Okay, I'm ready now

Today was a really great day. Nicole came back on Sunday and Katie on Monday (complete with a crapload of loot!), so I have all this great new stuff and the sun was shining to boot! So, considering what a good day it was, let me tell you about all that has happened: Katie left on Tuesday the 20th, if I remember correctly, but Nicole and I still had classes to attend. Thursday afternoon Nicole and I headed to Sendlinger Tor where there was the Christkindl Tram. It was really sweet. Basically, for the month before Christmas the MVG (equivalent to ETS) takes one of the trams out of their fleet and decorates the inside with garlands and stars and stuff, then they take you on a special ride through the city centre that costs a dollar. They also have, inside the tram, cookies and muffins and Gluehwein that you can buy. It was very nice. One funny thing, I think, is that it cost a dollar, but was free for "kids under 120cm" or something like that. Not "free for kids under 12, regardless of height," but instead they put on a height restriction. Now, if I'm 15, but really short, do I still count as a kid? And what about those freakishly tall kids? Silly Germans.

That night we went with Olivier and his friend Lucie (who had just arrived that day) to the Gogol Bordello concert. It was really great. There were 2 openers; they were called "The Scotch Greens" and "Throwrag." Gogol Bordello was the best band with a finale like I have never seen before and an encore that was, like, 8 songs! I honestly lost count. And it wasn't just like it was a second set, because we were in the front and could see the set list. The finale was that they took this huge drum which this chick had just been beating the tar out of, and then tossed it on top of the crowd; then the lead singer climbed on top of the drum and stood there as the crowed surfed it around for a bit. Well, it didn't really go very far at any point, but it was crazy because he was standing on this drum which was being held up by the crowd. Awesome. Afterwards I made it to the merch table on time (yeah, me!) and bought a shirt as well as a Throwrag belt buckle. I couldn't help it, it's huge!

We ended up leaving quite late and by the time we made it back to the train station and took the train to Marienplatz to catch our connection, the U-Bahn had stopped running. So we considered our options and decided to walk to Odeonsplatz to catch the night bus. The problem with the night bus is that it only runs once every hour and we missed it by about 10 minutes. So we decided to wait for a cab. Normally there is an absolute line up of cabs at Odeonsplatz just waiting to take you where you want to go. Not on Thursday, December 22. Long story short: we waited for over 20 minutes and I almost got into a fist fight (it's true that I don't ever know when to shut my mouth), then we finally got a cab and came home. It was late and we had to leave here at something like 5:30 at the latest to catch our train to the Bodensee. I did everything I needed and then took a nap and Nicole decided to stay up the whole night. Olivier calls that a "white night" and I like that because it makes me think of Whyte Knight, which makes me think of Whyte Ave, which makes me think of Mars and Venus and Gravity Pope and Divine and Sanctuary, which, in turn, makes me happy.

We made it to the town where Nicole's cousin was supposed to pick us up, but I can't remember what it's called right now, in about 4 hours or so; and then we started waiting. After close to an hour, I was starting to wish we had stayed in Munich, but Nicole got a hold of them on her cell and they said they were on their way. That was the last time the whole weekend I wished we had stayed in Munich! They were incredible! Their names are Horst and Bettina. Bettina is the relative; it’s a relation on Nicole’s mother’s father’s side. They both work for the Kripo (Kriminalpolizei = Criminal Police (durr)), which, just to clarify, means that they do the cool stuff on CSI, but not so Hollywoodized and with more paperwork - according to them. I believe Horst said he specializes in homicides. Their children’s names are Martina (17), Nico (14) and Michael (or Michi, 8). Bettina’s parents were also in town; they are named Klaus and Hildegard (might be Hildegaard). And, since they live in a town just outside of a really major tourist attraction, they have two little apartments in the basement that are for the purpose of renting out to people during the on-season. The major benefit of this is that when relatives come visit in the off-season, they have a very comfortable place to stay. This family was so great to both of us even though I was a complete stranger and Nicole had never met them before either (I think that she might have met Klaus and Hildegard once before, but I’m not sure); they made us food and treated us just like one of the family. They even gave each of us a gift on Christmas Eve (which is the main day in Germany, and not Christmas morning). I was so touched by their kindness.

Nicole and I had to leave on Monday for a couple of reasons:

1. We didn’t want to out-stay our welcome. They kept telling us that we were welcome to stay, and I believe that they genuinely meant it, but it is such a fine line and, who knows, maybe we’ll be able to go back again now that we didn’t overstay our welcome!


2. Nicole was leaving for Sweden on the Wednesday and had a bunch of stuff to do to get ready for the trip.


3. I had only brought enough underwear to last to Monday. I suppose I could have worn them inside out and we could have stayed another 3 days, but I figured that it was probably a pretty good indication that it was time to go home.

So we were discussing how we should take the train when Bettina told us about http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/. That breaks down to “drive-with opportunity” and it is basically a site where drivers look for passengers and passengers look for drivers. I would normally be very skeptical of this sort of thing, except that Nicole and I were 2 riding together and Bettina, who works for the Kripo, recommended it. She said that usually it’s university students going back and forth from home to school and are looking for a way to split the cost of gas. Judging by the looks of this guy, she was right! We paid 10 EUR each to ride from Meersburg to Munich. That’s awesome! I will definitely attempt to use Mitfahrgelegenheit again!

We got back and Nicole stayed home to get some of her stuff done. I changed and headed out to meet Olivier and Lucie as we had planned via SMS to go find some karaoke in this fair city. We wandered around for close to forever without any luck. We had even phoned Nicole to get her to look in the internet for karaoke places, but, with it being the Monday after Christmas, everything was closed (again, Silly Germans). So after some discussion, I headed home to get my crib board and some booze while Olivier and Lucie headed back to Olivier’s. I met them there about an hour and a half later (the longer I live, the more I realize that I suck at judging how long it will take to do something) and we got down to playing crib. By the way, I am slowly introducing crib to Europe, so far the reception has been good, and I am excited for the future possibilities. Lucie’s train was leaving at 6:42 in the morning and so, considering that I didn’t even arrive at Olivier’s until close to 1:00, we decided pull a white night. (I wonder, do you say "pull" a white night or "make;" "have," maybe. Hmmm, what verb would you use?)

Just before 6:00 Lucie started gathering up her stuff. We headed out about 6:10 or 6:15. This was plenty early enough as the train station is only an 8 minute tram ride from Olivier’s, so we weren’t rushing at all. We waited for the tram and, as we were on the way to the first stop after Olivier’s, Lucie was like, “Where’s my bag?” This is one of those sentences that holds so much importance, that I truthfully can’t remember if it was spoken in English or French. “Did you leave it at bus stop? Wait, did you ever have it, or did you leave it in Olivier’s room?!” Yeah, she left it at Olivier’s place. Can you imagine?!! It was still okay, though, because we would just get off, take the tram back and catch the next one back, really it would be okay. Well, turns out that the trams are less than reliable in Munich. At the next stop, even though there is an LED sign that says when the next train is supposed to come – it didn’t. We made it back to Olivier’s and made him run up the 5 flights (hey, there’s no use in all of us running up the stairs, and he’s used to it) then back to the tram stop, where that tram was also running late. We ended up running through Munich Central Station at full tilt; it was like something out of a movie, with all of us bobbing and weaving between people and signs and kiosks. I should also mention that I was half cut and after we stopped I really thought that I was gonna yak. Fortunately, I had a half-full bottle of orange juice in my backpack (yeah for mix!), and it was frothy like a smoothie after the shaking it got while I was running! I should let you know that we made it to the train with a couple of minutes to spare. It was one of the funniest things that has happened since I got here, though! Possibly second only to forgetting to get off the train that time.

The next few days were full of not very interesting things. Olivier and I played a fair amount of crib and he made me quiche on the Thursday. It was wonderful. I think that if I can’t go camping or to the lake and play crib, my second favorite way to play crib is while eating quiche. Yum! I told him that he better watch out or I’ll make him my Hausfrau, and he said he doesn’t do windows or bathrooms. I love this guy! I wish you could all meet him. We went to Karaoke on Friday (I mentioned this on my Dec. 31 post) and we joined Geli and her friends on New Year’s Eve.

The New Year’s Eve Karaoke Party was pretty awesome. We didn’t really meet any new people at all, just mostly kept to ourselves. Sang along to every song and laughed our asses off when they would karaoke in German. Man it sounds funny! It was cool because there was free food and dollar beers. The coolest part of the night, though, was midnight. I had seen people in the grocery stores buying fireworks and seen people on the train carrying them, but I had no idea. At midnight we looked out the windows of the bar (which is on the second floor and is surrounded by really short buildings, and all we could see were fireworks. Everyone in the whole city was setting off fireworks. It was so cool and I apologize to everyone (myself the most) that I forgot my camera; Olivier also forgot his. It’s a crying shame because this was so cool! Literally, folks, 180 degrees of fireworks, there were even some going off in the short buildings in front of us. I just kept saying over and over how I don’t even want to know how many people will lose a hand because of this. I found out from someone later that fireworks are illegal in Germany every day of the year except this one. Wow. Wow.

The next week was really quite calm. My favourite donair place was closed every day of the week. I know this because I walked there, like, 5 of the 7 days to see if it was open. What a burn. I wouldn’t even mind if there were a sign that said “Reopening on such and such a day,” but there isn’t. I hung out with Olivier a lot; we played crib and he found an arcade, so now we play pinball and the naked ladies game, too. He made me quiche again the night that we went to the Riff-Raff concert. I’m so glad he was here these last couple of weeks. He kept me somewhere right in between sane and nicely crazy. I’m thinking about starting a “Move Olivier to Edmonton” fund. Anyone who wants to contribute, let me know, and if anyone has major university connections to see if we can get him a full scholarship, see what you can do. Then he’d have to say yes! Peter, if you read this, what’s the Japanese program like at the U of A? That’s what you’re studying, right? And Preshani’s poli-sci: how does Edmonton rank? C’mon folks, together we can do this!! Olivier: come live in the land of Ashley and Bari!! The grass is so green you won’t believe it!!