Leben
Munich Exposed – Part 7
- Retro-Pop aus Thailand: Chris Menist im Interview - 20. September 2011
- Thank you for rocking so hard! - 12. April 2011
- Brit Jazz Week – Soweto Kinch and the poetry of jazz - 21. März 2011
Der wöchentliche Blick auf München von außen – oder: a weekly rant of a non-Münchner Mädchen.
Mahlzeit everyone!
(I’ll soon start greeting you in other languages like flickr, because I totally ran out of welcome phrases and actually had to wiki the previous one.) Last week I started listing a few things that I assume will forever ring my bell if ever mentioned by anyone in my after-Munich-life. Since I still owe you the last 5, allow me to proceed and, as usual, spit the hot fire.
6. The kids want Communism
I usually remain indifferent to the sight of ‘eat the rich’, ‘antifa’ or the passé ‘acab’ marker messages scribbled on some walls – but I shudder when I see the hammer and sickle graffiti. The kids want Communism is for real, they have a website and booths at fairs and probably freebie red star pins – but jokes aside, what is wrong with these Junge? Wasn’t the DDR the best example of worst? Of course Communism seemed like a good idea in ‘68 and I agree that there are unequally rich people in this city, yet it just staggers me that the stickers, stencils and posters are not being removed. I might be biased, but imagining a couple of middle-class German boys speaking in the name of workers when they probably never had to work for a day renders me speechless (and in Soviet Russia, sentence finishes you.)
7. Wild ferrets
What I truly admire about Germans is their cycling and recycling spirit, along with their genetic respect for nature. I gaze with awe into the solar panels of the SWM plants and bow before their incredible eco-friendly garbage-for-fuel method. I love the taste of the tap water, the complete lack of dust and the quality of the Alpine air. And I love seeing protected rabbits and hedgehogs and badgers roaming freely in most of the green areas. The English Garden is home to quite a few of these species – most importantly, to the wild ferret.
I love Fretchen, they are so awesome. I used to dislike them when I was small due to family propaganda: they were killing most of the chicken my grandparents owned. But since I discovered how incredibly smart and playful they are I can’t help stopping ferret owners on the street just to fondle their frisky pet. And these people usually get them from animal shelters, which is very saddening.
8. Brotzeit
Ever since the discovery of grain, bread has been the most important staple in every German’s diet. If I try eating a different kind of German bread every day, I’ll probably finish around the third year or so, (without even touching the pastry and the rolls.) So of course there are at least 3 bakeries/Backshops on every street corner. And of course there’s a bread museum nearby (in Ulm) just like there is a potato museum (which I will never visit. I’m thinking about opening an air museum, do you think it would work?) And if it’s not bread it’s Krapfen, which is worse, because that means it’s not only a lots of carbs, it’s sugar and a lots of carbs and I’m always temped to stuff my face. Luckily I rarely do, because strangely enough, in spite of this appetizing victual show, I still prefer mon croissant chaud.
9. Incredibly bad music
When I was a very immature preteen I used to like Blümchen and Dune and other similar pandemonium. (Dr. Motte and Westbam!) I soon realized what I was doing to my brain, stopped and repented. Unlike Germany.
This is the only people in the world who actually listens to the Knight Rider sing and where a scooter is not a means of transportation but an obnoxious brainwashing mastermind. I was trying to come up with popular (commercial) German bands/musicians, which I might have liked at some point or who are at least decent – I didn’t manage to. (I do like Technoviking but that doesn’t count, does it.) So I gave it a second thought and came up with Kraftwerk and Neubauten and um, Amon Düül, but not really. I’m glad Berlin electronically saved the situation during the last 10 years or so. And who is this Carpendale guy anyway?
10. Expats
Theoretically, an expatriate should get along with other expats because they share the outsider status and the ‘I’m not able to comprehend this language’ problem. Then again, the main expat community around here is quite dull and also a bit sinister. (Check out Toytown Munich if you don’t believe me.) I’m sure there’s plenty of nice my-kind-of-people from other countries living here, but somehow I failed to meet them. And I would very much like to. This sounds like a personal ad. It’s not.
Bonus time!
One thing I’ll always remember about the city is the amazing amount of brilliant physicists who live here. Like everyone nowadays, I too am a huge fan of Quantum mechanics and the Theory of everything so I try to infiltrate into the Max Planck society. I almost succeeded at one point when I met these three guys working for the LHC, but I might have scared them off with my terrible ignorance and persistence.
Anyway, having names (and graves) such as Fraunhofer or Ohm around gives me goose bumps; also my backstreet is the street Einstein grew up in (which gives me mixed feelings.) I don’t even dare mention other incredible physicists who worked or work here because I’m afraid that one of my few readers might be one of their students and they will know I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Cream-colored horses and crisp apfelstrudels, doorbells and sleigh bells and Schnitzel with noodles, these could stand for anyone’s favorite things in and around Munich, but they are definitely not mine. Although it’s hard to believe, banter and general cynicism is not my only passion. I also like these things: 1. The dynasty – its legacy, its opulence, its carriages, its furniture and sick fascination with the Chinese
2. The Botanical Garden Café and its icecream 3. The Müller’scheVolksbad (which once enclosed a swastika made out of red tiles as I’ve learned from that crappy Valkyrie film) 4. The old Pinakothek 5. The Flohmarkts 6. The library and allow me to stop here because I’m afraid of getting really carried away.
I hope you like the cheeseburger in the picture above and will go on wondering what it is doing under that car until our next virtual collision.
Tschüssi!
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