The NFL Draft for Dummies (aka. Europeans)

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 45 seconds

Welcome to an experimental post! This article is going to be very different from what you usually get to see on this blog. It is about one of my more secret passions - American Football. I remember just having arrived in the USA for my exchange year in September 2009. It was high school football season, and football games were THE thing to do on a Friday night. I watched the first one and thought: "This is stupid. Huge people running into each other with lots of breaks and no visible rules". 6 and a half years later, I am convinced that American Football is one of the most interesting sports out there. During every play, an incredible amount of things happens simultaneously. The strategy behind plays is often baffling. The more you watch it, the more you see the underlying thoughts - it is basically chess with figures that defy the laws of physics. Also, the whole structure built around the game is very different from what we are used to - the biggest part being the draft. This is an introduction for people who are just getting into football.

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It is a shame that American Football is only played from August to February. The rest of the year, I have to entertain myself differently on Sunday nights. However, there is one thing to fill the void - the preparation for the NFL draft. 

The day of the days is here: it is Draft Day, the most important day of the year for all NFL teams (aside of maybe the Super Bowl). Draft Day has an impact that often lasts decades. Today, you will learn why this day is so meaningful and why the NFL is such a balanced league. 

WHAT IS THE DRAFT?

In most major non-american sports, young athletes aspiring to become professionals usually get recruited at a fairly young age. Then they are groomed, switch teams and work their way up until they finally land a contract at a big club. Not in the NFL. As a young football player, becoming a professional means that you do not have a choice who you're playing for. You don't select your team - the team selects you. This could mean that having gone to college in Florida, you might have to move up to cold and snowy Minnesota, whether you like it or not. This is what happens in the draft. 

All players who elect to declare themselves for the draft (usually juniors or seniors in college, with a few exceptions) are available for the taking. The teams then select a player in a given order based upon their performance in the previous season. The team with the worst record gets to pick first, then the second-to-last team picks second and so on. The draft has 7 rounds, with roughly 32 players (one for each team) taken in each round. 

So far, so good. Doesn't sound too exciting, does it? Well, on draft day, things become a lot more spicy. 

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Trades

It rarely is the case that teams pick in the exact order as originally determined. The reason for this are trades. You can switch spots with other teams by trading "up" or "down". For instance, if you are picking at No. 8 but desperately need a quarterback who you can plug and play, you have to move up in the draft - just like the Philadelphia Eagles did this year (link). The Cleveland Browns gave up their No. 2 selection, but received the No. 8 selection as well as more picks in this and next year's draft. Trading down and acquiring more picks can be an option for you if you do not have a desperate need at a certain position - or if your roster has so many holes to fill that one special player just won't cut it (which is the case for the Browns). 

Draft picks are the most valuable currency in the NFL, as they give you the flexibility to select the players that you need right now - and who might possibly the next [reigning MVP] Cam Newton. You can trade draft picks for other picks this and/or next year or players. There is no such thing as transfer fees like in soccer, the only way to acquire a player from another team is by offering them draft picks (I believe there is even the possibility of trading picks for coaches, but I don't think this has ever happened). 

Trades can happen anytime before and during the draft. The board changes constantly, so trades can suddenly make sense at any point. Nobody knows who the other teams will pick - you can make assumptions, but you only know it for sure once the card with the player's name is handed to the commissioner. That means that sometimes, players who are highly rated drop lower than they were expected to, giving teams a chance to trade up for them. Moving from No. 15 to No. 1 is expensive (as proven by the Los Angeles Rams this year), but moving to No. 10 is fairly doable. You still get the player that you would have targeted with the No. 1 selection. 

Compensatory picks

In addition to ordinary draft picks, there are compensatory selections. Those selections differ from the normal ones as they cannot be traded. They are awarded if you lose many players in free agency (players whose contracts expire) and can be as high as the end of the third round. They soften the blow of losing players that teams cannot afford to keep, as rookie contracts are a lot cheaper. 

Undrafted Free Agents

Not everybody gets drafted. Many college athletes wait all day to hear their name called, just to be disappointed in the end. Do not worry though, many teams need more than just 7 new players - and after the draft, every team can sign anybody they want to. This is usually a good time to fill up a roster and pick up talents that may have been overlooked somewhere else. 

Mr. Irrevelant

Mr. Irrevelant is the draft's last pick. He receives an award and is highly celebrated for the fact that he probably will never play anywhere. It is a very questionable honor, but I do enjoy the irony in it. 

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?

Teams are built through the draft as it is the only opportunity to select players that will eventually become the face of your franchise. Teams will most likely not let go of their most important players, unless they have off-field or character issues (like Josh Norman of the Carolina Panthers (link)). Therefore, the draft has to be right. There are even teams like the Green Bay Packers who (until very recently) only consisted of players that they drafted or picked up after the draft - not a single player on the roster who previously played for another team (the only exception being Julius Peppers for the nerds among us). On top of that, drafted players are fairly "cheap". There are fixed salaries connected to the time at which you are picked, and those are a lot less than salaries on the open market. 

What I most appreciate about the phenomenon of the draft: it makes the NFL unbelievably fair. I enjoy watching American Football a lot more than soccer because every team has a chance to go to the Super Bowl every year. In soccer, there are a few big teams who reign due to their financial situation - they just throw lots of money all the good young players. Through the restriction of the draft, it is assured that the best available player goes to the worst team from last season, thus giving them somebody to rebuild their team around. Super Bowls are won on the field, but the way there is paved by smart General Managers who make great roster decisions. The reason why the Carolina Panthers went to the Super Bowl last year after selecting first in 2011 are back-to-back successful drafts. All playmakers have been drafted at some point in the past 4 years.

BONUS: THE SALARY CAP

There is one more reason why the NFL is so fair: the salary cap. Every team can only spend a certain amount of money on their players' salaries. This makes it impossible for the wealthiest team to "buy" all good players, because the amount of money they can spend is limited. This makes the league very fair and often urges successful players to play for not-so-successful teams because they can make a lot more money there (Malik Jackson going from Super Bowl winning Broncos to the low-performing Jaguars is a good example for that). In soccer, no player would go from Bayern Munich to Freiburg simply because they pay better. 

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I hope that all this talk about the NFL and what will be happening during the next three days are a little bit clearer for you, dear reader. Please let me know if you enjoyed this piece or have any questions. Feedback is always appreciated!

Also, I would like to ask you for one thing: if you enjoyed reading this article, please forward it to one friend who might enjoy it as well. Do both them and me a favor - I would be inredibly thankful! 

Take care!

Priorities

"I don't have time."

Oh, I hate this phrase with a passion. Why? Because it's a lie. Every single person on this planet is the owner of exactly 24 hours per day. Every single person on the planet has the same amount of time. While time may pass slowly or quickly, depending on your state of flow, it is absolute in the spaces that we move in. What you are really saying is:

"I have other priorities that are more important."

We all have priorities. Priorities that are constantly changing. Let us assume, for instance, that your job is your #1 priority from 9-5 during the week. If I asked you to hang out at 11am on a Tuesday, the answer would probably be "no". Hanging out with me might be nice, but it isn't your top priority. Earning money, not pissing off your colleagues and climbing the career ladder are far higher on that list. Say you had the opportunity to go on an awesome trip. 4 weekdays. No vacation days left. Again, the priorities mentioned above win the battle inside. Now consider your spouse just got in an accident - everything stops. Your priorities shift, and you make sure you get to her or him as fast as possible. Nothing else matters at this point. 

Welcome to our lives. Everything we do is related to priorities. The reason I am writing this right now is that I enjoy doing it, hope that other people will enjoy this post and that it helps me sort my thoughts. Writing this has a higher priority than working on my paper that is due in two weeks (yeah, I'm gonna hate myself for that tomorrow. But that's okay). 

Sometimes, it isn't as easy to figure out why things actually are up high on your priority list. The underlying motives are a lot more relevant. Using your job as example again: do you really love it that much that you would not want to do anything else? Or is it so important because you cherish the money, the power and the fame you get from it? Like I said in my first post, electing to study management wasn't really my #1 priority. More importantly, I did not want to hear anything about how any of the studies that I would choose probably would not yield a great job. 

The most important piece information that I want to convey here is: 

GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT.

You have to understand why your priorities are the way they are. Do you do certain things because it is "expected" of you despite the fact that you do not really want to do them? Do you keep pushing off things that are not urgent, but important for the sake of urgent, but not as important things? Do you catch yourself saying "oh, I can always do this later" often? I do, and I hate myself for doing so.

Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principles (courtesy of mindtools.com)

In a time of instant messaging, notifications, 24/7 connectivity, social media and smartphones, most people spend their day running after urgent tasks that they have to complete. A rather typical day at the office for me looks like this: open Outlook, look at the 10 new mails that require "immediate" attention. Answer those. Attend a meeting. Help out a fellow employee who needs a certain piece of information only I can provide. Oh look, new mails - better answer them. Lunchtime. More meetings. More mail. You get the idea. 

At the end of the day, I barely got anything done because I spent all day running after things from quadrants 1 and 3. The tasks, that really get things going, usually cannot be found there. They hide in quadrant 2. My workday is a metaphor for the life that most of us live. A few examples include:

• working out - you can always do that tomorrow, as right now you "don't have time"
• cooking - takeout seems a lot easier, and you "don't have time" as you need to binge on Netflix
• learning a new language - yeah, maybe on vacation, because right now I'm too tired
• ...
• ...
• ...

If you keep living your life that way, things will probably not change or improve. Look: there is NEVER "the" right time to do things. Sometimes, you just gotta go ahead, focus on quadrant 2 and get shit done. In the end, you'll feel happy. 

Think about my words the next time you catch yourself saying "I don't have time" and evaluate. Do you really not have time? Or is it something else? 

Take your time when it comes to important things. After all, you might not have the opportunity to do them more often. When you look at the bigger picture, you will see that your seemingly endless life is actually rather short. Assuming I will live until 82, I will only read 1500 more books in my life at my current rate (1 book in 2 weeks). If you do the math for all of your activities, you will soon learn that you have to choose wisely. In order to understand this more clearly, I will hand over to Tim Urban, who wrote an incredible post on "the tail end."

*drops mic*

Pride

Why are we proud?

Recently, I had a very interesting conversation. It was about athleticism. Those who know me from back in the day are aware that I used to be a chubby kid who wasn't very good at any sport, really. I'd be picked close to last in gym class, just a substitute on the soccer team. I strongly disliked going to soccer and tennis practice (despite not realizing it then). Then Lacrosse came around, and things started changing. I put down the trading card and computer games, started working out and going to practice was fun all the sudden. I'm still far away from some of the guys on my current team skillwise, but people have started asking me for advice - on and off the field. And I'm proud of that. 

Story over. At least that's what I thought. Yet all the sudden my friend asks: "Why? I do not feel proud of anything, really." Wait ... what? This very friend of mine is an accomplished man. He has achieved more than many people his age, and is somebody I look up to. How can this guy not feel proud of anything? 

Let us first take a look at pride: "Pride is an inwardly directed emotion that carries two meanings. With a negative connotation pride refers to a foolishly and irrationally inflated sense of one's personal status or accomplishments. With a positive connotation, pride refers to a satisfied sense of attachment toward one's own or another's choices and actions, or toward a whole group of people, and is a product of praise, independent self-reflection, and a fulfilled feeling of belonging." according to Wikipedia. What does that imply to us? 

National pride is a perfect example for the first meaning. Why are we proud to belong to a certain nation? It is, after all, not our accomplishment. It might not even be our parents' accomplishment. There are few things in our life that we cannot influence, and those are the things that we are born with. Lee Greenwood sings a beautiful song about being "proud to be an American". Yet, it is what it is: "an irrationally inflated sense of one's personal status or accomplishments".

Back to the conversation. Why am I proud to be fairly athletic? There are many out there who perform a lot better. I am nowhere close to being the best. That's definitely not the reason. No, the reason is that I battled through adversity. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't easy. It involved blood, sweat and tears. Hell, I even recall throwing up after the first day of Lacrosse conditioning. Yet, I kept going. I defeated myself. I grew from it. And that's what makes me proud.  

My friend, on the other hand, had never been in this situation. Everything somehow came to him. He stuck with the things he wanted to do, until he didn't feel like doing them anymore. He never pushed through. He quit. And that's totally okay, because the things that he has achieved so far are outstanding. Yet this also explains why he does not feel proud. 

I have discussed this topic with several of my close friends - one of them is a swimmer. Which is something that she is proud of. Getting up at 6am to swim for 2 hours, going to school, swim some more after school. Sounds fun? Absolutely fucking not. And it probably isn't fun for swimmers either. Nevertheless, they push through - for one fraction of a second in the next race. That's dedication. That's hard work. That's something you can be proud of. 

This translates to any part of your life. Be proud of the things that you work for. It is totally okay to have good grades and to be proud of it. You worked hard to get there. Somebody will always hate you for that - but in the end, who's better off? In the long run (i.e. after 9th grade), good grades (along with other smarts) will get you somewhere. 

What have I learned from this? Sometimes, it takes hard work to get to the next level. Sometimes, you have to be relentlessly focused on what you are ultimately trying to achieve. It may not be fun, it may not be easy, it might even hurt a bit. But once you get there, beautiful things are on the horizon. That's where you want to be. 

Travel Report: DC & Los Angeles

Last time, we heard from each other in Oslo. The journey continues ...

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

Having landed in Frankfurt, everything seemed to be rolling smoothly until the flight attendant announced that we would have to wait for another hour for people coming in from Brussels Airport, which was closed that day. Considering the flight was getting to DC fairly late already, I wasn't too happy. When we were about to take off eventually, I thought I was in a bad movie. "Do we have a licensed doctor on board?" is definitely not what you want to hear when you're late already. Luckily the lady who had a heart attack survived and we were eventually able to go to Washington. 

As usual, I picked the slowest moving line at immigration, so I only made it into the city by 2am. Shoutout to Justin here, who gave me a place to crash despite not knowing my personally. Would have loved to spend more time with him, but due to the flight delay that wasn't possible.

BACK IN AMERICA

After cold days and even colder nights in Riga, it felt great to go outside and to take off my scarf, my jacket and eventually my sweatshirt. It was nice and warm. My last trip to the states had been in 2013, so I was ready to get in all the great American food that I have missed so much during that time. #1: Krispy Kreme donuts and Iced Coffee for breakfast.

If you haven't had this .. just do it

DC is fairly familiar to me, so I figured I would just go to the White House, read a bit there and then move on to the second greatest museum of all time (in my book): the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space. If you haven't been, GO. It is totally worth it. (In case you are wondering: the greatest museum of all time is the "Deutsches Museum" in Munich). 

After picking up a sunburn due to a deep conversation on a bench with look to the White House, I was ready to fly out to Los Angeles. 

LOS ANGELES: CITY OF THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

With my arrival at Los Angeles International Airport, I checked an item that is on the bucket list of every Lacrosse player for obvious reasons: fly into LAX. My travel mate Kai picked me up, and we checked off another food that we had to get. #2: Double Cheeseburger with Fries and (Diet) Coke at In-n-Out! 

The next day, we started off with a quick surf session (the first one I had done in years, went pretty well though) followed by a nap - after all, it was already bedtime in Germany. We also drove to the Walk of Fame, which is highly unspectacular. Everybody knows the Hollywood sign from postcards, photos, posters and whatnot, but in reality, it is absolutely not impressive - just some letters on a hill. Same goes for the walk of fame, which is basically a sidewalk with stars on it.

.. and that's about as spectactular as it gets

At night, we met up with my friends Adam, Danny and Emily to hit the city. Los Angeles has lots to offer: a bar in a fish tank, a great rooftop bar and also an old factory that hosted an awesome party. 

It took us a while to get going on Saturday, but after a hearty breakfast of black beans, eggs and avocado (which we ate everyday) things started rolling. We met our friends at a place called "The Bungalow", which is by the Santa Monica seaside. I highly recommend going there: not because the location is awesome (although it isn't bad), not because the drinks are cheap, not because the music is mindblowing. No, go there because you will NEVER EVER see such a accumulation of attractive people in one place again. This goes for both guys and girls. I am by no means homosexual, but I did fall a little bit in love with the male bartender. I also fell in love with girls around 37 times just walking around the place. Maybe love at first sight is real?

Double Cheeseburger with Train
Wreck Fries (1000 Island
Dressing, Onions, Cheese)

This experience was followed by another magnificient one. We all got together at our AirBNB to have a few drinks before heading out and I have to say, that was probably the best two or three hours I have had in a long time. Adam had flown in from Chicago (we spent lots of time in Madrid), Danny & Emily plus a few of their friends already lived in LA and were there, John and his sister (who are friends of Adam's that I already knew from Madrid) just happened to be in town. It was a huge reunion and it was awesome! 

Sunday was the day of the lord - we drove around the city, had the best burgers I have had in a long time (grass fed beef from happy cows that ... you get the idea). Los Angeles also has a pretty cool flea market, and I was tempted more than once to buy outfits for Carnival there. From there, we drove to dinner with Adam's parents (it is always amazing to meet your friends' parents, because it makes you understand why they are the way they are). 

WHY I WOULD NOT BE THE PERFECT FRAT BRO CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF

Would have loved to attend
this party

We had yet to see where our friends went to school at UCLA, so we drove to the campus and took a small tour. UCLA has probably the liveliest campus I have ever seen, with a constant stream of people walking everywhere. It is a lot different from German campuses, where people actually just go to class and that's it. No college sports, no clubs, no on-campus living, no nothing. Just classes and research. 

The best thing that happened to us that day: being called "chill" by kids from California. If you have been around Californians, you know that this is the highest accolade that you could possibly receive. 

Of course, we also had to see at least one fraternity house. The guys were super chill and showed us around, and what I saw greatly diminished by excitement about fraternities. The parties and the people are incredible, but the living situation was awful. Three people on a bunk bed on a total of maybe 8 square meters with a huge landfill right behind the house? No thank you. My apartment may be messy (and those of you who have been there know), but it is a lot better than this. 

Afterwards, we dropped off Adam at the airport and rode off into the sunset. Sunset means in this case: San Diego. 

THE PEOPLE SHAPE THE EXPERIENCE, NOT THE PLACE

I absolutely loved Los Angeles. Or should I rather say: I absolutely loved my time in Los Angeles? We actually did not see a lot of the city, and I have no regrets. Spending time with close friends who I had not seen in a long time was amazing, and at the same time we got to know lots and lots of new people. Kai met my other friends, both of us met my friends' friends and so on. I have learned something throughout the past week and the past months that certainly also is true for you: if they are friends with your friends, you will most likely connect with them too. Great way to meet new, awesome people!

Chavales Digest, March Edition

This is quite a post. If you're still here, great! If not, I promise I will also write more pieces that are more content and less diary in the near future. :)

Travel Report: Riga, Pearl of the Baltics

INTRODUCTION

Leaving Cologne hurt a little bit .. mostly due to two reasons: (1) the raging hangover from the house party I should never have attended and (2) because the weather was so awesome. Sunshine, 12°C, no wind, not quite what I'm used to from Cologne. If the weather is great in Cologne, it must also be great where I'm going. Right?

this guy is about to travel halfway across the world (and yes, that is my whole luggage)

I have never been so wrong in my life (OK, maybe sometimes). Landing in Riga, I was welcomed by darkness, cold and a snowstorm. The bus to the inner city also was supposed to exist, but I must have just missed it. When it finally arrived ("bus" referring to a slightly larger car that can hold about 10 people), I had already become about as mobile as Han Solo in Star Wars when he is put into carbonite, written my bachelor's thesis and found a cure for cancer. 

After around 30 minutes and a quick stop at the supermarket I checked into my apartment, which was everything but spectacular, but cheap, in a great location and warm. I had food and cold beers, and my friends were waiting in the wings. Yet first of all .. what is this mysterious city all about?

my neat and spacey apartment

WHAT RIGA IS ABOUT

Riga is the capital of Latvia and the largest city in the Baltics with 640k inhabitants. With a total population of roughly 6.1 million people in three different Baltic countries, Riga is home to more of 10% of people living in those countries. More people live in the Madrid metropolitan area than in all of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 

Nevertheless, Riga feels like a legitimate city. First recorded in 1201 (although apparently ever since 200 people have been hanging out there), it has been occupied by the Polish, the Swedish, those Germans that are everywhere and until 1990 by the Soviet Union. This influence is also greatly visible compared to the other Baltic capitals, as many people look and speak Russian, the houses in the suburbs look like you would expect them to in Siberia and there even is a district called "New Moscow" which basically takes you back 100 years just by crossing the street. The old town itself is beautiful and also part of the UNESCO World Heritage, with the influence of the Hanseatic League being highly visible. 

Nowadays, Riga and Latvia use the Euro and are mostly westernized. Public transportation works well (although the bus system has some highly chaotic, Sao Paulo like traits - more on that in my reports about social work in Brazil). The Big Mac Index is 4.15 € for a menu, supermarket prices are roughly 10% higher than in Germany and a pint of beer in a bar (Lacplesis or Mezpils most of the time) costs between 2 and 2.50 €. 

WHY I LIKE RIGA

Oh, didn't I already mention that? A pint of beer in a bar costs between 2 and 2.50 €. Jokes aside, there is more to it than just that. The city gives you a glimpse at the Soviet Union while retaining very Western features. It satisfies both my needs for a rich history as well as for an exciting nightlife. The girls are beautiful, the drinks are cheap, and I have a few good friends there. What other reasons do you need to go somewhere?

This time I kept it rather quiet, as I realized I am starting to get sick and would much rather not have a fever on my trip to the US. I am writing this from the Oslo Airport feeling pretty well, so I suppose my plan worked. 

On the first night, I went out with my Latvian friends. We hopped from bar to bar until we ended up in a place that most of the time serves one drink called "Surprise me, Bartender!". It is what you think it is. The bartender (who definitely isn't sober) makes you a drink according to his gusto - mine was red, sweet and strong. Good and bad idea at the same time, would probably do it again. 

The next day I walked around for a bit, but spent most of the day in bed recovering. The day after I felt a bit better, went to the old town and the central market (which is AWESOME). There, you can buy a wide selection of fruit (mostly local) for cheap money as well as tons of meat, cheese (biezpiens or cottage cheese being one of the Latvian favorites), fish (especially smoked) and pastries. You can also buy basically anything else in the vicinity, but the food market is the most exciting. 

Latvia's freedom monument

Speaking of the freedom monument: when I had just arrived in Riga for the first time, I decided to take a short walk around the city before checking into my hostel. And well, clearly the pictures you could take if you climbed onto that monument would be awesome, right?

Well, Latvians are very particular about their freedom and independence. After all, they have only been independent for a combined 48 years (1918-1940 and 1990-today). Therefore, they definitely do not think it's cool when you climb onto their monuments. This was explained to me under the threat of a 100 € fee by three not so charming police officers, who were all taller and bigger than me. I somehow escaped the arrest by admitting my mistake, one that I probably will not make again.

one of Riga's main squares with the Doms on the left

The Doms from the inside .. rather unspectacular

Today, I left my apartment at 6:15am to catch a plane to Oslo. Luckily, I caught this sight right in front of my apartment door:

Barona Iela, one of Rigas main streets, still in silence

HOW YOU CAN GET THE MOST OUT OF RIGA

Riga is a good city for a weekend trip. You can cover plenty of ground within two or three days. A few of my personal favorites were:

• The old town (duh): make sure you take the Free Walking Tour which starts every day in front of the Doms - it is totally worth the money you're not even spending on it since it's free (tip-based)
• "New Moscow": from the top of the Academy of Sciences building, you get a great view of Riga and its surroundings. Also make sure to check out the black market (or don't, if you're into safe traveling), where you could technically buy anything. That includes passports and other not so legal things.
• Alberta Iela: A street in the north of the city center that comes straight from a museum. Beautiful architecture in every single building. Incidentally, many embassies are located there.
• Jurmala: Riga is actually not directly at the beach. That's why its people go to Jurmala, which has a beautiful coastline. If you can afford it, you might even have a house there. I'd say it is the Sylt or Nantucket of Latvia. 
• Lido: A Latvian restaurant chain. You help yourself to whatever you'd like to eat, pay surprisingly small amounts of money and get some hearty Latvian food. Example below: 

  

  Chicken casserole, Soljanka (soup) and cabbage salad

More importantly (as in every foreign city): go out and talk to people. You will learn so much about the country and them. 

A FEW THINGS ABOUT LATVIANS

I love my Latvian friends. No doubt about it. However, some things are very different from what I am used to: 

• Latvians seem to be generally pessimistic. Nothing good will happen in the future, and everything looks dire. I encountered some weird looks with my incessant optimistic attitude. 
• Their sense of humour takes some time to get used to. They make jokes by criticizing each other. This sort of dented my confidence until I realized most of those are friendly jokes.  
• Cottage cheese seems to be a huge deal. While in Germany it can be hard to find it at all, there are all sorts and sizes in Latvian supermarkets (or at least in "rimi", the nation's leading chain). 
• Not everybody speaks English, but almost everybody knows some Russian. This is very different from Lithuania and Estonia, where getting by with English was no problem. I attribute this to the long period of Soviet occupation. 

AND NOW?

Currently I am at Oslo Gardemoen, Norway's biggest airport. After a quick pit stop in the homeland (Frankfurt), I will be on my way to the beautiful United States of America. First thing I will do? You guessed it. Get a triple baconator combo with an extra large drink. And possibly a milkshake. 

Flying from Munich to Los Angeles ... with a stay in Riga?

Traveling can be incredibly cheap if done correctly. Consider this a case study on "how to build your flight plan in the cheapest way possible". 

A day before New Year's Eve, my man Kai called me: "Dude, there are flights from Oslo to LA for 350 € round-trip. Let's go?". I had never been to the West Coast before. Considering I absolutely adore the United States and their citizens (well, except for the ones who genuinely think that Trump is the solution for their problems), I didn't hesitate. It was booked, and while booking I discovered that the return flight actually went through Munich. This is what my itinary looked like:

OSL >> FRA >> IAD >> LAX on the way there and LAX >> IAD >> MUC >> OSL (IAD is Washington Dulles in case you were wondering) on the way back. 

Pro tip #1: You can exit at any point of your journey, you just cannot enter at a given point. In my case, that means that I cannot just get aboard in Frankfurt (which would be a lot closer to me than Oslo), but I can leave the plane in Munich without taking the last flight to Munich. Normally, it also isn't a problem to just tell the airline at check-in to just check your luggage to a given destination (Munich in my case). 

Now I simply had to get to Oslo. Easy, right? Well, actually not that easy if you are considering costs - which was why I booked the flight in the first place. I had to be in Oslo by 11am, as my flight to Frankfurt left at 1pm. The only flight from Munich on the same day that would actually get there in time was 300 € one-way, so absolutely out of the question. Should I go there earlier and spend a night in Oslo? Difficult. Oslo is a beautiful city, but also ridiculously expensive. The value for money is a lot better in other places. 

I started looking into places from where it is really cheap to fly to Oslo: Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and ... Riga. Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki are not equally expensive to Oslo, but still pricey, so I figured I'd catch the 25€ flight from Riga to Oslo. Perfect. From my trip there in the fall of 2015 I already knew a few people there, and accomodation in the Baltics is affordable. Riga it was, and I figured I might as well stay a few days. I found an apartment near the center for around 80€ / 4 nights, which I believe is totally fair

Riga from above

Almost got arrested for this picture .. look forward to that story

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How do I get to Riga though? From Munich? Again, too expensive. However, we have this awesome airline called "Ryanair" in Europe, and they offer low cost flights from less common airports, among them my hometown Cologne. So I booked another flight for around 40€ and just had to get to Cologne, which was easily achieved by a 19 € train ticket. 

Let's do the math: 350 + 25 + 40 + 19 = 434 € for a round-trip flight to LA with a 4 day stay in Riga and a one day stay in DC. You could do a lot worse. 

Pro tip #2: Be creative when designing your flight path! It may take some time and some thinking outside the box, but when you try a few different days (preferably during the week) and a few different destinations in between you can figure out a good way to travel.

Pro tip #3: Round-trip flights are almost always a lot cheaper than one-way flights. Be creative in how you use return trip! 

As of right now, I am sitting in my parents' house typing these lines. My trip has already started, and I am keen to report the other things that will happen to me along the way. 

Reasons why I am here

Why hello there, audacious reader. Thank you for making it here. You are probably here because somebody recommended this to you, you are a good friend or family member of mine or somehow found me via Google. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from – everybody is welcome!

Recently, I came to the conclusion that I’m not really happy with what I’m doing. Living in Munich has made me complacent: hanging out with the same people over and over again, visiting the same establishments, having the same routines, going to the same university, living in the same apartment. Every day is the same, and that leaves me uninspired.

Now, not everything is as dire as it seems. From an objective point of view, I am actually doing pretty well and have anything but a boring life. However, I have lost the sense of purpose in the things I am doing. No matter how well you’re off objectively, in the end happiness comes from within. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor, black or white, male or female – you are either happy with your life or you aren’t. Plenty of the people I have met on my travels to Africa and South America are incredibly happy – without knowing if they actually have something to eat the next day. Most people I know in developed countries are utterly unhappy and constantly complaining about everything.

I believe this paradoxon stems from two reasons:

1. Social confirmation. Most things that we do nowadays aren’t the things that we REALLY want to do – they are the things that society tells us to do. I am no exception to this. Did I really want to study management? I had no idea back then, and why I am rather content with my decision, I made the decision based upon what my friends would say. My other choices would have been nutritional sciences (“you’re never gonna make money with THAT”), geography (“certainly interesting, but only something for people who aren’t smart enough to do other things”) or psychology (“not a real science, you’re just going to be one of those who know everything better but actually are not contributing anything”). Those statements do not reflect my personal opinion, but are some that I have heard several times along the way. Nobody had anything to say against management, so I went with that.
2. It is human nature to adapt to others. That’s how our species survived for so long. All my friends get married so I should get married. All my friends work as consultants so I should become a consultant. All my friends are investing in real estate, so I should invest in real estate. I’m sure you see a pattern is. The question I asked myself – and that I also want YOU to ask YOURSELF: all my friends are doing it, but is it the right thing to do for me? Do not be afraid to do the things YOU want.
3.  The more you have, the more can go wrong. I like to call this “the iPhone paradoxon”. You certainly had this experience at one point in your life: you’re happy with your iPhone and have gotten so used to it that you started taking it for granted. All the sudden, you drop it and the screen breaks. Boy, will you be frustrated. On the other hand, if you had never had an iPhone in the first place, you would have never faced this frustrating event – thus being happier. You can apply this to basically anything in the world. During my stay in Rwanda, the location that we worked in didn’t have proper “toilets” in a European sense, but simply holes in the ground. I was concerned. Taking a dump in a hole every day for the next four weeks? Horrifying. So I went ahead and asked one of the locals if they had any “normal” toilets. He looked at me confused: “Sir, those are normal toilets. What else could a toilet look like?” Knowing that I could do better made me unhappy, whereas the local, who didn’t know better, was perfectly fine with the situation.

My unhappiness mostly came from Reason #1. I was (and still am) doing what most of my peers do. Apply for internships. Work hard for a volunteer organization. Study hard to I can get grades so I can get good internships so I can get good jobs. Nobody ever asked ME what I wanted to do. Eventually one of my friends did. That got me thinking. What have I always enjoyed in my life? What are the things that I would do 100% of the time with 100% of the effort? What are the things that I think about: HELL YEAH THIS IS AWESOME? The list is rather short (in no particular order):

• Competing hard on the lacrosse field
• Achieving personal success, however measured
• Long, deep conversations with good friends
• Traveling, meeting new people and getting to know new cultures
• Inspiring and teaching people
• Great sex with beautiful women
• Having a beer or seven with people I enjoy being around
• And finally … writing.  

I had done all these more or less in the past, except for one: writing. Which is why I am typing these lines right now. Knowing the way I work, writing will not just become a habit. You cannot adopt habits, you have to earn them. That is what I am trying to do throughout the next weeks. And this is where YOU come into play:

If you notice that I have not posted anything within the past three days, but you want to read more: LET ME KNOW. Write me an email. Text me. Call me. I don’t care, but I want your feedback. If you think all this is bullshit and I just wasted 15 minutes of your precious time – LET ME KNOW. If you are actually enjoying this – LET ME KNOW.

I will keep posting. At the very least, I will have a platform for myself to write.

Thanks for being here. I appreciate it!