What a long, crazy weekend. I love this city. I love being here. Everyday I love it more and more. I’m falling madly in love with Munich – through the people, through the culture, the food, the bier, the language, the customs, the lights, the sounds. And now that I’ve made a handful of friends here, things are decidedly much better, anyway – it’s easier to love a city when you have someone to adventure with! After the meet up on Thursday, I made more plans with Jessica and we went out on Friday night as well. Helen’s also introducing me to her friends, which is a blessing.
There have been a few frustrations, namely the jet lag. It’s getting better, slowly. But on Thursday night, it killed me. Helen and I came back from the bars around 2 am and I was ready to sleep, in my bed, around 3. But I never fell asleep, I wasn’t the least bit tired. I stayed up until 7 am and here in Munich, the sun comes up just before 5 am. So not only was I battling jet lag but I was also fighting against the sun. Thank God for the sleep mask I got on my flight. I’ve been using it every night. It’s a big help in allowing me to sleep.
Unfortunately, jet lag and an early morning sunrise wasn’t the only thing keeping me awake. The bed that I sleep on is broken – the support beam beneath the mattress that runs vertically along the middle of the bed, is broken and is slowly snapping in half. The bed creaks and makes horrible noises every time I turn over, not to mention, it’s really uncomfortable when your whole body sinks maliciously into the middle of the mattress. I tried a million different ways to fix it. The Frau and I even nailed it back together and taped it up but that didn’t hold. Right now I have three pillows supporting it under the bed and it’s doing better. It still makes a lot of noise but it’s more comfortable and is being supported from breaking further. All things considered, I managed to sleep until 12 that morning and then began my day, which included yet another frustration.
A bottle of bright red nail polish fell off of my shelf in the bathroom, hit the porcelain floor, and SHATTERED. Bright red nail polish everywhere. It was horrible. I wanted to cry. I didn’t have any nail polish remover. What was I supposed to do? I ended up going out into the city and went to the DM at Munchner Freiheit to get some nail polish remover and cotton balls. I made up some lame excuse and told the Frau that I had to go to O2 to have them fix my phone. I was embarrassed. I didn’t want her to cancel my contract on account of idiocy and general tiredness. The whole trip took less than a half an hour and I was able to sneak back inside, upstairs, and sat in the bathroom for a half an hour inhaling polish remover fumes and sweating profusely. Eventually, I managed to clean most of it up. Well, I cleaned all of it but the spaces between the tiles are now tinged a delicate shade of pink. I guess things like this are supposed to happen every once in a while though. Oops.
Another thing that I’m trying to get used to is that there are lack of meals or a steady routine. I’m hoping this will change with time but for now, it’s really hard to get used to. Because of my work schedule, I don’t always eat regular meals with the family so it’s hard to get a proper meal schedule going. So far, I’ve managed to have dinner with the family most nights but it’s not really traditional German food. It’s a lot of pasta and salad, bread and cheese. Mostly just pasta. Breakfast is mostly nonexistent, unless I’m invited downstairs or getting the girls ready for school. And it’s usually cereal except on Saturday it was pretzels, cream cheese, and salami. Weird. Because the girls are at school during the day on weekdays, lunch is pretty much of my own making. And since I’m still trying to figure out how to walk around the family that I am living with and exist comfortably with them, it’s been hard figuring out how everything works and what is expected of me. Fortunately, because of this, I’m going to be losing some weight. Seeing as I eat one meal on average and consume mostly fruit and water and walk just about everywhere that I go.
Fortunately, the girls are getting used to me and they are warming up to me. On Thursday I spent part of the afternoon coloring with Vee, in the Disneyland coloring book that I sent her in the spring and we also made some blueberry muffins together. She smiles and laughs with me, it’s so cute. I made them pancakes that night and they loved them. They turned out REALLY good, I even surprised myself. On Friday, they had a play date and Eenie spent most of her time with the neighbor boy but Vee stayed with me and taught how to play Snap and we played Uno. She beat me every time! So Vee has definitely been warming up to me the most and seems to like me a lot. Eenie took her chances with me on Saturday and we fell pretty hard in love with each other. Ha. We all went to the grocery store together and there is a place on the cart for the kids to ride and they would fight over who wanted to be there, of course. But when they did, they would lean into me and talk to me in English, asking me questions. It was cute. I’m definitely falling in love with them. They’re such sweet little girls. And I love reading to them and playing games with them. They are SO smart. They amaze me. They’re five and they speak two languages fluently! They’re incredible, as far as I’m concerned. Tomorrow I will work for the first time and get them fed and ready for school. Hopefully it goes well!
On a less responsible note, my first weekend in Munich was EPIC. I went out with Jessica on Friday and Saturday night and had such a good time. I love this girl, I’m so glad I met her. We get along great and are enjoying the night life! A recap of our weekend adventures:
- getting lost in the streets looking for a ToyTown meet-up
- taking the tram in the wrong direction
- finding a three story tall McDonalds where we met handsome and sexy British men
- bar hopping with said British men
- trying to get past the “guest lists” at night clubs
- dancing at Sausalitos to music that was three years outdated
- Jägermeister shots in Germany! (Really! How often do you get to do that?!)
- meeting one person from Monterey and another from San Luis Obispo
- stumbling across the four most handsome and well dressed men Germany could ever produce and then hating ourselves for not getting their phone numbers
- eating traditional, delicious German food
- hanging out with drunk, middle aged British men at a classy Munich bar
- bier! bier! bier!
Ultimately, I love this city. Did I say that already? I am having such a good time here, I can’t believe that this is my life right now. When did this happen? And to me? Five years ago, even two years ago, I never would have pictures myself doing this, living this dream. It’s incredible. I am so blessed to have this opportunity.
Now if only the rain would go away and the sun would come out!
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1 comments:
In a lot of ways the newness of your life here will work for or against you, dependant on your attitude. You seem to be embracing the culture in about every way. As far as your living/working arrangement is concerned I think you just need to give things some time and allow yourself to settle in more.
The effects of jet lag haven't fully worn off, so it's apparent your system isn't fully adjusted yet. I don't know what the Frau is like to work for, but as far as the nail polish remover incident's concerned you have to be allowed to make mistakes (ie, show your human side). I realize you're putting pressure on yourself to paint yourself in the best light; if it were me my reaction would have been much the same.
Although if I were wearing red nail polish that would be a separate issue entirely.
I think once a little time has passed you'll get more into the routine, get used to the meal schedule etc. and be quite comfortable with the whole arrangement. Your attitude throughout this post is pretty amazing considering the short time you've been there.
Just my unsolicited observations Heather, hope you don't mind!
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