Pete's Log: just think of this as my online pensieve

Entry #1536, (Life in General)
(posted when I was 29 years old.)

I have now been in Munich for a month straight. The last time I managed this was in May. Between spending about a third of my summer in Riyadh, plus my various other work trips, my social life felt somewhat limited over the summer. Beginning with Oktoberfest, however, it's been picking up again.

The post-Wiesn week, I took it somewhat easy, but since then:

Friday the 12th: dinner with Dave, Tony, Don and a couple other friends of Dave's. Then pool at Ostbahnhof. Afterwards, Don and I hit up Sausalito's im Tal. By pure luck, I managed to catch the last train home.

Saturday the 13th: Game night at Florian's. Many games of Settlers of Catan are played. I even win one. In this environment, I can't help myself: I drink some coke.

Sunday the 14th: Ultimate im Englischen Garten. Beergarden at the Seehaus afterwards. Then The Arc for some NFL and Rugby World Cup viewing.

Monday the 15th: pause.

Tuesday the 16th: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Wednesday the 17th: Ultimate Frisbee until dark (about 7 pm). Then hit up the Shamrock.

Thursday the 18th: German Stammtisch at Max-Emmanuel Brauerei.

Friday the 19th: A meetup of ND Munich. Hard to say if it was the first such meetup or not, but it was the first for all involved. We had classes of 2000, 2005, 2007, and MBA 2007. It was a bit odd being the longest out of ND, even factoring in my grad years. Afterwards was Don's Farewell event.

My cell phone ran out of battery. I recognized that it would in time, so I was able to write down Tony's number right before it died. Then I had to use a payphone to meet up with the Don farewell committee. A strange thing to have to coordinate without having a cell phone. How did we ever manage before?

So I met up with Don, Tony, Dave, Tim and others at Club Havana. After that, we headed to Die Bank, where we met a bunch of other Ultimate people. The final stop of the night was Die Registratur. At that point, we were down to Don, Bea, Mandy, Mandy's husband, and a couple of his German friends. Lots of dancing there. Mandy tells me the DJs there were "fantaaaaastic," and I figure I must implicitly trust her on all matters clubbing, since she's from New York. We left sometime after five, and I didn't get home until six. Hopefully Don had a good last night in Munich.

Saturday the 20th: I helped Florian unload the two vans of his girlfriend's stuff into their new apartment. They're on the second floor (third in American terms) and have no elevator in their building. Objects moved in included a washer and a dryer. Afterwards I headed to Dave's place and watched Magicians, which I can recommend (assuming you have the right sense of humor).

Sunday the 21st: After sleeping well past 1 pm, I helped Florian pick up a closet he bought on eBay. At the place, I spontaneously bought a bed. Best moment: I mentioned to the lady that I'm a foreigner and she said "oh, Austrian?" She didn't want to believe me that I'm an American, because she claims she can always pick out the accent. Reassuring points for my German.

So we dropped the bed off at my place and then reassembled the closet at Florian's. Florian and his girlfriend invited me to Indian afterwards. I had lamb vindaloo. Next time I shall have to remember to ask for them to make it a bit spicier. But it was quite good.

Tonight I am looking forward to staying home.

I want to emphasize again that I bought a bed. After 14 months in Germany. I think I have different priorities than most people. And I guess for some reason, I didn't really need one for a while...