Oops, it slipped my mind

Hey everyone! Have you ever forgotten something really important? I forgot that I was going to Berlin this weekend. Hee hee. Fortunately, I remembered 24 hours before the bus left and made it on time. I have, therefore, not had any time to write anything for the last few days because of it. I just wanted to let you all know what was up and, I assure you, that I will write something about this when I get back home. Ciao!

Six O'Clock! For nothing!!

As I previously mentioned, I have a class at 8:00 on Monday mornings. This really, really sucks. However, I am not here to sleep in everyday. No, I am here to learn, and if that means taking an incredibly interesting (-sounding) course that just so happens to take place at 8:00am, then I guess that means that I am just going to have to get up at 6:00 so that I can get there on time! And get up I did. At 6:00am. Afterall, if I can start work at Century at 7:30 everyday, then surely this is no big deal.

One other major problem with this course, aside from the fact that it starts so damned early, is that it doesn’t lie directly on a train line, and I have to take a bus to get there. After getting very detailed directions from Nicole on how to get to Oettingenstrasse (if you are interested in reading about Oettingenstrasse 67, I suggest reading Nicole’s entry for Oct. 22) I actually didn’t feel too bad about getting there, but still left myself plenty of time, just in case. Well, it was exactly as Nicole had described it: very institutional-looking, with a large, white, cement wall around it and absolutely no number on this wall anywhere. I made it inside the building and saw the guard behind the (bullet-proof?) glass, but this one actually smiled a bit as I came in, so maybe he was just starting his shift, and was in a good mood. With much help from the map on the wall I was able to find my classroom (room 011) where I found a posted note on the door saying that class was cancelled - not permanently, but just for today. I was so pissed! I couldn’t believe that class was cancelled on the first day! And after I had gotten up and there on time!! I wasn’t sure what to do, but as I walked back towards the bus stop (at 7:45 in the morning!) I decided that I would take a walk back towards the university through the English Gardens (Munich’s equivalent to Edmonton’s river valley, but without the valley part). This was probably the best thing I’ve done since I got here. After a few minutes I completely forgot that it was so early and I was just totally enamored of the beauty before me. Canada is beautiful in a way that no European can understand and Europe is beautiful in a way that no Canadian can. I wandered around for about 35min before I found myself on the other side and actually quite near where my next class was going to be, albeit not until 10:00, but still. So I went to that building, went to the cafeteria there, bought a cappuccino, pulled out my notebook and wrote this:

“Do you ever sit back and try to figure out how you got to where you are today? I’ve been doing that a lot recently; not because I’m disappointed with where I am: quite to the contrary! I can’t believe my life turned out this way, in the best way possible. I’m thrilled! If you had told me 10 years ago that I would be living and going to school – no, University – in one of the most famous cities in Europe, I would have thought you were crazy. And, I’ll tell ya, insofar as my life turned so incredibly cool, it’s impossible to have any regrets at all! Except that I kind of regret putting 2 sugars into this cappuccino, it’s like drinking diesel fuel now.

I just like to sit back and think about how German really snowballed! Let me explain that: I took German in grade 10, simply because I thought it would be neat to speak another language and my choices were French, Spanish, Mandarin and German. Seeing as how I hate French; and Spanish is too close to French for comfort; and I don’t think I could ever learn a language that doesn’t use the Roman alphabet; that left German. I figured that it was close enough to Dutch that I could get away with taking it and not feel silly, and maybe I’d be able to understand Grandma and Grandpa when they chatter away in Dutch. And the rest, as they say, is history.”

I can’t believe that all of this started out when I chose German as a default. That’s bizarre. These pictures don’t do any sort of justice to the English Gardens, but I took them this morning and it might give you some sort of an idea of what I’m talking about.

Scary Train Situations

Nicole and I were headed to meet a friend on Friday (because we don't have any classes, haha) at the main train station (Hauptbahnhof). We took the U6 to Marienplatz and then had to transfer from the U-Bahn to the S-Bahn, so we headed off to the right platform for the S-Bahn. We had been standing there waiting for about a minute or so when there was a big commotion behind us. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it appeared that an older woman (65-70) had fallen at the bottom of the escalator. Whether she passed out or just didn't step off properly is a mystery to me, but I know that she hit her head on the ground and broke her eyeglasses, which, in turn cut her on her eyebrow. There was blood everywhere; all over the ground and all over her face. People immediately came to her rescue and there was just a flurry of cell phones and tissues. About this time the train came.

Those of you who know me well, know that blood and I don't really get along to well. We have an agreement: it courses through my veins and keeps me alive, and I am grateful as long as I don't have to see it at all. As I got onto the train, I was actually thinking how well I was doing, and was pretty impressed with myself, especially considering that I had seen so much blood. It was about this time that I started to feel pretty nauseous. My heart started pounding really hard and I started sweating; I was absolutley convinced that I was going to be sick. I looked at Nicole and said, "I don't feel very well," or something like that, and just tried to concentrate on not losing that donair I had eaten. I started to blame the donair and started fidgeting really badly. All I wanted to do was sit down, but there were no free spots that I could see. "We only have one more stop to go and then we can get off and into the fresh air," Nicole reminded me, but I was really, really feeling bad at this point. The train stopped and I rushed off of it, hoping that the air on the train was just tight, but then I started to feel worse and I realized that I wasn't going to woof after all, no, I was actually going to pass out. The ringing in my ears started off quietly at first, but quickly got really severe; so bad that I couldn't hear anything except said ringing. I grabbed onto Nicole's arm at this point, who, by the way, had no idea how severe things were because I hadn't said anything since, "I don't feel very well" and it was a good thing I did because the outsides of my vision started to turn black and I was really, really doing bad as we rode up the escalator. I was so busy concentrating on staying concious that I couldn't even tell Nicole what was going on. Then, fortunately, the moment passed; my vision grew back to its normal size and the ringing died down. We stopped so that I could buy myself some water and tell Nicole what I had just gone through. On the plus side, we went and bought ice cream after we met Anna because we figured that the sugar might do me good. And can you guess what kind of ice cream I got? Spagetti ice!!! OH YEAH!!

So lucky

I know that I am lucky for a lot of reasons; so many reasons, in fact, that I couldn't even begin to list them all. But today, one example of why I'm lucky kept coming into my head:

I get to have 2 autumns this year. And that is beautiful.

Eureka!

So a couple of us Canadians went out to this irish pub last night. It was a good night. I should mention at this point that I don't have any classes on Friday at all this semester, so every weekend is a long weekend for me (ha ha ha!!!) and I can go out on Thursdays without feeling any guilt whatsoever. But that isn't why I'm writing. I am writing because as we were exiting the pub I saw a big sign that said, "KARAOKE - Sundays at 10:00." I am so excited! The only problem is that I have a class at 8:00am on Mondays and that could be a big problem. On the other hand, if I've found one Karaoke bar, I can find another. This has given me hope.

Sometimes I just adore this place

So, this has happened a couple of times now, and I think it's noteworthy. Imagine this scenario: you've just cracked a beer (a 0.5L beer I might add) and then you realize that you have to leave to go meet some people; and you think, "Crap! I just cracked this beer and now I have to leave to meet some people." Then you laugh, pick up your keys and your beer and leave the house. You see a policeman on the way, smile, nod, and take a swig; laughing the whole time at those poor suckers in Canada who are either going to be late or really gassy from chugging that beer. Those poor, poor suckers.

Now that's thinking!

So, for the most part, living in Germany is no different from living in Canada. There isn't a lot of technology that they have here that we don't have back home; the only real difference is the age of the buildings (and, in Edmonton's case, the lack of a decent public transportation system). There is one little invention, that is as commonplace here as traffic jams are on the Whitemud, that I think Edmonton ought to consider: stoppable, reversible escalators. The escalators in most (I hesitate to say "all," but I wouldn't be surprised) train stations have little sensor platforms at the top and bottom of them. When they aren't in use: they stop. When they are stopped and someone steps on one of the sensor platforms: they go in the desired direction. It is brilliant! Not only does it save energy by not constantly running, but it is my opinion that the gears get worn from constant use which is why there is no less than one escalator under maintenance at any given time at the University LRT station. It's such an amazing invention! They also have developed milk that won't expire until sometime in January 2006, but I don't recommend that one, it tastes funny.

No such thing as Belgian!

Okay, I found out something yesterday. Here goes: there is no such language as Belgian. I don't know about you, but this comes as a real shock to me! I always new about Dutch and Flemmish, and I knew that Belgium is right near Holland, but apparently Flemmish and Dutch are the same thing with different accents. Really. This is not a joke. My new Belgian friend, Anna, says that they use the same dictionary (for Flemmish and Dutch). I would appreciate comments on this one. I refuse to believe that I'm the only one who didn't know this! Even if it's just a comment to call me an idiot, or just to say that you didn't know either, I would appreciate it. Laters!

Travel Tip

Okay, so here is my travel tip for the day: If you're at a bar, and you've had a few, and you missed dinner, do NOT call home from your cell phone to your best friend! It may seem like a good idea, especially when, with the time difference, it is a reasonable hour there, it is still a bad idea! Just don't do it! That's all for now.

Paying attention is a MUST!

This isn't the promised email, but I really don't want to lose my readership, so I will share this story that is really quite embarrassing (I have your attention now, don't I?).

The other day Nicole, Katie, Elaine and I were all riding the train trying to get back to the Student City (if I slip one of these days and call it the Studentenstadt, just know that that is where we live). Normally when we take the train from the University to home, we take one called U6 Garching Hochbrueck, which is the name of the last stop on the line. We had gotten on at the University, or somewhere near there, and this particular train said U6 Muenchener Freiheit. As we got on Nicole made the comment that she thinks that means that the train only goes as far as Muenchener Freiheit (which is the name of one of the stops we normally pass through) because once before we were on a train where everybody got off and she thought that it had said the same thing that time. This seemed like a reasonable hypothesis. However, we all started talking and before I knew it I looked up to see some old man pointing at us as the doors to the train were closing. We looked up and realized that we were at Muenchener Freiheit; everyone had gotten off but us and we were too late: the doors were closing.

I would like to take this time to point out that the old man wasn't pointing with concern: he was, in fact, pointing and laughing. I would also like to make it clear that we weren't just supposed to intuitively know that we were to get off, the conductor had been announcing it for quite some time (the older trains don't have a recording, the guy actually has to announce each station and tell everyone to stand back each time) and we were just too engrossed in our conversation to pay attention. And I would, lastly, like to say that it wasn't that we didn't understand what was going on or what the word "aussteigen" means, we totally understood - we just weren't paying attention.

So the train is driving off, with us on it, and we have no idea where it's going. It pulls into a dark area and parks. We think that we are parked for the night (although, in retrospect, the "garage" that we thought we were in was awfully close to the Munchener Freiheit station). So we decide that the best course of action is to press the Emergency button. The man comes on and asks what our emergency is. We say that we are stuck on the train. He asks if there is a medical emergency and Elaine, who speaks the best German of all of us, steps up and explains that we were supposed to "aussteig" but didn't, and now we are stuck on the train. He says something to the effect of, "You know that the train goes back the other way in a minute or so?" So Elaine says something like, "Actually, we didn't know that. No problem, then, nevermind!" And so he says again, "So there is no medical emergency?" and we say, "No," and that was that. Sure enough, a few minutes later the conductor walks by to go to the other end of the train and we just about laugh ourselves silly. Now, everytime we go past Munchener Freiheit one of us will start laughing and say, "Remember the time we forgot to get off the train?" and the rest of us will start laughing too. At least we won't make that mistake again; but, if we do, we know not to push the emergency button because the train will just go back the other way in a minute or two!

Sorry Mike, this is a long one

Alright, everyone! Here is the first half of the post I’ve been promising! This is the beginning of the description of the 35-hour span I spent awake. It begins when I woke up on the morning that I left for Germany:

I got up at 4:00am and finished up my packing. We left pretty much on time at 6:20ish, and drove to the airport. When we got there, I had no idea how to use the express check-in thingy that Air Canada has, but thought, “That’s fine, I’ll just wait in this long line up and go to a real person to check me in.” It turns out that Air Canada has this wonderful system where they you have to “Express Check-in” and then also go talk to a person. So, I get to the front of the line and the guy is all like, “Please scan your boarding pass,” and I’m like, “What the hell are you talking about?” I felt like that moron who holds up long lines, because that’s what I was. The flight was okay, I had an aisle seat next to some younger people who slept the whole way, which suited me just fine, and we watched The March of the Penguins, which was also pretty good. The only kind of exciting thing that happened was as I was heading into the boarding area (my parents could still see me) they were really fussing as my bags were going through the x-ray machine and I’m thinking, “Bari, what did you pack?!” It turns out that they just thought that I had 3 pieces of carry on and were calling over all these supervisors, when I really only had 2 and the woman behind me had 2 and they got too close. No biggie.

I got to Pearson in Toronto and had a 7-hour layover (I think it was that long, I was really messed up with the time change). The man in Edmonton was super nice (even though I’m such a tard) and he made it so that my bags would go directly to Munich, even though when the flight was booked I was told that I would have to collect my bags in T.O. But I was really paranoid about my luggage on this trip so, since I really had nothing better to do, I went and waited with everybody else for my luggage, which, of course, never came. Good, moving on then. I headed outside and caught a bus to take me to a different terminal. I wandered over to the British Airways counter and saw that they weren’t checking in for my flight, yet so I decided to wander around. I realized that I was hungry because it was about 1:00pm Edmonton time and so I decided to go into the lounge area of the Swiss Chalet for some appetizers (because you can’t order off the regular menu, but that was fine with me) and I decided to start taking notes of what I was thinking. The notes lasted until I got onto the plane, and here they are in order:

March of the Penguins would have been better if Ashley were around to play Mystery Science Theatre 3000 with.

Having a beer. Hope I don’t regret it. (Even after I wrote this I had another.) *I really wrote that* (and another) *that too*.

I’m unemployed.

Talking to strangers is easy… when it’s in English!

No matter how nice you are to other people, some of them will still be mean to you. Even if you’ve perfected your I’m-a-cute-little-girl-from-Edmonton voice… which I have.

I hate standing at that exact spot in a line-up where people want to “cut through” ahead of you. I even tried to stand closer to the guy in front of me. We were so close we were practically having intercourse and people still cut through!

Oh, crap. I think I’m drunk. I’m at the Toronto airport, standing in a line and I’m drunk. Damn 3 pints.

I made a new friend today. His name is Morgan and he’s a bartender at the Swiss Chalet at the T.O. airport. We invented a drink (Red Mai-Tai: rum, pineapple juice, lime and grenadine) and he said that he thinks I’m awesome.

The British accent certainly is a funny accent.

I think working in the flight industry would be a good idea because it’s not going away anytime soon. Trust me! You should see how busy Pearson is!

Sorry boys, girls who wear no bra or a poorly supporting one should be locked up.

This man has the last supper on his shirt.




















Ha ha! I’m not the only on in this line up writing in a coilbound notebook. I wonder what she’s writing?















The British Airways Monitor keeps flashing “Please have passorts and tickets ready in” but then doesn’t say anything (like a time). I expected more from the British. That sentence just trails off.

Yup, still a little drunk.

That was a nice nap I just took. I bet I have a big red mark on my forehead from the heel of my hand. Damn. How come guys look so good, even without make-up?

There’s a guy here who looks just like a bearded Kirk, but more Amish. It’s probably the eyelashes.

I wonder if it’s wrong to ride the Jetson’s walkway shouting, “Weeeeee!”?

I think I just stepped in pee.

Wow! Look how fast those people go when they walk on the moviator! I wonder what it would look like if someone ran?

They just announced that they are about to start boarding and that families with small children should line up. I hope that there’s no crying baby on this flight! *Oh yeah, there was a crying baby on the first flight*

I kind of get couples who have matching backpacks, but matching shoes…?

I bought a bottle of water earlier and lost it. So I just bought another one. I was looking for a place to put the new bottle just before I boarded the plane here. How about in this pocket? Nope, doesn’t fit. Here? Mmmm… nope, no good. I have the perfect spot for it!! And when I opened that pocket I found the first bottle of water.

That’s it, that’s my journal of what I was thinking from the time I sat down at Swiss Chalet till I boarded the plane headed to London. I gotta head to bed, but the other half of the trip is on the way, hopefully tomorrow. Laters!

Cheap Beer!!

Nicole and I were finally at home at 7:00 at night and decided to check out the "Drinks in the Orange-House" that we kept seeing advertised that is only open from 7:00-8:00 Mon-Sat (we live in the Orange-House, Katie and Elaine live in the Green-House). This is an opportunity to buy stuff in bottles that would really suck to try and bring back from the grocery store (or at least that's why I figured it got started in the first place), they also sell a small amount of other groceries that it would be convenient to get here such as pasta and some canned goods. Well, I should have seen it coming, but this place is mostly full of juice and beer. Lots of beer, and super cheap! I just paid EUR 0,75 for 0,5L of beer (sorry, they use commas where we use periods and vice versa). That is like $1.25 for a bottle of Erdinger! I am so fucking impressed! Yeah! Have a good weekend everyone!

Another pretty short post

Okay, I wrote that title before I am writing the blog, so I hope that I'll be able to keep it to it's name. I am absolutely exhausted! Yesterday after the orientation class (hereforth to be known as "class") Katie and I walked to the Wal-mart that is "close by" as opposed to the one that is on the train line because we didn't have our transit passes yet. Close by means that it is a little less than an hour to walk. We went there, shopped and walked back with all of our stuff (hey, I'm cheap and I wasn't really sure which bus to take anyways) and I was exhausted. Then we headed almost straight out to IKEA. IKEA is actually in a subdivision of Munich and then it is just outside of the subdivision. It is a 20-30min train ride and then another 30-45min walk. And then we had to walk back with all of our stuff. I bought all of my bedding there, but was kind of rushed because we got out of here late and we only had an hour to look through the whole store, so I wasn't really paying attention when we got to the bedding section and ended up buying a comforter that is too big (but that's not really a bad thing) and a pillow that is too small (here, most pillows are 80cm x 80cm instead of 40x80 like in Canada; I know: it's wierd). This wouldn't be a problem except that I bought a comforter cover and pillow cover set for the smaller blanket and larger pillow, so now I have the comforter folded in half inside the cover and the cover folded around the pillow. *sigh* I was really tired after all that walking yesterday.

Today we were busy, busy, busy again. We got up early to go to the bank, so now I have a bank account. Here the word for checking account is really weird, it doesn't even sound German; it's Girokonto. I guess that the konto part sounds German, it's just the Giro part that sounds funny. After the bank I went to the course and then we went to get our transit passes. This required going to the main MVG office (MVG=ETS), then we had to go to another stop to go pick up some boxes for my new friend Elaine (by the way, here, "we" means Nicole, Katie, Elaine and me) we are all really excited because there is a vacuum cleaner in these boxes and Elaine said that we could use it if we helped out. Yeah! The girl who lived here before me (and I am sure that it was a girl) had black hair, and I keep finding it everywhere. Then we headed off to Wal-mart again because Nicole and Elaine hadn't been there yet and Katie and I wanted some more stuff. We decided to take the bus this time, since we now had passes, but there was still a pretty substantial walk from the bus stop to the front door of Wal-mart and we had to walk around the store. My feet hurt so bad. Okay, I have to end this because I am exhausted, but I will write something small later. I promise that there is a post coming about the flight (more specifically, the layover) and Oktoberfest and what not. It's tough because I have photos that I need to upload and shrink down and yaddah, yaddah, yaddah. Just know that that post is coming, okay?

I'm HERE (and have internet)!

Okay, this won't be long because I have to go to bed soon, but I am in Munich and have been since Monday. I have my own little apartment, but it is really tiny. At least I have my own little kitchenette and a little bathroom that feels like an escape pod in a spaceship. I will hopefully write more tomorrow, but I think that we might be having a party in the evening, so I'll see. I promise that I will write soon, though to tell you all about the flight (I made notes) and the first few days here. Love you all, miss you all.

A Huge Success!!

Holy crap! I never thought that many people would come out! A big thank you to all those who took the time to come. One more apology for anyone who felt neglected; I was trying to spread myself out and I'm sorry if I just spread myself thin. I am really excited to read what you all wrote in that notebook! I can see myself now sitting in the Toronto airport, reading it and just blubbering to myself; which is why Chris has to come and take me out for dinner! Chris, seriously, how long a drive is it from Montreal to Toronto? You should come keep me company because a 7-hour layover is a really long time! I'm going to need someone to console me after reading what all my friends have to write...

It's 10:00 as I'm writing this, which means that my plane takes off in 22.5 hours. I have a lot to do today! That being said I guess I better end this. Thank you again for anyone who came out, it is so great to see that SO MANY people care! I love you all.