27 October 2010 - Mixing Business with Non-Pleasure

A couple weeks ago I went to a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany. It was only my second such event as most of the presentations are, somewhat surprisingly given "American" in the organization's name, in German. But the topics are generally interesting and this evening was no exception, featuring the chief economist of Bank of New York Mellon speaking about the economic condition and fiscal policy in the United States.

But while his presentation was very good, it wasn't quite so memorable as the conversation around my table. I was seated next to a guy (we'll call him Klaus) who had worked for Deutsche Bank for 20 some years and then for some time for Deutsche Telekom before what I assume must be retirement and starting a consulting company. In both corporate capacities, he had been posted in New York. He's married and his wife runs an art gallery near our offices. So we started talking about art, New York, the U.S., real estate, being expats and the talk turned to my experience in Germany and in which he asked whether I had come alone to Germany or.....? Awkward. After I answered that I had only brought my cats as company, he pulled in the guy (does "Karl" work for you?) seated next to him into the conversation. Karl was a nice enough but somewhat unkempt attorney who was quite pleased that he would be getting notary status soon (which is more meaningful here than in the U.S.).

When he heard about Karl's upcoming success, Klaus felt compelled to mention that would indicate Karl's income potential and then (Oh no he didn't! Oh yes he did!) asked whether Karl was married? Seeing someone? Turns out Karl is single and lives in Sachsenhausen and the neighborhood restaurant he mentioned as his favorite is, uh, also my favorite and is located less than a block from my house. So Klaus was thinking "love connection," but I'm pretty sure neither Karl nor I were feeling anything except really, really awkward. It gets a little more awkward because as we were getting ready to leave, Klaus made a big deal about ensuring we all exchange business cards -- yes, thus ensuring that Karl had at least my work number. He also made it convenient for Karl to (I am not lying) walk me to my car.

The next few days I lived in perpetual fear that I would see Karl in my neighborhood or that he would actually call me up. Fortunately, it seems I was correct that neither of us felt the love connection. But it did make for an interesting evening. Not sure whether I'm up for another AmCham event in the near future, though!