So, I lag on blog posts. I suppose such is the danger of actually being involved in a program. Or, as much involved as I can be for a program that I get 7 credits and NO GRADES ON MY TRANSCRIPT THAT COUNT FOR MY GPA. Ta-Da! Vacation to Italy, right? Which reminds me, there are administrative things I must attend to for the purposes of not completely overloading my schedule in the fall, but that is neither here nor there.
Oh god. This man. Actual words out of his mouth, "Law doesn't matter at all." Seriously, why does he study law, societies and justice if he thinks the law doesn't matter at all. This makes no sense. It is, in fact, contrary to all of the logic of ever. Again, I digress.
Our day outing upon the Aventine, Palatine, and in the ruins of one section of i foro romano was lovely and ended in one of the best dinners I have had in Rome. For the record, we all definitely believed that heading to the Aventine would result in actually going sightseeing on the Aventine. There is not a thing to be seen by tourists on the aventine. You can walk it, there are like two churches (that I was dressed entirely inappropriately for), and that's it, you end up on the Palatine with NO WARNING. So, we stopped in at the Palatine museum and the exhibit on the Forum.
Luckily, all of these lovely things included a visit to the interior of the Colloseum in the price. Note to all tourists: the helpfulness of the audioguide in the forum is minimal at best. We tried. We weren't sure where to start things. It would have been more helpful with actual signs inside the great expanse that is the ruins of the various iterations of the Forum. We spent hours on hours within the Palatine, forum, and in the ruins of Caesar Augustus' palace. It should be noted that there was no food within this area. We, for once, forgot backsnacks (backpack snacks). At some point, all five of us decided that we were starving and left. We found a glorious restaurant called the Old Bear, and had pre-dinner gelato. I made a short excursion to the Lush store off of the Campo Dei Fiori.
It was a multicourse dinner. See alternate blog for the full breakdown of all four (yes, four) courses. It was delicious. I was stuffed. We all went to bed satisfied, happy, and generally sated. Chris's birthday got commemorated by him nearly being scorched by the roman candle atop his slice of cheesecake at the end of dinner. We obtained hilarious pictures from that.
Monday consisted of (largely) class, and sightseeing. There was the Colloseum, which was as I remembered, but with less parts open, the Trevi (still insanely crowded), and the Spanish Steps (again, crazy crowded). Then there was a few hours of an aperitivo with our wonderful professor, who convinced me to apply (semi-last-minute) to a DOJ job for next summer. Then there were late night excursions into our neighborhood of Trastevere.
Tuesday was accordingly, and constrastingly, low key. There was sleep, there was reading, there was the renting of itunes movies and eating of take out Chinese food. I know, you're all recoiling at the thought of eating Chinese food in Italy. You're all missing out if you don't. There was chicken cooked with pineapple. That is basically the best combination ever, second only to pork and pineapple. Fun fact: pineapple is translated to "ananas" in French, Italian, Spanish, AND German.
Yesterday was also low key, in preparation for our voyage to Bologna today. Bologna and Firenze this weekend. Possibly a tiny trip to Siena thrown in. It shall be a whirlwind, combined with the end of my least favorite person's time amongst us. The end. For now. There shall be more. Pictures on alternate blog.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Buongiorno, mi amici!
Apologies for seriously lagging in posting. There is more work to be done and more outings to be had than previously imagined. Also, our apartment (due to size, niceness, and kitchen equipment) has become the designated dinner spot, so there's that. Our little group of dottoresse (yes, in Italy, if you have a BA, you're called a doctor. Doctor. Like the sound of that as much as I do?), is quite the amicable bunch, and we take really good care of each other. We have had some lovely meals, followed by gelato and a few hours of talking (I know! Shocking!) and playing cards (which we have all discovered we're not good at....me especially. Reason numero uno why I don't gamble.).
In addition, there was a mandatory walking tour of Rome (complete with a lovely history lesson), a day spent exploring the Musei Capitolini, on the Capitoline hill, dinner with the WHOLE group in the Jewish Ghetto (try the Baccala!), babysitting for one of our professors, and a day trip to Orvieto. The day trip was replete with the requisite sleep deprived hilarity, particularly at the Parque de los montruos. I kid you not. That was the name of it. We did not choose to go there. I have no idea why we were there. There were numerous confusing and perplexing statutes. THere was also a playground. That was my favorite part. All the undergrads were looking down their noses at the law students appreciating their inner children on the playground. I say that we will stay younger and more fun loving than all of them.
Anyway, There is a giant photo dump on my other blog. I apologize and will try to write more tonight.
A presto!
In addition, there was a mandatory walking tour of Rome (complete with a lovely history lesson), a day spent exploring the Musei Capitolini, on the Capitoline hill, dinner with the WHOLE group in the Jewish Ghetto (try the Baccala!), babysitting for one of our professors, and a day trip to Orvieto. The day trip was replete with the requisite sleep deprived hilarity, particularly at the Parque de los montruos. I kid you not. That was the name of it. We did not choose to go there. I have no idea why we were there. There were numerous confusing and perplexing statutes. THere was also a playground. That was my favorite part. All the undergrads were looking down their noses at the law students appreciating their inner children on the playground. I say that we will stay younger and more fun loving than all of them.
Anyway, There is a giant photo dump on my other blog. I apologize and will try to write more tonight.
A presto!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Dum dum dum da da da dada Daaaaa (to be hummed to the tune of the Imperial March from Star Wars)
I am writing this because I am currently bored. That's right. Bored. We had 30 pages of reading to do for today, specifically today at 4 pm (or 16:00, if you prefer), and I finished it all in under an hour. Dear Undergrad curriculum, you are glorious. Also, speech from last night about how we should be infinitely well prepared for lecture today, I just have to assume that this wasn't aimed at the law students, because we are relaxed, chilling, and have time to spare, so really, scare tactics were beyond unnecessary. They were superfluous even. Now to be perfectly clear, I may not be retaining every word of the articles we read (and in some cases, you really don't want me to, because the poor sentence structure was grammatically mind boggling), but speed and efficiency become your best friends in law school, and in life, so it's pretty easy to step up to the plate when your reader looks like it was printed from a High School text book. Particularly when a lot of the text consists of EU and EC intellectual ego stroking. Really. We are talking the entire gamut from quadruple negatives, to using latin phrases that are not explained anywhere in the text (hello, it's a dead language....or did you miss the memo on that?), to having sentences that go on for an ENTIRE paragraph. NOT OK.
On the upside, I am now the proud owner of a hilariously tiny, candy apple red italian cellular phone. It makes godawful ringing sounds that are highly obnoxious and is all in Italian. Baptism by fire, maybe? Anyway, I still have an hour to go until class, and have nothing left to read. Thus, I choose to write and to empty my venomous words about their scare tactics into cyberspace. For legal reasons, I refuse to identify any of the persons or the institution involved (heck yes, learning something from 1L year!). So here it goes, in itemized list form.
1. When interviewing students about their ability to survive and to not be a pain in the ass in a foreign country, you should NOT have to continue reiterating that guideline nor patronizing them about how to live on a daily basis (and I do mean DAILY).
2. If you have interviewed said students, you should know which ones are going to be a problem. Talk to them and them alone.
3. If all of the grad students in a combined grad/undergrad program have LIVED abroad before, it is absolutely belittling, insulting, infantilizing, and patronizing to make them sit through not one, not two, but THREE separate lectures (each at least an hour long) about how important it is to not put yourself in dangerous situations. We got it. Thanks, but no thanks.
4. Warning people about the potential dangers of developing a false sense of security is valid and is probably necessary both legally and just as a matter of responsibility; terrifying all of your female students by telling them the equivalent of "don't make friends outside of this program or you'll get raped" is never called for, never appropriate, and is entirely counterproductive.
5. Dealing with young adults goes like this: if you explain something to us as if we are your peers, and allow us to ask for clarification or detail when it is particularly necessary, we will respect you. If you talk down to us, shush us, and try out all variety of scare tactics to compel us to comply with your whims, we, as any other person who has been successfully infantilized by people who profess to respect them (but who clearly do not in any way, shape, or form), will be disinclined to acquiesce to your requests.
It's that simple. Don't treat us like children, unless we are actually behaving like children. If you treat us like children and do the whole hand-holding horse and pony show, we will be have as if we are precisely the unruly and disrespectful children you make us out to be.
One final word, to go along with number 4: At no point should anyone ever try to point out that an individual getting raped "really brings the whole program down", nor should anyone ever make the egotistical, self important and self aggrandizing statement that a rape would be "really hard on everyone, because the whole program has to deal with it." That is NEVER EVER CALLED FOR. If, god forbid, something so awful were to happen, everything would grind to a halt (AS IT SHOULD) to address the wounds (likely both physical, emotional, and mental) that the person impacted has incurred.
That is all for now. I feel like I have sufficiently addressed the most egregious points of failure thus far. When they start off at "just awful" on a scale of 1 to 5, the only place to go is up, right? One can only hope.
On the upside, I am now the proud owner of a hilariously tiny, candy apple red italian cellular phone. It makes godawful ringing sounds that are highly obnoxious and is all in Italian. Baptism by fire, maybe? Anyway, I still have an hour to go until class, and have nothing left to read. Thus, I choose to write and to empty my venomous words about their scare tactics into cyberspace. For legal reasons, I refuse to identify any of the persons or the institution involved (heck yes, learning something from 1L year!). So here it goes, in itemized list form.
1. When interviewing students about their ability to survive and to not be a pain in the ass in a foreign country, you should NOT have to continue reiterating that guideline nor patronizing them about how to live on a daily basis (and I do mean DAILY).
2. If you have interviewed said students, you should know which ones are going to be a problem. Talk to them and them alone.
3. If all of the grad students in a combined grad/undergrad program have LIVED abroad before, it is absolutely belittling, insulting, infantilizing, and patronizing to make them sit through not one, not two, but THREE separate lectures (each at least an hour long) about how important it is to not put yourself in dangerous situations. We got it. Thanks, but no thanks.
4. Warning people about the potential dangers of developing a false sense of security is valid and is probably necessary both legally and just as a matter of responsibility; terrifying all of your female students by telling them the equivalent of "don't make friends outside of this program or you'll get raped" is never called for, never appropriate, and is entirely counterproductive.
5. Dealing with young adults goes like this: if you explain something to us as if we are your peers, and allow us to ask for clarification or detail when it is particularly necessary, we will respect you. If you talk down to us, shush us, and try out all variety of scare tactics to compel us to comply with your whims, we, as any other person who has been successfully infantilized by people who profess to respect them (but who clearly do not in any way, shape, or form), will be disinclined to acquiesce to your requests.
It's that simple. Don't treat us like children, unless we are actually behaving like children. If you treat us like children and do the whole hand-holding horse and pony show, we will be have as if we are precisely the unruly and disrespectful children you make us out to be.
One final word, to go along with number 4: At no point should anyone ever try to point out that an individual getting raped "really brings the whole program down", nor should anyone ever make the egotistical, self important and self aggrandizing statement that a rape would be "really hard on everyone, because the whole program has to deal with it." That is NEVER EVER CALLED FOR. If, god forbid, something so awful were to happen, everything would grind to a halt (AS IT SHOULD) to address the wounds (likely both physical, emotional, and mental) that the person impacted has incurred.
That is all for now. I feel like I have sufficiently addressed the most egregious points of failure thus far. When they start off at "just awful" on a scale of 1 to 5, the only place to go is up, right? One can only hope.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Buon Compleanno a mi!
As most of you know, yesterday was MY BIRTHDAY! I'm now officially
24, and, yes, before you say anything, I realize that to most of you
that makes me a child. However, I like to gaze upon this less than
momentous occasion (sort of feels like the birthdays stop being
momentous occasion once you pass 21, but correct me if I'm wrong on
that) as not simply another year gone by, but as my passing from
semi-adulthood further into the adulthood which will envelop my being
from here on out (that is, until some kind of mid life crisis when I feel
compelled to purchase an Aston Martin Vanquish, but I digress).
To mark this celebratory occasion, we......got up and went to class. However, Erin made a lovely breakfast for Maia and I (consisting of fresh peaches, greek yogurt, bread, and fresh pressed coffee) first. Orientation was, much as many orientations are, a litany of rules, followed by the obligatory (though, in my opinion far less than necessary) scare tactics. Then it was on to Italian class. So, based on my limited instruction in the subject, "Buon giorno a tutti!" (that should read "good day to everyone" my spelling may or may not be both dubious and atrocious - we did mostly speaking, and I have zero concept of grammar so far). Following our first lesson, we all were taken to a deli in the Campo dei Fiori and told that we would all be ordering in Italian. We proceeded to do this, mostly with great success (though that might have had more to do with the butchers speaking fluent english than with the success of our butchered italian). Following lunch, it was siesta time, because anytime it is 100 degrees (or close) and 100% humidity a siesta is more than necessary. This resulted in our little law school group venturing back to our apartment in Trastavere to have some water and iced down Prosecco to celebrate my birthday. Post-prosecco, we went back to the Rome Center to help set up for dinner (it was a group thing, and totally included, so I'm good with free). Set up took far less time than expected, so Maia, Erin, and I basked in the glory of the single A/C unit in the room. It got downright cold. Dinner was lovely, replete with nametags (upon which most of the law students created Roman/Greek themed fake names), and followed by more unnecessary scare tactics, as well as the promise that we will be getting phones today (huzzah! See, mom, it'll be fine.).
After getting our assignments for our group project final thing (mine is Criminal Justice - hello, Amanda Knox), we all went out for a celebratory/much needed drink. Honestly, the talk post-dinner was rather depressing. So, we went out in law school fashion, bringing a poor, unsuspecting undergrad along for the ride. I think it is safe to say he walked away from our drinks at a cafe feeling rather jaded. That means we did our job. We headed home rather early (by Roman standards), had some girl talk (as us of the female gender do when living together), and then attempted to sleep. I was not entirely successful, but according to someone (whom I hope was not lying to me) it is supposed to get less awful. If you're not aware, awful is walking superheated cobblestone streets at all hours of the day (seriously, they don't cool off at night), when it's over 90 degrees (farenheit), and over 90% humidity. Awful. As in Italian class ended early because it was too freaking hot. Thank god for the makeshift cold compress I created. Otherwise there would have been zero sleeping. I took some apartment photos, which I will upload later. Right now is shove-food-down-throat-and-run-out-door-with-heavy-backpack-of-course-readers time.
Ciao, mi famiglia e mi amici! (again, probably both grammatically and spelling inaccurate)
To mark this celebratory occasion, we......got up and went to class. However, Erin made a lovely breakfast for Maia and I (consisting of fresh peaches, greek yogurt, bread, and fresh pressed coffee) first. Orientation was, much as many orientations are, a litany of rules, followed by the obligatory (though, in my opinion far less than necessary) scare tactics. Then it was on to Italian class. So, based on my limited instruction in the subject, "Buon giorno a tutti!" (that should read "good day to everyone" my spelling may or may not be both dubious and atrocious - we did mostly speaking, and I have zero concept of grammar so far). Following our first lesson, we all were taken to a deli in the Campo dei Fiori and told that we would all be ordering in Italian. We proceeded to do this, mostly with great success (though that might have had more to do with the butchers speaking fluent english than with the success of our butchered italian). Following lunch, it was siesta time, because anytime it is 100 degrees (or close) and 100% humidity a siesta is more than necessary. This resulted in our little law school group venturing back to our apartment in Trastavere to have some water and iced down Prosecco to celebrate my birthday. Post-prosecco, we went back to the Rome Center to help set up for dinner (it was a group thing, and totally included, so I'm good with free). Set up took far less time than expected, so Maia, Erin, and I basked in the glory of the single A/C unit in the room. It got downright cold. Dinner was lovely, replete with nametags (upon which most of the law students created Roman/Greek themed fake names), and followed by more unnecessary scare tactics, as well as the promise that we will be getting phones today (huzzah! See, mom, it'll be fine.).
After getting our assignments for our group project final thing (mine is Criminal Justice - hello, Amanda Knox), we all went out for a celebratory/much needed drink. Honestly, the talk post-dinner was rather depressing. So, we went out in law school fashion, bringing a poor, unsuspecting undergrad along for the ride. I think it is safe to say he walked away from our drinks at a cafe feeling rather jaded. That means we did our job. We headed home rather early (by Roman standards), had some girl talk (as us of the female gender do when living together), and then attempted to sleep. I was not entirely successful, but according to someone (whom I hope was not lying to me) it is supposed to get less awful. If you're not aware, awful is walking superheated cobblestone streets at all hours of the day (seriously, they don't cool off at night), when it's over 90 degrees (farenheit), and over 90% humidity. Awful. As in Italian class ended early because it was too freaking hot. Thank god for the makeshift cold compress I created. Otherwise there would have been zero sleeping. I took some apartment photos, which I will upload later. Right now is shove-food-down-throat-and-run-out-door-with-heavy-backpack-of-course-readers time.
Ciao, mi famiglia e mi amici! (again, probably both grammatically and spelling inaccurate)
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Recap: Two Days
To recap (in significantly fewer words than the first time):
I am now in Rome. It is ungodly, and unpleasantly hot here. I will dream (if I sleep at all) about sleeping in an ice bed with a quilt. I (literally) will be sleeping with ice (wrapped in a towel under my neck and possibly on my forehead). UNCOMFORTABLE.
Our apartment is well appointed, with plenty of space, but is strangely and disconnectedly decorated.
We saw a lot of old stuff yesterday. Ruins mostly. I learned facts.
Before I left Munich, it thunder and lightning stormed.
I ordered gelato in Italian, and was able to get the check at the restaurant.
We went grocery shopping and did battle with the "light it yourself" gas stove in order to make dinner for ourselves and two of the guys.
We are now all sitting on top of our beds after ice cold showers (on purpose), praying to god that we can sleep tonight with our one fan. We may need to have words with the Rome center about that.
Erin finally has her suitcase - it was a great success when it finally showed up. GREAT success!
Tomorrow we have orientation at 10, followed by Italian class (so that we speak less embarrassingly poorly). Then we're free to explore. Also, my birthday is tomorrow, so we're gonna go to a club on the river! Huzzah!
So that's it for now, because, dear readers (few though you are) I am not repeating the 800+ words that got magically deleted. I cried about it on the inside. It was manifested in my utter distaste for the heat.
More tomorrow, and Viva Roma!
I am now in Rome. It is ungodly, and unpleasantly hot here. I will dream (if I sleep at all) about sleeping in an ice bed with a quilt. I (literally) will be sleeping with ice (wrapped in a towel under my neck and possibly on my forehead). UNCOMFORTABLE.
Our apartment is well appointed, with plenty of space, but is strangely and disconnectedly decorated.
We saw a lot of old stuff yesterday. Ruins mostly. I learned facts.
Before I left Munich, it thunder and lightning stormed.
I ordered gelato in Italian, and was able to get the check at the restaurant.
We went grocery shopping and did battle with the "light it yourself" gas stove in order to make dinner for ourselves and two of the guys.
We are now all sitting on top of our beds after ice cold showers (on purpose), praying to god that we can sleep tonight with our one fan. We may need to have words with the Rome center about that.
Erin finally has her suitcase - it was a great success when it finally showed up. GREAT success!
Tomorrow we have orientation at 10, followed by Italian class (so that we speak less embarrassingly poorly). Then we're free to explore. Also, my birthday is tomorrow, so we're gonna go to a club on the river! Huzzah!
So that's it for now, because, dear readers (few though you are) I am not repeating the 800+ words that got magically deleted. I cried about it on the inside. It was manifested in my utter distaste for the heat.
More tomorrow, and Viva Roma!
Monday, August 20, 2012
Solo Adventures
Today, Vivi had to work (what with it being a weekday and her being a paid employee and all), so I was on my own for exploring. Thanks to her late night directions, I found my way all the way to another town using the S-train (I think this translates as the S-bahn, but don't quote me on that). Thankfully while I was very ineptly trying to force the ticket machine into submission, there was a local to my left doing the exact same thing. I can proudly say that I figured it out first! Though, this was mostly due to watching Viv get tickets twice and vaguely remembering what the ticket was called.
Initial baptism by fire of ticket purchase complete, I arrived at Obermenzing and set off on the first leg of my many miles for the day. After about a 20ish minute walk, I managed (along with some serious assistance from Viv's iPhone GPS) to make it to the Botanical Garden. Ticket purchase there actually took almost as long as from the evil machine creature because I had to speak....to a live person. He resorted to english. If that tells you anything about the less than zero German I can speak effectively. The botanical gardens were beautiful; however, being INSIDE a greenhouse when it is roughly 90 degrees outside....is not the greatest idea in the world, to put it lightly. There was a fun display about the plants that make up the bases for most perfumes, complete with smell stations (the 5 year old in me was thrilled, and yes, i smelled ALL THE PERFUMES.). They also had some of the most hilarious blurbs I have ever read at a museum. For example, "I came, I saw, I perfumed myself, and I conquered." Head nod to veni vidi vici. After the perfumery, I wandered for quite some time through the maze of connected greenhouses - all gorgeous and well cared for (except the one dead fish....I think he had heat stroke - and sought relief from the heat in the evergreen exhibits. Then there was the connected Botanical Garden Park. Oh. My. God. It was perfect. There was shade in abundance and dappled sunlight dancing across the backs of squirrels dashing from tree to tree. I made a snake friend when I stopped on a shady bench for some quality time with my Kindle ("The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" was on the menu today).
At some point, when I realized I had successfully killed about 3 hours at the botanical garden, I began a winding, meandering stroll to the Schloß Nymphenburg. Now, this lovely bit of architecture was constructed as a palace for the Elector of Munich and his family. There appeared to be some discussion of a King and Queen living there at one point (again, all words in German, so any comprehension was cobbled together and is liable to be wrong). Let me tell you, the Europeans had the colored bedrooms and monochromatic style down LONG before the US was a thing. Also, question for my readership, how in the hell did people sleep on those square beds back in the day? There were no pillows. At all. The bed was a sky-high box. I don't get it. Anyway, the room with coromandel laquer screens on the wall was my favorite, even if it was one of the smallest rooms. There was something so beautifully out of place about it. Almost as if someone's entryway from China magically appeared in Germany.
Outside this lovely piece of (slightly) disjointed architecture was ANOTHER GARDEN. So much greenery. My American sensibilities were sent reeling. And so I spent at least an hour wandering the grounds and reveling in nature. The adventure part came in when I wanted to leave. With no map. Being directionally challenged. It took about 45 minutes longer than I expected. Oh, and I got to witness a group of Italian teens wandering the grounds and taking pictures. They went to take pictures by a lovely fountain (a nice choice of background), and suddenly reappeared WITH BANANAS. From nowhere. It was disconcerting. I did eventually find my way back to the Banhof and then to Viv's and then we went out for a fun Italian dinner (we were getting me prepped early). We both had tiramisu and an aperol spritzer for dessert and then came back, and here I am, about to pack to leave for ROME!!!
SOEXCITEDICANTHANDLEIT!
Initial baptism by fire of ticket purchase complete, I arrived at Obermenzing and set off on the first leg of my many miles for the day. After about a 20ish minute walk, I managed (along with some serious assistance from Viv's iPhone GPS) to make it to the Botanical Garden. Ticket purchase there actually took almost as long as from the evil machine creature because I had to speak....to a live person. He resorted to english. If that tells you anything about the less than zero German I can speak effectively. The botanical gardens were beautiful; however, being INSIDE a greenhouse when it is roughly 90 degrees outside....is not the greatest idea in the world, to put it lightly. There was a fun display about the plants that make up the bases for most perfumes, complete with smell stations (the 5 year old in me was thrilled, and yes, i smelled ALL THE PERFUMES.). They also had some of the most hilarious blurbs I have ever read at a museum. For example, "I came, I saw, I perfumed myself, and I conquered." Head nod to veni vidi vici. After the perfumery, I wandered for quite some time through the maze of connected greenhouses - all gorgeous and well cared for (except the one dead fish....I think he had heat stroke - and sought relief from the heat in the evergreen exhibits. Then there was the connected Botanical Garden Park. Oh. My. God. It was perfect. There was shade in abundance and dappled sunlight dancing across the backs of squirrels dashing from tree to tree. I made a snake friend when I stopped on a shady bench for some quality time with my Kindle ("The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" was on the menu today).
At some point, when I realized I had successfully killed about 3 hours at the botanical garden, I began a winding, meandering stroll to the Schloß Nymphenburg. Now, this lovely bit of architecture was constructed as a palace for the Elector of Munich and his family. There appeared to be some discussion of a King and Queen living there at one point (again, all words in German, so any comprehension was cobbled together and is liable to be wrong). Let me tell you, the Europeans had the colored bedrooms and monochromatic style down LONG before the US was a thing. Also, question for my readership, how in the hell did people sleep on those square beds back in the day? There were no pillows. At all. The bed was a sky-high box. I don't get it. Anyway, the room with coromandel laquer screens on the wall was my favorite, even if it was one of the smallest rooms. There was something so beautifully out of place about it. Almost as if someone's entryway from China magically appeared in Germany.
Outside this lovely piece of (slightly) disjointed architecture was ANOTHER GARDEN. So much greenery. My American sensibilities were sent reeling. And so I spent at least an hour wandering the grounds and reveling in nature. The adventure part came in when I wanted to leave. With no map. Being directionally challenged. It took about 45 minutes longer than I expected. Oh, and I got to witness a group of Italian teens wandering the grounds and taking pictures. They went to take pictures by a lovely fountain (a nice choice of background), and suddenly reappeared WITH BANANAS. From nowhere. It was disconcerting. I did eventually find my way back to the Banhof and then to Viv's and then we went out for a fun Italian dinner (we were getting me prepped early). We both had tiramisu and an aperol spritzer for dessert and then came back, and here I am, about to pack to leave for ROME!!!
SOEXCITEDICANTHANDLEIT!
The rest of day 2: copied and pasted.
So here it is: my second day in Munich. (in its entirety)
Vivi prepared a delicious breakfast, and we had a leisurely Sunday morning, before heading back into town using the glorious German train system. We made our way to the Pinakotek der Moderne (ok, I tried with the spelling, but am invariably somehow wrong). It was a lovely museum day (and for only €1 each!). There was modern art (which is still largely a mystery to me), and a whole maze of random designs (as you will see in the pictures....the many many many pictures). Cars to chairs to jewelry to typewriters to Sony Playstations and robot dogs. Things I learned: evidently a major problem in designing seating at opera houses is the lack of a place to put one's hat. Heinrich Christian Anderson was both a philosopher and an architect. There a bazillions of examples of failed supposed utopian towns that just didn't work out. The part of the photography exhibit showing scenes of junkies shooting up made me profoundly uncomfortable. Museum stores have cool stuff. I almost forgot! There was an entire gigantic table filled with aluminum foil animals. Totally weird.
We wandered through the museum for a large portion of the day, until we had our fill of design and bizarro modern art. Given our morning of culture, we felt the need to undo some of that by going to by far the most touristy place I have been to on this trip: Hofbraühaus. We each had weißwürst and gigantic beers. Which apparently the Bavarians have their own word for. I do not recall the word (gimme a break, I just learned how to count to ten in German last night...and promptly forgot how to say ten). After eating our fill (probably more than our fill) in the Biergarten, with all of the (likely) hundreds of other tourists (you could tell because there were cameras a-plenty - including mine), we strolled the streets of München with Starbucks in hand (yep, they're here too!). An iced tea later, we hopped a train back to Dachau and walked into the last night of the Dachau Völksfest. AKA Beerfest. It was how I would imagine Oktoberfest, but with less people. That is in no way to suggest that there weren't any people. There were plenty. Mostly dressed in steindl - traditional clothes. P.S. It is awesome that they do that. And that the Bavarians wear traditional clothing for special occasions. Seriously, Vivi and I were the odd ones out with our modern clothing on. Oh, and I was definitely the ONLY tourist there. I say only because no one spoke English (except the friends we made at another table who both had foreign wives), and because the girl at the table next to us kept giving me dirty looks when I pulled out my camera. She was wearing shoes that were too ugly to allow her to be that bitchy. She was something out of Mean Girls. Regina George come to life.
Our "quick" sojourn into Völksfest turned into several hours of standing on tables and dancing (don't go thinking Coyote Ugly on me! Everyone was on the tables) and singing and clinking glasses and shouting "Prost!". I'm really good at saying prost now. As every tourist should be. Viv and I were completely worn out by the time we finally made it back to her flat (which is lovely by the way). She was kind enough to stay up and print me out a map of the train system and write directions to the botanical garden and castle that I'm venturing to, as soon as I finish writing this. And then we both crashed. I finally caught up on sleep (thank god). And now it's today! Huzzah! I get to meet up with Ms. Erin A-bear at the flughafen (airport) tomorrow morning and then off to Roma!
Important German phrases:
"Scheisse" - S#*$^, use this for all manner of profanities.
"Prost!" - Cheers! Important for all excursions to bars/restaurants, any place there might be something minimal to celebrate. Celebrating life is good.
"Danke" - Thank you. If you want to be really polite, Dankeschön (again, don't quote me on the spelling).
"Ein [insert food name or drink name], bitte" - One [food/drink], please. Because food and drinks are important.
"Sprecken-zie Englisch?" - Do you speak english? This one is super important, particularly when someone is saying German things to you and your eyes have sufficiently glazed over as a brain defense mechanism from the word bombs being hurled at your face.
In all honesty, I really don't speak anymore german than that. I know that words with "eis" in them refer to either something iced (ice cream) or something polar (polar bear = eisbeir). Oh, and spritzer is the same word in English and German. With an accent. Ta-da! Now you speak (horrible and minimal) German!
So, in conclusion, yesterday was all German all the time. It was holy Germanity, Batman!
Vivi prepared a delicious breakfast, and we had a leisurely Sunday morning, before heading back into town using the glorious German train system. We made our way to the Pinakotek der Moderne (ok, I tried with the spelling, but am invariably somehow wrong). It was a lovely museum day (and for only €1 each!). There was modern art (which is still largely a mystery to me), and a whole maze of random designs (as you will see in the pictures....the many many many pictures). Cars to chairs to jewelry to typewriters to Sony Playstations and robot dogs. Things I learned: evidently a major problem in designing seating at opera houses is the lack of a place to put one's hat. Heinrich Christian Anderson was both a philosopher and an architect. There a bazillions of examples of failed supposed utopian towns that just didn't work out. The part of the photography exhibit showing scenes of junkies shooting up made me profoundly uncomfortable. Museum stores have cool stuff. I almost forgot! There was an entire gigantic table filled with aluminum foil animals. Totally weird.
We wandered through the museum for a large portion of the day, until we had our fill of design and bizarro modern art. Given our morning of culture, we felt the need to undo some of that by going to by far the most touristy place I have been to on this trip: Hofbraühaus. We each had weißwürst and gigantic beers. Which apparently the Bavarians have their own word for. I do not recall the word (gimme a break, I just learned how to count to ten in German last night...and promptly forgot how to say ten). After eating our fill (probably more than our fill) in the Biergarten, with all of the (likely) hundreds of other tourists (you could tell because there were cameras a-plenty - including mine), we strolled the streets of München with Starbucks in hand (yep, they're here too!). An iced tea later, we hopped a train back to Dachau and walked into the last night of the Dachau Völksfest. AKA Beerfest. It was how I would imagine Oktoberfest, but with less people. That is in no way to suggest that there weren't any people. There were plenty. Mostly dressed in steindl - traditional clothes. P.S. It is awesome that they do that. And that the Bavarians wear traditional clothing for special occasions. Seriously, Vivi and I were the odd ones out with our modern clothing on. Oh, and I was definitely the ONLY tourist there. I say only because no one spoke English (except the friends we made at another table who both had foreign wives), and because the girl at the table next to us kept giving me dirty looks when I pulled out my camera. She was wearing shoes that were too ugly to allow her to be that bitchy. She was something out of Mean Girls. Regina George come to life.
Our "quick" sojourn into Völksfest turned into several hours of standing on tables and dancing (don't go thinking Coyote Ugly on me! Everyone was on the tables) and singing and clinking glasses and shouting "Prost!". I'm really good at saying prost now. As every tourist should be. Viv and I were completely worn out by the time we finally made it back to her flat (which is lovely by the way). She was kind enough to stay up and print me out a map of the train system and write directions to the botanical garden and castle that I'm venturing to, as soon as I finish writing this. And then we both crashed. I finally caught up on sleep (thank god). And now it's today! Huzzah! I get to meet up with Ms. Erin A-bear at the flughafen (airport) tomorrow morning and then off to Roma!
Important German phrases:
"Scheisse" - S#*$^, use this for all manner of profanities.
"Prost!" - Cheers! Important for all excursions to bars/restaurants, any place there might be something minimal to celebrate. Celebrating life is good.
"Danke" - Thank you. If you want to be really polite, Dankeschön (again, don't quote me on the spelling).
"Ein [insert food name or drink name], bitte" - One [food/drink], please. Because food and drinks are important.
"Sprecken-zie Englisch?" - Do you speak english? This one is super important, particularly when someone is saying German things to you and your eyes have sufficiently glazed over as a brain defense mechanism from the word bombs being hurled at your face.
In all honesty, I really don't speak anymore german than that. I know that words with "eis" in them refer to either something iced (ice cream) or something polar (polar bear = eisbeir). Oh, and spritzer is the same word in English and German. With an accent. Ta-da! Now you speak (horrible and minimal) German!
So, in conclusion, yesterday was all German all the time. It was holy Germanity, Batman!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)