Wohning at the Wohnheim

wohnen - to live (in an apartment, haus, etc)

It's been 7 days since I've posted. From Friday to Monday, I flew back to California to surprise my mom for her 60th birthday! There are no words for her face when she saw me....I only wish I had a camera!

Life has become stable here; I am definitely settled after being here for three weeks. I just received an email a few days ago about my accommodations from April to August. I'll be on a hill overlooking my quaint little Bavarian village of Eichstätt. But that is in the future, now I'm still in the bustling center of Bavaria and there are many festivals coming up.

Ping pong outside in winter...

Life at the Wohnheim/Gasthaus (it goes by both names) is a lot of fun. Around dinner time you hang out in the kitchen and get to chat with all the other people. Outside, there are two concrete ping pong tables. I tried them out for the first time this week playing in a very exciting and well matched game with Megan. I made a great dinner with Paula (from Columbia), Cristiana (Brazil), and Rob (Canada) last night. More people joined and dinner turned into a social gathering...and that social gathering turned into a party. Unfortunately, the Zivis are starting to become like RAs back in the US. On eventually broke up our party in the kitchen so we moved to the Partyraum....then that one got broken up. At least I don't get written up!The best part of the night was definitely when Dylan and Matt came in with two beer bongs - a grand American tradition that we are now sharing with the world. They bought them at the German equivalent of the Home Depot.

With the same group - Paula, Cristiana, and Rob - I went to a Tapas bar, which when I told people the next day...they heard "Topless bar." I then got the idea for a Topless Tapas bar. Investors anyone? Back to the story...being a Tapas bar, the waiters spoke Spanish and as a game, Paula made me order everything for them IN SPANISH. My nine years of grade school Spanish left me with nothing, so I probably butchered every syllable.

Today after class, I adventured with Megan and Erik (US). We went out for lunch at a pretty cool Italian restaurant. My pizza was only 6.30 and it could easily have been $13 at a US restaurant with the ingredients they put on it. We then saw The King's Speech with German untertitel (I just like that word better than "subtitle"). Throughout the week, I've been noticing a change in my English. I have become awful at speaking English and the slow movement towards Germish has begun. At lunch I said something that would make those friends of mine who are part of the Grammar-Gestapo cringe. Unfortunately, I do not remember it...my mind wishes to erase that. The best thing was that what I said, if translated to German, would have had perfect word order. Damn. Megan the other day said, "Well that seems comisch." Comisch is humorous in German. GERMISH!

 So life in the Wohnheim and elsewhere is sweet, partly because of the....


THE SIX BEERS OF MUNICH!

The flow of this post is lacking but I should have talked about this a long time ago. Let's see if you can name the six beers. I was surprised when I could the first time someone asked me. They are Paulaner, Hofbräu, Franziskaner, Löwenbräu, Augustiner, and Hacker-Pschorr. Just so you don't sound like a tourist the next time you are in Munich, the "äu" in any "bräu" word is pronounced "oi." So when you say Hofbräuhaus, you pronounce it Hof-broi-hahoos. As of TODAY, I have now tasted all 6, including Löwenbräu, even though our tour guide six months ago said it tastes "like urinations." Günther, it wasn't that bad! I have started using the shelf above my bed to store the different kinds of beers. They are all just too good.

Shrine to München, Capital of Beerdom

I have been studying, too! I was the only one in class today for the first 10 minutes. A total of 5 out of 14 people showed up - last night was a little rough. I showed up late on Wednesday because the trip over the weekend finally caught up to me. The guilt followed me throughout the day, so I went up to the Mediothek and checked out a German movie, Das Leben der Anderes (The Lives of Others). I watched 20 minutes of it and started losing hold of the plot, so I stopped. I brought it back to the librarian and we conversed in German, but I'll translate it here. Keep in mind the word schwer means both hard and heavy (as in depressing).

Librarian: "Are you finished"
Me: "No, only 20 minutes into it. It is too hard (schwer)."
Librarian: "Yeah...the plot is very heavy."
Me: "No I mean, I am only in B11 and there are no subtitles. It is too hard for me, as in the opposite of simple.
Librarian: "I understand now. I'll use the word complex (schwierig) instead."

German words have too many different meanings and that conversation was the first one I had that was a mix up. So I end this post saying that the classes are going well. Megan, Federico, and I are going to see a concert on the 26th featuring Carmina Burana and Beethoven's 9th played by the Prague Orchestra. Speaking of Prague, I'm meeting my brother there in May. Also in my plans - Ireland the first weekend of March to tag along with my singing group as they make their yearly migration for tanzen und trinken. Jawohl! And one more thing:

Funny Observations/Facts about German culture:

• The yellow light at a stop sign blinks right before going green - so from red to yellow to green. Germans are always racing! I hear you even get a boost if you get the right timing, like Mario Kart.
• Many Germans stay in movie theaters to watch the credits....the best part of the movie
• In order to get your driver's license, you are tested on basic car maintenance and emergency situations - tire changes, jumping a car, etc.
• The phrase "Das ist nicht mein Bier," which translates literally to "That is not my beer" is actually an idiom which mean's that's none of my business. Beer everywhere!