Berlin

I don’t know how to write about my trip to Berlin. It was fucking awesome. Pardon my French but seriously. It was. I’ve sat down and tried to write a detailed report on the weekend and I just couldn’t do it. Let me see if I can sum it up. I went on a road trip with three of my really close friends here in Munich and we drove five hours to Berlin where we met up with some other friends – people that we knew from Munich or our past and separate lives – Laura and Alison – and we spent the weekend clubbing, wandering the wild and vibrant streets of Berlin from 11 pm until 5:30 or 7 in the morning, drinking Berliner Pils (and Augustiner Helles, too!), and touring incredible German history sites. We took a four hour walking tour in the merciless east German heat and I stood beside the Berlin wall. The bunker where Hitler killed himself is now covered by a parking lot. I saw the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his tiny baby out of a window. Checkpoint Charlie is really overrated. The Berlin Cathedral looks ancient but it really isn’t that old. Communism was crazy. The sun was out the entire weekend and it was glorious. Karaoke is much more fun to watch when you’re in an outdoor stadium with three hundred other people. Flea markets sell super cheap friendship bracelets and a shitload of vinyl records. I went to the most fabulous party found myself surrounded by gay boys and never felt happier or more wonderful. Berlin helped me embrace my inner fag hag and brought me a whole gaggle of new gay boyfriends. I find that I can never have enough. I ate bratwurst from men that walked around and wore sausage grills over their shoulders. Have grill, will travel. I didn’t go to bed before 3:30 am on any night of the entire weekend. I ate the best cheeseburger I’ve ever tasted… twice. I didn’t have proper Berlin currywurst. Damn. I bonded with my skinny love. I loved Berlin. I absolutely loved it.

Yours truly at Brandenburg Tor
(I prefer the one in Munich, to be honest.)

Ich Bin Ein Berliner! (No, Seriously… I Am! Okay… Maybe Not)

Well, ladies and gents, I am off to Berlin today! I am so excited because I would have been devastated if I had missed a tripped to Berlin while I was here. It’s one of the places that I really, really wanted to see while I was here in Germany. Fortunately, I have really good friends and so this trip to Berlin has been really easy to plan. My good friend Anne, who is one of my few German friends in Germany, comes from the Berlin area and so she’s providing the car for an epic road trip. Fio and Nuno will join us on our 5 or so hour adventure up north and we will meet our respective parties once we get into the city. My close friend Alison, who I met while working at Camp Cayuga in 2007, is living in Berlin right now and so Nuno, Anne, and I will be staying with her there. Our friend Laura, who once lived here in Munich with us, is going to school in Berlin now so Fio will be staying with her there and we will see her, too. It’s going to be a weekend of sight seeing, beer drinking, and club dancing and I am so excited. I haven’t been on a proper vacation since Rome and I’m looking forward to getting away for a few days! Especially since my time in Munich is dwindling down to mere days. Only 19 of them left!

JFK in Berlin

He just said, therefore, I am a donut!
Since a “Berliner” is a German donut. Ha.
Silly Americans.

(And as you can already tell, I have given up on the 30 Days of Germany challenge, in which I post a German something or other every day until I leave. I should have known that I couldn’t commit to that. I never finished memes like that and I’m fairly certain that I have commitment issues, anyway. So… on to the next half-assed challenged, eh? Haha.)

30 Days of Germany: Day 2 (May 22nd)–Bamberg, Germany

This past weekend my friends and I took a Sunday day trip to Bamberg, Germany. There wasn’t any significant reason as to why we chose that particular city – we just wanted to go somewhere in Bavaria that we hadn’t been before. So, for my second day, I’m going to feature some pictures and travel adventures from our trip to Bamberg.

We met at Hauptbahnhof at 9 am on Sunday morning and the twelve of us split up three Bayern tickets. The traveling menagerie – me, Eric, Nuno, Ana, Dieter, Sara, Anne, Simon, Kiira, Elisa, Florian, and Kaja. Our train left Munich around 10 am so we bought some snacks and beer and we settled in for the three hour train ride to Bamberg. I love train rides – especially when I’m with my friends – so the fact that we had to sit on the train for such a long time was not a big deal to me at all. We listened to each other’s iPods (Backstreet Boys serenades!), played games (between two different iPads, Ana’s phone, and my iPod), drank beer, laughed, talked, gossiped. When we reached Nuremberg, we had to switch to an SBahn and take another hour long train ride into Bamberg. By the time we got on the SBahn, it was already 12:30 and it was HOT. We spent the next 45 minutes on the suburban train sweating and drinking even more beer to beat the heat. But, it was worth it when we got to Bamberg and stumbled off the train – half of us drunk and smiling, having just thoroughly enjoyed our long journey. We ambushed the McDonald’s bathroom and Florian let me sneak into the men’s rest room on his receipt code. Win! Then we journeyed out into the city with no real direction or travel intentions – just a desire to wander around and find stuff that was interesting.

Anne and I with our Helles on the train! It’s not a Bavarian train ride without ‘em!

Our trash can on the SBahn. Party machen!

The city of Bamberg was quaint and absolutely beautiful. It rained for the first hour or so that we were there but that didn’t stop us from enjoying it. I think the gray skies gave the city a bit of a menacing charm – and I got to dance in the rain. No big deal! It’s just water! We wandered from church to church – one of which was located on top of this massive hill with breathtaking views of the city. We took pictures on the numerous bridges that we crossed – Bamberg has the reputation of being called Germany’s Venice, for the rivers and bridges and buildings located on the riverbanks. After the rain and after we emerged from two hours worth of dinner, beer, and good company in a traditional Bamberg restaurant, the city was ridiculously beautiful and we got some great pictures.

Lighting candles in the church – thinking of my ma!

The whole traveling group (from left to right) – Florian, Elisa, Kaja, Sara, me, Anne, Simon (we made him crouch down! ha), Ana, Nuno, Eric, Dieter, and Kiira

We made our way back to the train station just in time to catch a 7:15 train back to Nuremberg. We loaded up on snacks and beer (seriously, we were drinking ALL DAY) and jumped on the train that would take us to our connection train in the next city. We were all so tired but we drank right through it and as the train traveled on – we got sillier, louder, and more ridiculous. I’m sure that anyone who was on the train with us didn’t want to be and by the time we got to Nuremberg, we had more stores and more beer to buy. So for the last three hour train ride that would take us to Munich, most of us managed two to three beers each, and we even got away with playing a deliciously entertaining drinking game that involves whispering predictions of who’s most likely to do what and a lot of irony, laughter, and extreme entertainment. We made it back to Munich at 11:30 and while everyone else decided to go home, Anne and I thought it would be fun to keep the night going and we ended up at our favorite cluster of hostel bars. It turned out to be an epic fail as Anne had her money stolen and I had to borrow 10 EUR from a hotel desk clerk near my house because I didn’t have enough change to pay my taxi driver. Epic fail, lesson learned. But, in the end, it was a travel day success. This trip was one of the best that I’ve taken since living in Germany and is almost up there at the top with our 22-hour adventure to Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein castle in August. With only 27 days left in Munich, it is the days like this that I will hold on to and hope for as my time in Munich continues to dwindle down. I will never forget these days and I consider myself extremely blessed to be able to share them with the people that have made my experience in Munich so much better. Next time, road trip to Berlin! Woo!

The 50 Most Important Landmarks of the World

I was Stumbling around this morning and came across this link – 50 of the world’s most important and well known landmarks. I was kind of disappointed in how many of them I haven’t actually heard of but was also surprised to find that I’ve been to a few of them! Not many… but I hadn’t seen any of them this time last year! Check out the link and comment, how many of these have you been to?

The 50 Most Important Landmarks of the World

I’ve been to…

Big Ben, London
January 2011

Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria
August 2010

St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome
April 2011

Trevi Fountain, Rome
April 2011

I’d love to travel to all of these landmarks someday, of course, but if I could pick five places to visit to see five of these landmarks, I’d choose:

The Taj Mahal, India

Lochness, Scotland

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

Mont St Michel, France

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Garmisch, Again and the Blessed Comfort of Family in a Far Away Place

This blog can’t keep up with real life! I am not giving it any justice. I have so many things I want to write about and then I find that I have all the time in the world to write it down but I just… don’t. I get distracted. I get going on StumbleUpon. I start  chatting on FB. I pick up my book. I clean my bathroom. Seriously. I scrub the toilet instead. It’s pathetic. Anyway, I’m going to start with my recent trip down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen where I visited my Quasi-Mom, Christina, and my German Oma, Kathe for the weekend.

In case you missed the memo the first few times that I talked about it  – everyone in Christina’s family is pretty much mine, too. Neither one of us would have ever guessed that back in the fall of 2007, when she hired me to work at her candle store, that 3 1/2 years later, I would be hanging out with every member of her family in their motherland. I worked for Christina as both a candle store employee and as the babysitter for her adorable grand-daughter, Andrea, up until the summer of last year and became extremely close to her in the process. Christina and her husband, Barrie, have been like surrogate parents to me while I was living away from home and going to school and they have gone out of their way most of the time to take care of me. (Thank you for all of the tire changes, broken car door repairs, and home-cooked meals!) They’re wonderful! Christina’s older sister, Susie, I met through the family (she visited me in Munich during Oktoberfest!) as well and their mother, Kathe, who I met whenever she was staying in California and then, formally, after I’d found out that I would be going to Germany. More recently, I’ve become friends with Christina’s son, Dustin, as well, because he visited Munich back in February. I feel like he’s my big brother now, I love it! And, of course, there’s Drea in there, too. I’m her “Hairy” and I find myself missing her, too! Needless to say, I have been incredibly blessed with the comforts and consolation of family while I’ve been here in Europe and I couldn’t imagine how my experience here would have been different had that touch of familiarity been absent.

With that being said, Kathe lives here in Bavaria, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, so I have been visiting her a lot since I’ve arrived here in Germany. I now have pictures of Garmisch through the seasons. It’s been really cool, this little town is so beautiful and it has so much stuff to do and look at. This time around, however, I went there to see Christina who I hadn’t seen since I’d left California last June. Kathe and Christina picked me up at my house, met my host-mom and the girls, and then we drove from Munich to G-Pa, which was about an hour’s drive. It was nice to catch up with her gossip a little bit, which we’re soooo good at. When we got to Garmisch, we stopped first at the commissary, since Kathe works for the Army. I stocked up on American goodies – macaroni and cheese, blueberry bagels, Ranch dressing, French’s mustard, an industrial size bottle of Treseme conditioner, Ruffles Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. Oh man, I love cheating on German culture sometimes! After our shopping excursion, Christina and I went into the heart of the city and had a delicious Bavarian dinner – schnitzel for everyone (I ate mine and half of hers! D’oh!) – and we had beers and walked home. It was a beautiful twilight!

Garmisch-Partenkirchen after dark

Back at Kathe’s house we had a Skype video call with Barrie, Dustin, and Andrea and we all got an earful from that little chatterbox. She is getting so big and is talking so much since the last time that I saw her and I couldn’t stop laughing at the cute things that just came out of her mouth. It’ll be nice to play with her again – I hope she’s missing me! It was nice to see Barrie and Dustin, too, of course. We all went to bed after that and woke up slowly in the morning. After breakfast Christina and I decided to go to Ludwig’s Schloss Linderhof. I’ve been to nearly all of King Ludwig’s castles now! I feel accomplished. Linderhof was beautiful – and it’s the only castle that he ever fully completed (and it’s one of the smallest!). He didn’t even finish the Disney castle. Linderhof comes with Ludwig’s grotto and so that was really interesting to see. It’s the largest man-made cave in Europe, by the way. It was raining and it was a bit cold but I enjoyed the scenery and the castle itself and Christina and I had fun just hanging out, the two of us.

Mountain scenery from the path to Linderhof
I absolutely love this country! How can I ever leave?!

Schloss Linderhof

The view from the front side of Linderhof

Me with Neptune’s fountain

Painting in the grotto where Ludwig present Wagner’s opera

The castle, down below

We finished touring Linderhof and were back in G-Pa by 3 o’clock so we decided to walk into the city and check out the street market that was going on. The walk to the city is picturesque and there is a little field with about six sheep in it and they wear cow bells on their necks so you always know if they’re coming. We would stop and talk to them, pet them, and feed them dandelions. They were adorable! The market itself was so cute – very small town German and just adorable. And so many good aromas coming from all that delicious food. Christina and I ended up eating the 1/2 meter bratwursts and taste testing all kinds of yummy foods. It was a good way to pass through the afternoon and once we return home – we made a plan to send me back to Munich and Christina took me to the train station. We said our good-byes and then I settled in for the 90 minute train ride back into the city. I read my book the entire time (I’m in love with Lisa Gardner’s thrillers!) and snacked on all of my guilty pleasure American food the whole time!

Ultimately, it was a great weekend in Garmisch and I had so much fun with Christina – I really had missed her a lot and I can’t wait to spend more time with her once I’m back in California NEXT MONTH. Geez. It’s gone by so fast. Holy cow.

Next up on my blog-frenzy-agenda…

• The joys of spring and all that it brings – beer festivals, warm weather, sunburns, hay fever, bugs, an over abundance of work, and all kinds of other stuff.
• My job hunt back in California and how awesome I am as the future Mary Poppins.
• Books, books, books… and my GoodReads.com literary goal!
• Resuming my “52 Things in Munich” bucket list – I’m so behind!
• My thoughts and reflections on the last six weeks of the best year of my life. Can I even put it into words?!

This (not so) new German girl is finding out that
home really is where the heart is.

When In Rome: Easter Vacation (April 21st) Part 4

(I forgot to post this last piece! Sorry! It’s out of order now. Haha. Oh well. ENJOY!)

This past Easter I was able to visit Rome on vacation and I had an absolutely wonderful experience. I spent four days and five nights in Italy and was able to see so many unbelievable and breathtaking sights – things I never thought that I would ever be fortunate enough to see with my own eyes. I was also fortunate enough to meet a handful of really awesome travelers – people who I may never see again but will never forget! For blogging purposes, I’m going to break the adventure down into numerous installments so that I can include everything. This is the last piece of the adventure – documenting mine and Brenna’s last day in Rome, our travels, back to Munich, and my final thoughts and reflections on the whole trip.

When In Rome: Easter Vacation (April 20th) Part 3

This past Easter I was able to visit Rome on vacation and I had an absolutely wonderful experience. I spent four days and five nights in Italy and was able to see so many unbelievable and breathtaking sights – things I never thought that I would ever be fortunate enough to see with my own eyes. I was also fortunate enough to meet a handful of really awesome travelers – people who I may never see again but will never forget! For blogging purposes, I’m going to break the adventure down into numerous installments so that I can include everything. This is the third part of my vacation, which includes a day trip to Naples and Pompeii and plenty of complaints about Rome's horrible public transport.

When in Rome: Easter Vacation (April 19th) Part 2

This past Easter I was able to visit Rome on vacation and I had an absolutely wonderful experience. I spent four days and five nights in Italy and was able to see so many unbelievable and breathtaking sights – things I never thought that I would ever be fortunate enough to see with my own eyes. I was also fortunate enough to meet a handful of really awesome travelers – people who I may never see again but will never forget! For blogging purposes, I’m going to break the adventure down into numerous installments so that I can include everything. This is the second part of my vacation, which includes the second day in Rome – a tour of Vatican city and Piazza Novona!

When in Rome: Easter Vacation (April 17th–18th) Part 1

This past Easter I was able to visit Rome on vacation and I had an absolutely wonderful experience. I spent four days and five nights in Italy and was able to see so many unbelievable and breathtaking sights – things I never thought that I would ever be fortunate enough to see with my own eyes. I was also fortunate enough to meet a handful of really awesome travelers – people who I may never see again but will never forget! For blogging purposes, I’m going to break the adventure down into numerous installments so that I can include everything. This is the first part of my vacation, which includes the first day of travel and the mishaps that came along with it, and the first days in the city! After that, I’ll write about my day trip to Naples and Pompei and the last of the adventure. Enjoy!

Off to Rome! Ciao Bella!

Well, boys and girls, I owe the world some serious blog updates. I have been lazy. But, for now, I choose to travel instead and will be in Rome until Friday, the 22nd. Enjoy this lovely week of April and I will be back Easter weekend. Ciao!

Six Days in The Eternal City

It’s official! On Sunday, April 17th I am flying to Rome for a six day vacation! Brenna and I are flying on Swiss Air, stopping over in Zurich, and continuing on to Rome late Sunday night. We have a hostel outside of the city center, a tourist book, and grand plans for our Easter holiday. Naples, Pompei, the Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum, Vatican City, the Trevi Fountain. Cannoli’s and gelato, pizza, penne pasta, Italian wine. I never knew that I could be so excited about Italy – I didn’t even think twice about visiting before but now I can’t get it out of my head! The travel bug has definitely bitten, my friends!

Of course, none of those pictures are mine but I can’t wait until I have my own! Too bad my good camera is still broken. Boo! Although, I will mention that Brenna and I are going to do the Angels & Demons of Rome tour, following the plot from one of our favorite Dan Brown books of the same name. Yay!

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!

(Not So) New German Girl: Nine Months Down, Three to Go

March 20th marked the nine month “anniversary” of my arrival to Munich. And on this date, last year, March 28, 2010 I started this blog – Diary of An American Au Pair slash New German Girl. It’s been one year since that first post and nine months since I first arrived and guess what? I’m not so new anymore!

How can I explain to you just how much my life has changed over the last nine months? You’ve been reading this blog (I hope) so you have an idea of how far I’ve come and the things that I’ve seen but how could I really explain it to you in words? I’m not even so sure that I can do that for myself. What I do know, is that the girl that I was when I left California is not the same girl that will return in June. I have changed, my life has changed, and my eyes are wide open. I may not have seen very much of the world but what I have here – I absolutely love and to be quite honest, I wouldn’t ask for a do-over even if you paid me.

The months leading up to my German adventure were busy, busy, busy. Of course I had Germany on my mind but I was so preoccupied. I was trying to finish my Capstone and was looking forward to my college graduation. I was organizing all of my material possessions, moving out of my apartment, walking away from my numerous jobs and co-workers, saying good bye to friends and loved ones, and preparing myself for the unknown. When I first arrived, after nearly 13 hours of travel with swollen feet and a weary smile, it didn’t feel that different. I couldn’t understand how to get through the airport, not because of the language – everything was written in both English and Deutsch – but because Franz Joseph Strauss airport is a ridiculous mess of signs and signals and moving sidewalks. Eventually, I found a taxi in some shady back corner and I gave my address to the driver and although he barely understood me – I was hopeless back then – he managed to finally understand and we were driving away. My adventure was right in front of me. It was about to begin.

“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.

Bang! Just a Bunch of Bullet Points

Recently, worthy content for this blog has been neglected (sort of) and my life, as of late, has become a series of bullet points:

• My camera is still out of commission and is worse off than it was when I first spoke of it’s misfortune. Now I fear that it is completely screwed and that it will no longer be of service to me. Sad face but hey, lesson learned. The really hard way.

• The weather in Munich is shaping up. It is showing signs of spring and temperatures are up in the 40’s (some 50 degree days last week!) and the sun has made a few appearances, too. Unfortunately, there has also been rain and blustery cold but no more snow. For that, I am eternally grateful.

• I went to the Munich Readery on Thursday and got myself a new book. I was in dire need of some new material – I’ve been doing crossword puzzles before bed for almost two months. Finally something to read – I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb. So far, so good. It’s almost 900 pages and is, thus far, a bit slow but I love the author (She’s Come Undone!!!!) so we’ll see if it shapes up to be a winner in the end.

 

• Things in the au pair household have been pretty monochromatic. Nothing very exciting to speak of. I bought the girls a small Valentine’s Day present – little unicorn toys that change color in the water – just to let them know that I think of them and love them. We also made a special present for their mom for V Day. (Well, I thought of it, funded it, and put it together. Haha.) I got a double sided picture frame and put two pictures of them in either side and the girls made her each a homemade Valentine’s Day card. I’ll put them all on the table before breakfast in the morning. Just a nice little holiday treat for everyone. Except me. Haha.

• Last week Fionualla bought the two of us plane tickets to Cologne for March 11-14th. We’re missing carnival, unfortunately, and that’s entirely my fault for mixing up my vacation time but it will be nice to get out and go somewhere new anyway. She has a friend from home who lives there so we get free accommodation and have a built-in tour guide. It will be good!

• German beer has made this past week/weekend a crazy one. It all started on Tuesday night where I managed to belt out a pretty awesome rendition of Shania Twain’s Any Man of Mine at the karaoke bar and then on Thursday, we had a wild night at a local ToyTown meet-up that was serving free shots of Jaegermeister with every beer purchased. That never ends well, as we’ve experienced twice before at this same bar. Haha. On Friday night, we said goodbye to Eric who has left Munich for a few months and had a delicious leaving dinner at a great Croatian restaurant here in Munich called, Opatija. I called it an early night and went home but caught up with my crazy friends on Saturday night. A family friend was in town so Oma Kathe brought him into Munich so he could meet my friends and hang out. His family is kind of like my surrogate family so we got along really fast and had a great night out with my friends. I’m planning on going to Garmisch next weekend to visit them again. I also got to see some old friends, Helena and Zainab, who were in town visiting from England. I didn’t see very much of them - we all had our own things going on - but it was good to see them again, even for the little bit that we were together. Now I’m looking forward to slowing down a little bit this week to re-evaluate my alcohol tolerance levels and practice some much needed self control. Haha.

 

• I still have a lot of things left to do/document on my “52 Things in Munich” list. This will resume shortly! I’ve been kind of busy/lazy/uninspired lately so I will get back on it!

• Happy Valentine’s Day!

A Sacrificial Social Life, Our “Schnee Mann” Family, My First Ever Blog Giveaway! (Maybe…), and How to Make Someone’s Pants Fall Off By Magic

There is little to report in the world of this new German girl.

I didn’t budget very well for this last pay period so I’ve been without significant amounts of money for a few days. I bought a beer the other day with 50 and 20 cent coins. I bought a 1 EUR chicken burger at McDonald’s with ten 10 cent coins. I haven’t been buying a train ticket. I know, that’s unethical but what’s a girl to do? I get paid soon and I intend to learn my lesson next time. I’m holding myself back from buying unnecessary crap like spending 12 EUR on 4 beers in one evening. There is one unnecessary cost that I don’t need and certainly won’t miss:

1. Cover charges at bars and night clubs. I don’t even like to get down and dance unless I’m uninhibitedly drunk so that’s another nine to twelve euros on top of the cover. I can do this once a month. But anymore than that, ain’t happening.

Other than that, I just need to watch myself when buying food, and budgeting expenses (like phone credits, train tickets, and other necessities). I’m going to Berlin in February to see my friend, Alison, to Cologne in March for Carnival, and, if I’m smart with my money, to Paris in May. And I still have an entire week off at the end of April that I need to fill with cool and interesting travel ideas. So I fully intend to save my money for all of that. And it will be worth sacrificing a little bit of my social life for that. At least I think so!

On the au pair front, things have been going well. The family is great – the girls are still as cute as they ever were. There hasn’t been a lot of crying and tantrums which I am always grateful to report. We make macaroni and cheese about once a week, we color (thanks Christy for the Disney princess coloring book!), we play with Legos, read books, play Solitaire, Rummy, and Go Fish, we make chocolate muffins, we do homework, and now that the snow has come back to Munich, we make snow men.

It’s snowing like crazy today. Big, fat, fluffy, wet snow flakes. It’s never ending. The entire neighborhood is turning white. It’s never been this white before. I’m glad that the girls are at a ballet recital and I’m off for the night. I’m thinking I might hang out on my window seat with some pillows and a blanket and watch Ice Age 2 and do crossword puzzles. My life is amazing. I’m not being sarcastic either. It really is. :)

In blog news, I received an email last night from a woman who represents CSN Stores and she wants to sponsor a blog giveaway on my blog! She contacted me via a different blog that I write but I’m hoping that it will work for this one. It will be my first and since I have no idea how to do a blog giveaway, I hope I can figure it out and get it going. That would be really cool and would get me a lot of traffic and advertising. Not that I need it BUT there have been multiple instances where other girls who read my blog came to work in Munich or emailed me for information about doing it and I love that I can be a resource for them AND that I can meet new au pairs through my blog. I think that’s pretty damn cool. So I’ll keep you posted on the giveaway.

Also, I thought I’d share with you some of the keywords that I find through Google Analytics. These are search words that bring people to this blog. Commentary included.

how to make someone’s pants fall off by magic
Well, I really don’t know. I can’t imagine how my blog led you to the conclusion that it could help you but I do hope you found a solution, or at least, were able to book a ticket on the Hogwarts Express.

is it snowing in Munich now?
Why, yes… yes it is!

is Liberal Studies a waste of a degree?
That is open for interpretation. I have yet to use it so ask me in a few years.

Munich surprised me
Me too! But it was a pleasant surprise!

sweet German girl Jessica
She is a sweet German girl, isn’t she? Miss you, Jess!

the Lost Symbol last part boring
It was boring. I didn’t even finish reading it. I hope that my blog convinced you to do the same thing. Pretty sure we’re not missing much.

dirndl dreams
I do have dreams of my dirndl. Sigh. I can’t wait to wear it again…

meet housewives in Munich
How’s that one working out for you? Good, I hope.

Oh yeah. And please check out my music blog – The Music and the Hope. I’ve pimped it out here before but I just recently gave it a make-over and have been posting a lot of stuff so if you want some new music suggestions or just something to listen to, please visit. Danke!

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

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

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

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

Saturday, January 15th

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

Riding the cable car from the Olympic stadium

The Alps off in the distance

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

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

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

Sunday, January 16th

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

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

A peaceful, easy feeling in the EG.

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