WHITHER THE RIVER TAKES YOU...

I arrived in Munich not knowing anybody. I spoke no German. I had no job. I had no place to live but a cheap hotel. I knew that it would be a bumpy road at first, but I really had no idea what I was in for.

Six weeks in... I've made many new friends, particularly at Church. I'm speaking German (incorrectly, incoherently, but indefatigably!) I have at least one English academy ready to sign me on.

But....

I still have no place to live.

People warned me, soon after I arrived, that it would be difficult, but I thought surely it can't be that bad, surely there will be a church member or somebody who can help me. Much to my dismay, I found that surely it *is* that bad and even though I've made my plight known in several different wards there has been nobody who has been able to help me.

And then...

After extensive searching, especially on the internet, I've finally found a place to live and I moved in yesterday!

It's a shared flat, actually, and my flat-mate is a nice guy in his 40's named Boris. He speaks English, but is also good to speak German with me. He has a nine-year-old son who comes over to visit often.

The flat is in an old building (over 100-years-old) but the flat itself has been remodeled recently and so everything is quite new. I have my own room (furnished!) and he has his but we share the kitchen, bathroom, and living room.

Living room:

Kitchen (there's even a small balcony!)

My room is quite big enough for my needs...

...and I have more closet space than I could ever use (there's another one not pictured).

It's a great relief to finally be able to unpack and quit paying for hotels/hostels. Now I just need to get my work/residence visa and start working!


IN OTHER NEWS:

This past weekend saw the best weather in Munich yet this year. On Friday I spent the morning at the immigration offices registering my new address and starting my visa application process. Because I was staying in a hostel at the time, I kept most of my stuff at the church. So when I finished at the immigration office I returned to the church. The elders from my ward were there taking their P-Day and emailing from the computers. They were also trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their day. As I talked with them I found out that none of them had really seen much of the city. So I said, "Come on, we're going for a walk." And we took the U-Bahn to the Isar river and walked up the banks for awhile and then cut across to the English Garden (the "Central Park" of Munich). It was fun to walk around in the nice spring weather and swap mission stories. I bought some popcorn to share (and I made them all use my hand sanitizer... I felt like Mom!). Then we left the park, walked through the inner-city with all the neat buildings, and then walked back to the church where they could change and start their proselyting hours. I think we walked like 6 miles total that day.

Here we are L-R: Elder Klein (Southampton, UK), Elder Penrod (Ogden, UT), Elder Johnson (St. George, UT), Me, Elder Lugo (Laredo, TX), and some girls checking us out...

The next day I met up with one of the young single adults, Alex, and we took a train to the town of Kufstein, Austria nestled in a wide Alpine Valley.

Here are some scenes from Kufstein:

This was my first time in the Alps! We hiked up a mostly paved trail for several hours to the top of a great look-out point. For more than half the trail we were hiking in the melting snow, but it was a beautiful day and quite warm.

We passed this fresh Alpine Spring... some of the best water I've ever tasted...

By the time we got back to Munich we were both exhausted and our socks were soaking wet from all of the snow. I got some great pictures that day. Check 'em out, yo.

Yesterday, I woke up at my hostel and went down for breakfast thinking I had plenty of time before church started at 10AM. Just as I was finishing my breakfast (9:10) Another guy was sitting nearby and asked me if I'd changed my watch yet for daylight savings. Doh! I had completely forgotten! So I was late for church :-(

After church I had a few hours before I could move into my new flat so I found some eggs, cheese, spaghetti, garlic, and pesto in the kitchen of the church and I made me some lunch. Then two elders helped me take my bags to my new flat.

I had just enough time to iron my shirt when I had to leave to make it to the Theater on time. Remember how I mentioned I had met two of the cast members of the touring company of "Porgy & Bess" (I went with them to Dachau)? Well Adrienne was able to get a free ticket for me to come see the show! It was great. I wasn't too familiar with "Porgy & Bess" before, but I'm a Gershwin fan and I really enjoyed it. The cast was outstanding. I had a great seat too!

So after such a fun weekend it's hard to go back to dealing with the unknowns of what the future holds, but at least I'm making progress and things are going well.

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NEW FRIENDS --- SAD PLACES

On Sunday there were two visitors to the church ward I was attending: Earl and Adrienne. They are Americans and members of the New York Harlem Opera Company! This opera company has been in Munich performing Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" and Adrienne and Earl are both in the chorus. The posters for it have been all over town and it's playing at one of the big theaters in town. Adrienne is also a church member from Michigan, whereas Earl is married to a church member and is favorably inclined towards Mormons. They don't speak German but the missionaries translated for them. It was fun to talk to them about their touring experiences and whatnot. They said they had Tuesday off and were going to Dachau that day if I'd like to come along. "Well sure," I said. And so I did....


I met up with them at the train station where we bought our tour tickets and met our guide. With about ten other people in the group we headed off to Dachau and the site of the first Nazi Concentration Camp.

Dachau is actually a suburb of Munich these days and it didn't take long to get there. The weather was cold and windy with intermittent snow flurries. It was somber weather for a somber place.

Most people know the sordid history of the Nazi Concentration Camps, and if they don't, there are better places than Nate's blog to find out about them. So I won't go into too much detail of what happened here. I will, however, give some brief info about Dachau and some of the things I learned.

Dachau was the first concentration camp and the model for all the rest. It was originally built in 1933 to house political prisoners (ie: Communists, union leaders, people who spoke out against the Nazi party in general.) As the years went on it eventually became a camp for anybody the Nazis didn't like including Jews. In all but the final year, Dachau was a camp only for adult men. Women and children were sent elsewhere.

As prisoners would arrive to Dachau they would be led through the iron gates with the "encouraging" words "Work Will Make You Free"

The prisoners were sent to barracks that were set in many rows in the center of the camp. Today nothing remains of these barracks, but there are concrete markers outlining where they once stood.

In the early days of Dachau the living conditions weren't quite as bad as they would later become. Prisoners ate better, had tolerable sleeping space, were sometimes allowed mail, and sometimes even the ability to earn some money for their labor. This situation would not last, or course, and eventually the camp would come to be an infamously horrific place.

Here is a replica of the bunks inside the prison barracks. Originally the barracks were meant to house a few hundred prisoners each, but in the final years of the war over a thousand prisoners were packed into each barrack house.

In such cramped and miserable conditions, Typhoid and other diseases ran rampant and that was the main killer in the camp.

Escape was impossible. There was a deep ditch, a barbed-wire electric fence, a concrete wall with electrified barbed-wire atop, watch towers, and guard dogs. If any prisoner even stepped foot onto the grass boundary before the ditch, they would be shot immediately.

Also housed in Dachau were former SS soldiers and officers who had been court-martialed and sent here as prisoners. Also, all of the clergymen who spoke out against the Nazis were sent here and some were even given some space to hold limited worship services. Here is a hall of solitary cells where many of these prisoners were kept.

There was no real due process of law here and torture and murder from the guards occurred often. Here at this wall they would often execute prisoners by firing squad.

Of course, the bodies would have to be put somewhere, and so a crematorium was built to facilitate easy disposal of corpses. In the final few years of the war when the camps were over-crowded and the population diseased and dying, a new crematorium had to be built with more ovens and even a gas chamber.

Here men were oftentimes led to the ovens, hung at the rafters, and then their bodies burned.

Now, let me make a distinction: Dachau was not technically a "death camp." The camp was not designed for mass executions like Auschwitz was. When the new crematorium was built, however, it included a gas chamber though there is no evidence that it was ever used.

Here is the slot where tablets of poison gas could be inserted and transfered to the gas chamber.

And this is inside the gas chamber itself.

The camp was finally liberated by the US in 1945 and became a prison for German prisoners of war, and then it became a refugee camp for the people fleeing from East Germany. Finally, in the 60's it became a monument and museum for the Holocaust.

There are memorials throughout the camp today including this one.

As we left Dachau the sun came out and we had a pleasant trip back to Munich.

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Sorry... but things have been rather boaring lately...

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.....nothing yet.




But if you're looking for a blog to read....

GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS

...But first, lets pick up where we left off... I was in Krefeld staying with Solveig and her family.

On Sunday we slept in and Jack took me on a bike ride around Krefeld. Most German cities are very bike-friendly and Krefeld was no exception. Bike rides are fun.

The next day Jack took me to the train station and I boarded a commuter train to Köln (Cologne). When I got to Köln I had about 35 minutes before my train for Munich would come. To my delight, Miss Yummy Yummy was there at the train station....

...wait, try again.

To my delight, I saw that literally right next to the Köln train station is the ginormous gothic Köln Cathedral. It's HUGE!!! It's one of the largest cathedrals in the world and quite impossible to photograph properly.

So with my two backpacks on I ran over to the Cathedral and started snapping whatever photos I could hoping some would turn out well....

From 1880-1884 this was the tallest building in the world...

I even ran inside for a few shots of the interior...

I had plenty of time to make my train... and I was off to Munich.

The train went through Bonn, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Ulm.

In Ulm I was able to catch a glimpse of the Ulm Cathedral which has the highest spire in the world... or at least in Germany, it overtook the Köln cathedral in 1884 as the tallest structure in the world. Then in 1889 the Eiffel Tower was built and that was that...

Finally I returned to a sunny and warm Munich.


And none too soon... I found a giant piece of poo attacking children near the Marienplatz!

So, back to the Good News/Bad News....

GOOD NEWS:

I met with another language institute yesterday and it went very well. They are prepared to hire me as a teacher! However, it gets a little more complicated....

The way it works here for English Trainers is that most of them are "free-lance" which means that they have contracts with several institutes. The trainer tells the institute what times they are available for teaching and if the institute has a client for that time, then they offer it to the trainer. Most of the language instruction is for business clients and it usually occurs at the place of business in an office or conference room.

So, there is a lot of travel involved, and I will need to apply to several more schools so that I can have enough work. In talking to other trainers, they say that it starts out a little slow at first and then picks up quickly. After meeting a few American trainers and speaking with them, I don't think it will be too hard for me to get contracts with other schools.

BAD NEWS:

I cannot work until I have a work visa. I cannot get a work visa until I have a residence permit. I cannot get a residence permit until I have a permanent residence. So I must find an apartment and fast. The problem: Munich is a notoriously difficult and expensive place for finding an apartment. When I tell people that I'm looking for an apartment they give me a look of such pity it is as if I just told them I have cancer.

To make matters worse, many landlords demand proof of employment. Chicken and the Egg.

Also, each day that goes by I'm spending more money living in a hotel (albeit cheap... but not THAT cheap).

That's the lowdown. It is a little bit discouraging and overwhelming, especially where I don't speak the language too well. BUT! I can either wring my hands and fret about all of this, or put my wits to use and find reward in the effort. I choose to enjoy the challenge!

This post brought to you by the following paid advertisement:

Crossing Into New Lands!

Friday was a very full and fun day. We slept in a bit and had a nice breakfast. We then jumped in the car and headed towards The Netherlands!

On the way we stopped at this overlook into an enormous coal excavation. It was enormous. So enourmous that I had to take four enormous photos to capture it. Here is an enormous panorama of the enormous coal excavation. Click the picture below to see the ENORMOUS panorama....

We continued on until we passed through into The Netherlands. Another country to check off my list.

We drove to the Tri-Border with The Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium. The Tri-Border was also a few meters away from the highest point in The Netherlands. Here is Solveig and I at the marker. I felt a bit like Sir Edmund Hillary. It was exhilarating!

Here I am at the Tri-Border marker with my back leg in Germany, my front foot firmly in The Netherlands, and my hand in Belgium. I was in BENEGERM... like BENELUX but now better tasting! (obscure joke)

There was a tower on the Belgian side of the border and Jack and I went up for a look while Solveig and Sidney ate some fries.

Here I am overlooking The Netherlands...



...And here is a nice green town in Belgium.

Afterwards, we drove a little ways to the American WWII Cemetery. Here rests over 8,000 American soldiers who died in the area during World War II. The land was gifted to the US by the Dutch people and it is the only one in The Netherlands.

Here I am trying to look sober, but I actually just look ticked off.

I wasn't... I was sober... A happy sober...

Rows of crosses...

The Memorial

Our next stop was the town of Valkenburg (Falcon Castle). This was a small but very interesting Dutch town built upon soft limestone rock. Many of the buildings are built from this rock.



The ruins of a castle overlook the city and you must pass beneath the old gate to enter the inner-city...



We walked around the city for a bit and then ate lunch. I had a typical Dutch dish: Indonesian Kabobs. Indonesia was a Dutch colony and there is a big Indonesian population. Thus, Dutch cuisine has many Indonesian touches. It was tasty!

Next it was time to go up into the castle. It was pretty ruined, however and so there wasn't too much to see.

Here is Solveig, Jack, Sidney, and I in Valkenburg.

We drove home and left Sidney with the baby-sitter, then we went to the traveling circus!



This wasn't your circus with creepy clowns and poor animals. This was an acrobatic circus called "Flic Flac" and it was very good.

The crowd waiting for the show to start....

There were a variety of solo and team acts all set to heavy Rammstein music.

This woman was very flexible. She reminded me of how good I used to be at Hands-Up-Stands-Up...

The monkey bar guys were cool...

Of course, you have to have a trapeeze artist...




The highlight was the motorcycle ball. It began with eight motorcyclists riding around in this ball...

Then it was five! Then it became eight!

Here is footage of EIGHT motorcyclists riding around in this little ball. It was incredible.




At the very end they turned the stage into a pool and it rained from the ceiling. Then all the acrobats got to come out and have a big community shower while taking their bows....

We went home and I slept great after a long and fun day.

Don't forget to check out the latest pics from Friday!