It's another morning in Munich and at 7:30am I am wondering whether all Munich works on or around the Oktoberfest. The subways are full with people wearing Dirndl and Lederhosen, but also carry Laptops and big purses.
Coming to the Munich office for the first time this week, the mystery of all the Dirndls and Lederhosen is being solved. People go to work already in preparation to go to the 'Wiesn' afterwards or ideally before 12 in order to still get a table in one of the tents and to have an excuse to start excessive drinking before it gets dark outside.
Around 6pm I make my way towards the Wiesn to meet a friend and his colleagues for free beer and "Hendl" (chicken). Sometimes I have wondered how foreign people know how to get there since all announcements in the station and the subways are in German or more Bavarian. But there is no way you could miss it since everyone seems to head in the same direction any time after 10am.
The Hacker tent is as popular as any other and considering that the rain is pouring down - am I glad I am not wearing a Dirndl now - the queues to get in are long and the tent full.
Here I am with an almost empty battery in my cell and nowhere dry to go to. It takes 20min before they let another group of people in and I make sure I am one of them. Inside I run into a friend from Eichstätt who even took a day off from work to come.
At the tables everyone is standing on the benches although I have to say this is a safety hazard since all the beer makes everyone so dizzy that standing on the solid floor is already a job some of them can't handle anymore. But the music is good, everyone is singing and drinking and eating and laughing and dancing and kissing and having a good time.
After some food and two sips of beer I am ready to do some bench-dancing and flirting myself. Being the only woman at the table was a privilege I only enjoy for about an hour. Suddenly a norwegian Dirndl-maid jumps up and dances with us. We have a lot of fun, especially me when I listen to the drunks trying to speak to her in English. The translation of one of the guys is just fabulous. I am really amazed how one can come up with such a story out of the blue on what the Norwegian is actually talking about.
That is an experience I haven't had in a few years since I am not the biggest fan of beer festivals! But it is fun - once a year. :)
26 September, 2008
08 July, 2008
It's been 10 years
I am in a limo from JFK airport to Manhattan and I can't believe that I am really here. I made it, I overcame my tears at the airport in Munich, saying goodbye to my boyfriend and earlier at home to my family and friends. And although I am still sad about having left them behind, I am very proud that I took that huge step into a new world, a world that is totally unknown to me and I will conquer it all by myself, with the help of new friends - hopefully.
Seeing the skyline of New York City for the very first time takes my breath away. It is so beautiful, I don't know what to say. There is downtown with the twin towers and the other high buildings of the financial district, then there is midtown with the Empire State and the beautiful Chrysler Building and after all there are the bridges from Brooklyn to Manhattan.
It looks like in the movies, just better and I am in love!
Exactly ten years ago I took a plane to the US to be an aupair in NJ.
Exactly ten years ago I started to fulfill one of my dreams.
Exactly ten years ago I fell in love with the US, more exactly New York City.
Exactly ten years ago I started to become independent.
Exactly ten years ago I started to learn how to stand up for myself without any support from anyone.
Exactly ten years ago my life in my second home started and I am still thankful to have had that opportunity. It changed me and partly made me into the person I am today.
If I had known what would happen to me within the next 13 months, I don't know if I had ever gotten on that plane, but isn't life about the risks you take? Isn't that what makes life interesting?
I think it is and I wouldn't be the person I am today if not especially for the first four months after 7/7/98...
And if you ask me today... Yes, I would do it again!
Seeing the skyline of New York City for the very first time takes my breath away. It is so beautiful, I don't know what to say. There is downtown with the twin towers and the other high buildings of the financial district, then there is midtown with the Empire State and the beautiful Chrysler Building and after all there are the bridges from Brooklyn to Manhattan.
It looks like in the movies, just better and I am in love!
Exactly ten years ago I took a plane to the US to be an aupair in NJ.
Exactly ten years ago I started to fulfill one of my dreams.
Exactly ten years ago I fell in love with the US, more exactly New York City.
Exactly ten years ago I started to become independent.
Exactly ten years ago I started to learn how to stand up for myself without any support from anyone.
Exactly ten years ago my life in my second home started and I am still thankful to have had that opportunity. It changed me and partly made me into the person I am today.
If I had known what would happen to me within the next 13 months, I don't know if I had ever gotten on that plane, but isn't life about the risks you take? Isn't that what makes life interesting?
I think it is and I wouldn't be the person I am today if not especially for the first four months after 7/7/98...
And if you ask me today... Yes, I would do it again!
02 July, 2008
Feelings Flashback
It's strange how after ten years you can still remember a certain feeling. Is that even possible? Can people remember how they felt exactly at a certain time or event?
After what I experienced lately, I would say: Yes!
Yesterday I "got my way" and I find myself pushed back 10 years when I did get my way once before in a similar situation.
And I can't help but wonder - does that feeling have to come back every ten years? do I find myself at such a crossroads every ten years?
Maybe this is what makes life special? Those crossroads where you can't decide easily which way to go, but you fight, balance reasons to go the one or the other way and then when you decide to go down the road you don't know, it feels scary, but in a good way.
Well, last time it worked out quite well and so I am trying it again.
After all, mankind is a creature of habit!
After what I experienced lately, I would say: Yes!
Yesterday I "got my way" and I find myself pushed back 10 years when I did get my way once before in a similar situation.
And I can't help but wonder - does that feeling have to come back every ten years? do I find myself at such a crossroads every ten years?
Maybe this is what makes life special? Those crossroads where you can't decide easily which way to go, but you fight, balance reasons to go the one or the other way and then when you decide to go down the road you don't know, it feels scary, but in a good way.
Well, last time it worked out quite well and so I am trying it again.
After all, mankind is a creature of habit!
14 February, 2008
1000 Dollars for lunch This is what it must feel like to be an easy girl :)
Today I got paid 1000 US$ for having lunch with a few coworkers. Sounds like something that never happens...
Well, it had a reason. I am bringing one of them something back from the US and he got the money from the bank today.
What was the real fun part about it though, was standing in the bank, an older gentleman next to us, Stefan gets out the money from his wallet and hands it over to me, asking me to count it if it is enough. The gentleman looked at us and you could see what he was thinking... "Wow, is that expensive nowadays!" So that's what it feels like... Very interesting.
Well, it had a reason. I am bringing one of them something back from the US and he got the money from the bank today.
What was the real fun part about it though, was standing in the bank, an older gentleman next to us, Stefan gets out the money from his wallet and hands it over to me, asking me to count it if it is enough. The gentleman looked at us and you could see what he was thinking... "Wow, is that expensive nowadays!" So that's what it feels like... Very interesting.
20 January, 2008
About the things you think you want to do and your weaker self that leads you to do things you don't want to do
It keeps happening to me.
First of all, my new year's resolutions:
- take it more easy, don't stress yourself in your free-time
- read "Die Zeit" every week and don't pile the issues on the bench for half a year
- read the books that are waiting to be opened for the first time forever in your bedroom
- make your job a thing you like to do, whatever it takes
Well, as for the first resolution. It starts to work out, I am home more often and I even started to use my couch. As for all the other things, here we are with the problems.
I really want to read more and watch less TV. Not that I usually sit and watch, it's more background noise for some other activity. After all, what the TV is offering is not very attractive to me, but I think everyone agrees with me. I wonder who likes to watch some b-class celebrities trying to take a bath with 40,000 cockroaches in the Australian outback or some TV judge to come to a verdict about some even worse actors? Not to speak of the soaps, that all have the same stories, the good and the bad guys, the big love, kidnapping, failed marriages, abortions and all the things that happen to regular people within two years. Yeah, sure.
But I wasn't going to talk about the bad shows on TV, I wanted to point out, that I want to read more and somehow end up, watching TV or - a little better - DVD instead of reading or doing other things.
Why is that? Have I gotten so lazy outside of work that I can't do what I want to because the atmosphere never seems right?
Well, this weekend the atmosphere was right and I am a lot happier now on Sunday night. I didn't miss watching TV and I am happy I got over my weaker self and did what I wanted to do. And I intend to keep going in that direction. I like it even more than I imagined when I made the resolutions! :)
Keep reading, everyone. It's worth it!
First of all, my new year's resolutions:
- take it more easy, don't stress yourself in your free-time
- read "Die Zeit" every week and don't pile the issues on the bench for half a year
- read the books that are waiting to be opened for the first time forever in your bedroom
- make your job a thing you like to do, whatever it takes
Well, as for the first resolution. It starts to work out, I am home more often and I even started to use my couch. As for all the other things, here we are with the problems.
I really want to read more and watch less TV. Not that I usually sit and watch, it's more background noise for some other activity. After all, what the TV is offering is not very attractive to me, but I think everyone agrees with me. I wonder who likes to watch some b-class celebrities trying to take a bath with 40,000 cockroaches in the Australian outback or some TV judge to come to a verdict about some even worse actors? Not to speak of the soaps, that all have the same stories, the good and the bad guys, the big love, kidnapping, failed marriages, abortions and all the things that happen to regular people within two years. Yeah, sure.
But I wasn't going to talk about the bad shows on TV, I wanted to point out, that I want to read more and somehow end up, watching TV or - a little better - DVD instead of reading or doing other things.
Why is that? Have I gotten so lazy outside of work that I can't do what I want to because the atmosphere never seems right?
Well, this weekend the atmosphere was right and I am a lot happier now on Sunday night. I didn't miss watching TV and I am happy I got over my weaker self and did what I wanted to do. And I intend to keep going in that direction. I like it even more than I imagined when I made the resolutions! :)
Keep reading, everyone. It's worth it!
06 January, 2008
train over plane
I keep trying to be a little more conscious when it comes to the pollution of the environment, but a few days ago I once more noticed how hard it is, in that specific case when I try to take the train.
The second year in a row after having spent New Year's in Switzerland, I took the train back to Blaubeuren. Last year I had a 90 minute layover in Tuttlingen, Germany and there was no heated waiting room. I thought that was just bad luck, froze and got sick a week later.
Not knowing any better, I took a different route this time which left me with a layover in Schaffhausen, the border town between Germany and Switzerland. Schaffhausen train station turned out to be no better than Tuttlingen. I was just lucky that I only had to wait 50min, but in much colder weather.
One thing is for sure. Next time I will fly. It's faster and I won't get sick afterwards.
The second year in a row after having spent New Year's in Switzerland, I took the train back to Blaubeuren. Last year I had a 90 minute layover in Tuttlingen, Germany and there was no heated waiting room. I thought that was just bad luck, froze and got sick a week later.
Not knowing any better, I took a different route this time which left me with a layover in Schaffhausen, the border town between Germany and Switzerland. Schaffhausen train station turned out to be no better than Tuttlingen. I was just lucky that I only had to wait 50min, but in much colder weather.
One thing is for sure. Next time I will fly. It's faster and I won't get sick afterwards.
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