Dali, Ferrari, Slugs and Milka - what a week!

When I last posted, it was following a huge weekend away at Legoland. The week that followed luckily included a public holiday in Bavaria so I didn’t have to work a full week. Which I was grateful for as I was quite tired after our time away. But we did try to make use of the holiday, heading out to the Deutsches Museum to meet up with Michael’s friend Peter (another Australian xpat). Unfortunately we mis-timed our visit, and Peter had his work phone on him, so we just didn’t get in to see him, his 3 beautiful daughters or the Museum. So instead we headed back to our flat, and made ourselves some lunch and I fit in some study in the afternoon.

That weekend however, we made up for our sluggish day by attending the Dali Exhibit in Munich. It was a massive collection of Dali’s works, including the entire collection he created for illustrations in Alice in Wonderland. It was beautiful to observe, however there was a bit too much of his random sketches which got a bit boring after a while. I am all for observing the greatness created by an artist, but I don’t think every page of a sketch pad needs to be framed and hung. The gallery was quite stuffy and I ended up just wanting to get out. However, after a brief break in the beautiful courtyard of the gallery, we headed into the second gallery which was smaller and only contained Dali’s block etching prints, and these were so colourful and beautiful that it made up for the end of the first gallery. There was an entire wall just devoted to his horse themed images and they were all stunning.

Following this we went in search of our Oktoberfest outfits – it is less than a month away and I don’t want to leave it till the last minute! I found a beautiful blue and white checked dirndl (a little bit Dorothy – Wizard of Oz style) with a red apron and beautiful decorations on the front, and a cute little white blouse. It wasn’t easy to choose either with gorgeous colourful creations available everywhere! Michael tried on Lederhosen and they looked fantastic on him, but he is holding out for a pair that have the shoulder straps as well. He could only find shorts that fit him without the straps.

That night we also decided to try another local restaurant. While it is the trend here to eat out most nights, we have been trying to cook all our meals at home for several reasons but mainly because – A) so we can monitor what we eat, it’s very easy to eat unhealthily here as its all tasty but fatty, and B) it’s cheap to eat out but adds up day by day. I also quite enjoy cooking so it hasn’t been a problem other than we have a TINY kitchen. But we do aim to eat out once a week to experience the culture and lifestyle here. We ate around the corner at a lovely little restaurant called the Golden Twenties, mostly Italian themed food but I ordered a seared tuna dish and Michael had a rack of lamb. Both meals were incredible and we enjoyed every single mouthful!

Michael has also taken the opportunity to try every single local beer in the lead up to Oktoberfest so he can decide which tent he wants to sit in. This has resulted in him buying a special Oktoberfest release of Paulaner beer in a backpack last weekend while doing the grocery shopping. I scored the backpack!

Work this week has finally seen me settle into the swing of things a little bit more, and I’ve felt a lot more in control. The students are all now responding to me a bit more, they understand my English a little more and I can use more German when I get stunned looks from the children. I also understand them when they speak to me, and I can reply rather than just say ‘Ja’ or ‘Nein’ or shrug my shoulders and say ‘Ich weiß es nicht’ (I don’t know). Strangely enough, it is so much harder to understand the students’ german as they speak so quickly and more often than not, speak with a stutter so I struggle to catch exactly what has been said, or make sense of it quickly. I encounter the same sorts of learning disabilities here, lisps and speech difficulties, as I did in Australia and it only differs by the language that they speak. I am getting my head around it and I am more able to judge what they are trying to say. 

I have introduced a lot more of my teaching methods, and I have taught my class the Banana dance, a favourite of mine. They simply love it and beg to do it every morning. I also get pleads for my colour song (our current theme is colour and shape) and my goodmorning song. This all happens during morning circle time, which I have run on my own all week as I was the only teacher in the room till 10am each day. So I am very proud of how I survived this week! In the week to come I am scheduled to work the 9 till 5.30 shifts every day which means I will be present for morning circle but I will be with my co-worker. I hope she will be impressed with how far I have come as she has been on holidays for two weeks. I am also looking forward to showing off some of the projects I have done with the kids for our shape and colour unit, including a shape print painting and circle pizzas! The students achieving these projects, some are just 3 years old, so I'm proud of the results!

One of my favourite things to do with my students though is go outside to the playground. In fact, just the fact that we are allowed to take students outside the confines of the building is huge. In Australia we had to have full permission from parents if we wanted to do anything slightly different from the norm. Here, students study a theme each month or so, and a short excursion is encouraged for each theme. Yesterday the Panda Bear group went to the zoo for the morning. Just because they could. They just took the train! But I get to take my students out for walks in the Englischer Gartens or to the local Spielplatz when ever I want. This week, we went to both locations. The walk through the Englischer Garten was beautiful…. Until we came across the biggest wandering path of slugs, a good half of which had already been squished by bikes. They were disgusting! And imagine trying to get 15 students to walk in a single line weaving through a good 100m or so of squished and alive slugs. It was not fun!

But  do also love walking from the school to the playground, and have my students compare their knowledge on the types of cars we see on the road. Because you see, here, every second car is either a Porsche, a Ferrari, a Bugatti, a BMW, an Audi etc etc. And the kids know more than I do! It is just common knowledge and a daily sight for them. Me, I’m drooling at all the pretty cars just parked along the road!

This week has been a rollercoaster of emotions for me. For the last few weeks, we have been desperately trying to locate a long term apartment for us to live in for the next 2 or so years, as we must vacate our current place before next weekend. We struggled at first as places were going so fast – we would apply to view somewhere only to be told it was already rented by someone who was willing to take it without seeing it. And that seemed to be the case for every apartment. Michael did eventually get to see two apartments, and we decided to apply for one. While we were waiting for news about it, all of a sudden, we spotted a beautiful apartment online. We knew it would be snapped up quickly so we asked if we could be considered for it – without viewing it first! It was a risk we were willing to take as the photos really looked fantastic. 

After waiting with baited breath, and having a few ups and downs regarding our ability to make payments (my salary isn’t huge) we finally received word on Thursday evening that the apartment was ours! We get the keys on Monday and we move in during the week. Seeing as I have to work Monday through Saturday this coming week, we are thankful for 4 days in which Michael can take one suitcase full of our belongings at a time on the train to the new apartment. He then finally gets to go for a bike ride on Saturday – but I will leave that for another post when I can explain what he actually got up to. For now, I am excitedly preparing our belongings for the move, and planning a trip to Ikea for the following weekend as I know I will need a few items. The apartment itself is fully furnished and it has just been renovated – to the point that there are still apparently items from the renovation being stored in the basement downstairs. Our monthly rent includes electricity, utilities, internet, and a carpark. We have a pretty good sized kitchen (huge for German standards) and a washing machine and dishwasher! I will post photos of it once we move in!

So last of all, I feel the need to tell you about today. Today we went for a wander to the Viktualien Markets near Marienplatz, which is full of fresh produce, seafood and meats, bakeries and cheese shops, and they also have a large variety of gifty shops that sell hanging decorations made from grasses and seeds. They are very beautiful and they seem to be an important part of culture here. It is expected that people hang them either inside their house or on their front door as a lot say ‘Wilkommen’. Quite a few are made with lavender so they smell nice too. It’s the kind of thing I would like to send home as gifts, but alas, I don’t think customs would let me. But we wandered through to see just what was there (if I would do my fresh produce shopping there in future) and also to look for a particular breadroll. I don’t know if I have explained this yet, but I am engaged in a search for the most delicious breadroll I have ever tasted in my life. I tried it at work a few weeks ago and have been unable to find out what it is called or where to buy it. I suspect I now know it is called a müesliknopf but I am yet to find the exact one I tried. I had one today which was similar but it was too sweet. I will continue my search and report back.

However, this walk around the markets was then followed by a visit to Milka Welt (Milka World). Now, growing up, as a small girl, my family used to buy me Milka chocolate. I know it used to be available in Big W, but I have not seen it for many years in Aus. I’m not sure if it was just because my family knew the brand from living in Austria/Germany, or if it was a popular brand for many. But the iconic purple cow is something I grew up with. And when we came to Europe for our honeymoon, I was so happy to see Milka again. So I’m sure you can imagine just how *udderly* excited I was heading into Milka Welt today. It was a huge shop just full of Milka products, and all cheaper than the grocery store prices. They even had plush purple cows, lunchboxes, picnic blankets, towels – everything! So of course we posed for pics with the cow, and we bought some chocolate. I managed to not buy a cow – just. As I write this in fact, we have already opened up our first block and it is very delicious. 

So, here’s what you can look forward to in my next post…

Photos and news from our new home! Details of Michael’s bike riding adventures! And possibly my trip to Ikea Munich!