München ist so geil! (Munich is so cool!)

Deutschland hat gutes Bier :)

Hier photographiertete ich im Hofbräuhaus des München.

(Here I photographed in the Hofbräuhaus of Munich)

Okay, so sweetest host sister awards go to mine. Last night, Marla the youngest, waited until I came home from my downtown tour for me to wish her good night. Today, Alina the older one , asked me to help her study for her wichtiges (important) English test tomorrow. So. cute. Darunter ist Alina am Rechts (Alina on the right) und Marla am Links (Marla on the left)

Sie sind so süß und charmant! Natürlich, weil die besondere gute Eltern haben.

Other good news:

1) My awesome US parents are shipping my charger over here = skype soon! (Yay, Scotty!)

2) I am understanding so much more German. Today was awesome communication-wise with my host family. My goal is to be am wenigsten (at least) close to fluent with the language by the end of this trip. Also, I'm finding it much more difficult to speak in complete English. I keep slipping in German words, hooray!

On an irrelevant note, here is the beautiful mid-afternoon greeting my host family planned upon my arrival:

Note the place cards that Marla made for each person. Awwwww!

I'm loving getting to know the Germans, especially my host family :) After classes, I decided that I wanted to hang out with them instead of my study abroad group. Why? Because I learn so much from them, and it's such a great way to practice my German. Although I think everyone in my group is wonderful (really, I do :D ), I came to Germany to learn about the culture; and for these reasons, I chose to delay a foray into downtown. It became rather funny later when another host family called ours to check up on whether or not I would be meeting some of the group later. I honestly would not mind living here some day, I love it so much!

Bis bald!

Das Mädchen mit der Tür (the girl with the door)

It's amazing just how incompetent one can be when traveling. For instance, forgetting fairly basic things... like a laptop charger for instance. So yeah, no skype for a bit :( Luckily, I have an amazingly generous host family that allows me to use their juiced-up Mac. Another basic apparently easily forgotten is a German-English dictionary for when one travels to Germany.

Yet, one of the most embarrassing things to forget is how to unlock the front door to your house. Even more embarrassing is when after 15 minutes and one DOES figure out how to unlock said door, one somehow manages to become locked outside again in search of cell phone signal. The latter incident naturally requires that one is equipped with nothing other than a primitive cell phone and left at the mercy of the peaceful Munich suburbs. Granted, German doors are one of the most complicated things I have ever encountered. There are three (count 'em 3THREE3) deadbolts which require premium wrist finesse for their undoing. So after my early afternoon ordeal, I earned the name das Mädchen mit der Tür (translation: the girl with the door) from my professor's host sister. Truth be told, though, I kind of like it.

So aside from these complications, alles gute (everything is good). We had our general class orientation this morning, and get this, I am earning college credit in a Kindergarten/elementary school in Germany. Could that be any more fun? Actually, yes, because we participated in a real life German fire drill! It's way cool because it was a false alarm, not a real one, and the school and all its contents/children are fine. Honestly, though, it's really not any different from the ones I've experienced. Maybe a little louder and a slower fire department response time. Aside from this drill, the other notable establishment of the morning is the cell phones (das Handy in German), which aside from the front doors are the other most complicated thing I have encountered. It's not because it's new technology, no. They are complicated because they are SO OLD! There are absolutely no words on the analogue screen, just icons, and get this: you can only fit six letters on the screen at a time. Hence, in order to read a text message, you have to keep scrolling to the right with one word showing at a time. No one had any idea how to use them at first, but I'm giving everyone props for trying. I get double props since I tried so hard with opening that door too.

This morning, was absolutely adorable, though. I walked upstairs to see Marla working on a Ravensburger puzzle, and as soon as she saw me she jumped up and guided me to a breakfast feast in the kitchen. Three types of meat, the most delicious fresh swiss cheese I've ever had, and about seven different condiments for the slices of bread on the counter. Marla was super helpful with telling me how to organize things when I was done, but the highlight was definitely the automatic espresso machine, a glistening, gorgeous behemoth in the modern white kitchen. It peacefully gurgled and buzzed, sucked up a glass of milk and produced a delicious and perfectly velvety cappuccino. Ausgezeichnit.

In the afternoon, we went to tour downtown Munich, and I quickly found myself thoroughly enamored with its Bavarian charm. The streets are calm yet slightly populated. The people are incredibly non-threatening. It feels like a healthy, well-sized city. The highlight, however, was hands down the English Garden, which occupies a large part of the Eastern side. It's part nature preserve, part open grass, part swimming hole. Basically, it is the perfect escape. It was amazing how relaxed people were in there. I felt like I was at Sugarcreek Nature Preserve in Ohio, not the middle of a major European city... actually, false. The naked sunbathers reminded me quite clearly that I was in Europe, not the Midwest. The Eisbach (Ice river) flows through, and although swimming is forbidden, hundreds of people throughout the park jump in like they're frequenting the King's Island Lazy River.

There's quite a big surprise to the river, though:

Yes, as a matter of fact, you can surf in the middle of a land-locked European city.

Legen.Dary.

Ich bin in dem Vaterland angekommen!

I'm exhausted, completely out-of-synch, jet-lagged, and thrilled beyond belief!

Super tired right now, but when I'm lying in bed, I can't stop preparing what I'm going to say in German tomorrow. Hence the 3 am post serving as a much-needed distraction.

Here's the low-down:

• Sat next to a kid that reminded me so much of my brother on the (not-so-full) plane. He politely hurdled over me every time he needed to get up instead of waking me. This was especially entertaining because I wasn't actually asleep most of these times. He was on a class trip, and one of his peers eventually asked if she could switch seats with me. I acquiesced, only to find out later that my now ex-seatmate was dismayed at this new arrangement. Why? Because said peer had a crush on him which he did not reciprocate. Aw, 15-year-old love <3
  
• The people in my program are super awesome thus far. Yay!
• LOVE LOVE LOVE my host family! The mother, Ute, is super happy and friendly. She made a delicious strawberry cake with fresh cream for my arrival *drool*. The two daughters, Alina (11) and Marla (9), are cute as can be. Marla's definitely the more outgoing one, but Alina has warmed up quite a bit in the first day. We played hide and seek ("veruckt und ?" in German) as well as Uno. Awww yieah, that's right, Uno. Haven't met the dad, Andre, yet because he's been away for work at Audi and VW, but I'm sure my picturing him as the Andre from FX's The League will cease once I do. That was quite the run-on sentence, but it's 3 am, and I don't care. Oh, so meta. Their house is absolutely adorable. It seems a bit newer and a tad more modern than the other houses here in Gröbenzell.
  
• My room is TIGHT! It's actually the basement/office, but it's large and clean and happy.
• I've already noticed a plethora of ways in which the Germans are more eco-friendly than us. Their lifestyle already makes so much more sense than wasteful American ways. For instance, everyone takes the train to get to work. They ride their bikes or walk to get to the train station. They have SO MANY bike racks to allow for this. AND the grocery store is right next to the train station, so you can stop there on your way home from work instead of making a separate trip. Houses and towns are in clusters. There is no waning of civilization, it just stops at a certain point. Everyone is concentrated, so there is much less driving. The one downside to this is that the yards are super small (my host family's yard is a 10+-foot-wide loop of grass about their house). In terms of water conservation, they take much less time in the shower, and their sinks are smaller. HOWEVER, the one small non-eco thing I discovered is that my host family only drinks bottled water. I asked if it was unhealthy to drink the tap water, but they said no. They just think it tastes bad. Honestly, I thought it tasted perfectly fine, but that could be due to my uncultivated American palette. Of course, I don't know if this habit is exclusive to my family or if all Germans dislike their tap water. I DO know, though, that restaurants very rarely will serve tap water. Hmm... under investigation.
• My brain hurts from using so much German today. I barely spoke any English to my host-family. By the end of the day, I was so tired I didn't have the energy to understand what they were saying. All I know is that I have an alarm set for 8 and I should arrive at my school by 9:30 or so.
  

Now that my mind has been cleared, I think I'll be able to get some more sleep. Pictures coming soon (duh duh duuuuuuh). Gute Nacht!