Andrea & Charles

Charlie met Andrew 26 years ago and they have had each other's backs ever since. Growing up they shared many interests and hobbies, one of the main ones being building small scale intricate plastic models. Andrew assembled and painted models of military equipment while Charlie did the same with sportscars. These preferences would reflect their future selves as Andrew graduated from the West Point Military Academy and Charlie became immersed in resto-modifying classic BMW sportscars. A couple of years ago while Andrew was living in Colorado after graduating from West Point, he surprised Charlie by purchasing an all-wheel drive classic 1980s BMW just like Charlie’s. Charlie promptly booked a ticket for a weekend and flew out to Colorado to spend the Weekend with Andrew performing maintenance on his “new” car. It was also a chance for Charlie to meet many of Andrew’s friends and spend an enjoyable weekend sharing his passion for classic BMWs.

Alejandro is Andrea's older brother. Charlie
met him when he first went to visit El Salvador. He thought it was cool Alejandro had a passion for motorcycles just like Charlie likes cars. Alejandro is a really easy going guy who loves to travel, spend time with his dog Sasha, and when he's not ridding his motorcycles he's coming up with new business ideas. Entrepreneurial guy here!

o Charlie met Miki sometime at the beginning of his freshman year of college in Germany, nine years ago. Because Miki was a member of the class of 2012 they did not have much contact until the following year (Charlie’s second, and Miki’s last), when Charlie joined the dormitory management team as Miki’s partner handling facility maintenance (Alex was also a member of the team focused more on student relations). Referring to each other as “Mr. Facilities”, the two guys fixed and handled many facilities related issues eventually nearly removing the need for the campus professional facilities team to respond to work orders for the college 3 dormitory. Miki and Charlie also share fond memories of working through computer programming class and homework (Miki was the TA for Charlie’s C++ and Python classes) as well as decorating and building the sets for big event parties that the College 3 management team sponsored and organized. Since their time at the university, Miki and Charlie have continued to visit each other for adventures over the years. Most recently, Miki and Marius visited Charlie in California where they arranged a camping road trip stopping in Las Vegas Nevada, the Hoover dam also in Nevada, the Grand Canyon Arizona, Lake Powell Utah, and Sedona Arizona for a last night in a hotel to catch the latest episode of Game of Thrones.

Charlie met Gabe five years ago this spring at an automobile club event in Los Angeles. The event was both a drive through the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains as well as an open house at a local mechanic’s shop. Part of the event was allowing access for the attendees to the shop’s expensive equipment. Of the group of about 60 people attending the event, only Charlie and Gabe took advantage of the offer and completed some work on their cars. Naturally they struck up a conversation and found that they both have a similar strong, very passionate love for iconic German sports cars (Gabe with his Audi’s, VWs and now Porsches, and Charlie with his BMWs). Since then the automobile related activities have grown exponentially in frequency, scope and challenge, building engines, body work, attending shows, racing the various cars at local auto-crosses and racetracks but as of yet there’s been no project too big for the two of them. Besides the automobiles, their friendship extends to other aspects of their lives; viewing movies, many weekends at the beach (Gabe and Megan used to live a few blocks from the beach – still live close), parties and barbecues with friends etc. Most recently Charlie helped Gabe and Megan move into their first house they just bought, and the summer before that attended their wedding as one of Gabe’s groomsmen.

Charlie met Marius nine years ago at the beginning of his freshman year of college in Germany. Early on, both Marius and Charlie were frequently mistaken for each other since they look like they could be brothers. Luckily, the mistaken identities were quickly resolved as they became friends and fellow classmates got a chance to see them side by side! Marius and Charlie got to know each other through the many events that the College 3 dormitory organized as well as a close group of mutual friends. For their second and third years at the university they both lived in the same hallway along with the rest of the crew, enjoyed many Friday nights of the infamous card game, shared many tall glasses of their favorite German weizen beer and debated various details of the Star Wars franchise. Marius was also one of the first to visit Charlie not even a year after he moved to Southern California and most recently joined Miki for the camping road trip through Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell.

Charlie met Karish nine years ago at the beginning of his freshman year of college in Germany. By some mistake (or fate!), both Charlie and Karish were assigned rooms in the college three dormitory in the “quiet block”. I call this a mistake because both Charlie and Karish are quite passionate about their music, more specifically classic rock, and were warned many times about the volume of their music. Fortunately, Karish also moved with Charlie to the same hallway on the top floor of a different block of college three where the volume of their music was no longer an issue. During the beginning of that first year, Charlie and Karish regularly, and politely knocked on each other’s doors to ask if the other would like to join for lunch/dinner. It didn’t take long before they dropped their manners and began to expect the other’s attendance as mandatory. Besides meals, they also share the same core group of friends, spent many evenings playing pool in the dormitory common room, and enjoyed many Friday evenings sharing some German weizen beers while playing the notorious, infamous, legendary, die-hard competitive card game “***hole” known for its ability to test patience and friendships, though ultimately strengthening them. The card game is still religiously played to this day whenever the group is able to get together.

Charlie met Jaris nine years ago at the beginning of his freshman year of college in Germany. Charlie and Jaris both lived in the same dormitory: "College 3" known for its athletics and its green dragon mascot. For their second and third years they became roommates and lived in the same hallway of rooms as many of their other good friends. Charlie and Jaris continued to build their friendship as they studied the same major, attended many classes together, played sports, and shared the same core group of friends. Since graduating in 2013, both have visited each other several times over the years. Most recently Jaris and Andrew visited Charlie while he was temporarily living in central CA for a small work assignment. They arranged some camping trips and visited some well-known National parks in both central and southern California.

Charlie met Alex nine years ago at the beginning of his freshman year of college in Germany. Alex, with his Chilean (latin) background, was very social making friends with anyone and everyone. Charlie and Alex really bonded after Charlie became more involved and competitive with the university’s Ultimate Frisbee team and convinced Alex to join. There they practiced and traveled to tournaments with the team, even helping to coordinate and organize a tournament held at the university. For their second and third years at the university, they also roomed and lived on the same floor with the rest of the group. Having grown up (and still living) in Dubai; in their third year Alex invited Charlie, Jaris, and Marius to visit Dubai over spring break for another adventurous trip covering a tour of the sand dunes/desert, camel rides, visiting burj dubai (world’s tallest building) and a concert held at the tip of “the palm” amongst other things.

Tim is another member of the "Germany group" though Charlie did not befriend him until his last year at the university, seven years ago. Tim is a member of the class of 2014, one year behind Charlie's. Despite already being on campus for a year prior, it wasn't until Tim moved to college 3 in his second year (Charlie's third and last) and wound up living on the same hall that their friendship began. Since then they have also both visited several times and shared some fun adventures. Tim and Alex were two of the first visitors to Charlie after he moved to Southern California and together they drove and adventured up the coast on the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco in Charlie's beloved 1989 BMW 3 series. Charlie and Tim share a mutual passion for DIY (do it yourself) projects and worked with each other many times at the university. Since then they still send pictures and notes of their ongoing projects. Tim holds a very strong passion for good music and audio equipment and Charlie was fortunate to have Tim share his vast collection where Charlie discovered many new favorite artists, albums, and tracks that he still enjoys to this day.

Charlie met Tom nearly thirteen years ago during the summer prior to starting high school together in New Jersey. They met during some pre-season practice soccer games, preparing for try-outs for the high school freshman soccer team. They remained friends through high-school sharing many classes and friends, but it wasn’t until they reconnected one summer break during their time in college that the friendship grew. Since then they have established a small tradition of saving up Marriott reward points from their various business trips so that they can treat themselves to a nice hotel somewhere along the southern California coast, go golfing, relax on the beach, and enjoy a calm weekend of good conversation.