You Go Nate!

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.

...