Just a quick one, in line with my intention to update as soon as Vaguely Interesting Stuff happens. More than anything, i guess i just don't want to forget anything, so...here we are :) first things first, i am no longer a knickerless nomad of the south-eastern German region. Try as i might however, i was completely unable to find Die Prümärßße and so had to settle for H&M and this other shop called Pimkie - which according to the bag they have everywhere else apart from the UK. A few multipacks and a matching tartan bra set later, i was kitted out - but this seeming easy start was more a false sense of security. Buying toiletries here is TERRIFYING. As in the Primark saga, there's no Superdrug or similar nice happy shop that sells general toiletries, bits and bobs, hairbrushes, makeup, plasters as well as more medically things - instead you have to go into a Proper Pharmacists, with all these official medicines (TM) in serious monochrome packages - perhaps there will be some health foods and teas. But no crappy hairbrushes for a pound or hairdye or tweezers! All three of which being absent fill me with fear. I've now spent three days trying to get a list of things that's about ten items long! What am i to do...!! Somewhere must sell these things.....
On another more trampy note, today it was the turn of the stinky old woman to approach me whilst I was working out how on earth to buy a ticket for the U-Bahn. When you're in the process of collecting your change you can hardly fob a hobo off with the excuse you have no change, and so i settled instead with "NO"...and when that didn't work, the old favourite "I'm English and I don't understand..." which seemed to work. Although she did just stand there staring. Perhaps she wasn't even asking for change. OK I did feel a little guilty she was about 103. But that not withstanding, I don't get paid enough to go giving it out to any old codger so...! Here endeth the tramp saga...for now.
Hm, tired!
x
About Me
although technically the third, the last entry didnt do much apart from detail my complete haplessness around airbourne fruit, and so it is for this reason that this very addition has been benamed version 2.1.
since the last time i put finger to key, my black eye has swollen a lot, then gone away again. i've spent a long few days and weeks not being particularly prepared for impending tripness - electing instead to do completely fun things like go dancing in shout (el blast from el past) meet lovely hannifers in bristol (heavenly) and excurse to the sandy sunny devon coast (even more heavenly, if possible...). Of course, it didnt help that until the 9th hour, my flight had actually been cancelled...therefore causing me to miss my connecting coach to stay at my connecting friend´s house in connecting london. hmm. i have always said that i work better under pressure however, and i suppose the rush caused me to a) not pack ridiculously heavy as per and b) not work myself into the rather pale and shuffly state that i inevitably visit every time i fly. the only downside of this is that i have found myself with an alarming lack of knickers, and so will be visiting german Primarche or Prümärßßße or whatever one calls it, to obtain many more. The upside again *this* is that buying new underwear never fails to make me beam so...i guess everyone#s a winner apart from my purse, which quite aptly broke today.
OK, so actual german things...i managed to endure the flight, and landed in something which was less of an airport, more of some shed that someone had left over in their garden...which they thought they might let budget airlines fly to. Dubbed Munich West, it was about as far west of munich as I am of london...although i'm most certainly exaggerating but the drive was still well over an hour. This has led me to think more about other ways of getting home when I need to - FlyBe go straight to exeter from paris...and there's a sleeper train from here to paris so...apart from the sleeper being one of the things i have wanted to do since i was about 0.37635252 it also seems the most logical option. hooray!
the first day was spent in somewhat of a sleep deprved haze, as we left my somerset house at 1am to get to london in time and this meant navigating. once i'd had a very quick sleep upon arriving, we went to pick the girls up from school - something i'm suuposed to remember to pick them up myself but really can't recall - then we came home, played in the garden and generally got to know each other. they are all so nice and have been so welcoming to me. the only reservation i have is the whole driving thing, their car is a rather swish BMW and i havent seen any crappy runaround for me to use...which leads me to conclude i have to drive it, on the right hand side :\\\\\\ eep... breath held firmly on that one.
yesterday, i slept in and then decided to have a little walk around the neighbourhood. the thing that struck me the most was the fact that life goes on here just as it goes on in somerset, just as it went on in derby, just as it goes on anywhere. we're brought up being told about "foreigners" and such (fact of the day - english is the only eurpoean language that has a word for foreigner meaning "them and not us"..interesting) and how their customs are so different and they're all so strange, but everywhere i looked there were kids playing, was a scruffy teenager delivering newspapers, were people driving and cycling and walking, were people walking their dogs and greeting other dog walkers. it was just refreshing to know that everything is the same really, even if everything's in another language and even if the Y key is where the Z should be and vice-versa :p
today i had the morning off (well pretty much the whole day, till 5) and decided to go a little further afield into Munich city. the underground was easy enough, no ticket barriers or ticket-checking men which says a lot for how trusted people are here. also nobody locks their bikes up, and lots of houses have the doors wide open which i really like, theres a real villagey feel to a place with over a million residents. the weather was so hot today, and i think i got a little burnt but other than that i just let the roads take me wherever they wanted, wherever looked interesting is where i went. i bought a bath bom from deutsche-lush, some postcards and a pair of jeans from h&m which was probably the lowlight as EVERYONE EVER was there, and it was rather claustro... however seeing as the crotch on my previous pair is somewhat near busting open, one could argue this was kind of a necessity :p
i stopped halfway though my epic ramble to have the very german feast of Subway, which i am rather disappointed with but as i'm not au fait with German cuisine yet and am aware they are very MEAT MEAT MEAT i thought i'd know just where i stood with a good old Veggie Patty :)
after that i trotted back home on the subway, at one point being chatted up by a pissed german tramp who wa the only person i understood as he was talking so pissed-ly. but it certainly made me feel very chuffed with myself and completely cosmopoltan to be understanding this german hobo, even if he was just asking if my hair was natural...(as if!!)
which brings me to now! i'm babysitting the youngest whilst Die Parenten have a lovely evening at the cabaret. sounds fantastish :) also, i'm aware i have literally written about everything in the whole world but that means we've caught up so...a) i'm going to endeavour to keep this up to date now and b)i'm going.
tschuß :p x
the worst bit is that it's due to my dad throwing an orange at my face. no, really. i have so much to do. I think that's all that needs to be said today.
owwie :(
I've had a fair few blogs in my time and I consistently struggle with this first post...in which case, a small history!
I am 24 years old (you probably knew this already).
I am currently marooned in deepest Somerset (again with the probably knew thing).
I have been thinking about starting this page for quite a while (not so known).
I will be moving to Germany in roughly...11 days.
I think this will be a really nice way to let people laugh at all the German social faux pas-es I am bound to make. :)
I took inspiration for the web address from some guy whose name quite literally translates to English as Total Lion King (true story).
"Deutsche Märchen" simply means "German Tales". I have probably got the grammar and gender all wrong however :p
Me Meeston is the alias I always use when signing up to email mailouts...I always get creeped out using my own name so...this might be why :p
So, I guess the main reason behind this whole saga could possibly be laziness, as I already have a lot of peoples addresses as well as a rather large travel journal to record things in. I still intend to make the most of both of these things by jotting down various happenstances, saving tickets and whatnot as well as sending various german crap to everyone (ever) in the post...but the web is such a universal thing these days (the "world wide" bit in www would kinda give that away, right...) that I thought it would be easy for people to read, easy for me to write and...i don't know. Just nice.
Also, I'm really looking forward to having a reason to write again. You know...write, the very thing I defined myself by for three whole years then completely spurned (lol spurned) afterwards? If I ever wake at 2am with the weird sinking feeling in my stomach that needs to be satiated by creative means, I can tappy-tap away for a bit and all will be right with the world :)
A little more info, then...if you didn't already know, the reason I'll be off to Munich is to help out in a family by teaching their girls English, taking them to hobbies, cooking them small meals, generally keeping them entertained and such with crafts and funny hair-dos...that sort of thing. How this all came about...I happened to be bored of a Saturday at my full-time job in Derby and joined an aupair website...got a few emails here and there, nothing special, quite a lot of awful families (sorry but true :p) and then out of the rough came this amazing email! I read it, re-read it, forwarded it to the people that meant the very most to me to get their opinion...then sort of decided to go on the spot. I was fed up of my jobs, and although everyone I knew was sound as a pound I didn't really see what I was achieving anymore just existing in Derby. For the first birthday ever I'd felt older than usual, and maybe I was just needing to do something out of the ordinary to keep myself interested in life. Whatever it's attributed to, I just knew it was the right decision. I spoke to the family at length, I spoke to the girl who preceded me again at length, and kept in regular contact with them both. This morning, I spoke with the family again - even managing to speak with the girls, agreed a date and bought my flight over. I've also been on the look out for crafty things to do and am pretty set on getting them hooked on Decopatch - even if the base of that decision is cause I also want to have a go :p
Which brings me to now. I've been moved out of my Derby flat for just over two weeks but it seems like foreverandaday. I've temped in this crappy office filing away the largest amount of files I have ever seen IN MY LIFE, for a bit of extra cash. I've received my new passport and look successfully smackaddict-y. I've had super-fun weekends away in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol and Oxford, revisited my teenage haunts by having nights out in Minehead and Taunton, have seen and intend to see some of the faces I've met over the years. I'm currently selling most of my life on eBay to again raise a few extra funds. And I think that just about covers it!
I'm so happy life got exciting again. :)