End of Munich, Beginning of London!

Sorry it has been so very long since I last posted. I truly apologize for not keeping my promise to post every day, but various circumstances have occurred to prevent my ability to do so. So let's see where I left off...

Friday in Munich

I belive it was Friday. After staying up very late (or rather, so early the birds were chirping) the night before chatting, Melanie and I woke up at 1pm, completely by accident because we forgot to set an alarm. A little upset at missing the entire morning, but at least fully rested, we ate some breakfast and went to her friend's house to play a game of makeshift taboo. Then we went to Marktauf (probably didn't spell that right...the supermarket) to buy sausages to grill later in the day. Then Mel and I went back to have a snack (mango, "mountain cheese", and crackers and chocolate) and went for a very long walk in the beautiful and extensive Englischer gardens. It was a bit rainy so we saw lots and lots of snails, more than we have ever seen in one place before, and a few duckies (although I'm sure they're there when the sun is out as well). The Englischer Gardens were built around the time of the French Revolution (I am not so good with dates) for the "common people" because the monarchy wanted to pacify them and avoid similar riots in Germany. At least I think that's what my fabbbbulous tour guide told me. They are so big and gorgeous, I was very impressed. It hardly feels like you are in a city at all!

After our excersize we treated ourselves to sausages, weisswurst (veal sausage) and Nurenburger sausages (little spicy pork sausages)...again apologies for name butchering. Melanie, feel free to correct. We fried them in a pan (with beer, of course) instead of grilling them because it was raining so the bbq was cancelled. Oh! Also, walking into the kitchen of Melanie's dorm, I nearly ran into somebody I know from Michigan who is studying there for the summer! How bizzare. Later we went to Melanie's friend's 21st birthday party, which was enjoyable despite some drama that Mel had with her friends. All in all it was an interesting night, and I got to know some of Mel's friends a bit better, which was fun. I was also mistaken for Jewish by a boy on Mel's program who was more than a bit tipsy at the time and thought my flower necklace looked like a star of David (understandable) and proceeded to ask if I felt awkward in Germany, and then to apologize for five minutes for thinking I was Jewish, which was very awkward. However, it really is not his fault because I was also mistaken for Jewish today (Monday) by the two Jewish girls I was with, and I didn't even have on my necklace. I had no idea I looked so Jewish! Maybe it is the fact that I am from NJ as well. We also went to "Club 20 1/2" which is basically the basement of one of the dorms, with music, a pool table, and a couple of "kicker" or fooseball, tables. It was really just a finished basement, but again, fun.

Saturday in Munich

The next day we woke up at the more reasonable hour of 11:30am (remember, I was still jetlagged, so it was acceptable to sleep lots). We ate some breakfast and headed off for the day. Our first stop was the summer palace, which again had extensive gardens, although this time with more formal parts as well as similar areas of "wild" like in the Englischer Gardens". The more formal parts had flowers and statues and fountains, and there were fake ruins scattered throughout the more "wild" parts. We walked around for a very long time, talking and catching up on life (after almost a year there is a heck of a lot of that to do!)

When we left the palace, we got some ice cream (latte macchiato for me) and went to meet some of Mel's friends for dinner at a schnitzel place that they like. Schnitzel is pounded meat (we think this was pork) that is battered and fried with lemon squeezed on top, with a side of potatoes and a salad. Melanie and I split one, along with a Radler, which is a drink that is half beer half lemonade. Both were delicious! By now we were very full and walked around for a bit before taking the U-Bahn to the Olympic Park, where the 1980 Olympics were held. It is basically a big park (again) with stadiums, a tower built for seemingly no purpose at all, a random aquarium, and the BMW museum. It also boasts the only hill in Munich, which is made from WWII debris that was mounded up and covered with grass and dirt. There was a great view from the top of Munich, and apparently on clear days you can see the Alps very well, but we could only see the outlines. Still, they look impressive even from far away, and I am sad I'll have to miss them on this trip!

After walking around Olympic Park (which has a German name I can't spell or remember, of course), we finally headed back to the dorm for the night. We hung out with some of Mel's friends again and talked more ourselves, of course, before I got everything together for my trip to London.

Sunday: From Munich to London

Saturday we woke up around 8am to get to the bus stop by 9am so I could head off toward the airport. Melanie very kindly fed me and sent me off with all of the Milka chocolate bars she had in her possession at that time. Delicious. She also paid for my S-bahn ticket so I wouldn't have to withdraw more Euros, but I did pay her back in American dollars, so hopefully she won't lose them before getting back to the US! Thank you Melanie for being such a fabulous hostess, I miss you already!! Old friends are so very rare and special :-D I love you all.

Ok enough sappiness, back to this incredibly long entry which I'll be surprised if anyone actually reads in its entirety. I got to the airport without a hitch and checking in took about 5 minutes, which was nice. The flight was easy, and although I had not been feeling well earlier that morning, I felt fine halfway through and was able to relax and read a book for class here. I found my bag at Heathrow (although it took awhile to come out...I think the ribbon must have gotten stuck on something because it was shredded along with my nametag when I finally did get it) and went to find the tube, after procuring some food. Well, I had my first adventure feeling stupid in London, because when I got to the place to purchase tube tickets I could not figure out what to buy. You would think there would be one nice person able to tell me what to do, but insteawd there were about 10 people waiting in line behind me, impatiently I'm sure. Someone was very kind and helped me purchase what I needed, and also to get on the correct train. It was about a 45 minute ride or so into London, and I clutched my bags the entire time on the crowed tube. It was very nice to see the countryside, however, and get a feel for where I was. I got off at Kings' Cross and another nice man helped me lug my suitcase up the stairs because there was no escalator or lift. I found my dorm without too much trouble and here I am! Voila.

Last night we had orientation and dinner (sandwhiches from Pret de Manger, which is apparently one of the best sandwhich places in the city) and I talked to some people, unpacked, journaled, etc. I went to bed around 11:30pm or so, and it took me awhile to fall asleep but overall my room is quite comfortable...but more about that in a shorter, later entry.

Monday: First day in London

This morning we left as a group for class at 10:15am. Our first class was drama with Professor Benedict Nightengale (what a wonderfully English name!) who is a critic for the London Times, and actually got a call from them during our class. Apart from discussing general differences between British and American theater, he gave us reccomendations for other shows in London that we are not seeing as a group, including a musical version of Lord of the Rings that condenses the trilogy into one, and he seemed unsure of, despite the fact that his son is in charge of the music. I'm not sure I could deal with a singing Frodo, although he said it is more like background movie music. Still.

At break a couple of us had lunch at a pub, and I had "sticky lemon chicken" with chips and a "salad", basically some onions cucumbers and tomatoes. It was pretty tasty. After break we had our English lit class, where we talked about London's history and went on a mini field trip to see the bones of Jeremy Benthem in University College of London (UCL) which are dressed up and sitting in the foyer, by the request of his will. Odd.

After class a group of us went to various shops downtown to get books, notebooks, electronics, etc. I got most of what I needed (except a cell phone sim card, which I will do tomorrow) and got a better idea of how this part of the city is set up. It rained for most of the day, but as we were getting back to our dorm it cleared up. OH! I realized I have a very exciting story. While walking in the rain to find the bookstore earlier in the day, we saw Ricky Gervais, creator of The Office, walking around. We were too shocked and shy to go up to him but were sad that we didn't. Later, however, when three of us were walking back, just as the sky was clearing, we saw him AGAIN! This time, one of us yelled "Ricky!" and caught up to him, telling him we were such big fans and asking for a picture with him. He was really sweaty and looked like he had been excersizing and had an ipod on, but was soooooo incredibly nice and normal. So I'll post the picture when I have it.

The last order of business tonight was to go to an internet cafe and then to the supermarket, where I got plenty of groceries for a week or two for only 16£. Not bad, although I think I overcooked my chicken bacon raviolli tonight so it wasn't as tasty as I'd hoped. But then it was very cheap too, so who knows. I'll experiment a bit.

And now I'm using the internet account of a girl on my floor who has access to the computer labs instead of a laptop. We are supposed to have internet tomorrow but we were also supposed to have it today so who really knows. Hope everyone is doing well, congrats to anyone who got through this monster post!! Miss you all.