New Kid on the Block

A WHOLE NEW WORLD

Transition, transition, transition. It’s the only word that comes immediately to mind when people ask me how I am liking it here. I do enjoy it very much, and I am beyond thankful to have been offered such an amazing opportunity. However, the transition from caterpillar to butterfly in terms of transformation stages has been painfully slow. In fact, let’s just say I’m still in the cocoon. My first day of work wasn’t awful, but I’m the new kid on the block, in more ways than just one. However, this sweaty little room that I would now call my workplace would also serve as my safe space, as I felt somewhat on the same page as most of my english speaking co workers. I shook lots of hands and heard lots of different accents- what a multicultural crew. Irish, Mexican, British, Australian, Kenyan/German, Canadian/Australian, South African...But oh the irony. Of course my boss was from Long Island. Everyone seemed fairly nice. I just wanted to make sure I did everything right and didn’t bother anyone. I already started to hear people warn me not to do this that and the other thing because the boss man is very, very particular.

Most of my first shift was spent doing new person tasks- sweeping, wiping down windows, reading shop manuals and memorizing tours and prices. When I was free to go at 2:30 in the afternoon, I stepped out into the beautiful sunlight confusedly. Each standard shift was a mere 6 hours, allowing me to enjoy the first or second half of my day. Surprisingly, I think the enjoyment part will take a while, because I’m not really sure where to go, what to do, and who to hang out with besides Miranda. I came home from my first day of work to a quiet, lonely apartment. In all honesty, I laid on my bed and admired the pretty blue sky from behind my window, even though in my heart I knew I should be outside adventuring my new neighborhood. Here is where I have learned that not all that glitters is gold (even though people in Munich love to display their gold everywhere, as it is the richest city in Germany). The truth about travel, is that it is one big double edged sword. It involves so much beauty, adventure, new people, new experiences, new desires. However, it also involves new feelings, new thoughts, new perspectives. I felt a new sense of fear that I wasn’t used to. Fear of missing out on things at home, fear of stepping out into a new place on my own that I was not yet used to, fear of being singled out for not being able to speak or understand the language...fear of being alone. New thoughts: Where do I go now? What do I do? What do I shop for at the grocery store? My perspective was already starting to change. This was a much more simple life than what I was used to. The grocery stores are all tiny and consist of the same kind of produce, mostly root vegetables such as leeks, beets, radishes...nothing like Whole Foods, where I used to work. Almond milk is hard to find, so I’ve been drinking a lot of regular milk in my cappuccinos and it makes my stomach a little upset. All of the stores are closed on Sundays: pharmacies, grocery stores, most retail stores, you name it. I've made the mistake of not being stocked up on food by Saturday night several times already, making Sunday a day of cereal or...Muesli, which is like granola and grains, and is more commonly found than cereal.

LEARNING

It's been fun riding my bike every where as it is much safer than at home. However, I've come to realize that many Bavarian's take their cycling very seriously, and I've tested their patience on more than one occasion. I had to learn a whole new set of road rules that I was previously unfamiliar with, and it took a lot of bells being aggressively dinged at me and bike rage in order for me to figure them out. I found it out the hard way, that I should always cycle in the same direction that the cars are going, unless otherwise specified by a sign. On one particular occasion, I remember the feeling of my heart stopping and my neck and back stiffening as a man came speeding towards me when I was heading northbound towards home. He approached so swiftly and without hesitance that I didn't know what to do besides hit the brakes, his head tilted down so much that his eyes just peeked out from under his furrowed brows. He looked like a hawk, and I was his innocent prey completely dumbfounded in the middle of the bike lane. I was sure that this was about to me an accident, so I held my breath as the man's front tire of his cycle approached mine. As I winced, he swerved around me with such precision and grace and continued his speed demon journey beyond me within seconds. It was his plan all along, he was playing chicken with me. It was obvious who the chicken was. People continued to ding their bells at me and wave their hands angrily as I confusedly wobbled around the bike lane trying to collect myself. I could understand the word "richtung" when they were yelling, so it was then that the pieces came together and I realized that I was going against the flow of traffic in more than one way. Richtung, means, direction.

"Iche lerne deutsche, aber können wir Englisch sprechen?" became the sentence that I was most dependent on. It means, I'm learning German, but can we speak English? It works about 70% of the time. Some German's displayed their impatience and frustration with me by sighing and shrugging and responding with a mere "kein Englisch" or, no English. This was particularly discouraging when I tried to open a bank account, in which I was denied service twice because the people behind the desk said they could not speak English with me. The third one, a stout man with a puffy red face and even puffier mustache, also said kein Englisch, but when he saw me turn to walk out the door with no effort in a response, he finally budged and said very comprehensibly- "What do you need help with?" I was more frustrated that he answered me as a last resort, I think I would have been happier walking out those doors. In my defense, German isn't the easiest language to learn. All of the words have genders (enlighten me, how is that even decided?), and there's four ways to say the word "the" alone- die, der, das, den. I decided to just speak with an aggressive, impatient tone, and I fit in a little bit more. At least I figured out how to order my favorite flavor of ice cream from the shop behind where I work. It's the important things.

During June, I spent a lot of time alone, figuring things, including myself, out. When Miranda was at work or school, and I had a day off, you could find me exploring the grounds of Nymphenburg Palace, Olympia Park, or the northern part of the Englischer Gardens, which made me feel like I was in Africa. The weather here is the most unpredictable weather I have ever experienced. Before I learned any better, I would leave the apartment on a beautiful sunny day (not a cloud in the sky), without any rain gear. I would then find myself nearly an hour later cycling for my life as deep purple and charcoal grey clouds were on my tail, lightning trying to intimidate me in the distance. The Alps that border Austria are only about 2 hours away, contributing to the unpredictability of the daily weather. Despite random bursts of pouring rain, wind, and/or hail, the sudden change in the weather is actually quite exciting. Sometimes it's nice to have a little spontaneity in things which we cannot control.

The frequency of my lone two wheel excursions increased once I became more comfortable with the rules of the road, cycling manners, and the approximate location of home. The feeling of the unknown began to excite me more than make me feel vulnerable. It was not only the weather that was uncertain but my destination. I would ride my bike in which ever direction I desired and figure out where it took me when I got there, a nice change from Long Island, where I always seemed to whind up somewhere along the water (not a bad thing, just a little repetitive). From these journeys, I realized that Munich has some gorgeous, peaceful, free parks. The Englischer Gardens may be the most famous, being the second largest urban park in Europe, just behind Phoenix Park in Dublin. It's a third larger than Central Park, and it is home to the second largest beer garden in the world- The Chinese Tower Bier Garten. Within it you can find a lovely landscape of brooks and rivers, meadows, lakes, and hills- hundreds of different spots to read a book, drink beers with friends, float down a river, or even tan in the nude. I spent decent portion of my free time here this summer. Once I made friends with my new coworkers, we would ride our bikes down to the naked meadows in the gardens and float down the Schwabinger Bach on a hot day, beers and radlers in hand. A Radler is the German version of a Shandy back in the states: half beer, half lemonade- perfectly refreshing for those hot summer days. Olympia Park was a space constructed for the 1972 summer Olympics, but now serves as a public park with rolling hills, lakes, and a scenic view of Munich. It's large hills hold dark history within them, they are in fact piles of destruction material from the bombings that occurred in Munich during WWII. It's been really interesting to live in a country with such a turbulent and damaging history, but also frightening, especially since Munich is where the Nazi regime was launched. Olympia Park was the first place that I pushed myself to go explore after one of my first shifts of work. I was a little nervous to venture out on my own, but I knew Miranda could not hold my hand in guidance and babysit me forever. I was really pleased with how lovely it was- so green and vast, and with a variety of things to do. It was here that I began to read "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. The book was about controversial young adventurer Chris McCandless, who dropped everything he was in association with and went on a journey to find something deeper in life. What it was he was looking for, he didn't know. However, this was a perfect book for me to pick up at the time, and I couldn't put it down. I would recommend it to any traveler looking for a book to parallel their journeys and accompany their wanderlust. Though my opinion of him ranged between being selfish and ignorant or admirable and misunderstood, I found that I could relate to many of this ideas and thoughts. Being an over analytical thinker, life is constantly filled with questions and perplexities. Traveling answers a decent portion of those questions, but also gives birth to new ones. My perspective is constantly evolving, but forever changed, from the moment I stepped off of that plane into Munich airport the first time.