Shoeboxed has returned to its roots, at least for a couple of days.

Taylor and Tobi had some meetings in Frankfurt this week, and were able to snap some shots of their trip. I’m their lackey today back in Durham, just forwarding along their adventures. When you’re in Frankfurt, you don’t have time to blog.

Typical random Internet cafe

Taylor in Frankfurt

Autobahn!

If you haven’t been following our history for very long, you might not know  that although Shoeboxed was founded here in North Carolina, we developed the final versions our software and business model while living in Berlin during the summer of 2007. We’ve got a bunch of German-speakers on the team (not to mention a German), so we don’t really mind hopping over the Pond to spend a few days in the Vaterland.

We have received generous seed capital from well known German entrepreneurs and have many friends and advisors from the burgeoning German start-up scene.

Though we have strong ties to Germany, we’re still scanning your receipts from North Carolina in the old US of A and still base our entire operation out of our Durham office, near Duke University.

This morning, two bloggers from rebell.tv visited the Shoeboxed team to document the life of an American startup in Berlin. Armed with their video camera and camera phone, they talked briefly with Taylor about his decision to start shoeboxed.com and to move the whole team to Berlin for the summer. The video will be featured on rocketboom.com August 3rd. In the meantime, they’ve posted a photo from their visit on the rebell.tv blog. Click here to check it out!

Wednesday was an exciting day for us, as Zitty Magazine, a publication focusing on the city of Berlin, featured the Shoeboxed team in its latest edition. They don’t have the article up online, but you can read the German version or our English version here.

Once we confirmed that we had made it in to this edition, Taylor and I went down the street to a place that sells magazines and bought all the Zittys. I made Taylor translate it right there in front of the store as passersby gave us some weird looks. Giddy Americans frantically translating a magazine that shouldn’t be that exciting.

Anyway, we are really happy with the story that Christoph Koch wrote about us. He was very interested in the fact that American students chose to come to Berlin instead of taking consulting internships in the States, which pay a lot more than they do in Germany.

He also focused a lot on describing the apartment where we live, and how we have so many people here. And even though our apartment can get messy sometimes, Christoph said that we are probably “the most productive apartment in the city.” I wouldn’t argue with that.

I’ll keep you updated on our press coverage, so you can see how journalists are reacting to our idea and team.

It’s no secret that in about a week, the lease on our apartment will be up. That is why I have been searching Berlin for the right place to hang our hat. However, our cost restrictions in addition to the fact that we would prefer not to live in a crime ridden area has significantly limited our options. This consequently means that I have to continue to scout Berlin for an apartment, ANY APARTMENT, and continue to ice my feet and knee in the evening.

The kicker: having to move all of our stuff to another apartment could not come at a more inconvenient time. The shoeboxed team just bought new technical equipment. I personally don’t know what it all is — I try to focus on marketing. But I feel bad that in a couple days we will have to dismantle it completely. Poor Tee.

But I have to stay focused on the house hunt. Tim has taken a break from the search which has provided me the opportunity to spend some time with Alex. Today was a very productive day. We visited five apartments. The realtor, Herr Meyer, was very helpful and patient. At the beginning of the appointment, Alex and I were very professional, but that image started to fall apart towards the end — especially when Herr Meyer was waving goodbye to us and I gave him a high five…

Quote of the day: “Alex, I just high-fived Herr Meyer!?!”

There’s nothing okay about those glasses.

It’s not okay that they are asymmetrical, it’s not okay that they are fire-engine red, it’s not okay that they are being worn by a 60-year old woman, it’s not okay that they shield her peripheral vision, it’s not okay that you can’t see her eyebrows, it’s not okay that she has a shelf on her face, it’s not okay that they look like 3D movie glasses, it’s not okay that they require her to tuck in her bangs, it’s not okay that we can’t tell if they have lenses, it’s not okay that we weren’t invited to the masquerade ball, and it’s not okay that she didn’t ask for a receipt when she bought them.

End of story.

Some people subscribe to the theory that human beings need exercise and regular time spent outdoors to lead a healthy, happy life. Here at shoeboxed, we are working hard to prove that theory wrong.

Personally, I have not gone more than 100 feet away from our apartment building since Thursday. It’s now Sunday. I’m not the only one who has forgotten what fresh air is, either—Tee has been programming nonstop for 48 hours, and I’m pretty sure he hasn’t left the apartment once during that time. Actually, I don’t think he could leave if he wanted to because his legs have forgotten how to walk more than five feet at a time. Dan, who chooses to work in the lounge rather than in a chair, is developing bedsores.

It’s just so tough to remember trivial little things like “eating,” “sleeping,” or “moving around occasionally to keep circulation going in your extremities” when you’re working this hard on something you care about. As far as I’m concerned, though, typing is a legitimate form of exercise. Who needs legs, anyway?

Don’t get me wrong, though; it’s great here. Seriously. All this time spent working on the site has helped us come together as a team and stay on the same page for everything. We have made amazing progress in the past few days, much of which would not have happened if we were not living together. I think it really speaks to our teamwork abilities and dedication to shoeboxed that we have all been able to live and work in a single apartment without killing each other. Of course, there are still two more roommates who haven’t gotten here yet…

The shoeboxed team is ravenous. We go through an obscene amount of food. And because our refrigerator is smaller than my dorm room mini fridge, we are constantly making trips to the store to buy food to sustain our worker bees.

Take the other day for instance. Taylor asked me to go to the store with him, and since I wasn’t doing anything particularly pressing, I agreed to go. Little did I know that it would turn into a grocery adventure. Bread, apple sauce, spices, ground beef, cheese—you name it was flying into the cart. People were staring. Our little cart was overflowing with food that would probably be gone in a few days, but it was amazing to actually see the amount of food we actually needed in one pile.

Since all of our items would not fit on the conveyor belt, we had to get yet another cart. But here’s the kicker: Taylor and I physically couldn’t carry all the stuff to the apartment. Taylor looked at me and stated so matter-of-factly, “We’ll just have to bring the cart closer to the apartment.” He was serious.

And since crossing on the cross walk would have been too logical and easy, we decided that it would be better to cross in the middle of the road. There didn’t seem to be a clear break of cars to allow us to pass, so we just went for it. Bottles clanked and fell, but we successfully made it to Cory and Tim who stared in amazement at our spoils.

Altogether really embarrassing—but I finally have peanut butter and cheddar cheese. I won’t eat them together of course, but I have been looking for them everywhere. Guys: I will guard this like a troll so I won’t have to show my face in the grocery store for a while…

A word of advice to moms: keep your ambitious college-aged sons and daughters trying to start a simple yet innovative high-energy startup company away from Berlin.

According to local media, a squirrel viciously attacked three individuals in downtown Berlin. After locking its jaw onto a young woman’s leg, the rodent remained hanging from her calf for several minutes before falling to the ground. The squirrel continued on its rampage, biting another woman in the street before heading to a nearby garden. Ladies, cover your ears, it’s about to get graphic. When the squirrel finally targeted a 72-year old nursing home patient, it was murderously beaten with the man’s crutch.

Not to be outdone, on this same day several camels and llamas were spotted crossing a busy street during rush hour traffic. Officials claim that these runaways are recent escapees of the local Berlin animal prison (read: zoo). I don’t know about you, but all I can say is—I’m not buying it.

Exploring a new city is tough. Everything that you’ve always taken for granted suddenly gets a little bit harder. For example, I’ve come to accept the fact that I am unable to order food for myself. People stare blankly at me if I speak in English. If I lead off with German, I’ve ended the conversation before I’ve even started it. And the menus are not particularly translation-friendly — pepperoni pizza was meant to be covered in meat, not big chunks of green pepper.

But you can’t really blame anybody—it’s not like they are intentionally making life hard. OR ARE THEY?

Exhibit 1: We were lost on the streets of Berlin. We knew if we could just get to an intersection, we could tell someone where we were and get directions back to the apartment. We continued in the direction we had been walking, and eventually came upon this intersection:

Okay, first of all, it’s unfair to have two streets with the same name. Second, it’s unfair that these streets have to cross each other. And finally, it’s unfair that there is a Greek letter stuck in the middle making the name impossible to pronounce (for example, when you’re lost and need directions).

Seriously, Berlin. Get your act together.

Cue up the polka tunes, find me a pair of lederhosen, and buy me a bratwurst with sauerkraut – ‘cause the shoeboxed team is headed to Germany! We’re packing our bags and heading to a nation where everyone hates inefficiency, loves the Fatherland, and has never been late for anything in their lives! I may not have been to Berlin, Germany, or Europe in my life, but that’s what stereotypes are for! We really do have our reasons for going to Berlin. And it has nothing to do with the fact that all the women are blond, blue-eyed, and terrifyingly hairy.

During the last week of May, we’ll begin our journey. I say “during the last week” because the trip could include close to seven days of travel. My current itinerary takes me from St. Louis to Atlanta, GA—just a hop, skip, and a jump from a balmy Raleigh-Durham, NC. From there we will experience the bustling Mecca of Toronto, on our way to London, England. Our final layover will occur in Milan, made famous by the eponymous Disney classic (read: Milan = Mulan), before our eventual and long-awaited arrival in Berlin.

Which reminds me, why is the airline industry going bankrupt? Because this is the cheapest way to get there.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,