Founder's Day in Munich
June 17th
With the long week of training coming to an end, everyone was anxious to finally explore the country a bit, beyond the borders of this base. There are 3 military bases in Germany and although I am staying in the Panzer base, I actually work at Patch. As a result, I have to take a bus every day (which is about 20 minutes), commuting there and back will be tiring, but hopefully, I will end around 6 every evening. We did some observations and got to meet some of the kids that we will be working with (they are so so excited for the summer to begin and as are we!).
I had made plans to meet with a friend that I met in Beijing last summer who happened to also coincidentally live in Stuttgart. He picked up my friends and I at the gate of the base and we took us to downtown Stuttgart where we ate at a traditional German Biergarten (wanting to do what the locals do). I ordered some yummy vegetarian thin crusted pizza. We sat there as he told us some German phrases and common cultural differences that we should be aware of. It was an odd yet familiar and comfortable feeling as I was taking in the reality of the situation. A similar situation occurred when I met up with a gal while I was in Queretaro and we had also met in Beijing. Although the meet up was brief, the communication and relationship had sustained over time and I was able to connect with both of them even though we were from and had met up in completely different countries. We wandered through Stuttgart, taking in the view and the beauty of this city that I had barely just gotten to explore.
Early the next morning, at 6:30, Alexa, Devan and I left for Munich. The subway is a 40-minute walk from our base station. It was a lovely and refreshing morning walk through the woods. It turns out that the station is actually not too difficult to figure out and since most people can speak English, we quickly arrived at our bus station which was leaving from the airport. Upon entering the subway, we stared long and hard at the terminals and different stops, confusingly debating where we needed to transfer, but before we could conclude, a gentleman interrupted us, providing very clear directions to our destination. From there we took a 3-hour bus ride to Munich. Munich was our first choice for traveling because of its close distance and cheap transportation. We arrived in Munich to a hot (it had been rainy and cold the entire week) and people-filled city. While there, we met up with a few other staff and eventually running into the rest of them along the trip. A man stopped us at the center to tell us the story of how Munich officially became a city which explained why there are so many tourists and visitors on that particular day. Munich was celebrating its 858th birthday. Vendors filled the streets and different bands played at each stage. We walked throughout the city, taking a long detour through the Echingler Garden where we spotted many naked Germans walking around, comfortably and freely. The architecture here is magnificent with mostly neoclassical style buildings that stand tall covered in marbles and bricks. The churches here are also (surprisingly) huge and beautifully decorated. The 15 miles that we walked that day made my legs sore and I fell asleep in an uncomfortable position in the aisle. My roommate Devan had noticed that her ticket had a different terminal than the rest of our tickets and attempted to change so that she could ride in our bus. But it turns out that she had bought the wrong ticket time; 9 am instead of 9 pm... When we finally made it to the subway station, we realized that there was not enough commuting time to get back to our hotel for check-in and was forced to pay for a very expensive taxi ride, an experience that I hope to learn from and not repeat again.
With the long week of training coming to an end, everyone was anxious to finally explore the country a bit, beyond the borders of this base. There are 3 military bases in Germany and although I am staying in the Panzer base, I actually work at Patch. As a result, I have to take a bus every day (which is about 20 minutes), commuting there and back will be tiring, but hopefully, I will end around 6 every evening. We did some observations and got to meet some of the kids that we will be working with (they are so so excited for the summer to begin and as are we!).
Early the next morning, at 6:30, Alexa, Devan and I left for Munich. The subway is a 40-minute walk from our base station. It was a lovely and refreshing morning walk through the woods. It turns out that the station is actually not too difficult to figure out and since most people can speak English, we quickly arrived at our bus station which was leaving from the airport. Upon entering the subway, we stared long and hard at the terminals and different stops, confusingly debating where we needed to transfer, but before we could conclude, a gentleman interrupted us, providing very clear directions to our destination. From there we took a 3-hour bus ride to Munich. Munich was our first choice for traveling because of its close distance and cheap transportation. We arrived in Munich to a hot (it had been rainy and cold the entire week) and people-filled city. While there, we met up with a few other staff and eventually running into the rest of them along the trip. A man stopped us at the center to tell us the story of how Munich officially became a city which explained why there are so many tourists and visitors on that particular day. Munich was celebrating its 858th birthday. Vendors filled the streets and different bands played at each stage. We walked throughout the city, taking a long detour through the Echingler Garden where we spotted many naked Germans walking around, comfortably and freely. The architecture here is magnificent with mostly neoclassical style buildings that stand tall covered in marbles and bricks. The churches here are also (surprisingly) huge and beautifully decorated. The 15 miles that we walked that day made my legs sore and I fell asleep in an uncomfortable position in the aisle. My roommate Devan had noticed that her ticket had a different terminal than the rest of our tickets and attempted to change so that she could ride in our bus. But it turns out that she had bought the wrong ticket time; 9 am instead of 9 pm... When we finally made it to the subway station, we realized that there was not enough commuting time to get back to our hotel for check-in and was forced to pay for a very expensive taxi ride, an experience that I hope to learn from and not repeat again.
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