Better/Sunnier days in Munich.

(NOTE: For any friends out there who have wondered why I may have been bad at keeping in touch recently my laptop killed itself 2 days before I left Bangkok, Thailand. Instead of trying to fix it or cart it’s dead body around I gutted it’s hard drive and left the rest in Asia. So now I am travelling lighter, but am less connected. My apologies if you don’t get fast responses from me. )



Since my last words on this blog things have gotten better. I am no longer horribly ill and it is no longer freezing cold outside. (Oliver has many good qualities but when it comes to sick person bedside manner he is below average.) However there is a still a slight loneliness about being here.



One good thing is that we have moved from Oliver’s Aunts place on the outskirts of Munich into a small room in the city center in Glockenbachviertel. In most major town centers in Germany there is always a Rathaus (town hall) most of them seem to be complete with a giant bell tower which chimes multiple times a day plus every hour on the hour … I haven’t figured out when exactly they all go off, Oliver thinks it’s 11 and I have heard them at 5pm as well. Basically if you are in Munich’s city center then everywhere you hear a massive chorus of 4 clock towers (Glockenschpiel) ring for about 10 mins. It’s quite impressive. This is why where we now live is called Glockenbachviertel… I think it’s because of it’s close proxy to the bells, and the Rathaus (pictured here.)






Why do I bother to take the time to write about this? I don’t know… I guess it’s perhaps it is one of the most simple and yet most magical things about this place, and the sound of Munich is what is slowly seducing me into a happier mood at times.

You’d think it would be the sights, and the food perhaps? Nope. During my time in cultureshock –sick land while I was here all I could do was look around me at all the rich beauty in the buildings and only see how I didn’t know if I wanted to be around them. For every lovely Gothic arch or stately giant of a building I longed for the grim and shabby small wood structures of Seattle, it’s pot-holed filled streets and sometimes even it’s cloudy skies complete with mild winter temp.



I’m now starting to look at Munich with larger eyes and while the culture shock and questions of “What the hell have I done?! Was this the right choice?” looming around me. We/I had it so good in Seattle, now I must start all over again with my art and career, with my social life. When you are sick with low morale it’s really hard to fight these questions, but most days now I feel like everything will be ok, I just need to find where I fit and no knowing where that is makes me frustrated at times.

(side note: sometimes when I am frustrated I take a walk to take in the sites and sounds and look inside the magnificent churches here. this is a photo of a Rococo style church...super lovely.)



So with the weather no longer being so cold the other good thing is that we no longer have to walk around for hours looking at apartments since we finally found one of a reasonable price. We applied and were accepted out of all the applicants for it (remember it’s Munich- a hard city overall to find a house in so when good things come up they get snatched up quick). The only downside is that we cannot move in until May 1st. By this time I will be back in Seattle and Oliver will have to face the challenge of moving in alone.




For inquiring minds who want to know Oliver is doing well. His days are also up and down in mood and I am not alone in my homesickness for Seattle. I don’t think he would realize how much he felt Seattle was home if we didn’t move back. Funny how life works as times…

His days at work leave him frustrated while he tries to adapt to our new system of thick German Bureaucracy, and it seems that trying to get anything set up takes lots of running around and waiting. The common stereotype is that change happens slowly when working in Academic institutions or with German Bureaucracy. The two combined however must be inconceivably nightmarish.

I have been spending most of my mornings here in 4.5 hrs of German lessons at the (overpriced) Goethe-Institute with a couple of hours in the schools library studying. Oliver says I have made progress in my German and some days feel more progressive than others. Language takes time, but I just feel so impatient and wish I could make faster progress. On a good note I have begun to read advertisement in the subway and most major signs ones sees while walking around the city I can comprehend…so there is signs of hope for me yet.




So now that our basic needs seem to be met, a place to sleep a place to move into, etc. Oliver and I have been able to spend some time together relaxing and not pondering too much about what the future holds we spend most of our evenings watching movies in bed (mostly the Star Wars films) and some nights out at some shows I’ve found. Heading out to eat either pizza, german or Turkish food is common. Here a whole pizza is about 8-9 euros. super cheap compared to the US! It’s been my job here to find fun things for us to do, to located the laundry mat, to do the grocery shopping and by default cook dinner. I don’t feel like a housewife (yet) and running errands has been ok and has forced me to try and use German even though every time I do I get incredibly embarrassed.



We also took a weekend trip out to Passau, a lovely town on the boarder of Austria and Germany where three rivers converge quite closely, which houses the worlds largest Organ. I'm a fan of metal and a fan of big things and Oliver is a fan of old churches and musical instruments so we both really like organs and organ music. From May - October Passau's organ gives daily concerts. So if anyone is interested in visiting during those months we will totally have a day trip to this lovely city!

The streets of Passau were long and windy and narrow and prone to annual flooding. There are water lines all over the town with historic dates from 1509 -1956 to 2008 where water levels rose so much that they flooded the first floor of most houses in the center of town.

After a tour guided day with a boat ride included we met up with some locals who contacted me via couchsurfing.com for a beer by the riverside. After that a train back to Munich at 6pm and home for dinner at our local late night curry wurst diner (curry sausage and fries) Guten Nach Wurst! Living in the city center is super convenient that is for sure!

Alright well time to sign out here since it's time to study for my weekly German exams... miss you all!

Xoxox

-Mellington

The first lonely days in Munich...

So. I have been in Munich for just about 2 weeks now, and I feel like a whimp to admit that I am getting some pretty unsettling culture shock. Ofcourse it did not help my shock that during my birthday I was sick at home with a fever of 102. I was lying in bed for about 3 days before life started to get better healthwise, but by then my emotional morale was at an all time low and I would randomly break out in tears. This year I celebrated what was probably my worst b-day ever. no friends or family around except Oliver. not to give him no credit but the only thing that kept me from hurling myself over a bridge on my birthday was Oliver.... he surprised me with tulips and a very nice breakfast with meticulously soft-boiled eggs and a single candle with an optional birthday song. It was a very sweet gesture... and what did I do? I said a small thank you and then imediately burst into tears of sadness and depression.

Life has been emotionally hard here. this whole moving thing has been emotionally draining and physically exhausting. Having a 2 month vacation beforehand was really nice but has also left us a bit exhausted and just when one is done with a trip and excited to GO home we realized... oh wait. we don´t have a home. Which leads to exhausting bit no. 2: the endless search for housing.

Before I even got to Munich all I mainly head about the place was that it was expensive, beautiful and a bitch to find a house in. Some people search for months before they can find a decent place, one which has more space than a large broom closet, and one that won´t cost you an arm and a leg. for a whole week we´ve wander through the cold cold city going from one apartment appointment to another. I have never walked so much in such a short amount of time in my life, and while my clogs are good for a decent walk they are mainly good for long hours of standing. So here I am walking around in half decent shoes with no isulation from the cold and boy do my feet feel the hurt at the end of the day. Oh the bright side things are sunny during the day, but when the sun goes does holy shit is it colder than cold.

So the combination of walking around in the cold and the fear and stress of the unknown as to where will we live has compressed my morale and my health into such a frantic state of mild cultureshock. I guess it´s not just cultureshock:

of being in a new place,
not knowing how to speak the language,
having and hour long commute from Oliver´s Aunt´s house to the city,
not having any friends yet,
not having a place to live,
not knowing where I can get an artist studio space, or how the system works here

...but I guess it´s also the compounded realization of, Holy fucking shit! I just left everything I knew behind to move to a foreign place where I will be ...forever...well as long as I want to be with this awesome man.... sigh...

I think that is just as scary alone as it is with all the above.

and when I say I´ve left everything behind. I don´t just mean Seattle, but Thailand as well... but mostly Seattle and the luxurious and convenientlt awesome culture I have (had) there. sniff sniff.... it only makes it worse that I think about all the things I miss right? I should really be looking around and thinking... holy hell, I am in Munich! what a lovely city with giant churches and magnificent architechture and old world culture... how lovely.

sadly instead when I look around me at all the beauty there is all I want to do is day dream of eating sushi on Capitol hill among the slummy-looking buildings pitched beneath a gray insipid sky. when I look at the intricacies of this charming new city all I long for is the industrial parking lots of georgetown where I eat my packed lunches on my work break at my familiar studio. ....gosh I miss all those things familiar... expecially my studio bench. I can´t seem to think ahead right now.... especially since not having a place to live inhibits you from planning ahead... all I can do is miss home and ponder if what I have done will indeed be the good thing....the right thing for me later in life... :(

all I see is a possible career as a developing artist and designer I could of had in seattle and the possible communal houses I could´ve shared.... and I need to stop these thoughts since its not going to get me anywhere here....

...alright that is enough to ramble about... more happier new later...


-mel