow me on BeerFeed you’re aware of my mini trips to Bamberg and most recently Köln. We have a long weekend in Amsterdam just before we head home to Canada for a few weeks. The good thing about working in Germany is definitely the amount of holidays you get.

Morale is up and I don’t really feel homesick, I miss the casual hangouts with good friends and I used to miss hoppy beers but I recently found some niche stores that have more hops than I can dream of. I’m slowly getting used to the daily life and it’s not so different than the life in Canada. I got to meet some really nice people from around the world (mostly Europe), my geography is getting slightly better and so is my Deutsch.

I’m signing up for some intensive Deutsch courses over the months of September and October. After several comments about how difficult it is to work full-time and then go to class for 3 hours in the evening to learn a new language, I decided it was in my best interest to take morning classes and focus on learning Deutsch without any other distractions for two months.

So far, I was offered to be on a television show, I've made some friends from the four corners of the planet, I've traveled to 2 countries I've never been before and I learned a whole lot about beer. Until my next status update I welcome your questions and comments.

Ambassador Mat 

Munich Monster Bash 2014

Here's a fun one, you know that guy at the concert that's constantly pulling out his state of the art iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy to take very high quality pictures from 50 ft away? He's the same guy who's scrambling to take a video of the "new" song or "song we've never played before" from that obscure band and post that masterpiece on Youtube.

I chose to be that guy just to show you that we sort of lost the feeling of what going to a show is all about, the event, the excitement, the exclusivity of it is tossed by the shitty pics and videos that will be archived in our phone and never shown to anyone.

The concert was on a Saturday starting early in the afternoon and like any other concerts it took way too long to get our wristbands and we missed the first band all together.

If you want to check out the place: http://www.zenith-muenchen.de/

 


 Here's a few from the pit, you can't get any closer but if you've ever been in a mosh pit, you know that no image stabilizer in the world will make these pics look good!

 And a bonus picture from this guy wearing some Mute gear (Québec is present in Munich).

Ignite video here.