Oooooooooooooooooooook, last night absolutely marked the high point of my time here thus far, but not to get ahead of myself I should backtrack a little as the days beforehand housed a few nice (and not so nice) little details that are probably worth mentioning... :)
Getting the crap stuff out of the way I got grabbed by the arm one afternoon by some weirdo on the ubahn! YAY, or not - I swiftly\obviously pushed him off and kindly\loudly told him not to touch\talk to\be near me. Did the trick and he went away...score 1 team Q. Moving on.....
I have started German Sprachschule (language school) and the best thing about this is I have made my very first non-english speaking friend :) This means maximus practice of die Deutsch which is obviously no bad thing. It's actually not that hard either, what it's made me realise more than anything is that communication goes so much further than just the words we choose, and as a result i rarely find that i don't understand the gist of what she's saying. Awesomesauce...
This week I found myself at a loose end one evening and so found myself at Gemma's flat with a bottle of red wine and some Ritter Sport. We sat for ages and chatted about general life stuff, it was dead nice to get to know more people and generally feel like a social panda as opposed to a filmwatching quiet pyjama-clad panda. It was just as nice when Katherine came over too, weird fact of the day - she was in the video for Freddy Kreuger so is pretty much my new hero. Long story short (HA, as if I can atually do that but I'll try...) I happened to mention that Saturday was the last date of this Corsetry exhibition I wanted to go to at the Münchner Stadtmuseum - turns out she had also wanted to go so we went together. It was really interesting (even if there was no option of reading the info in English) and simply about the history of women's underwear and how the female silhouette has changed since the 1800s. Loads of really amazing clothes from various periodic times, we wandered around and cooed and imagined ourselves in Pride and Prejudice and generally had a lovely time. She also happened to mention that she was heading out again that night with Gemma and that I should go along...I was babysitting til late but said i might think about it, depending when the parents got home. Which brings me to...........
A completely unexpected reincarnation of the wonderment of Beard Night :) A little history on this, I lived with some people after I finished university in 2008, one Sunday we happened to go swimming till about 10pm, after which we all had the next day off and really felt like doing something. Not really sure how this evolved into us drawing beards on our faces and going to Scream but sometimes these things just happen... :p Anyway, I'd mentioned it to the girls in passing conversation on wine night and they'd been rather enthusiastic, but to be honest I didn't think too much of it. That was until the parents came home early, I decided to pop out for a bit afterall, and arrived to meet two girls with beards. I was swiftly given a Craig David, joining Poirot and Guy Fawkes and we were then joined by the dad from Matilda, an old wise Chinese man, a Grandad, and a Mexican Bandito amongst others... One thing I've learnt from going out in Hostel bars is that travelling folk are pretty much up for any kinda stupid idea, the beard thing really caught on until we were drawing on complete strangers...even people who already had actual beards wanted us to draw an eyeliner one on them, it was actually ridiculous but simply the most fun I've had in ages. I've decided that each time I live in a different city, I'm gonna try to resurrect the beard thing and spread the beardy word...and if only my original bearded amigos had been there to see it all they would have appreciated it so much!
So, I've been writing now for ages and must get up early...here endeth the chapter of pants and facial hair. Tomorrow marks the first three-day seminar (whereby it's just me and the kids and a schedule to keep to....) so wish me luck :)
...........Gerard Depardieu...........x
ps, something which makes me happy :)
Some more wee tales to tell...not too much mind as firstly, I really can't get away from the feeling that all this is incredibly self-indulgent...and secondly, not a whole lot has happened but i don't want to be in the place whereby I have a billion things to remember. My memory is bad enough at the best of times, let alone when i have to remember stuff :(
This morning the family went away for a couple of days, their grandma has just got good news re: some tests and its Feiertag (general bank-holiday esque thing) which means no German school for me! ...Until tomorrow ha. This means I am for the first time in the house by myself. This presents an oppurtunity to play music loudly (done) have a bath (not done...yet) dye my hair (about to do) and work out to my little heart's content (whilst dye develops). Reading-wise, old Holmes has really got me back into being the bookworm I naturally am, therefore I have finally bitten the bullet and started the Harry Potter series. A book and a half down, I have to say they're alright, but i honestly can't see what that amount of fuss was about. Ho hum. Something to pass the time...
Today I decided to go out to the Olympiapark, which was as grand as all the pictures make out...also there's apolcalypse type music on the site I've just realised! Unfortunately this wasn't playing, though I really wish it was... The atmosphere here was really nice though, what with it being a public holiday, lots of families milling about, and after wandering around for a while talking panoramic photos I decided to go up the massive tower thing (the name of which escapes me)... possibly a great idea for a day when it was clear and sunny...however it was foggy and so all i could see was cloud. Woop! Still, only a small entrance fee so nothing to stop me going back :) also I found a Sea-Life Centre and BMW World - but what with the date there were huge queues for both! So I decided to make a mental note of those too, and go back some other time.
It was at this point that I noticed a rather large concentration of Boy-Scouts...well, Person-Scouts really as there were girls, old men, little kids, everyone, all with these checkered neck ties on...maybe it was a cult, i don't know...but anyway, I walked a little further and found this little festival going on, the band who were playing were great! So I stayed and watched for a while, took some more panoramics and then had a browse around the stalls - nice but not so fun when it started to drizzle. It was then made again a little less nice by the large amounts of religious leaflets being thrust in my face - not really sure how the Scout thing is run here but perhaps it's slightly more Christian than at home. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with religion (or cults), believe what you like...but what I completely do have a problem with is people not just enjoying their beliefs (religious\otherwise) without trying to preach it to others. Seriously, I absolutely can't stand it! Just piss off and let everyone be what they want to be, thx...
At this point I decided to get out of there before I got mad, and happily\accidentally managed to solve the great Superdrug problem by discovering Müller, this sort-of Superdrug-come-Wilkinsons with Health Food section. My heart leapt when I saw it! And I stocked up on miscellaneous things such as contact lens solution, concealer, rice cakes coated in yoghurt...yawn...
The most entertaining part of the day, however, came with the arrival of hobo-saga part three, in which a middle-aged woman (stinking of beer) sat down and started rabbiting on to me about...well i'm not entirely sure. What is it about my face that says "Hi!!! Tramps Welcome. Please bore me with all your stories"...? But by the by, I told her that I was English and didn't really understand. She looked at me disgustedly, said "Don't you even understand German?", to which I replied "I understand a bit, but not too much..." - at which point she pointedly picked up her four pack and moved elsewhere, as if the thought of sitting with me any longer filled her with disgust. Nice!
With that little oddity I'm out, hair to dye and thighs to shrink with that pouty blonde cow Tracy Anderson (I'd totally sack her off if her exercise programme didn't work :p)
Yup x
ps. anyone who wants to buy me this is quite welcome... ;)
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
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