Flotsam und Jetsam

Nothing too exciting has been happening lately, but there are a lot of things that have come and gone in the last few months that I haven't blogged about. So here are a few of those things...


The Saturday before I went to Slovenia last August, I went with my friends Joseph and Emily and their daughter Megan on a little day trip (they are the ones I stayed with in France last year).

We drove into southern Bavaria to the Benediktbeuern monastery...

This monastery is famous for being the site where a medieval manuscript of poems was found in 1803. This manuscript is known as Carmina Burana (Latin for "Songs of Beuern" ...Beuern is short for Benediktbeuern). In 1935 these poems were set to music by a composer from Munich named Carl Orff. I'm sure you'll recognize it (you don't have to watch it, but listen to it as you read further)...

The grounds were very well-kept, including a beautiful courtyard...

A fancy chapel...

Notice the clock above the altar. I've never seen that before. It must be good for the congregation and maybe it puts a bit more pressure on the priest to finish on time...

Inside the monastery there was a small exhibition with a few notes about Carl Orff and his musical setting of Carmina Burana...

There was a wooden man made from the wood of a wood tree. Creepy...

Megan found a nice place to sit and read...

Megan and I outside the monastery...

We then drove to the quaint little town of Bad Tölz on the Isar river...

As usual there were detailed frescoes on the walls and façades of the buildings...

Including this one with a horse having a leg cut off. Maybe this was a glue factory?...

We strolled the walking streets and bought some ice cream...

It was a nice day and a fun little day trip...

Some of my English students are funner (more fun) than others, and at the end of 45 hours together in one week we often develop very good rapport. Occasionally some want a picture at the end of our week-long intensive course.

This was a fun group of five I had back in October...

This was a nice couple who I had last summer who were getting ready to move to Michigan for business...

Sometimes it's hard to say goodbye when Friday rolls around. The good part about it, though, is being able to get to know so many interesting people.



One day we had an elders' quorum activity where we went hiking. Of course I was game.

We were to meet at the train station and when I got there I saw a large group of young adults getting off one of the trains surrounded by police with dogs, riot gear, and heavy equipment...

Apparently these were "hooligans" who were in Munich to cheer for their home fußball team from somewhere else in Germany. The police had to keep a careful watch on them to keep them from getting out of control. I saw this another time while at the train station as well, so apparently this is the norm when a big match is on.

It ended up only being three of us for the hike!

We still had a fun time hiking at dusk near one of Bavaria's famous lakes. Our hike down was in the dark mists. It was cool.

On our way back we stopped at a small restaurant with live Bavarian music inside and a large group dressed in their traditional costumes enjoying the evening. We ordered Kaiserschmarrn on the terrace and it was really good. It's like a broken-up pancake with toasted sweet almonds and plum jam. Very tasty...

During Oktoberfest LEGO was in downtown Munich building the world's highest Lego tower...

Kids could come and help put the blocks together...

And then they stacked them onto the tower...

By the time they were finished it stood 98.3 feet, 550,000 Lego pieces. I didn't get to see the finished tower, but here's an AP image of it...

In October the Young Single Adults had a Pumpkin Fest at the church. The organizers did a good job decorating...

There was a good and spooky turnout...

We ate pumpkin soup and other pumpkin-related dishes...

There is nothing between me and the wheel of fire. I see it with my waking eyes!

I cry light...

After eating we had a pumpkin carving contest. I thought I would be clever and print out a Darth Vader pattern from the internet to carve into my pumpkin...

but I didn't have proper tools or patience...

And so I gave up and Sven made the pumpkin as scary as he could despite my Darth Vader incisions. I went on to have fun with the balloons...

In the end all the pumpkins turned out rather nice (except for Sven and my pumpkin with all the knives in it. You can still see a vague outline of up-side-down Darth)...

FAIL...

In November Angela invited a few of us to the opera house to see her in the closing night of the opera Jenufa. It was great! But I found it interesting to go back stage with her and see some of the other actors and singers running about in costume. It reminded me strongly of being in musicals in high school. Some things don't change much from high school stages to world-class professional opera stages. Backstage zaniness is one of them.

One day while teaching English we heard a commotion outside the window and looked out to see a protest in progress...

These were students from the University (down the street) protesting tuition practices. It was a big turnout and just kept going...

...and going...

It wasn't the first time my teaching was interrupted by marching protesters. This was a regular occurrence when I taught English in Cusco. In fact, watching the the students loudly march down Leopoldstraße brought back a bit of nostalgia for the workers marching down Avenida del Sol in Cusco...

So there you have it, a few odds and ends, flotsams and jetsams, bits and pieces, pumpkins and protests.

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