May oder Mai (and April) in Munich oder München

Hello, hello...

Die Gedanken kreisen immer im Kopf, aber...

Recently I have been obsessed with rehashing every day I have spent here and figuring out EXACTLY what I did that day. And making as detailed a list as I can. Hmmm... I am not going to do that here, obviously, but it's odd... when I studied in Vienna during my last semester of college, I went home every night and documented the day's events; every single detail. And I did it without fail.

Now I have been trying to figure out why this studious day-documenting has for some reason not carried over to this year abroad in Munich. Perhaps it's because I feel like I am living here; I think I subconsiously feel like it's not temporary, that this is my life and therefore there is no real reason to remember every single detail. And maybe that's true. But the fact that I am mad at myself remains... I am mad at myself for several reasons.

My new thing is, however, that I will try my hardest not to dwell on things. That I will let things go. That I will not try to control the uncontrollable.

But. Blah blah blah. Yadda yadda ya. Wow, I really use this blog as my own diagnosis for my inner psychological workings, don't I?

Anyway... there is much to write. Another long blog entry ahead, kein apologies for not writing, it obviously does no good to even say I'm sorry for not writing, so why do it anymore. (P.S. I have been in the on-going process of writing this ONE entry since May 10. Yeah.)

First! An update...

So my last update told of my March wanderings, and now I will try my best to remember what I did in April.

The first weekend in April was celebrated by going out for my friend Hillary's birthday. It was a weekend filled with old friends meeting new friends that happen to live near Die Bank, followed by fun at the Hofbräuhaus and of course a Sunday trip to the English Gardens for a picnic. I love it because everytime we head to the gardens for a picnic, I think, "I need to get some mustard!!!" (Essential) So I buy a new tube of mustard every time, and thus have accumulated about four tubes... all somewhat used. Awesome.

The legendary trip to Nice took place over Easter weekend, and the "crew" (Me, Joshua, Tim, Michael, Viv and Hillary) rented a van (yesssss) and drove the so-called 8 hours to Nice, France. Well... we had a rough (or scratchy) start to say the least. :0 ) And it actually took us about 11 hours to get there, which none of us anticipated. BUT the trip was beyond awesome. Hillary drove all of us down there, bless her, and she also booked us the six-person apartment that had an ocean view. It took almost all of Friday to drive there (seriously Hillary is awesome), Saturday was spent wandering around Nice and checking out the night-time scene, and then on Sunday we took a train to Monoco to check out Monte Carlo. It is a very interesting city, to say the least, über clean and very strict about what you can and cannot do. (Even more so than Deutschland!) None of us did any gambling, but our eyes did glimpse many extremely nice cars and women who have had so much plastic surgery they seem to not walk correctly but there was nary a piece of trash in sight.

We stayed in Monte Carlo for dinner, and then we had a relaxing last night at the hotel, playing cards and such. Monday, Hillary drove us all back. This time, she was able to squeeze into the parking garage jusssssst perfectly. Hee hee. It's a fact though... their European garages are definitely not built for large van types. Ha ha ho ho.

The next weekend I made a SUPER spontaneous decision to go with one of my friends to Maastricht, Holland. The trip was all right; the town was very pretty. But there wasn't much to do. Although I had an ok time there, everything was ruined when on the way back to Munich on Tuesday, all of the trains to Köln were either late arriving to their destinations, or they didn't come at all. So I missed my flight. And in Germany, they won't just happily put you on to the next flight out. Nope. You have to buy a WHOLE new ticket. Gahhhhhh. I see red all over again just thinking about it. Basically, most expensive trip ever... and I really should not have gone...

But all was forgotten the next weekend, when I headed to Krakow, Poland to see my friend Anita, whom I had met at the Brussels conference. That trip was a blast! Our friend, Nikki, also from the seminar but who is stationed in Barcelona on her Fulbright, came for that weekend as well. She didn't want to do super touristy-stuff, so Saturday, Sunday and Monday were spent wandering around Krakow, enjoying the sites and laughing our heads off. Krakow was also super cheap. I think it was something like 4 or 5 zloty to 1 Euro. Aweeeesome!!!


Nikki had to leave super early on Tuesday morning, and then Anita and I went to see Auschwitz. What can one really say about that... it hits you hard, and I definitely left the infamous concentration camp with low spirits, a sick stomach and the baffled thoughts of how something like that could have happened weighing down my mind.

Then, I had to leave at 4:30 in the morning in order to make it to my flight on time, but it actually wasn't too bad... except for the whole no sleep thing. And THEN, wouldn't you know it, I arrived back in Munich and only had a 5 euro bill with me, decided I really didn't want to go to the Geldautomat for more, and ended up buying the Außenraum ticket instead of the Gesamtnetz ticket that one needs to get back into town from the airport. It was the ONLY time I rode without the exact ticket I needed. So I had to outer region ticket, PLUS my monthly card which included the inner three rings, and I was only missing one ring. The fourth ring. Never had I been checked before and GUESS which ring they decide to check me in. Yup. Boom. 40 euro fine.

I hate Murphy's law. I really do.

Boooo so that REALLY was lame. Seems the universe always tries to put a damper on my trips... Well, the next weekend in Munich was one of the worst I have had. The ʺcrewʺ had invited me on a trip to the Schwarzwald, but because I was sleeping all day that day (hadn't slept a wink the night before I left Krakow... 4 a.m., are you kidding me?), I didn't get the invite until that night. Which apparently was too late, as the car they were renting had filled up. So the five of them went to Freiburg without me, and instead I was left to a) be abandoned by my friends at a birthday party and left with a guy who made me fall on an escalator, b) be called a really-not-nice-name by a girl who I thought was my friend and c) wallow in my stupid attitude. (It's really wasn't that bad looking back on it, but still not a great weekend.)

BUT, I did get an e-mail from a guy at The Interview People, which is a press agency is Freising, while I was in Krakow. And I had an interview with them on May 6, and began an internship with them on Monday the 11th. So far, it's been a really great experience. They are mainly an entertainment-focused press agency, so they have a huge pool of clients that come to them for specialized content. So what I do is translate interviews from German to English (so far I have done ones with Jarvis Cocker, Miley Cyrus, Audrey Tautou and I have transcribed audio interviews with Jim Carrey, Willem Dafoe, Quentin Tarantino, etc.) My job is also to read through interviews and write synopses for the Web site, as well as picking out quotes to highlight the main idea of the interview. I like it, it's pretty cool. And because I am a big fan of music and movies, it also alerts me to new stuff that is being released, which is always a plus.

www.theinterviewpeople.com

So I have a regular work schedule again. Well, I did.

I have had this cough thing ever since I went to Holland, and have not gone to the doctor... because I am not a very big fan of the doctors here, and I thought it would clear up on its own, but alas, it turned into something not good over the weekend of the 22nd. I called in sick from work on Friday and again on Monday, and when I went back to work Tuesday, feeling fine but still showing remnants of my cough and a stuffy nose, I was sent home. And also told not to come until I was 100 percent healthy.

Never before have I had a job where they got mad at me for coming into work when I wasn't completely healthy. I explained it was due to the American work-work-work mentality, but Matthias, my boss, explained to ME that Germany was different. And that I was no good to them sick. I see his point, but it is still very odd...

SO I am starting work back up tomorrow. I tried to go in yet again today, but Matthias thought it best to give me one more day to be completely sure. It is so foreign to me I find it kind of funny.


Ok wrapping up; this is pretty much a novel. Before I got sick, Leanne (my college roomie) and her boyfriend Jon came to visit me for four days over the May 15th weekend. It was TOLL and we did all the major touristy stuff, including Neuschwanstein. I loved seeing her! I hadn't seen her since November, when I went to London to visit.

It is awesome when people come to Munich and I get to show off this magnigicent city.

My sister and my uncle Mike are coming for ten days soon!!! So I will be sure to write about that.

BUT, I am honestly, seriously, totally going to try and write SOMETHING every day. Even if it is just a paragraph. I will do it!!!! I will!!!!

So dann, bis Morgen!