Leaving Things, London Dreams, the Christmas Blues, and Melting Snow

I’d like to say that there hasn’t been much going on here in Munich but that would be a lie. I just feel bad that I’ve haven’t been keeping track and for blogging purposes that kind of sucks. So, I’m going to try to do my best to remember.

Mostly, time has just been filled with goodbyes and farewells as my two favorite Americans in Munich have gone away from here. Jessica returned to the US on Wednesday and I made sure to get her to the S-Bahn that morning. I helped her pull her suitcases through the snow (and then broke it, oops) and then sat with her in the freezing cold morning, waiting for the train. With the simple open and close of a door, she was gone but I hope to see her in Munich again this coming spring. Lauren finished her au pair contract this week (lucky!) and then jetted up north to Ulm to stay with her ever so lovely significant other, the handsome Sebastian, and so even though she’s not really gone, she kind of is. Which is sad but we sent her off in style. We got her drunk at karaoke and then on Friday, I professed my undying love to her over a myriad of drinks and all was well. She was truly my knight in shining armor that night and I will miss her from afar. At least until we reunite in Los Angeles this summer.

Now, it seems, that I am the only American left in my little group of friends and there’s every chance that I may now become one hundred percent British without my fellow Americans here to intervene. I’ve started saying things like “I can’t be bothered” and every once in a while, my sentences come out sounding posh and slightly reminiscent of a Harry Potter character, usually Hermione. Not that I mind, I would love to be British! But it’s all in good time because…

I’M GOING TO LONDON IN NINE DAYS!

If you know me at all, you will know that this has been a dream of mine since I was 15 years old and fell in love with the country. I think my English pen pal or maybe my obsession with Harry Potter might have instilled this hope inside of me but ever since, I’ve been dreaming of England. The summer that I worked at Camp Cayuga, the farewell dinner closed with staff-made awards and I was bestowed with the honor of the “Meant to be English” award. Therefore, I look forward to this trip seeing as I’ve never happier to go anywhere. Sure, I don’t have any money (not a significant travel amount, anyway) and my flight may or may not be delayed and/or canceled but I am stoked anyway. England, here I come! I’m staying with my friend Fionnuala and she’s going to show me the best of London. I’ve requested 90% free, 10% cheap. Hopefully this plan works out well!

In three days my host-family leaves for Austria and then I am to spend a lonely Christmas here in Munich. There are a few near and dear ones staying in the city but there aren’t many of us. I’m going to have a dinner at the house on the 24th but, so far, it’s not looking very promising. Just one or two, maybe even three of us, eating who knows what and getting drunk off of gluhwein. Does that sound like a party or what? I’m actually a bit excited to do a whole lot of nothing. I’m a pretty lazy person and it will be really nice to have absolutely nothing on my agenda for a week. A whole lot of sleeping in, reading, blogging, movie watching, city exploring (it never gets old!), photographing, and, oh yeah, did I mention sleeping in?

The snow that has been blanketing Munich for the last few weeks has finally started to melt away today. The weather must have changed, the temperatures warmed or something, because it all started disappearing last night. Now that it’s been raining, the snow has turned into slush and ice, and is slowly dissipating from the city. I was hoping for a white Christmas but maybe not this year. I was also hoping for family too but that won’t be happening. What a weird Christmas. Hopefully I survive!

Oh… and did I mention? I’ve been here six months now. It’s halfway over…

Christkindlmarkt Overload, Crowded Trains, Jessica’s Leaving Weekend and the Last Maß Celebration, Snowman Fail, and a Shamrocks Styled Send Off

Sadly, this weekend marked the last of my friend Jessica’s time here in Munich. Jessica has been one of my my closest friends since arriving here in Munich and I would not have survived the culture shock and transition periods if she hadn’t been here, guiding me through the language and explaining things to me that I didn’t understand. She took me to the hospital at 3 in the morning when I sliced my foot open. She’s spent many a sleepless night with me, enjoying the Munich night life and running wild in the streets of this crazy German city. I was so blessed to be able to spend the whole weekend with her and have all of the time that I needed to spend with her before she left Munich to go back to Arkansas. That girl has my heart and I will never, ever forget the part she’s played in my life. That will always be with me when I think of my time in Munich!

The beginning of my weekend with Jess started with a Saturday trip to the Nürnberg (Nuremberg) for the Weihnachtsmarkt. It had been planned for a while so all we needed to do was just get everybody together and go. Only about 7 of us ended up going and that’s mostly because we chose to take the 9 A.M. train. Which was crowded, as usual. We got seats eventually and kept moving around until we were mostly together and arrived in Nürnberg around 11:30 ish. The weather was horrible and for most of the day we walked around in wet snow, slush, and rain and the freezing cold. The markets were wonderful, as usual, but not much different from those in Munich or anywhere else, really. It’s all for the experience, to be honest, and I had a wonderful day meeting new friends, wandering around a new city, and enjoying every minute of the day.

Vigil kept inside the St. Lorenz Kirche
   Nürnberg from the top of the Sinwellturm

Imperial castle and not part of King Ludwig’s castle craze apparently

Me, Joker, and Jess and our customary cup of Glühwein

I don’t know why but this guy in the center  just  made my shot super creepy

After we’d had enough of freezing cold feet and Christmas market crap, we jumped on the 5 o’clock train back to Munich. It was so crowded that most of us had to sit on the floor in the back of the train car. Half of the ride was spent being huddled underneath lederhosen clad Bavarian men and their beers. We made it home around 7 and all separated to get ready for a friends house warming party. Which was, as usual, a wild night. We stayed and Fabrice and Andre’s swanky new apartment until 4:30 in the morning before we trekked back to the train station in the cold, cold, cold morning air and then we all wandered back to Motorstrasse where I stayed the night with Jessica and the two of us stayed warm, cuddled up in her bed. :)

On Sunday, Jessica and I wandered into the English Gardens to check out the Christmasmarkt at the Chinese Tower. It was, as usual, jam packed with tourists and locals alike but it was cute and quaint, probably my favorite of the markets thus far.

Dashing through the snow…. in a two horse open sleigh…

St. Nicholas (but where’s his book of sins?!)

Lebekuchen (German gingerbread)

After the market, Jessica and I had dinner in town and ate at this delicious pizza/Italian restaurant called L’Osteria. The pizzas are HUGE and only about 8 EUR for the massive thing. We got half-pizzas instead and even still I couldn’t finish it. They were amazing though! After dinner Jess and I met our friend Daniel at our favorite spot – Jaegers Youth Hostel – so that Jessica could enjoy her last Maß in Munich. It turned into a ridiculously crazy, dramatic, over the top kind of night but that’s just how Jess and I like it to be. I had so much fun – even if the night didn’t end up so nice for me (stupid boy!) – and Jessica and I made it home to my bed where we slept for all of three hours. Haha. Great end to the weekend if you ask me!

    Me & Jess

Jessica’s last Maß!

This deserves a minor mention but on Monday I tried to make a snowman with Vee and it was an epic fail. The snow that’s been blanketing Munich for the last three weeks is too powdery for snow man making so we ended up just making a huge pile of snow in the side of the yard. But we did try!

Sledding fail.

River behind the house – fading sunset in the snow. 

On Tuesday night Jessica had her leaving party and, unfortunately, I was babysitting so I missed most of it. I made it to the end, once everyone had convened at Shamrock’s for karoeke and I rolled into the bar around 11:20 pm. I managed two beers and a whole of drunk-friend babysitting but it was good to spend even a little bit of Jess’s last night with her. She had so much fun and you could feel how hard it was for her to leave. We’re definitely going to miss her around here!

I’m going to miss you, girl! See you soon!

Hans im Glück Burger Grill, Mini Pizzas and Old Fashioned Cartoons, and A Last Minute Trip to the Chiemsee Weihnachtmarkt

Saturday, December 4th

I had a somewhat uneventful Saturday. Unless you count being entertained by your hungover, probably still drunk, and somewhat irritable Irish friend eventful. Then I had a very eventful Saturday! Haha. I kept the poor girl company while she moaned and groaned about the previous nights imbibing. We both had the hots for cheeseburgers so we found a new restaurant and ventured in that direction and were delighted to find that it was worth every penny. And the restaurant itself was really cool, great design!

I had the avocado burger. You know me. I love me some avocados!

Loved the trees on all the tables!

After lunch, Fio returned home to sleep off the rest of her hangover and I attempted to enjoy the Christkindlmarkt but I found that it was not fun and would definitely not be enjoyed. There were a million people walking in every which direction, pushing and being touristy and rude. I wasn’t down for that – I hate crowds – and so I just got on the train and went home. The markets will be better enjoyed on Wednesday mornings.  I was supposed to meet up with Jessica this day to make snowmen in the English Gardens (cool, I know!) but the girl is ridiculous when it comes to making plans and getting in contact with her. Haha. To make matters worse, she lost her phone and so I couldn’t get a hold of her. Instead of showing up at my house at 12 like we’d planned the night before, she came at 3 pm, while I was across town eating lunch with Fio. Silly Jessica. We tried to meet up with her again but lost her in the hustle and bustle of Marienplatz and that was the end of our attempts. Crazy girl!

Once I arrived home I had a few hours to spare before I had to babysit die kinder but, like always, I didn’t do much with my spare time. I chatted with a new friend, did some blogging (do I really even have any other hobbies?), and watched more Desperate Housewives. (You’d think that I would eventually run out of episodes to watch, wouldn’t you? Good thing there is still an entire season left for me to catch up on.) Around 8 I went downstairs to look after the girls as their parents went out to dinner. We made mini pizzas and stayed up late (for them, anyway) watching old cartoons. They passed out and were asleep by 9:15.

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf? 

While all of my friends went out on the town again, I stayed in (for work purposes, of course) but it’s always nice to have a good excuse to stay in every once in a while. Money flies - I am horrible at saving (especially when a 44 EUR train ticket and 15 EUR phone credit take up a good chunk of it). When I was back in California, I was working three jobs and had enough money to get by, pay my rent, cover the bills, gas up my Stratus, and still entertain myself. It’s really hard to come down from those habits and I’m learning that the hard way with every pay period.

Sunday, December 5th

Originally I’d planned to go on the Erasmus trip to Nürnberg with Eric and Helen but Helen bailed on me and I figured that Eric could use a little trip without me. Ha. Last time we were attached at the hip - I’ll give the boy some space. Since a few of my friends were planning a trip to the Chiemsee Weihnachtsmarkt on the same day, I decided to go there with them instead and would save Nürnberg for the following weekend. Chiemsee is south of Munich, accessed by the train, and located on a little island. Incredibly quaint and absolutely adorable.

We took the Deutsche Bahn (trains) like we always do when we travel Bavaria and used a Bayern ticket which is 28 EUR for up to 5 people to share. I get to the central station (Hauptbahnhof) and run into Jess and Kymbat just before we met up with the others and was told that I would be able to jump onto someone’s Bayern ticket. But after we meet up with everyone and get on the train, we discover that  we have 17 people and 3 tickets – enough for 15 people. So myself and another girl would have to get our own Bayern ticket but pay 14 EUR each for it. Instead of the 5 something EUR paid by everyone else. So that sucked! They didn’t actually check it on the train ride there but we bought the ticket anyway once we arrived in Chiemsee and then had to pay another 9 EUR for the round trip travel ticket for the bus and the ferry out to the island. So there went an unexpected 23 EUR. But then Jess bought me a 3,50 EUR bratwurst mit semmel lunch so I guess I couldn’t complain too much. In the end, we split it up anyway and everyone gave us an extra Euro or two until it was all even.

Our trip to Chiemsee was ultimately a success. I didn’t even know what I was in for, seeing as it was such a last minute trip for me, but it turned out to be a good choice. We went to see one of King Ludwig’s castles (he has so many!), the Herrenchiemsee, and to get there we had to take a hike on this little wooded path and it was so pretty and serene. Jessica and I made it even more fun by using the soles of our shoes as ice skates until I fell on my ass on the cold, hard snow packed ground. But it was funny and I didn’t land on my camera so all is well! When we got to the castle we immediately started a giant snowball fight which was fun because I’ve been wanting to do it since it started snowing. I definitely lost but we got the boys a few good ones, don’t worry!

Yours, truly.

Jessica and Kymbat on the way to Herrenchiemsee

Herrenchiemsee

The island that this castle is located on is different from the island where the Weihnachtmarkt is located. That’s because the two islands are meant for men - “herren” or gentleman’s island – and women - “frauen” or the lady’s island.  There is also a nunnery on the lady’s island and the markets are known as the Frauenchiemsee Christkindlmarkts. Interesting little fact for you about the Chiemsee islands. :)

While at the Weihnachtmarkts (aka Christkindlmarkt) we drank the customary mulled wine (aka glühwein), ate pommes frites (which were surprisingly, hard to find), spent at least 10 minutes every half an hour trying to get our group together, took a million and a half pictures, and enjoyed new friends, warm clothes, and good German culture.

Chiemsee

Most of the group, at the see side.
(Thanks, Ana for the picture!) 

We found a fire!

 

Lazy Mondays, Desperate Housewives Obsession, A Promise of Snow, Miscommunications, and a Tollwood Double Shot (Nov. 22 – 24)

Monday – I woke up at 6:30 and carried on with my regular morning routine, which usually consists of emptying the dishwasher, making the girls school snack, eating breakfast, and trying not to lose my cool over a child’s dramatic daily tantrum. This happens every morning. Give or take. I cleaned up after the girls weekend mess – I hope they learn how to clean up after themselves someday, for their futures sake, anyway. I didn’t do much of anything else after that. I read my book – I’ve started reading Summer Sisters again (for the 12th time, I swear…). I watched two discs of Desperate Housewives over the course of the day. I’m obsessed with this show. I can’t believe I never gave it a chance. I’m halfway through the 4th season and I cried when I saw the tornado episode. I know that Lynette’s family would survive but the emotion of her discovery that they were buried under the rubble was jarring. I ached for them as if they were my own. I started writing some post cards but only got through one and a half out of 12. One for my grandma and half of one for my mom. I “worked” which means that I made dinner (salmon grilled over butter, white rice, green peas, and lemon butter sauce), played board games with Eenie and Vee, and wandered around aimlessly trying to get the girls to get ready for bed but they don’t listen to me so I had little purpose or desire to be there at that particular moment. I then cuddled warm in my bed and fell asleep to another episode of DH. Uneventful Monday, to say the least.

My new favorite ladies!

Tuesday –  Followed my usual morning routine and then I read my book for most of the morning.  Jessica came over around 11, after she’d braved the crowds at H&M’s one-day only Lanvin sale. She tried to convince me to join her but when I don’t have any money, shopping is the last thing that I want to do (and in Europe, trust me, this sucks because the clothes and the shoes are amazing and I can’t buy any of them). I get cranky and irritated and the crowds start to piss me off. I couldn’t convince her of this and she begged and begged but I did not relent. I opted to get out of the house today anyway. Sans shopping, of course, and in spite of the weather which is getting colder and colder everyday – and Jessica and I ventured into the city for aimless wandering. We managed to go to Tenglemann (grocer) to see if we could find some variety of turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. We found some small birds (baby turkey, duck, and goose) but they’re all incredibly expensive and we’re thinking we may have to pass on that particular novelty of American tradition. After we met defeat, we wandered into a little eclectic store on Leopoldstrasse and oo’d and aww’d over their delightful Christmas displays and adorable ornaments. I love Christmas time for this reason. The stores turn into beautiful, Christmasy wonderlands with fun stuff to look at.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

One postcard purchase later, we ventured down the street a ways to Karstadt (department store – kind of – with a bottom floor grocery store and food court) to get out of the cold and sit down and eat our homemade lunch but they kicked us out and so we ended up back on the UBahn and, eventually, at Odeonsplatz where we wandered into San Francisco Coffee Company and stayed for 2 1/2 hours. (By the way, I’ve never even seen a SFCC in the actual city of San Francisco.) We didn’t buy anything but instead took advantage of their comfortable chairs, free wireless and convenient bathrooms and we played Words With Friends (Jess is winning) and I read my book while I waited for her to find her words. At 3, I returned home to regroup before the twins came home at 4:15. During my walk home from the UBahn station, I encountered my first snow fall – which was, to be honest, pretty pathetic. It was kind of like a rain-snow hybrid and it melted as soon as it hit the ground or my outstretched (gloved) hands so I guess it’s not really snow but it was exciting and left me wondering if one of these mornings I will wake up to a winter wonderland outside my window.

Kind of like this (which are all photos of past winter wonderlands here in Munich):

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(Okay maybe I’m a little bit excited for the snow…)

Once the girls came home at about 4:30ish, I attempted to entertain them (and myself) for 3 1/2 hours. They were throwing tantrums right from the get-go – high pitched screaming, hysterical crying, hitting, and yelling – you know, the usual. I don’t know about what but it’s starting to really grate my nerves. We had dinner early – or they had dinner early, seeing as I wasn’t interested in dinner at 5 pm. Then we all kind of wandered around the house without purpose or direction. I don’t understand why they don’t just go off and play together – it can be very strange sometimes how they just wander around the house with no aim. Vee even talks to herself sometimes. Weird little kids… They took a bath for about 45 minutes and then got ready for bed. I read them two books and then was dismissed. The Frau is going out but not until 9 so going out to karaoke tonight (the usual Tuesday night event) would have been rather pointless. I tried to watch Sex and the City 2 but I quickly realized how ridiculously stupid that movie actually is (for the second time…) and I fell asleep instead.

Wednesday – Repeat of the morning routine and just a few frustrations. Miscommunications or something between me and my host-mom about some laundry business. Because I had to use the drying rack which had all of the cloth placemats on them, I opted to bring all of the placemats upstairs to put them away in the kitchen. I left them on the kitchen table and intended to put them away after breakfast but when she came into the kitchen she immediately questioned me about why they were there and then very rudely stated that they were not ironed and that we’re not using them anymore so they need to go back downstairs. And then suggested that I iron them. Well, ironing placemats isn’t part of my job (sorry!) and I don’t appreciate being criticized after I’ve tried to be helpful  so I just nodded and agreed, “Okay, okay. Yeah. Okay.” I put the placemats downstairs in a nice and neat pile, un-ironed and tried not to be too angry about the exchange. I’ve gotten to the point where I just concede and nod to whatever she’s saying when things like this come up. I used to smile and nod but even that’s getting to be hard to do. I think it’s just a cultural thing, to be honest. Or a clashing of personalities or lost expectations. I really don’t know. I honestly don’t think that she means to come across as rude – at least I hope she doesn’t – but it’s very hard for me to keep high spirits when I feel as if I’m constantly doing things wrong, especially five months later. It happens more than I’d like to admit and it’s a huge part of why I’m starting to resent this job. But alas, I will suck it up. In the end, I do get to leave so I’ll chin up and manage. I know that I should try to talk to her about it but I’m terrified. I hate confrontation and who knows how it will end so… I probably won’t and will just hope for the best.

After all of this, I did my laundry and cleaned my bathroom – took out my garbage – took a shower. I went into town around 9:45 to meet Helen for the morning. She and I are both in a similar situation – we’ve been working with children so long that we’re in dire need for a new perspective but neither of us can really come out of it. So we spent the morning venting and complaining and getting it all out. Sometimes that’s just what you have to do. We both agreed that we’re tired but that we’re starting to take it out on the kids and it’s not, in the least bit, fair to them so I hope that the two of us can get some kind of clarity. I really do love having this experience, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t expect it to be sunshine and roses all the time but I just wish that it wasn’t so taxing on my emotions. I am so stressed out and with everything else that I’m dealing with, this resentment and frustration certainly doesn’t help. All I can do is hope that Christmas brings glad tidings of joy… and stuff.

Anyway, after Helen went off to work, I tried to go to Tollwood (winter folk festival) but it wasn’t really… open. Even though it’s supposed to have started today – it definitely wasn’t so I just wandered around the streets of Munich until I stumbled onto an UBahn station at Sendlinger Tor. I was approached by some Mormons (one of them from California) and they tried to get me to tour their church and then invited me to a Thanksgiving feast on Saturday. I told them I was busy but thanked them kindly. I couldn’t really figure out what to do with myself so I took pictures of random wintry stuff and then headed back home where I finished my laundry, made lunch, and watched yet another episode of DH.

Random observation but whenever someone starts talking to me in German or whenever I am too overwhelmed to try to speak German myself I say, “Sprechen sie Englisch?” And no matter what, 98% of the time, the German person always says, “A little bit.” It’s cute because they always know more than they give themselves credit for.

Come late afternoon and I’m back with the girls and I’m still trying to figure out how to entertain them in a way that works for all of us. Today I went with a Thanksgiving theme, trying to explain to them how important the holiday is for me and why it’s so hard for me to be away from home and how they can help me feel better. I sat down with them and told them about Thanksgiving and how it’s all about celebrating the things in your life that you’re grateful for and I told them that I was very grateful to spend the year as their au pair, learning from them, loving them, and growing together. I gave them some coloring pages of turkeys and pilgrims and stuff and I asked if they could color me a picture for my wall so I would have reminders of my favorite holiday to keep close to me while I’m far away from home. Of course, they obliged. There’s nothing these little girls love more than coloring.

Not colored by a 6-year-old… but a 24-year-old. Ha.

In the evening I decided to give Tollwood another go and Eric and Helen joined me for the evening. We enjoyed ourselves as we sipped our glühwein and checked out all of the Tollwood vendors and did a bit of “window shopping.” There is so much cool stuff there. I can’t wait to get Christmas presents. Between Tollwood and the Christkindlmarkt, I’ll be set!

Hey, dad! It’s me and my  glühwein!

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.