Nine Months Gone By (I Could Have Cooked a Baby By Now!), My Impending Adulthood, and All the Things and People That Make My Life

I can’t believe that it’s already the 1st of March, that’s it already spring. Where the hell has this year gone? I started this blog almost a year ago. It’s been almost nine months since I started this adventure in Munich. Time goes by so fast. This time last year I was working diligently on my graduation capstone and was taking care of Baby D five days a week. It feels so far away. So much has happened since then and my life has changed in every way possible. I have been so blessed to have this experience and I wish that there were more than just three months left to enjoy it. Unfortunately, that is all that I have left – 110 days, just a little over three months. There is still so much that I can do in that time – I’m going to be traveling this spring (budget-willing!), visiting Barcelona, Spain and, hopefully Verona and Venice, Italy. I’m going to Cologne on the 11th of this month. And in May, I’m going to Berlin to visit friends who live there. There’s another beer festival coming up in March – the Starkbierfest – which means that the dirndl is coming out again and my girlfriends and I can feel like real Bavarians. I’ve fallen short on my Munich bucket list but I’ll pick up on it again – I have a lot of stuff to catch up on that I haven’t even posted yet. Bear with me. I’ll get through it eventually.

Life has been good. Things in Munich are wonderful, I have no complaints. My social life here far outweighs my au pair responsibilities. Last weekend we completely exhausted ourselves partying. One going away party after another and two 6 am returns in a row. Club nights, bars, beer, tequila. We take it all in stride and we look out for each other whenever and wherever we can. I spent all day Sunday in bed watching How I Met Your Mother. It was glorious. Then my lovely friend, Ana, fed me a delicious pasta dinner and we talked for hours about everything going on in our lives. I love weekends here – I live for them. I will miss this when I go home to live in my mom’s basement and start my grown-up life. I will miss this last chance that I’ve been given to really just be young and carefree. It doesn’t have to stop after this but it will. I’m making that choice. I’m choosing to grow up and take on a more responsible adult role. Which is fine with me. But, for now and in spite of my near and not so distant future, I choose to enjoy the time that I have left here and to just live my life as it comes.

My favorite picture of the week:

My best girlfriend, Fionnuala. I LOVE HER.

Other things I’ve done in the last week or so:

• I watched 127 Hours about the guy who cuts off his arm. Incredible.
• Called my mom, twice, over the course of five days and talked to her for over an hour both times. I miss her. A lot.

I can’t wait to hang out with my mom and Ruby Tuesday.

• Earned 80 EUR on the side. It’s a secret! :) And then spent it all. Another lesson learned. Sigh.
• Played at the spielplatz with the cutest twins in all of Munich.

Das ist alles. Danke. Tschüs!

52 Things: #12, #16, and #28… (and Some Other Unrelated Stuff, Too)

I knocked three things off of the list this weekend. Unintentionally, too. Thursday night, during one of our Skype video chats, Brenna and I decided that, since we were both off for most of the day on Friday, that we would go to the Dachau concentration camp memorial site. I’d already been but Brenna had yet to go and I was happy to go again because one, it’s free, and two, it’s really interesting and always worth a visit. We met at the fish fountain (Standard!) at noon and then argued about whether or not we should be honorable and get an S Bahn ticket. I convinced her that we did, in fact, need to get a ticket (we’re honorable residents!) and assured her that I’d read all of the ticket options and that I knew exactly which one was the one that we needed.

Turns out I was wrong. Which brings me to #12 on my list of things to do in Munich:

Be stymied by Munich’s public transport pricing system.

This happens all the time. I don’t know WHY it’s so confusing it just is. There are rings and zones and inner districts and outer districts, partner tickets and single tickets, day trips, single trips, stripe cards. Yada, yada. It’s ridiculous. Most of Munich lies within rings 1-4 and on the map, ther area is coded in white and green. Weird shades of green, mind you! Dachau is on the edge of the fourth ring in the green… I think. Oh shit, I don’t know! I thought we needed the outer district ticket (Außenraum: green, yellow and red zone) because Dachau was in the green zone. So we bought the outer ticket, only to discover later, as our ticket is being checked (Brenna, you’re WELCOME!) that the Außenraum ticket covers rings 5-16. What? Who even goes out that far? Haha. Seriously. So not only did we have the wrong ticket but I was missing rings 3-4… the only rings that I needed to get from point A to point B. And we were definitely inside of ring 3 when he checked us. But the guy didn’t get me for it. It probably happens a lot. Haha. But I did have my MONTHLY TRAIN PASS (which is #16 – “Buy a monthly public transport ticket”) so I had rings 1-2 and rings 5-16. I was officially stymied.

Halfway through the journey, we met some fellow Americans who had taken the seats near us and we quickly befriended them. How could we not with Brenna and I being the only two people in the entire train car that were speaking? They heard us and sat down next to us, comforted by our shared home language. The four of us were all headed to the same place and since I’d been to Dachau once already, I kind of became the unofficial tour guide. And Brenna became the unofficial comic relief. Although at times it felt a tad bit inappropriate, the girl kept us laughing throughout the two or so hours that we spent walking around the historical site. I’ve been there before so I won’t get into it but the place is just depressing. As it has every right to be. Horrible things happened there. But either way, it was nice to have Brenna there to keep things jovial. Haha.

We spent the rest of the weekend showing our new friends around Munich (Schloss Nymphenburg and the inside of not one but two McDonald’s, haha). Also, #28 (tell someone off for standing on the wrong side on the escalator) comes in to play because I got to yell at one of the girls to move to the right side of the escalator. Haha. Sorry, Tyler!

On Friday night, Brenna and I joined some friends at Mike’s house for dinner and wine and then we all went out and stayed in the city, bar hopping until 4 am. We went from Sausalitos to Ned Kelly’s to Kilian’s, to a cheap kebap shop where the owner tried to take advantage of us. We picked up some interesting characters throughout the night the best being an Italian cocaine dealer who thought we were the cops after Brenna told him to ‘Leave us the f%$k alone and go away!’ Haha. On Saturday night I was home with the girls so it was macaroni and cheese and a few streaming episodes of Desperate Housewives for me.

Me and Brenna. I ADORE this picture mostly because I adore this girl!

On Sunday morning, I met Laura, Andrzej, Mike, and Ana at Hauptbahnhof where we bought a Bayern ticket and caught a train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. We spent an incredible day in the little city, braving the cold and ski crowds. It was the last day of the Alpine Ski World Championships but the crowds weren’t too bad. We did a pretty easy hike to the partnachklamm and it was so worth it. The ice was INCREDIBLE through there - I’d never seen anything like it before.

After our hike, we hung out at Kathe’s house for a few hours and were fed chips, hummus, and animal crackers that belonged to some other kid. We’re still not sure what she was talking about on that one. Haha. Dustin was there for one more day so we spent some time with him, too, and after Kathe entertained us and warmed us up, we all walked to the Bahnhof and had drinks in Sausalitos. Then we went home… where Laura, Andrzej, and I had drinks at Jaeger’s happy hour.

Then I came home and now it’s 1 am and I’m posting this blog. Life is good, isn’t it? I have absolutely NO complaints.

52 Things Challenge: #52 Stroke the Residenz Lions

The Munich Residenz is a prominent tourist location here in the city. It is now a museum but was once the home of the Bavarian dukes, electors, and kings for almost 400 years. The Residenz is a ridiculously beautiful palace complete with gardens and magnificent architecture. I have yet to visit the museum itself but I’ve been to many of the surrounding areas – the Hofgarten and the Temple of Diana more than once.

I didn’t know this before I came to Munich but the four bronze lion statues that guard the outer entrances of Residenz are considered extremely lucky. Apparently, the luck only comes if you stroke the nose of just one lion as you pass but I’ve heard all kinds of variations. The one that seems to stick is that you rub any three noses but not all four or your luck is cancelled out. Between the massive hordes of lady bugs that seem to have taken up residence in my bedroom, hallway, and staircase and the frequent nose rubbing that I do of these lions, I’m going to be lucky for the rest of my life!

52 Things Challenge: How to Act Like a Local While Living in Munich

The other day my dearest Jessica posted a link on my Facebook wall to this amazing website called 52 Ways to Act Like a Local. It’s basically a bucket list of things posted by Munich’s local newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, that should be accomplished by tourists and expats alike while they’re living in or visiting Munich. Being the opportunist blogger that I am, I’ve decided to turn this into a challenge – a challenge that I hope to complete before I leave Munich.

Some of these things I’ve already done and some of them I know I won’t get to do. But it’s possible that I know someone who has done it and I’ll have some guest blogs for that. For all of the rest, I’ll gather up my friends and we’ll try to tackle the ones that we can manage. But until then, here’s the list in it’s entirety. The challenge itself will commence shortly.

1. Get naked in the Englisher Garten
2. Climb the Bavaria Statue
3. Order a “Schnitt”
4. Prepare a real “Brotzeit”
5. Spend a night in the Englischer Garten
6. Daydream in the Asamkirche.
7. Cruise the Isar River in a rubber dinghy
8. Go to the Wiesn before the Oktoberfest
9. Watch the sunset from the Hakerbrücke bridge
10. Set up a Maypole
11. Wash out your own Maßkrug
12. Be stymied by Munich’s public transport pricing system
13. Break a bench at the Oktoberfest
14. Enjoy a big-name concert for nix from the Olympiaberg
15. Buy something at Kustermann
16. Buy a monthly public transport ticket
17. Wash your wallet/purse in the Fish Fountain at Marienplatz
18. Drink an espresso at Café Tambosi
19. Stroll through the Viktualienmarkt in the early morning
20. Take a dip in the Müllerisches Volksbad
21. Lick back an ice-cream from Sarcletti
22. Have someone think you’re “Schickimicki”
23. Skate on Munich’s frozen ice
24. Make friends with Charles Schumann
25. Watch the TV series Kir Royal
26. Host visitors during Oktoberfest
27. Cavort in a fountain
28. Tell someone off for standing on the wrong side on the escalator (also, here!)
29. Take a dachshund for a walk in the Englischer Garten
30. Get a headache and blame the “Föhn”
31. Bop with the locals at the Fraunhofer Schoppenstüberl
32. Swim in the Eisbach stream and take the tram home
33. Shoot some pool in the Schelling Salon
34. Watch all 10 episodes of Monaco Franz
35. Watch a game of football at the Grünwalder Stadion
36. Dance at the Kockerlball
37. Have a barbecue at Flaucher
38. Cycle with the Lord Mayor on his way to work
39. Count the steps of the “Alte Peter”
40. Drink a Maß of beer at 11am in a beer garden
41. Surf in the Eisbach stream
42. Go jogging in the Alten Nördlichen Friedhof (Old North Cemetery)
43. Down a glass of champagne in the P1 nightclub
44. Listen to the Glockenspiel from start to finish
45. Cycle to the Waldwirtschaft beer garden
46. Learn one of Karl Vanentin’s sketches by heart
47. Dial the number 32-16-8
48. Visit the Deutsches Museum
49. Catch a film at the world’s oldest cinema
50. Drink a beer with “Manila”
51. Go to the opera
52. Stroke the Residenz lions

… and a few of my own!

53. Take a picture of my friend, Brenna, in every church in Munich. (She told me that she’s never been in a church before! She’s new to Munich and I’m so making her a part of my challenge. Game on, Brenna!)