30 Days of Germany: Day 5 and 6 (May 25-26)–Sweet Treats and Naked People

Two days in one… yes.

Yesterday my friend Anne and I had some delicious cupcakes that were absolutely delightful. In Germany, they don’t really do cupcakes on a widespread basis. In fact, I don’t even think they make frosting or use sugar in this country. Ha. Every cake that I’ve ever had is just… cake. So, needless to say, I was a happy girl with cupcake in hand. I had two – cookies and cream, with an amazing cream cheese frosting – and a vanilla cupcake with a freaking brown baked inside of the batter. Oh my God, it was like an orgasm in my mouth. Not literally. But you know… cupcake-sugar-deliciousness orgasm. *ahem*

Also, while we enjoyed our cupcakes, naked Europeans joined the sun all around us. Yes, I see leathery saggy boobs and old man penises pretty much everyday. Welcome to Europe!

30 Days of Germany – Day 1: The English Garden in the Spring

I’ve said it before on here and I’m fairly certain that I proclaim every time that we gather there but I love Munich’s English Garden. It is my favorite place in the city. I’m heart broken to leave it behind (I do live on the beach though so it’s a fair trade) and I will miss it greatly. In every season, the EG has been faithful to me and it always provides. I’m always taking pictures, of everything, and there’s always something to do – whether it’s ride my bike along the trails, go for a walk, or just lay out in the sun. Right now, in the middle of spring, the EG is giving me every reason to be sad that I am leaving Germany in a month. With all of this wonderful, sunny weather that we’ve been having, my friends and I have been able to meet up at the EG at least once a week and just lay out in the sun and do a whole lot of nothing. It’s incredibly relaxing and I’m working a pretty sweet tan. I hope to come back to the EG again someday in the future. Hopefully sooner than later.

Day 1: May 21
Englischer Garten

Since I am leaving Germany in one month, I thought I’d start a little meme of my own -  30 days of Germany. Each day I will take a picture of something here in Germany that I love or experience and blog about it here. This is my way of saying a proper good-bye to my far-away home.

An Ode to the Englischer Garten, German Churches, Good Friends, and the Eventual End of an Epic Adventure

It’s hard to believe that winter ever existed here in Munich. I’ve almost forgotten what it was like to brave the cold, snowy weather for nearly four months time. The weather, since early April, has been absolutely beautiful. It’s been warm, sometimes even hot, and the skies have been an endless blue. There have been a few rainy days but not many and even then, they are accompanied by thunderstorms and how can I complain about that? I love thunderstorms. One thing about spring that I don’t like – hay fever. Boo to sneezing and itchy, red eyes!

With this glorious weather, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time in the English Gardens, too, which, if you will remember, is my favorite place in Munich. I’ll find any and every excuse to ride my bike through there and lucky for me, I’ve had a lot of them lately because I couldn’t afford to buy a train ticket for May. So I’ve been riding my bike everywhere and I usually will use the EG as a peaceful passage between home and the city center. This, of course, is wonderful because of all of the beautiful trees and pathways and things to look at. I am still in awe of this park – I love it so much.

I wish I could live here forever.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time with my friends at the EG, too. We’ll meet up on sunny Saturdays or even during the week if we’re available and we just lay out in the sun with books, guitars, beer, what have you. Sometimes I just take a book and go lay out by myself in the north end of the Gardens near my house. It’s ridiculously quiet and unpopulated and it kind of makes you feel small and insignificant in a really fantastic kind of way. I love it. Another thing that recently made me feel small and insignificant but with a grand gesture – the church at Ludwig Maximillian University. It was stunning. I hadn’t been into a church in Munich since the winter so it was extremely humbling to be reminded on their beauty and majesty.

I’ve been walking by this church for eleven months now and I don’t know WHY it never occurred to me to walk in. But last week, as I was waiting to meet Jennie, I thought, “What the hell?” and just wandered inside. A strange kind of fear came over me as I walked in, almost as if I were terrified of the massiveness of the church it self. A calm settled over me and I just stared in awe, completely transfixed. The church was so beautiful. Also, I’ve gotten into the habit of lighting candles for my mom whenever I walk into one. Thinking of you, ma!

I’ve been mentioning her a lot lately and yes, Jennie, is back in Munich! I first met her during our epic 22-hour trip to Neuschwanstein that she managed to narrowly escape. She went back to Canada in early September to finish law school and now she is back in Munich after eight months. It’s been nice having her back – I can’t wait until we start cooking and having fancy dinner parties at her sweet apartment. And all of the conversations! The two of us could talk all day long. And it’s good to have the girl back purely for her love for karaoke! She’s a karaoke fiend and that is always appreciated around these parts with how often we go to the karaoke bar. Also back to Munich after nearly three months of being away, is my darling Eric who I missed ever so much. Of course, all the regular cast members are still around and I’m loving every minute of my life here because of it. I have such wonderful friends – new and old – and I have been so blessed this year to have them!  And you want to know something really cool? Tiago is coming to visit me in California, less than a week after I get home! He’s one of my best friends here and it’s obvious that he can’t live without me. Haha. So I’m looking forward to showing him the sunny side of America and introducing him to my friends back home – which will be a weird transition. How do I blend one totally different part of my life with another? Of course, it’s effortless but I just can’t wrap my mind around it. Weird!

Me and Tiago at a Studentstadt party, last Wednesday

I’ve been working a lot this spring – which I may have already mentioned – and although it can be frustrating for my social schedule, it’s still nice to be home every once in a while. I’ve been reading a lot and have made it through three or four books in the last month or two. I’ve challenged myself to read 25 books this year, before my 25th birthday and so far I’m at 20% progress. I’ve also been able to catch up on my blogs (thank God!) and do a little bit of job searching back home… which has been a huge success thus far but more on that later. ;) Also, I sleep a lot, spend a lot of time outside, Facebook more than I should, and spend more time with the girls that I care for (which isn’t always nice but we all have our bad days, right?). Hopefully I get to make the most of these last five weeks and that my host-mom and I don’t butt heads too much. It would definitely make for an interesting last few weeks if I had to stay in 4 to 5 nights every week. There’s not very much time left!

The reality is that I leave Munich for California on June 20th. I finish my au pair contract exactly five weeks from today. Five weeks ago from today, I was planning my trip to Rome with Brenna and was just getting over the excitement of Starkbierfest. That feels as if it were just days behind me – not five weeks. It’s hard to imagine that in two months I will be in California again. I can’t imagine going back to my old life. Of course, it will be different but I feel like I’ve changed so much, like I won’t fit inside of California anymore, like every part of me will just want to bust free and come back here. Ah, it’s going to be a hard transition, I won’t expect it to be easy. But, for now, I will enjoy every minute that it presented to me here and I will not think too much about what lies ahead on the other side of the world. It’s not a bad thing to go home but it’s not easy to walk away from this year abroad either. I am looking forward to being with my friends and family again but I know that I will ache for Munich and it will take a long time to stop missing the life that I lived here.

But, alas… the show must go on.

I Have Not Forgotten About You–Resuming Life in Munich and the Daze of Spring

With all this talk of my Italian vacation, my life in Munich has kind of been overshadowed and I haven’t really been giving it much justice, have I? I am down to seven weeks here and the thought of that blows my mind. I have been having a horrible time balancing it out, too. I want to be home but I want to be here. I can’t keep myself from being in both places and, for a while there, the homesickness was eating me alive and turning me into an emotional mess. I think I’ve pushed past it though, I’m feeling better and more balanced. I’m not missing the days of vacation and I have so much to look forward to over the next few months and so things are good. All is well with this German girl. :)

The last week went easy on me, where both work and my social life were concerned. The girls were not in school so they had the week off and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn’t have to work until 3 pm everyday of the week. We watched a lot of movies (Nana is absolutely terrified of Tangled, next time I will let her watch it in German to take the edge off), played a lot of Angry Birds (the six year olds have surpassed me on the levels), and ate a lot of pasta (what else is new?). The weather was beautiful so my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the sun either at the English Gardens or BBQing at the Isar. Munich in the spring is absolutely stunning – the trees have all turned green and are flourishing with the rain and sunshine. Lilacs are blooming (my favorite!!), birds are singing, the sun is shining. Everyone here is happy!

Down at the Isar with friends

Sunset on the Isar

Bruno Mars in Munich?!?!?

Lilacs in a Bavarian approved vase

A little bit of home has found its way to Germany, too – my good friend, Christina, who I used to work for in Monterey, has come to Germany to visit her mom, Kathe, who I have mentioned before in this blog. I went to Garmisch this past weekend to visit her and had such a relaxing weekend full of family, food, and much needed relaxation. I will make a separate post about the weekend, of course, but for now, let’s just say it was incredibly wonderful to see her and even though I had to say hello and goodbye to a piece of home, I was grateful to have her here! Hopefully I get to see her again before she leaves.

On that note, darling Jennie is returning to Munich today! If you haven’t read her blog, Too Hard to Find a URL, go do it. She’s witty and intelligent and Canadian so obviously she’s worth knowing. I met her last summer, here in Munich, and she’s returning now for an internship at a law firm here in Munich so I’m excited to have her back here while I enjoy my last few weeks in Munich. I am going to meet her at her new apartment in a few hours, too! Fresh off the airplane!

Now that Easter vacation is over, it’s back to regular scheduled programming. The girls are back in school, the Frau is filling up her spring social calendar, I am back to being overworked, and life goes on. For seven more weeks (to the day), I will live my German life to the fullest possible extent. Frühlingsfest commenced on Friday so I hope to take advantage of that soon (but more on that later!) and it is now officially May! This time last year I was polishing off my Capstone project and presentation, preparing for graduation, leaving most of my jobs, and getting ready to move out of my apartment. It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by since then or that I’m even this close to the end of my experience here in Germany. Sometimes, especially now with the spring weather and the nostalgic scents of the season, it feels like I just got here. Hopefully, I can make the best of my remaining time and leave Munich with a heavy but happy heart.

Munich’s Spring Make-Over, Adventures in the English Gardens, Starkbierfest, Vacation Dreams, and Shameless Self-Promotion

Remember when I used to be really good about writing updates about my life? Those were the days. Ha. I promise you that I’ve been thinking about it – there just hasn’t been a lot of doing. I have so much to catch up so I hope that I can do it justice. This may be a fairly long update but I have a feeling that you won’t mind. :)

The best thing about my life in Munich right now is that SPRING IS HERE. And I don’t mean like, maybe spring is kind of deciding to show up… the season has done a full on, head first somersault into spring and it’s absolutely GORGEOUS. The trees started turning green sometime late last week and there’s no stopping them now. I imagine that sometime next week, Munich will be bathed completely in green and we will be in business. The weather has been absolutely breathtaking as of late – high 60’s, low 70’s for temperatures, blue skies, sunshine, cloudless afternoons. Lately I’ve been spending my days in the English Gardens, laying out in the sun with friends, picnicking, listening to music, and thoroughly enjoying the new season. I’ve gotten a few sunburns already – two or three – and as painful as they are, it’s always nice when you can say you got your first sunburn of the season in late March!

Here’s some pictures from our lay outs in the English Gardens that I graciously stole from my friends Facebooks and some that I stole from myself. Spring! Yay!

“Spring Break” in Cologne: Part II

Saturday in Cologne started around 12:30, seeing as we didn’t get up and out of bed until then. We had a late “brunch” and then headed into the city, intent on enjoying a bike ride adventure. It was a nice day – blue skies and a gentle breeze and warm weather! Everything Munich wasn’t. It took us a while to get through the city and find the bike rental station but eventually we managed. We only paid 5 EUR for a three hour rental – it was perfect. We got our bikes and headed out. Fio had done the bike ride before so she knew what she was doing. We had an hour down the right ride of the river and then we’d find a little boat that would take us to the other side. From there, we could ride down the opposite bank and get back to the city. The bike ride, each way was about 10 kilometers or 6 miles! So we rode about 12 miles on Saturday. But it was awesome and so, so, so beautiful. It was probably the best thing that came out of the weekend. I had such a good time and enjoyed the weather and scenery of Cologne from the seat of that horrible, malfunctioning bike. Sigh. Haha.

The Englischer Gartens: A Blog Spotlight and, Rightfully So, a Photo Overload

I can’t believe that it’s taken me seven months to put a spotlight on the Englischer Gartens. It’s a travesty – I should have done this a long time ago. The EG is my favorite place in all of Munich – maybe even in the world. At least what I’ve seen of it so far, anyway. It’s comparable to New York’s Central Park only it’s in Europe and it’s bigger. I think. I’ve never actually been to Central Park. So don’t quote me on that.

The Englischer Gartens (aka the English Gardens) stretches from the main city center, near Odeonsplatz, to the city’s northeastern limits. It’s about 1.4 square miles of beautiful landscaping, walking, bike, and horse trails, rivers, lakes, over 100 bridges, beer gardens, and playgrounds. It was created in 1789 by an Anglo-American guy named Benjamin Thompson, who was also a Bavarian war minister, and was extended and improved upon over the years by some other German guys. It started off as a military garden so soldiers could have hands on knowledge of agriculture and a safe haven for recreation but that didn’t really catch on and in the spring of 1790, the English Gardens was opened to the public. Over the years, the park grew and soon gained the reputation of being one of the world’s largest urban public parks.

Below the cut, a million and a half pictures and my loyal adoration for Munich’s most treasured park. Enjoy!

Happy Returns: One Week Later, the View from the Top, a Lazy Sunday, and a Foreign Language Dilemma

Friday, January 14th
Week one of my return to Munich is over and in good time too! It was a rough week coming back. I felt incredibly antisocial for some reason. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I’ve been sick which invariably lead to exhaustion and a general distaste for anything that involved cold weather and unnecessary exertion. I haven’t had German beer in over a week. I think that’s a record since I arrived in Munich. I haven’t been homesick necessarily, just anxious to get home. Does that make sense? Not really. Either way, I love Munich and I am happy to be here until June but I just really want winter to be over. Winter is rough. It’s so dreary and depressing here right now. It’s been raining and stormy but with some 50, 54 degree days. It’s crazy how much it reminds me of the first few days that I was here. Even though it was the middle of summer it just rained and rained and was cold and wet. It’s somewhat reminiscent of that now.

Yesterday it was storming like crazy. I had to go pick up the girls from school and take them to their music class like I do every Thursday and when I checked with my host-mom about doing it in the rain and wind she never got back to me. So I made my way through the rain to their school and then the three of us braved the walk around the corner to their lesson. We tried to use my umbrella but it was so windy that it just swept inside out and I could barely hold onto it. Umbrella fail. Eenie thought it was hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing. Silly girl. We just ended up walking really fast and while they did their lesson, I sat in a nearby café and read Jane Eyre and ate a chocolate croissant. Oh, the life.

The family has left for Austria for the weekend and I’m unsure of the weekends plans. Tentatively, I am supposed to go skiing with some friends but I’m ill prepared, I’m afraid. I don’t have ski pants or any proper snow clothes, really, and I’m worried about paying money for something that I won’t be able to do the right way. Hopefully everyone will go skiing again because I do want to learn but I think I just need to better prepare myself. In lieu of that trip, I hope that my friend Bria and I can go in Garmisch and go hiking instead – through the partnachklamm or up the mountain. The weather is supposed to be fairly nice and I will be able to see my Oma Kathe, too. Which is always nice. So, we will see!

Saturday, January 15th

On Friday night Fio and Laura came over for dinner and we watched half of a movie because we were all too tired to finish it. I made the decision that night not to go skiing and organized a hiking trip to Garmisch with Bria instead. But I got up early on Saturday morning anyway since Fio had stayed over and was getting up to go skiing. Bria and I met at Hauptbahnhof at 9 and jumped on the 9:30 train with our Bayern ticket. Oma Kathe met us at the train station and took us back to her house for a recap of our game plan and some baked goods. Bria and I thought about hiking to the partnachklamm but, at the last minute, decided to ride the cable car up to the top of Eckbauer instead. Once we made it to the top we had some breathtaking views and were reminded just how wonderful our lives here in Germany really are. I felt so blessed to be standing there – in the middle of so much majesty. The Bavarian and Austrian alps surrounded us on either side and it was so peaceful and serene. We were glad we made the right choice in going up there.

Riding the cable car from the Olympic stadium

The Alps off in the distance

At the top of the mountain, there is a café and Bria and
I just sat here and enjoyed the warm sunshine and peaceful moments.
Two California girls, completely at peace.

I think this is my favorite picture that I took while we were up there.
Such a gorgeous place to be.

Oma Kathe took Bria and I to the US Army Commissary after our excursion and we snagged some pretty coveted treats – like ranch dressing, French’s yellow mustard, Ruffles Sour Cream & Onion chips, Thomas bagels, and Bria bought Valentines Day cake mix and pink frosting. We were feeling deprived of American goods. Ha. We hopped back on the train to Munich at 4 and were back in town with time to spare before heading to a friends “Welcome Back” house party at 10. Once there, we were able to hang out with friends that we hadn’t seen since before Christmas and had a good night of German beer (I broke my no-beer streak) and random street wandering. Fio and I finished off the night with Turkish döner kebaps and retired back to my house for good sleep and a late morning. Saturday night success!

Sunday, January 16th

Fio and I didn’t do much of anything today. She was tired from her skiing adventure and I was just ready to enjoy the day. It was beautiful outside with blue skies, sunshine, and even some warm weather. We lazed around for most of the morning – I cleaned, she Facebooked. She moved into her new apartment today so we took some of her stuff over there and she lives in such a great location in the city. I’m excited to help her get used to her new place and explore! Afterwards, we attempted to meet up with friends but we took too long and missed them. So we just ate pizza and walked around in the English Gardens. A worth end to a delightfully wonderful weekend.

The English Gardens never cease to make my camera very happy.

A peaceful, easy feeling in the EG.

In other news, I’ve made the decision to forego taking German lessons while I’m still in the country. My reasons behind this are justifiable. In my opinion, anyway. I’m not going to be here for much longer and I feel that I’ve had enough immersion thus far to be able to survive the language barriers for another five months. I have a Berlitz language program here with me that I bought at Barnes and Noble before I left and, so far, it’s been helpful in keeping me at a steady pace with the language. I’ve been using it a lot more often and will keep it up until I leave. Therefore, I don’t think that a language course is necessary, especially since I probably won’t use German later in my life. I am, however, going to attempt to take Spanish courses over the internet. In doing job research recently,I’ve found that most jobs that I want to apply to that fit my degree have bilingual requirements. Spanish is a beneficial language to know when living in California and since I’ve taken more than 4 years of Spanish language courses throughout high school and college, I feel confident that I can relearn the language and finally become fluent. Wish me luck, I’m going to start doing it soon! Luckily, ToyTown Munich hosts Spanish-speaking stammtisch so Fio and I will try attending a few and practice what we know of the language with other people who speak it. Should be fun!

Halloween Weekend… and Other Stuff That I’m Trying to Remember

Truth be told, I can’t remember everything that happened between right now and my last post. This means that I shouldn’t be letting so much time pass between updates, should I? I’ll do by my best. Maybe it was just that I didn’t do much of anything memorable up until a certain point. Life hasn’t been busy but it’s been productive and I do have a lot to catch up on.

I didn’t do much last week aside from the usual au pair stuff. On Thursday I took the girls to their music lesson and so for an hour, I just wandered around the English Gardens taking pictures. It was a beautiful day and I found the most wonderful and serence place in all of Munich. I hope it’s this beautiful when it snows.

After their music lesson the three of us went to visit Brittany and her au-pair kiddo for a double play date. Brittany and I just sat around and talked while the girls played. Pretty standard. Thursday night I went out with some friends to a ToyTown get together. We hadn’t been in weeks so it was nice to see some familiar faces again. I got home super late, barely made the train home, and I don’t even remember crashing in my bed. Apparently I set my alarm but didn’t turn it on because my host-mom had to come wake me up at 7 am when she noticed I wasn’t downstairs. Oops! Needless to say, I was fairly useless on Friday morning from my uncomfortable hang-over but I slept it off for most of the morning. My host-family left for a vacation on Friday afternoon so I was really just looking forward to a little vacation from my ‘responsibilities.’ I know that Halloween might not be a big thing for the Europeans but a weekend of celebration was in order. anyway. Being an American and all, I needed to show my patriotism for our neglected holidays. We do them so well, after all.

Halloween 2010 (Munich Style)

For Halloween this year, I opted to go for something scary. I’ve never been scary before so I thought I’d change it up a bit from the last few years of Where’s Waldo and Pippi Longstocking clichés. So I picked an even better cliché. I went out as a zombie! I wasn’t sure that I could pull it off but by God, I did. And it was awesome! If you are my Facebook friend and have sufficiently stalked this weekends array of photos, you’ve probably noticed by now that I make a pretty kick ass zombie. I used a palate of colorful face make-up and created nasty, bloody wounds on myself by using a concoction of flour, water, and glue and then painted over it once it dried. And I topped it off with fake blood dripping down various parts of my body. It was brilliant. Fortunately, I had a venue for my fantastic costume as both Jessica and I were individually invited to a Halloween party by way of our mutual friends from the US Consulate. I got Jessica and Eric to go as zombies too and we rocked the streets of Munich so hard as we made our way to the party. Of course everyone stared but the best was when they smiled because it shows they’ve got good spirits. Needless to say, we felt pretty silly but it was all in good fun. We partied all night long (or at least until 1 or 2 am) and enjoyed good American company, good German company, and other types of good company, too. I’m surprised that we were all able to go out like we did because on Thursday night, we’d enjoyed a night out with ToyTown at the Clubhouse and the results were pretty much the same as they had been for the last time that we went to that bar. We were all ridiculously hung over all day on Friday so kudos to us for being able to rally for a night of good Halloween fun.

Zombies don’t eat cats! Don’t be afraid!

Jessica, Eric, and I – the living dead!

We didn’t go out on Saturday night – I’ll get to that in a bit – but we did go out again on the 31st, the actual night of Halloween. Our spirits weren’t nearly as high but we had fun anyway. And I did the whole zombie thing again. Our favorite hostel bar was having drink specials and Halloween happy hours so we went there for good spirits. Costumes earned you a free drink so we definitely took advantage of that. We just had good old fashioned fun, enjoying all of the drunk people in costume and making new friends.

This time, they got me on the arm.

Honestly, I tried to do THREE zombie bites this time but the kitchen-concoction that I made irritated and inflamed my skin so I had to wash them off before I passed out from blood poisoning or something. But it all worked out well anyway. I bruised myself up and made the bite on my arm especially gruesome. Win-win for all!

No worries, there’s just a gross zombie sitting next to you.

  On the way home, I zombie talked the polizei. They weren’t amused.

Harry Potter Movie Marathon

On Saturday Eric, Laura, and I initiated our long-awaited HP movie marathon. We took a break from Halloween theatrics and spent the ENTIRE DAY in my living room eating food (a lot of it) and watching all the HP movies. Seriously… all day. You wouldn’t think that five movies would take up so much time… but it does. We started at about 10 am with a few interruptions here and there. We made homemade Oreos and they were DELICIOUS. I found the recipe online and managed to scrape up all of the necessary ingredients here in Germany. Laura and Eric helped me with the mixing and baking and even though the cookies themselves were a little crunchy, they were wonderful. They definitely made our HP movie night a bit better. I didn’t think that was possible, to be honest. Ha. It was already so great. Oh, and then by the end of the night, after Brittany and Nathan had come by, we made up Harry Potter themed drinking games like, “Everytime anyone says a spell, drink!” or “Any time they say the word ‘goblet’ or ‘triwizard, drink!’” Worked like a charm. I passed out a fifth of the way through Order of the Phoenix somewhere around midnight and then went to bed after I got tired of my friends drawing obscene artwork on my face. Thanks, guys! Ha. Eric and I rewatched Order of the Phoenix in the morning and in the late afternoon, after a delicious lunch at Killians Irish pub, we watched Half-Blood Prince. It was a wonderful 12 hours of my life, spread out, and definitely not wasted. Now we’re ready for The Deathly Hallows in 15 days!

Euro version versus the American version.
Even the Euro version of the movie had the word exchanged.

Cookies!

  Delicious!

Definitely making these again!

Regensburg, Germany

On Monday I got up early and met Eric at Hauptbanhof for a trip to Regensburg that was being organized by his university exchange program. It’s so nice of him to invite me to all of these parties and trips and things – I can live vicariously through real university students and pretend that I am still studying. Ha. Our train left around 9:30 and we got to Regensburg just after 11. We didn’t really know anything about it, we just went for the sake of going somewhere and meeting new people. Apparently Regensburg is the oldest city in Germany and is home to Europe’s oldest bridge. It wasn’t very exciting but we met some interesting people and had good Bavarian food and I took some beautiful pictures. And I got out of Munich! Now… when am I going to to be able to afford to go to another country? Sigh.

Regensburg

Students getting the tour info

   A pretty park that I couldn’t get enough of.
Thank you, Eric, for walking around with me and being my photographer/model.

GORGEOUS.

You know how I adore autumn landscapes.

I love the yellow.  

Now this week looks super promising. The fam is leaving for the second half of their vacation on Thursday so I’ll hang out with them tomorrow, go shopping and do some baking  with the girls (either banana bread or Oreos – I have to decide which one I don’t want to share with them, ha!) and then they’re off on Thursday and I’m free again until Sunday. Some of my friends are going to Prague but I don’t know if I can afford it right now or if I can fit in their rideshare but eh, I can go on a different weekend! Such is life in Europe! It’s only a train ride away.

I’m looking forward to Christmas – it’s coming so soon! Fall is almost over, nearly all the trees are naked now. I’ve become a master at raking leaves even as the wind blows more leaves down in the middle of my process. Silly. The Christkindl markts are soon, soon, soon! Can’t wait! And then New Years in London and seeing old friends and LAUREN FREAKING DEVINE. This girl is excited!

Now, I’m off to Brittany’s for movies and pizza. Our staple food. Seriously, I’m going to get so fat off of pizza. Not Bavarian food or bratwurst or potatoes…. Pizza Hut. It’s just better here in Europe and that’s my final excuse.

Das ist alles.

Frustrations & Misunderstandings, Attack of the Cluster Flies, Return Flights, and the Root of All Evil

It would be an understatement to say that I’ve spent the last few days in kind of  a funk. I’ve been all off center – dreading days spent with my au pair family, resenting my host-mom, missing home and wanting to go back – and, as a result, have been acting very much the part of a recluse and staying well contained within the four walls of my attic bedroom. I think that most of this had to do with the fact that I was stressed out about money stuff (what else is new?!) and that I was having that horrible monthly affliction known to and cursed by most, if not all, woman (and probably men, too).

Things around the house have been somewhat stressed. Relations with my host-mom have made me a little stressed but that’s to be expected when you’re dealing with cultural differences and misunderstandings and especially so since I’m living in this woman’s house and have to go by her rules. Pretty normal au pair concerns, I suppose. There’s a lot of stuff that bothers me but it’s not very professional or moral of me to complain about my employer on a public blog. It’s human, normal, expected to have complaints but… you know, unprofessional. I’ve thought about this a lot lately and I really wouldn’t want a potential job (or this job, even!) jeopardized because a future prospective employer was concerned that I might bad mouth them on my blog. I suppose I should just try to talk to her about it but I don’t even know where to start! So, I’ll try to cut the her some slack and if you’re in my real life posse or if you’re my Skype or Facebook friend, consider yourself blessed (or not!) when I use you as a vessel for venting my frustrations.

Anyway, on to bigger and better things. Or not. There is a cluster fly infestation in my ceiling. On a daily basis I vacuum up about 40 flies. I swear they’re all just flying around inside my vacuum bag having an annoying pest party. Cluster flies (I Googled them!) don’t really do anything other than come in through your window and roof on warm winter days and then hang out on your sunny window panes, they’re not really bothering me but they’re just GROSS. They’re doing this activity in the hallway just outside my room by the stairs so I have to walk by them a million times a day. And at night, they all die and RIP on the floor so when it’s dark and I’m not thinking about them, I step on little fly carcasses. Nobody should have to do that. Hopefully they’ll leave. But I don’t think they will. It’s a winter thing. Hopefully we can get an exterminator up in here and flush them out.

I’ve added a new skill set to my resume: gardener. On Monday and Tuesday I spent a few hours raking leaves and bagging them. It wasn’t so bad because I had my iPod and good playlists but it’s just annoying because I’m going to have to do it at least twice more because fall isn’t over just yet. I should have raked all of the leaves into one big pile and jumped into it but I wasn’t feeling very young at heart, I guess. Hopefully we get a really windy day and all the leaves fall off the trees at one time. But then what would I have to take pictures of? Naked trees, I guess!

In future news, I bought my return ticket to California yesterday. $530 for a June 20th return to Los Angeles. Five days after my contract ends and three days before my au pair visa expires. It would be really nice to be able to travel the world after my au pair gig or even live in Munich and live some cool and fancy European lifestyle but, if the last four months are any indication of my financial status and worries for the coming eight months, then I’m in no position to extend my stay. I really need to head home and get my shit together. I have student loans and credit cards and personal IOUs to attend to. I need to work on a car loan and saving up for an apartment. I guess I just need a real life? Hey, everybody has to start somewhere and I’m glad I did this before I tried to take on reality. Because now that I’ve actually done it, it is more likely that I will return. And even if I don’t, then at least I did it and here I am and I’m going to enjoy it as best as I can and live my fancy au pair life to its highest potential. Starting with a practical budget and a bit of a semi-prohibition lifestyle. Less beer = more money. Because if I’m not drinking but still going clubbing with my friends, I’m only paying for the cover charge and not an additional 10 EUR for some overpriced drinks. I can do it. I swear. I will.

Money, money, money. You are the root of all evil. Without horribly suffocating my everyday experiences here, I also need to save money and budget for my (maybe!) birthday trip to Italy next month, my winter trip to England for the New Year, Lauren’s visit to Munich in early January, a higher level language course in February, a two week Eurotrip (I’m thinking Ireland, Scotland, France, and Belgium!) in the spring, and, of course, the constant budgeting of credit card and medical bill payments and my 44 EUR train ticket every month. Oy vey! Wish me luck.

To relieve stress (and it’s been working!) I’ve been going on jogs and walks nearly everyday this week. Every morning at 8:15 I put on my coat and my gloves and turn on my iPod and I venture into the English Gardens. I try to keep a consistent jog to walk ratio by jogging through every other song but some days I just don’t have the energy and I jog the beginning and end of the adventure and walk through the middle. Haha. My favorite part about these morning walk/jogs (wogs!) are the dogs. Dogs are plentiful here in Munich and especially so in the English Gardens. And they are incredibly well behaved. Hardly any dogs walk on leashes and they never bark or run up to you. They’re incredible. Today I witnessed two dogs who thought they were man enough to carry sticks five times their size as they walked along with their owners. And one dog, a Newfoundland, I believe, was walking behind me with his human as I headed home and he was just la-di-da walking along with this MASSIVE stick in his mouth as if it were just another day in the life. Ha. It was so cute. I’ve never wanted a dog so bad until I lived here and when I can afford and take care of one, I’m definitely getting on and then turning to German methods of dog training for its proper upbringing. Haha.

Speaking of animals… here’s the only picture I can provide in this blog entry today, coming to you from last Friday. Eric was petsitting some cool cats (not people, Brittany! ha) and this feline dude got to share my wine with me. Actually, no. We didn’t give him any. But obviously he was interested.

 

And that’s all, folks!

Just kidding. I just wanted to shout out to my darling girl, Chelsea (aka CHESTY!), for always answering the phone when I call her at 3 in the morning. My time, not hers. I really appreciate your company from 3 hundred million miles away. I love you!

Sleepy Samstag

It’s a happy Saturday evening in my little corner of the world – a beautiful sunshiney day in Munich. I’m relegated to the house tonight to play Mary Poppins as my host parents are going out for the evening. It’s good though because I had an incredibly long night filled with way too much bier drinking and a fair amount of embarrassing behavior and loss of volume control. Needless to say, I could use a night in. I fully intend on watching a movie once the girls are asleep – my host mom has The Men Who Stare At Goats downstairs so I want to see it, I heard it’s funny and it has a great cast. And I love Kevin Spacey. After the movie I think I’ll start a new book. Again. I’m really rolling right through them. Just read Jodi Piccoult’s latest novel, Handle With Care, and it was really good. It had a typical Piccoult ending which kind of pissed me off but she’s good at really throwing you off. It was like the ending to My Sister’s Keeper but less dramatic. Anyway, that’s what I’ll be doing with the rest of my Saturday.

This past week was very different for this au pair. I spent the whole week feeling like I actually have a job and a purpose. The girls’ schedule changed so they’re out of kindergarten and enjoying a few weeks of summer vacation. The family was originally supposed to be in Austria all week but they came back five days early. I spent Tuesday through Friday with the girls all day which is really new for me because before, I was only with them for one hour in the morning and most evenings. I’ve been pulling about 9 or 10 hour days this past week. We’ve been doing all kinds of stuff – going to playgrounds, bike rides, hide and seek, picnics. Through it all, I’ve bonded a lot with the girls which is good because I fall in love with them more every day. I mean, how could you not with faces like these?

  

Hopefully these next few weeks of super au pair duties won’t make me hate my job. I doubt that will happen because eventually, they will go back to school and I will be able to take day time naps again and feel useless once more. Ha.

Socially, things are great here in Munich. I’m making new friends all the time which is always a blessing. I have a little group of friends that I’ve made and we do most everything together. We’re all recent transplants to this great city so it’s nice to have a group of people who are all experiencing a new life at the same time. I love the friends that I’ve made who are already established here too because they’ve been able to show me around and make me feel comfortable, showing me all the good bars and other fun stuff. Usually we all just get together and drink bier because German social customs are so centered around that stuff. Seriously, you go to the English Gardens on a Saturday morning, around like 12 or so, and pretty much everyone you pass has a beer. There are drunk people riding around on these crazy 10-person bikes with bars in them. Germans do love their beer and I can’t say that I blame them! It’s some good stuff.

Someone close to me recently said that she’s worried about me becoming an alcoholic but I’d say that’s pretty unlikely. I only drink in social situations with my friends – I could never just sit at home alone and crack open a beer and enjoy it. Gross. Yes, I do stupid things like injure myself (repeatedly), miss the late night trains and walk home at 2 am, spend way too much money, and potentially jeopardize great friendships with melodramatic confessions of “love” and adoration but hey, c’est la vie. It’s a constant learning process about self control (which I never seem to learn from, go figure). At least I know that I’m a drunken idiot most of the time and I’m not in denial. Haha. Anyway, it all makes sense because I can just say that I’m getting ready for Oktoberfest which is is coming up soon. I’m glad that I proved to myself that I can not consume more than 2 liters of beer in one night without physical and emotional consequences. A lesson I’m happy to have learned before Oktoberfest and not during. Still – maybe I should work on my manners and my inside voice whilst drinking. Might save me some trouble down the line.

Earlier today I met some friends in the Englischer Gartens and we just laid out in the sun for half of the day. The sun’s come out in Munich again, thank God. Perfect send off for the impending end of summer. Right now I am watching Mama Mia with the twins – they love the music and sometimes sing along. So, it’s a quiet Saturday night around here. After this, we’re all going to bed. It’s a perfect night if you ask me.

5 Am at Kultfabrik, Kinder Music, Yellow Mustard, and Vampire Love Sagas

It’s been almost a week since I last updated but it feels like a lot longer. Which is weird because time goes by so incredibly fast here. I’ve been here for five weeks already and each week goes by faster than the one before it. Take, for example, the fact that today is Wednesday and I feel like it was just last Wednesday. Does that sound stupid? Does it make sense? Ha. Probably not.

No need to explain why the past week was a blur. I’m in Germany. I’m doing crazy stuff and living a crazy life. Everything is new, everything is different. Why would it be boring? Granted, I do sleep a lot more than I ever did in California and I have absolutely nothing on my agenda. I pretty much just read (working on books 5 and 6 simultaneously), write (letters, blogs, fiction, etc), Facebook, watch Everwood on DVD (so good!), and go out with friends. Oh, and sometimes I work.

I wouldn’t say that I’ve been busy, just active. On Thursday night I went out with my girlfriends and we enjoyed some good German bier, as usual. I’m getting really good at this whole, Munich night life thing, save the problem that I keep missing the last train on weeknights. Helen and I had to pay for a taxi on Thursday night. And on Sunday night, we walked 1.5 hours at 1:30 in the morning to get home. You’d think I would learn my lesson on this one but I haven’t. Not yet. On Friday night I went out with Jessica and her cousin. He was visiting from his army base somewhere in Germany and he’d brought a bunch of friends with him. Overall, the night was a disaster, at least the parts where we had to hang out with the immature, obnoxious army boys. But I did enjoy dancing at clubs in Kultfabrik until 5 am and running in the pouring rain with my friend Ken to get cheeseburgers from the Turkish food stands. Plus, I met the coolest group of Irish guys ever. I really do love Munich nights.

On Saturday I slowed down a bit. After sleeping from only 6 am until about 8:30ish and getting myself home from Jessica’s apartment around 10, I showered, put my pajamas on and curled up in my bed. It was only right. I slept from about 11:30 until almost 4 and then went out into the world again. My friend Catherine and I went to see Eclipse (you know, the Twilight movie?) and oh my God, it was INCREDIBLE. It was my favorite movie thus far which is only to be expected since it was my favorite book as well. I actually liked Bella in this movie which is more than I can say for the first two films. And plus, there was a whole lot of half naked Jacob in this movie. And that is something I definitely agreed with. After the movie, Catherine and I went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and I had the most delicious hamburger and french fries. Oh, and bier. Of course. It was like home but better because it still had a bit of German style. Like sweet pickles instead of dill. But there was French’s Yellow Mustard on the table and I about had a heart attack of delight. I wanted to steal it. It was pouring rain throughout all of this and it didn’t help that Catherine and I got lost looking for the restaurant. Ha. So we were soaked by the time we got there. After dinner, we went our separate ways and went home. Even though it was a pretty low key Saturday, it was exactly what I needed.

Eclipse at Cinema, the English theater in Munich

Sunday was much of the same. Not a lot going on. I met up with Jessica and we wandered around Munich for a while, checking out the gay pride event in Marienplatz and then randomly stumbled across a Japanfest in the English Gardens. We found this little vendor that sold these AMAZING cheesecakes, oh Lord, they were SO delicious. Way better than in the states. In the evening, after I’d gone home (my feet hurt!), Helen invited me to go out with her and some friends and, of course, we had a lot of bier and that’s when Helen and I ended up walking home. Aside from Friday, it was a great weekend.

Life in the house has been fairly uneventful. The Frau hasn’t been too bad. She still confuses me sometimes with her expectations but it’s nothing to cry home about. Although on Friday I had a rough day. I was with the girls for 8 hours. Good Lord, that’s a long time. And the Frau was there the whole time, too. They had a music recital in the evening so at 1, when they came home from kinderhaus she wanted them to rest. I tried to get them to watch a movie but they didn’t want to (“It’s too long!” Nana said) but  just watched TV for 2 1/2 hours instead. It was a rather pointless afternoon seeing as all that I did was sit with them and read my book.  I went with the Frau to their recital which was so cute. Boring but cute. I had no idea what was going on seeing as it was all in German but they were happy to have me there anyway.

 
After the recital, we went to the sports club to have dinner. I had half a roasted chicken (I forget what it’s called in German) and pommes frits (my favorite!). And then I had to hobble back to the house to get the girls swim suits and bring them back. And then I had to sit at the pool with them in the hot sun for 45 minutes. And when we got home, I had to try to get them to go to bed. Eenie, of course, was sucked into the TV like always. And she wouldn’t budge. And I was so frustrated, I had to go into the kitchen and try not to cry. Eight hours! That was a lot more than I was used to. Eventually, the Frau let me go and then I released my frustrations with bier and club dancing, as previously mentioned.

I don’t mean to complain. I mean, I have every right to but I won’t. Sure, being an au pair has it’s downsides but it’s really not that bad. I have more free time than I know what to do with and my job’s actually not that hard. Besides, I elected to go to the music recital. I didn’t have to. Anyway, I really do like being an au pair. And I’m so blessed to have this opportunity. So don’t think that I’m ungrateful because I’m not. It’s really great getting to know the girls more and more everyday. It’s been a slow process but we’re getting used to each other every day. I’ve been teaching them new games and songs and I love reading to them, even though they know all the books by heart already. And I love going to the pool with them. I just can’t wait until I can jump in again!

Which reminds me, I get my stitches out tomorrow. A fellow au-pair friend of mine is working for a doctor lady and she’s graciously agreed to take them out for me tomorrow morning. I’m going to go over to their house and it’ll be quick and easy. Finally! This thing has been a pain in the ass… er, foot.

This week the girls are taking part in a local neighborhood circus next week, which is set up down the street. It’s a bunch of kids from a circus school putting on a show of acrobatics, balancing, rope walking and stuff like that. Eenie and Vee have cousins in the school so they get to be pretty butterflies and run around in circles. I haven’t been yet – I’m taking them to rehearsals tomorrow. They have shows Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night and I think I’m going to all three. Either as a guest or as a chaperone, not quite sure. And I have to babysit on Saturday night so Friday is the only night that I get to go out this weekend. Which is fine by me. I wore myself out last week!

I hope that I can start traveling soon. I haven’t been very good at budgeting or saving my money and so I haven’t really been thinking about traveling, mostly about how to live off of 70 EUR for a week and a half. It’s actually not that hard, to be honest. I’m just used to my frivolous spending habits of California and so I always think I’m going to be screwed. But really, I don’t buy anything more than a water bottle here or a snack there. And that’s usually only 3 or 4 EUR total. So I’m okay. For now. Hopefully I’ll have some friends visiting me in August and we can go to Austria or something. Haven’t really decided where yet!

That’s all from me now. I have some laundry to finish and some cleaning to be done. Oh, Wednesdays how I loathe thee. Sigh.

Oh, and For All the Other Stuff I Forgot About

Slicing my foot open wasn’t the only interesting thing that happened to me this past week. I actually did a lot of fun things, believe it or not, and THEN I stepped on glass and rendered myself useless for at least three or four more days. Which is okay because I fully intend to read at least two more books, sleep a lot, watch a movie or two, and not spend any money, seeing as I don’t have any. Thursday, I get paid and it will be glorious to have money again. Until then, I will remain crippled. But my job duties prevail. Today I must take the twinners to the pool but I can’t go in. Cruel and unusual punishment, isn’t it?

Anyway, last Wednesday I left off saying that I was going off with some friends to watch the Germany VS Spain football/soccer game at the Olympia stadium. Well, we went and it was FUN. Even though they lost. This place is MASSIVE. It seats 20,000 and it wasn’t anywhere near to being full but it was still incredible to see that many fans go out to support their football team on a giant television. Americans don’t do that kind of thing. We sit in our living rooms with cheese balls, Tostito pizza rolls, seven layer bean dips, 18 packs of PBR, and Cheetos and watch from the comfort of our living room. Maybe if it was a real match, we’d get off our asses, leave our living rooms, and go watch… but not for a giant TV screen. Deutschland fans are one of a kind.

Me and Lauren, rockin’ our spirit

Fans in mass

Watching from our seats

Inside the UBahn after the game. Pure madness.

This, my friends, was one of the experiences of my time here in Munich that I am so grateful to be a part of. It’s a story that I will never forget and I can only imagine how much better it would have been in Germany had actually WON. Oh well, they went on to take 3rd place on Saturday night so GO DEUTSCHLAND! I am forever a football/soccer fan. World Cup is so much fun to watch. Hopefully I can be in Europe every time that it happens. That would be a fun tradition to begin. Three 1/2 weeks every four years for a World Cup vacation. Who’s in?

On Thursday I did the regular schedule all day. Morning with the family and then I went back to bed for a few hours (oops) and then went into the Englischer Garten and just relaxed in the sun and shade.

    

Thursday evening I met up with some friends at night to go to the Toy Town meet-up, which had been scheduled for Augustiner Keller biergarten. Navigating the SBahn and UBahn stops is easy now so that wasn’t a problem. I was a little bit late, mostly because I’d had to work right up until 8 pm but I was able to meet Lauren and Catherine at the right spot. We managed to find the biergarten after heading in the wrong direction only once but once we got there, everyone just magically found each other and all was well. We had some bier (ein Maß, of course) and then started rocking out to the German rock band that was playing at the front of the garden. They played a lot of cover songs in English and we had so much fun dancing on tables and rocking out to the weird German music. After the biergarten, we collectively wandered off to a gay bar called Die Bank, where all the TT-goers always want to go. I’m not sure exactly how many of them are actually gay but I’ve been there twice now. But it was fun. We had a good, German time – drinking bier, taking shots, and sitting on really comfortable couches.

It still impresses me that I can drink these, even after a month of being here.

German band!

The girls at Die Bank

I learned a valuable lesson that Thursday night: don’t forget that the UBahn stops running after 1 am on weekdays. If I can manage to remember this, I will never again spend 16 EUR on a taxi. Either that, or carry around the night bus schedule. Save myself some money, geez.

Friday was kind of a lazy day. I was a little burnt out from the night before so I chose to stay in for most of the day. Read my book, didn’t really do much. Every once in a while, this is just what I need. Friday evening I had planned to stay in but when Jessica called me, I made up my mind that I would, in fact, go out with her but after traveling towards her place for 30 minutes, I ended up getting a call from the Frau. She thought that I would be staying in tonight so she had made up her mind to go out so she wanted me to come home. She was nice enough about it but it was kind of annoying. I ended up going back home and I watched a movie and went to bed. No big deal.

Saturday was HOT. I went to the Englischer Garten with Catherine, one of my newest friends here, and we laid in the sun for about 30 minutes before we decided it was just too damn hot. We ended up going into the shade and sat out in the gardens until about 4:30 before Jessica showed up and we went into town. We had dinner at Pizza Hut which, SURPRISE!, tastes just like Pizza Hut in the states. I was under some grand illusion that all the chain restaurants will taste different here in Europe but they’re all pretty much the same. Except McDonald’s – it tastes infinitely better here. Catherine and I want to go to the Hard Rock Cafe soon. I love their food.

 Delicious.

Saturday night we went out on the town and I managed to buy all my drinks before so I didn’t spend a bunch of money at the bars. I got three bottles of Augustiner for under 5 EUR, a mini bottle of Jagermeister for 2,49 EUR and a can of Red Bull. Overall, I didn’t spend more than 8 EUR. Which is something I should do more often. Although now that I read back on that, that’s an awful lot of alcohol for one night. No wonder I ended up in the hospital at 4 am. Geez.

You can imagine what I did on Sunday.

Honestly, I slept all day. People kept calling me to go to the Englischer Gartens but there was no way I was going to be able to do that. I was in so much pain. I just laid in bed and either slept, watched a movie, read my book, or spent time online. It was nice though because I needed the rest, my body was trying to catch up from the traumatic event. 

Now I’m just trying to keep my stitches clean and out of the water so that I can get them removed without any infections or problems next week. Actually, 12 days. So, on July 23. Wow… that’s so far from now. Anyway, I’m going to try to  take it easy until then. Which means I’ll probably just be sleeping a lot and will finish 1-2 books between now and then. Both of those outcomes is okay with me.

I never knew that I would have to leave college to get some really good sleep!