Slumdogs, Flats and Banks

This week was a bit of a roller coaster in terms of my stress levels. Work was really busy, meaning for most of the week I didn’t have a lunch break, which doesn’t help me concentrate more. At the beginning of the week everyone had refused me. Then, Wednesday night I had 2 flat offers, and now I really hoping to sign a contract tomorrow night. I visited a flat for the second time and managed to charm the occupant into accepting me as the 3rd future flatmate.

Thursday night (despite being knackered), I was determined to go swing dancing again. I had offered to cook for everyone and then to go dancing afterwards. Everyone meant 2 dancing pairs, myself and Alex and Vittoria and Philippe. However, I was very busy at work and didn’t manage to go shopping at all. Luckily, my knights in shining armour (Alex and Philippe) rescued me and helped me with the shopping and cooking. The schedule was tight. Shopping at 18:00, eating at 19:00 in time for swing at 20:00. Of course this all went to pot. We met and went shopping but didn’t end up eating till much later. Fine, we’ll just to the dancing afterwards. Then, as we are eating pudding Laurent joins us, and some other friends of Philippe’s. We don’t actually end up leaving Kolpinghaus until 11:30. After wandering around for a while we ended up at Die Bank, a cool bar, where I promptly fell asleep and left after 45 minutes. http://www.die-bank.com/. Seemed like a nice bar, I was just too tired.

Friday night, I went with Alex to see Slumdog Millionaire, that was the deal, if I was going to see Watchmen (which we haven’t managed to do yet), he was going to see Slumdog Millionaire. I thought it deserved the Oscars.

I thought that it was visually stunning, brilliant soundtrack, excellent acting, gripping story, funny, poignant, horrifying in places but realistic, and…just great. I came out with a big smile but with some unsettling images in my mind. The film that it reminded me the most of was City of God

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a decent trailer with subtitles so in the end I’ve just embedded the original version of the trailer as the US voiceover guy irritated me intensely. I think City of God is a better film. I loved Slumdog, the colours, the story, everything and I like the whimsy of the idea of D: it is written and I thought it was charming…but I think City of God is better.

The rest of the weekend was spent being pretty lazy, although I went for 2 runs, so not too lazy. I had a proper cheese binge though which was lovely. Alex and I bought about 7 different varieties of cheeses, Brie, Camembert, Conté (we think), Edamer, Gorgonzola, a really good sheep’s cheese and something else and managed to eat nearly all of it, I have some of the rest to get me through the week. Mmmm…cheese…. Hopefully my future flatmate will send through the contract soon so I can sign it and get it back to her tomorrow and then start working out how the hell I’m going to move everything…

WGs Galore

This week I visited a total of 5 apartments, 3 of which were yesterday afternoon. Of that 5, 4 were WGs and one was a flat for two for Victoria and I. We are simultaneously searching together and separately. Each of the flats will get back to me over the next week or so so we shall see… I have 2 more lined up for next week but today I’m taking a break, day of rest and all that.

That took up a lot of time this week, as did work. Alex came back from his 2 week sejour in France on Sunday so I ventured down to Klinikum Großhadern where I had never been before, it being far too far to bother. It was nice to have someone else cook for me . A couple of my friends live down there and it is really in the middle of nowhere. People live there and get on the U6 to get into town if they want to actually do anything. There is also a cemetery cunningly disguised as a park, slightly disconcerting when you come across the first graves…

As I said, yesterday was spent rushing around in the snow looking at flats, charming the occupants and trying not to seem too desperate. I am also in the process of compiling the 268 photos and 52 video clips I have of Fasching into something resembling a short, watchable video.  When I assembled it all it was 22 minutes long. It’s now down to 13 but it still needs cutting…

After intense photo editing and intense flathunting I went to celebrate Caro’s birthday in the Trinkhalle. Caro is a colleague of mine and I and a couple of others went along, never one to pass up the opportunity of a cocktail, she is also lovely, which is of course the more important reason for going . However, due to my current no alcohol thing it was strictly virgin cocktails for me.

I really liked the Trinkhalle. It’s near Frauenhoferstrasse and pretty small. The seating is intimate and by the time I turned up at 10pm it was packed. There seemed to only be one menu in the whole place but that is not a problem because you can either give the waiter the order of your favourite cocktail or he will make one up for you. I told him, no alcohol and sweet and he made me a drink. It was green, so I assumed apple, I took a sip and was surprised. It was delicious, everyone agreed, but there was a hint of basil, unexpected in a cocktail. I then noticed a basil leaf and a slice of mango perched on top. He had given me a mango and basil cocktail. It was lovely but I would never have thought of it. I was smitten. 

The link is only available in German I think.

http://www.muenchen.de/verticals/GastroGuide/Gastro-Highlights/205170/trinkhalle.html

Post cocktails someone mentioned going to Bergwolf, apparently a bit of a legend in Munich, the best currywurst in town. I’m not the world’s biggest currywurst fan but it was good, and packed.

http://www.munichx.de/essen/restaurant_kurzinfo.php?name=Bergwolf&strasse=Fraunhoferstr.&hnr=17

This is the review:

Ein Muss für jeden, der in dieser Gegend am Abend oder nachts unterwegs ist. Man bekommt auch noch zu später Stunde eine der besten Currywürste Deutschlands (Dönninghaus) in drei Schärfestufen. Wiener, Pommes und Bier gibt’s natürlich auch zum Mitnehmen. Doch dann verpasst man das urig gemischte Publikum und die gesellige Stimmung im winzigen Kult-Imbiss im U-Bahn-Eingang!

(Summary: Classic post club/bar food)

Spot on

Today I’m playing catch-up with blog entries, emails etc. I’ve been for a run and now I’m going to try to finish my video so I can upload it. Karaoke at the Irish pub later .

Flathunting and the run-up to Fasching

Thursday night always kills me…the weekend seems so tantalisingly close but yet so far.

This weekend has been full of hecticness. I have been flathunting and I hate it. You have been one of the few selected to visit the flat. You turn up and in the first 5 seconds have to make a better impression than the other 10 people also interested. It is just as bad as a job interview. I’ve been rejected from plenty so far. So in order to attract offers the other way around you put up an announcement, and the only people who contact you are men in their 40s or people who invite you to sleep on a sofa. I visited 3 this week, rang about 30, fell in love with one and have ended up with none. This means that I’m now going to stay in Kolpinghaus for another month. The reasons for this are long and boring.

Apart from that Laure came round on Wednesday to exchange photos as she is leaving and we had supper together. It was nice, I shall miss her.

So right now I’m preparing to go to Mainz for Fasching and considering my costume options for a party in Stuttgart tomorrow night. I would be really excited if I wasn’t so tired. Now I just need to sleep and tomorrow everything kicks off. We’ve also got a bit of a special day as Florian is leaving so Weisswurst and (non-alcoholic) beer for lunch and Prosecco in the evening. Then I hop on a train to Stuttgart and away we go….