everything's peachy

I think at this point its safe to say that this has become a weekly account of the previous weekend. You might be wondering why this is. Are his weeks so boring that they don’t merit description? Are they so wild that they might cause scandal? Well, the truth of the matter is that every weekday is much more exciting than any given weekend. My days generally consist of me waking at 5:45, attending classes that don’t require me to take tests or do homework, and spending the rest of the day at home. No words can describe the adrenaline rush.

But seriously, I have plenty to do. I fill my free time by going to Olching or studying up on stuff that I’ll need in February or exercising. I also do lots of reading. In fact, I am happy to say that I’ve finished another book. This is a big thing for me, because more often than not I’ll buy a book and get 50 pages in before I lose interest. It took me years to finish Der Steppenwolf (~250 pg). I’m still pretending to read The World is Flat (~400 pg). Today, however, I can take pride in having finished my first one thousand page book, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I could go on writing a thorough review, but the fact that I finished a thousand page book (in less than three weeks, no less) should speak highly enough.

This past Friday I spent the late afternoon walking about the Christmas market in the Marienplatz. Its really a fun atmosphere. Lots of little booths stand there all lit up and decorated with garlands and ribbons. The ground is covered in snow and the air smells like hot spiced wine coming from all over. Its really something I wanted to share with somebody else. I thought of calling Barbara and describing everything I was seeing but she was presumably in class, and spending a euro a minute on a cell phone call probably wouldn’t have been as satisfying as having her by my side anyway. I waited for the mayor and an oompah band to come out on the balcony of the Rathaus and turn on the giant Christmas tree and then went home.

Saturday Morning Christy, who lives in Feldafing also, and I went grocery shopping in Starnberg for breakfast foods. We spent a pretty penny but finally got everything we needed. We chilled at her place until it came time to leave for our meeting with alumni from the program. We took the S-Bahn to a huge brewery and drank a beer with some Folks that we were supposedly supposed to be networking with. Not much networking happened on my end, but I don’t really need any more contacts than I already have. Afterwards we took a walk around one of the biggest Christmas markets in Munich and had some expensive carnival food before parting ways. I rode further north to see if I could catch some of the Bread of Life people at a Scottish dance thingy with Paul Jordan. When I got there I didn’t recognize anyone, and I had left my kilt at home, so I just headed back to Feldafing.

Sunday morning was Mass. Then I went to Christy’s place to cook some breakfast with Christy, Telia and James. Omlettes and French toast. It was sooooo nice to have something other than bread and jam for breakfast. We played some mad games of Jenga, ate cupcakes, drank Gluhwein and had an altogether wonderful afternoon. James left first, then Telia a couple hours later. I live a ten minute walk from Christy so I stayed and we watched Bruce Almighty and finished off the Gluhwein. The movie reminded me of New Mexico. I’m starting to have all sorts of these “memory moments,” which is not very much like the me that I know. The day was good, and I’d like to do it again sometime.

Then yesterday, Monday, the intern from the program, a sweetie-pie of a girl named Sonja, came to the house to ask if there were any problems or conflicts that the parents wanted to address. I had heard that another person in Munich had big issues with his family and had gotten kicked out. Mine, on the other hand, was a very short meeting. No issues. Just compliments. That was nice.
(Above: My view on the way home from school)