It's been a while

So friends of mine are traveling around Europe and they are writing their blog and it made me realize I haven't been writing mine in a LONG while.

I'll soon have to change the name of the blog to something like Chantal's world adventure as I will be leaving for New Zealand soon. Before I go, I still have a few travels planned.

I just got back from a trip to Sweden and Denmark. It was quite a cool trip, although a bit cold. But hey, i'll never say no to an opportunity to travel.

I stayed with a friend in Sweden, in the city of Malmö, only 20 minutes from Copenhagen. It's really cute, but not so big. I was able to see the museums and the city in one day. We went to a crazy museum with no particular order or sense to it. You walk in and see stuffed animals, then have sections on giving birth, an aquarium, paintings and a special exhibit on toys form the 70s...

The other museum had quite cool things like a submarine that you can actually go into, planes, trains and automobiles and a cool interactive section with experiments you can try including a brain wave game where you need to relax to win.

Copenhagen took a little more time to visit. We went walking around the city, did a boat tour, went to the aquarium, went into some museums. It's really a beautiful city with beautiful buildings.

It was a little confusing with the money though. Waking up in Sweden and having to use swedish money, then going to Copenhagen and using danish money and coming back to Sweden in the evening.

One thing that was really cool though (well cool after living in Germany for so long). We were able to buy groceries on Easter Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. And not even before like 2 pm!! It's quite amazing after being used to only buying anything Monday to Saturday until 8 pm and never on public holidays.

Now just over a month before my trip to Spain with my parents!

You know you hang out too much with Leah Depue when...

Now I know most of you don’t know her, but Leah is one of my favorite people in the world. I think we haven’t gone more than 2 days without seeing each other (except for her brief vacation to the States). And we probably don’t go more than a few hours without sending each other messages.

• ·      You understand and start talking in acronyms, DTD, OOC, KMI, etc.
• ·     You don’t need a Leah-German or Leah- English dictionary anymore. (schuldi, perf, I’m just schlaging it vor)
• ·      You have to take a picture of every man wearing lederhosen and sent them to her (and for your own pleasure as well).
• ·      You don’t feel weird to start singing a random song at an u-bahn station with people around
• ·      You van tead tjis medsage and indesrand
• ·    You always have a person who will think it’s a good idea to walk outside in -10 degrees without a coat on.
• ·      You feel like everything you say, should be said in some kind of accent.
• ·      Even though it happens often, you always get a laugh when she says she’s dropped food from her roof.
• ·      You always have to be prepared for wiggle time.

After all this, I have to say, that you can never hang out with Leah too much. Love ya Leah! 

Updates

Et bien, je n’ecris pas assez souvent je pense. Je vais donc essayer de reprendre un peu de temps perdu.

Je me suis fait quelques groupes d’amis. Il y a d’abord mes amis “toytown”: Leah, Lauren, Cherie, Sonny et mes amis de mon anciens appartement: Franz, Heidi, Steffie. La, je commence a rencontrer des gens de mon travail.

J’ai commence a travailler. Ca fait environ un mois que je travaille. C’est un peu weird de recommencer de travailler, mais c’est bon. A date, je ne suis pas super occupee au travail. Je fais des formations et tout et je m’habitue tranquillement au travail ici.

J’essaie de profiter au maximum de mon temps en Europe. Je suis quand meme occupee. Chaque fois que les gens me proposent des activites, j’accepte. Parfois on va prendre un verre, un souper chez quelqu’un, se promener dans la ville, aller au cinema. Dimanche dernier, je suis allee a la piscine avec Leah et Sabrina. Il y a deux piscines, une exterieure chauffee et une interieure. On a passe presque tout l’apres-midi dans la piscine exterieure au milieu du mois de novembre. C’etait vraiment cool.

Mes gros projets a venir sont – Fin de semaine de party car Ibo revient debut decembre pour la fin de semaine, nouvel an a Istanbul avec Ibo, ma soeur, Fabian et un autre ami des gars. En mars, je vais aller voir Snow Patrol et Simple Plan (haha les deux sont des SP) a Munich et  je vais a Leipzig pour voir Rise against (et visiter pour la fin de semaine) et en mai, je vais voir un concert allemand – die Arzte!

Christkindlmarkt

So the season of Christmas markets has begun. They are EVERYWHERE. You walk from Karlsplatz, to Marienplatz, to Sentlinger Tor to Odeonplatz, to the site of Oktoberfest (called Tollwood for Christmas) and pretty much at the exit of any U—bahn station. Christmas markets are plenty of stands selling (usually) hand made products. Most of them are food, hats, scarves, Christmas decorations, and of course, Glühwein. If some snow would come, it would make it just perfect.

It’s so nice to walk around at night when everything is lit up. The Christmas spirit is all around. I’ve been going quite a bit (almost every day). I usually go with Leah, Lauren, Cherie, Sonny, Sabrina. It makes me realize how lucky I am to have met these girls. They are so amazing and we get along so well. They are like my german family. It will be hard not to see them for a few weeks when most of them go back home for the holidays. I don’t think I go one day without talking to them. And soon I will have to survive 2 weeks! 

Differences

Differences

So since I’ve been in Germany, I’ve noticed some things that are different than what we are usually used to in Canada. Here are some random observations

-       There are not really any Supermarkets here. You know how you can walk in a Loblaws, or Maxi, or Metro and find EVRYTHING you would ever need. So many choices. Well here, the stores are tiny compared to back home. And there is only one of everything. In Canada, you could find 10 different kinds of cans of corn: small, big, 5 different brands. Here, there is one. If you want corn, you buy the one there is.

-       I’ve never seen so many people with leg problems here. Everyday, you see at least 5 people with crutches, or canes or people that limp or have weird feet. I don’t know why, but there are so many.

-       The bikes are probably more dangerous than the cars. Bikers do whatever they want. Don’t get in their way cause they won’t stop for you. And almost no one wears a helmut. You also have to have a light on your bike, if not, you can get a ticket from the polizei. Most of the lights work when you pedal.

-       People in the buses, s-bahn or u-bahn don’t give up their seat for older people.

-       When I was visiting apartments, I noticed that most german apartments don’t have living rooms. You come into a hall surrounded by closed rooms. Even the kitchen is in a closed area.

-       Most people have washers, but no dryers.

-       This is more of a European thing, but you have to pay to use most public toilets. Usually 50 cents.

-       People almost never bring lunch to work. Everyone goes out for lunch and has a big proper meal. Some companies (including mine), give you pay for lunches. When I am at the office, I get 3 euros a day in the form of coupons that I can then use in restaurants or grocery stores.

-       People usually don’t drink water or something when they eat (unless it’s a beer). So people will go an entire lunch without drinking.

-       When you order water in a Restaurant, unless you specify, they will bring you sparkling water. They drink sparkling everything here. Even if you say without, there is usually a bit of bubbles in it.

-       Most men do not lose their hair. I haven’t seen a lot of people with bold spots.

If I see any other interesting differences, I might have to make a part 2 to this post.

Munich vs Berlin

I just got back form a long weekend in Berlin with Lauren and Leah. While we were there, we made a list of pros and cons of each city to see which one wins in the end. Here we go, in no specific order:

• The men: there are more beautiful men in Munich than Berlin. Don’t know why. You just see them everywhere in Munich. I think it’s a requirement to live in this city. Munich wins.
• The smell: Berlin has this weird smell in certain parts of the city. Some, not to say a lot of places smell like crap and pee. Munich wins.
• Little ample man: Berlin has this cool green man to tell you when you can cross the street. It’s probably the best I’ve seen in any city in the world. Berlin wins, although I should count as half a point as this man is only in half f the city. The other half has just a regular little man.
• Cell phone coverage: When we arrived, we noticed that the data was pretty fast in Berlin. But after a few hours, mine seemed to be the one working the best. So we’ll give the point to Berlin since we had initially given it to it, but it may be a tie. Berlin wins.
• S-bahn stations: The s-bahn stations in Berlin are messy (garbage all over the ground), dodgy (some I would not want to be alone at night) and are not really that pretty to look at. Munich is clean, safe and fairly nice for train stations. Munich wins.
• Escalators in the s-bahn / u-bahn: We were so tired from walking everywhere, we just wanted to take a nice escalator up from the platforms in the stations, but most stations we were not able to find any escalators to take us up. Munich has them everywhere and elevators as well. Munich wins.
• Reversing escalators: On the occasions that we found escalators in Berlin, some of them would only go in one direction. So if you wanted the other, too bad for you. Munich has a lot of reversing escalators. So when no one is on it, you can change the direction and go the way you want. Munich wins.
• Frequency of s-bahns: We never waited more than 2 minutes for an s-bahn or u-bahn in Berlin. Wherever we went, there seemed to always be a train waiting for us. Berlin wins.
• Seeing outside the windows of the u-bahn: The windows of the u-bahns in Berlin are covered with pictures of the Brandenburg tor, which makes it really hard to see out the window the name of the stop you are at. Munich has nice clear windows. Munich wins.
• City symbols: Although lions are cool, the Berlin bear is really cool and there are statues of it everywhere in the city, all decorated in different ways. Berlin wins.
• Sewer system: For those who don’t know, part of Berlins sewer system is in pipes out of the ground around the city. When you walk around and see pink tubes around, just know they are carrying, no other way to put this, s**t. Munich wins.
• Dogs: Germany is a very dog friendly country. You can bring your dogs everywhere. So you get to see a lot of dogs. Both cities have beautiful dogs. tie.
• Finding doners: The doner kebab is probably one of the best fast food meals you can get in Germany. We had heard that Berlin made good kebabs, so we decided to have some for lunch. Well, contrary to Munich, you can not just go anywhere and find kebabs. It took us a day and a half to find our first kebab shop. I think you can find one every few blocks in Munich. Munich wins.
• Taste of doners: Once we actually found one, we had a nice lunch It was delicious, but they are delicious in Munich as well. tie.
• Crazies: There aren’t many homeless people in Munich that bother you. When we were waiting for the s-bahn in Berlin, this man came up to us and started coughing on us and when he left, he burped. A little bit weird. Munich wins.
• Catholic holidays: We went up to Berlin cause we had Tuesday off. We thought it was a national holiday (none of us actually checked what the holiday was, we just accepted the day off). Well, turns out it’s all saints day, which is a catholic holiday and in Berlin, people are mostly protestant, so they did not get the day off. Munich wins.
• Bike safety: In Munich, there is a special way of locking your bike, you just tie the front wheel to the centre part of your bike. You don’t really have to attach it to a post or a bike stand. And your bike is usually there when you come back. I’d say 50% of the bikes are just anywhere in the city attached to itself. All the bikes I saw in Berlin were locked to a post. Munich wins.
• Lederhosen: Berlin has none, Munich has a lot. What else is there to say. Munich wins.
• Speaking german: In Berlin, when you speak german to people, they will, 90% of the time, answer in english. This does not help you improve. In Munich, you ask something in german, they answer in german. Munich wins.

Well I think it’s safe to say that Munich wins hands down. This does not take anything away form Berlin. I love the city, but my city is Munich. 

German Life

So this is a more serious entry. Here is the story of my integration into German life.  When I arrived here, there were 2 main things that I had to do. 1) Find a place to live and 2) Find a job. After being in Germany for about 2 months, I can tell you all that this has been accomplished.

1)    The flat. I wanted to find furnished accommodation that was not too expensive. There is a website here that lists available rooms in Germany in a shared apartment. I spent almost 4-5 hours a day on this website for about 5 days looking and sending messages and calling people to visit the different places. Most of the time, you get no answer back, some e-mails saying that the room is already taken or they have offers…. I was nervous of not finding a place to stay in September because of the Oktoberfest. If I didn’t find a place in time, I would have nowhere to stay as all hotels and hostels are booked months in advance for Oktoberfest. One morning I called a girl who had put up an ad a few minutes before. I went to visit the room and she told me I could have it J.   Relief! It was only available one month, but at least I would not be homeless. Afterwards, I visited another flat that was available in September, but the girl said it was ok if I moved in in October. So I now have my place for the rest of my time in Germany. I only need to move on Friday, but I think I found people to help me out.

2)    The job. I was told it could take about a month or 2 to find a job in my field in Germany. I started sending out CVs to different companies from the ads online and on the websites of the companies. I was trying to think of places where I could work to start making money as soon as possible (restaurants, language schools, etc). Then one day I was on toytown website and I saw a discussion group for babysitting job offers. I wrote an ad saying that I was new here and looking for work. It’s crazy how many responses I got. I am still getting some now, after about a month. I was able to get 3 part time jobs from that. I had to start refusing some people cause if not, I could probably be babysitting about 50 hours a week, If not more. Also, one day, I went to a friend or a friends house for brunch and they had another couple over that have kids and were looking for a babysitter for 3 days a week. It was for their daughter and, if I wanted, the son of one of her friends). That’s not a problem for me, so I therefore got that job as well, watching two 2 and a half year olds. My week is therefore filled with 4 babysitting jobs now. Plus the occasional evening with other families.

But I don’t want to be babysitting the whole time I am here. On the day I had found my flat for September, I was so happy to have found something that I decided to have a drink at the hostel bar. The guy sitting next to me started talking to me and I was telling him that I recently moved to Munich and was looking for a job and all. He told me that he had friends that worked for accounting firms here and to send him my CV and he would forward it along. Any help is welcome so the next day I sent it to him. His girlfriend works at KPMG and gave my CV to her boss. I then got an interview with them.

I have to say thanks to everyone who helped me out in my process of finding work and how the people I met helped me settle in Munich so well.

To Alex, who introduced me to Tilman and helped me find my first job babysitting.

To Bianca who rented me her room, which made me go to the bar.

To Gavin, who I met at the bar, and gave my CV to his girlfriend that got me a job.