This weekend we celebrated my 3rd anniversary in Germany. A lot has changed since that first day I stepped off the plane. I’m understanding and speaking German now and we’ll see at my attempts at French. A new career path is on the horizon, away from righteous ideas I once believed had to define me.. perhaps now I’m just believing in me.

After the first 3 months in Munich, when my tourist visa expired, I think the silent shock set in. I lived alone in a student matchbox, while Alex lived/worked in Regensburg. Having this idea to “expect the unexpected” didn’t really help too much. Not having that constant inward reassurance was a draining sensation. I was unaware just how much I was craving for the familiar only because I was dead set on not turning back to find it. Sometimes I just had to stuff that ‘I’m in limbo’ kind of feeling in my pockets somewhere and get through the day. I still do from time to time.

I realize that now that three years has past, I’m no longer representing what is happening in my hometown, college town, or the town where I worked and played. I’ve integrated a lot of things from Germany in my life: fizzy water, no more fluffy, warm, dryer sheet smelling towels, and trains. Yes, I can stay informed. I’ll still reminisce of Florida and make comparisons. But ultimate the “back home” I’ll be referring to is the one in my heart and mind.

Each expat family or expat live/s in their own island experience. It is a place that mixes our hard-to-let-go tendencies developed in the motherland, the reality going on and what we perceive is happening in the host country. No matter how many people you may find in this expat life with similar taste to you, they are still not part of your island. Accepting this isn’t easy, but if you aren’t absolutely hung up on finding friends who mirror your taste from A-Z, expat island life is quite rewarding.

So to celebrate my first days in a Germany, we semi-acted like tourist yesterday. We climbed Alter Peter and took pictures of the city center. We ignored street signs, although there were no irate German drivers in the streets to annoy. And we even collected souvenirs from the Altstadtringfest.

Still Alex and I aren’t big carni people. But we did find ourselves fascinated with the fact that parts of the Mittlerring (ring of streets surrounding the city) were closed off deue to the festival.

More pictures can be found here in my gallery.

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Normally, I’m usually less forgiving to your kind. I don’t own a bell (I think those who have one, go overboard), so I sing out a yoohoo to break a would-be victim’s trance. But I was preoccupied myself this time as to the whereabouts of my BWL assignment. And had I not been riding on a late Monday morning perhaps too fast for those who haven’t had their 10 o’clock Krönung and Semelbrot, I could have reacted in way that saved us both a scare.

It didn’t help that there was a fairly thick Bordstein (curb) separating the bike lane from the outer sidewalk either. So I did what I could instinctively, hit the breaks, attempted to steer away from the oblivious peds, but the curb and bike had other plans so I went a tumbling. Honestly, the only thing that filled my head as my shoulder ate the sidewalk was, ‘great they see my underwear!

The shaken-up, old lady with the tacky white shirt and gold embroidery kept saying sorry and it was her fault for not looking. She even offered her phone number. But I wasn’t interested in a Kaffee und Kuchen affair. I was relieved that I had no broken bones and she didn’t need a hip replacement.

It’s always good to roll..

Who has a burning desire to fire up the grill this Friday? Chances are most of us have plans for this long weekend (if you have Friday off) but if you’re on the fence come and join us.

Weather permitting we’ll be setting up around 5 pm on the “Isar Flaucher” just south of the Brudermühl bridge on the east bank. (See the map) If it decides to rain we’ll move the grilling to our place and heat up the electro-grill. We’ll provide the grilling equipment. It’s up to you to sport your grilling and beverage creativity. (BYOB)

Most of the time it’s a cocktail of people who show up to anything Alex and I organize. So if you’d like to brush up on your German or English (and maybe Spanish, Portuguese and French) you know where we’ll be.

As always, feel free to bring or pass this invite along to any one else you’d think would be interested.

Hope to see you on Friday.

This year the city of Munich celebrates its 850th Birthday. This just tickles me. Not much (i.e, sand) in my home state of Florida can even come close to being that young.

It’s only fitting that I’d give a huge ‘ein Prosit’ (toast) in honor of our well-aged beauty of a host city. Locals here recently made jokes that as we celebrate Munich’s birthday at the Oktoberfest: “Wouldn’t it be a treat to have to dish out 850 cents for a liter of beer?” Hahaha…hehe… Get ready to gulp:

Last year the price for a Maß of OK-beer was already at 7,90€. Now it’s announced that during the 16-day festival (20th Sept. - 5th Oktober 2008) the price will be between 8€ to 8,30€ per liter of beer. For Americans, that’s about 13 dollars per Maß at today’s exchange. ooh Aua!

Blame it on the price of barley, so say the breweries. Not to worry. Thrifty Oktoberfest visitors can still get their ‘drink on’ by taking advantage of the fact that in Bavaria, beer is considered a food staple. That’s right. Beer constitutes a major part of a Bavarian’s diet. Along with eggs and bread, beer is also subsidized. That means you’ll pay about 60 cents (+ a tax on the bottle) for a half liter of Augustiner Helles if you buy it at the grocery store. No, you can take your beer bottles to the fest but I’m sure you can workout some pre-game plans. There aren’t any open container laws from what I’ve observed.

So happy birthday, Munich! With the higher prices, I’m hoping during the 16 days of beer mayhem there won’t be so many drunk people peeing on your trees, gardens and subway walls. Yeah. Who am I kidding?

Artist: Funny Van Dannen
Album: Basics
Title: Saufen