Finally, an update!

This seems quite silly but for the life of me, I couldn't log into my gmail account or remember our blog's website. Apparently, I didn’t record this important information. But I figured it out so now I can share what’s been going on these past 3 weeks. This entry will probably be pretty long but here it goes…

I’ve inserted resourceful tips and website links for anyone that may find them useful since it’s a public site.

We arrived to Munich February 1. We took a redeye from Miami, through Berlin, to Munich. We flew AirBerlin and both agree it’s a great airline with good rates. We definitely recommend it. We received free reading material, a free “welcome kit” consisting of socks, ear plugs, toothbrush/toothpaste and an eye cover thing, a blanket, a pillow and food/beverage. We received dinner a short while after take-off. It was pretty good for airplane food and a good amount of food. We also had a choice of beer or wine which we gladly accepted. After dinner was great, we had a choice of iced Bailey’s or whiskey. We chose the Bailey’s and it hit the spot! We tried to sleep but weren’t too successful. Two hours prior to arriving in Berlin, we were served breakfast. Very delicious and, again, a very generous portion of food. With the exception of lack of sleep, a very successful flight!

We arrived into Berlin and was snowing. We’re on a large plane, too big to pull into the gate, so we have to exit outside of the airport and take a bus to the customs holding area. Did I mention it was snowing?? We got through customs pretty easily then ran to our connecting flight (our flight out of Miami was delayed). Second flight was a breeze…only about an hour and a half. We were a sight to see with our 4 suitcases and two backpacks. It really hit that we were in Germany when we were trying to find the train and everything is in German. Neither of speak/read any German. The train ride was pretty through the suburbs and snow covered the ground. We arrived at Hauptbahnhof, the central stations, and were completely confused. Remember, we also have 4 suitcases and 2 backpacks with us. We stuck out. This sweet old lady that couldn’t speak a word of English help us find the street we were searching her. Thankfully, our hostel was only a block away and found it easily.

Side info: Make sure to validate your ticket before entering the train, they do check. It was about 20 EUR for our ticket from the Munich airport into the city. There is are single tickets and then a ticket for up to 5 people (Partner Day Ticket), the later, I believe, is cheaper for two people. Check out this site for more information: http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/en/home/tickets/faresoverview/index.html

Wombats Hostel in Munich: http://www.wombats-hostels.com/munich/
Great hostel and I highly recommend it. It’s in the middle of the city and 2 seconds from the central train station. We stayed in a 6 person mixed-gender room. They provide lockers (must have your own lock, you may be able to rent one) and the bathrooms are in the rooms. Downstairs there is a nice atrium, computer station, luggage storage and a bar. Unfortunately, there is no internet in the rooms so we spent a good amount of time in the atrium looking for apartments online. We also enjoyed the Wombats bar. Upon arrival, reception gave us free drink coupons. They also have 1 EUR happy hour daily from 6-8. There’s a pool table, couches and a TV. You can also rent board games. The staff was super friendly and very helpful. They also serve breakfast for a few Euros but we never ate it. It did look good though.

Tip: http://www.hostelworld.com/  is a great sight when searching for hostels.

We got to Munich YAY! But now we have to search for an apartment. I had spent countless hours on websites and emailing leads before we left the States with no luck. We were given a great website to search: www.wg-gesucht.de

We looked at 2 apartment our second night here and knew that the apartment in West End was going to be our home. We live in a 5 story walk-up (93 steps) on the top floor. You enter the first door and there are 5 apartments. We all share 2 toilets and a shower. May sound bad but it actually doesn’t bother us. We haven’t run into any issues of needing either while occupied. There’s also a cleaning lady as I have a fear of cleaning toilets (ask my mom), especially toilets that other people are using. Downside…you must pay -.50 EUR for 10 minutes of hot water for the shower. Needless to say, we take quick showers….that water turns cold real fast! We have a kitchen in our room with a sink, 2 burners and a mini fridge (standard in Europe). We have a wall unit with “cubbies” as our closet/drawers. This would terrify me in the US but since I could only bring 2 suitcases, everything fits. We have a large table, a queen bed and a TV. Other downside, the only English channel is CNN News but I’m thankful to have that. We don’t really watch much TV, we’d rather be out exploring the city or enjoying a German beer! It’s pretty spacious and we love our temporary home. We can only live here until April 7^th when the person we’re renting from returns from vacation. The other tenants are students attending University and seem to be our age. Our next door neighbor, Tsee, is a Chinese male studying abroad. He has been extremely helpful and his English is good enough to communicate with us. Our apartment is super cheap and overlooks a nice park. We love the area and are located right by a U-Bahn station (subway). The Oktoberfest Park is only a few blocks away and it’s great for running.

If you want to see where we live you can Google “West End, Munich”…don’t want stalkers knowing my address.

One of the reasons we chose to live in Munich was for public transportation. It’s great but was a little bit confusing at first. My most valuable website in Munich as of now is http://mvv-muenchen.de/. You can enter your starting point and end location and it gives you various options of ways to get to your destination. I’d be lost without this. Being from Florida, I’ve only used public transportation a few times. I’m sure this is a normal thing but the trains/trams/buses arrive at a specific time so you know when you need to catch it or a connecting method. I find this so wonderful. I do have to say, my first time riding the bus here I was scared for my life. This driver was insane but to his credit, he knew how to maneuver that thing! I thought we were going to hit cars, pedestrians and various other objects but I arrived safely at my destination.

Here’s the confusing part, at least at first. You buy passes according to “rings.” See http://mvv-muenchen.de/web4archiv/objects/download/tarifplan10gesamtenglisch.pdf for visual. You must pay your fare according to number of rings you enter. So if you live out in the 8^th ring, you must pay for all 8 rings. If, for example, you have a 3-ring pass and want to travel outside of that ring, you must pay an additional fee to cover the rings you will travel. I believe you pay 1.50 EUR within a zone (zones are per 4 rings), so in this case you’d pay 1.50 EUR through the 4^th ring and then another fee to go farther…I think it may be 2.50 EUR per zone after that. I think…I’m still a little confused on this one.

The subways here are very clean. I’m still getting used to the fact that you must touch the door to the train in order for it to open. In NYC, I know they just automatically open. The layout of the inside of the train is different from NYC (the comparison I’ll use since that’s the most familiar subway to me so sorry for generalizing the US subway system as the NY system). It’s really easy to navigate even though we don’t understand German. Mostly every subway escalators which if great when you have to face 93 steps when you get home.

U-Bahn/S-Bahn system: http://efa.mvv-muenchen.de/mvv/netzplan_Umgebung.htm

Job Update:

I’ve obtained a work visa! YAY! I can legally stay in Germany for a year, with the possibility to extend.  I’m freelance teaching business English through a company called Knowledge Point. The interview was 2 ½ hours and they asked some tough questions.  How it works is a company will contact Knowledge Point to have a trainer come to their place of business and teach English to its employee(s).  So technically I don’t have any classes yet, but hoping I get a call soon J

I’ve interviewed for a nanny position and hoping to start in two weeks.  The children and adorable and the family seems very nice.  I’ve also interviewed for a position at an International Preschool that will be expanding in September and needs additional teachers. I have my second interview on Monday so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Bryan has obtained a job with Marriott organizing banquets and helping serve. Hopefully he’ll be able to move up within the company as we begin to learn German and can communicate more effectively. We hope to begin German classes in March once we’re more settled.

Bryan and I have both joined club softball/baseball  teams in Gauting, south of Munich. We have our first indoor tournament this weekend. Practices have been going well and the girls are really nice. We visited Prague last week and enjoyed it very much. I will create another post with information.

We’ve had a great time so far and are loving living in Munich. The people we’ve met have been so friendly and helpful. A lot of people in Munich speak English so we can usually communicate.  Email or leave a comment for any specific questions or information you’d like me to post.

Hope all my friends are doing well and you have an open invitation to visit!