Getting into the Swing of things

On account of the many Catholic holidays in June, there was only one week where we had five days of class, that being the second week.  While this reduced the already short time we had to learn new material, it also helped prevent burnout, so necessary in an intensive program such as this.  Besides, half of the program is just LIVING in Germany anyways, so I certainly didn't mind.

Tuesday I was up early (4am) to Skype, and despite my best attempts to get a good amount of sleep I found it extremely difficult to concentrate and keep my eyes open through class and precept.  After precept Mareike generously volunteered to come with me to try and open a German bank account that would be necessary for me to receive my stipend during my internship.  They had sent me a form that stated only that I would have to make a bank account and send them the details, so I assumed that would be better done from Munich so that I could get the money more quickly once in Clausthal.  Thus we set off to Deutsche Bank, only to be told that I would have to live in Germany for minimum one year in order to be eligible to open an account.  Only slightly discouraged, we went around the corner to the Sparkasse, where we were informed that their policy was six months - closer, but still no good as I was only there for three.  Our last hope was the Postbank (the bank associated with the post office), where they informed us that the six-month minimum was actually a European Union law.  Now I was confused - none of the interns would likely be in Germany for more than three months, so how were we supposed to set up a bank account if the minimum stay was six months??  I was later to find out that, at least in my case, the bank account is set up through the University in order to bypass this restriction... wish I had known that then, it could have saved an entire afternoon of frustration.  In any case, the afternoon was not completely lost, as I was able to buy stamps to send postcards back to America (at .75€ each, and postcards being an average of 0.50€ apiece, they make pretty handy and affordable souvenirs... ;]) to keep all of my friends and family (especially those without computer access to read my blog) in the loop.  Since it was already getting on towards 4:00 by the time we gave up on the bank account, it wasn't worth trying to do anything else this afternoon and I returned to the Wohnheim.  However, I had more time than usual for supper, so I decided to make something a little more involved and bake Shepherd's Pie.  Not very German, but delicious and inexpensive nonetheless (contrary to what I had always thought, ground beef is MUCH less expensive than chicken breast, at least here).  The batch I made left plenty of leftovers, which I enjoyed with the help of the microwave for the rest of the week.  I also set to work sending emails about important things like the whole bank account situation and my rent downpayment which was ostensibly due a week before I arrived in Clausthal (I now know that since I'm staying in a dorm associated with the University they want to make things as convenient for me as possible, but at the time I was worried about my contract being voided if I failed to make the 300€ payment by the deadline - the last thing I wanted to do was lose my housing).  It was a little weird, only being a little more than halfway through the Princeton in Munich program and already having to think about the next phase of my adventure.

Wednesday I woke up early without the use of an alarm clock, on account of having gone to bed so early the night before.  I finally felt rested as I hadn't since before Berlin, the weather was gorgeous, and it had all the makings of a great day.  I had been looking forward to good weather for some time so that I could go to the zoo - it was one thing I definitely didn't want to leave Munich without visiting, especially after not having been to the Berlin Zoo.  I had thought about going Tuesday, but the bank account attempt took priority.  Unfortunately (as was to happen many times), the grad students also wanted to take advantage of the weather by taking the group to another of the nearby lakes and going swimming, and that apparently sounded more exciting to everyone than a trip to the zoo.  I was a little disappointed but nonetheless determined to fulfill my heart's desire, even if it meant going alone.  I did not regret my decision in the slightest - the lake they went to was dirtier than the one we had visited the first week, here in Clausthal there are more than 60 lakes in the area that I can visit (if we ever get a nice day...), and the zoo was amazing.  I'm even rather glad I went alone, because it meant that I could tour it in my own special way.  I determined to see every single animal in the zoo, and armed with my trusty large-zoom digital camera, I proceeded to do just that.  Not only did I stop by every exhibit and get some quite amazing pictures, I also (through some clever calculating) managed to be in the right place at the right time more than once.  I saw the zookeepers give the elephants their daily bath (and boy, didn't they LOVE it!!), not to mention the recently-born baby elephant out for a stroll with her mother, watched the sea lions and seals get fed and "sing for their supper", as it were, and even forked over 0.50€ to feed the zoo's herd of pinto Shetland ponies which included several foals (who hadn't quite figured out how to use their tongues to eat the pellets and tended to nip) - capturing it all in living color in both photo and video.  I saw baby animals of all kinds - giraffe, cow, duck, elephant, horse, mountain goat, deer, antelope, chimpanzee, and lemur.  I walked into the open bat cave and had one of the inhabitants come land on my hand, looking for food.  I saw rhinos, tigers, antelope, camels, zebras, ostriches, llamas, penguins, wolves, Prezwalski's wild horses, pelicans, cranes, parrots, peacocks, yaks, tapirs, wild boars, deer, kangaroos, orangutans, gorillas, polar bears, and many more.  I took almost 200 pictures - and few are multiples of the same animal.  To cover the entire zoo took five hours - but I did it, and I can safely say that I saw EVERYTHING that the Munich Zoological Garden has to offer.  It really is more of an Animal Garden than a Zoo - nearly all the animals are housed in mini-reconstructions of their natural habitat rather than cages.  The weather was perfect for walking around and even the animals were all out enjoying the sun.  Overall it was a perfect day and I returned to the Wohnheim at 6 beaming from both sun and contentedness.  Supper was made easy with leftovers and I enjoyed a low-key evening catching up on some much-needed vocabulary study.  There was also a moon eclipse that night, but the cloudy skies meant that there wasn't anything to be seen, unfortunately (although I didn't really begrudge the excuse not to stay up until midnight).

Thursday's weather also turned out to be nice for the majority of the day, but despite getting plenty of sleep Wednesday night I again found myself fighting to stay awake in class.  I had ambitions of visiting the dinosaur skeletons at the Paleontological museum, but because of my tiredness and the lack of interest from classmates I ended up just returning to the Wohnheim directly after precept instead.  This was good, because it meant that I could spend more time studying for the second test on Friday before my evening activity.  I was quite excited, because  one of the other participants in the program was quite active with the Swing Dance Club back in Princeton, and she had done the necessary legwork to find out about events held by the local swing dance group in Munich.  While there had already been several opportunities, this was the first event that I was able to attend, and as an added bonus, one of the instructors of the Princeton Swing Club, a German graduate student at Princeton, would be there!!  Greta, another avid swing dancer, also met us at 8:30 to head in to the city center.  We arrived around 9 and found a quite small bar where not much was happening.  The bartender came over and asked us what we would like to drink: Sarah and Greta ordered beers, but I was still quite nervous about drinking any serious quantity of alcohol (the most I had had was three sips of a beer on our second day here), and besides had no idea what to order (you can't just say "beer" because there are always at least three types if not multiple brands) so I originally said "nothing for me" but accepted her offer of a glass of water, when pressed (though I had thought ahead and brought a water bottle with me).  We sat around and chatted for awhile, because though there was swing-era music playing (all in English, from actual vinyl records) there wasn't anybody dancing, and I certainly wasn't going to go asking anyone.  Our Princeton friend Matthias arrived after a while, soaking wet (the predicted rain had finally arrived) and we gladly struck up a conversation with him.  He remarked at how strange it was for us to be speaking to him now in his language, instead of ours.  Language certainly adds a certain tone to a conversation, and speaking to him in German was actually different than speaking to him in English.  Finally about 10:00 something happened - but it wasn't dancing, unfortunately.  Unbeknownst to us, the real feature of the evening was the showing of some 1920s silent comedy films, which we watched willingly, as they were quite amusing - for awhile. After about 45 minutes of this I began to get restless; after all, we had a test the next day, I hadn't been getting the best rest throughout this week, and I really came to dance, not watch movies.  Fortunately just as I was about to leave at 11 the movies came to an end and the dancing finally began.  I danced with Matthias, and a local friend of his, Erich - both much better dancers than I, but quite enjoyable to dance with for just that reason.  A very good lead (guy) can make even a mediocre follow (girl) look and feel like a quite good dancer.  Swing dancing, however, reminded me of the fact that in Princeton it was one of my favorite activities to enjoy with my boyfriend, and we always looked forward to Wednesday evening Swing Dance as one of the highlights of the week.  He isn't nearly as good as Matthias, having just begun to learn in February, but it always makes me laugh to dance with him and watch him concentrate so hard and mess up and be sour about "not being good enough".  I don't mind - I'm always having fun.  Besides, there are plenty of things that we do together which he is better at than I, and I have to resist the temptation to do the same thing when I make mistakes.  Part of being a perfectionist, I guess ;)  So dancing made me miss him, and my other friends from home, but it was also great fun and I'm so glad I went.  Finally at 12:15 I dragged Greta and Sarah away, reminding them of our need to get good rest before the test tomorrow.  Still, it was worth it - even if 1:15 was the latest I had stayed up yet in Munich.

Unfortunately my biological clock is fairly oblivious to what time I actually get to bed, and I woke up at 5:30 just the same as every other day (the rising sun shining through my thin curtains probably had a lot to do with it).  I curled up under the covers in denial until 7, but snoozing is never a good substitute for solid sleep.  I tried to be ambitious this morning and make myself an omelet, but my lack of experience and being in a rush (as I always am) backfired (as it usually does... you think I'd learn...) and I burned the bacon to a crisp, making a rather crunchy and char-flavored dish.  I choked it down regardless and rushed off to class, where (at least) this test was much easier than the last simply because I knew what to expect.  After class I was determined to take some serious steps towards shrinking the list of museums on my Munich bucket list, and therefore trekked off to the German Hunting and Fishing museum.  I was rather hoping for a more exotic selection, but, true to the name, the exhibits were constrained to trophies baggable within the borders of Germany - lots of mountain goats, wild boar, rabbits, deer (mostly just the antlers), ducks, eagles, even a stray raccoon or fox - as well as some rather impressive fish trophies (how about the six-foot catfish?) and all of the trappings that go with the hunting and fishing industries.  Most interesting was the Worpeltinger - a mystical beast which appears to be the demonic offspring of a rabbit and a chicken.  It has a rabbit's body, feathered wings, a cock's comb, and usually also fangs and antlers - like Germany's version of a jackalope, but much more frightening (just as German fairy tales are much more frightening than their Americanized versions - just read a literally-translated version of Hansel and Gretel or Rumpelstiltzken some time!).  The fossilized Giant Deer and Cave Bear skeletons were also quite interesting, and further piqued my interest in visiting the Paleontological Museum at some point.  Looking at the fishing section where they had a few exhibits on fly fishing and fly tying reminded me of my late grandfather, who really loved fly fishing and tried (unsuccessfully) to get me and my siblings interested in it several times.

After perusing the museum, which really wasn't that large, I still had plenty of daylight left, but didn't really feel like visiting another museum.  On somewhat of a whim, I decided to scout out another important item on my list - buying a dirndl.  A dirndl is the traditional Bavarian dress for females, just as Lederhose are traditional male attire.  Now, unlike traditional clothing in many areas, which is rarely seen except on high holidays and other solemn special occasions, it is not at all unusual to see a man in Lederhose, complete with suspenders, hat, white shirt and wool tube socks, waiting for the 8:15 S-Bahn into the city or walking down the street.  Dirndls are slightly less common, but walk into nearly any church which requires formal clothing and you will be greeted by a sea of the brightly-colored Tracht (German word for garb, usually used only for the traditional kind).  A dirndl basically consists of a short-sleeved cut-off blouse that reaches about the middle of your ribcage and is often quite low-cut (but really doesn't have to be), the main dress which is basically a sleeveless corset on top with a flowing skirt from the waist and can fall to anywhere from mid-thigh to ankle (the more traditional versions being, perhaps obviously, the more modest), and an apron, often made of fabric in a contrasting color or pattern.  When the apron strings are tied over the left hip, it means the woman is single; right hip, married; and behind the back for a widow (just as braided hair traditionally signifies an unmarried woman).  I have always been a fan of vintage-style clothing (and by vintage I mean going back several centuries, not decades) and looking slightly ridiculous/awesome, and one of my boyfriend's more secret interests is Renaissance ballroom dance, complete with (of course) period garb (sorry dear, cat's out of the bag now ;]).  So, I just HAD to buy a dirndl.  The only problem is that real high-quality dirndls can easily run up into the hundreds of euros, and many stores market them for the tourists, which makes them more expensive.  But after a bit of diligent Internet research, I had uncovered several possibilities for inexpensive dirndl purchases in the city, including a couple of second-hand stores.  My original plan was to scout the stores on this day, find out where the best deals were, then come back later to make the purchase.  When I walked into the first store to find that all of the dress-apron sets were in the 70-100€ price range, and the blouses were all an additional 25-35€, my dreams deflated a little.  In the next store, however, I was given hope by the sign attached to a rack outside that read "Sale: Dirndls 19,90€".  There were a couple of promising candidates on this rack, although many of them were only knee-length and with my lack of ladylike finesse (owing to the period of my life between the ages of 8 and 18 where my wardrobe consisted almost entirely of jeans and T-shirts) I try to avoid wearing anything in which I would have to keep my legs permanently crossed in order to be modest (because I simply won't remember to do so).  The next store on my list was Kleidermarkt - a second-hand store.  At first there didn't seem to be anything here, though there was a display in the window that advertised Tracht - the only thing I could find was a rack of dirndl sets for 70-80€ each.  But then I made the fortuitous discovery of the second floor - and hit gold.  Half of the floor consisted of "vintage" clothing - meaning mostly dirndls and lederhose.  It being a second-hand store, most of the selection was quite ugly, though the prices were certainly more reasonable.  I quickly discovered that none of the dirndl dresses that I would consider wearing could beat the 19,90€ price of Weisn Tracht & Mehr, the previous store - and I began scheming.  Who said I had to buy it all at one place?  I looked at the blouses - most of them were only 15€ compared to the 25€ of WT&M.  Why not buy my blouse here and my dress at the other store?  I had by this time decided to forgo the apron temporarily - I really couldn't justify spending 15€ on a simple piece of fabric I could make myself for less than $5 (my boyfriend actually suggested that I make the whole thing myself, but while his mother may be talented with a sewing machine, I am decidedly NOT).  Returning to the racks of dresses I found one which was remarkably similar to those on the sale rack at WT&M (though twice as expensive, and not new) in order to select which blouse would fit/look best underneath it.  It didn't take too long to find one that was a good balance between uncomfortably low-cut and buttoned to the neck.  Beaming, I made my purchase and tripped back across the street to WT&M (the three stores I looked at were all fortuitously placed in the same neighborhood).  To my delight, upon closer examination of the sale rack I found the perfect dress - just my size, mid-calf in length, with hooks for the decorative ribbon up the front (one of the most distinguishing features of the dirndl in my mind), and Bright Orange.  Yes, everyone, I found a Princeton Dirndl.  This will give me SO many more opportunities to wear it (not to mention making it exponentially more ridiculous and probably obnoxious).  I briefly also considered some dirndl sets that were priced at a much more reasonable 50€, but even the pretty blue apron with the black polka-dot dress couldn't distract me from the utter attractive ridiculousness of having a Bright Orange Dirndl.  Having decided to skip on the apron, I decided that an orange ribbon would be better at the moment than a contrasting color such as turquoise or black, but ribbon is easy to come by and I can change that later ;)  Glowing from the pride of my relative frugality and the success of my purchase, I walked on clouds all the way back to the S-Bahn.

Unfortunately my day was not destined to end on such a sweet note.  As part of my internship I am required to attend a three-day meeting in Heidelberg in mid-July, and I wanted to buy the tickets sooner rather than later, in order to get the best deal.  However, I had not fully thought out my course of action and foolishly went to the Central Train Station to make my purchase - at 4:15 on a Friday.  Not, as most of you could probably tell me, the brightest idea.  When my number finally came up after the excruciatingly long wait, I went up to the desk and tried to remember the times and routes I had researched the night before.  (I would have ordered the tickets online, but then you must have them mailed to you, and I wasn't sure whether they would arrive in Munich in time or whether I should send them to Clausthal, and I wasn't entirely positive of my address there yet...)  The woman was understandably harried and spoke quickly, too quickly for me to understand everything she was telling me.  My foolish pride prevented me from repeating queries of "wie bitte?" or "was?" until I understood (I didn't want to exasperate her unnecessarily), and the necessity of thinking on my feet ultimately resulted in my paying 15€ more than the online price had showed, and booking an incoming train that was at the very tail end of the allowed check-in time, though it wouldn't have been any problem for me to get up in time for an earlier bus/train.  In addition, now that I'm in Clausthal, I realize that my beginning point (the central bus station) isn't really the most convenient starting point for me, as it is a drive of several minutes from the University, so I will either have to take an additional bus or walk down to the bus station in the morning with all of my luggage (which will hopefully be not much - I think my backpack will suffice).  But, I will get where I'm going and things aren't QUITE as bad as they could be.  After all, I did it all alone and in German - I think that's called progress. :)