Rumreisen und Alltag

Servus zamm,

So yes I know.. this is long overdue. Last update was about a month ago, and I’m writing this now in the middle of exam stress, because in six days I will finally be done with organic chemistry and can hopefully say that I’ve probably passed the exam. However, this also means that I’ll be drowning in the “Bundesimmissionsschutzgesetz” (horrible word) because on the 20^th I have to take my most scary test: environmental law. (Since I wrote this a while ago but didn’t post it yet, I can now add: I think I passed! But never wanna hear the word “Bundesimmissionschutzgesetz” again!)

But besides studying I’ve been travelling around a lot, walking around in Munich and basically: have been procrastinating way too much. But ah well, have to enjoy my semester abroad, right?

Before I’m going to tell you about Stockholm, Holland and Saalbach, I have some “observations” and funny things I don’t want to keep from you. Funny group of people, those German Professors.

- Professor Solar Engineering: “Oh you’re wondering why people don’t use this method more often? Well, Photovoltaics just have more sex appeal. These solar panels are just so damn sexy (said with passion).”

- Professor Geology: “OK we’re gonna make this easy, very easy. It’s not that hard if you compare silicate rock structures to cooking! *imagine Italian accent imitated by Bayrisch speaking prof* So you have your, spaghetti, your penne, these funny butterfly thingies – well they’re the addes anionic bindings and of course your lasagna, the polymerization of it all! Ah I’m hungry now.”

- Professor of Chemistry: so, Ta-Tü-Ta-Taaaaa. We’re all like “What the hell, why is he imitating a siren?!” “Well yes students, that’s the structure of an alpha D-glucose!” Ahem, okay.. sure why not J

So, I hope you had a laugh, shook your head and thought “well, at least she’s happy among this strange bunch.” Now we move on: Stockholm!

First time I flew by myself, and as certain people who flew to Spain with me know all too well, flying is not my favourite activity. But it all went quite smoothly, and I arrived at Arlanda airport in the afternoon. Had a look around and made the following conclusion: if you want to see beautiful men, do not study at a technical university in Germany, but move to Sweden. Damn.

At the main station I saw a pretty blonde girl running towards me: I was finally reunited with Frida, my Chuck. And as a happy Chuck-and-Larry duo we walked to the car to hug Jessi, pick up the English guys, who would turn out to be funnier than any comedian I know, and drove to Tyresö. Beautiful home in a beautiful landscape, as I had imagined Sweden. Grass, lake, nice weather. So good to see all the people from Serfaus again! It really felt like coming home. And after a chill afternoon and evening, we were told to be ready at ten the next morning; showered, dressed and packed to go. Where? I had no clue, but ah well.

Next day started with some swim training in the 16 degree lake.. there’s no better morning exercise to really wake up, trust me. And after flower picking and a rather funny but lovely bikeride with Pia, we arrived at the midsummer-chill-site. Just like the Ikea commercial, this included loads of drinking, Swedish music and dancing around a tree. Amazing, this tradition! After lunch and some more chilling, back to the Isrealsson house. More drinking (for some a bit too much, with all the consequences for a certain mr. Drunkie) more chilling, talking to random people and to friends. Dinner on the lawn with around 50 people, listening to speeches and songs by slightly intoxicated men and just enjoying the view on the lake. After dinner, the games continued. Motorically challenged as I am, and with slightly more to drink than I should (Obstler kills you, trust me) this was difficult but hilarious. And as our team captain, Mr. Isrealsson, shouldn’t be disappointed, a few of us even did the final games, which had something to do with running into the lake in your underwear, me of course tripping over a stone, swimming and running back. After that: showered, bruised but happy, just enjoyed the rest of the night. Talking, dancing, stage diving, laughing – I loved every bit of it. Watching the sunrise at 4.30 in the morning is definitely a plus as well.

The next days we walked through Stockholm, shopped, played games, chilled in the jacuzi and ended the last night of everyone together with a game. (Or should I say, game game?) Hilarious rules and the leftover Vodka certainly made sure that the mood was good – I hardly ever laughed as much as that night, even though I was completely sober. Simply high on life J

After another uneventful flight I arrived in Amsterdam, went to the Hague, saw friends on campus which was amazing. I love life here, but I’ll be happy to go back to my container as well. My parents picked me up the next day, and had a nice few days with them, including seeing opa & oma and being proud of my “little” brother during his graduation. Then it was back on the train, back to real life: study study study. (or better: I SHOULD be studying but can’t get myself to it.)

Which is probably the reason why Giulia and I decided to go to Saalbach over the weekend. Nice to be back at the Altachhof, this time on holiday, I thought. But in the end, I loved to work for 2 days, spend entire days with the horses, being in the stables at 7, teaching and talking to the guests. Also seeing old collegues again was good, had a drink at the Dakine freeride festival at night – so we did get a bit of relaxation in. And now I’m back in Munich with some muscle ache and a bit of a tan.

Other than travels: life here has remained the same. Swimming quite a bit, studying quite a bit, seeing friends, still meeting new people. And have to say: I have really met some interesting people by chance. When the shy part of me is over being nervous to talk to someone I hardly know, it’s good and sometimes gives you new perspectives on life. When back in Holland, I should maybe go to Plankenkoorts more often. Let’s see if I can meet nice surfing engineers there as well..

Other than all this, I don’t have much to tell you! I’m gonna dive into biology now, just came from a nice breakfast with Rashid, so good to see him in Munich for a bit.

See some others of you soon, I’ll be here for only 4 more weeks! So Austrians: come seeee meeee (thank goodness Laura is gonna be here soon <3) and Dutchies (Soof, Benthe, Mitch, Mark; yay!) / Moroccans (Ims!)/ Swedes / Whatevers – you’re welcome to visit, I’ll make time for you during studies and my flatmates are happy to entertain you / have entertainment suggestions as well I guess.

So much love from München and enjoy your summer! (I’m trying to survive the much-hated-by-me-30-degree-heat..)

Andiamo a Berlino!

No, I haven't gone crazy. It's just that lately, Italian is the language I've been hearing most besides German. Especially on our trip to Berlin, where I somehow ended up in a group of a few crazy Italians, one guy from Taiwan and well, me.

This was a trip organized by TUMi, the international office of the TUM. Perfect deal; cheap, by bus, four days. Giulia and I decided to sign up, so the weekend before last, we left Munich for a bit to see how true the saying 'You have Bayern, and then you have the rest of Germany' really is. (Yes - it IS true)

We had to be at the mensa at 6.30h on saturday, so the U-bahn was quite empty. The only people on the U-bahn Hauptbahnhof - Königsplatz were students, who all spoke different languages, carrying suitcases.. I saw the huge group of nerdy foreigners and thought 'Oh hell, well this is gonna be fun...' The fun continued with our tutor. And now, I don't mean to be so mean, but seriously? I'm not gonna give a full description because it wouldn't be fair, but let's just say that he got on my nerves and it was a good thing that I was in the back of the bus so he couldn't hear my annoyed mumbling when he was telling 'funny' jokes through the microphone.

Other than that, the bus trip was quite nice, got to know some people, and somehow I got stuck with the nickname 'Mommy' and from then was the mom of the aforementioned group of italians. Finally in Berlin, we found our rooms - chill, small, bunkbed rooms for 4 people, right next to the Hauptbahnhof, with a beautiful view of the Reichstag. After that it was time for a several-hour-walking-tour through the city, which was interesting and helpful, because that way the orientation got slightly easier (orientation - not my strong suit). Thank goodness we were in the group with the tutors who actually knew where they were going. The other group, with my favourite, ahem, tutor and another one of that type, got back two hours later than we did, grumpy and annoyed, because they had gotten completely lost. In the evening it was time for party, we ended up at some random beach club at the Spree, but we could dance and have a good time, so we enjoyed ourselves. After that, Giulia and I decided to have a look at the amazing Hauptbahnhof building in the middle of the night, and let's say - you're not as safe from creepy people in Berlin as you are in Munich.

Programme for the next day was my absolute favourite: cycling! I felt more Dutch than I had in a long time. We spent the entire day biking (and carrying bikes up the stairs because once again, our tutors failed to find the correct way to go). But the weather was great, the city is beautiful, we went to a foreign culture festival, so that was lovely. In the evening I took on my role as mom and decided we were not gonna go with the tutors. Funnily, everyone actually followed me and Giulia into the S-bahn and to the restaurant.. Was a chill evening, ended up at a bar somewhere, nice but nothing special.

On Monday we were all supposed to go to the castle of Sans Soucci, but as I had already seen Potsdamm and the castle with my parents, and a few others weren't to keen on it either, a group decided to stay in the city. But by this time I was so fed up with not being alone and the enormous amount of time it always takes for a group to make a decision, in the Pergamon museum I said 'Bye guys, I'll see you back at the hostel.' I had a day pass for public transport and nearly all of Berlin's museums, so I sketched some in the Pergamon, went to the Kuh damm, Zoologischer Garten, Museum for Photography, took the S-bahn again, got out at a random station, walked around for an hour, sat somewhere, read, sketched some buildings and then decided to have a look on the map where I actually was. Found out, went to see a beautiful park and then walked back to the hostel. In the evening, we the entire group went to a restaurant and then a club, but the music was so terrible that Giulia and I were in bed by 2.

On our last day, fed up with being in groups all the time, Giulia and I went off by ourselves. We visited the Tacheles Kunsthaus, which now is my favourite spot in Berlin by far. (Wikipedia: bad source, but for you to get an idea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunsthaus_Tacheles ) It's an artist colony, in an entirely dilapidated building full of graffiti. It's a symbol for the free art in the new Germany since the wiedervereinigung. The artists want convey a message with their work and are an important part of Berlin/ German modern culture. They are (young), modern artists and musicians, who found a place there to work, sell and exhibit. My favourite is a Dutch artist who has evidently fallen in love with Berlin and focuses his work on the city. His work displays irony in a very creative way. His name is Tim Roelofs:http://www.roeloffs1.com/index.php . We walked around, talked to people who worked there, and bought posters and catalogues. I've now cut up the Tim Roelofs catalogue and together with pictures of my friends made a huge collage on the wall in my room now. So a little part of Berlin and many, many of you are watching over me as I sleep :)

The trip back was long and exhaustig, but we had a good time. Little sleep, new friends, many impressions. But we all said: 'Berlin is amazing, but we're glad to go home to Munich.'

Grazie a tutti i miei nuovi amici italiani; I had an amazing weekend!

Now back to normal and real life in Munich, with some bumps in the road right now. But it'll all turn out fine.

But uni is all OK, had a nice weekend including BBQ and some random Wii playing here in the living room, swimming with my flatmate - whom I'm teaching how to crawl - and more of this everyday stuff. I'm looking forward to next weekend, when two of my best friends, a beautiful couple, are coming to visit Munich. I haven't properly spent time with them since the ski trip in January, so I can't wait for some time with the three of us and some 'girly talk' as Rash calls it, with Tamieck.

Now, I'm off to write a paper for mobility, to get that out of the way. Alles liebe aus Bayern,

Larissa

Welcome home!

Hi all,

I know - an update was long overdue. So, here we go! Again, to keep this structured, 'stichworte' are the key to this story as well, otherwise it's gonna be impossible to read.

So, some brief impressions of Germanness and life here in general:

* Zzzz.. It's much easier to fall asleep in class when there are 200 others around you. In Kybernetics I suddenly got a punch in the ribs from my neighbour 'Hey du, wach auf!' So yeah, I gave that class up. That is definitely a first for nerdy me.

* Good morning sunshine? 8.00-9.30, Monday morning. Biology. I want to know what drug my professor is on, cuz she's so crazily motivated, and if it's legal, I want it. Full stop. Because the problem is: my flatmates don't have deadlines, they sleep 'till noon. I go to bed at roughly the same time, but get up at 6.30. See the trouble here?

* Question: Whyyy would any-one, e-ver, in his right mind, wear a bicycle helmet. On a bike, OK, fair enough. But WHY put it on when the lecture ends and then walk through uni with it? Sigh, these German nerdy engineers...

* Again: WHY? Why carry around a 1.5 L bottle of water? You hardly ever see a person with a 0.5L bottle, it's usually at least 1 L. I've compromised: 0.75 L. And of course: no tapwater, god no! My flatmate also said it: 'Larry, I'm sorry, I'm afraid we're very German. We only have water with bubbles.' Thank goodness they're normal and also drink tapwater.

(For the ones wondering, yeah, they call me Larry. This nickname came from the time in Austria, they asked me what people usually called me, so this stuck.)

* Longboards! I see so many people with longboards around here, so as soon as I have money again (Stufi FTW!) that's gonna be my new investment. People even ride them through the uni buildings, on the streets, through the Englisher Garten. It's really a means of transportation and it's gonna be a nice replacement for the snowboarding I've been missing so much.

* Home. This is the main feeling of the past three weeks! The last blog I wrote was on the first day I moved in here, which is exactly three weeks ago. Since then, I've gotten used to life in the Gneisenaustraße, in the absolutely most chill WG I could have found, which now consists of 2 guys, one of their girlfriends (awesome chick, happy she's here) and me. I'm a damn lucky girl. From here it's only 25 minutes to university, 15 minutes to the Olypiazentrum (sports facilities, still from the Olympic Games) and you have a large mall about 3 minutes away by bike. We've all been working on the apartment in the past weeks. So the balcony was cleaned with a high pressure water spout (apparently that was fun), we bought and planted flowers (the bigger task is to keep them alive) and the guys are finishing the bar in the hall. For who's interested - pictures are on facebook. But besides the fact that the appartment is huge and beautiful, the feeling of coming home is even better. It's so nice to enter after a long day of uni, and random friends are here, people are cooking, and talking. Or it's quiet, you can just collapse onto the couch, talk a bit, watch a movie, go to sleep. Friends of mine have also been over, one of them (for various reasons) has slept in the living room both times she was here (entirely incapable of going home.) But the good thing is that it's possible; no one here minds if suddenly the living room looks like a camping facility because suddenly three people are put up on the two sleep couches and a mattrass. So conclusion is: since I moved in here, life has definitely improved a whole lot: I'm happy.

* Vienna. Yay, it was so good to see friends again! A friend of mine drove from Innsbruck to pick me up here, and he drove me back as well. Weekend went like this: chilling, driving, party, chilling, driving back. Lovely; saw my birthday girl and other friends from this winter - thankful for that. It was good to see people again that know me and like me despite of that, haha.

* Nerdy engineering subjects: I still love them. I've really missed this during LUC. Still enjoy chemistry and solar engineering the most, stil hate kybernetics, but ah well. And for Technik im Alltag I have to read Hannah Ahrendt now, so even here there's now way around philosophy, which is good. Had all three presentations I had to do in the past three weeks, so that's over and done with - I'm glad. Also here: help from my flatmates for TiA. Subject: re- and upcycling of drinking cans. So, somewhere between twelve and three, not entirely sober anymore, the toolkit came out and we (mostly me watching) built a candle holder out of two drinking cans. It actually looks really good. Happy me, happy professor, all was right with the world, haha.

* Sports: still go swimming a few times a week. Goal for end of the semester: to swim the 2 km in under an hour again. That's 80 laps... Right now I'm quite on schedule: 1 km well under half an hour, so I trust that with discipline that'll be fine. Also, something that most of my friends will not believe, I've started zumba... Horribly motorically challenged me and zumba.. This was not on purpose: we were gonna play volleyball, but got lost in the huge ZHS center and ended up there. So that's the wednesday night programma from now on! Went twice now, it's gonna take some practice for me to not look like a complete idiot, but I still have faith that it'll improve.

* Social life: also here, most credit goes to my flatmates. Their friends are around all the time, the majority of which I get along with well. Also my friends are always welcome, so that has resulted in some very chill and interesting evenings which mostly ended late and with people turning the living room into a 'matratzenlager'. I also get out more now; to a club sometimes, dinner with a group, but also just taking the scooter to the lake and hanging out there. I see my greek and italian friends most - they're lovely, interesting, intelligent girls, with good looks, which is again appreciated when they come around here.

* Soccer. Don't even wanna talk about it. Bayern München T-shirt hangs over the chair now.. it was a sad night for the city. But, we had a birthday to celebrate, so wodka limone, cake and various other substances saved the night to some extent :)

* Plans. Next weekend: BERLIN!We're going with the Erasmus students, it's my Italian friend and me and lots of strangers, for 3 days, I'm excited. The contrast between Berlin and this quiet, very village-like in its atmosphere city is gonna be huge. But I'm looking forward to some nice museums and a good party scene! Also booked my ticket to Stockholm today; Midsummer with my Swedish friends! I've missed them, it's gonna be goood.

So, that wasn't the most interesting update you will have ever read: life here is 'alltag'. But wanted to tell you what's been going on here.Right now I'm sitting on the balcony, reminding myself to water the tomato plant, enjoying the warm evening weather, and I hope to see some of you here at some point to enjoy it with me!

Bussis

Soccer, Aqueduct and Moving

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!

Bussi

First two weeks of utter chaos!

Hi all, sooo.. time for an update I guess. For the ones who are not to keen on reading this huge piece of text, a summary:

- Introweek @ TUM = lots of nerdy, ugly Asian kids with strange accents and a lot of confusion trying to understand the university and getting to know the city.

- TUM campus: HUGE. Confusing. Mensa food is horrid - sitting alone at lunch is even worse.

- Classes: interesting, pretty easy so far, (though I'm extremely nervous about having to do a presentation on infrastructure in German.)

- Social life: pretty much non-existent. Though: gonna improve. Met some nice guys in some random classes who are gonna be my Munich- (nightlife)-tourguides, met a Greek and and Italian girl - very friendly -, and am gonna move into a student house next week!

- Soccer: loved watching the game in the pub here last week! Everyone is so passionate about FC Bayern 'FC Bayern, Stern des Südens, lalaaaa'. I live two stops away from the Allianz Arena, and on the days of Bayern-Mainz and Bayern-Real the whole U-bahn was full of people dressed in red and white, overexcited to see the game in the Arena. Which, btw, is something I definitely wanna do some day!

And now, Elaborate Version, here you go:

Two weeks in Munich, seems like it has been much longer. Probably because of the huge amount of new impressions over the past weeks, not because I'm starting to feel at home.. Feeling at home requires a certain amount of 'knowing your way around thecity' I guess, and that's not the case at all so far. (Mostly because of my lack of orientation skills.)

To keep this organized, I'll do this in chronological order. Well, arrival was the first difficulty. Imagine me + huge suitcase + shoulder bag + backpack. A friend of mine drove me to the station in Landeck, from there to Innsbruck, Wörgl and then finally: Munich. I was happy that I already knew the station quite well from all the train trips to Austria, but I hadn't imagined the size of the U-bahn and S-bahn part of the station. Of course I was bound to catch the wrong S-bahn, but after a few transfers I arrived in my temporary hometown: Garching. It's a small village outside Munich, about 40 minutes to the city center by public transport. I live here with friends of my parents, they're old, but very friendly. Though tiptoeing around the house and having dinner with them sometimes is awkward - I'll be happy to move out in a week, but I'll get to the details of that later.

The week after, starting on Tuesday was the exchange-student-intro-week. It started with a three-hour lecture on studying in Germany, which dealt with culture shock, German food and other nonsense. Ah well, I was relieved to sit there because that meant I had found it by myself. So during that week we got tours around the campus, through the city, the sports facilities etc. But different groups every time, so I met a lot of people, but never saw them again since. Which isn't very strange, because the university has >31.000 students. Besides the introweek activities, which didn't take up a lot of time, I tried to figure out how to pick courses here. Because the courses that I wanted to take weren't offered, blablabla... chaos.

And then.. actual university life started!Since it did, I've realized a frew things. LUC really is a tiny, protected environment. The Hague is a tiny city and I'm extremely lucky to never have to use public transport over there. The U-bahn is not my favourite means of transportation and our student community at home is something very strange and special.

But,whenever I manage to find my classes, I enjoy them.I have a list now which I actually like a lot! Just have to see the faculty supervisor to see whether it adds up to 30 ECTS, because most courses here are only 2 or 3 credits. I have courses from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year of Environmental Engineering, Geodäsie and Architecture.But it's a nice variety of subjects, the level seems to be good (To illustrate:everything we learned in eight weeks of 'Sustainability: Energy' was summarized by my Solar Engineering professor in two hours, to 'Get us through the basics.')

So, for whois interested, this is what I'm studying now:

- Solar Engineering

- Organic Chemistry

- Kybernetics of Planning Processes

- The Architecture of Infrastructure

- Biology for Engineers

- Geology for Engineers

- Ecology

- English for Environmental Engineers

- Mobility

- Technology in Daily Life

Besides studying and working out at the sport center (the old training center from the Olympic Games here in the 1970's) my major concern was finding a room. Preferably one which is closer to uni than 1 hour by public transport and with people my age. So went to three house-visit-things (Dutch: hospiteren, there's no proper English translation). The first one was the best one. 3 guys, one of which is moving out, and the girlfriend of one of them. Small room, but large kitchen, big living room and a really nice 8 m^2 balcony! Was there at 7 pm, left at 12.30 am - had fun talking and drinking (them - not me), so that was a good sign. Also had a look at 2 other rooms, both OK but the girls in the house were boring. And I'd rather live with guys anyways - girls can be so... difficult. And yesterday: good news! The guys called me that I can move in with them in a week, so I'm really happy, I think I'm gonna have a good time there!

So I had something to celebrate yesterday night! Went out with the Italian and Greek girl and friends of theirs, and their friends, so it turned out to be a large group with people from Sweden, Norway, USA, Brazil, Spain, Turkey... and so on. There was a huge university party at the Praterinsel, organized by students from Munich's 2 universities, the FH and all art schools. Was good to go crazy again for a change, good music, no one really knew me, so that was nice. But one thing: I'd rather take the night train from A'dam to Den Haag HS any day than the first U-bahn to Garching... straaaange people at the Hauptbahnhof when you have to wait 40 minutes until the first U-bahn goes.

And to wrap up, just a few random things that struck me over the past weeks:

* When a lecture is done, Germans tap on the table with their knuckles. Reminded me of debating, but it's different from that as well.

* Not to be shallow... but architecture and geoscience students are so much betterlooking than engineers.... Pff I find myself looking foward to Ecology, Geology and Infrastructure. I'm spoilt, used to betterlooking guys in Austria ;P

* It's 'normal' to walk on the tables in a lecture hall if you wanna get out during a lecture. During Kybernetics (the most boring subject I've ever had. And that includes Disciplinarity and Beyond) people kept walking on the tables which the lecturer stubbornly kept talking.

* I'm damn lucky to have learned the Tirolean dialect, because at least half of my professors speaks a thick Bayerish rather than Hochdeutsch. Very funny when they throw in English terms. E.g. 'Des wichtigschte bei diasm Solar Engineering Seminar isch des mia oanaseids die technischen aspekte wia die Boltzmann Radiation gesetze beachtn owa a die politische Seite on dem gonzen nit ausm auge verliern.'

* You can see the mountains from the roof terrace of the TU - such a beautiful view and comforting to see the alps.

* You have so much time on your hands when you don't have a social life.. bistu deppat. Need to find friends soon, all I do now is go to uni, work out, go home, read, draw, go to sleep.

* I miss my bike...!

* I miss my friends and family! So far, it's pretty lonely around here. But, it'll get better soon. :) And got some trips planned so far - Vienna and Sweden! - please add to the list, I'm up for travelling Europe :D And please come visit me if you're up for it yourself, everyone's welcome.

But for now: des reicht. Right now I need some sleep, got an 'exciting' (ugh) day tomorrow;some chem excercises, laundry, take a walk to the Isar to do some sketching, avoid the old people here as much as possible.

Much love from Munich,

xxx Larissa / La / Larry