Saturday, December 31, 2005
a new year's wish
"Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think."
Friday, December 30, 2005
christmas time was here
alright.
where do I start? Christmas. Ah, Christmas. Christmas here was spectacularly beautiful. Like a movie. On the 24th when the sun went down, we all gathered around the tree (my host mom and dad, Benni the labrador retriever and I) and lit the candles (real candles!). Then we listened to music and appreciated the tree, and sat down to the "Bescherung" (gift-giving) and exchanged small gifts. Then we drank champagne and as my host mom finished preparing dinner I went for a walk with my host dad and Benni through the neighborhood. Boy was that magical. The neighborhood was absolutely still and silent, blanketed in snow, and in all the windows of the tiny houses you could see christmas trees and warm lights and families gathered around eating or exchanging gifts. It was like a scene from the thousands of christmas movies I love--whoville or charlie brown's town, or even the north pole. Magical. Then we returned home to a cozy traditional dinner of wiener wurtschen and kartoeffel salat (viennese sausages and potato salad) and after eating set off for church. Like nearly everyone else in Feldafing, we walked to church, through those silent snowy streets, and my host mom pointed out that we could identify who was going to the catholic church and who was going to the protestant church by which direction they were walking. Not that it was important, it was just one of those quirky little small town facts that made me smile. The church service itself was nice, in a small cozy wooden church, although I was baffled by the fact that people seemed unduly serious and also no one removed their coats--like they wanted to be ready to jump up and leave at any moment. But we sang "Stille Nacht" (silent night) and lit candles, which everyone then walked with back to their houses. I felt somewhere like I was in the middle ages, walking through the snowy streets with candles. And to top off a tradition filled evening, I insisted on reading "twas the night before christmas" aloud, even though christmas eve here really is christmas itself, and there is no santa claus, and i think my host dad, mom and her brother didn't really understand the antiquated english of the poem, despite my wild gesturing and broken translations. It was a calm and beautiful moment, though, and a tribute to my grandfather, who always read it to us. Since he died i've been carrying on the tradition, and when I talked to my family on the 25th, they reported that they'd forgotten to read it. Well grampy, i didn't :)
where do I start? Christmas. Ah, Christmas. Christmas here was spectacularly beautiful. Like a movie. On the 24th when the sun went down, we all gathered around the tree (my host mom and dad, Benni the labrador retriever and I) and lit the candles (real candles!). Then we listened to music and appreciated the tree, and sat down to the "Bescherung" (gift-giving) and exchanged small gifts. Then we drank champagne and as my host mom finished preparing dinner I went for a walk with my host dad and Benni through the neighborhood. Boy was that magical. The neighborhood was absolutely still and silent, blanketed in snow, and in all the windows of the tiny houses you could see christmas trees and warm lights and families gathered around eating or exchanging gifts. It was like a scene from the thousands of christmas movies I love--whoville or charlie brown's town, or even the north pole. Magical. Then we returned home to a cozy traditional dinner of wiener wurtschen and kartoeffel salat (viennese sausages and potato salad) and after eating set off for church. Like nearly everyone else in Feldafing, we walked to church, through those silent snowy streets, and my host mom pointed out that we could identify who was going to the catholic church and who was going to the protestant church by which direction they were walking. Not that it was important, it was just one of those quirky little small town facts that made me smile. The church service itself was nice, in a small cozy wooden church, although I was baffled by the fact that people seemed unduly serious and also no one removed their coats--like they wanted to be ready to jump up and leave at any moment. But we sang "Stille Nacht" (silent night) and lit candles, which everyone then walked with back to their houses. I felt somewhere like I was in the middle ages, walking through the snowy streets with candles. And to top off a tradition filled evening, I insisted on reading "twas the night before christmas" aloud, even though christmas eve here really is christmas itself, and there is no santa claus, and i think my host dad, mom and her brother didn't really understand the antiquated english of the poem, despite my wild gesturing and broken translations. It was a calm and beautiful moment, though, and a tribute to my grandfather, who always read it to us. Since he died i've been carrying on the tradition, and when I talked to my family on the 25th, they reported that they'd forgotten to read it. Well grampy, i didn't :)
Thursday, December 29, 2005
praktikum time
i have lots to say--about christmas, about snow, about family here, and about my praktikum! I don't have time to write about all that first stuff now cause i have to catch a train in 45 minutes and riding my bike to the station is an insane activity in this snow, but I wanted to mention that I have a praktikum, and for a group called Green City..here's the website! www.greencity.de
christmas eve friends
Me and Benny on the couch after church...not too much excitement cause the presents are already all opened on Christmas eve, but certainly a cozy evening.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
crashing together of my senses
zzzzzz
i'm so tired. today i did a ridiculous amount of christmas shopping, had another interview (success!) and spent the evening with a friend Jacques, from france of course. And then when I got home I encountred not anger from my host mom but rather felt on the defensive nonetheless. I had ordered a christmas present from amazon and she subtley pointed out that they are their competitors (they run a book distributor) and then I explained what a great interview I had today and how I will probably take the Praktikum at this firm and she told me how much she disagrees with that the firm does. In a very nice and subtle way, but still. And then told me that her stepdaughter just had a miscarriage and her stepson got hurt on the job as a policeman. And i'm so sleepy. So I feel a bit defeated. Too tired to make any sort of decisions anyways, so i'll just let it sit. I was gonna go early to munich tomorrow to do more shopping but i think i'm just going to sleep till i wake up. have UWH at 9pm anyways and don't want to stay in the city for too long. zzzzzzzzzzzzz
i'm so tired. today i did a ridiculous amount of christmas shopping, had another interview (success!) and spent the evening with a friend Jacques, from france of course. And then when I got home I encountred not anger from my host mom but rather felt on the defensive nonetheless. I had ordered a christmas present from amazon and she subtley pointed out that they are their competitors (they run a book distributor) and then I explained what a great interview I had today and how I will probably take the Praktikum at this firm and she told me how much she disagrees with that the firm does. In a very nice and subtle way, but still. And then told me that her stepdaughter just had a miscarriage and her stepson got hurt on the job as a policeman. And i'm so sleepy. So I feel a bit defeated. Too tired to make any sort of decisions anyways, so i'll just let it sit. I was gonna go early to munich tomorrow to do more shopping but i think i'm just going to sleep till i wake up. have UWH at 9pm anyways and don't want to stay in the city for too long. zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Monday, December 19, 2005
a full day
1) ride into Münich to stay with Gregor
2) Wake up and go to interview #1 (job offer!)
3) head back to Gregor´s cause i´ve forgotten my laptop cord
4) head off to interview #2
5) get there, turn right around cause it´s the wrong address
6) head to correct address, have interview, get second job offer
7) head here, to the university computer lap. phew.
now i´m sleepy and considering not even staying in munich for language class...hmmmmmm
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Männer sind Schweine
Ja. That´s a song, Männer sind Schweine (men are pigs) and today I find it especially apt... I´ll leave it at that for now, suffice it to say my host mother is adorable and comforting.
And as further therapie I went with my host dad and Benni (dog) to the biggest sledding hill in Feldafing and met the coolest kids. Two hours of sledding, snowball fights with the 6-12 year olds...and then we built an igloo (my idea) and I fielded a number of questions including "do people live in skyscrapers in america?"
There´s no better therapie than kids when you realize that life is really not as complicated as you think. Not nearly. And then I came back and drank Glühwein with my host family and helped them stuff envelopes for christmas cards and downloaded vince guaraldi´s charlie brown christmas music for them to hear and recited the whole of "twas the night before christmas". It was wonderful.
Tomorrow I have two interviews for my praktikum and tonight I´m going to Munich to watch a movie with a friend and spend the night there. After tuesday I think i´ll become a semi-permanent feldafing resident for a while. It´s very cozy, white and christmasy here.
And as further therapie I went with my host dad and Benni (dog) to the biggest sledding hill in Feldafing and met the coolest kids. Two hours of sledding, snowball fights with the 6-12 year olds...and then we built an igloo (my idea) and I fielded a number of questions including "do people live in skyscrapers in america?"
There´s no better therapie than kids when you realize that life is really not as complicated as you think. Not nearly. And then I came back and drank Glühwein with my host family and helped them stuff envelopes for christmas cards and downloaded vince guaraldi´s charlie brown christmas music for them to hear and recited the whole of "twas the night before christmas". It was wonderful.
Tomorrow I have two interviews for my praktikum and tonight I´m going to Munich to watch a movie with a friend and spend the night there. After tuesday I think i´ll become a semi-permanent feldafing resident for a while. It´s very cozy, white and christmasy here.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
lalalalala, que viva la noche
my dream, to run down an airport runway with my arms stretched out like an airplane, just like Xavier in the final scene of L'Auberge Espagnole. Tonight I watched that movie for the 1000th time with James, my neighbor here in Feldafing (fellow american PPPler). It's still a fantastic movie.
My host mom had a bizarre social gathering this evening consisting of Feldafing
socialites and one ridiculous looking dog that my host mom (when the owner was gone) later called an "Ofenrohrputzburste" (basically, a chimney sweep). See photo.
The gathering itself was a bit long and the guests were nice but had some very interesting and adament attitudes about America that I expended a lot of energy fighting back. In general it was a nice evening, and then when they all left I sat around with James, my host mom and my host dad joking laughing and drinking wine. Compared with the guests of the evening, my host family is so laid-back and hilarious, it's wonderful.
Tomorrow we'll probably have a late Sunday breakfast and then I may be meeting a friend in town in the evening, but other than that my day is relatively unplanned. Things are slowly winding down, people are driving off to home--I still have some floppy loose ends, including the questions "where am I going (if anywhere) during my little winter break here?" and "what's my praktikum gonna be?" I have two more interviews on monday and one on wednesday, all of which sound promising and exciting, so I should have the answer to at least that second question fairly soon. As for traveling, i'm considering three options: 1) Visit my friend Juliette in Bordeaux, France 2) Go back to Padova and maybe explore some of Sudtirol 3) Do north Germany. We'll see what I have the time and money for in the end.
It's 3:45am and i'm sitting on the steps to the basement (where my room is) because I don't get a wireless signal down there. I've decided that it is so very often that I go to sleep at 4, 5, 6 or 7 that I'm basically on American time anyways. Some parts of home never leave...
My host mom had a bizarre social gathering this evening consisting of Feldafing
socialites and one ridiculous looking dog that my host mom (when the owner was gone) later called an "Ofenrohrputzburste" (basically, a chimney sweep). See photo.The gathering itself was a bit long and the guests were nice but had some very interesting and adament attitudes about America that I expended a lot of energy fighting back. In general it was a nice evening, and then when they all left I sat around with James, my host mom and my host dad joking laughing and drinking wine. Compared with the guests of the evening, my host family is so laid-back and hilarious, it's wonderful.
Tomorrow we'll probably have a late Sunday breakfast and then I may be meeting a friend in town in the evening, but other than that my day is relatively unplanned. Things are slowly winding down, people are driving off to home--I still have some floppy loose ends, including the questions "where am I going (if anywhere) during my little winter break here?" and "what's my praktikum gonna be?" I have two more interviews on monday and one on wednesday, all of which sound promising and exciting, so I should have the answer to at least that second question fairly soon. As for traveling, i'm considering three options: 1) Visit my friend Juliette in Bordeaux, France 2) Go back to Padova and maybe explore some of Sudtirol 3) Do north Germany. We'll see what I have the time and money for in the end.
It's 3:45am and i'm sitting on the steps to the basement (where my room is) because I don't get a wireless signal down there. I've decided that it is so very often that I go to sleep at 4, 5, 6 or 7 that I'm basically on American time anyways. Some parts of home never leave...
home for the holidays
actually, not really. But home as in host family home...but the weirdest part is that all my friends in Munich are heading home themselves. It feels weird to be left like this...
The past week has been filled with not very much productivity and a lot of parties. Last night was the final goodbye-before-xmas party. It was good but I think we could all use a bit of a break from these party-filled evenings. Or maybe it was just that the exact same group of people had been partying together until 5am the night before. I guess there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
I think a lot of the new friendships I´m forming have reached a crossroads--either we remain casual acquaintences who wave to eachother on the street and dance at parties, or we start actually hanging out in normal settings. That´s the harder part, I guess...
Last night it snowed. It did not snow in Munich, just in Feldafing. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I live within the reach of the public transit system, cause it often feels like I live in another country. The weather is different, and we regularly run into the mayor at the grocery store. But today is a really beautiful day, the sun is shining on the fresh snow, and I think it's time for me to start a nice, cozy, winter hibernation, build up my christmas spirit, and settle my brains for a long winter's nap...
The past week has been filled with not very much productivity and a lot of parties. Last night was the final goodbye-before-xmas party. It was good but I think we could all use a bit of a break from these party-filled evenings. Or maybe it was just that the exact same group of people had been partying together until 5am the night before. I guess there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
I think a lot of the new friendships I´m forming have reached a crossroads--either we remain casual acquaintences who wave to eachother on the street and dance at parties, or we start actually hanging out in normal settings. That´s the harder part, I guess...
Last night it snowed. It did not snow in Munich, just in Feldafing. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I live within the reach of the public transit system, cause it often feels like I live in another country. The weather is different, and we regularly run into the mayor at the grocery store. But today is a really beautiful day, the sun is shining on the fresh snow, and I think it's time for me to start a nice, cozy, winter hibernation, build up my christmas spirit, and settle my brains for a long winter's nap...
Friday, December 16, 2005
i love to dress up
I think I was the only person in costume, but when they say "woodstock party" i come dressed appropriately, aight? I brought bubble stuff with, however, and that was a big hit. Everyone's get a child within...
This picture is me with a group of people I really don't know. But they were fun.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
THERE ARE 50 STATES!!!!
bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...
Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C. /
Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.
DO YOU KNOW THAT GERMANS DON'T KNOW HOW MANY STATES THERE ARE? AND WE GET CALLED IGNORANT...
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
america, shame on you
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/13/opinion/13tue1.html?hp
literally the first question I am asked when I say I want to work in the field of environmental protection is "why didn't america sign kyoto" And yeah, kyoto isn't perfect, but it's a matter of principle. I'm actually quite amazed how angry it makes people here. Well it makes me angry too. Read the above.
literally the first question I am asked when I say I want to work in the field of environmental protection is "why didn't america sign kyoto" And yeah, kyoto isn't perfect, but it's a matter of principle. I'm actually quite amazed how angry it makes people here. Well it makes me angry too. Read the above.
taking a cue from aaron
just wanted to pass along a few words of wisdom from aaron, a friend who is currently doing the peace corps in Mauritania:
What am I doing here? I’m living and working.
Is this a good use of my time? Of course not. Nothing happens efficiently in life.
Is this where I want to be? Who cares? I’m here, might as well enjoy it.
Where will it all lead? To its natural end.
It sounds perhaps a bit pessimistic, but I find it perfect. To read more about his adventures, look here: http://mauritania.sporadicism.net/
What am I doing here? I’m living and working.
Is this a good use of my time? Of course not. Nothing happens efficiently in life.
Is this where I want to be? Who cares? I’m here, might as well enjoy it.
Where will it all lead? To its natural end.
It sounds perhaps a bit pessimistic, but I find it perfect. To read more about his adventures, look here: http://mauritania.sporadicism.net/
testing the limits of sleeplessness
wow. I think I have perhaps never done so much and slept so little. Here's a wrap-up:
Friday--to bed at 2ish, up at 6 for interview. Interview went well, found out i'm going skiiing on saturday, into town to buy ski pants and and up going out with group of americans. home at 2
Saturday--up at 5 to meet Tobi and other friends to go skiiing in Austria. Drive to Austria (sleeping the whole way), rent skis, try to keep up with the pros and do alright, especially enjoy my two hour break playing with Elias, Tobi's 5 year old son. Here's the two of them:
Sunday--Well wait, we have to continue with saturday. At this point i'm completely exhausted. And then I realize I have to get up at 4 if I want to make the 6:30am train from Munich to Strassbourg for the Unterwasserhockey tournament. I'm sick of taking the early trains so I message Gregor to ask if I can sleep at his house in Munich. I go but there's a party for MESA staff so we go and end up staying till 5:00a,m. Head back to Gregor's, gather my stuff, head to the train. Meet Brummi, we both sleep the entire way (he was at skiiing the day before, too)
Sunday cont...--Play Unterwasserhockey, lose the first 4 games but win the last 11-0 (including a goal from me!!), get driven to Karlsruhe and hop the train back to Munich, home at 1. Sleeeeeeeeeeeep
Monday--BUT have to be at class at 10 which means getting up at 7:30 ughh th
e suburbs. Go to class, find out I didn't get my internship, break down from exhaustion and disappointment and cry (for the first time in three months though...that's better than at home!). Decide to give up on the day, get comforted by my host mom and sleep for three hours. Eat dinner, back to bed...12 more hours of sleep and here I am at the breakfast table, I THINK back in the real world. Today I've got nothing to do but go to Tollwood Christmas festival with the Unterwasserhockeyteam. Here's a (fuzzy) photo of those at the Strassbourg tournament:
Friday--to bed at 2ish, up at 6 for interview. Interview went well, found out i'm going skiiing on saturday, into town to buy ski pants and and up going out with group of americans. home at 2
Saturday--up at 5 to meet Tobi and other friends to go skiiing in Austria. Drive to Austria (sleeping the whole way), rent skis, try to keep up with the pros and do alright, especially enjoy my two hour break playing with Elias, Tobi's 5 year old son. Here's the two of them:
Sunday--Well wait, we have to continue with saturday. At this point i'm completely exhausted. And then I realize I have to get up at 4 if I want to make the 6:30am train from Munich to Strassbourg for the Unterwasserhockey tournament. I'm sick of taking the early trains so I message Gregor to ask if I can sleep at his house in Munich. I go but there's a party for MESA staff so we go and end up staying till 5:00a,m. Head back to Gregor's, gather my stuff, head to the train. Meet Brummi, we both sleep the entire way (he was at skiiing the day before, too)
Sunday cont...--Play Unterwasserhockey, lose the first 4 games but win the last 11-0 (including a goal from me!!), get driven to Karlsruhe and hop the train back to Munich, home at 1. Sleeeeeeeeeeeep
Monday--BUT have to be at class at 10 which means getting up at 7:30 ughh th
e suburbs. Go to class, find out I didn't get my internship, break down from exhaustion and disappointment and cry (for the first time in three months though...that's better than at home!). Decide to give up on the day, get comforted by my host mom and sleep for three hours. Eat dinner, back to bed...12 more hours of sleep and here I am at the breakfast table, I THINK back in the real world. Today I've got nothing to do but go to Tollwood Christmas festival with the Unterwasserhockeyteam. Here's a (fuzzy) photo of those at the Strassbourg tournament:
Saturday, December 10, 2005
skiing is so beautiful
that's me! skiiing. a spontaneous action but a good choice. Tomorrow i'm going to Strasbourg, France to play unterwasserhockey...there are back in one day. Aye...I will sleep a lot on the train. I'm so tired that i've decided that the best way to make my 6:30am train is to go into Munich to a party so I can sleep at a friend's. Then it's off we go... 
Thursday, December 8, 2005
wolpertinger
so i have an interview for my praktikum this morning. we'll see how that goes!
My host mom is amazing. She sent me an email last night with this picture, and the following text:
...das ist zum Beispiel ein Unterwasserhockeywolpertinger (mit Schwimmflossen)
(translation: this, for example, is an underwaterhockey wolpertinger with flippers)
HAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
me, vincent, jacques, caro
i have never been this cold in my life. well actually this picture was taken after drinking three gluhweins. so i'm a bit warmer. but it's still cold. you can see the nutcracker guy behind us, this is at the christmas market in dresden. now i'm going to bed....enough posting for today =)
Monday, December 5, 2005
east german bliss
this weekend was the much awaited trip to Dresden. There was much excitement surrounding this trip because after the amazing fun of the hut weekend in the Alps, I of course wanted to go on the very next trip with this group of people. But they got over 80 applications for 35 spots and, alas, I was not one of the chosen ones. But through a series of shenanigans, a friend Vincent who was also on the hut weekend convinced the president to let us on. Don´t ask me how, but i was certainly grateful. At any rate we took off Friday morning very early (7am).
I nearly missed the trip perhaps three times... the first being my impression that the trip left at 7pm instead of am. Thankfully I spent the evening with one of the trip organizers on Wednesday and he clarified my misconception. The second near miss was the (perhaps unadvisable) decision to go to the infamously life corrupting international student party on thursday night. This party is like a sandtrap. I literally seem to find it impossible to leave without either missing the last train, becoming incredibly intoxicated, engaging in otherwise unadvisable behavior, or all of the above. So you could say that it was clearly unadvisable to go there when I needed to do none of the above, most namely miss the last train, because to be back at the university at 7 with all my luggage, i would most certainly not make it starting home at 5:30am (its at least a 2 hour roundtrip). But I had spent the afternoon baking christmas cookies with Christy (another american participant who lives in my town) and the aupair from Poland who also lives with her. And it just so happened that it was her exact one year anniversary in germany! And one just doesnt not celebrate that. So I picked up a bottle of Sekt (german champagne) and we drank it on the train to Munich. The plan was to go very early to the party and leave no later than midnight to catch the last train, but more probably around 11. When we got to the party at 9:30, it was practically, and we drank our (complimentary for early birds) Glühwein in peace and conversation, punctuated by a funny interview by the Süddeutschezeitung (big newspaper of southern germany). But somewhere around 11, and this is what always seems to happen to me, a threshhold was reached and people started pouring into the party. This coincided with us reaching a particular point of intoxication. We were just starting to have fun! I managed to tear myself away at 12 but Christy and Magiana decided to stay the night...and off I ran. But it took forever for my subway to come so by the time I got to my tranfer station I had exactly two minutes to make the transfer. So I ran, as fast as possible, and made the train by exactly one minute. Phew.
And then there was the morning. I woke up at the absurd hour of 445 to finish packing and make my 548 train. Late as always i rushed out of the house at 543ish with all my luggage, tried to shove it in my bike basket, couldnt, so rode clumsily and dangerously down the hill in the dark icy morning. And just as I was pulling into the parking lot....hisssss....my train. At this point I knew I had no chance...I still had to lock my bike, unload my luggage and cross the tunnel under the tracks. The train stays for about 30 seconds. Scheisse. I knew this wasnt the end of the world, there was another train in 20 minutes and that would get me there most probably 3 or 4 minutes late, and knowing that about 1/4 of the people on this trip were italian...i probably wasnt going to be the only one =) But it still meant i had to freeze for 20 minutes, mad at myself.
In the end, I made it. The busride was full of cheer, and we reached the city well rested after a 6 hour ride. And the thermometer in the bus said it was 8 degrees celsius out! Heat wave! But as we soon discovered during our city tour....it was unreasonably cold. Noone could explain why, but we all attested to the fact that we were colder than wed ever been in our whole life. The long and painful tour ended at the christmas market, which still didnt provide any indoor cover but offered plenty of Glühwein. A new friend Jaques and I drank three. It was wonderful, never have I felt more relieved to be warmer. And then we all went back and napped at the hostel. At ten we were loudly awoken and we all boarded a tram for the dresden international student party. The evening was full of dancing and general cheer. And the busride home was full of singing. A general good time.
The next day the weather had not improved. It was raining, but nonetheless we all trepped 5 kilometers (should have been three but 2 were 1 kilometer in the wrong direction, 1 back) to the city center to see...the world´s biggest christmas stollen!! Apparently it is a Dresden tradition to back a gigantic christmas stollen, parade it through the city to the christmas market, and have a bizarre fake medievel ceremony presenting it. it was thrilling. Then we wanted to split into two groups to go to either the main museum or to so-called "deutsches hygenie museum" I know, it sounds ridiculous, but i had read about it and i really wanted to go and so did one other person. that was all. so michl and I schlepped through the rain for 20 minutes, finally entering a rather sober looking grey building. But it was warm inside, and in the end, despite my quite brutal assumedly post too much glühwein headache, we spent a joyous 4 hours persusing an intriguing and endlessly entertaining collection of old DDR medical instruments, interactive activities to test your own abilities at various tasks, insect collections, morbidly fascinating clay models of different skin diseases, and a particularlz tasteful and artfully risque room about sex and sexuality. A fantastic decision.
And then the evening...a failed attempt at a pub crawl (an impossibility with 40 people, no?) ending at a club called flower power, which played a fantastic selection of oldies who no one liked but me and one of the staff members from dresden. So we danced the night away and although the evening wasn´t spent with really anyone from munich, it was fantastic nonetheless.
In the morning we all boarded the bus and headed to "Sächische Schweiz National Park" to see some really cool rockformations that looked somewhat like bryce canyon, hiked up to a castle ruin with an impressive view of the Elba, and froze our feet off. I am never wearing converses again in the cold, despite the admiration it earned me from my hipsterish friend from the previous night. And then we went home...and on the bus I endured much teasing about my lack of presence the previous night and we watched Speed. Which is a terrible movie but funny to watch on a bus. And then we were so tired, but it was such a good trip. It´s nice to have friends, it really is. Oh, and Dresden is a fantastic city! beautiful, just the right size...i think i want to live there next. we´ll see what i can do.
and now, i have language class. bye!
ill put some pictures from the trip up when i get a chance
I nearly missed the trip perhaps three times... the first being my impression that the trip left at 7pm instead of am. Thankfully I spent the evening with one of the trip organizers on Wednesday and he clarified my misconception. The second near miss was the (perhaps unadvisable) decision to go to the infamously life corrupting international student party on thursday night. This party is like a sandtrap. I literally seem to find it impossible to leave without either missing the last train, becoming incredibly intoxicated, engaging in otherwise unadvisable behavior, or all of the above. So you could say that it was clearly unadvisable to go there when I needed to do none of the above, most namely miss the last train, because to be back at the university at 7 with all my luggage, i would most certainly not make it starting home at 5:30am (its at least a 2 hour roundtrip). But I had spent the afternoon baking christmas cookies with Christy (another american participant who lives in my town) and the aupair from Poland who also lives with her. And it just so happened that it was her exact one year anniversary in germany! And one just doesnt not celebrate that. So I picked up a bottle of Sekt (german champagne) and we drank it on the train to Munich. The plan was to go very early to the party and leave no later than midnight to catch the last train, but more probably around 11. When we got to the party at 9:30, it was practically, and we drank our (complimentary for early birds) Glühwein in peace and conversation, punctuated by a funny interview by the Süddeutschezeitung (big newspaper of southern germany). But somewhere around 11, and this is what always seems to happen to me, a threshhold was reached and people started pouring into the party. This coincided with us reaching a particular point of intoxication. We were just starting to have fun! I managed to tear myself away at 12 but Christy and Magiana decided to stay the night...and off I ran. But it took forever for my subway to come so by the time I got to my tranfer station I had exactly two minutes to make the transfer. So I ran, as fast as possible, and made the train by exactly one minute. Phew.
And then there was the morning. I woke up at the absurd hour of 445 to finish packing and make my 548 train. Late as always i rushed out of the house at 543ish with all my luggage, tried to shove it in my bike basket, couldnt, so rode clumsily and dangerously down the hill in the dark icy morning. And just as I was pulling into the parking lot....hisssss....my train. At this point I knew I had no chance...I still had to lock my bike, unload my luggage and cross the tunnel under the tracks. The train stays for about 30 seconds. Scheisse. I knew this wasnt the end of the world, there was another train in 20 minutes and that would get me there most probably 3 or 4 minutes late, and knowing that about 1/4 of the people on this trip were italian...i probably wasnt going to be the only one =) But it still meant i had to freeze for 20 minutes, mad at myself.
In the end, I made it. The busride was full of cheer, and we reached the city well rested after a 6 hour ride. And the thermometer in the bus said it was 8 degrees celsius out! Heat wave! But as we soon discovered during our city tour....it was unreasonably cold. Noone could explain why, but we all attested to the fact that we were colder than wed ever been in our whole life. The long and painful tour ended at the christmas market, which still didnt provide any indoor cover but offered plenty of Glühwein. A new friend Jaques and I drank three. It was wonderful, never have I felt more relieved to be warmer. And then we all went back and napped at the hostel. At ten we were loudly awoken and we all boarded a tram for the dresden international student party. The evening was full of dancing and general cheer. And the busride home was full of singing. A general good time.
The next day the weather had not improved. It was raining, but nonetheless we all trepped 5 kilometers (should have been three but 2 were 1 kilometer in the wrong direction, 1 back) to the city center to see...the world´s biggest christmas stollen!! Apparently it is a Dresden tradition to back a gigantic christmas stollen, parade it through the city to the christmas market, and have a bizarre fake medievel ceremony presenting it. it was thrilling. Then we wanted to split into two groups to go to either the main museum or to so-called "deutsches hygenie museum" I know, it sounds ridiculous, but i had read about it and i really wanted to go and so did one other person. that was all. so michl and I schlepped through the rain for 20 minutes, finally entering a rather sober looking grey building. But it was warm inside, and in the end, despite my quite brutal assumedly post too much glühwein headache, we spent a joyous 4 hours persusing an intriguing and endlessly entertaining collection of old DDR medical instruments, interactive activities to test your own abilities at various tasks, insect collections, morbidly fascinating clay models of different skin diseases, and a particularlz tasteful and artfully risque room about sex and sexuality. A fantastic decision.
And then the evening...a failed attempt at a pub crawl (an impossibility with 40 people, no?) ending at a club called flower power, which played a fantastic selection of oldies who no one liked but me and one of the staff members from dresden. So we danced the night away and although the evening wasn´t spent with really anyone from munich, it was fantastic nonetheless.
In the morning we all boarded the bus and headed to "Sächische Schweiz National Park" to see some really cool rockformations that looked somewhat like bryce canyon, hiked up to a castle ruin with an impressive view of the Elba, and froze our feet off. I am never wearing converses again in the cold, despite the admiration it earned me from my hipsterish friend from the previous night. And then we went home...and on the bus I endured much teasing about my lack of presence the previous night and we watched Speed. Which is a terrible movie but funny to watch on a bus. And then we were so tired, but it was such a good trip. It´s nice to have friends, it really is. Oh, and Dresden is a fantastic city! beautiful, just the right size...i think i want to live there next. we´ll see what i can do.
and now, i have language class. bye!
ill put some pictures from the trip up when i get a chance
minty eyes and other homeopathic remedies
so
last night my host mom gave me some herbal remedies for my cough that i can´t seem to kick. First of all I should add that I am continually amazed at the incredible concern most europeans show at the sign of a nasty sounding cough. In Italy I was stopped on the street and told to go directly to the doctors if I coughed in public. At any rate, I appreciated the remedies provided by Sigrid, which included tea tree oil salve and some other minty oil thing that you drink. So I smothered myself with the salve, drank a drop of the oil, and fell into bed in a minty herby tingly tired from my trip to Dresden (more on that later) daze. Just before I drifted off, I did something incredibly stupid. I rubbed my eye. ahhhhhhh. Tingly minty breath is nice, as is tingly minty hair or even hands or feet I guess but tingly minty eye is not. If I kept it closed it tingled, if i opened it i got that drastic cold sensation you get on your tounge from eating five altoids at once. I was too tired to get up and rinse my eye out, so i eventually drifted off to sleep, considering the whole time the possible side effects of my eyefreshening mistake. aye aye aye (haha!)
last night my host mom gave me some herbal remedies for my cough that i can´t seem to kick. First of all I should add that I am continually amazed at the incredible concern most europeans show at the sign of a nasty sounding cough. In Italy I was stopped on the street and told to go directly to the doctors if I coughed in public. At any rate, I appreciated the remedies provided by Sigrid, which included tea tree oil salve and some other minty oil thing that you drink. So I smothered myself with the salve, drank a drop of the oil, and fell into bed in a minty herby tingly tired from my trip to Dresden (more on that later) daze. Just before I drifted off, I did something incredibly stupid. I rubbed my eye. ahhhhhhh. Tingly minty breath is nice, as is tingly minty hair or even hands or feet I guess but tingly minty eye is not. If I kept it closed it tingled, if i opened it i got that drastic cold sensation you get on your tounge from eating five altoids at once. I was too tired to get up and rinse my eye out, so i eventually drifted off to sleep, considering the whole time the possible side effects of my eyefreshening mistake. aye aye aye (haha!)
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
flip flop
I tried to relive the sledding joy again today with a friend. It worked to some extent...we sledded, laughed, raced, raced a two year old, my butt got completely wet, we drank two glasses of Gluhwein, and then I went off to Unterwasserhockey practice. It was actually quite hilarious, today I was carrying around my flippers and my two sleds. I get interesting looks with the flippers cause they stick out of my bag. And when I whip out the knitting on the train....I can't even imagine what they think.
So practice was good, if quite challenging today, and then we scampered off the the Bierstube in the Olympiadorf. I've mentioned the Olympiadorf before...it's a large collection of student housing, consisting of the old Olympic Village. It's quite charming, and as I discovered tonight, it has its own cafe and bier hall, as well as disco, pottery studio, comedy club...the list goes on. The student life in Germany is pretty great. At any rate I had a wonderful Pizza and beer with the UWH team, and headed home. I stopped in Hauptbahnhof to change trains and got a phone call from my friend Vincent, letting me know that he'd convinved one of the heads of MESA, the international student group who I went on the hut weekend with, to get us off the waiting list for the Dresden trip this weekend! Wahoo! I'm going to Dresden, hoorah. It's pretty crazy though, my other options for this weekend were a birthday party and a trip to salzburg, or skiing with a friend from the unterwasserhockey team. Hopefully salzburg and skiiing can happen another weekend.
Now off to sleep off the flipperfeet.
So practice was good, if quite challenging today, and then we scampered off the the Bierstube in the Olympiadorf. I've mentioned the Olympiadorf before...it's a large collection of student housing, consisting of the old Olympic Village. It's quite charming, and as I discovered tonight, it has its own cafe and bier hall, as well as disco, pottery studio, comedy club...the list goes on. The student life in Germany is pretty great. At any rate I had a wonderful Pizza and beer with the UWH team, and headed home. I stopped in Hauptbahnhof to change trains and got a phone call from my friend Vincent, letting me know that he'd convinved one of the heads of MESA, the international student group who I went on the hut weekend with, to get us off the waiting list for the Dresden trip this weekend! Wahoo! I'm going to Dresden, hoorah. It's pretty crazy though, my other options for this weekend were a birthday party and a trip to salzburg, or skiing with a friend from the unterwasserhockey team. Hopefully salzburg and skiiing can happen another weekend.
Now off to sleep off the flipperfeet.
spontaneous greek love temple mulled wine sledding
I have had one constantly repeating revelation in my time here thus far: life is never what you expect, and even when you think you wish something would happen, usually what you never could have imagined or planned on is better than what you originally wished for. In short, life in unexpected and that's wonderful.
I've had a series of consecutive experiences that really have allowed me to throw my trust towards my own fate. Nothing drastic, I guess I'm just supremely happy right now and things keep happening that are adding to that.
Yesterday after class I set off to the Christkindlmarkt am Chinesischen Turm (Christmas Market at the Chinese Tower in the English Garten in Munich). There was the requisite music and I bought a glass of Glühwein to warm up (mulled wine.) I wandered around the various picturesque stands selling things ranging from cutting boards to nativity scenes to knitted socks to...and then suddenly I saw them. Small sleds, the kind you sit on and they are barely big enough for your butt and there's a little handle thing that you hold onto between your legs. I loooked at the price--1.99!! Two euros! So I bought one. And then I finished my Glühwein and walked around and realized...I can't buy just one! So I bought a second. Red and Yellow. They fit EXACTLY in my backpack, which means I can always carry them around. I had tried earlier in the week to go sledding with a friend and we brought cardboard...let's just say it did not work very well.
So I set off with a nice glow from the Glühwein and the victorious purchase, and realized...i can't carry a sled through a park without trying it! So I hiked up to the very top of the Monopteros (see photo here), removed my coat...and off I went. I should mention that the view of the towers of Munich which you can see here (just imagine it with snow) from this section of the Englischer Garten is spectacular. And the sun was just starting to set, and I was all alone, whizzing down a hill and laughing like crazy, because really, sledding makes you laugh like crazy. I got to the bottom and knew I couldn't stop there. After two or three exhilarating runs, I was walking back up the hill and I heard my phone ringing. I ran to my bag, and by the time I got there I was quite exhausted. I didn't recognize the number but I figured it was just a friend so I answered, quite out of breath....
"Guten Tag, Frau Flechtner? Ich bin die Frau Bohle"
Scheisse. These were the people for my internship! Why are they calling me? Here I am, all alone on the top of a hill with a sled in one hand, totally out of breath, jacketless, trying to speak professional german.
"Sind Sie beschäftigt?" (are you busy?)--Frau Bohle
"Naja...ich bin gerade unterwegs (heavy breathing)" (yeaahh...i'm on my way somewhere)
But then, after it all...they invited me to an interview. And INTERVIEW! wahoo!! Here's some info about my potential internship: http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article1575.html
Needless to say, I took a victory sled or two. Yelling "wahoo" all the way. It's great to be a foreigner...
I've had a series of consecutive experiences that really have allowed me to throw my trust towards my own fate. Nothing drastic, I guess I'm just supremely happy right now and things keep happening that are adding to that.
Yesterday after class I set off to the Christkindlmarkt am Chinesischen Turm (Christmas Market at the Chinese Tower in the English Garten in Munich). There was the requisite music and I bought a glass of Glühwein to warm up (mulled wine.) I wandered around the various picturesque stands selling things ranging from cutting boards to nativity scenes to knitted socks to...and then suddenly I saw them. Small sleds, the kind you sit on and they are barely big enough for your butt and there's a little handle thing that you hold onto between your legs. I loooked at the price--1.99!! Two euros! So I bought one. And then I finished my Glühwein and walked around and realized...I can't buy just one! So I bought a second. Red and Yellow. They fit EXACTLY in my backpack, which means I can always carry them around. I had tried earlier in the week to go sledding with a friend and we brought cardboard...let's just say it did not work very well.
So I set off with a nice glow from the Glühwein and the victorious purchase, and realized...i can't carry a sled through a park without trying it! So I hiked up to the very top of the Monopteros (see photo here), removed my coat...and off I went. I should mention that the view of the towers of Munich which you can see here (just imagine it with snow) from this section of the Englischer Garten is spectacular. And the sun was just starting to set, and I was all alone, whizzing down a hill and laughing like crazy, because really, sledding makes you laugh like crazy. I got to the bottom and knew I couldn't stop there. After two or three exhilarating runs, I was walking back up the hill and I heard my phone ringing. I ran to my bag, and by the time I got there I was quite exhausted. I didn't recognize the number but I figured it was just a friend so I answered, quite out of breath....
"Guten Tag, Frau Flechtner? Ich bin die Frau Bohle"
Scheisse. These were the people for my internship! Why are they calling me? Here I am, all alone on the top of a hill with a sled in one hand, totally out of breath, jacketless, trying to speak professional german.
"Sind Sie beschäftigt?" (are you busy?)--Frau Bohle
"Naja...ich bin gerade unterwegs (heavy breathing)" (yeaahh...i'm on my way somewhere)
But then, after it all...they invited me to an interview. And INTERVIEW! wahoo!! Here's some info about my potential internship: http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article1575.html
Needless to say, I took a victory sled or two. Yelling "wahoo" all the way. It's great to be a foreigner...
Monday, November 28, 2005
and some more explanation
Ok. I'm beating a dead horse, i think, but here's an article about underwaterhockey in Cincinnati, In english: http://www.wral.com/apstrangenews/5411464/detail.html
It's quite funny. Here are my favorite quotes:
"What's next, underwater basket weaving?'"
"You get the gagging feeling. But when you're close to the goal, you're like, 'Do I want to score a goal or breathe?' Most of the time I say, 'Score.'"
"From the surface, it looks like a feeding frenzy."
I think that I am a fish.
It's quite funny. Here are my favorite quotes:
"What's next, underwater basket weaving?'"
"You get the gagging feeling. But when you're close to the goal, you're like, 'Do I want to score a goal or breathe?' Most of the time I say, 'Score.'"
"From the surface, it looks like a feeding frenzy."
I think that I am a fish.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
scuba steve
And this is it, the long awaited photo that proves the whole thing is true. I'm exhausted from the weekend, but it was great and i'll write more later. As an appetizer, here's me fully equipped.
Friday, November 25, 2005
and so it goes...
hi! that's me and my host dog.
right. so i'm quite busy, and i think i am also quite adapted. These are all good things, except that i've almost stopped writing here. Basically I've made a bunch of new friends, been playing lots of unterwasserhockey and just enjoying life. my parents were here last week and that went really well. I love my life here right now, including the lack of sleep it involves... This weekend i'm going to an unterwasserhockey tournament in Slovenia. That's right. Should be pretty fun, as well absurd. Come to think of it, that pretty much defines my life right now. Fun and absurd.
Friday, November 11, 2005
various amounts of progress on various things
Dear Diary,
It's the hardest to write in you when there's a lot going on--precisely when I should write in you the most! At any rate, the last few days have been full of nothing particularly new but progress on a lot of fronts. What fronts? Well, there's the Unterwasserhockey front, for starters. I have been promoted to the advanced practice group, wahoo! And I actually played, and did good things that helped the team instead of hurt them. I actually think I've never liked a sport more! There's something particularly satisfying about out breath holding people while wearing perhaps the most ridiculous outfit in the world. I find it exceedinly satisfying that in my life I have played not just one but two sports which make use of the most ridiculous looking head gear in the athletic world: the water polo cap. And I'm still young...
Additionally on the UWH front, I am finally starting to be able to recognize people behind their waterpolo caps, diving masks, and snorkels, and making some friends! And due to the unusually communal nature of the locker rooms, I find myself oft involved in what I would normally term girly locker room chat with the whole team! Also on the "friends" front, I've been meeting some other people. I have been a very active fake participant in most Erasmus student activities, which is the governing body of the European exchange program and has offices and actual staff in every city whose sole job seems to be to plan parties and events for exchange students. Yesterday we went on a brewery tour of the Paulaner Brauerei, which was interesting but hard to follow because our tour guide kept flirting with the spanish language translator that another group had brought along. The best parts were: tasting the barley malt, going in the giant refridgerator room where the beer is aged, and seeing the giant assembly line where the bottles are filled and labled. Ah, the beauty of mass production. And of course, there was free beer for all, which was rewarding as always. And this weekend I am going with a group of Erasmus students to the Alps to stay in a hut for two nights. It's going to be...interesting. I have a feeling there won't be all that much sleeping. Hey, you only live once...
Yes, so my life has been off-and-on sleepless, and of course there's been fun with my host family and I'm starting to think about internship options. And last but not least my family is coming to visit next sunday! I can't really believe it's already the middle of November...when I left it seemed like such a long time away that they were coming to visit me, but here we are and I will be thrilled to see them.
So that's all for now, although I'm sure I'll add more later as, well, there's more to say...friends, boys, school, the usual aspects of life (at least mine). Until then...tschuss!
Emily
It's the hardest to write in you when there's a lot going on--precisely when I should write in you the most! At any rate, the last few days have been full of nothing particularly new but progress on a lot of fronts. What fronts? Well, there's the Unterwasserhockey front, for starters. I have been promoted to the advanced practice group, wahoo! And I actually played, and did good things that helped the team instead of hurt them. I actually think I've never liked a sport more! There's something particularly satisfying about out breath holding people while wearing perhaps the most ridiculous outfit in the world. I find it exceedinly satisfying that in my life I have played not just one but two sports which make use of the most ridiculous looking head gear in the athletic world: the water polo cap. And I'm still young...
Additionally on the UWH front, I am finally starting to be able to recognize people behind their waterpolo caps, diving masks, and snorkels, and making some friends! And due to the unusually communal nature of the locker rooms, I find myself oft involved in what I would normally term girly locker room chat with the whole team! Also on the "friends" front, I've been meeting some other people. I have been a very active fake participant in most Erasmus student activities, which is the governing body of the European exchange program and has offices and actual staff in every city whose sole job seems to be to plan parties and events for exchange students. Yesterday we went on a brewery tour of the Paulaner Brauerei, which was interesting but hard to follow because our tour guide kept flirting with the spanish language translator that another group had brought along. The best parts were: tasting the barley malt, going in the giant refridgerator room where the beer is aged, and seeing the giant assembly line where the bottles are filled and labled. Ah, the beauty of mass production. And of course, there was free beer for all, which was rewarding as always. And this weekend I am going with a group of Erasmus students to the Alps to stay in a hut for two nights. It's going to be...interesting. I have a feeling there won't be all that much sleeping. Hey, you only live once...
Yes, so my life has been off-and-on sleepless, and of course there's been fun with my host family and I'm starting to think about internship options. And last but not least my family is coming to visit next sunday! I can't really believe it's already the middle of November...when I left it seemed like such a long time away that they were coming to visit me, but here we are and I will be thrilled to see them.
So that's all for now, although I'm sure I'll add more later as, well, there's more to say...friends, boys, school, the usual aspects of life (at least mine). Until then...tschuss!
Emily
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Friday, November 4, 2005
catch-up
Referat? Man, that was so long ago. It went well. So well that I decided to celebrate Halloween in true halloween style, dressed up like a Ninja Turtle (raphael), but not until after wearing my purple wig to language class. Old women on the train actually avoided sitting next to me--halloween here is just not the same. First time i've been truly homesick. Went back to the ridiculous mall-of-clubs and fought my way through crowds of uncostumed 17 year olds for a chance to dance. Danced a bit but then fell asleep at the club around 3. I'm too old for this. When I finally got home I walked into my bedroom and my alarm went off, signifying that I had been awake exactly 24 hours (6:45-6:45) and decided that was my cue: to bed. Slept till 5pm the next day.
Lately? ...not too much. Eric is here, though! We're checking out Munich...I always learn something new about Munich when I have visitors. Yesterday we climbed the "Olympiaberg" in the olympic park. We saw a beautiful sunset and the mountains...it was unrealistically warm yesterday. Sometimes the weather here baffles me..it's been beautiful! I went to Unterwasserhockey yesterday. It was great...I'm getting much better. I think I might pick up snorkeling for real after this...if I can get over my fear of fish. The plan for today is multi-faceted: eric is coming to see my house, then we're going to a "Tram party" with the international student group. The plan? Party in a street car while it drives around munich. Kind of like prom on a river boat, only there will be alcohol. We'll see how three hours on a tram with people goes...
That's all, sorry for the rough language and the sloppy writing style. Bis dann...
Lately? ...not too much. Eric is here, though! We're checking out Munich...I always learn something new about Munich when I have visitors. Yesterday we climbed the "Olympiaberg" in the olympic park. We saw a beautiful sunset and the mountains...it was unrealistically warm yesterday. Sometimes the weather here baffles me..it's been beautiful! I went to Unterwasserhockey yesterday. It was great...I'm getting much better. I think I might pick up snorkeling for real after this...if I can get over my fear of fish. The plan for today is multi-faceted: eric is coming to see my house, then we're going to a "Tram party" with the international student group. The plan? Party in a street car while it drives around munich. Kind of like prom on a river boat, only there will be alcohol. We'll see how three hours on a tram with people goes...
That's all, sorry for the rough language and the sloppy writing style. Bis dann...
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
ninja raphael kicks defeats evil referat
Strangest Halloween of my life...
I got up at 6:45 to make sure I was NICE and early for my oral presenation in "Development and Social Change." Stopped on the way to send a few packages...some of you will be getting some exciting mail soon!
I was so early to the Poli Sci building and so nervous that I got some Chamomile tea in the cafeteria downstairs. It was horrible, and then I noticed it was made by Kraft. Damn kraft...
At any rate, the presenation went well! By well I mean..well..I survived. I think I did alright...gosh knows I certainly made a huge number of grammatical errors..but I think I was understood and I'd worked really hard. I guess that's the important part. Needless to say I was thrilled to be done, and I rewarded myself with a beer in the Viktualianmarkt beer Garden..mmm.
I got up at 6:45 to make sure I was NICE and early for my oral presenation in "Development and Social Change." Stopped on the way to send a few packages...some of you will be getting some exciting mail soon!
I was so early to the Poli Sci building and so nervous that I got some Chamomile tea in the cafeteria downstairs. It was horrible, and then I noticed it was made by Kraft. Damn kraft...
At any rate, the presenation went well! By well I mean..well..I survived. I think I did alright...gosh knows I certainly made a huge number of grammatical errors..but I think I was understood and I'd worked really hard. I guess that's the important part. Needless to say I was thrilled to be done, and I rewarded myself with a beer in the Viktualianmarkt beer Garden..mmm.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
If Autumn were adopting an advertising campagin, this would be it!
Literally, this is the most beautifully I've ever experienced the fall. Today I went on perhaps the most spectacular hike I've ever been on to "Kloster Andechs" a Closter known for its beautiful location and fantastic food and beer! We had views of painted trees, horse drawn carriages, and (in the upper right) the Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak! (very faint in the background.) Tomorrow is Halloween which I will be celebrating with much gusto after I make it through my Referat (oral presenation). Until then, i'm going to soak up the sun.
Leafily yours,
Emily
Saturday, October 29, 2005
not a bad way to get rid of a cold
So i have this sudden cold. It's really not bad, although my host family insists on giving me all kinds of remedies, including a particularly horrendous version of echinacea liquid. Today, at any rate, I slept in and with the exception of waking up to bike to the grocery store before 12:30, i didn't do much of anything. It was particularly quaint, though, that bike ride, followed by careful riding so as not to drop the groceries in the back of my bike. Afterwards, I ate a delicious lunch and sat out in back of the house reading "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Maurakmi, which I must admit I bought simply because I love the song, but is turning out to be quite a great read. The only problem is I read it almost all today and afterwards i'm not going to have another book to read. I hear there's an English library somewhere in Munich though, i'll have to check it out. I've never read anything by a Japanese author, it really makes me want to travel there. I forgot how great it is to enjoy a good book witha real atmosphere.
At any rate, today was the most spectacular day ever. It was almost 75 degrees out and sunny, pretty impressive for October 29th in Germany. You know me, it made me feel quite guilty to not go sit by the lake or take a hike but I decided that lying on the deck in the sun was good enough. I was wearing only a tank top and shorts, that's how warm it was! I was out there literally all day, the sun is just going down now, and it was idyllic. At one point a little boy walked out into the field and started picking flowers and I thought I was going to cry or something with the picturesqueness of it all. A flock of birds flew overhead and I could actually hear their wings--it's so quiet out here in the country! Quite a wonderful contrast to hectic Munich.
Tonight i'm cooking a recipe that I learned in Italy for my host family...it's a really nice feeling to mix all my life experiences together...it makes me feel less like a fragmented person with different friends in different places and different memories in different languages but rather just a mix of experiences. I guess that's what everyone's like, really, even if they've never left their hometown.
Off to shower and cook, goobye.
Friday, October 28, 2005
students in shacks in heaven
Something like a mix between the slums of rio and some kind of venice-like paradise, the student town I discovered today makes me want to live in this city as a student forever. Converted bungalows from the 72 olympics, complete with concrete block 70s style architecture, balconies, narrow allies an
d acomplete right to graffiti and paint them as pleased! Both visually appealing and socially sensible. It's Germany like I always dreamed of. Until I take more pictures, this will have to suffice...I think I might be spending a lot of time in Olympiapark area. Who knows, maybe I'll be an Olympicunterwasserhockeyspielerin one day.
and i'm gonna have föhn, föhn, föhn...
Riddle: What clears the way for specacular weather and views of the alps, but gives everyone headaches and bad moods? Answer: föhn.
Funny word. But i've heard it so much lately, and in so many contexts. Examples:
I wake up from a long night sleeping to find my host mom lying on the couch looking not well. I ask her what's wrong and she replies "I have a föne headache." (and here i'm thinking, oh, than perhaps i'm not hungover from the previous night, it's just the föhn...)
I am chatting with a cranky museum security guard who is noting that people are especially difficult today. I blame the rain, he blaims the föhn.
I am riding home on the train from the aforementioned long night out, and the sun is coming up. The sky is especially clear and beautiful, and an austrian friend sitting next to me remarks: föhn is so wonderful, don't you agree?
I ride with my host dad through perhaps the most spectacular autumn scenery i've ever seen to pick out a pumpkin so i can carve them a jackolantern. Why is the sky so clear, the sun so golden, and the peaks of the alps so suddenly visible? föhn.
Alright, alright. So what is this so called föhn? It's, as it was explained to me, a warm, dry and sudden wind that comes from the mountains. And as you can see, it has quite incredible effects. Namely, as explained, it brings wonderful, warm, sunny, clear weather that allows you to see for miles and miles (or i guess i should say kilometers and kilometers) towards the mountains, but it puts people in bad moods and gives them headaches. At any rate, I had no bad mood or föhn related headache, but I did have a fantastic time walking down the block and staring for hours and hours at the alps rising majestically above Lake Starnberg, which so happens to by ringed with autumn-colored trees. Sigh.
Needless to say, i'm wowed by the beauty of it all here.
visitors...
I had some recent visitors! Nicole, Natalie and Corey (their friend) came to see me! We had a fantastic time together, fabulous weather and it gave me the opportunity to get to know the city even better and the excuse to go to Hofbrauhaus as a tourist. Best of all, we sang endless karaoke on tuesday night. Not only did we sing several times (total eclipse of the heart and eye of the tiger are highlights) but we also got sung to by a 65 year old man named Bernie with a wonderful voice. It was like being serenaded by Sinatra...sort of. Needless to say, i'll be going back, maybe every tuesday! I can see it now...Unterwasserhockey, student film club, Karaoke! Good plan, i'd say.Otherwise, things here are really getting rolling. I've had to cross a series of rather difficult hurdles, well i should stay i'm rather still crossing them. They seem like small things but i'm pretty proud of myself for making it through, just considering that everything becomes so much harder in another culture in another language. The toughest thing had been preparing for the oral presenation that i'm giving in my class on monday! eeeeeeek. Not only is it 15 minutes of speaking German but the material is quite complicated. Luckily my group is fantastic, smart and patient, and we've worked dedicatedly on our presenation all week. Frankly, i've never seen such efficient or smart group work being done...i've learned a lot, including a lot of German, I'm still quite nervous, but Monday's halloween so if i make it through i've earned myself a night out (in costume!), bragging rights, and possibly two new German frie
nds!
nds!Otherwise, little things have occupied me, namely figuring out the city, buying some guys' spot in a yoga course, playing more unterwasserhockey (it's going very well!) and generally enjoying living in what i'm discovering is a fantastic and varied city. My German makes leaps all the time..if sporatically. The next step: internship search. Wow...
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
trying really hard to be a fish...
For those of you who know me well, you know how much I love the water. It seems like my newest undertaking is quite broadening the limits of that love. I am officially a member of the Munich Unterwasserhockey team. I mentioned it briefly yesterday but here's a more accurate description of what the sport involves:
First of all, let me explain the equipment. In addition to a bathing suit, we wear flippers, a diving mask, a snorkel, a waterpolo hat (i KNEW i would have another occasion in my life to wear one of those), a latex glove (on the right hand only, mine was white, hehehe), and a little wooden stick.
The game is played entirely on the bottom of the pool. And the pool is not shallow...it's about 9 feet deep. The goal of the game is essentially just like hockey: push the puck around, score goals. But of course the dynamics are entirely different because it's played on the bottom of the pool. First of all, it's weirdly silent. There's no "hey pass to me" or "idiot, how could you miss that shot" or "nice one." There's mostly a lot of swimming down to the bottom, pushing this heavy puck around till you have no more air left, and then shooting back up to the top for some air. Theoretically you keep your head in the water and breathe through the snorkel, but I found that everytime i surfaced I couldn't resist the temptation to rip my mask and snorkel off and breathe normally. I'll have to work on that...
The hardest part, for me, was equalizing the pressure in my ears. Apparently one is supposed to be able to swim at 9 feet without pain, so i'll have to work on that one. With the exception, then, of aching ears, I only had one other problem. Our team captain designated me to swim for the puck, and I must say the one thing I did succeed in doing was swimming pretty fast. Of course, I push off the wall and instantly get a shooting leg cramp...I had forgotten what it was like to have one of those in the water. At any rate, all I could do was haul myself to the wall and swear my head off until someone helped haul me out. In the process I scraped my knee. Needless to say, not the most graceful ending t
o a relatively good first practice, but what can you do? My leg hurts today...Another cool part of this whole adventure, aside from learning a ridiculous new sport and meeting a bunch of Germans is that our practices are all held at the 1972 Olympic Arena...which is actually quite a creepy spiderwebby structure at night, but fancy and fun nonetheless.
That's all for now...glub glub glub
international name placards...
I find myself again in the fantastically mystical atmosphere of a language class in germany. This time it's in one of th
e typically run-down university buildings, on the 4th (or as germans euphamistically name it, the 3rd) floor. It's twice a week, from 7-8:30, which at this time of year is truly evening, which causes me to feel somewhat adventurous...i don't know, school at night!
The students are once again from all over the world: two from japan, 3 from france, one from finland, one from russia and one from the czech republic. Our teacher is a lively young (35, maybe?) woman from just outside of munich who seems nice, intelligent, patient and dynamic. I'm excited!
As for real school..it's also going well. I went to an italian course yesterday which was fantastic, i'm looking forward to continuing my italian, although i find it utterly confusing when the teacher clarifies words in german. My head is swimming with languages, ayayay. So it seems I have my schedule pretty much set, and that leaves me with most of my courses on Monday, two on tuesday, just language course on wednesday and i'm done for the week! Don't worry though, i'm trying to fill my time with the usual slew of activities, the latest interest being underwaterhockey...tomorrow i'm going to go check it out.
As for Munich...it's beautiful! But huge. I'm remembering the way i feel in a big city
...excited and overwhelmed but also sort of coddled and hidden comfortably among the folds and fluff of a giant throbbing mass of people, tourists, students, babies, parents, buildings, museums, drinking, eating, dancing and chatting. It's sort of comforting in a weird way...i feel much less exposed as an expat here than in radolfzell or padova, which is exciting but also puts more burden on me to make an extra effort to integrate myself. At any rate, i'm getting to know the city bit by bit and i can already tell that it has a charm that i will miss dearly in the end.
And now, off to bed, cause theoretically i have to have enough energy to play some underwater hockey tomorrow!
e typically run-down university buildings, on the 4th (or as germans euphamistically name it, the 3rd) floor. It's twice a week, from 7-8:30, which at this time of year is truly evening, which causes me to feel somewhat adventurous...i don't know, school at night!The students are once again from all over the world: two from japan, 3 from france, one from finland, one from russia and one from the czech republic. Our teacher is a lively young (35, maybe?) woman from just outside of munich who seems nice, intelligent, patient and dynamic. I'm excited!
As for real school..it's also going well. I went to an italian course yesterday which was fantastic, i'm looking forward to continuing my italian, although i find it utterly confusing when the teacher clarifies words in german. My head is swimming with languages, ayayay. So it seems I have my schedule pretty much set, and that leaves me with most of my courses on Monday, two on tuesday, just language course on wednesday and i'm done for the week! Don't worry though, i'm trying to fill my time with the usual slew of activities, the latest interest being underwaterhockey...tomorrow i'm going to go check it out.
As for Munich...it's beautiful! But huge. I'm remembering the way i feel in a big city
...excited and overwhelmed but also sort of coddled and hidden comfortably among the folds and fluff of a giant throbbing mass of people, tourists, students, babies, parents, buildings, museums, drinking, eating, dancing and chatting. It's sort of comforting in a weird way...i feel much less exposed as an expat here than in radolfzell or padova, which is exciting but also puts more burden on me to make an extra effort to integrate myself. At any rate, i'm getting to know the city bit by bit and i can already tell that it has a charm that i will miss dearly in the end.And now, off to bed, cause theoretically i have to have enough energy to play some underwater hockey tomorrow!
Friday, September 30, 2005
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