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
 

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.

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 and a
complete 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 friends!

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...

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 to 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 the 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!