What Time of the Year is it Mr Wolf?

SPRINGTIME!

Although this is generally good, it does mean that I am beginning to get hayfever in the form of a blocked wonky nose (this is usual but just more...) and stingy eyes. This is probably why I shouldn't go walking through meadows to sit down and write up vocab lists, but never mind.

I can see a big grassy hill out of my kitchen window, so I decided to walk up it and sit with my nice new Japanese vocab book before my Japanese lesson, as it is literally 20 seconds away from it. It looked like this:
And from close up, it was even more springy, but again not exactly helping the old hayfever. One thing I did notice, is that I am incredibly unfit, as walking up this hill tired me out far too much. I am putting this down to lack of exercise. This is due to the fact that all my old tshirts and shorts and stuff are still in Japan and I don't want to buy more. Once I have that, its going to be runtastic. If I go often enough and far enough, I may consider running in the Great North Run, but that is a long way away, I don't know how long it will be before my stuff arrives and 13 miles is a long way, so we all know this will probably remain as an unfulfilled wish.
When I got up super early to go to Munich the other week, I took this photo from my Kitchen- I think it is of the above grassy hill with the trees on top, but I'm not sure as you can't see it. I was quite impressed by the mist though.

I know I haven't been writing that much since I've been in Germany, but I hope it's not too boring (a field and some mist is hardly white knuckle material.) I also thought I'd keep my posts short and sweet.

Oh, and I hope we're all looking forward to Eurovision! I can't wait. Bye.

Mr. Bond, I Could Shoot You From Stuttgart and Still Create The Proper Effect.

(To make it look like Bond has committed suicide in Hamburg- clever ne!) It obviously all ends up with the actor playing the German with the increadibly strong German accent trying to kill Bond and obviously being outwitted and killed himself. This line could be the reason I've wanted to go to Stuttgart for a long time, although I'm not sure why, as it is literally only mentioned once.

Stuttgart is very close to Tübingen but annoyingly not very well connected by trains, meaning it takes ages and costs loads to get there, especially as it is not included in our student semester ticket which practically would get me to Switzerland (Yes I will.) Because of that there is no good way to get there other than the cheapest which means going somewhere on my semester ticket and then taking the S-Bahn into the city centre. It takes a very long time though, so I don't think I will be going there that often. Having said that, it seems nice.

I met Yohei and we went to Frühlingsfest. It wasn't as epic as in Munich, partially because it isn't as big, we are both poor, and because Yohei overslept meaning we got there when it was too busy to enter the tents for hilarious europop and dancing.

We did however have a beer:

Although Yohei finished his and we moved on to the next thing...A family reunion:

Then we made friends with a family whilst eating chips, although I have no idea what the little boy was saying to me as he had the strongest Schwäbisch accent I have ever heard, although it seemed like they didn't know what he was saying either.

Then we went for a döner and home. (It all seems like it took like an hour in total, but in reality we were there much longer...)

Sorry Seems to be The Hardest Word

I am aware that cultures vary in many ways, but you don't often notice the ways in which they can be similar. For example, in English it is quite common to say sorry for small things that you didn't mean to do or you feel a bit bad about (like when it wasn't my fault that the satnav went wrong on the way to Munich but I was the one who had used it so I felt responsible.) In Japan it is pretty much the same, and I feel that they have plenty of words to reflect this.

What I now find difficult is getting used to being in Germany, where it is a bit over the top to apologise (and thank) for the smallest things, and it seems that the language doesn't allow small apologies as much. You can say "It hurts me" for things which really make you feel bad, although I wouldn't want to say that for something small, and you can say "Entschuldigung" which I feel is more for things which aren't really your fault and you don't feel bad about, more as an excuse me.

It is really hard to try and not say some form of apology, and I'm sure I've got it wrong quite a few times already and the Germans may think I'm strange. The other thing I need to not do, is to say thank you for small things, as this also makes me seem strange. Japanese has quite a different way of thanking someone sometimes, especially if they have done you a favour which is to apologise for "making" them do it, even if you didn't ask.

Basically the point I'm making is, it is quite often the smaller differences which are harder to get around, and I'm probably making more of a fool of myself next door to England than I was in Japan.

Wiener/Wiedervereinigung in Munich

So as some of you may know me and the Wienerin went to Munich at the weekend. It was particularly nice as we haven't seen us for such a long time and keep missing one each other when we return to the nest. Munich is probably a good half way point for us although It definitely took Ruth a bit longer to get back than it took me. Maybe I will also go to Salzburg at some point.

I shared a lift there with a saxophonist, called Helen. This was much cheaper than paying for a delayed journey with overpriced Deutsche Bahn, especially when I can do that when I'm back home. We got on well, although I doubt that we will be staying in touch after I possibly made her late for work because her Sat-nav chose the wrong street. I just put in Munich and Bahnhofstrasse, which is what I was told to do. Why get satnav when it doesn't even work.

I'm not sure what historical/biblical/mythical event this portrays but I like it.

It was in the middle of Marienplatz, which is where all the tourists go and the Americans clap at the fancy clock which moves a lot every hour. Munich is a very rich city, although the outskirts look very eastern-bloc. It is also very schicki-micki and the people blatently look down on other places in Germany as they are richer. As we all know, money is not everything, especially when you speak a dialect no one can understand.
There was a lovely door.
Then we were reunited- east and west (although now I'm not sure who is east and who is west, but we had a beer each in the Hofbräuhaus to celebrate.)
There was no doubt what we would be eating, as everywhere was selling asparagus. I have never seen so much Spargel ever. The stapel diet of the Free State of Bavaria?
Although I like to keep it on the down-low a little bit, I also like spring just as much as other people. It is by far my favourite time of year. Afterall, it is the reason they have the festival which brought us there- Frühlingsfest!
After this photo there will be no more spring photos in this post, we are all getting our quota from our favourite Wienerin.

Here is a selection of beers available in Munich. I didn't have them all or even try as I am a very responsible person.
I did however try half a Lion-brew. The service here was awful so they didn't get a tip.

The Wienerin took lots of photos (of course) including this one of the (j)aptly named "Man spitting on a baby"
He who smelled it dealt it:
I managed to see 2 minutes of the royal wedding on my way to meet Ruth but then saw plenty of it in the headlines the next day.
This church is really near the University which made me think of Gewschister Scholl, who you can read about here.
After meeting everyone else we got dressed up (girls in dirndls and boys in Lederhosen, although I didn't have any as they are so expensive,) and went out to the fest.
In side the tent things were more rowdy (fun) and people were already dancing on the benches. It was too early for us to be doing this at that point so we sat down.
To keep hunger locked up so we could enjoy Frühlingsfest we had Bretzels. Also, I just wanted one because they were massive.
I don't know if I have ever eaten anything than my face before (except pizza obviously.) There are some photos of me trying to eat it but I look stupid so I haven't posted them. Instead look at this:

We were in the Augustiner tent, which is a very prestigous beer (claimed by Bavarians to be the best in the world, of course.)
Because of this we decided to have one. We then also danced on the benches- maybe too much, which is probably the reason Ruth doesn't want to wear those shoes ever again, neither do I. All in all though it was a lovely day and an excellent trip. Prost!