Martin’s Blog

I’ve had it in mind all year, and now that I’ve actually left Leeds, it’s time to tell you what I actually studied in Leeds during my past year. I’ve mentioned it before, my course at Leeds Metropolitan University (one of the larger UK universities with approx. 50,000 students) is called International Business with “Master of Arts in International Business” being the official degree in the end.

It’s a course consisting of core and option modules, is taught at the beautiful Headingley Campus bit outside the centre of Leeds (and not at the much uglier city centre campus), and helps students to gain understanding in a broad field of business-related topics including skills transfer such as communication, effective teamwork and handling of dynamics of multi-national teams and organisations. A very international student body being in Leeds from countries all over the globe very much helped to get new insights and to be faced with new challenges – highly interesting.

The modules I took were Corporate Strategy, Cross-Cultural Human Resource Management, Economics, Entrepreneurship, International Environments of Business, Strategic Management of International Enterprises and were a logical next step from my undergraduate studies in International Business which focused on similar subject areas.

My dissertation (Master thesis) has the topic ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in Public Corporations’ and highlights areas of public corporations being or not being socially responsible, why, how, what etc.

And now you know what I really did in Leeds (apart from some hiking, travelling and short but regular trips to Holland).

The above is a photo of my university. It’s not very up-to-date, but I haven’t really taken any during the past year, so I had to revert to a photo which I took in 2004. And that’s one of my links from 2004 to some more pictures of Leeds Metropolitan University: 041202-1 Leeds Metropolitan University (aerial view)

As indicated already, this is about walking a loooong way somewhere in Belgium. In order to provide you with some insights about the background why we went there, the reason for that walk, with what intentions, I simply stole one of the Leeds Met Walking Club Committee member’s entry on the university homepage and will supplement that with a few own comments in the end:

http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/internat/reflects/B2AB54C0930A4EE8AE16E0FECDF745A8_55CF6BE223084F818579E9430E3CF31C.htm:“This year between the 2nd and 4th of May, the town of Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium hosted the 37th annual 100KM walk over Flanders Fields to commemorate the tragic events of the First World War. The walk itself is an amazing opportunity to come together with people of many different nationalities and though we were all walking with the same goal of completing the 100KM, there was a much greater sense of unity in tribute and remembrance. The 100KM walk is a definite physical and mental challenge but when considered and put into context after visiting the countless cemeteries and memorials scattered amongst the Ieper countryside, such as Hill 60, Larchwood Railway Cutting Cemetery, Blauweport Farm Cemetery and the Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, the physical discomfort and mental strain seem wholly insignificant.

The Walking Club returned to again pay tribute to all of the servicemen who fought and gave their lives in this conflict by laying a wreath at the Menin Gate during the incredibly moving Last Post ceremony. The entire experience was conversely enjoyable and yet understandably sombre, however the opportunity to show our respect (as both Walking Club members and Leeds Met students) has made it completely rewarding.”

Going away from the historic background of the walk, more towards the actual challenge of walking 100km in three days, I can say that preparing yourself well definitely helps. Whilst I had to skip the last day (i.e. the last 20km) two years ago when I was there for the first time, all sorts of anti-blister preparation in the form of Compeed, needles, crèmes, anti-blister socks, 5 different pairs of shoes (although I walked with one pair only all the time in the end), Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, and the whole thing gets pretty much doable. Although walking the majority of the day on roads is probably the hardest part of the whole trip. And I can guarantee you that neither the British, nor the Belgium, nor the German soldiers who joined the walk too were in any better state or shape than we were. Let’s hope for those countries that they never actually need an army to defend a country!

Anyway, it was all good fun, it really was. We were a great group of 15 people, 11 completed the full 100km (and the 4 who didn’t mainly were lazy rather than physically not capable of doing it); sleeping in huge tents next to military barracks together with civilian and military groups from all over the place, very pretty Belgium countryside, perfect (almost too warm) weather, grilled sausages at 10 in the morning at one of the checkpoints, what else do you need?

Even more information can be found at: http://www.100km.be

And if you speak Flemish, here’s a newspaper article: we made it into a Belgium local paper! http://picasaweb.google.de/Martin.Karl1/08050105100kmVanIeper2008NewspaperArticle?authkey=xmPzuBWjYVc

Photos:
080501-05 100km van Ieper 2008 – 080505 day 5 – goodbye Ieper
080501-05 100km van Ieper 2008 – 080504 day 4 – 20km (3rd day)
080501-05 100km van Ieper 2008 – 080503 day 3 – 50km (2nd day)
080501-05 100km van Ieper 2008 – 080502 day 2 – 30km (1st day)
080501-05 100km van Ieper 2008 – 080501 day 1 – arrival day

I know that I’ve neglected this blog – and by that you, the ones who read it – quite a lot lately. Probably have been too busy with studying and with trips onto the Continent. But again I want to use the chance to provide you with a brief summary about my past weeks, months really, combined with the hope that I’ll write a lot more regularly in the future again.

The month of May was a fairly active one actually. After having finished all my essays, reports, assignment, exams, presentations of semester two (which back then only left me with having to finish off my dissertation by the end of August), I went to the historic town of Ieper in Belgium together with Leeds Met Walking Club where we joined the 100km peace walk around the town – 100km of walking in three days. More details are in a separate blog entry (http://martinkarl.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/100km-van-ieper-%e2%80%93-or-how-to-best-avoid-blisters/)

After the 100km trip and after a few days in Holland including the first time inline skating of my life, I thought I’m fit for the ‘Great Student Run 2008’ organised by my university. A 5km run, everybody could sign up, and so did I. It was a very warm, very sunny (i.e. not the most typical English) day and soon after the start of the race which 1,500 people (students, staff and others) joined, I had to realise that my hiking fitness doesn’t seem to help me anything at all for that run. After 5 very long kilometres and after cruel 24:00 minutes and at position 240(ish), I crossed the finish line with the best intentions to start running regularly again – so far I haven’t made it back into my running shoes a single time since. More information about the event can be found here: http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/greatstudentrun/08/index.htmAnd some external (i.e. not my) pictures here: http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/the_news/slideshow/images/08/080510_gsr08main.htm

One weekend in May, I went camping again with some people in the West Yorkshire Pennines, more specifically in Marsden. An easy 40km from Leeds there and back let my cycling blood rise again and I used my old mountain bike which I brought from Germany to Leeds for one of the very few times during my year in England. But Martin on a bike without a flat tyre wouldn’t be Martin on a bike. Only 3km before my arrival, before the last and only serious hill along the route, two thorns made the cycling for me a lot trickier. Not really being in the mood to repair the tyre so short before I was at my destination, I somehow made it by constant inflating. On my way back, I was too optimistic already as I was only 2km away from home, and only one last steep hill left to be cycled, within Leeds already. And what happened? No flat tyre, no. But a broken gear cable being in the top gear – no hill cycling for me anymore before having replaced the broken cable.

And during the last weekend in May, a bank holiday weekend in the UK, the Walking Club went to Scotland, including Ben Nevis – the highest mountain in the UK – waiting to be climbed by us. And this time, I actually had time to join – and I didn’t regret it. We had more than stunning weather (while most of the rest of Europe including England, but also countries like Spain and Italy) had really bad weather, Scotland was on its best behaviour. Three days nothing but sun, blue sky, and warm temperatures. We all loved it. In addition, the walks we made, even better. Some ‘brave’ people did not chose the well-developed touristic route up Ben Nevis (although even that isn’t that easy as you start in Fort William more or less at sea level, and make your way up to the 1,344m high summit), but chose the way around the north face including ridges, snow fields and serious scrambling. We loved it.

And so did some of us – me including – love the downhill walking which could be better described as downhill flying. In scree and loose rocks, me and my perfect boots just slid down half the mountain. Dangerous and exhausting, but one of my if not the best downhills ever. And also the second hiking day in Scotland was amazing. We walked the ‘Ring of Steel’, i.e. 5 of the 284 Munros (the mountains in western Scotland) – and the name proofed to be correct: some of our less experienced walkers in the group needed nerves of steel due to narrow ridges, high winds and the length of the walk which was a lot longer than expected for some; which also led to our arrival back in the valley at 10pm only – not a big problem in Scotland at that time of the year as it got dark very late. Anyway, once more I cannot say anything else but: I loved the tour! Have a look at the pictures, you won’t regret it.

It was, however, also the last time up to today that I went hiking as at the end of May, some not so great family news slightly changed my plans for the summer. I spontaneously travelled home to Germany for two weeks at the end of May/beginning of June. From there, I took a train to Holland (where I’d have otherwise gone by plane from Leeds) to spend some more days together with Gwyneth before she left for her BIG tour through the USA. Besides having been in Holland while the German football team with very alternating performances made its way through towards the finals of the European Football Championship whilst a great playing Dutch team once again didn’t make it, I had a very nice time there with trips to Utrecht, Lelystad (aka Holland’s ugliest town – not me who said that!), Efteling (largest theme park in the Netherlands), meeting up with a friend from past Leeds times, and quite a bit of Master dissertation writing. Only my way from Germany to Holland by train and another train ride within Holland were… better read it in a separate entry (http://martinkarl.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/martin-and-trains-%e2%80%93-it%e2%80%99s-like-fire-and-ice/).

Back in Leeds towards the end of June – and by then I’ve also made the final decision to finish my time in Leeds a bit earlier than initially intended to because of the situation back home. I.e. the 1.5. weeks I had left in the UK, I mainly spent with continuing to finish my dissertation, including interviews and all that stuff, and towards the end with packing my things and slowly but surely emptying my entire room into bags and then into my car.

Fully packed (seriously fully packed!), me and my Golf left Leeds for good on the 4^th of July – with a few more stops coming up along the way. First of all, I met a Canadian friend of mine north of London as she was just on her way from holidays in Europe back to Canada. The evening I spent together with friends in London and also stayed at their place – driving into the city on a Friday afternoon with rush hour traffic and a GPS on strike was kind of interesting. A lot more fun was driving right through the centre of London at 5am the next morning, no traffic at all, just a wonderful sunrise. A good goodbye to England.My ferry left from Dover towards Dunkerque (in the very, very northwest of France, right next to the border to Belgium) – Belgium was the country where I was heading to next and which was the reason why I didn’t take my ‘standard’ ferry Hull-Rotterdam. My Russian ex-flatmate from Leeds 2005/06 got married in Kortrijk in Belgium and I was invited. Attending the ceremony and celebrations could be integrated into my trip back home perfectly well – and it was a wonderful day/evening/night of celebrating together. A very international wedding. Twelve different nationalities were present. But what else would you expect from a wedding where one partner is Russian, the other one French-Mexican, they got to know each other in England, and got married in Belgium!Next stop was Cologne, meeting and staying with another friend. And the 7^th of July brought me – with a short friend-meeting-and-having-lunch-together stop in Frankfurt – back home to Dingolfing in good, old Bavaria.

And here I am, back in Germany – and there are no plans to change that status in the near future, i.e. since April or so I’ve kind of decided – after having given it a lot of thought – to start my professional career in Germany. After four years abroad it might just be about time.
And this also summarises more or less what I’ve done so far since I’m back: somehow integrating all my stuff in my room back home in Dingolfing again before I find out to which city I’m going to move next, some meetings with friends (mainly in Bavaria so far with Munich seeming to be the place where half the circle of my friends lives these days), and with the job search.

As my bike and my boots are wishfully waiting for me already, I won’t disappoint them any longer. This weekend, I’ll go on a little bike tour through the Bavarian forest, and next week on a weeklong probably serious hiking trip to the Bavarian Alps together with two English friends who’ll come over. If anybody else wants to join, you’re more than welcome to.

So, yes, Martin is back in Germany, and for the first time in years that’s not going to change significantly. So that’s obviously also THE chance for me to see you guys again – I’m always up for arranging spontaneous things and short trips. My current contact details you should have received by email – if not, just ask me.

Related photos:
See www.karl-martin.de -> Favourite Links: Photos; (or alternatively: http://martinkarlphotos.wordpress.com)

Hiking, certainly one of my more favourite hobbies. However, I’ve been kind of inactive in 2008 so far. A few little hikes, but nothing serious. Until a bit more than week ago – when things re-started properly again (and hopefully remain at that level) with some very rewarding hikes.

Lake District National Park (northwestern area):

Leeds Met Walking Club’s weekend trip to the Lake District (11^th-13^th of April) was a good start to re-gain some fitness. A wet (rainy and kind-of-snowy) Saturday hike up and down Ellas Crag, Rowling End, Causey Pike, Sail, High Moss, Outerside, Stile End, Barrow to Braithwaite and back to our accommodation in Portiscale near Keswick (next to Derwent Water) was followed by a great Sunday hike: up England’s third (or fourth, depending on how one interprets it) highest peak: Skiddaw. Organisation was a bit unstructured on the morning of the hike, so I took an ‘executive decision’ for myself that I can’t just do an easy Sunday walk in a valley when there is a snowcovered mountain in bright sunshine right in front of my eyes. So a small group split off and hiked up there with an almost maniac pace – and besides some pretty exhausted faces everybody had a perfect time and was rewarded by a fun downhill section on slippery snow.More about the weekend on: http://www.leedsmetwalkingclub.co.uk/2007-08/Blogs0804.htm

Snowdon via Crib Goch (Snowdonia National Park, Wales):

Three days after that, four of us – still with sore muscles – made their way to Wales’ Snowdonia National Park. It was one those hikes which I’d certainly put under my personal Top 10. Up to one of Britain’s highest mountains, Snowdon, via the famous knife-edged ridge of rocks called ‘Crib Goch’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crib_Goch).

The only way normal people can cross this narrow ridge with drops of several hundred metres to the right and the left is by crawling on all fours. Of course, we are not normal, not completely normal at least, so we chose a day with perfect sunshine, however, despite that there was still quite a bit of snow all along the ridge. This made it certainly more ‘entertaining’ (and stunning). I have done the route twice before, however, only in the middle of the night during twice attempting and once successfully finishing the ‘Welsh 3000s challenge’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_3000s) in 2005. But, believe me, the ridge is a lot less impressive/scary when you don’t see how far it drops down 10 centimetres away from your boots both to the right and the left. Still, we all loved it.We joined the touristy path up to the top of Snowdon on the final stretch – which was fully covered in lots of snow. Martin the snow-lover was happy! And the shortcut which we took on the way down is best described by the photos which we have taken. Have a look. Strongly recommended!!

The Yorkshire Three Peaks (Yorkshire Dales):

And in order to finish off the week of hiking, I finally undertook my first attempt of walking the Yorkshire Three Peaks – and succeeded, together with three other guys. The hike is pretty famous in the area. It goes across three peaks, including the highest peak in the Yorkshire Dales, i.e. a national park just an hour northwest of Leeds. The challenge is a 37.5 km (23.5 miles) circuit of the peaks with nearly 1600 m of ascent and is attempted to be done within 12 hours. We finished the route in a bit over 8.5 hours. Sore muscles, exhaustion, blisters, cramps and some seriously aching bones and ligaments were part of the deal, but overall we felt great when we were back in Horton-in-Ribblesdale, the classic start and finish point of the circuit. Masses of people practising for next weekend’s Three Peaks feel race hosting the World Long Distance Mountain Challenge, gale-force winds on top of the second peak – Whernside – and my most-favourite pub in the UK (amazing chocolate fudge cake – see an earlier entry on this blog) being along the route but having to be disregarded by us in order to keep going, all of that could not stop us and after almost three years in Yorkshire I can finally say: I successfully completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks! (More info on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire_Three_Peaks)

Meanwood Valley walk (Leeds):

Joining a Walking Club’s 10 miles-daywalk on Sunday in the surrounding area of Leeds was more for relaxing my muscles a bit.

More to come soon, the next serious hiking event is just round the corner; so, be prepared (If you want to have a short preview already: http://www.100km.be/March/Default.aspx).

Photos:
080420 LMWC Meanwood Valley daywalk

080419 Yorkshire Three Peaks

080416 Snowdonia via Crib Goch in snow (THIS IS A MUST SEE!)

080411-13 LMWC weekend trip Lake District (north) – 080413 day 2
080411-13 LMWC weekend trip Lake District (north) – 080412 day 1
080411-13 LMWC weekend trip Lake District (north) – 080411 day 0

Last night, I experienced something new in my life – an earthquake!

It was by far less exciting than one would imagine – but still, I was a little relieved when I heard/read the news this morning which proved that I’m not crazy yet. Actually, while I was updating this blog and photos last night, I heard and felt a deep, rumbling noise which built itself up for 2-3 seconds and then relieved itself into a brief, weird shaking of the house. I was quite surprised and irritated, but kind of assumed it would have been the stormy wind that’s been going on all day long hitting the house in a peculiar way. But I went to bed with the curious anticipation of next morning’s news – and what I heard was surprising: “biggest earthquake in the UK for nearly 25 years”; people “being terrified” and thinking they’re “probably going to get killed”; it felt like “an underground train and an enormous roar” or as if somebody “had driven into the side of the house” (I’m with them on those last two points). It was a 5.2 magnitude quake with the epicentre near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, approx.  70miles/110km southeast of Leeds.

So, here they are, the news of the day:

In English:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7266136.stm

And in German:
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/artikel/867/160430/