New Flat, New Job

I think it's fair to say that not a single bone in my body was looking forward to coming back to Munich. I may only have been at home for 2 weeks and in the process packed everything I owned into the same nondescript boxes but I slipped back into family life as if I'd never been away (except for the fact that my brother had improved a bit at fifa - i even lost a few times!)

To compound my misery my flight was at 7 50 in the morning, meaning a 5am start. Not ideal. It did however mean that I got 20 seats to myself on the plane and was even allowed extra weight in my bags! The flight itself was painless as can be and I landed in Munich with a much more positive outlook of my next 5 months than I'd expected. As soon as I had unpacked my groaning suitcase I had a quick text round to see who was about - about an hour later I was sat in the Irish pub with the lads from football watching Swansea-Arsenal. Not much changes.

After a quick house viewing just north of the town centre I met up with my old adversaries, Messrs Fabian and Greggers, and lady Adams. The obvious choice for our catch up was the afghan restaurant in town. Delish. As the hours rolled by my tiredness caught up with me and, wary of the long day awaiting me on Monday morning I retired quite early to bed.

Monday was a long day. Not only did I have my usual daily reports to update, but also the weekly, monthly AND yearly reports as well - especially difficult because I was completely out of practice and so much had changed. After 10 hours in the office I headed to the rather magnificent Park Cafe, where I met up with journalist Jon who had an interesting proposition for me.

In tandem with his full time job, Jon is also the sports editor for The Munich Eye (http://themunicheye.com/) a Munich-based, english language Newspaper. This newspaper happened to have a vacancy coming up, a vacany to be filled by yours truly! As of Monday, I am now the reporter for all 1860 München matches, meaning I get into all the matches free to write my reports and also the opportunity to interview the players! It sounds fantastic!


The other big news of the week is that I've FINALLY found myself a nice place to live for the last 6 months of my time in Munich! It's approximately 10 mins walks away from the centre of town (i currently have to get a U Bahn for 25 mins), 4km from work (easily cycleable) and with some lovely people! I will be living with 2 french people (1m 1f) and a german girl, all of whom are either doing an internship or studying a masters, which should hopefully mean quietish during the week then party time at the weekends! I'm really looking forward to it.

Going to a small music festival on saturday followed by skiing on sunday (hopefully) if the weather stays cold enough. Update will come afterwards!

1st term over - what have I learnt?

1. I am a boring person in German.
2. Home really is where the heart is. 
3. I'm quite good at my job.
4. I'm no longer a child - snow makes me worry about the transport problems, not think "YAY SNOW!"
5. Bonuses are a fantastic invention. 
6. I am actually relatively interested in Economics. 
7. I can actually speak German!
8. It is rude for a German man to stand up when weeing in a toilet - most sit down.
9. Football is a universal language, and that language is English.
10. British cuisine should never be underestimated.
11. I really love Manchester.
12. Finding somewhere to live in a big city is stupidly hard.
13. German sign langauge is different to English sign language.
14. I will always be a spendthrift.
15. I am capable of hatred.
16. I can ride a bike drunk.
17. Furniture is more interesting than it seems.
18. Making friends without being forced together (school, work, housing) is incredibly difficult.
19. WOOLWORTHS LIVES ON in Munich
20. Almost any English word can be slipped into a German conversation without a problem.
21. Work can influence your dreams.
22. If the landlady wheels my bike from the garden to the skip then it's my fault.
23. The sterotypes about german girls are not true.
24. Age really doesn't make a different when it comes to making friends.
25. Germans have NEVER heard of 'Fairytale of New York'

Oktoberfest

As many of you may know, yesterday was the beginning of Oktoberfest, one of the biggest drink festivals the world over. What many of you may not have known is the ridiculous time you need to get there on opening day to secure a table. Giving ourselves a semi lie-in we made our way to Theresienwiese at half past 8. The site was already a hive of activity, with thousands of people wandering round in Lederhosen and Dirndl. Even at this hour there were people who had gone too hard too soon and were having to be propped up by friends - an ominous sign.

After a short queue we managed to get into the Hofbräuhaus tent, the largest on the site, and met up with our friend Izzy and her friend Katie. These two had been particularly eager and had arrived at 7. They were still only able to get a standing table. So there we were at 9am in an enormous tent waiting for it all to kick off. Beer was not to be served until 12pm when the mayor was to take part in the time-honoured tradition of tapping the first keg of beer. As his cries of 'O' zapft!' rang out, the room erupted and the party began.

Our small group was intended to be a lot larger but events conspired somewhat unfortunately. Katie's 3 friends from Erlangen were supposed to get the train down with her at 5am that morning but had overslept and had to shell out for new tickets. When they finally arrived on site at around 9 30 they were desperate to get in and meet up with us. However, the wooden decking surrounding the tent was particularly slippy and one of them fell quite badly, breaking his arm and needing to be taken to hospital. He's being kept there until thursday as he needs a plate put in his arm. Not a great start. Our other friend Hattie had overslept so only got to the tent at 9 45, by which point the queues were huge and they'd stopped letting people in. After 2 and a half hours waiting she was about to call it a day when we overheard a few people who had sneaked in the back way. 10 minutes later and she was in, sipping on her first stein of Oktoberfest beer.

Songs were sung, beers were drunk friends were made but seeing as how we'd been there since 9am a few of us were ready to leave around 5pm. It had already been a long day. Izzy, Katie and I headed off towards Odeonsplatz to Vappiano's, a restaurant we'd been highly recommended but which was bloody hard to find. At this point I'd've been happy with a Maccies but we persevered and boy was it worth it. Still slightly drunk, the diavolo pizza that i had was to die for and it filled me up good and proper. By this point is was 9pm and definitely time to head home, I jumped on the U-Bahn and made my way back to Michaelibad, safe in the knowledge that I'd enjoyed my time at Oktoberfest without making a fool of myself or breaking my arm. That's got to be a good thing right?

    For my third weekend in Munich I found myself speaking almost exclusively in English. Friday night saw the usual suspects (Marcus, Greggers and I) found ourselves at the world-renowned Löwenbräukeller awaiting the arrival of some new friends.
    A friend of a friend of a friend had put Marcus in touch with some other brits abroad and we were more than happy to meet up! We spent our night making fools of ourselves in front of Izzy and Hattie, too many Steins, not enough time. A drunken goodbye was said and we all stumbled our separate ways home.
    Awakening to the sound of my housemate's 2 crying kids at 7am was not ideal. This was my day off, I wanted a lie in! I tried my best but sleep would not return so I got up, got dressed and met Marcus and Greggers in town for some serious Lederhosen shopping. We were all pretty unwilling to part with 100€ for something with a limited usage period but we felt it was a must have. And now we all do have. Bring on Oktoberfest!
    The evening saw the three amigos together again at my house, where I cooked them a ("delicious") meal before heading to the swimming pool from which my district gets its name. Michaelibad is great. We went down the slide (obviously), we went in the steam room (obviously) and we did a few lengths in the normal pool. But the majority of our time was spent outside in the heated whirlpool. I feel that place may get some serious use from me in the next 9 months - lush!
   Sunday began with a bollocking from the landlord. Apparently, having friends around is fine, but COOKING FOR THEM?! what the hell was I thinking. He also didn't like that there was a few specks of oil on the hob and ordered me to immediately remove them. Somewhat coincidentally it was also my turn to clean the house. This is a top to bottom clean which is scrutinised by Marek every step of the way. It includes: hoovering, mopping, wiping, cleaning, brushing and emptying to name but a few. Gah. Football then followed shortly after as I headed to the englischer Garten (again) to meet up with a few friends I'd met the thursday before. A lot of fun was had and I actually spoke some german! Hopefully it'll become a regular thing and - whisper it- maybe i'll make some friends!

Watch this space.

Table Dance Boobs

After the end of what was a very long and busy week I find myself sat in the basement with a beer and strawberries listening to a crap dj playing to an empty room while watching the football. After a week I feel I'm really starting to get used to life here (munich, not the hostel).  I now know what my responsibilities at work are going to be for the forseeable future and I have found a perfect flat! Whether or not I'll get it is a different matter.

Located on the banks of the Isar, the flat that I viewed on thursday was a small one but arguably the best suited to me. The people who live there at the moment are my age and I got on really well with them for the short time I was there. The area is beautiful and it's set back from most of the hustle and bustle of Munich, whilst still being quite central. Oh, and it's next to THE BLOODY ZOO! Apparently when it's really quiet you can hear the animals from the balcony. Too cool. I find out on sunday whether I get that, so fingers crossed!

As far as work goes I think it's going to change me as a person. Most noticeably in the eyesight department. 90% of the stadd in my department need glasses and I can see why. I've spent the last two days scrutinising data in an Excel spreadsheet. It's undoubtedly going  to give me a great CV, with new skills (SQL, time management, etc) but it's only been a week and I already don't think it's a career path I want to follow!

Anyways, with no plans this evening I decide to go on an aimless stroll around the city, just as the sun was going down. Boy did I see some sights. First off was the sight of Oktoberfest 2012. I knew the germans were big into their drinking but the sheer size of the park is a sight to behold. I think it's very likely that I'll remember nothing of the next few weekends! Just one street away and I inadvertently wandered into the red light district, not before I'd been past the MENSA headquarters obviously. One that caught my eye was the hilariously titled 'Table Dance Boobs'. Germans certainly do not mince their words.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Marcus and Greggers as the three Amigos attempt to locate cheap Lederhosen. Check back tomorrow to see the results! 

Nathy, don't be hasty

My german needs vast improvement. I understood nothing again today in the office and it's beginning to get to me. I'm fine when (trying to) socialise but I just don't understand any of the technical vocabulary!

I've still not done anything worthwhile as I still have 50+ videos to watch on SQL before I'm ready. I wish they'd just told me in summer I was going to be using it so I could practice! I think I should have a few jobs to do tomorrow, reports to send, etc as I was shown how to do them today. Then once I learn SQL properly it can all kick off. I asked the boss today what I was actually going to be doing and he said it was mostly analysis of data, which means lots of spreadsheets and lots of graphs, but that's fine by me.

The best thing about work is that there is unlimited free drinks all day. Whenever you fancy you can just go and get a 2L bottle of water, fanta, spezi or even beer! I daren't go for that just yet, but maybe I'll have a bad day at some point.

Because I spend most of the day with headphones on I missed when all of the department went for lunch together. I ended up sitting with a few people I'd spoken to briefly the day before but they left me on my own soon after, to return to work. Gah, it'll get better. I've decided tomorrow is the day where I try to be talkative but I don't know how likely that is.


On the house search front, I've had many people who want me to transfer money before I see the flat (obvs not real) but not many real leads. I've got one viewing on thursday at a house which is NEXT TO THE BLOODY ZOO. I hope i get it but they seem to be doing it as an interview process so I'm nervous!

Tonigh i'm going for dinner with Marcus and Greggers, who arrived today, to catch up and hopefully have something good to eat for a change!