Time is flying!

Well, we're without internet at the flat this week, so a quick post from the internet cafe.
This weekend was great - we stayed in, and had a totally 'non-German' Saturday: Ikea for some shopping (a new larger duvet - the one that came with the flat was for 1 person, and it's becoming quite cold here!), a visit to the local English language bookstore (I purchased Snow , the recent Nobel literature prize winner - it's by a Turkish author, so it's a good read right now as we're a bit closer to the country than usual; Kyle bought A Traveler's History to Germany, as we're seeing so much stuff it's good to know the reasons why), dinner at a Mexican/Brazilian place (the salsa was tomato sauce, what can you expect, but still delicious; the margaritas not so good, as opposed to the ones at Tacos y Tequila here in town), and then a viewing of the recently released 3-D version of A Nightmare Before Christmas (quite enjoyable).
On Sunday it was off to a different beer garden after some pancakes for breakfast - I think this is becoming a Sunday ritual! The beer garden this weekend was the Lowenbrau one. Apparently what they sell in the States is not the same brew they make here - instead the recipe has been changed slightly to 'accomodate' American tastes. Hmmph... We have been going to outdoor beer gardens, but as it's getting chilly this was an indoor one. We're hoping this weekend will grace us with nice weather so we can check out the Augistiner - its supposed to be quite great, but best (and perhaps only?) enjoyed outside.
Meanwhile, also purchased a Lonely Planet guide to Berlin at the book store - I head up there soon, which I'm quite excited about! It's a virtual architectural mecca due to all the recent construction (despite Berlin's whopping 18% unemployment rate!). We've been enjoying Rick Steve's guide to Germany, but the Lonely Planet book was just published in Aug 2006 so a nice supplement (though Rick Steve updates his books yearly).
And - tomorrow is All Saint's Day. This is another holiday in southern Germany. Today in class we learned that southern Germany (predominantly Catholic) gets 4 more holidays than northern Germany (predominantly Protestant). No class for me and no work for Kyle! Ciao!

VOTE!

Please vote!

We sent in our standardized Federal ballots early this week, but this only allows us to vote in Federal elections. We had applied to vote via mail in all of our local elections. However, our ballot has been lost in the mail, as it was mailed the 4th of October but has yet to arrive, so we will be unable to vote for Governor as well as many other offices and some important bonds that are on the ballot in Austin. Unfortunately, Texas does not allow one to use the standard Federal ballot to write in your choices for state and local elections, so we're out of luck there. Especially in Austin, I feel like our local elections are much more important and my vote has more of an impact than in any of the Federal elections, so I'm a bit bummed about it. Ah well.

Meanwhile, if you are looking for resources on the candidates and issues in your precinct, I have found the League of Women Voters to be a very informational non-partisan organization.

Now, go and vote, either early voting now in Austin (very convenient) or on November 7th!

A first glimpse of 'Mad' King Ludwig II

This past weekend we stayed in Munich and went to the Nymphenburg Palace, the summer home of the Bavarian rulers. It's huge, but you can only tour a few rooms of the main palace, the old 'hunting lodge' on the grounds, and the carriage house. I'd rate the carriage house tops, personally. The palace itself (at least the part that is open to tours) is not kept up very well if you look closely. Supposedly the Wittelsbach family still lives in a wing of the palace. And if you haven't heard of 'Mad King Ludwig' before check here - he was one of the previous inhabitants of the palace and has quite an interesting tale to tell. I haven't been to his famous Neuschwanstein Castle yet, though Kyle has several times.

On Sunday, after a liesurely morning of ... pancakes (! - courtesy of some Bisquick mix found at one of the large department stores off the Marienplatz) we headed out to a beer garden in the southwest part of the city. We took a tram there, which was wonderful to actually see the city, instead of using the subway all the time and not really knowing where you are in relation to anything. Waldwirtschaft Grosshesselohe overlooks part of the Isar, though we couldn't see it through all of the gorgeous fall leaves. It was a very pleasant place to have lunch/dinner, a few beers, and read our books while enjoying the wonderful weather. Prost!

Day to Day

So, we're obviously not travelling all of the time. Day to day is pretty much like in the States. I have yet to work up the courage to go to the meat counter, so we're sort of becoming defacto vegetarians except when we go out to eat. Last nite we did have sausage, tho, so that was a change. After dinner Kyle usually sits down to a book (he's currently reading Munich and Memory, borrowed from a fellow Rice arch. grad who's been living in Munich for 3 years or so; and I'm reading Strong Motion, in case anyone's interested ;) while I usually sit down to homework. We've just borrowed a DVD player from the same Rice grad, so we purchased some movies in German to help us learn the language: the Matrix, Spaceballs, and Schrek. We've also borrowed the first season of 6 Feet Under, which should be interesting to watch, as I've heard it's great. We're still totally addicted to Lost, so are very appreciative that iTunes carries that show!

In any case, we still have the regular washing to take care of, which like most things here takes a little bit to get used to how the machine works. When we first arrived, I spent an hour translating, with a few calls to Kyle at work to help out with the random 'Achtung!' warnings. It's a combination washer/dryer, though it's ventless, so that means it's more like sucking and spinning the water out of the clothes more than anything else. It is also very teeny, which means that you can't even put a whole set of sheets in the tumbler. And if you expect it to dry anything, you need to put in even less. What this basically means is that we do a lot of airdrying, as apparently do most people here. Our balcony does not really face the sun, nor does it have a clothes line, so that means the drying rack is always set up in our dining room. I imagine at some point we'll hopefully have a few people over and we'll have to put it away, but currently it seems as if there is always a load that needs drying. Dry cleaning? Well, that one we haven't quite worked out yet....

Olympic Park

On Sunday we visited the Olympic Park here in Munich, which was developed for the 1972 summer Olympic games. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for our picnic. The site is amazing - in the photo we are standing upon a hill completely made of rubble from WWII, overlooking the pond and the rest of the complex. The park is quite huge, and there is some concern as to what will happen with the large Olympic stadium now that the new football (soccer) stadium by Herzog and De Meuron is complete. As you can see, the Olympic stadium still carries some concerts (David Copperfield, George Michael...) but during non-football season won't be as popular as the Allianz Arena. We haven't visited the Allianz yet, but trust me, it's on the list. The Olympic swimming arena, however, remains in use and open to the public and was quite packed this weekend, complete with kids jumping off of the super-tall 10m platform.

Adjacent to the Olympic Park are the primary offices for BMW. A new building is going up designed by COOP HIMMELB(L)AU and looks quite amazing. It was originally scheduled to be open in 2006, but as you can see it's still under construction. The BMW website lists the opening as 2007 - hopefully before we leave!