Munich, Mommy, and Marvelous Memories!

Hey everyone!
Ok, so according to my calendar, it has been 23 days since my last post.....sorry about that.....

The first week in Stuttgart was a week of firsts-
first......
 -time seeing Charly (ok, it wasn't technically the first time, but still....)
 -time seeing Charly's high school (which is not at all like my high school-the teaching is less of a "watch lecture, then have homework assigned" style, but rather a discussion-based classroom)
-time meeting her friends (who, by the are all fluent in English-it's really impressive)
-time meeting her uncle, Martin (Martin reminds me of my Uncle John-he makes a joke out of absolutely everything!)
-time meeting Leslie, Charly's horse (an extremely stubborn, yet beautiful mare, who is a very talented jumper)
-Butter-Brezel (it's like a soft pretzel, except with butter inside of it and even more delicious)
-time meeting Cookie, their greyhound (Cookie was rescued from an Irish racing track where the owner wanted him killed because he wasn't winning the races anymore. He's only three years old and thank goodness he was saved and is now living in a safe, racetrack-free environment :)

Also during the first week, Charly organized a welcome grill/party. So, we went to a park that was nearby her house and one of her friends brought coals, and we were about to start grilling, when we realized that no one knew how to start the fire! We tried putting various things on the coals, to get them going, like paper, grass, twigs, leaves, but they would just burn and then leave those darn coals looking untouched. Anyway, thankfully one of her friends had a gas grill which we later used (THAT we could figure out.....) At the grill, I got a chance to meet a lot of her friends, and I'm really looking forward to spending more time with them because they were so fun to be around!

Dinner with Jackie and Florian-at "Die Reitschule"

After the first week of Stuttgart, it was off to Munich with my mom. The two of us had a blast, it was so fun exploring the city together. While there, we experienced the beauty of many baroque and Gothic churches(one of which was constructed by a prince and princess when they had their first son, so in effect, it was sort of like his birthday present!), an art museum that contained works of Monet and Manet (who actually were friends apparently-I wonder if that was a coincidence....) as well as other famous artists, the Hofbrau Haus, the BMW museum, the Olympic park, the Englischer Gardens, the Nimphenburg castle, the Muiskhochschule (it's the music school that used to be a main headquarter building for the nazis) and we were even lucky enough to see a marathon that was happening in downtown Munich! Every evening was completed with a visit to the gelato shop down the street from our apartment. So you know the feeling you get when you have a box of chocolates in front of you, and you know that they all taste delicious, but it's so hard to pick the one you're going to eat? That's how it was every evening-the gelato was so amazing, and it was a real challenge trying to pick one-chocolate ginger? Red fruits? Straticella? Greek yogurt with honey? Hazelnut? Coconut? Lemon Basil? Oh my gosh, the flavors were so yummy, and we always looked forward to getting some at the end of the day.

In addition to the sightseeing, just being with my family was part of the reason that the trip was such a success. We stayed in my cousins' apartment, and my aunt and uncle came to Munich in the last few days that we were there, so we got to explore Munich a bit with them as well-it's always fun being with them, and this was definetely no exception! Jackie and Florian, the cousins who own the apartment, were so welcoming, and despite their busy schedules and tiring work days, still made sure that we had a wonderful time in Munich. It was really funny because at one point, they went for a few days on a trip to Italy, to meet my Aunt and Uncle there, and told us that they'd be back on Wednesday. However, Florian had to come back a day early, and even though he sent us an email, we didn't see it and so on Tuesday night (at nearly midnight), as we were watching a scary TV show, the doorbell rang, and then we could hear a key turning in the lock. It was so scary, I didn't know a heart could beat as quickly as mine was at that moment! If he hadn't said, "Hi, this is Florian, I'm home!", I think we would've armed ourselves with a frying pan or two before taking the chain off the door! xD

The trip to Munich was such a great time, and undoubtedly my favorite part was being with my mom-we made so many great memories and I swear we laughed more than we talked! My first week in Stuttgart allowed me to experience the first shock of homesickness, and going to Munich with her was the perfect remedy. So, now I am back in Stuttgart, having a wonderful time, and my German class started on Monday, but I'll talk about that in my next post (but fyi, it's going really well :D) which will definetly be in less than 23 days this time!

This is the church that the prince and princess had built to celebrate the birth of their son-it was beautiful, but the bells rang for 15 minutes straight....sort of loud!

Lunch at the Hofbrau Haus :)

This is one of the Bavarian government buildings in the Englischer Gardens-but more importantly, it's a perfect place to take a photo!

The "i" series is a new kind of car that BMW is making that will run completely on electricity!

This was my favorite car at the BMW Museum-it's called the BMW Gina, there's only one in the world, it's made of Fabric, and it's completely functional! (not so practical though....)

 

Tchüss!
-Ania