30 Days of Germany: Day 3 (May 23… kind of) Bavarian Food

Since I didn’t go anywhere important today, I thought I’d feature something different from the day before – Bavarian food! Ever since I had my first traditional Bavarian meal, I’ve been in love. It’s delicious – and they love meat and potatoes and salt and all of the things that go straight to your ass. I’m partial to the pork and kartoffel so when we sat down for dinner yesterday, I read my way through the menu until I found something worthy. Scwhweinbraten. It is a Bavarian pork roast, basically, and it is delicious. When the waitress set my plate down in front of me, I couldn’t stop salivating. It tasted even better than it looked. The dish came with Kartoffelklöße, potato dumplins, and also, wirsing, which was some kind of vegetable, cabbage puree. It, too, was delicious, despite the fact that it looked like spit up baby food. Ha. Around the table there was spargel (white asparagus), saurkraut, saurbraten (another type of pork roast), and spargelsuppe (asparagus soup). We feasted like true Bavarians and enjoyed every single bite. It was delicious. One of the first things that I will do when I get back to California is locate some German/Bavarian restaurants close to home. It is a must at this point! Either that or I’m going to have get some recipes and make it all myself!

Also, I stole some of Eric’s food porn pictures for this post! Danke, darling!

I took this one!

And how could I forget – because a meal in Bavaria isn’t complete without a pint of beer – the rauschbier? This beer is a particular blend for the city of Bamberg and it’s very interesting. It has a smoky, meaty flavor to it and is very rich. We got a round across the table and while most of us finished them off, some of us just couldn’t get through it. Simon had three glasses while Sara passed hers up entirely and I gave the rest of mine to Dieter. It’s definitely an interesting taste but I’m glad that I tried it anyway!

A Final Weekend at Fruhlingsfest, Late Nights, Impending Endings, Employment Prospects, and the Joy of Being an Au Pair

This past weekend I went for a second round at Fruhlingsfest and I had so much fun. Beer festivals are one of the things that I will miss the most about Munich. And there are a lot of things that I will miss but beer festivals are definitely up there at the top of the list. I like it much better than Oktoberfest because there are less people and more available tables, faster service, etc etc. We had a table right up front, center stage to the band that played all night long. We danced and sang along and had a merry time, right up until they closed and kicked us all out. And I practiced great self control. It was my pay day and I only bought two beers. Instead of five like I did the previous weekend. After the festival, a few of us braved the rain and decided to go clubbing. We ended up at Cord, a club that plays some great indie music and even though I paid 6 EUR for the cover, I only stayed about an hour or so before I left to catch the last train home. I was ridiculously tired from all of the dancing that I had been doing that day. I made it home by 2:30, soaking wet and cold, took a long, late night bath, and then went to bed close to 4 am. The night before that, I'd stayed up until about the same time, drunk off of Friday the 13th festivities and two or so bottles of wine. Last night, on Sunday, I stayed out with friends at a shisha bar until 2 a.m. I definitely need to make this week one of early nights and catch up a bit. I'm starting to feel ill from only sleeping 4 to 5 hours every night. Personal challenge accepted! Unless I have plans (aka Shamrock's karaoke) I will be in bed at 10:30 and lights out by 11 most nights this week. Haha. We'll see how well this goes!

Happy German girl at the festival!

They had these lit up while they played “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash

Full Monty show on the Augustiner stage!

Q62, Shisha bar!

Paul taught me this trick and Cris tagged me in this photo. Thanks Cris!

Yesterday (the 15th) was the one-month mark to the end of my au pair contract. On June 15th, I am officially done being an au pair and I will be set free for five final says in Munich, unemployed and with approximately 225 EUR in hand. My friends and I have planned an epic going away slash birthday party for a collective few of us and that happens two days before I board my plane back to California. It will be a great party and I'll probably have a few drunken cries through most of it. I don't have a lot of pocket money (thanks Rome!) for the remainder of my time here so I'm limited in what I can do for the rest of my time here but I'm hoping to go to Berlin in June to visit my friend Alison and then she'll come to Munich and visit me here. It'll be good to see her before I leave, too, since she's become my best friend from the days working as a camp counselor. I have a lot of things to organize, too, as far as packing is concerned. I want to get rid of a lot of it - so many of my clothes got ruined by the damn washer and dryer and the shitty hard water in Germany so I'm going to throw most of them away. It still feels like I'll never get it all home again. Ah! I can't believe I have to leave this place... it feels impossible. It reminds me of the quote from Eat, Pray, Love:

“The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying;
the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving.”

I want to go home – God, do I want that. I miss my mom and I want to meet the dog that she bought to fill the void in her heart after I left. I don’t want to live with this family anymore – or any family, for that matter. I want to spent five hours in Target. I want to take peoples of people in Wal-Mart. I want to buy crossaints and muffins and pizza at Costco. I want to go to all my favorite college bars with my friends from home. I want to lay on the beach for eight hour straight. I want to see my nephews and my sister, Christy. I want to visit my family in Montana. I want to sit down and tell my grandma all about my year abroad. I want to drive around in my car for hours and hours and turn the music up really loud and roll all the windows down. I want to get my hair cut and colored and get a manicure and pedicure and have my eyebrows waxed. I want to have a wallet full of American bills and I want to pay tax again and use my debit card everywhere I go. I want to be a California girl again.

But I want to be a German girl, too. I want to stay in Munich. I want everyone that I love in Munich to stay here too. I want to sit at a shisha bar for six hours and laugh and gossip and take pictures. I want to go to beer festivals every season and dance to music that I can’t understand but love anyway. I want to spend every sunny Saturday in the English Gardens drinking beer and catching a Frisbee and singing along to Florian’s ukulele. I want to sing karaoke at Shamrock’s every Tuesday night. I want to eat Bavarian food and have sausages and leberkase available to me on every corner. I want to buy Bayern tickets and take trains to random German towns all over Bavaria. I want to drink Augustiner every day. I want to be German forever.

I’m completely torn between the two places. In the end, I am going home, that is just the way that it is and I am okay with that. but I am going to miss Munich so much. Not only will I miss all of the wonderful friends that I’ve made here but I’m going to miss the city and the culture, the food, the memories that I had while I was living here. Hell, I might even miss the kids. Haha. It’s all coming to end so much faster than I would like. I am going to be so sad to leave here. It really does feel impossible.

But, the good news is that I have a job lined up at home that I am 98% decided upon. Between the eight families that have contacted me about working for them, only two of them have really done any follow through. I’ve been discussing offers and options, back and forth, between both of them and I think that I am decided on the one that I want. They’ve offered me the better package and the most information concerning schedules, salaries, benefits, expectations, etc, etc. Plus, the one that I want is more reasonable as far as finances are concerned and it gives me more room to rebuild my life and get back on my feet. Also, it would mean that I would be living with my mom in Morro Bay and that I wouldn’t be going back to Monterey. I’ve been thinking about living there and in the end it’s more practical for me to live with my mom for the next phase of my life and then I can work towards moving back to Monterey with better financial results. Anyway, the job is great and if I decide to take it, I’ll give more details about it but for now, we’ll just leave it in a state of indecision. I should know by the end of the week what choice I will make once they give me official offers or employment that I can either turn down or accept. I will let you know, dear readers!

Speaking of being a nanny (or something of the sort), I had a lot of fun with the girls this past Friday while I was babysitting. We went to a playground after they came home from school and we played in the sunshine and put flowers in our hair. I’ve been teaching myself how to braid so I invented this whole new hairstyle on the spot and the girls each ended up with a super cool head of hair. Au pair Hezzah for the win!

My little cuties

Frühlingsfest: Bavaria’s Spring Alternative to Oktoberfest

I don’t think I would love Bavaria as much as I do if it wasn’t home to so many wonderful beer festivals. I’ve been to a few since I’ve arrived here – Oktoberfest, obviously and Starkbierfest – both interesting and unique in their own special ways. Oktoberfest is world famous and is absolutely worth visiting at least once in your life if you are a beer enthusiast and can throw back a few liters of beer on any given day. Starkbierfest (which means strong beer in English) was unique in its merchandise – beer that is loaded with carbs and a lot of potential to get you really wasted. I was lucky enough to attend both of these beer festivals (sadly I never went to the Dachau Volksfest and will miss it this summer) and, even better, I was able to attend in my tracht wear (aka dirndl) – a traditional Bavarian dress!

This past weekend, I rocked my dirndl once again and headed out to join my friends for a day of beer and sunshine at this year’s Frühlingsfest celebration. I was expecting something along the lines of Oktoberfest size but I was met with a much smaller reality. Frühlingsfest boasts only two beer tents – Augustiner and Hippodrom – and takes up about 2/8 of the space that Oktoberfest occupied. (I only fully realized this when I was ascending the crest of the Wasserbahn (log ride) and could see the grounds of Theresienwiese laid out below us.) The festival includes a midway and carnival rides and tons and tons of delicious food and drink.

Upon arrival, my friends and I first decided to have a good old fashioned race down the massive slide. I was overconfident that I would win and definitely did not. My fellow American friend, Dieter, managed to beat both Jennie and I in a race back to ground level. This carnival slide was very sophisticated – with nine slide lanes, furry bottomed slide blankets, and an escalator that took you to the top. German’s are so efficient!

Dieter in the lead, me taking second place, and Jennie taking up the rear.

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.

“Spring Break” in Cologne: Part I

On Friday, March 11th I traveled to Cologne for a weekend trip with my friend, Fionnuala, which was my first official inter-German travel adventure. I've been to various places within Bavaria (thank you Bayern ticket!) but this was my first trip away from Munich to another major German city. Fio's childhood and university friend, Katherine, (who'd I met for Fio's birthday in October) lives and works in Cologne so we made the trip to visit her and see the city through the eyes of a worthy "resident."

Fio and I boarded our plane in Munich around 11:30 and endured an oh-so grueling flight (50 minutes!) to northwest Germany. We landed in Cologne around 12:30 and then found our way from the airport to the city via S-Bahn. Our first stop, Cologne Hauptbahnhof and the famous Dom cathedral to meet Katherine.

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

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

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

My favorite picture of the week:

My best girlfriend, Fionnuala. I LOVE HER.

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

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

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

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

Das ist alles. Danke. Tschüs!

Spirits, Anyone?

Thanks to Google Analytics, it’s come to my attention that someone found my blog by using the following keyword:

“My au pair is an alocholic.”

You might not think it’s funny but I laughed. As Blink 182 once sang, “No one should take themselves so seriously.” I sure don’t. Fio had friends in town this past weekend and so we took them to the Hofbrauhaus and we had our fair share of delicious German beer and good spirits. And then I almost passed out, slightly drunk and seriously exhausted, in my plate of lasagna. Don’t worry, I went to bed after that. And it only gets better from here. It’s my birthday next weekend. Party on, rockstars! I suggest you celebrate accordingly.

Self-Directed Intervention, Working Hard (Or Hardly Working), What Music Sounds Like, and The Color Purple

It is official. Right at this very moment in time, on a Tuesday evening at a quarter after seven, I am finally feeling defeated by the great German beer festival known as Oktoberfest. I thought I would be resilient, that I could make it through to the end but I’m already so tired. Maybe Oktoberfest is the kind of place you need to visit on vacation… not the festival that is on your regular daily train line. Don’t get me wrong – I love German beer and I love the revelry and spirit of the festival – but I don’t love being so drunk that I turn into a lush, that I fall down and bruise every part of my body, and continuously lose really important things like my keys and cell phone. No, I am not an alcoholic but yes, I realize that I’m drinking a lot more than I ever have before. And I am going to make a conscious effort to control myself. Oktoberfest is almost over, thank God, and once all the people are gone and the festivities are over, life will slow down back to a normal pace. It’s getting colder here in Munich and once winter sets in, I have a feeling I’m going to be going out a lot less. Plus, I need to start saving money for all kinds of stuff – debt and holiday travel, a language course. Staying in every other weekend or spending time NOT going to bars and clubs will be so beneficial and I’ll probably like myself a whole lot more come Sunday evenings.

Believe it or not but I do still work while I’m here in Germany. My life has been centered around Oktoberfest a lot since it commenced but I’ve also been taking care of the girls. It’s just so uneventful that I haven’t felt compelled to write much about it. They’ve started school so our schedules been pretty consistent and easy, at least for me. I wake up everyday at about 6:30 am and help with breakfast and getting the girls out the door. Then I’m free until about 4 or 5, depending on the day, and usually I stay in. I’ve been so sore from all my recent injuries that I can’t be bothered to move around much so instead of going out for a bike ride or a walk in the English Gardens, I lay in bed on Facebook and watch Sex and the City and write stories about vampires. I know this is bad behavior which creates bad habits but I’ve always been a pretty lazy person. No excuses here. Ha. The girls are loving school though. Today Eenie multiplied by tens, it was awesome. The downside is that I hardly spend any time with them anymore seeing as the Frau does most of the work – takes them everywhere, picks them up, drops them off, etc, etc. This coming weekend I have them overnight so we’ll probably get some good girl bonding time.

This past weekend was a really nice escape from my responsibilities (not that I have very many) as two of my friends from England, Alison and Helena, were here visiting. I’d missed them way too much. I had so much fun seeing them again. It was like being on an extended day off at Camp Cayuga and we were instantly transported back to the memories of our summer  in Pennsylvania just by being in each other’s presence. The first thing Alison says to me when she gets off the airport shuttle: “I haven’t heard an American accent in so long.” Haha. We obviously care about the most important things. I am so blessed to be so close to them now and I hope that a reunion like this happens again and soon! I’ll see them both over New Years in England and I am stoked for this vacation. Let’s hope I can save money and do it right!

Me, Helena, and Alison – reunited and it feels so good!

Oh, one other thing that happened this weekend… I fell on my ass. It wouldn’t be a drunken weekend without me falling over, would it? Alison and I decided to go on a spinning swings ride at 9 pm after drinking entirely too much beer and it was pouring rain. With the combination of my drunken grace and the wet slicked everything, I fell down the stairs of the Star Flyer and hit my butt pretty hard. It hurt more for the first few minutes than it did at any other point. But I could barely sit down the following day. I was miserable. The discomfort has gone away now but I’m left with a pretty gnarly looking bruise that I’m afraid will never go away.

There was one other monumental occurrence this weekend. I traveled out of Germany for the first time since I got here! I went to Salzburg, Austria on Sunday with Alison, Helena, Helen, and Sara. We did it in kind of an unorganized, last minute kind of way but it was fun. That city is beautiful! And it made me want to watch The Sound of Music so I downloaded it and did just that!

 Mozart was born in Salzburg, you know.

Gorgeous statue in the city

   Cityscape

Right now, I am going to bed. For having slept all day, I am so ridiculously tired. All that I want to do is finish Sex and the City season 5 and then sleep deeply all night. Which is pretty easy to obtain these days. Oh, the life of a college educated au pair!

Oktoberfest, Wiesen, Ass-Kicking Bier Festival… Whatever You Want to Call It

Munich is alive and well with Oktoberfest celebration and I am feeling incredibly blessed to be here for such a momentous occasion. I know that I’ve blogged about it already (kind of…) but there is so much more to say. And it hasn’t even been on for a week! I could try to explain it to you but I think it’s impossible to get it just right. It’s something you have to see to believe. The midway part of Oktoberfest is fairly predictable – amusement rides, games, food stands, and souvenirs (I bought a keychain for 6 EUR!). Of course, it’s bigger than any fair or carnival I’ve ever been to. The walkways are packed with people – thousands of people. There are horse carriages pulling giant beer kegs and horse poo all over the ground. And located between all of this are the beer tents. This is what makes Oktoberfest so incredible.

Imagine yourself in a massive beer hall packed to the four walls with people. Hundreds of tables, each one full of up to ten or twelve beer drinkers, the surfaces covered in massive 1 liter beer steins. There’s a band stand in the middle and when they’re putting on their show, it’s likely that everyone is standing on their benches, prosting to each other, spilling beer all over their friends, singing along, reveling in the excitement of a festival of beer and good spirits.

 

Oktoberfest officially celebrates the anniversary of the marriage of Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen in 1810 (thanks, Wikipedia, for giving me the right spelling of that one!). And a massive horse race that they organized there. The field where O-Fest is located (and where all this history happened) is called Theresienwiese, and O-Fest is affectionately nicknamed, Wiesen. “You’re going to Wiesen today? Oh, me too!” There’s also a massive celebratory parade that trails through the city – one on the first Saturday and another on Sunday. Jessica, Ana, and Susie and I went to the one on Sunday and definitely enjoyed the long procession of marching bands, horse drawn carriages, and costumed Germans.

(Oh yeah! My California friend, Susie, was in Germany visiting her ma in Garmisch so she came to Munich to celebrate Wiesen with me on Sunday! It was so much fun having her here!)

Sunday was my first official experience with the beer tents. On Saturday, Jessica and I had explored the grounds but hadn’t really interacted with the festival. But on Sunday, we got started around noon and were drunk off one Maß by one o’clock. I already posted about how the day turned out – it was messy but fun. I was drunk for 10 hours straight and must have had at least four Maß. That’s a lot of beer. I’m amazed that I was able to get home without any problems! My college friend, Kate, from California, was passing through Munich that night with her friend Kari so I was able to see her. That was surreal but it was so much fun – even if I did wander away in drunken confusion and never saw her again. Haha.

Happy Wiesen!

I went back to O-Fest on Tuesday with my au pair family. The four of us – me, the Frau, and die kinder – all had our dirndls on and we met up with the Frau’s friend who has two boys and their nanny, Jill. The six of us just wandered around for most of the day – going on a few rides and once, almost losing a child. At around six, the Frau let me go off with my friends and I met them at the Löwenbräu tent where I got into celebrating right away. I only had one Maß this time but it was enough to have a good time. Fio broke her Maß when she prosted – it was kind of funny, even if a shower of beer rained down on top of Clare’s head. But no glass in anyone’s face or serious injuries! We met some crazy Australians who entertained us for the evening.

The best part of the night was when the beer tents closed and Jessica and I took our new Australian friends down into the midway for some rides. This is a bad combination with drunk people who are uncoordinated and slightly confused. We went into a fun house and met our demise in the spinning barrel. Drunk people CAN NOT walk through these things and instead, they take one step in, fall over and tumble around blindly, elbowing, kneeing, and knocking into anyone who is nearby. Twice (no, I didn’t learn my lesson the first time) I tumbled through these things sustaining minor injuries. I walked away with a large knot sprouting from my right knee and with deep, purple bruises all over my body. As painful an adventure as it was, it was just that – an adventure. Even if Jess and I gave the tourists a pretty interesting show as we tumbled together like mentally retarded hamsters in a wheel, we had a blast. And walked away looking as if we’d been beat up.  Today, two days later, I can hardly move without wincing. The stairs are my mortal enemy and I’d prefer to just stay in bed and not ever have to get up. My entire body aches in every place imaginable and I discover new bruises every few hours. It will pass – it always does – but I’m actually kind of amused by the whole event. Oktoberfest definitely kicked my ass.

My friends from England are coming to visit TOMORROW for the entire weekend and I am so excited to see them. Helena and Alison worked with me at Camp Cayuga – Alison in 2007 and Helena in 2007 and 2008 – and I haven’t seen either of them in two years. We’re going to have a Wiesen filled weekend and even after my crazy adventures, I’m not ready to stop quite yet! There’s still eleven more days of this festival! Bring it on, Oktoberfest! You have yet to defeat me.

500 Photo Weekend, Leaving Things, and Oktoberfest Beginnings

It freaks me out how fast time goes by here. One day it’s a Tuesday and I’m meeting Eric at the Ubahn so we can go to Shamrocks and sing Beatles karaoke with Chris. Then, all of a sudden, it’s Tuesday again and I’m on stage at Shams singing I Will Survive with Fio. Wednesday is laundry day but I feel like I’m always doing laundry because it comes around so often. Someday, when I’m getting ready to leave this place, I’m going to write that I can’t believe how fast the entire year has gone by and these menial weeks will seem like nothing compared to that.

Unfortunately, this weekend was somewhat bittersweet, as, Harry, one of our close friends here, was leaving Munich and going back to England for school. I suppose for him it was more bittersweet than for us because he was looking forward to going home again but was reluctant to say goodbye to his life in Munich, too. I know this because we asked him this question at least five times. And I can definitely identify with that sentiment. Sometimes I miss home -  A LOT – and although I’d love to go back,  I would probably cry if I had to leave Munich. And that’s how I feel three months into this adventure – imagine how much harder it will be next summer when goodbyes are actually on the horizon. I am willing myself not to think about this. Unfortunately, the alternative is not much better because, still, dear friends are leaving Munich, one by one. Do I have any choice but to be sad about this? Within our little social circle here in Munich we’ve become very close and so all of these summer internship situations really suck because a lot of our good friends have either left already or will be gone by the end of the month and any absence in our group is definitely felt throughout. There are quite a few of us that are going to be here through until next summer but that does mean we won’t miss the others everyday.

Anyway… back to this weekend. We sent Harry off in style. We had a wild dinner party on Friday night – complete with the weirdest combination of food (pizza, at least 5 lbs of spaghetti, french fries, hashbrowns, and tofu) 20 bottles of Spaten, at least 10 bottles of wine, Kings Cup or “Ring of Fire” as some of us have affectionately renamed the drinking game, naked Greek playing cards, a dance party, and drunken conversation about the individual values and morals of sex. We definitely know how to party, don’t we? Haha. On Saturday we had a bit of a melancholy day but can you blame us? Harry, Eric, Catherine, and I went to the Dachau concentration camp memorial in the afternoon and in the evening, Laura, Fio, and I stayed in and made dinner and watched the Beatles movie, Help!, with German subtitles. On Sunday, we had a BBQ on the banks of the Isar river and grilled chicken and sausages, tomatoes, and sweet corn. We shared our BBQ space with a leathery, sunbathing, panties-clad old German-French man and his beggar of a Labrador. AFter the BBQ we went to Jaeger’s Hostel for one last Maß drinking adventure with Harry. We ended up playing “Ring of Fire” – twice? – and then decided that we wanted to go to Killian’s Irish pub for karaoke since Harry had never been with us to Shamrocks. We definitely had an incredible evening of drunken fun – complete with a strange new friend who made dinosaur impressions all night and kept yelling, “Jesus Christo!” in Spanish. On Monday night we had dinner at Harry’s apartment, one last get together, and just sat around talking and listening to music. (Sideshow Steve? Seasick Steve? We will miss your random music selection, Harry.) And then we said our final goodbyes and went on our way. You will be missed, Harry. Until next time!

Me, Harry, Eric, Jessica, and Clare

Cheesy.

This is completely unrelated to my social life but on Monday morning I took the girls to the Munich zoo, also known as the Tierpark Hellabrunn. It was a beautiful, sunshiney fall day in Munich and the three of us had so much fun. We were there from about 11 until 4 and we saw everything. This zoo has about 8,000 different monkeys, polar bears, bats, tigers, lions, elephants, brown bears, giraffes, rhinos, penguins, snakes, you name it. I’ll put up a separate post about it later but all I have to say is that the Munich zoo is badass. I am definitely going again soon.

(And between all of the parties and trips and nights out and the zoo – I took almost 500 pictures! That’s a record, even for me!)

You know what else is badass? Oktoberfest starts in 10 days! The Frau has given me 120 EUR to spend on a dirndl as an early birthday present and I am so stoked to have my official, authentic Bavarian beer drinking dress! Lauren and I tried some on the other day and I’ve picked out the perfect dress – we’re going back to buy it tomorrow! Pictures will be posted, I promise. I swear to God, I’m going to wear this dress every Halloween for the rest of my life.  It’s that awesome. Plus, my friends and I are going to regularly have dirndl and lederhosen weekend nights so that will kick ass. And not only am I excited for the madness of 5 million extra people in Munich, 16 days worth of bier drinking and sexy drinking dresses but so many people are coming to celebrate with me!

A dear and near friend of mine, Susie, from Monterey is visiting her mom, Kathe, in Garmisch from the 11th to the 20th, I think, and so I’m really excited to see her and fest together! Kate, one of my best girlfriends from college, is passing through Munich during her European vacation with her best friend, Kari. They’ll be here on Sunday the 19th just for the night and we will rock that Sunday night so hard! From the 24th until the 28th my friend Alison, who is from England, will be here in Munich and that will be our super Oktoberfest weekend. Nothing will be off limits. I’ve tried convincing my friend Graeme, who lives in Scotland, to come visit for the festivities as well so hopefully that works out. He is, hands down, the most amusing drunk person you will ever meet. I haven’t seen Alison or Graeme since August 2008 so it will be nice to see them again. And hopefully, Helena will be here too! Get your plane ticket, girl! Also, Jordan, a friend of mine from Monterey who I worked with at My Museum will be here for the same weekend, visiting Oktoberfest from Milan, Italy where she is studying abroad. It’s going to be one hell of a party!

Now I’m back to having no money (except what I’ve budgeted for bills and will probably have to break into – budgeting FAIL) and am spending the day at home – the girls have had a play date since 10 am, two sisters Lena and Fannie, and I’ve pretty much been rendered useless in this situation. I did a lot of productive things though. I finally put my last name onto the mailbox so my mail will stop being turned away. The Frau and I made lunch for the six of us – white rice, lemon butter sauce, and fish – and then I vacuumed the kitchen. Now I will do laundry. The twins are going to the same girls house for a sleepover tonight so I’m done with the kids at 4. The Frau is having a Sex and the City dinner party (we love that show around here, okay?!) with her girlfriends so I imagine that I’ll be helping with that. I fully intend to stay in tonight and catch up on important things like postcard writing, sleeping, blogging, reading, and calling people in California.

I absolutely love my life. Have I said that much lately? I really do!

Endless Summer (I Wish), The Incredible Magic That is Passing Time, And Just a Few of My Favorite Things

It is, officially, the last full week of August. That means that summer is almost over. Back in California, most of my dearest friends have already gone back to school and are starting their fall semester. This time last year (and I checked up on the facts - Thanks Facebook!) I was at Molly and Lauren’s house playing beer pong and drinking wine and saying farewell to the end of summer and hello to my final year of college. I’d experienced my first ‘working’ summer – where I’d nannied straight through the week – two families! - and worked weekends at My Museum all so I could afford my $600 a month rent and utilities at my first ever, grown up apartment. I also tried to have a social life in which I got burned by a few boys, grew closer to my co-workers and met my new best friend (Stefany, I love you!), experienced the smoking death of my beloved Mazda on the side of Highway 101, and traded her in for a family hand-me-down slash fancy upgrade – the Dodge Stratus. Now that I’m here in Munich, it seems like all of these things were so far away but honestly, this was just last year. Even though the thought of maybe becoming an au pair had crossed my mind, I couldn’t picture myself where I am right now.

Back then, the summer of 2010 was three months of preparation for grad school, another summer living with Hanna, a job search in the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, a really big reality check. How was I to know that grad school and a professional career would be put on a hold because of an international job offer or that Hanna would get married in November and move out to North Carolina with Jordan to live happily as a housewife after graduation? Fortunately, everything fell into place as if, all along, I was meant to be in Germany. I accepted the job in November and had six months to organize for the next year and a half of my life. I applied for and received my first passport. I graduated college in May. Hanna and I both had plans to move after graduation and our apartment lease ended at exactly the right time.

I spent those six months envisioning what my life would be like once I arrived in Munich and nothing could have prepared me for the reality. It’s hard to believe that I’ve already been here for three months – let alone that I’ve been thinking of this opportunity since last fall! I spent this past summer in a dream state, every morning waking up and wondering if this was really my life. I’m so glad that I took this opportunity – everyone has told me that I’m so smart to have chosen a year abroad and I know that they’re right. Yes, I feel as if I’m wasting my college degree – like I’ll forget everything that I learned while I’m out here chasing after children, drinking delicious German beer, and learning a new language. But I know that won’t happen. I may be a bit rusty on my child development theories or on the subject of linguistics but it never really goes away – plus, I don’t know what I want to do yet, not really. I’m not going to think too hard about it - none of this what am I doing with my life? nonsense. My life is exactly how it’s supposed to be – right here, right now. I’m not going to argue with that. What I am going to do is enjoy the last few fading weeks of warm weather before fall comes rushing in. The leaves are already falling from the trees. It’s been a long time since I experienced four seasons. But, please – winter – take your time. No need to rush.

In the three months that I’ve been in Munich, I’ve learned a lot about myself and how I fit into this strange, new place. I’m learning alot about myself as a language learner. I’ve picked up so much German. I can say an entire introductory paragraph but I’m working on my pronunciation and accent!

Hallo. Mein Name ist Heather. Ich komme aus den U.S.A. Ich bin ein Au-Pair in Munch. Ich lerne Deutsch. Ich kann nicht  sehr gut Deutsch sprechen. Ich verstehe ein bisschen Deutsch. Das ist alles.

I’ve also got my numbers down, one through one hundred (which helps when dealing with money in stores and restaurants). I can say please and thank you, different variations of hello and goodbye. I can ask how someone is doing (wie gehts?), where they are from (Woher kommen Sie?), and where they are at the current moment (wo bist du?). I can ask: what is this? (was ist das?) and I can add a lot of German vocabulary into English conversation, usually for the sake of the twins friend’s who don’t know very much English. I can order beers and drinks in various sizes (small = kleine, large = groß or gross) and in different styles/flavors (light = hell/helles, dark = dunkel) and some food menu items. I can ask for the bill (die rechnung). I can read train and most travel signs or I can understand the general idea of them, anyway. I can’t wait until I actually take a class and can speak the language with a bit of fluency!

My favorite discovery thus far has been the food and drink. My favorite delicacy here in Germany are the pommes frites (french fries). I know that’s such an American thing to say because America is all about french fries but you won’t understand until you’ve had your own plate of pommes. They’re delicious here – I think it’s the potatoes – but they’re golden yellow and full of sunshine and happiness. I absolutely adore them and find myself making my way through menus just to find meals that include them.

I also really love the German sausage. Oh, get your mind out of the dirt. Although the German men are quite lovely, the spice and variety of sausage and brats that they have here are delicious. Give me a bratwurst mit pommes and I am a happy girl. Other things that I’ve eaten and quite enjoyed:

• Pork roast from the Weisses Brauhaus which is basted in Schneider’s Aventinus (chocolate!)beer and comes with the most delicious potato pancakes you will ever eat.
  
  
  
• Weinerschnitzel  (also from the Weisses Brauhaus) which is, if you’re American, NOT a fast food place for hot dogs and sausage. It’s actually breaded pork and it’s delicious.
  
  
  
• Putensteakburger which is some kind of chicken sandwich/burger but it is delicious. You can also order putensteak alone and it usually comes with country potatoes and a salad but, of course, I opted for the burger mit pommes. :)
  
• German bier of any kind – you all know already that I am a big fan but I don’t think you’d really understand until you had some real German beer. It’s just… better. And not that this is the greatest measure of it’s superiority to American beer but I never get hung over or sick off of German bier. Haha. Unless I drink more than 3 Maß but I learned my lesson that one time. Seriously, it’s good stuff!
  
• Schokocroissants are, hands down, the best bakery item in all of Munich. Every time I come across a bakery (which is pretty much every other building, it seems) I get one of these and it seems the next one is always better than the one before it. I’ve had these at American “French” bakeries and they really can’t compare. The schokocroissants have this warm gooey, chocolate filling… and oh my God, now I need to go get one…

To be honest, I love everything about Munich. I have yet to find something that I dislike. Maybe I’ll change my mind when I’m halfway through a freezing cold winter, possibly suffering with seasonal affective disorder (it used to happen to me every winter when I lived in Montana), and missing home for the holidays but for right now, alles ist gut. Especially since, I’ve been told recently by my sister-cousin, Christy, that I’m looking thinner which is always a nice thing to hear. That statement is supported by the fact that all of my pants are way too big for me now and they all fall down. I’m still not a supermodel and I’ve still got my beloved curves but hey, I’ll take a little unintended weight loss. It’s also bittersweet because even though I welcome the change, I can’t afford to buy smaller clothes so, hey, maybe wearing long johns under my jeans all winter will balance it out.

All that can be said now is that I love my life.
Every little bit of it.

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.

Mary Poppins and Mahltauschen, “SLOSH” Nymphenburg, Buses That Go Nowhere, A 3 EUR Maß, and the Deutsches Museum

For the relaxing weekend that I had, it was actually pretty busy. Nothing, however, can beat the shenanigans of the Neuschwanstein Misadventures. In an attempt to slow down from all of the excessive bier drinking and overspending that I’ve been doing lately, I decided to take it easy this weekend and tried to plan for a day/weekend trip to Garmisch to visit a family friend and relax with a friend in the mountains. I spent the week trying to organize the trip but it fell through due to lack of interest from friends and due to money troubles. So what else is new? Fortunately, I full intend to go visit and soon, even if I go alone. I’m looking forward to breathing in the mountain air and visiting with a beloved friend.

Instead of Garmisch, Jessica and I spent the weekend in Munich, taking in the sights and putting good use to our tourist books. On Friday night we stayed in and made dinner – Mahltauschen with grilled onions, shallots, and Schmand - and listened to Angus & Julia Stone, my new favorite band. And then Zainab came over and passed out on the couch while Jess and I watched Mary Poppins. Zainab tried to explain to us how representative the movie is of her hometown, London, but we just thought it was incredibly weird. Sorry, Z. Haha. I’ve seen it before but I never realized how trippy that movie is.

  

Saturday morning, instead of getting up early to catch a train to Garmisch, Jessica and I took our time and decided to go to Theresienwiese to see the progress for Oktoberfest. They’re already putting up the beer tents! Eric met up with us at Bavaria which is this incredibly cool bronze monument that looks over the Oktoberfest grounds.

We wandered around the Ruhmeshalle (hall of fame) and then eventually tried to bust in on the “biergarten” that was set up on the edge of the construction sites. It was a bust. But we did end up finding the weirdest ‘vending’ machine in the world. Let’s just say that if I need to find out if I have colon cancer or if I should ever need some odor spray, I know where I get some.

 

We wandered around the streets of Munich trying to find somewhere to eat lunch, only to end up in Marienplatz at Mr. Hot Dog. We met up with Harry after that and the four of us journeyed through Kaufingerstrasse to get to Karlzplatz where we could take a tram to Schloss Nymphenburg. Jessica got told off on the tram for taking pictures of someone’s baby and a giant green stink bug (or so we think) successfully molested all of us and then proceeded to flop around on it’s back the floor of the tram until Harry was able to get it outside. It was a lustig journey, to say the least.

 

As beautiful as it is, Schloss Nymphenburg is pretty boring. Haha. It’s a gorgeous palace and the gardens are beautiful but we found that it wasn’t very exciting. Nothing like Neuschwanstein. Haha. We wandered around the palace grounds taking pictures and making fun of the strange Greek statues and marveling at the duck families and enormous swans.

  

Harry left us after 4 and so Eric and Jessica and I decided that it would be more fun to go to a market and get cheap beer and just wander around Munich. We decided to get on Bus 51 which was a bad idea because after about 30 or so minutes of travel, we realized that we weren’t really getting anywhere. We ended up getting off at some random UBahn stop and then ventured back to Marienplatz where we had a delicious dinner at Schneide Weiße Bräuhaus. We did end up buying beer at the local Rewe and I was the only smart one – sticking to a bier that I knew. Neither Jess nor Eric enjoyed the beers that they bought so we ended up sharing the Augustiner. Eventually we ended up at Jaeger’s Youth Hostel where we made bank on the 7-9 Happy Hour and 3 EUR Maß. By 10:30 Jessica and I were drunk and had totaled between the two of us – three Maß and one Pilsner. Eric left me half of his and I filled that with half of one of Jess’s. It was an interesting bier extravaganza, to say the least. I did find the most delicious drunk snack food though – it’s called a Maxi Box and it’s from the Turkish doner stands. French fries, doner meat, and delicious white sauce (kind of like ranch dressing) all mixed together to delicious amazingness. At the end of the night, Jess and I got separated and I ended up at Giselastrase with Clare, Chris, and Jennie. Eventually Jess got a hold of me and I met her at my UBahn stop. We made it home and passed out in my bed. A Saturday night success.

Jessica and Eric at dinner

On Sunday morning I made pancakes from scratch and Jessica made scrambled eggs with cheese and garlic salt. Complete with maple syrup, peanut butter, and cold orange juice. It was the breakfast of champions. After breakfast we got ready to embrace the day and journey to the UBahn. Jess went home to explore Olympia park and I ventured into the heart of the city to meet Catherine for a trip to the Deutches Museum with Harry. It was a beautiful day – it’s a shame we spent it inside of the museum but we did manage to find the roof top viewing area just before it closed. Made from incredible photo opportunities of the city. And thank God Harry was there to explain half of the stuff inside there. Science and technology, however interesting and useful it may be, is so over my head. I was incredibly grateful to have him there to explain stuff like wind currents on airplane wings and math algorithms. After the museum, Harry disappeared to the gym and Catherine and I went to Munchner Freiheit to meet Clare for dinner. We went to Bento Box which was absolutely delicious. We talked girly things – boys and gossip, mostly, but trips to England and plans for Oktoberfest, and laughed at the restaurant’s heinous music selection - “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” sung by Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck - and ultimately enjoyed each other’s company as the ominous gray clouds began to unleash the rain that had been threatening to fall all afternoon.

View from the roof of the museum

   There’s always a silver lining, isn’t there?

I ventured home in the rain listening to my country music playlists – I miss country music – and came home to a dark and empty house. The family is gone to Austria until tomorrow evening. Originally it was supposed to be until next Saturday afternoon but somehow, she shaved off about 5 days and they’ll be back sooner than I want them to. I was looking forward to a quiet house and some really lazy days but I guess I will actually have to be an au pair now. The girls are finished with kinderhaus and are on summer vacation until Septmber 14th so I’m going to have to do real au pair duties – like trips to the playground, day trips to the zoo, and full on entertainment of the girls for hours and hours at a time. It’s nothing I haven’t done before just something I’m not used to doing here.

The rest of the week is uncharted. I know that I have to babysit on Saturday night but everything else is up in the air. Shamrocks with the girls on Tuesday night and maybe Olympia Sommerfest on Wednesday. Toy Town on Thursday. Before I know it August will be over and we’ll be well into September. It’s hard to believe that Oktoberfest starts NEXT MONTH. I’m so excited. I can’t wait to go. I really need to get a dirndl. My friend Alison is coming via England to Munich for the weekend of the 24th-27th to celebrate with me so I’m really excited to have here with me, meeting my friends and getting ridiculously drunk off of German bier. Time is going by so fast here! I hope that it slows down this fall and into winter. I don’t want to feel like my time here in Munich is disappearing. I can’t imagine leaving at this point – I really don’t want to!