Nose to the Grindstone

Man this blog thing is harder than I thought it would be... who knew...

So Kate is gone now, she flew back to New Mexico last Thursday. I am sad. And now I really have to concentrate on getting a job! I still am not one hundred percent sure exactly what I want to do, but I can't spend any more time thinking about it. I just have to get out there, see what happens, and see how I like the outcome. Scary.

But why am I feeling so frustrated? I should be so happy that I am here, which I am, but I am feeling like I am not accomplishing what I set out to accomplish. I know it's early on—I have only been here for six weeks (but again, that's kind of a long time), and I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. Hopefully this is normal. And I really hope I can do what I want to do. Which is... what exactly? Not sure yet. Dah. Frustrating. But it will get better, I am sure of it. (Hopefully...) Wow. There were a lot of "hopes" and "feelings" in that little paragraph.

So before Katelyn left, we ventured to the Netherlands (her boyfriend has family there and said we should check it out.) It was an experience, mostly because of how different is was from Germany. It's amazing how places so close together can vary so vastly. People in Amsterdam do not look at you. Ever. It is like you are invisible. This was very weird to me because German people not only look at you, they stare. And they don't care if you see them staring. They don't look away. But things in Holland are much cheaper than in Munich, so that was a plus. Long story short, Kate and I stayed on a cute little houseboat named the Vita Nova, that had very good breakfast and very small—teeny, tiny actually—rooms and beds. But it was a really awesome place to stay, and an experience in itself.

We went to the Anne Frank house, which was my favorite part of the trip. It was just unbelievable to be standing in the house where that family stayed and being in the middle of history. What got me most was when I was looking at the pictures Anne herself had put up in her room and knowing that they were the same images she saw everyday for two years, until that anonymous caller ratted the family out and they were discovered. Seriously. Such an unbelievable place to see.

We also got to go to the Van Gogh museum, which I thought was very exciting since I love him and his work but it did end up depressing me. He worked his whole, sad life trying to sell a painting and never succeeded, and then ended up killing himself. Poor guy. If only he knew now how famous he has become.

We took a day to rest after coming back to Munich, and then we ventured to Füssen and then onto Schwangau to see Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau—both castles that the Bavarian royal family had built. The tours of both castles were very interesting and I learned much about Maximilian and Ludwig II, whose mysterious death really interests me... But Schwangau is such a charming and cozy town, and the weather was gorgeous and all the leaves were falling and all the colors were changing. Ohhhhh it was soooo nice. (I will post pictures as soon as I am done writing this post, I swear!!! And I am writing this sentence in here just to ensure that I do it!)

But the way back from Füssen... well, that's a different story all in itself. And seriously, to make a long story short as I don't want to drag it out the way I have done so many times telling the story—Katelyn and I were not aware that the last bus left from Schwangau to Füssen Bahnhof at 7:30 pm, so we were taking our sweet time, stopping for ice cream and coffee and the whole bit. So when we discovered this unfriendly little tidbit, we had to march across the street to a closing restaurant where the woman told us she would call us a cab that should cost about 6 euro. Ended up costing us 11. But hey, at least we were at the train station, right? No. We later found out that the train coming was going to be 25 minutes late, after we had already waited 35 minutes, and when we boarded the train, we then discovered it wasn't leaving for another hour. So it was 10:30 by the time it left. We left Schwangau at 8 pm. But that isn't the worst of it. When we got to our transfer station at 11:45, another voice came on the intercom and informed us that this train would be 20 minutes late. Great. By this time I am worrying that we won't make it back to München Hauptbahnhof in time to catch the last U-Bahn of the night. We got back into Munich at 1:15 AM, rushed to catch the U-Bahn (which also sat idle at the station for a good ten minutes before it left—and yes, it was the last U-Bahn of the night.)

So we left Schwangau at 8 p.m. and didn't get home until 1:30 a.m. And that is very interesting because German trains are almost never late. They are known for having the most punctual transportation system ever. But not this night. And poor Katelyn will be left with that impression of the German transit system. Oh and this also sucked because it was Katelyn's last night here, as she was leaving the next morning, and that was not the most fun last night. Boo.

But the day in Schwangau was nice. Very nice.

So what I have been doing these past few days is trying to locate the names of people in their respective departments so that I can figure out whom to address my cover letters to. So fun.

But recently I also went on a swimming pool search and found out that Munich kind of has an obsession for swimming pools and saunas, which is awesome. I spent most of yesterday at the Dantebad (especially in their crazy whirlpool) but I probably won't be going back there because the entrance fee was €6.70. Sheesh! I will try Olympiabad next time I give it a go.

Tomorrow I am meeting my friend Hillary in the morning and we are going—with her friends who are visiting from Missouri—to Dachau. Let the history, and more depression, ensue.

Tschüssi!