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