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Wow. I'm back. Although I don't intend to write this often, I just HAVE to write a real quick entry because I had such an incredible weekend…
Friday night I went to a welcome party for all the university international students.I expected it to be a small gathering.Wrong.There must have been between 200 and 300 students there in the huge basement of this apartment - it got so crowded you could barely move but was still fun.There was dancing and much drinking (of course, not me though, haha).It was nice because I went with Hans another Fulbrighter in Munich (Olivia was gone for the weekend visiting friends of hers in Stuttgart)… Since he had taken some of the culture courses throughout the week, he already knew a lot of the international students and was able to introduce me.I think I met about ten people from Hungary and a dozen from the Czech Republic.I met several people from Spain, France, Romania, Turkey, Italy, all across Europe basically. I think there were only two other Americans - one from Wash U and one from Rhode Island.It was a lot of fun, although definitely nothing like anything that I am used to -- not that I have wide range of experience to draw on (I can count the number of college parties I went to on one hand).We got there at around 9 pm and I was there til 2:30..When I told the group of people I was with that I was going to leave, they looked at me like I was crazy.I guess it is common for people to stay out reallyyy late on the weekends - as in like 4 or 5 am (they were planning to go to a bar afterwards ?!?!). I went back at that point because we were leaving early to go to Chiemsee so I wanted to sleep at least a little.
On Saturday we took the train to Prien am Chiemsee. After checking into our hotel, I went out with a bunch of people I had a) just met 5 minutes previously, b) knew from Fulbright, c) met at the party last night. That's the magic of the International Club…
So we were German, French, Spanish, American, Macedonian, and Italian.We walked an hour to get to the ferry and then took a trip out to the Herreninsel und Fraueninsel (two beautiful islands).I think I must have taken hundreds of pictures there.We stopped at the Herreninsel first and walked about another half an hour to get to the Herrenchiemsee, a complex of royal buidings built by King Ludwig II.The trail leading up to the castle was beautiful-- basically just imagine a dirt path, winding back into tree-covered hills along the contours of a valley, sun shining, leaves turning, blue skies… such a beautiful day. Anyway, the New Palace was basically built as a monument to Ludwig's adoration of Louis XIV.It was to have been an equivalent to the Palace of Versailles, but only the central portion was built before the king died, leaving 50 of the 70 rooms unfinished. The great hall of mirrors was incredible and is actually longer than its equivalent in Versailles and the dining room has the largest chandelier in the world. The Fraueninsel is a smaller island with approximately 300 permanent residents.We gave ourselves a self-guided tour of the old Bavarian houses and the Benedictine convent.So beautiful.
After walking around all day, we sat outside and had dinner at this little fish restaurant (the island is famous for its grilled fish…). I almost always do not like fish and do not eat it unless forced to, but I tried it and will admit it was very good!Dinner took about three hours because we of the wine and talking but we got to watch the beautiful sunset over the lake.
I arrived back on Sunday.And guess what was occurring RIGHT outside my apartment when I got back? The Munich Marathon!! So I sat outside and watched for a few hours ;)It was incredible. Then I went to the Englischer Gardens to read (I finished Great Expectations auf Deutsch!) Before I knew it is was 9:00… I was supposed to go to this bar (another meeting of international students), but as I was walking back I saw a large group of people gathered in a circle and stopped to see that there was a man playing music. He had brought out a grand piano out to the central square and was playing all the classics - Bach, Mozart, Beethoven.It was so beautiful - I stayed for almost two hours. After I tore myself away to go back, I passed another performer playing the guitar and stopped to listen to that for a while as well. He played a lot of classics including the Beatles and U2. I wish I could have recorded it.
Side note-
The library!!
...I found out that there is a public library 3 minutes from my apartment! It's free, I can borrow books for 3 weeks, and better yet, the inscription process only took 10 minutes! Incredibly efficient for the Germans. I'm thrilled. This definitely usurps the Max Planck (MPI) library at the university as my library of choice... MPI, while fairly well-endowed, is a headache of book requests (80% of the collection is stored underground), short lending-periods, and bureaucracy...surprise surprise.
Get this:
-You are not allowed to renew a book. Instead, you have to go to the circulation desk and turn it in. Next, the library staff scans it in and reshelves it, which takes approximately 45 minutes and requires that they climb 1-3 flights of stairs in order to replace it in the stacks. Meanwhile, you have gone across the street, gotten a coffee, and returned to the library, where you will be waiting next to the stacks when the library staff person replaces it on the shelf. You immediately grab it (as there is only one copy to borrow) and take it downstairs, where you check it out again. You have 3-7 days to keep it before you must repeat the process.
Now, is that just a waste of everyone's time, or what?
In the future I will try to stay focused and not to rant in my blogs anymore :)Consider that last part to be the accumulated frustration of bureaucratic stalling and roadblocks, about which I could go on for hours…;) Anyway, that's all for now!Love from Germany,Ashley
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