And so it CONTINUES!
First, what I’m sure everyone is eager to know: how the triathlon-training event went. The answer: pretty well!
My host mother and I woke up on Saturday in the middle of the heat-wave (temperatures reached around 40 degrees Celsius, or ~105 degrees Fahrenheit). In spite of this, however, we still packed everything into the car and got going. 45 minutes later, we arrived at Chris (Kris?)’s house, where I also met Laura, a Venezuelan triathlete who had also come to live in Germany. Because I was there, they wanted to keep the ride to around 60 km (which was still a lot – I hadn’t gone cycling in about a year, so I was happy to do something a bit lighter). But my host mother said “that’s too little!” so we set out to do 90k. I hopped on her bike, which was a surprisingly nce ride, after I got used to getting on a bike again (the french “LOOK” clips are very different fron the Shimano ones I’m used to). The ride started off splendidly. It wasn’t too hot yet and I had missed cycling immensely.
45 km through, we stopped to get some Eis (ice cream). I had a delicious Erdbeere und Pistazie Eis on a cone. Ch(K)ris insisted on paying for all of us. I felt amazing and, when we finished our ice creams, was ready to get back on the road. I shouldn’t have. The temperature during then rose significantly. 10 km into the second half, I was out of water and gels and was panting along. Plus, now my host mother was pulling (leading the group, which means bracing the majority of the air resistance so that the rest of the group can follow you). Pulling is a lot of effort and usually makes you want to conserve a bit of energy. She was doing the opposite. Thankfully, Ch(K)ris took pity on me and got everyone to slow down and jump in a river. It was beautiful. Apparently the area we were in was known for pickles and storks. We didn’t eat pickles (though there had apparently been pickle ice cream at the ice cream place), but we did see a man-made stork-nest with a stork on top of a large pole by the river. It was serene and very nice. We talked for a while (I listening, my German still being quite schlecht and all) but were soon back on the road. This time, I got no reprieve. I was dying, and was only saved by Ch(K)ris giving me some of his water, after he noticed I hadn’t drunk anything in a while.
I held out as much as I could, and only asked how far we were when we were 2 km away. You can imagine how glad I was to hear that. We pulled in and had a delicious (alkohol-freie) Radler (alcohol-free Beer + Lemonade). It was the best drink I think I’ve ever had. A few of Ch(K)ris and my host mother’s friends arrived later, and we all went into the lake. It was very warm, which the Germans disliked but I quite enjoyed. We ate and relaxed and had a fantastic time.
The next day held a similar heat wave, but this time we went to Potsdam, where we jumped in another (colder) lake. This time, my host siblings and I swam from one edge of the lake to the other. There, we found a fantastic castle which we explored in our bathing suits. My host mother joined us and explained the incredible history behind the place. My host siblings and I went on to keep swimming, and eventually went to a large tree where we found kids trying to untangle a rope-swing. We helped them out. I was too chicken to jump off (it was probably around 8 meters), but my recently-15-year old (it was her birthday that day) host sister jumped off no problems.
Some time later, I left to meet up with some fellow Columbians I had heard were in Berlin. We went to Mexicoplatz, where we had a delicious Dürüüm (the better version of the Döner, IMO) and some more Eis (I had no idea ice cream was so populate in Germany).
The next day I was back in the office. Ever since the 85km ride (not actually 90…) with my host mother, I decided that I wanted to get back into training. For that reason, I decided that I would run to or from the office every day. It’s been a bit difficult to coordinate (especially the nonchallant-ness of showing up all sweaty to the office), but I think it has worked quite well. It is about 11 km from where I am staying to where the office is, which has been perfect. I’ve also recently discovered the trick to sustained training: you have to start super slow so that you do not get intimidated by the idea of a run having to be fast, and then (still slowly) build up from there.
At work, I’ve been working on creating a human-rights platform. The CTO and I finally met last Friday, and we immediately nerded-out over our vibe-coding setups. I talked about OpenCode and Docker, he talked about an insane Codex-Claude-Gemini (now Antigravity) integration with next-level hooks and skills. Needless to say, I was out gunned. But since then, Ive been experimenting a lot with different tools and have learned a lot. I’m really excited to see everything that can be done with it.
I am currently working on helping them to develop a tool for civil society groups and human rights defenders. Its been very interesting working on that. In order to learn more about what tools they actually need, we conducted a panel where we invited a bunch of activists from around the world. I found it fascinating to talk to them and hear about their stories.
I’ve found two very interesting takeaways from working here so far. The first is how brainwashed I’ve been in terms of free-market idealism. While I can’t say that I don’t stand by the ideas, I do find it interesting to see how much I believe in financial incentives to create change, even in places like human rights defence. I thik my perspective has actually been useful for their work. While they are undoubtably doing something very different, I think it has been useful to have someone who has been exposed to the high-finance ultra-productive, ultra-competitive, and ultra-capitalistic system and can compare both sides. For me, the difference has been remarkable. People here, and in Europe in general, it seems, like a much more easy-going life. No one (that I know of) is working 100-hour weeks. No one is working through lunch (in fact, our lunches often take 2 hours). And no one cares all that much about making copious amounts of money. Now I realize that I am comparing two very different and unique areas, an NGO in Europe vs a Private Equity firm in New York, but I still find the difference illuminating. I haven’t quite decided what system i like best. On the one hand, I like the fast-paced environment of New York. On the other, I like being able to leave my computer at work and not have to think about being productive after I leave. Give and takes, I guess.