I am living in a boarding house in one of the bussiest parts of Munich. It's an amazing old building with, of course, a bunch of modern improvements. This flat, though, does not have a few things that I generally find essential, like an internet connection. It also has a washing machine but no dryer and as inconvenient as that is I have to say having a hand held shower head is far worse. Now, to sound, as Lou Reed ellegantly put it "so BA in English", I've just put this travel blog in conversation with a friend's blog. He's in Spain, having some interesting adventures of his own and he too noticed the inconvenience of not being able to quickly dry one's clothes. He's right, of course, but try washing your hair one handed.
Communicating with the outside world is a problem on top of a problem on top of a problem. First, there is the lack of internet connection in the flat I'm staying in. Secondly the exorbinate international roaming rates on my cell phone combined with the fact that my cell phone doesn't even get signal in most parts of Munich including the street I live on (or any non-urban areas in Europe including all of the places I went to in Switzerland and Italy). So, I've solved the later by buying a pre-paid German cell phone which won't do me much good in London, Spain or Ireland which are the places I might really need a cell phone because I'll be trying to connect with people. That said, if you want to call me e-mail me and I'll give you my European mobile number, it's likely to be the best way to reach me for at least the next month. The former problem is easy enough to solve as there are two wireless hotspots within a short walk of where I live which I'm happy to do since Munich is amazing to walk around in. It's very pedestrian (and bicycle) heavy. Not that it doesn't have it's share of car traffic too, but it seems, to me, much more condusive to foot traffic (for those expecting me to actually learn something while I'm here that would be fuss gehen auf Deutsch).
Which brings me to the final problem of communicating with the outside world inside Munich. That is to say, I don't speak German (or I speak only ein bisschen Deutch). I'm here primarily (almost solely) to learn to speak German, but I don't yet so logistically I'm in an interesting position in a foreign city, my first time abroad, not speaking the language and trying to get settled. It's actually mostly a lot less difficult and frightening than I expected it to be but in some ways it is actually more unsettling. For example, it does bring out my naturally shy tendency. I'm not one to approach people anyway, but at least when they approach me I'm pretty confindent in holding up my end of the conversation (and then some, as you can tell I'm very...verbal), but now that confidence is gone. For now I'm content to walk around the city observing but pretty soon I'm going to want to engage a little more.
The one draw back of the walking around philosophy and of being a pedestrian in Munich right now in general is the weather. It's cold. In fact it snowed today. It's apparently unseasonably cold. Normally Munich is very snowy in the winter time and starts warming up near the end of March but this year they had no snow at all, no rain, just clear sunny skies all winter, until now. The weather in Locarno was also unseasonable but the other way. Usually Locarno is still cold and often even snowy until the very end of March or begining of April but they had a very dry winter as well and it got warm sooner than usual. So there was no snow left there and, I went from warm, sunny weather, every day to grey, cold, snowy weather in just a 5 hour drive yesterday and both were, apparently, out of the ordinary.
Now on to the photographic portion of your entertainment.
This is my room
And the view from my room
And my street
And the entry hall to the building I'm living in
And the courtyard. If it ever warms up perhaps I'll spend some time out there.
And the stairwell. I am on the third floor, which is actually the fourth floor because the numbering of floors starts with 0 here.
And a medly of pictures of my walk home from class today. First we have a couple of pictures of the ironically named Sonnenstrasse (sunny street), I'm sure there is lots of sun most of the time but there isn't predicted to be any more for quite a while. Munich is so amazingly beautiful that every few meters or so I have to stop and take another picture. At least I know I'll never get lost coming home from class and if I do I'll have all these pictures to guide my way.
The last two are the brand new Jewish Community Center (and, I think, Temple). Not as architecturally interesting as I imagine the old one was, the one that was burned down on the famous "night of broken glass", but they chose not to rebuild the old one and instead sold the property and bought new land to build this building. Stay tuned for more about the new Munich Temple and the resurgence of Judaism in Germany. It's only about a block and a half from where I'm living and I plan to go to the Temple at least once while I'm here. It will actually be a first for me.
I'm Jewish but I like to say I'm faux Jewish or that I'm Jewish by technicallity. My mother's, mother's, mother was Jewish and being Jewish is matralineal (according to Orthodox rules) ergo it doesn't matter what (if any) religion you were raised practicing, if your mother was a Jew you are (and, interestingly, if your mother was not a Jew, even if your father was, no matter how devoutly you practice Judaism, you are not a Jew). My grandmother though, didn't even know that she was Jewish until she was an adult with kids of her own, adult kids of her own, in fact, even one grandchild (my big brother). She told my mother who was either trying to get pregnant or already was pregnant with me at the time and my mother has made a bit of an effort ot reconnect with this part of her heritage but only as far as giving me a Hebrew name and lighting candles on Hanukkah really. So, I've never been to Temple, but what better time and place to start than in Munich less than a year after the opening of the new Munich Temple and the ordination of the first group of Rabbis in Germany in 60 years.
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