iwannaiphone

That's Emily...yup...holding up the....you...know...what.

So mean.

But I can hold it in my hot little hands on Thursday evening when I get to Amsterdam. Maybe I won't even like it.

And theoretically...I have signed up with the mobile company that everyone THINKS is gonna win the iphone business here in Germany. I'm hoping that EVERYONE IS RIGHT.

Yet more bikes

There was at least the intention to have some relaxing time this weekend. We were thinking that on Saturday we'd try to take care of some more apartment-related purchases and arrangements and that on Sunday we'd take it easy in the afternoon and go laze around the river or go jogging or biking or...something else.

But it was somehow not meant to be. Friday was nice - we had dinner with a colleague of Andreas' and his wife. Saturday started with an exciting trip to Radlebauer. Take a look.


Andreas has a bike, but not a "city" bike - not a nice neat streamlined thing that can easily be ridden through the city. He has a mountain bike, which is a bit awkward to ride as a city bike. And Radlebauer is the place to go in Munich to outfit yourself properly (Volker and Alex told us). Sort of like heaven for Tracie, no? :-)

We held off on buying me a bike because *my* blue 12-year old Trek works well enough as a city bike, at least for the moment. It just got a tune-up and is holding, but we shall see.

After bike buying, it was off to kitchen stores again, which takes HOURS if you have a consultant willing to build your kitchen of the future on his computer, which we did. So now we have two price quotes and need to decide which one to go for.

But then suddenly, Saturday was gone and Sunday morning was spent introducing ourselves to our neighbors and then napping and then yoga and then dinner out - and the weekend was gone.

Well, more weekends to look forward to in the future. Like this coming weekend in Amsterdam with EMILY!

Technofied!

Finally.
Internet is in.
Phone is in.
Mobile contracts done.

And...here's the place - with our stuff in it. :-)

It's pretty hard to take photos, though. All the angles and high ceilings pose a major challenge. But you get the idea now - better than the photos with just empty rooms.

Off to buy bath mats now. Very exciting.

Deja (Harry Potter) Vu

July 18, 2005.
This is Andreas, reading Harry Potter Volume number 6 on July 18, 2005 in Singapore, as we were shopping for a fountain for our balcony garden.

July 21
This is Andreas, reading Harry Potter Volume number 7 on July 21, 2007 as we were shopping for a mobile phone contract for me.
Needless to say, he finished it before work began on Monday morning. (ok, ok, I finished it yesterday as well...). :-)

Good to know...

We will be without internet for awhile. And running around getting stuff together for the apartment is taking some time....a lot of it. :-) Which means that for the next week or two I will not be posting blogs very often/writing email very often, etc.

But just to know that I am encountering crazy things around every corner....here is a "Sprueche" (saying) from a friend's father's foyer room.
In German:
"Wer ein Heim hat, das traut
Und ein Weib, das nicht haut,
Verkuende dies Glueck immer laut."

and the translation:
"He who has a home that protects him
and a wife that does not beat him,
always tells people about his luck."

The squirrel there seems to think it's an interesting saying...

CORRECTION!!!!!
The last line of that saying is supposed to be (Christian!!! how could you let me get this wrong?):
"Verkuende dies Glueck NIMMER laut"

WHICH MEANS:
"NEVER tells people about his luck." (As in...modestly keeps this info to himself.)

Thank you for the correction/notification from a friend...

Surf Munich

Before I left Singapore, whenever I told (especially) my Indian friends that I was moving to Munich, almost the first comment from many/most of these friends was: "Oh, but Munich is COOOOOLD." As if they could think of the below zero weather during the frigid winters here just by shutting their eyes and cringing and shivering.

In fact, Munich is not only cold in the winter, but it is also often cold during the summer. And rainy. Like now.

Nevertheless, the Germans are hearty folks, certainly not deterred by a little dip in the temperature. Like to 11 degrees. In the summer. They like to surf the Isar (river running through Munich) rain or shine.

Look at this brave soul. He and about 10 other guys were outfitted in wetsuits and doing rounds on this funky wave that exists because of some giant pipe or something at the bottom of the river bed which creates a constant wave right there. There's a few places in Munich where you can find people doing just this during the summer - diving into a point in the river where there's a wave, doing their best to stand up and surf for about 20 seconds, then letting the wave carry them backwards down the river while the next guy dives in. Then the guy that's gone backwards scrambles out of the river and runs back to wait in line to get back into the wave. Good training, I imagine, for the real thing.

Emily - you bringing your surfboard if you come here? :-)

Taxi Anyone?

Saw these freaky taxis at Marienplatz yesterday. I wonder if I could pay one of the taxi...peddlers....to let me peddle it. At least they look like more fun than the normal bike taxis/rickshaws.

Dial-A-Bike

This concept, I have to admit, is not new to me. I saw it before we left Munich. Nonetheless, at that time I was also very impressed with it - and the feeling has certainly not diminished over time. So I snapped a photo for you all to take a look - check out "Dial A Bike," offered to you by the Deutsche Bahn (German Rail). Very easy concept - if you run across one of these bikes, you can simply dial the number on the bike, get some kind of password code, which you then enter on the bike, then it's yours for a rental fee. I guess you can leave them almost anywhere and there must be some sort of GPS tracker on them so DB can figure out where they are after you sign out...

Pretty cool. Also really nice are the foldable bikes I see everywhere. They're super light and you can carry them by a handle with you fairly easily. No photo available, but if I see one soon, i'll show you.

Herzlich Wilkommen!

Ok...here we go. New Blog Number 1 (ignore the one before this, I'm trying to change my profile pic and it's not working....annoying.) It's 8 pm and there's a nice little rain shower outside that reminds me a bit of Singapore. But not much. Because the rain shower here is a polite little sprinkle. A few dew drops gracefully falling from the sky that are gently blanketing the road and the trees with a glistening shimmer. Nothing really like the roaring slam and slap of the air-borne waves of rain we have come to know in the last two years.

But...there is something to be said for polite rain as well, as well as nice warm (not sweltering) summer nights in Europe, where a stroll down the street to the corner grocery store does not require a cold shower when you get back and a change of clothes. :-)

Today was a success, at least a small one. And right now, this week, I'm grateful for successes in what I think will be a challenging adjustment period, despite our worldly experiences. Specifically, we had planned the entire morning for battle with the KVR (Kreisverwaltungsreferat -check out the photo of the waiting room...nice and sterile), where we assumed we would maybe need to lose face, in the fight for my 1) permit to live in Germany, and 2) (more important), work permit. We had to wait for about 35 minutes to get into the first office, but everything went smoothly. There were no issues with registering ourselves as residents of Munich. Office number 2 was the scary one, though. But the man in there said right away: "Ah, ja, ich kenne den Fall. Kein Problem." Which made my jaw drop - "Oh, yes, of course, I know your case. No Problem." I quickly asked him, "so what kind of visa will I get now?" The answer: "A permanent one." "And the work permit?" "Also permanent." Which means...no fight necessary. No more beuracracy. All done with the paperwork. Nice Big Relief.

So now the focus is on the apartment and we have two appointments set up already for really lovely places. And more to be made. Our service is apartment is the best we've ever had (of the three we've experienced thus far), and is in a great location.

But we do notice subtle differences. Things that remind us that the two years in Singapore were not just a dream.
1) People are TALL here. Really tall. I'm used to being one of the tall people. No more.
2) The light outside is different. Maybe it's because of the darker green leaves, no more brilliant emeralds. The reflections are different.
3) What the Germans think is "Tropenfeuchtigkeit" - literally - tropical humidity - is a joke. (Radio announcer said this.)
4) People around here really LOOK at you when you walk by. No surreptitious glances and then a quick staring at the ground. They STARE here. They watch you walk by. And trust me, we weren't wearing anything funny.

Munich will take some getting used to. But I made it to the farmer's market today. Got some lovely tasty tomatos and some handfuls of bitter forest salad herbs. And fresh chantarelle mushrooms.