Gary in Germany

As you all know by now, Dad made it to Germany. He arrived around 12:30 Wednesday afternoon picked up his bags and headed toward customs. He said he had no problems in customs and was very surprised that they didn't ask him anything at all...just stamped his passport. Once he got through the gate, he was met by Susi..flower in hand (it's a German thing that when you to go to meet people you bring something along like flowers). Since it was afternoon and dad hadn't eaten yet, Susi brought him to the Aumeister (a beer garden at the northern most part of the Englischer Garten). When getting food, Susi tried to persuade him to get something that was typical German food, but dad went with the Chicken...and of course a beer. Once I was done with class I rushed to my apartment and called Susi from there. Dad answered her phone and it was nice to hear his voice. Since the Aumeister is only about 5 minutes away from my apartment by foot, I rushed over there to meet them. After talking a bit, Susi had to get going. So she drove us back to my apartment and we brought dad's bags in so she could head out.Of course, dad's trip was long and he had trouble sleeping on the plane so I let him catch a half an hour nap before I drug him out to the Englischer Garten. He had some pretty good luck on the day he arrived. The weather was beautiful. It was the nicest day we've had here since I had been here. Typically it would be around 70 degrees with a couple of clouds here and there...no, for Dad..he got here the day it was 80 degrees and no clouds at all. It was gorgeous. For our walk in the garden, I took him to the far east side to show him the Isar (the large river that runs through Munich). We kind of goofed around a bit and headed back for some dinner.

In StuStadt there is a little bar/restaurant that a lot of people like to go to. Dad and I went there for dinner and ate some Schnitzel! It's one of my favorite meals here in Germany and I was glad to see that dad liked it, along with his beer. Wednesday night we were both very tired, so we ended up going to bed early.

Thursday morning dad and I went for a 3 mile run. I had class in the morning so I left dad in the room with a few suggestions of what to do. Our plan was to meet around 12:30 in the afternoon at the University (about a 10 minute ride with the train from Stustadt). I left him with good

directions on how to get there and we had a place to meet. If we by some chance couldn't find each other, I left him the address to my apartment so he could ask someone and they could help him back. For the morning, Dad got up and walked to Aldi and back, met a very unhappy German lady at the kiosk in the train station and headed out to meet me. Since I was done with class early, I was able to meet him right as he got off the train. From there, we walked around the University and I showed him some of the main building that is very famous from the movie

Sophie Scholl (I go to the same university the Scholl siblings went to and where the White Rose dispersed their six pamphlets). We walked around the University for a while and then decided to go back to my room. We took a quick nap and decided to tackle this Huber, whoever he was. We rode the train to the Marathon office and asked to see Huber...who surprisingly was a she...Manuela. Huber was her last name. She was out of the office but we talked a little bit with the ladies in the office and finally paid for my part of the marathon. Afterwards we went to see where the JYM program has their office. I showed him where i've been having class these past few weeks that i've been here. After that we made our way to the Steinhalle, a restaurant, where we sat down and had a beer. Before we sat down, we stopped in a couple of shops along the way. Dad got a peach that was VERY tasty and a brick of cheese (my favorite) that dad really liked as well. We sat down and drank our beer and when we asked to pay, the guy spoke to dad in English. We talked with Adrian, was his name, for some time and pretty much exchanged life stories. He was from Canada and moved here about two years ago. He was working at this restaurant and playing his music every once in a while when he could get a gig. It was pretty cool meeting someone like him and having a good chat. I got his name and he said he should have a website up pretty soon so I could come hear him play sometime.

From there, dad and I headed to Königsplatz where there are some pretty famous buildings. We ended up walking all the way to Karlsplatz (a few train stations down), getting a very tasty roll

from the Richart in the train station for dessert. From there we headed back to my room to make dinner.

For dinner, I tried to make him knödel but they didn't turn out as I had planned. I don't have any measuring devices here so I had to guess. Luckily, when I added too much water I had

another package and was able to make some okay knödels. I also made a gravy to put over the top. Dad says it tasted good, but I know we could have had better. We were also lucky to have fresh produce with our meal. Later that evening we, because I don't have a tv, listened to music while dad checked his email and did a bit of work. We did get a chance though to go down and

have a beer at the Tribühne (the restaurant and the bottom of my building) before going to bed.

Friday, once I was done with class, we had a good time. Though it was a bit misty throughout the day, we decided that wasn't going to stop us. When I got done with class I came back and dad

and I headed out for Marienplatz (where the famous Glockenspiel is). We took our time in the area and looked at a

couple of churches (Alter Peter/Frauenkirche), went to the market at the Viktualienmarkt, and set off to find a place to eat dinner. I had in mind going to THE Augistinerbräu restaurant. We found a spot next to these two people at a table and ordered. The waiter was very nice and spoke English for dad to understand. Our meal was very filling. Once done with dinner, I decided to give him the same night tour I got during my first week here in Germany. We walked around

the same parts of town and I showed him all of the sights with the history detail I could remember from the tour.

Saturday morning we got off to a rocky start. At this point I think we were both starting to realize how important our own space truly is. We did go for breakfast at

the bread-shop Susi suggested me visiting sometime while living in Stusta. I wasn't hungry but dad decided to get a delicious roll and a cup of coffee. We both read a magazine..and by we, I mean I read the magazine and dad looked at the pictures. After we were done with dad's breakfast dad surprised me and said he was going to go walk around the Englisch Garden. I took that as a hint...I went and hung out by myself in my room. About an hour later he came and things were still a little

tense. Dad took a nap and then we headed out for the Olympic stadium to get our race packets.

Once we got to the stadium, the tension just automatically released. As we were on our way (about a 10 minute walk) it started to rain on us. Luckily for us, over each one of the buildings they had these structures that looked like tarps but made out of glass. They looked very cool...and provided us a little shelter from the rain. We weren't exactly sure where we were supposed to be going, so we just followed some other people who looked like they were runners out in the rain toward the Messe (convention hall). Once we were in the building, it was just like every other race. They had booths set up all over with different races being represented and everything. The cool thing about it was they weren't all just from Germany..Marathons were being represented from all over the world. There were marathons from Italy mostly, and Austria, and Switzerland and France and Spain. It was cool to see all the pictures of the marathons. The most popular race in the US for Germans is definitely New York. I was shocked by how many times people asked Dad and I if we had run New York. Well, dad and I had our fun, we looked at t-shirts, shoes, all the other marathons, and then headed to get our bags (I don't know why we didn't do this in the first place because my hands were getting full by then). Dad had no problem getting his bag, however, since the credit card didn't go through for my race number we had to pay in cash (which we did the day or two before). I had to go to a separate desk and show them my receipt saying that I did indeed pay for the number and then had to activate my chip someplace else. Looking back at it, it wasn't really that big of a deal but at the time I was a little frustrated..not mad, just unsure which makes me uncomfortable. Once we were done looking at all the booths we headed for the Nudelparty (as they call it in Germany...I thought the signs were funny). We weren't really sure how the process worked, but I was able to ask and the people were very friendly and told us. We found a place to sit down and started talking strategy...as we always do. We got a map and we immediately started looking for the best places for Susi to come see us. Since we didn't get a poster, we said we would probably use the detailed map and frame that. The dinner was good. By the time we got there, they didn't have any forks for us to use so we had to manage with spoons. When I asked about the forks, one of the waitresses said she had just tried it and it

seemed to work just fine for her. We finished our food and gave our table to another couple as we headed out. It was about 5:30 when we were done and didn't really feel like going back to my room, so we headed to Marienplatz. There we saw a number of things and took some ally-ways that I had never seen

before. We even noticed another couple of guys speaking English and dad talked to them. Quite the coincidence, one of them worked in the same kind of area dad does...but in the south. They both knew and worked with the same companies. We also got to hear a lot of bands playing along the street. It must be a Saturday thing, because any other day of the week after the stores close...it is DEAD. There is no one there.

Well, after our fun at Marienplatz, we headed back to get some rest to prepare for the marathon!!

Dad is Here

For those of you who were concerned. I would like to inform you that my dad has arrived safely and we will be updating you about our travels this afternoon.

Week of the Gary...

So, many of you know that my dad is hopping on a plane in about 8-10 hours or so (I think) to come visit. This weekend (Sunday) is the München Marathon and we will be running it together. This week hasn´t been all too exciting so far, but i´ve been running and making plans for when dad comes.

Sunday was my relax day. Many of you back home have days like this every weekend. I woke up around 8:00 and putzed around my room for a while started reading my book at about 9:30 ...fell asleep around 10:00 for about hour. I made lunch, watched a couple of tv shows online (don´t worry, they were in German), read for another hour and a half or so, cleaned my room for the most part...the usual lazy day stuff. I did not end up leaving my room once all day. Now, I understand i´m in a different country trying to get the best of my experience...but everyone is entitled to a day of rest. I´m not making it a routine.

Monday morning I was up early (6:00) to go running. That early in the morning it´s pretty dark here. I made the decision to run later because I knew running all by myself in the dark woods (Englischer Garten) was probably not a good idea. Everyone here says that München is one of the most safe cities. I do feel very safe walking alone at night (a lot more so than Eau Claire even) and they don´t have very many problems here...however, I don´t want to take my chances.

I did have class on Monday (more orientation) where we learned about registering for classes and the types of classes we can take. The process is so difficult and confusing compared to Universities in America. Because the school itself is going through a huge reform, right now everything is half and half. Some of the classes we can register online for. Others we have to either go to the first class and talk with the professor, go the secretary of that department and sign a list for the class, or a lot of times get special permission from the professor. I sat down later that evening and figured out what classes I wanted to take. It is subject to change, but right now i´m looking at taking the following:

JYM- ALG-Advanced German Language (required)

JYM- Introduction to the study of German Literature

JYM- Independent study and possible research project with Renewable energy

LMU- IKK Grundkurs (which is a class in Intercultural Communications)

LMU- Grundlagen der Betriebswirtschaftslehre (a business class)

We are required to be registered for 15 credits for the semester..unfortunately i´m not exactly sure how many of these credits are going to transfer.

After class was out, I went running. I started running and there was a guy who was running about the same speed. After a little bit, he asked me if I wanted to run together with him. Surprisingly we were headed in the exact same direction. I guess we have the same loop that we like to run. After talking with him a little bit I learned that it is going to a Technical University not far from StuSta to be an engineer. We chatted most of the way and made plans to go running again sometime...probably after the marathon. As we were exchanging emails it started to rain. Afterwards I went up to my room, took a shower and listened to the rain hitting my window...it was very peaceful. I found out shortly thereafter that one of my friends, Clare, had rented a movie on Itunes and I went over and watched it with her. Free Willy 2!

About midnight for me, I had my last chance to talk to my dad before he gets here on Wednesday.

Today (Tuesday) is also nothing special. I went grocery shopping this morning and have a tour of the University at 1:00pm. Other than that, I don´t have much for plans. We´ll just have to see what there is tonight for me to do. Maybe a concert?!

Catching up...

So, first of all I would like to apologize for this week and my failing to post anything at all. For this I would like to make it up to all of you by trying to remember exactly everything that happened this week in detail...not because I had beverages that would impare my memory but simply because I have a terrible memory in the first place.

Starting where I left off puts me at about Saturday..a week from today. Saturday was a semi-eventful day. I planned on getting up early, running about 15 miles or so, going to the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower) for lunch, coming back to put on my dirndl, heading out with some girlfriends to hit up Oktoberfest. Since I have learned a very important lesson in the past year from my Father who learned it from Michael Ferch, "Life is about goal readjustments", I had to do just that and readjust certain things to my plan. I woke up early, still a little worried about knee that has been bothering me for the past week. I knew I wanted to go far, but I wasn't sure my knee would take me there and I definitely didn't want to push it. Severely hurting my knee a few weeks before the marathon would not be a good idea at this point and I didn't want to e my chances.I started out running and felt pain immediately. I haven't ever felt that kind of pain so I tried to push through a little and see

what would happen. About 5 minutes in to my run, verydisappointed in myself, I turned around and headed back for my apartment. My plan was to get off my knee, try biking instead. Once back at my apartment I did a few crunches, grabbed my bike and headed out. At this point, I hadn't ridden my bike yet but I was still hoping it would work enough for me to ride around for a good 45 minutes. That didn't quite happen. Once I was down unlocking my bike, I found that there were two locks..only one for which i had the key. Now, I may not be the smartest person in the world, but i'm pretty sure the front tire of the bike was locked and I wasn't going to get it to work. I tried the key I had and that didn't work either...so I headed back up to my room. Of course I was disappointed in my morning work out...but i wasn't going to let that stop me from having a fun time that afternoon and evening.

At about 12:30 I met with a couple other girls and we headed for the Chinesischer Turm. This is about the only thing that happened that day according to my plan. We had a good time at the beer garden there listening to the band and eating good(but expensive) food. I had a schnitzel with french fries (a common food here in Bayern ..and one of my favorite meals). A radler (which is a beer that is mixed with something similar to Sprite) made the meal complete. The sun was shining, the band was playing, I had good food in front of me...it was a good afternoon.

After the Chinesischer Turm, I made it back in time to put on my dirndl and meet the girls, with whom I wasplanning to Oktoberfest. I got all ready, only to find out that those girls had a little bit crazier of a night than they

had planned on and didn't think they were going to make it to Oktoberfest. So, I asked around to all the other JYMers and found out I could still make it with two other guys who were going. I was already dressed and everything so I could we headed out. By the time we got to the tents, EVERYTHING was full. They weren't even letting people in the tents at this point. No Oktoberfest for us that night... instead, we decided to hit

up the Augustinerbräu in Marienplatz. After one Maβ (big liter beer) for me and a few for the others, we decided to go back to Oktobefest to see if there was maybe a chance to get in. I was okay with going to Oktoberfest but had no desire to drink any more. At the Löwenbräu (pronounced "Loo-ven-broi" and not "low-en-brow" for you non-German speakers) we talked to the Security guards and hung out outside the tent...that is till one of the

guards left his door wide open to go talk to another guard and we snuck in. It was toward the end of the night anyway and they weren't serving any more beer. We (I) just wanted to go in and check out what it looked like. We pretty much got up on one of the benches and took pictures for the last song and headed out. Once in bed, I suffered the usual hangover effects (proving how much stronger German beer is than American since I had ONE maβ) of dizziness, hot flashes, and thirst along with the inability to sleep. Oh well, it was one time...nothing even close to my 21st birthday so I was thankful for that.

Sunday was my day to relax. I honestly stayed in bed for most of the day reading my book. I had the windows open (a very common thing here in Germany..they like their fresh air) sun shining in and it was completely

peaceful. Around noon, I did get a message from one of the other JYMers asking if I wanted to go with to the Deutsches Museum...one of the largest museums in Munich. I agreed, figuring getting my butt out of bed for once today might not be such a bad idea. A group of about 8 of us headed out and once we were in the museum we got lost in all the things there were to see. We mostly broke up in to groups of three. I got to see things like old ships, canoes, motors, airplanes, other flying devices, old musical instruments, biology stuff, chemistry, pharmacy, hydropower...pretty much anything you could imagine! It was an amazing tour. Afterwards, I went back to my bed to keep reading and ended up going to bed early. Surprisingly, I’m finding myself falling in to the same sleep situation I had all summer...getting really tired and going to bed around 10:00-10:30 and waking up at 6:00. I feel like I can get more out of my day that way.

Monday morning I started class early (9:30am). The previous week I didn't have class till 1:30 so having class early was a good and a bad thing...I had something to do when I woke up, but instead of just lounging around or going for a run in the morning I actually had to be productive..like listen and take part of class discussions. Our first day of class we talked about the hospital situation, going to the doctor, where we can find cheap but good food, books, and different marketplaces (there's a market everyday somewhere in the city). Our homework was to go visit the theater, but before we could...we all decided to go visit Melissa (one of the JYMers) who was in the hospital for a couple of days. She had an inner ear infection and ended up losing (they think) about 6% of her hearing. The hospital was interesting...4 people to a room, no TV, and every one of the nurses was Croatian and didn't speak English. Hopefully I don't end up in there for any reason. The theater was nice, but we didn't go in to watch the movie. Instead we came home and just took it easy for the night.

Tuesday, once again, I was awake early for class. We presented our theater, talked about the Bank, the post

office and our project for the day was to visit a part of the city. I offered to visit Haidhausen. We pretty much went there right after class. It was like one

of my daily excursions that included finding certain things in the area. We were pretty frustrated with the assignment because she sent us to the part of the city with one map and absolutely no directions as to where anything was...we saw a couple of HUGE churches but those weren't anything we needed to look for. Finally after getting some food, we started to have a bit of luck and saw the Maximilianeum which is (I believe but could be wrong) where the Bayern government meets to make certain decisions. We were pretty much relieved once our project was done. We made it back home and decided to hit up Oktoberfest. We were hoping since it was the middle of the week we might be able to find a spot at a tableand have a maβ. Once we got there we were herded with the huge mass of people heading to Oktoberfest. Since everything was reserved (which many companies do for their employees) we had no luck finding a spot inside the tent but were somewhat relieved that we found a nice quiet place outside in the beer garden. We all had our maβ and decided to go home.

Wednesday was our last day of orientation classes! Because it was supposed to rain in the Alps on Friday, (which was the day for our planned trip to go hiking) Professor Hans-Peter Söder (the JYM program Director) sent out an e-mail to all of us saying that we will be changing our trip date to Thursday instead..making Wednesday our last day of class :). In class we talked about travelling. I've decided that I may have to readjust my goals (again) for travel as I probably will not make it to Greece (which is okay, because from now on they will have their bad weather months) but instead will travel to Switzerland with a friend (Miriam) and go hiking in the alps. Not only are we planning on doing that, but we are hoping to get up the Bavarian alps as much as possible before the snow falls. We might even try going up with a little bit of the snow. This is also okay because that leaves a little more money for me to go skiing as well (which is something I’m very interested in doing). Sorry, mom and dad, I haven't told you about my plans yet...but that is due to the fact that you're too busy to talk to me. Anyway, everybody on Wednesday decided to stay in and go to bed early in order to prepare themselves for our trip to the Alps.

Thursday, probably my favorite day in Germany so far, we went hiking. I put my hiking boots on, got all ready to go and we took off on the train. We met Hans-Peter Söder at the main train

station. From there, it was a 2 hour ride to Mittenwald (which translated means the middle of the forest..exactly where the town was). We took a quick look around the large Church there (which was absolutely gorgeous and very

traditional) and then took off up the hill. We made it a good portion of the way and came to a fork in the road. We weren't sure where exactly to go so we waited. One really cool thing was a chair (throne) made out of a stump of wood (yes, mom, just like the one by the castle we went to visit. I took a picture of it for you). While waiting, I think we all pretty much came to the realization that there was a group of us that was significantly faster than the other group. Hans-Peter recognized it as well and sent the faster group up the hill while he stayed back with the slower group. He did remind us though, that it was not a competition and we should take our time to smell the roses. Well, I did just that. I slowed down a bit, took pictures, and enjoyed the view as we were ascending. our directions were to reach the second Gasthof but not stop there...make it all the way to the top and wait. It was a little confusing since we started out at a Gasthof and there were two more after that. A lot of us didn't realize that till we got the first one. He said the peak should be about 100m ahead...which is not what

it was when we got to the first Gasthof. A little ways further we found it and made it to the top. The view was absolutely gorgeous! We could see the mountains all around us. Though we weren't on the highest mountain, it was great accomplishment and

I seriously look forward to doing it so many more times this semester.

My new hobby (other than running marathons....ha ha, originally I wrote marathongs... ha ha! What is it with me and super-strenuous activities?). After a while at the peak, we started to wonder where the other group was. We headed back down to see if we could find them...luckily we did, but they were already sitting down to eat at the restaurant. Hungry as ever.. I quickly got in line and Miriam and I shared a Käse Spätzle (for those of you who don't know what Spätzle is, I’m sorry...I will have to make it for you when I get back. Käse Spätzle is Spätzle with cheese). It was delicious. After eating we headed back up to the peak so

that everyone could see the top. We took a group photo and decided to head down. Unfortunately the lift we were going to take down was broken so we decided to make our own way down the hill following the lift. The first part of the hill was extremely steep and a lot ofpeople didn't make it.

What they found the easiest was simply just sliding down (yes, it was that steep). A lot of them had grass stains at the end but it was quite entertaining. I just walked down (thank mom and dad for the great hiking boots from when I was 16). I didn't want to get a grass stain or risk hurting my legs or ankles or feet before the marathon.. I was playing it safe.

We made it safely down the mountain with 20 minutes to spare..so most of us grabbed a cone of gelato and waited. The train ride back was a lot quicker than on the way there..but I was glad to be back home.

That evening we were all planning to go to the Tribühne for a beer...i got there late and so I didn't get a beer. Instead i met Miriam and her friend up in her room and we shared a bottle of wine (1,20 Euro from Aldi..yay for cheap wine). It was a good ending to a Great day!!

Friday (yesterday), oh what a day! Since it is the last weekend of

Oktoberfest, and I had yet to drink a maβ in a tent...a pretty large group of us headed out at 9:00am. We were determined. We did find a table (luckily...as it was probably one of the last ones partially available) next to three guys from Göppingen. Don't ask me their names...i couldn't tell you (not because of the beer I drank, but because it was so loud and I was on the other end of the table for the most

of the time..and I’m terrible with names). Anyway, we were at Oktoberfest for about 7 hours... I had one maβ and ended up bringing another girl from theprogram home around 5:00pm. I had fun, but so much noise and so much partying takes a lot out of me. I was definitely ready to be home when I got there.

Today (Saturday), I slept in till 8:00 (woo hoo, i never sleep in that late) and i slowly got ready to go running. I know i'm supposed to taper...but i haven't run in a week. I'm really starting to feel very nervous about the marathon. I didn't get a 20 mile run in at all, I have hardly run this week and i'm still feeling a little bit of pain in my knee. I did, however, make it a good 11-12 miles. I feel like if my body starts to believe that i'm starting to build up again, it will be less of a surprise to run 42 km. I know, it's probably stupid...but i had my break...this past week was my break and it's like i'm starting to build up again for another week. I will take it easy..i promise, but i'm hoping this will work. I did get the chance to run past the Chinesischer Turm today..it was beautiful as always as well as the lake just north of it. After my run, I met up with Miriam and we went out to the Englischer Garten to just sit in the sun and read. Reading, of course, didn't happen...but we had a great conversation. Other than that I’ve been writing this blog all day. I know now that I will not put off writing this blog for a whole week again. It takes way too long to catch up.

I'm starting to look for classes that i'm going to be taking this semester and have found a couple of them that fit me pretty well. My list so far includes the AGL (Advanced German Lanugage course), and Literatur from JYM and at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität (LMU) an IKK Gurndkurs (which is Intercultural Communications). Talking a little with Hans-Peter he is interested in doing an independent study with me on renewable energy. Through a couple of discussions with him, we've decided that my independent study will be geared toward working with a research project here in Munich that already deals with the renewable energy i'm interested in. It will also include writing papers about things that i'm researching, writing letters to those research projects asking to be a part of them and hopefully looking in to an internship for me next summer. Hans-Peter said he has a connection with Siemanns...so if i'm lucky enough, I could be working with them next summer. Other classes i'm interested in taking are at the Volkshochschule (which is a lot like Community Ed classes...they are A LOT more common here in Germany). They are offering two classes that i'm interested in..each for 5 Euro about climate and what's really going on with the climate change. Other than that, i'm not exactly sure. I do need a couple more credits for the semester so i'm hoping there's an International Environmental Law class i could take part of or some business class.

Well, That's pretty much everything for today...(i'm glad to finally be done) and I will post again tomorrow.