Hello, dear readers,

Today’s post is marked by two significant events. First, for the very first time, it will feature real photos instead of the now-familiar cat illustration that the AI used to draw for us

Second, for the first time ever, the topic of this post will not be about moving

Since I’m done moving around for a while, I’ve gotten my residence permit - and hooray! I’ll be able to settle down in Germany for the long term

The thing is, the longer we’re here, the more I find myself thinking that, overall, Germany seems like a much better place for startups than France

The flip side is that France, as the country where I’ve lived for so long, has given me a great deal. In fact, it has become a second home to me. To some extent, one could probably say it’s my only home. But I don’t want to get into that here and now

In short, this is something we’ll need to explore in quite some depth. Because, judging by the first week - which, while mostly positive, has shown itself to be a rather questionable endeavor that may still come back to bite us later - we’ll just have to wait and see how things play out

That's Germany in a nutshell

Otherwise, my training routine has gradually started to settle into a rhythm over the past week, although I’m still missing quite a few sessions - which, overall, isn’t affecting my fitness at all, but I’d probably like to be more consistent. And after all, there isn’t exactly a lot of time left until October, and a 90-kilometer ultramarathon isn’t exactly a quick trip to the store for a beer

Well, I’m dying to get back on a bike, but mine’s still in Paris, and to be honest, I really didn’t want to drag it over here - partly because of its advanced age, and partly because of its rather sorry state. So I’m open to recommendations (and donations) for a new bike, which I’ll be buying here

Just a moment of weird, gloomy, and inexplicable fuckery in the photo. I think it has something to do with the grape vines, but I can’t really prove it. But overall, the first time I saw this stuff in the woods while out for a run, it really motivated me to run faster

Continuing on the topic of running - the terrain here is pretty hilly, so gaining 50 to 100 meters of elevation over a 5-kilometer run is pretty standard. At first, it really throws off your pace while you’re trying to stabilize your heart rate on the uphills, but on the other hand, those damn hills teach you how to run. Otherwise, all my runs have been on flat terrain, which can lead to trouble in an ultra. But the ultra course is flat, by the way. Over 90 km, there’s only 1,300 meters of elevation gain, which sounds okay, if not for the number of kilometers mentioned at the beginning

To put it simply, life is entering a phase of relative stability. Which, all things considered, is quite a relief given my mental state, which has been a bit fragile over the past couple of weeks

So, this is the kind of week it’s going to be - we’ll be settling in, running through the local fields, and exploring the area and its culture. And learning the language while we’re at it. Because while they certainly speak English here much more often and better than the French do, they still prefer to speak their native language. Anyway, I’m learning German. It’ll be the fifth language in my collection. It’s not like I speak all five fluently, but it seems like the number of places where I can at least find food and a place to stay is growing rapidly

So we'll see what next week brings, but for now, I really want to focus primarily on stabilization

All photos by André Kuzmin; permitted for non-commercial or personal use with attribution to the author