Since I've been working so hard at work, I've not had any time during the workweek to do much exploring. Instead of a fun post about my traveling adventures, I thought I'd give you a little view of my domestic life here.
Yes, folks, this is going to be a bit of a boring post. But since you are my social outlet, I am going to continue to bore you anyway. :)
I live in the small Bavarian town of Penzberg. It is located about halfway between Munich and the Austrian border, just north of the German Alps. Roche has housed me in the Boardinghaus ("Boardinghouse" for those who need a translation ;)), a company-owned set of apartments just a few minutes off of the main campus. If I were to walk to work, my walk would be maybe 15 or 20 minutes from my doorstep to the edge of campus (then it's another 5- to 10-minute walk to my building).
Roche has provided me a car, an Opel Insignia (is that related to a Ford? I've heard it is, but it also looks kind of like a fancy Saturn), which I pictured in my previous post. To look at it, it doesn't seem that big, but after driving around even rural Bavaria, where the roads are wider, I would much prefer driving a smaller car. As much as it pains me to say it, I think a Mini Cooper wagon would be just about ideal for this place (don't choke, Justin!). No matter where you go, the parking spots are smaller than what you're used to, and the roads are narrow, especially in the city and village centers.
Within the Boardinghaus, I live in a one-room flat with a full bathroom. The apartment is fairly modern and very clean and relatively quiet (the residents are super-quiet, but there is a lot of construction in this little neighborhood, and they start as early as 5:30AM during the workweek). I have a kitchenette with two hotplates, a refrigerator, and a microwave, but I do not have an oven. The flat is also equipped with a TV which helps it feel less lonely. My bed is in the "living room" (if you could call it that), so I don't have a couch, but I am not entertaining, so the bed is perfect for watching TV.
There is one floor-to-ceiling window (that opens!) off of the kitchen and French doors to a TINY stoop on the other side of the flat. Because there is no air conditioning in most buildings in the area (including work and the Boardinghaus), the first thing I do when I get home from work is open the kitchen window. The evening air is so fresh and cool and it makes the night much more comfortable. Thankfully, it shouldn't get too warm during the time I'm here, which I'm thankful for; I may have grown up in Texas, but I love AC, especially at night when I sleep.
There are two main grocery stores within Penzberg, in addition to several restaurants, apothekes (pharmacies that actually carry medicine - in Germany, you have to go to the apotheke pharmacies to get any type of medicine, even OTC medicines and contact lens solution), and a hotel. I'm not sure about the hotel, but you can pretty much count on only being able to pay with cash for anything in this town, which is the case for most of the towns in this area. Even in Munich, you may find that a restaurant or store will only accept cash if your bill is not high enough. For someone who rarely carries cash, this is a huge change for me.
Most of the people that I work with walk, ride their bikes, or take the bus to work. A piece of me feels guilty every day on my 5-minute drive to work that I should be walking instead, but I also think that the walk from the parking garage to my office to the cafeteria and back is pretty long for me, especially in my high heels, so the guilt softens a bit.
Speaking of work, I have my own office (a container!) with a window and view of some trees. It's very peaceful, even with all the construction noise going on right outside my window. I open my window first thing in the morning, even if it's cool out, and keep it open until I leave for the evening. Because of the time difference with the US, I come into work between 8:30 and 9AM and leave before 6:00 or 6:30PM. This shift in time allows me to work with my German counterparts in the morning and my US counterparts in the afternoon.
I really like the German pace of the workday. When I get to work, my coworkers are usually in the middle of a 30-minute breakfast break (they get to work earlier than I do, of course), where they discuss current affairs and much of what's going on in their lives. Though I don't speak any German, it seems that their discussions at that point don't revolve around work, which is a nice break to the morning. Then at around 11:30 or noon, several people gather to walk over to the cafeteria for lunch. I always hear them coming down the hallway, so I always go with them. Lunch itself is split into two sessions (45 minutes to 1 hour combined): The first is the meal itself, and the second is a coffee and/or sweet in the cafe off of the cafeteria. If possible, we like to sit outside, but sometimes it's hard to find a seat outside because it is so popular to sit out there.
Then, it's back to work after lunch.
In the afternoon, there is no unofficial break like there is at breakfast, but I'll often hear a few people take a break to make a cappuccino or espresso in the small kitchen on our floor. Some times I'll take a moment to drink some apfelschorle (apple juice diluted with sparkling water, which is surprisingly refreshing) and eat a pretzel or pastry that I picked up in the cafe. I'm sure my weight gain has everything to do with Baby A and not these snack breaks... :)
In the evenings, I usually head home and make something small for dinner. In this region, lunch is the "big meal" of the day, so I'm usually not super-hungry at night. I catch a Simpsons, Family Guy, or Futurama episode on TV and spend most of the evening resting, being domestic, and catching up on US news. I do get a couple hours of CNN International on TV right after work, but there is only so much I can deal with - they have been focused on the same stories for two weeks now, and it can only be regurgitated so many times and ways. And as soon as those two hours are over, the channel switches to a German info-mercial that has the angriest-looking host I've ever seen - I'm not kidding, he looks and sounds like he's ticked off that you are watching him!
Then it's time to shower and bed. I've taken to showering at night when I need to wash my hair because I'm having terrible luck with hairdryers: I blew a fuse in the convertor attached to my own hairdryer, and when I used my colleague's hairdryer, set to the European voltage, it started smoking and tried to catch on fire (no exaggeration!). Needless to say, I'd rather go to bed with my hair wet and fight it with a flat iron in the morning than try to wash and dry my hair right before work in the morning.
Now that you've read about a day in my life, I hope you're still awake. I still feel so fortunate to be here and cannot wait for my next adventure. This weekend, I plan to go shopping and sightseeing (again!) in Munich with one of my coworkers, and then Sunday, I'll probably try to find the restaurant in Uffing that I couldn't find last weekend. Then, next week, Justin will be back in Munich, so I am looking forward to spending some time with him the following weekend. :)
I hope you are all well (and awake!). Ciao for now!
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