Flight and arrival in Munich

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September 15 and 16, 2010 depending on where you are

2:00am my time
7:00am UK time

So I’m sitting in Heathrow waiting for my flight to Munich. I’m so so tired because I couldn’t sleep at all on the NYC-London flight. I can’t sleep at all on planes for some reason. So for the first time I’m going to buy myself a coffee so I can stay awake when I reach Germany and meet my host family. I was going to stay in a residence hall for students (basically a dorm), but during Oktoberfest they rent out all the student rooms to visitors and all the students get host families for 3 weeks. So I’m with a host dad and son for the first 3 weeks of my classes. I talked to my host dad a little bit on the phone and he sounded pretty nice. My German classes will start next Monday so I’m flying there a little early to get settled in and used to the time change. I met a really nice lady in New York from Rome. She was telling me all about her home in Rome and said I should come by sometime. We talked for a while in JFK and I now understand the Italian soul a little better. I’m going to grab some food before I find my next gate.



8:00am my time
2:00pm Munich time

I got one hour of sleep on the flight to Munich which was my only sleep of the night, so here’s my first impressions of München even as tired as I am.

It’s a huge city but has a very strong small town feeling to it. Since this is my first time to Europe I don’t know if all cities are like this. But it feels like a really nice small village rather than a big cosmopolitan city, which it actually is.

The air and the city itself are both really clean.

The people are really nice so far and the driver (who’s lived here his whole life) said it’s arguably the safest city in Germany and one of the safest in Europe. He said there’s no problem at all riding the metro by yourself at night or staying out late alone.

The architecture and buildings are amazing. And I love the small village feel to the city.

It’s not overpopulated or overcrowded. At least before Oktoberfest starts in 2 days.

I think I’m really going to like Munich. The water is supposed to be really good because it comes from the Alps. And Munich’s location is awesome. It’s pretty central in Europe and close to a lot of cool things like the Alps, Schloss Neuschwanstein (the castle that the Disney castle is modeled after), Austria (Salzburg is where the Sound of Music was filmed), Oktoberfest, Prague, and there’s so many things to see in the city too.

I also met my host dad. I don’t know if his son lives here or not but so far I’ve just met him. He lives in a flat really close to my school. I haven’t gotten to walk around yet and look at all the stuff that’s around. But I’m sure that’ll be fun. The driver said my school is on an awesome student/business street in Munich. He said the biggest park in the world is right across the street from the school and that it’s a fun place to hang out. I don’t know yet if I’ll stay with the host family or not. It feels weird living with a family that isn’t mine and just switching so suddenly. But the dad’s really nice and I don’t have to do anything except keep normal hygiene haha.

My host dad is about to take me around the neighborhood so I’ll be back to write more later. Oh, and unfortunately I don’t think we have wifi in the flat so I’ll only be able to post these at the school. It’s the same with talking to family and friends over facebook and ichat. The first three weeks while I’m in the host family I’ll have to use the wifi at school.



10:45am my time
4:45pm Munich

I found out I will have Internet access in the flat. My host dad has a usb wifi stick that I can use as long as he doesn’t have to work so I’ll post this when he’s done. I went on a mini tour with him around Munich and the city is beautiful! I can’t wait to see the rest of it and take pictures. We went to the EF school and we walked all around Schwabing which is the district my school is in. I had my first German meal, which was a really good sandwich. It’s a specialty in Munich. It was half croissant/half roll for the two outside slices and in the middle was a thick slice of some kind of meat. I’m not a specialist in sausage/pork but it was something of that nature. It was quite tasty. Oh, and TSA at JFK did me a huuuuge favor when they searched my bag. They found my protein, and instead of taking off the seal that was still on it, they bashed it open with a hammer. When they found out it was protein they threw it back in my suitcase (with the lid off, of course) and sent it back my way. So I opened up my suitcase to a nice surprise of protein everywhere in everything. It was a fantastic going away present from the US :P

I took a few pictures of my room, which is actually really nice. They said it’d be small but I think it’s a really good size. There’s a park right outside my window in the courtyard of our flats and it’s nice to hear people out there. All the German I learned is coming back to me even after 3 months of summer vacation. I can hold decent conversations with my host dad and if I forget a word I can usually just say it in English and he’ll understand. He showed me which bus to take to get to school too. The first thing I need to do tomorrow is change out some USD for Euros. Then I’m thinking I’ll go grocery shopping and then sign up at a nearby gym.

I feel the same way as I did when I first got to China. Kind of nervous at first but excited. I think after I get used to pedestrian and car traffic I won’t be nervous anymore. It only took me about a week to get the hang of China so hopefully Germany will come too. I’m trying my hardest to stay awake until nighttime here so I’ll be so tired that I get on their time zone.

I tried out the wifi usb stick and it wouldn’t work. My only guess is that it’s formatted for pc use and not mac. I’m going to see if I can get a prepaid wifi usb when I get my cell phone tomorrow.

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Photos

Ist mein Papa hier?
Is my dad here?

Comments

[Dad]

Not yet
But Papa's Bike is cleaner.....