OK - these three words seem to have nothing to do with each other. But they've been an important part of my past week here! And so have been a few others, so the past week here in 'Stichworte'

* Soccer: have to start with this. FINALE DAHOAM, JAAAAA. I know my mom won't be happy about this.. but ah well, we're used to this dispute at home! We watched the Rückspiel against Real at the Münchner Frühlingsfest. That's at the Theresienwiese, where the famous Oktoberfeld also takes place, end of September. For foreigners it's hilarious; people actually walk around in Dirndl and Lederhosen. Nobody looks as though you're crazy when you're in the U-bahn in 'Tracht' and even in clubs it's not exceptionally strange for a guy to go in Lederhosen. It's so.... German?Talked to some other Erasmus students about why they had decided to come to Munich and many also agreed with each other, because this city embodies the German stereotype: the beautiful surroundings, the typical Biergarten'gemütichkeit' (gezelligheid), the typical 'Kategorie Bier und Bratwurst' food, the comfort and the liveliness of a big city, the fact that it's extremely safe and Germans here adhere to the characteristics they're 'supposed' to have. Namely; overly correct, always on time, reserved but friendly, heavy beer drinkers and well organized. Anyways, back to the topic.. I tend to drift off. So we watched the game (We = Giulia, Mario and me - Italy, Bolivia and Holland) in a Bierzelt, where there's no such thing as a 'small beer'. Nope - any beer you order comes in a huge 1L mug, brought to you by an efficient, pretty German waitress in Dirndl. Any foreigner's dream? But the game was good, exciting, fun. We sat at the table with a group of Austrians who were on excursion. All engineers as well, also 4th semester, here to visit some Baustellen. (Also gonna do that with my infrastructure course - awesome) They were from all over, one even knew my boss in Saalbach from the summer, and it was so nice to hear Austrian dialects again. May sound strange, but after the past 3 months it just sounded very good to my ears - daaamn I miss Austria. Thank goodness, counting down the days til I'm off to Vienna! However, I'm drifting off again. But the atmosphere was amazing, as it is anytime you have a lot of supporters of one team in one place. Singing, clapping, standing on the table. After the game, voices and hands strained from clapping, getting hugs from random extremely excited supporters, the singing continuing in the U-bahn. Whoever is a big soccer fan; come visit me on the 19th of May! Public viewing in the Olympia Stadion, the team is playing right here in the Allianz Arena, so the city should be entirely focused on the game.

*Aqueduct: OK, I got myself into this 'trouble' again. Whyyyy do I always feel so bad for the professor when he needs volunteers for something? (Note to self for future: never, ever, volunteer again to give the first presentation. Especially not for a course you sort of accidentally ended up in because you walked into the wrong room and ended up staying. And oh yeah, damn, you're not a 2nd year architecture student. The others are. This might already put you to a slight disadvantage.)This has happened before. For the ones who had 'Designing Academic Inquiry' with me - this is how I ended up with the horrible class-project-coordinator-job. Because I felt bad for Jay. Well, my Infrastructure professor also looked so disappointed that nobody wanted to do the first presentation, which is next Friday. Of course, I had to be the one to say 'OK, I'll do it..' Whole seminar looked at me as though I was crazy, but ah well. So tomorrow, I am going to sit in the library with a load of architecture books about this Aqueduct, my laptop, calculator and a lot of coffee. The outcome I hope for is a clear, concise, 20 minute presentation on the wonders of the Pontsycyllte Aqueduct and how it is a miracle of physics. Thank god I'm allowed to discuss it from a physics rather than architectural point of view. Wish me luck... and any tips are very welcome! Next blog I'll let you know how it went.

* Moving: oh yeah, I'm writing this from my new home! Moved from Garching to Moosach today - which means I'm much closer to the uni, inner city, olympiazentrum and basically anything important in Munich. The girl and two guys are very friendly and helpful, I think this is definitely gonna work out fine. That is, if I don't every pass out again like I did last friday. Goodbye party for the guy who left, and I think it was the heat/lack of blood sugar/ whatever else, but I passed out and wouldn't wake up at first, couldn't walk anymore, was so out of it. Had to stay over, they had to help me get to the room, I was so freakin emberrassed - it was seriously horrible. But they were extremely good with the situation, took care of me, so at least for everyone who's worried about me (mom, dad, etc.) : I'm in a safe environment in this house. :)

* Swimming: I've been training in the Olympiazentrum. It's huge, beautiful, they have a 50m pool: endgeil. So that's been going great! Only, maybe not such a good idea after a 9-19:30 uni day. So broken when I got home..

* German: people here still ask me whether I'm from Austria. Sigh. I've been trying so damn hard to talk really normal respectable Hochdeutsch, but something of the 6 months in Saalbach/ Serfaus has remained. Otherwise, it's going OK - the technical courses are all really easy to follow, no problems German-wise. Environmental Law however is a different story.. 8-10 on a Friday morning is already a time that's no student's favourite. But then reading (and trying to understand) statutes in German is HELL. Damn.. my German is not good enough for this. That's gonna be a fun exam...

* Workload: what the hell? Had expected to have to do a lot more here than at home, since workload at LUC isn't too bad either - we alle have more than enough free time. But here, it's crazy, but I hardly do a thing! I have long uni days, true, but as soon as I'm home I hardly have work left. I go to the lecture, take notes, later look up anything I marked with 'need more info', write a short summary of the notes when I'm home and then I'm done. In total I have 4 seminars and 7 lecture courses, and only for the seminar courses I have work to do. In 2 weeks, a poster presentation for 2 subjects, but that should be fine. Group work, nothing we haven't done before. Though slightly more difficult to coordinate in a city like this, when half of the group has their other courses on the other campus.. but that'll work out! Also the topics are.. ehem.. interesting. Presentation 1: drinking cans. Explore subject. Huuuhh? Ah well, we'll think of something. Presentation 2: cycling and walking in 2022. Hmm.. The lecture subjects; I'm coping with most. It's not that hard. I've learned which lectures are important to go to (Solar Engineering) and which aren't (Kybernetik der Planungsprozesse and Ökologie). So, just for the ones interested, some details on the subjects.

- Solar Engineering. My biggest fear as far as the exam goes. I'ts not cool when your professor has a PP of 67 slides for 90 minutes and just expects you to know and understand the following: http://www.geo.mtu.edu/volcanoes/vc_web/background/graphics/fig02.gif My thoughts at this points: 'Ehh, hello? I don't have the proper background for this!!! Options; Run and hide in a dark corner. Hmm no. OK come on, pay attention and try to understand.' Turned out to not be as difficult as I thought and got a reassuring e-mail from dad after a panicky one I sent him. Thanks dad :)

- Kybernetik der Planungsprozesse. OK, I went to the lecture twice. Sat in the third row now, still didn't hear a thing. People around me were either talking or sleeping. Yes, literally sleeping and snoring. I almost did too. The absolute highlight of this lecture was a paper aeroplane almost hitting the professor.. That about gives an adequate description of how boring this is. I'll just study from the slides. Exam is still faaaar away and it's supposedly easy.

- Geology, Chemistry and biology: interesting, not too difficult, good professors. I'm enjoying! And seriously, it makes me so happy to look at my notes after a 3-hour chemistry lectures. They consist of drawings of molecular strings, of molecular formulas, etc. Yay, I missed this so much! Same goes for the formulas and calculations in Solar Engineering.

- Ecology: Haven't made a single note yet, spent the last lecture part talking, part reading my book, part sitting in the sun at the Köningsplatz because we'd figured out that sitting in the lecture hall didn't make any sense. I guess that's one of the good things of not having an 85% attendance policy!

* Social life. (?) Still don't know whether you can call it a social life, but ah well. I get along really well with the Italian and Greek girl, which is nice. But German girls at the TU... seriously. They have their little groups, look at me as though I'm a fish that suddenly started walking, don't ever talk to me. So, besides the erasmus students, the only people I'm talking to are guys. But met some nice ones, so I don't have to sit alone every day now. Baby steps, but it's improving!

* Outside. WHY did I move to Munich I asked myself on Saturday, when the weather in Holland is nice and cool and rainy and here it's freakin 33 degrees?! But ah well, could lie in the sun on the balcony which was good. At uni, the sun means sitting outside during break, people buying beer in the cafeteria (idea for LUC? ) and just chilling somewhere. But I sure hope it's not gonna get any warmer.. (probably futile hope)

But overall, life here is getting better, the more I get used to the city. I can navigate around now, sort of get the Schnellbahnnetz, know where my lecture halls are so I can put on this really cool 'I know where I'm going cuz I belong here' look instead of my 'Heeeelp me I'm lost!' face. This week is gonna consist of going to uni, swimming, getting hold of a bike, and other unknown activities. Gonna be good :)

However, I miss 'home' - that is, not a specific place, but being with people that know me and understand me and like me despite of all of my weird quirks. Hint hint: come visit!

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