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.