I'm going to try to summarize this as concisely and clearly as possible. Despite my rough start here in Munich, I'm starting to get my sea-legs and learn the city and BMW a bit more. It's actually a very friendly city if you are a friendly person. That sounds a bit strange, but I'll start with a synopsis of the past few days and you'll start to see what I mean.
Monday: FIZ and Apartment
I was a bit nervous for my first day at work and understandably so! Would I get lost on the U-Bahn? (a constant fear since everything, and I do mean everything is in German) Would I like my co-workers? What about all the logistical things like signing my contract? I nearly had a panic attack thinking of all these things the night before. I was beginning to wonder if I could handle this Munich adventure. Well, things got started when I left the Hostel at 8.15. I knew the train ride would only take 15 minutes, but I still left 45 minutes early just to make sure I had time to get lost and still be on time. It turns out that German trains are marvelously efficient so I was ~20 minutes early once I counted in walking to and from the U-Bahn. This wasn't a bad thing, since I had to check in as a visitor and between the receptionist and my broken German that took longer than I would have anticipated.
Anyway, I met my mentor and he proceeded to give me a 'quick' tour of FIZ (Forschungs- und Innovationszentrum). Some designer, in his infinite wisdom, decided that he would paint all the hallways the same sterile white and pave the entire building with an enthusiastic palette of grey tiles. Everything looks the same and I am sure I will get lost in this building endlessly. However, I can forgive their lack of creativity in the building because the real fun started when I got a tour of the parking lot. All the BMW prototypes are constantly driving around the complex and they are awesome. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to take photos while I'm at work, but if I see one of the prototypes on the street while I'm walking home I'll try to get a pic and post it!
I didn't have much work-- just a quick orientation, but I found out that I got housing at the BMW apartments! So, I went back to the Euro Youth Hotel, checked out and moved in that night. I have a 2-bed room, but I didn't meet my roommate until the following morning because I was so tired. Needless to say, I was grateful both my wishes had been fulfilled: +1 apartment and +1 roommate. Munich was starting to grow on me.
Tuesday: Kreisverwaltungsreferrat.
When you work in Munich as an international employee, you have to get a residency permit. This means going to the city's equivalent of the DMV. This hellhole opens at 8.30, but you will see a crowd forming at 8.00. It is the worst. I spent a total hour and a half there only to find I will have to return on Monday because their appointments were full for that day and for Friday. Oh, joy.
Work was once again pretty tame. I got my BMW employee ID which is pretty cool. I'll probably post a photo of it just because my picture just looks so dashing on a BMW card. This is nice because it means I won't need a visitor's badge which eliminates the annoying process of checking in each morning. Since we have a 3 day week-- Thursday is holiday and BMW gives its employees every other Friday off, I spent the day reading up on BMW business practices and learning about my department, Technical Planning. Not super exciting, but not super terrible.
Wednesday: Stammtisch
Today at work I didn't have much to do, but my mentor demonstrated his creativity with coming up for projects for me. He asked me to create a presentation for our next "Stammtisch" or round-table for the department. My presentation is just a quick introduction-- where I'm from, where I study, etc. I will make my presentation at the next department meeting, in German, of course!-- no pressure. Knowing that this was the only task I had all day and given the BMW corporate guidelines for powerpoints (BMW has it's own font and has strict rules on sizes of fonts per slide) I had time to be exceptionally picky about what photos I chose and to quadruple check my grammar.
After that, I went to another "Stammtisch," that my roommate invited me to-- this one at a bar in Munich. The Praktikanten go out each Wednesday to meet and greet other people with BMW. It got quite loud within the bar since, well, it's a bar. So I chatted outside with a few new acquaintances. I tried to speak in German for some of the conversation, but I think I made their ears bleed with my grammar. Anyway, we managed to have a good conversation anyway. They 2 guys I was talking to were quite interested in what BMW's image was in America and how Americans perceived Europe in general. It was fun to talk to them for a few hours and enjoy my first German beer (since I'm keeping track, it was a Tegernseer Hell). I should've taken a picture, but I didn't really want to seem that touristy around my co-workers. I'm sure it won't be my last Tegernseer, it's a popular beer here.
German beer total: 1 (I'm not going to count every beer I drink, for the sake of propriety, but I will add to this total each time I try a new beer)
Thursday: Feiertag!
I didn't do much today since I didn't have work and everything was closed. I went for a walk and it started to rain. I didn't have an umbrella so I got a little soaked. But, I did locate the Olympiapark and I will probably make it my running route to go there. It's less than a kilometer from my apartment.
Only other news worthy of the blog: I got wi-fi. That is why I'm posting this all now.
Other than that, I've also decided I will start a running total of the number of people I see in Lederhosen for the trip.
Lederhosen total for the past week: 3
That's it! I'm tired and I plan on going to do more touristy things tomorrow so I need rest.
Bis später!
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Day 1: The Hauptbanhof
I landed in Munich this morning at approximately 10.00. I got acquainted with the airport quickly-- locating not only the WC (which was more difficult that it should have been), but also purchasing a few converters for my american plugs, changing my U.S. cash to Euro, and picking up my super unwieldy luggage. Gargantuan bags in tow I managed to navigate my way to the Hauptbanhof via the S-Bahn. I think it may have been bad form to take up 3 seats with all my luggage, but in fairness, I hadn't really slept much and standing was probably going to end in a worse way.
At 11 my train pulled into the Hauptbanhof and I was looking forward to crashing in my little hostel room, less than a kilometer from the train station, but I was faced with a very distressing dilemma: where the hell was the Hostel. I talked to a nice old German lady, but didn't really get much direction so I asked a kind looking American couple who had a map if they could point me to Senefelderstrasse. We were able to figure this out and I checked in by 11.30. However, I wouldn't have a bed until 2...so I spent my time looking for housing, which is literally a full-time occupation.
I set up an appointment to look at an apartment at 15.30, and proceeded to stare vacantly at a wall in pure exhaustion.
I decided to get some food at the Hauptbanhof food court--which was probably over priced-- but I got a little bratwurst for my first meal in Bavaria. It wasn't anything special, but it felt like the right way to introduce myself to Deutschland.
At 15.00 I ventured to the Hauptbanhof once more to make my way to Kantstrasse to check out an apartment there. A lot of confusion ensued as I wandered through the Bahnhof (this place is huge and there are about a million people milling about at anytime), but by some act of God or good sense of direction, I made it to the Peteulring stop and found, once again, that I hadn't the slightest idea how to get to Kantstrasse from there. Luckily I was able to ask a nice German couple in my kindergarten-level German how to get to Kantstasse and managed to make to the apartment with out getting flattened by one of the zillions of BMWs whizzing about Peteulring.
In all, travelling has been exhausting and I would really appreciate a warm, cozy Wohnung and a roommate or 2, but until then I'll be here at this hostel looking for housing, wondering how broke I'm going to be at the end of summer, and getting nervous for my first day of work. I've got to sign off now, because I'm tired and I need to get up early to shower, eat, and plan my route to BMW! Until then, Liebe Gruesse von Muenchen!
At 11 my train pulled into the Hauptbanhof and I was looking forward to crashing in my little hostel room, less than a kilometer from the train station, but I was faced with a very distressing dilemma: where the hell was the Hostel. I talked to a nice old German lady, but didn't really get much direction so I asked a kind looking American couple who had a map if they could point me to Senefelderstrasse. We were able to figure this out and I checked in by 11.30. However, I wouldn't have a bed until 2...so I spent my time looking for housing, which is literally a full-time occupation.
I set up an appointment to look at an apartment at 15.30, and proceeded to stare vacantly at a wall in pure exhaustion.
I decided to get some food at the Hauptbanhof food court--which was probably over priced-- but I got a little bratwurst for my first meal in Bavaria. It wasn't anything special, but it felt like the right way to introduce myself to Deutschland.
At 15.00 I ventured to the Hauptbanhof once more to make my way to Kantstrasse to check out an apartment there. A lot of confusion ensued as I wandered through the Bahnhof (this place is huge and there are about a million people milling about at anytime), but by some act of God or good sense of direction, I made it to the Peteulring stop and found, once again, that I hadn't the slightest idea how to get to Kantstrasse from there. Luckily I was able to ask a nice German couple in my kindergarten-level German how to get to Kantstasse and managed to make to the apartment with out getting flattened by one of the zillions of BMWs whizzing about Peteulring.
In all, travelling has been exhausting and I would really appreciate a warm, cozy Wohnung and a roommate or 2, but until then I'll be here at this hostel looking for housing, wondering how broke I'm going to be at the end of summer, and getting nervous for my first day of work. I've got to sign off now, because I'm tired and I need to get up early to shower, eat, and plan my route to BMW! Until then, Liebe Gruesse von Muenchen!
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