Spring!

Finally. The interminable winter in Munich is starting to recede. Being from California, I never understood why people here got so excited about summer. Because to be honest I think in the Bay Area you get sunny days all over the place, not just exclusively in the summer.

Not so in Munich.

Actually the whole city goes into some sort of depressing hibernation, with the worst months being January and February.

It started getting cold in September but there was still a lot going on. First Oktoberfest. Then the Christmasmarkets and Tollwood (winter festival that has a berkeley feel to it actually).

So until then it's a bit cold, but everyone is still lively. But then the dreaded months hit.

Absolutely NOTHING happens in January or February. No bier fests no nothing. Nobody seems to leave the home. Especially since it gets a hell of a lot colder.

I thought December was cold but was also cocky enough to think I had mastered it. And then I came back from a week and home. And nearly died. I thought I was having problems adjusting but it was actually that while I had been dealing with 0 to 4 degree weather (32 to 39 degrees Fahrenheit).

But then I realized it was -8 degrees Celsius (approx 17 Fahrenheit)!!! Before experiencing it's a type of cold I couldn't imagine. No amount of tshirts, sweaters, scarves, hats, gloves, jackets, seems to make you any warmer.

Without any sort of major events and the biting cold the whole city pretty much shuts down. Munich is a large city for Germany, but to be honest its more of a large town and it's charm sort of lies in its many outdoor activities and events. Without them it's depressing as hell and these past few months have really draaaagggged.

But now the sun has finally made a reapprance and the first of the bierfests--starkbierfest---has begun. So now I totally understand everyone's fascination with summer and am basking in the 12 degree weather while eagerly awaiting the reopening of beer gardens and the increase of all the volksfests and such.

Nanny Diaries: The Ugly Truth

So from mid October to the begginning of February I worked as a nanny in Munich.

If you go and talk to English-speaking girls in their late teens/early twenties, you would find that about 95% of them are nannies or au pairs.

Why? Because it's the easiest way to get a visa to stay in germany and one of the easiest jobs to come by as an english speakers.

But to be honest, about 90-95% of these girls hate their jobs, or at least put up with things they shouldn't.

I'm not quite sure if this problem is particular to Germany or not, since I've only heard of good nanny experiences in the u.s. There is a chance that part of the problem that occurs in Germany may not occur in the U.S., since Germany is a much more class-oriented society, something that became evident to me because of their highly-tracked schooling system.

The stereotypical family is a such:

Kids: varies between absolute dolls and spoiled demon children

Dad: rarely present

Mom: almost always a complete and utter psycho. Typically unstable, tyrannical,demanding, and snobbish.

I think a major problem that most people don't realize is how much your experience as a nanny depends on how the mother treats you. She has all the control, because she is a boss without anyone to be responsible to. For example, if you worked for a normal company, there is usually someone who keeps them in line ie. stops them from being a lieing psycho.

Not true in the nanny business. And most often nannies are too scared to complain.

This results often in many annoying things.

First off, often times more duties or hours are added to the jobs then are originally agreed upon. Examples include aupairs having to be defacto working whenever they are in the house, last minute requests for babysitting, or adding on of cleaning/house maid duties such as cleaning the childrens shoes by hand, changing the bed sheets, etc.


Also, the smallest things will cause an uproar. I have heard many many stories of moms screaming at their nannies or aupairs for things tiny tiny things...and this could never happen in a normal job situation. What's worse is not only do they want you do to do all the millions things they tell you but they also want you to anticipate all the things they don't tell you. Leading to a catch 22 situation where if you don't anticipate you are fucked, but also if you anticipate incorrectly you are also fucked.

Plus a lot of mom's think they can treat you like dirt. They think they are better and smarter than you, although oftentimes they are so used to be waited on hand and foot their whole lives that they wouldn't know how to run their own households if they tried.

To be fair, I have also heard a few horror stories about terrible aupairs and such, but for the most part it goes the other way I think.

In my case, I liked the kids a lot but wasn't happy with my employer and how she treated me---nor could I really take the stress of having to do everything exactly perfect.

Being a nanny can be a great job(espcially since the pay and the hours are usually good) but I think you really need to find the right family, otherwise you might end up in a hellish situation. As for me, I am now working as a ticketsellers for a tour company and working in an afterschool program and loving it!

Whoops

Wow. Okay my last post on here was the end of November. So I officially fail at this whole bloogging thing. To be honest I get too busy and absorbed in other things and then just plain lazy. But I am going to give it a shot again. We'll see how that goes I suppose...it was supposed to be my new years resolution or something. Missed the gun on that one as well hahah.

Going to try to update at least once a week now...

My thoughts on the presidential election

The recent presidential election may be one of the most exciting and important that we in our lives will ever experience. It's got to be one of the longest--the campaign has apparently been going on for 21 months (and god knows it really has felt like years---I mean i can even remember right when Obama was just this random longshot, everyone was like his name is WHAT?)

Witnessing the whole thing from abroad has been a very unique experience. Because you're affected by it (seeing as it's been the world's obsession) but also so distanced.

I was constantly reminded of it, because one of the stock questions I get after non-Americans find out I am American is "...so, you voting for Obama, right?".

But at the same time, you're not there. Which is I have to admit a little sad--because i'd like to have really gotten into the spirit of the election. Europe was definitely following the election, but it's just not the same.

I did manage to find a free election party going on down in Munich which promised full election coverage (true, although it was totally streaming off the internet-- given the fuzzy quality---and onto a huge screen) and hotdogs and popcorn all night (FALSE. The hotdogs were more like wurst in disguise with wierd sauce and pickles and onions sprinkled on top, not so bad but definitely not a hot dog--AND they totally ran out of hotdogs and popcorn a few hours in! They did have plenty of overpriced beer though. laaame.)

But it was still nice to have a big location to watch the election with some fellow americans (as well as some brits and germans). Lamely enough it emptied out pretty early, even though the definitive results didnt' come in till 5 am german time. Which i guess is understandable since I don't think I'd want to spend eons watching some geezers at CNN talk out of their asses about random and irrelevant statistics unless i was really personally invested in the matter.

Which is of course why I stayed until the bitter end. And it was absolutely, without a doubt, worth it.

Just to see Obama's acceptance speech live, was worth every overpriced beer, funky hot dog, CNN moron, and crazed gay man terrorizing the audience.

It's one of those moments when you can truly feel inspired. His public speaking is very eloquent and very moving, and it really made me feel like I was truly experiencing a piece of history. And I was I think.

I mean the U.S. has not been in worse shape, at least in my life time. It's actually a very strange experience, because it wasn't quite so bad when I left but since I've been in Deutschland I keep hearing about all these job layoffs and school cuts and whatnot and it's so surreal to be honest.

But to be honest I think it's good. I mean of course the situation is bad, but maybe it's the kick in the pants we've been needing. George Bush brought us to a new low in public opinion and the far right has been leading us into bad decisions about abortion, education, and pretty much everything less.

Maybe this recession has been the wakeup call we've all been needing. Would Obama havven been able to touch so many people if we hadn't had this crisis?

To be honest, I've always been a bit skeptical of Obama. Maybe it's just my general skepticism for politicians---he just seems to be a little too good to be true.

But I sincerely hope I am wrong. It will be nice to have a fresh face in the White House and I am praying that maybe he can really inspire us all to create real and lasting change for the better in the way we run our country.

For the moment, I'm just happy that people are now greeting me with "Obama, wooo!" and that I can hold my head a bit higher when I tell people I'm American.

Germany may be bad for my health...

So I know that supposedly you get sick more when you go to other countries, but this is starting to get ridiculous.

In the past couple months I've had two awful colds, a one day freak stomach virus, and now I got a gastrointestinal virus (big words for painful stomach cramps, vomiting, dizzyness). This is the third day of work I've missed and it's starting to get annoying. Hopefully i will be better tommorrow though.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been hectic, but I have been working at a job in Munich for about a month and finally found a place to live about a week and a half ago (after spending waaaay too much time in a hostel). I also just got my bed delivered from ikea a few days ago, so life is good other than all these diseases.

I'm seriously starting to wonder if Germany is out to get me...

Oktoberfest: Day 1=Day of hats

There are a lot of crazy hats at Oktoberfest and on the Tuesday we went, I wanted to try them all!




Daniel's hat




Jorgens hat...stole it for about 6 hours hahah






Crazy lion hat!



I even put up with some obnoxious Americans to take a picture with this hat! :D



Bruna liked hats too!





Ok technically, this isn't a hat---but its still cool!

Oktoberfesting: Day 1

Okay. Let me say to start off that any one that tells you Oktobefest is a liar. Or more likely just plain un-fun. Oktoberfest is the greatest drunken party EVER. seriously. It's great because its just a mass group of people, from everywhere in the world, that just want to get drunk and become friends. You meet a lot of random crazy people and make tons of new friends---especially if your name is bruna or melissa. hahaha.

So, the first day we went was Tuesday. Which was awesome. Its cool because it is ALOT less crowded--i.e. you can get into any tent you want with out a wait.

So on the outside it sort of looks like a county fair ground. And then you go into massive tents to drink.

The weather wasn't too great but it was still cool.


So a lot of different breweries make beer for the Oktoberfest (aka Die Wiesn to the Bavarians), so they had all these cool decorated carts with big barrels of their beer. They were pulled by giant horses, though and Bruna and I nearly got run over hahah.





The first tent we went into was the Armbrustschützenzelt. Ha ha now thats a tongue twister.


There we met up with Torbjorn (my norwegian friend I met in Oz)!!! and also his other cool norwegian friends studying in Germany.







At the next tent though we got lost from the norwegians and met some crazy steel worker german dudes.

They were hilarious because they kept sayings things like this (in a very thick german accent): Vee vaaant youuu for vonne night! and Veee are hooorny. hahahahah

On the plus side: We got free beer and i got a cool light up heart necklace from them.

On the down side: I left my phone with them after we ran off, and had to track them down at the pizza hut at the hauptbahnhof. hahahah they weren't very happy that we ditched them either :D



Luckily, in the end we did meet up again with our lovely norwegians. Of course not before, Bruna fell down a couple times and bought sausages and popcorn. hahah





but we found them at last! And partied the night away :)