Servus Alle!
Hello Everyone!
I have created this blog to keep all my family and friends up to date on what is up with me in Munich. I'll try to update a couple times a week. This is not meant to be any great piece of art and my blogs will become progressively worse in terms of grammar and vocabulary as my German gets better and my English gets worse, which is already happening. NO editorial comments, please.
So I've been in Munich for a little over a month know and I'm not exactly sure where to start.
Well, I live in the Studentenstadt which litterally means "student city" auf Deutsch. It's a little old and run down, but doens't deserve the title of student ghetto that a professor of mine gave it. I live in a two story building with a common kitchen, bathroom, etc. I'm about a five miute walk from the U-Bahn (Subway) which will get me to class in about 10 minutes. Public transportation here is clean and very efficient. You can drink a beer on the U-Ubahn at 8am and no one will bat and eye, but god help you if you put your feet up on the seat.
Munich is a beautiful city that suffered significantly less damage in WWII than other cities in Germany. It is actual known as the free-city of Munich and you are hard pressed to see a Germna flag here, only the Munich and Bavarian flags. This is the last part of Germany to join the German Empire in the late 19th century. It was founded in the 12th century as a center of trade and beer production. It's name comes from the German word for Monk, refering to the Benedictine monastery that was first in this area. The symbol of the city is a monk with his arms stretched out with Bible in his left hand and making either a monastic symbol with his right, or holding a beer in it. No kidding, a Bible in one hand and a beer in another. There are monastic breweries in Bavaria that are nearly a 1,000 years old, including my personal favorite Augustiner founded in 1328 and they seem to have it down by now. It is still fiercely protective of it's individual culture and political independence which is considerable in comparison to states in the US and even the other states in Germany. Bavaria is predomintantly Roman Catholic and considerably more conservative than most other parts of Germany. They refer to north Germans as Prussians here. The Bavarian dialect is very strong, they don't even use a lot of the same words as other parts of Germany which makes transitioning here tough but it's not like it could have been easy.
I am studying at a program with Lewis & Clark college at the Luedwig-Maximillian University in Munich. I just finished my intensive Vorsemester at the institute and will begin my Wintersemester in about a week. I will be taking a class or two at the University (hopefully) and the rest at the program, and in 100% German. There are 26 people on the program here from all over the country, 3 of whom also go to the University of Puget Sound with me, whoot!
Unfortunately, an ear infection I had when I got here turned out to be very bad and destroyed much of the tissue protecting my outer ear, resulting in some hearing loss in my left ear. "Kaputt" is the term the doctor so sensitively used. This is typical of Germans, the German language is very concrete and literal, and the Croats don't pull any punches. I will have to get surgery sometime soon to graft some tissue back on there. The good news is that the middle ear is unaffected, which is most important, apparently. While the doctors here speak English well often times their assistants speak none at all, which can make examinations interesting with lots of pointing and mimicking.
So far I've seen some parts of Bavaria, including the famous Neuchwanstein castle, Sternberger See (which is a beautiful lake), a monastery in Austria (which makes great schnapps), a palace that was originally Louis XIV "The Sun King's" Austrian vacation home then a palace used by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and Regensberg, which was originally a Roman outpost and fortress and is a wonderful ancient city.
I spent this last week in Berlin, which was incredibly interesting although I am very glad to be back in Munich. Berlin is dirty and in the still-poor east part of Germany and there are pan-handlers everywhere. And the beer is nowhere near as good as in Munich.
By far the greatest thing I have experienced in Germany is the Oktoberfest, known as die Wiesn in Bavaria. There are beautiful girls in dirndls eveywhere, guys in lederhosen (including myself), pretzels as big as steering wheels, bratwursts as long as your forearm, and of course liter glasses, known as Masses, full of delicious beer brewed just for die Wiesn, and its between 6-7% alcohol. It is the hugest, funnest, happiest, friendliest, singingest, three-week-long-drunken-mess I have ever seen. By 10 in the morning people are standing on their seats singing and Prosting (cheersing) eachother. Over 6 million people come to die Wiesn from around the world during the course of the Wiesn, plus the locals. There are adorable little kids everywhere in traditional bavarian clothing who seem immune to the near carnage around them. 500,000 liters of beer were drunk in the first weekend. It is surprisingly orderly considering the enourmous size of the crowds and the level of intoxication. And yes it is true that a little sweet old German lady can drink most Americans under that table, they start drinking at 6 here with what is basically beer and a little sprite. I'm proud to say that I never got sick, robbed, or arrested at, or as a result of the Wiesn.
Well that's it for now. That should give you a good idea of what's going on over here and I'll be sure to post in a ocuple of days.
