Workin' 9 to 4...
Guten Abend! Well, my first day at work wasn't so bad. Perhaps it was because they had nothing for me to do. That must be it. Well, my commute to work consists of a 50 minute long bus ride across town. You have no idea how short a 50 minute bus ride can feel like when you are terrified to start a new internship in a language you don't speak very well. I have never been so scared in my life about a job. Really. Try going to work with no pants on or something, and perhaps you'll know what I felt like this morning. (I did wear pants this morning, just to clarify.) But, in the end the whole day wasn't so bad. Well, I was supposed to be issued my laptop today but, that didn't get done. And, since I didn't have a laptop, I couldn't do any work. So, they gave me a work manual to read. And, I was able to stretch the time and read that thing for like 3 hours. It was either, read the manual for 3 hours or figure out how to make small talk in German with people I don't know. So, I went in the direction of the manual. So, this morning one of the employees took me around and introduced me to everyone. I didn't realize it at first but only one woman works in my entire department, and she's a secretary. Basically, this job is going to be just a little harder because I am working in a boy's club and I'm an intern and I am not a native german speaker. Great, eh? The one funny thing about today was on the bus ride home. Aparently an 80's Hair Band lost two of their members and they were riding on my bus on the way home. So, if any of you are listening to your collection of 80's Hair Band music and feel that there's something missing, it's probably these guys. Let me know and I'll send them your way.

Less than a 1/2 Liter would have done it!
So, I am in Munich now, I thought I´d just let you all know that. I toured BMW today and it is a rather impressive operation they`ve got going on here. I can tell you that if I had the money and needed an expensive car, I would get a BMW. They even gave us lunch before the tour.

I am actually sitting at this internet cafe hungry, waiting for some friends so I can we can get dinner... But, my trip home from Paris... So, I was sitting shot gun and Christian and I were talking about random things the whole way through France. Mami and Jenny were kinda sleeping or talking in the back. At one point, Christian and I took a look at how much gasoline was left...and we were getting kind of low, but still enough gas to get to Luxembourg. The reason we wanted to get to Luxembourg was because it is so much cheaper to fill up there than it is in France or Germany...plus, it was on the way home. So, we get stuck in traffic for something like 20km and finally get through it all just as we reach Luxembourg. So, we get of the highway and start searching for a gas station. Just as we are heading up the off ramp...the car runs out of gas. Not kidding. So, mami and jenny think christian is just messing with them...but, no. I knew he was serious because we had just talked about it. So, christian pulls over and he hops out of the car hoping someone would be nice enough to stop and help us. So, Mami hops out too and tries to wave at some cars. Well, Mami waves down this car...and this is where everyone realizes that Mami speaks Japanese and english...the woman driving the car speaks French and a dialect spoken in Luxembourg and some english. So, Christian runs over and starts speaking German. Well, Mami comes back and gets in to the car with me and jenny and this nice lady gives Christian a ride to the next gas station. Well, the three of us are sitting there and realize that at least in Germany, when a car is pulled over on the side of the road, one puts on the emergency lights...and puts up little reflective triangles behind the car. Its just what they do here. So, we decided to try and find these triangles. Well, they´re not in the glove box or underneath the seats so the must be in the trunk, right? So, Mami sits in the drivers seat and cant find the button to pop the trunk...she´s from Japan and they drive on the other side of the road anyway. So, I get in the drivers seat because I also drive a VW...but, not a manual Golf model...and I can´t find it either...So, jenny jumps in the drivers seat because she`s german and can drive a manual but it doesnt matter because she cant find the button either. So, we pull out the manual and find out you need a key. Ha. Well, Christian gets back with a liter or so of gas and tells us that the lady who helped him had to speak english because that was the only common language between them. So, the end.

Sylvester
My New Years resolution is to try and keep more in contact with the people I know. Well, this is one of the ways I am going to do that. So, I will continue to try and post about once a week or so. If you haven't made any resolutions yet...you may want to consider this one...considering I haven't heard from some of you at all since I got here...hint...hint.

So, today I went to Luxembourg. It was alright. It was a pretty quick trip, though. It's not that far away and the city is rather small, so we just walked around for a few hours and bought one of the cakes they only sell during the time around three kings day. These cakes have a little plastic figure baked into the cake and whoever gets the piece with the figure in it gets to be the king or queen for the day.

My New Year's was pretty cool. I'll have to tell you all about it...and the ride home some other time.