Again, here is the website for all our photos if you are interested.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cmsears04
We have had a hard two weeks, but also some fun times. Chris has been getting used to his work and the German way of business, and I am getting used to no work and apartment searching. We have done a lot of the "paperwork" these last weeks to live in Germany. Not much fun but have to do it, right?! We now have a bank account, which allowed us to apply for health insurance so that then we could apply for work visas. I have met with my bosses at the Kindergarten and the German teacher that I will be working with. We are getting used to the weather here. Really need to pack away the tank tops and take out the sweaters. Already had to go digging for the raincoats. It has been sunny one day and raining and cold the next. Lately, it has been raining in the morning, partly cloudy during the day and warm, and then thunderstorms in the evenings. So much for sunny California. We have gone to Nymphenberg Palace and the 850th Birthday party of Munich street fair.
Nymphenberg Palace was the summer home of the Bavarian king. It is now a museum and a great place to wonder around. The backyard of the palace is this huge park with streams and paths through woods. It is amazing. There were a lot of people walking around, picnicing, going for a jog. Definitely a nice place to stroll through.
The 850th Birthday party is all year long. Throughout the year they have been having different events take place. This last weekend was a street fair that went around the ring road of Munich. There were bands playing, from American hip-hop music to tradition Bavarian music. There were lots of food, mostly sausages, and beer all around. You can notice the native Germans as they wore their traditional outfits. It was very cute to see little boys in lederhosen and the girls in Bavarian dresses. There were a lot of things for kids, small size soccer fields, field hockey, plate spinning, juggling, medieval ferris wheels, and much more.
As promised, here are more pictures of Garching. The picture with the Maypole is downtown. Very Bavarian to have poles in the center of town I think. Blue and white are the Bavarian colors.
The main way of transportation is biking to the U-bahn station and then taking the U train to work. Tons of bikes. Lots of people on the train. Pretty safe though. I have read once that two bike were reported as stolen and the police were like, "really? Bikes stolen?"It just may be that they were just really nice bikes.
Things you would not see in the USA:
1) slugs: there are sooo many slugs in Garching! You really have to watch your step down the sidewalk.
2) people walking around with beer in their hands.
3) a bicyclist riding with no hands talking on their cellphone.
4) kids (even a 4 year old) throwing a sharp ax, that is sharp on both sides of the top, at a piece of wood during a street fair.
5) kids doing extreme gymnastics: jumping off really tall blocks onto other blocks a distance away at a street fair.
6) maybe not in California but elsewhere: a family of 6 girls ranging from 4 years to 10 years old, all in pink dresses, with their dad with a pink dress shirt, their mother in a blue shirt and skirt with pink shoes, walking through a park on Sunday afternoon.
7) nudists strolling around the middle of the park (okay, maybe in some parks in california)
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