Sunday, November 23, 2008

snowy munich by k

sunday morning and it's snowing outside...munich is slowly turning white. arel and dorian are loving grabbing handfuls of snow and throwing them at each other and us! even though it's bitterly cold, there is something magical about snow and i'm glad we've come in november. snow is much better than rain. on friday we got completely and totally drenched at one point by freezing horizontal rain running to my cousin frank's car.

since i only brought one pair on pants, i was worried about what to wear that evening to my other cousin's place. dorian and i went in search of dryers in the basement of the building we're staying in, while arel and barak went to a tour of the allianz arena. i had seen someone coming up in the elevator with a laundry basket, so we headed down. at the end of a dark hallway was a room that said washing! inside were washing machines and dryers and a complicated set of lists where it appeared that one needed to sign up. i also found some "cages" with clothes lines where people hang their clothes to dry. someone came in and told me that you only need to sign up for the washers, not the dryers. i think it's because washers take a super long time here, about an hour and a half (not sure why) and there is not a tradition of using dryers, so they are probably not as much in demand.

i had a phone hour long phone call i first needed to make, so i just put pants and socks on the radiator in the apartment and miraculously they were dry in about an hour. no need for a return trip to the basement!

it has really hit me how much more culinarily aligned i am to germany than to spain. and it's not the wurst and sauerkraut! i love all the different breads and pastries and fruit and wish i could just eat eat eat without stopping, but only so much fits in my stomach. i have felt full pretty much the whole time since we've gotten here because i start with a breakfast of eggs and bread and stay full from there. i haven't even had apfelkuchen (like apple pie) and it's one of my favorites! i saw someone eating it yesterday at a bookstore cafe, but i think i would have exploded had i ordered a piece! i think in the end, the food here is more like what i eat in california, and then there are those few other special things that i love from here.

we had dinner both friday and saturday nights at my cousin boris's place. he has two kids, 11 and 13, and arel and dorian got along with them splendidly. they speak some english and were really nice and made a great effort to entertain their cousins from san francisco. the made it possible for barak and me to hang out with boris and his wife, anke.

in about twenty minutes we'll head to the subway to take a train out to my uncle and aunt's for the afternoon. both boris and frank will come with their families. frank has three little girls, between 2 and 5. my father's other brother, wolfram, will also join us, so it will be a mini family reunion. they live outside the city, so i think arel and dorian will have lots of time to play outside in the snow.

tomorrow we take an 11:24 train to the airport and head back to barcelona. tuesday arel and dorian go back to school!