Part of the fun I had in Munich was writing this blog about all of my experiences. When I left Munich last year I had originally intended to keep it up but the traveling and then general interference of daily life had done their work and I never really got back into keeping it up regularly like I wanted to, so this trip also offers a good opportunity to start fresh and really try to stick to writing here more often.

The plane ride was long but not too terrible thanks to my deliberate getting up very early that day so that I could sleep on the journey and be mostly adjusted to the time change by the time we landed. My friend Luisa was kind enough to not only offer me a place to sleep during my trip, but even trek out to the airport at 7:30 in the morning and pick me up. Now that is a good friend. We drove back to her apartment/dorm out near TUM (Technical University of Munich) and had some breakfast before driving to her brother’s place closer to downtown to drop off his car. Luisa’s brother Benedict is in a German fraternity although a German fraternity is enormously different from the American conception. More like a club that provides money for people to go to school and then when the students graduate and get older they in turn provide funding to future students. Also they have saber duels.

Benedict was fast asleep so Luisa arranged to come back in a while and have lunch with him and we walked to the English Garden to enjoy the nice weather and have a drink at the Chinese Tower while we caught up. When we returned to the fraternity house (passing a stuffed eagle, swords mounted on walls and other paraphernalia) her brother was still asleep so while we waited for him to get  ready we chatted with a couple of Spanish guys in town for the festival who complained that not even their Spanish accent and flawless German could get them girls at the bars the night before, a fact Luisa seemed shocked to hear. Once Benedict was ready the three of us proceeded to have a nice sushi lunch while people watching downtown. Amid Luisa’s unexpected reunion with an old friend and my brilliant idea for a pick-up line based on a chopsticks wrapper (it said that once you learned how to use them you could pick up anything), I had a very nice time.

Afterward, Benedict went home to catch up on more sleep while Luis and I wandered around town for a bit. We even entirely coincidentally and unexpectedly ran into Eva, who was on her way to go wedding dress shopping with her friends. We talked briefly before she had to be on her way but it was a nice surprise. Luisa and I headed back to her place after that and spent the rest of the day watching funny videos on the Internet, eating ice cream with her friend Marisa and then making lasagna with more of her dorm mates and her boyfriend and brother. By that point my jetlag was starting to hit me so after making early morning plans, I hit the hay.

Although I’d done my best to try and coordinate meeting up with people I knew at the festival, telephones and alcohol make fools of us all. Saturday morning I went with Luisa back to  her brother’s place where the fraternity members were having a pre-Oktoberfest breakfast of sausages and beer. Not my morning meal of choice I have to say. Luckily a political group was out handing out pretzels on the train so I wasn’t entirely hungry. Almost everyone was dressed in lederhosen and dirndls which was quite a sight to see, especially when on the train I heard English, Italian and other languages in addition to German.

Luisa was not up for going to the first day of the festival so instead I accompanied Benedict and one of his friends to the fairgrounds where a carnival and amusement park alongside the various beer tents was packed with people enjoying themselves. The mayor of Munich opens the festival officially at noon on the first day, hammering open the first barrel of beer himself in the Schottenhammel tent. Although the tent was already full and the line extended for maybe a quarter of a mile outside, Benedict and his friend had only to show their fraternity sashes for us to skip the line and go right inside and up onto the reserved tables. We were not more than a few feet from the stage where notable Germans that I had never heard of sat until the mayor arrived and gave a short speech and interview. Then, with just two mighty blows of the hammer, the barrel was opened and Oktoberfest had officially begun.

It took a while for the first mass to make its way to my hands but once it did, a prost and a sip brought back all the memories of the other beer festivals I’d been to, Starkbiefest and Fruhlingsfest in particular. Drinking with Benedict and his friends was fun, and I even felt like I was starting to understand some of their German. Along with the fraternity members there were many girls on the stage and I learned some interesting facts about how they managed to get their seats and the way they had traveled from all over the country it seemed to get to the festival. After a few drinks and several hours had passed, I eventually left the tent to try and meet up with some of the others but unfortunately coordinating it all was not working out. I didn’t really mind actually as by that point the beer and my lingering jetlag made me feel utterly exhausted. So I turned my sights to the U-Bahn and somehow made it back to Luisa’s place without too much trouble. I was too tired to do much so after chatting with Luisa and her friends for a little bit and drinking a lot of water, I fell asleep and slept quite well that night.

I woke on Sunday feeling refreshed, but unfortunately the weather did not reflect my mood as it was gray and raining and rather cold. Luisa said she had to spend the day studying and working, so I girded myself in my fleece jacket and ventured forth on my own to see what kind of things I could find to do on a rainy Munich Sunday. When I got downtown, the traditional Oktoberfest parade was under way, with people marching or riding horses in traditional outfits (along with the less traditional but definitely necessary addition of umbrellas) all around the center of the city. I watched for a while until it ended, then took shelter under a nearby awning while observing the amazingly rapid clean up. Really it took around ten minutes rather than the hour or more I would have assumed.

After more journeying around town, I remembered that my friend Eva worked at a Starbucks right next to where Mauritz lives (and where Fraser used to live) so I decided to see if she was in. She was coming to the end of her shift so I had a drink while I waited for her to finish and then we sat and caught up on life which was really nice. I hadn’t known that she was leaving Munich soon to go back to Sweden at for a while but it did sound like she’d had a pretty good year even if she didn’t much like her job (maybe something about the transplant of the American work ethic to Europe). Mauritz came by while we were chatting, which was a nice chance to also catch up with him. Even with various high tech communications methods it’s usually a lot more fun to talk in person. We made tentative plans for later in the week and then they headed to their place while I made my way back to Luisia’s.

Luisa, her boyfriend and Marisa were in the midst of making pumpkin soup when I got back. I joined in the chopping and so on until it was complete. Another of Luisa’s dorm mates, Sophia joined us and we all had quite a nice meal. It was entertaining discussing various assumptions about foreign countries that people may have, and how Sophia, an Austrian, had never heard of “The Sound of Music” despite it being perhaps one of the most famous images of Austria to the average American. It was also fun to demonstrate the many, many cheesy pick-up lines popular in America that simply wouldn’t play in Europe except perhaps as a comedy routine judging from the riotous laughter they evoked in everyone there. Eventually it was time for bed because they all had trips or work to get to in the morning. After doing some writing, I went to bed myself.

Monday was another rainy day unfortunately but I still found ways to entertain myself. I headed over to Oktoberfest again, this time on my own but in that fortuitous way that seems so common in Munich, I happened to meet some nice German people who invited me to join them and we spent most of the day sitting in the Lowenbrau tent and riding rollercoasters until I pleaded fatigue and headed back to the dorm. On the way I heard from Olivier, one of the people I used to work with at ESO, who invited me out for a beer with him and one of the newer interns, Mathieu, so I joined them for a drink at a nice and very Bavarian restaurant before going back and hanging out with Luisa and her friends and eventually falling asleep.

Tuesday I woke up and went to straight to the festival to start buying the souvenirs I wanted to get for people. My plan was to just get them and leave again, but I ended up staying awhile and having a mass when a Finnish girl and a couple of her friends got pushed into me and we struck up a conversation. It was fun but they had to leave only a couple of hours later. I went to the Starbucks where Eva worked to sit and write postcards during the afternoon before going back to Luisa’s for the night and hanging out with her friends again.

Also on Tuesday I heard from Aleksandra, a Polish Au Pair I had been good friends with last year. She was in town for a few days visiting her former host family and some of her friends for Oktoberfest. She had some free time on Wednesday and wanted to go to the Neue Pinakothek, the art museum with paintings from the end of the Renaissance until the early twentieth century. So on Wednesday, after letting myself sleep in a bit, I rode the train into town and met up with her. It was nice looking at the art and catching up on each other’s lives. Aleks always has interesting stories and is a lot of fun to hang out with so I was quite pleased to get to see her. After she had to go back to the family she was staying with, I had dinner in town with Luisa, her brother, boyfriend, and dormmate. We went to a cool little Asian place and then to a nice little bar/coffee house called Soda before calling it a night and heading back.

I spent most of Thursday being kind of lazy, just writing and working on various ongoing projects along with a casual stroll around town. That evening though I went to Toytown for the first time in over a year so I had plenty to look forward to. The current crop had voted to meet at Flaschenbar, which I had been to a couple of time last year but remembered as being sort of small. I arrived around nine and immediately heard English being spoken by a group in the corner. I didn’t see anyone I recognized so I got a beer and took a seat. Barely had I sat down however then the Scotsmen walked in. Not only Fraser and Jamie, but their visitors from home Ally whom I had met and even briefly seen during my visit to Scotland, and Keith whom I had not met before. Amid all the hellos and beer acquisitions, Mauritz, Eva, and Aleks also joined us and I met a new colleague of Jamie and Fraser’s named Dan.

It was wonderful to catch up with everyone and shoot the breeze the way we used to, even if it also made me think about all the other people who didn’t live in Munich anymore that weren’t there. This being a Toytown event though, there were plenty of new faces too. I spent some time talking with a former Colorado sorority girl and her Munchener friend before getting bored and wandering back over to the Scots, just in time to hear Jamie ask a wildly inappropriate question that really brought back some memories, especially the look of half-amusement and half-incredulity on Fraser’s face. Aleks and the others gamely answered as did another new face, an American girl who, while funny, kept making me think there was something I should notice about her. Only by someone else’s comment did I realize what it was that was making me so confused, she was just seventeen. That didn’t stop her from being rather flirtatious with Dan, who wasn’t much older apparently. The disconnect in my head between that age and the acts of drinking and smoking is enormous though. I can’t seem to notice until it is pointed out to me, I’m only aware that something seems a little unusual. Her friend Brit wasn’t shy about commenting on the flirtation, much to the amusement of everyone at the table. Time passed far too quickly as it tends to in these situations and before long people were exiting the bar. I left with my friends and caught the train back to the dorm, the bittersweet memory of one more fun night passing away, but with a great weekend to look forward to at least.

That weekend deserves it’s own post to say the least. To be continued…

Carolyn had invited me to go to a Purim celebration at the local synagogue but I wasn’t really in the mood. Purim for those unaware, is the holiday celebrating the triumph of the Jewish people in ancient Persia against a king’s vizier who wanted to kill us all. One of the commandments for the holiday involves excess drinking. It’s a fun holiday and people wear costumes but I decided I’d rather not go with her.  Instead, I arranged with Beth to meet up with her and go out with some of her other friends that I mostly (at that point) hadn’t met. Beth came to my place since we didn’t know where we were going to meet the others. My roommate Elizabeth and her boyfriend Jeff were watching Twilight while I made fun of them for it when Beth arrived. After providing her with a homemade cupcake Elizabeth had baked, she and I hopped a cab over to the neighborhood near George Washington University to Alison’s apartment.

Alison’s building was gorgeous, incredibly fancy outside and in. That said, we still somehow managed to wander in without having to deal with the security nominally running the place. Alison was still getting ready when we walked in, and Beth helped her figure out what to wear while I chatted with Alison’s roommate who had just returned from a trip to California. The night was still fairly young and the girls were hungry, so the three of us walked over to a nearby restaurant to get some food. When we ordered drinks, the waiter checked our ID and asked Alison where she was from. I thought it was a bit of flirting but apparently it was checking to see if she knew what was on it and if it were real, which surprised me as it doesn’t seem a very good test of whether the ID is real. The dinner was nice otherwise though, especially when the bachelor party at the next table got loud and the girls got hit on by the very drunk groom who went on and on about how he was in good shape for his age. It was very difficult to control my laughter while the girls did their best to placate him.

After we ate we went back to Alison’s to drink a bit before going out. Beth particularly liked the flat orange soda with vodka.  Although Beth and I had had a rather messy night there just the weekend before, the decision was made to go to McFadden’s partially because it was so close. Carolyn texted while we were drinking to tell us she was already done at the party and wanted to meet us. We said goodnight to Alison’s roommate and headed off to the bar. McFadden’s was as crazy crowded as I remembered it, full mainly with college students, but a fun atmosphere. We got drinks and headed onto the dance floor but had barely walked on before Carolyn spotted us. In costume for Purim, Carolyn wore what she called a LA Jewish American Princess outfit.  She drew more than even the normal number of eyes in her outfit and intense makeup, but this being Carolyn, it had no effect on her eagerness to climb the bar and dance with other girls to the wild cheers of the crowd around them.

She came down after a couple of songs and we proceeded to drink and dance more, soon moving to the less-crowded area upstairs. Minus some poorly made drinks, it was great. Some odd music choices played while we were there, songs like Shout that drew me back to the days of Bar Mitzvah parties. Perhaps the greatest moment though was when Footloose began to play and Beth nearly exploded from excitement. Radiating an enthusiasm that drew in other people to dance around her, she led us all in a spirited accompaniment to the song. When the song ended, leaving us breathless and laughing, we realized the bar was starting to close down. It was still early enough that plenty of other bars would be open we knew, so we headed out to find one of them.

We searched while talking, subjects ranging from humorous speculation on where their other friends had ended up to Beth explaining the lyrics of the song Poison. Finding a bar to go to proved difficult. Many were far overcrowded and sweaty and not to the taste of the girls, much to the disappointment of many guys, several of whom asked me what the story was regarding their single status. Though I’ve grown used to such questions, it never stops being funny.

We finally ended up at reasonable bar and went back to drinking and dancing. I enjoyed myself a lot at this bar, including some time spent on the roof deck, which had a great view but was filled with cigarette smoke, a reminder of one of the few aspects of European nightlife I disliked. The music was too soft for my friends tastes out there so we went back inside after a little while. Here again I felt besieged by questions about the girls but stuck with my standard response that they could speak for themselves. Three guys in particular eagerly danced with the trio but, having no interest and wanting to be polite, the girls simply moved themselves elsewhere. Unfortunately the guys followed them repeatedly, so that every time I looked up from where I was they were in a new place entirely.

With an collective groan of disappointment, everyone in the bar watched the lights come up and songs encouraging us to get the hell out come on. Grumbling, we exited and walked along the street, happy chatter mixed with snatches of song in the air. As it was on our way anyway, Carolyn, Beth and I followed Alison back to her place, relaxing in her living room (Beth almost falling asleep. Alison is recently vegetarian and complained of a craving for steak but said she had an alternative for herself that would work fine. Her solution it turned out was to eat canned corn in a bowl, which makes sense in a four in the morning after the bars close kind of way.  We were all yawning by then though, so the three of us said goodbye to Alison and her corn and shared a cab stopping first at my place while they then continued on to theirs. Happy with the evening and the stories, I fell asleep.

This past week was hectic at work, with yet more fallout from the abrupt departure of a colleague, but it’s starting to settle a bit. The big craziness was wondering about whether there would be a government shutdown this week. After everyone freaking out about it non-stop, the whole thing fizzled and it’s business as usual today. I had a chance to catch up with Clara (whom I know from back in Seattle) on Wednesday and went to her house for a party on Friday. I like Clara and her friends, they are very down to Earth and passionate about important things in a way that I find intriguing, if difficult to emulate. I didn’t stay too late though because I planned to meet Carolyn and Corinne in the morning to go the Cherry Blossom parade.

Though not a fan of waking up early on Saturdays, I managed to crawl out of bed and drag myself to Carolyn’s apartment by a quarter to ten. I couldn’t get a hold of either of the girls and no one answered when I knocked, so I thought perhaps they had already left and decided to go meet them at the parade. The parade was fun, although the weather was not the best. While I stood there, I tried calling Corinne again, and only moments later received a text from Carolyn revealing that neither girl was there and they had decided to not come and sleep in since it looked like rain. Unfortunately for my own sleep cycle, Carolyn had forgotten to inform me. With a rueful grin and a shrug, I went back to enjoying the blossoms and the rest of the parade before walking to the grocery store and heading home. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and speaking with a couple of friends on the phone before it was time to get ready to go out.

Originally I had planned to have a pregame get-together at my place before heading out. But between so many of my friends being out of town or studying or otherwise occupied and the latest expansion to the people I know still being very new, I was fine with postponing it for a few weeks. Instead my plan was to tag along with Beth again, joining her and her colleagues for the night but with the bonus of already having met them. I walked over to Beth and Carolyn’s apartment for the second time that day as the night slowly came to life around me. I do like going into their building. It’s fancier than mine and yet stands in a much more relaxed environment, part of the whole gentrifying trend in the city. When I arrived, Beth was still getting ready (she tends to run a little behind, but so consistently that it’s easy to allow for), while Carolyn worked on the paper for class she was staying behind to work on. Corinne was also there, with a new friend of hers, Brittany, who was new to DC. Amid discussions of southern accents and previous nights out, Beth finished dressing and we all had a few drinks before bidding Carolyn farewell and walking over to Beth’s friend and coworker Lauren’s apartment up near the Adams Morgan area of the city.

We had to wait for Lauren to come down and get the four of us because the people walking into the building right in front of us ignored us when we asked them to hold the door open but Lauren quickly whisked us up to her apartment where along with people I knew such as Allison and Diva, there were a few others sitting at a table drinking wine and chatting. We joined them as they switched to beer and liquor and tried to figure out where to go that night. I rarely have strong opinions about where to go unless I’m planning something and the ever-present dilemma about where to go on a Saturday night entertains if nothing else. While we debated, I played a couple of games of Bananagrams with some of the others (and winning the second round). The game is a bit like Scrabble combined with Spoons or maybe dominoes, but it was fun. Some of the others left to meet other friends, including Corinne and Brittany. Those of us who remained talked still about where to go until eventually talk focused on pump-up music and Beth gave us a preview of some of her dance moves. Near midnight, having made no plan except to just go and see, Beth, Allison, Lauren, Diva, and I headed out the door.

Adams Morgan at midnight on Saturday is anything but dull. With people going in and out of bars, talking, flirting, fighting, and otherwise engaging with others, the sounds of loud club music mingling with the ringing of phones and making the cigarette smoke in the air vibrate, the streets are vibrant. As we walked we discussed options. Allison insisted she must go somewhere where they would have pineapple juice to mix with her vodka and apparently some suggested places don’t have it. We ended up going into a bar called Bourbon, which I’d only been to once before. We trudged up a dark stairway and emerged into a scene so cacophonic and packed with people that it was somehow an effort to either move or stand still. The girls quickly eyed each other and shook their heads, so back down the stairs we went and out past the puzzled bouncer. Adams Morgan is not somewhere I know very well, so I was happy to follow the others to where they agreed the best backup spot was, Brass Monkey. Though not as crowded, quite, as Bourbon, it was very warm inside, igniting our thirst. After the usual ridiculous struggle at the bar to get served (I’m sorry but two bartenders for what must have been thirty waiting people means long waits), I managed to acquire drinks (including pineapple juice) for our crew. Corinne, who had been elsewhere with Brittany texted me and miraculously they found their way to us despite the crowds.

Though repeatedly buffeted by the crowd, we found a corner with some tables where we could put our jackets. There was a little more space there, although not enough to prevent the girls accidentally (maybe) dancing with people behind them, leading to some interesting conversations. There were others there who apparently the girls knew and we followed them up a few stairs to a raised floor in the back of the bar, more of a sitting area really with couches and such but now filled with dancers made conspicuous by lighting and height. Fun though, especially when I noted that some of the odd lighting came from the myriad of phones being used by girls texting around us. It made the sunglasses one guy wore a little more ironic and little less stupid-looking, even though Allison wanted to steal them. We ended up soon going to the upper level of the bar where it was a bit quieter. Beth kept enamoring guys before realizing she didn’t want to while we danced nearby and she used me as a shield between them, much to my continual bewilderment as I kept being pulled by her into new spots. Diva vanished around then, so it was down to Allison, Beth, and I to share a round of shots from the bartender with the worlds shortest memory. Somehow this led to me getting spun around on a stool by Allison, who giggled with glee every time I completed a revolution. Most of the time up there, Allison and Lauren danced with quickly acquired momentary paramours, recalling the first night I met her and our time at Mad Hatter.

Of course the night ended far too early in my opinion, but after playing New York, New York (while the girls did the can-can) the club indicated it was time for us to get out. Outside, the others decided they wanted empanadas again so we walked over to another location of the place we went to last week, while Allison explained why she wouldn’t give a guy her number unless he asked and Brittany, Corinne, and Beth attempted to walk something resembling a straight line. No sooner did we get in the long line for food that the consensus rapidly shifted to preferring pizza. So off to the insane, overcrowded and overpriced pizza place we went. I wasn’t hungry but the others got their greasy slices and eventually we reconvened outside the store, where Beth explained some complicated story involving falling over a table as to why she had a cut on her hand (later she said that was probably a lie). Beth, Corinne, and Brittany took their slices and wandered off home without as much as a goodbye. I wondered if they would be okay but they insisted they would be. It was only the next day I learned that Beth had gotten free cab ride home after walking in the wrong direction for an hour.

Allison, Lauren, and I went back to Lauren’s as we discussed our mutual enjoyment of Settlers of Catan and sat while they ate and explained to me some rather complicated romantic issues. After that, Allison and I left to get cash before hailing (after no little difficulty) taxis to go home. Observing a couple having an argument on the street, Allison promised she’d get involved if it got violent and how women should be treated like goddesses before pouring herself into a cab. I caught one moments later and minutes later sank into bed, pleased with another Saturday night.

Saturday I wasn’t sure what my evening plans would be. Carolyn was off in Florida for her boyfriend’s birthday and there was the usual uncertainty about who might be around and up for doing stuff. Luckily, Beth, Carolyn’s roommate not mine, invited me to join her and several of her coworkers for a night out based around a birthday but apparently much more open. I headed to her place a little after nine for pregaming, a bottle of citrus-flavored vodka in hand. I hadn’t been to their apartment before but it was very nice, very fancy, and the apartment itself spoke very strongly of both girls’ personalities. While waiting for her coworker Kelly and Kelly’s friend to arrive we played around with some music. Beth is apparently a Kesha fan but hadn’t listened to some of the more amusing lyrics so I pointed those out as her eyes grew round with shock.

After her friends arrived and we had a few drinks (theirs mixed with the coke in their McDonald’s cups), we headed out to the Russia House, the first stop of the night. The Russia House is really a high-class kind of place. The bouncers had earphones like Secret Service agents, and apparently to book tables you had to ensure a minimum of three hundred dollars spent. It was only after I walked in that I realized Beth wasn’t with us. Kelly told me she had forgotten her ID and had to run back and get it. Slightly more nervous now that it was to be me and a bunch of people I didn’t know at all, I followed the two girls up the stairs to the reserved tables. The dark wood paneling and subdued red light everywhere made an odd contrast with the American pop and dance music playing that reminded me of certain bars I’d been to in St. Petersburg, only much more expensive. The place was full of people in better than average clothing, even for DC and I was glad I had looked the place up and not worn jeans like I generally prefer. The three of us sat down along the row of tables set up for the party and I introduced myself to the birthday girl, Olivia, and her friend and another coworker named Diva.

More people soon arrived. While I sipped a Russian beer and listened to stories about handcuffs and house parties from Kelly, Olivia had a six-vodka sampler and others tried a variety of interesting beverages. Beth eventually came back, ID in hand, and she and Kelly and I had some very nice vodka at the bar. Allison, the only one of Beth’s coworkers I had met before, and a delightful addition to any party group came along with her sister who was in town visiting. The fifteen or so people there probably made the reservation minimum without much trouble. I had heard some amusing stories over the last few months about a lot of Beth’s coworkers so it was really fun for me to put faces to names and anecdotes. Eventually Beth and Kelly and others started getting antsy because they wanted to dance. They arranged to meet up with some of the others later and I floated back down the stairs after the three girls and a fellow who was planning on meeting his rugby team at a bar very close to where Beth lives, Local 16 so we decided to go there at least for the moment.

I was not really impressed by Local 16. It wasn’t bad by any means, and it certainly had plenty of people filling it, but the movie playing on the large screen while people danced on the floor below it gave a sort of mixed message about the atmosphere. Beth and the other girls found a place to dance (Beth likes having space to dance, which makes things interesting at the very least) while the guy we’d walked in with vanished, presumably to find the sorority girls he had gabbled about being there on our walk over. We were only there about fifteen minutes before, by mutual consent, we decided to go elsewhere. Kelly’s friend was tired and wanted to go home, but Kelly, Beth and I were still up for another bar so we hopped in a cab and headed to the old standby, Mad Hatter, which is always a good backup plan.

We weren’t alone in the bar for long before Beth received word that others were coming in. Olivia and Allison, accompanied by Allison’s sister and friend from college named Ben came and joined us. Things got a little odd at that point as somehow, random strangers joined us and formed a circle for a dance-off that entertained even as it confused. Eventually, and far too early as always, the lights came on and after a memorable dance and sing-along by the girls to Barbie Girl, we proceeded to make our way out of the bar.

Many in our group were feeling that hunger that comes around three in the morning after a night in the bars. Happily, Julia’s Empanadas was just down the street and apparently never closes. We sauntered over and stood in the rather long line of drunk and happy people. I discussed Ireland with Allison’s sister while Beth fended off a dozen or so hopeful admirers until we reached the front of the line and arranged the purchase of several empanadas.  Everyone was pleased and the food was quickly consumed. We said our goodbyes and people drifted off home. Poor Olivia alas lives in an area unpopular with cabs and after a couple of failed attempts to convince drivers to take her there, I suggested a nearby corner frequented by many taxis. We ended up walking almost to my apartment building before she at last found a willing driver and headed home while I returned to my place and happily drifted off to sleep.

Dear Eric,

In a few weeks you turn 24 while today I turned 25. I wanted to write to you just to tell you how lucky you are to have the coming year ahead of you. Everything in your life you wish could be better, will improve enormously. Even the parts of your life that you think are pretty good already will be amazing by the time you hit that quarter century mark. It might be hard to believe, but considering you’re already reading a letter from the future I encourage you to be open-minded. I thought it might be nice to give you an overview of what’s to come, some highlight at least, just so you understand why it was a year worth breaking the laws of physics for. You might be wondering why, if I can send a letter into the past I don’t send it to you on your actual birthday. The reason is because even though that’s the calendar day you turn 24, the day you get on that plane to Germany is really the day your year begins. Oh yeah that flight is delayed by a day just so you know, apparently the English can’t handle snow.

I thought about different ways to recap your year ahead but decided a simple chronological summary would make the most sense. So here’s a month-by-month look at the coming year:

January: Well Eric, in a few days (and after the previously mentioned delay) you will be on a plane to Munich. I’m not going to lie to you, that first day will be rough because you will land on a Sunday, all unaware that grocery stores are closed in Munich on Sunday and of course you’ll be far too shy and jet-lagged to go to a restaurant since you also don’t yet know that everyone speaks at least enough English for you to get a pizza or something. The bright side of that first day will be meeting Roberto, your roommate for the duration and a nice guy all around. At work you’ll adjust quickly to the routine, even the parts you don’t care for much. Great people like Claudia and Colleen will see you through the rough patches, as will your other roommate Simon. Simon is also great because he invites you out to Salzburg for the weekend where you get your first taste of the fun touring you will do a lot of in the months to come, and learn how awesome Rick Steves and his books are.

After you get back you’ll have what will seem like a minor, unimportant conversation with another intern named Ross that will, in retrospect, be the most important moment of those early days, one that will set your feet on the path that leads to the most amazing experience to come. Ross will mention a little Thursday bar thing he goes to, part of something called Toytown, and invite you to go with him. Saying yes will be the smartest move you make since deciding math isn’t your forte and you should go into writing. At the bar, Ross will introduce you to some of the cornerstones of your time in Munich, people who will both define and enhance your experience. You’ll meet Fraser and Jamie, the Scottish guys who will really teach you how to drink and enjoy Saturday nights out, Kristyn, a New Zealander destined to really influence the composition of the people you meet early on as well as someone you’ll have very complex conversations with. You’ll also meet Roisin, who will then vanish for a while but make a key comeback in a few months.

The rest of the month will be a whirlwind of fun nights out and work that gets easier as you get into the groove of things, even helping write and edit video scripts. As for the nights out, you’ll learn that Saturdays will usually involve nights at Fraser’s wonderful apartment that he shares with cool great guys like Sven and Mauritz. They and other Germans like their friend Klaus will start to give you a crash course in the clubs of Munich like Lola and Ludwig (whose name will be much funnier after you visit some museums).  Really though you will meet people every week from all over the world that make the weekends oh so memorable. Many of the women will be Au Pairs, like Swedish Eva and another American named Morgan (and don’t be too surprised when Eva and Morgan couple up with Mauritz and Klaus respectively, turns out German guys are pretty smooth). Others will be working in Munich for foreign companies like the wonderfully fun Dutch girl Barbara, or in school like Roel, Jamie’s roommate who is also Dutch. Enjoy every day, and know that while the beginning is strong, it gets even better.

February: Although the shortest month, so much happens in February the year as the best ever that in retrospect it feels a lot longer than a mere 28 days. And it starts right away with a Toytown event you attend without the people you have gone with before. Alone at a bar called Jaeger’s you will meet Cris the Aussie bartender and Sorcha the always fun Irish girl, chance encounters that will lead to a lot of interesting and sometimes highly improbable experiences. Others you will meet that night will also have far more important impacts on you than the chance encounters might imply. Some will join your Saturday group for longer or shorter periods, like Katherine from England and Sorcha from Ireland. Others will become your friends in other venues, especially Kerre from Montana, who will be one of your travel companions, and Jessica, another Australian (just so you know, you will meet more Australians than any other nationality, they fill Europe to the brim, but it’s not a bad thing, they are a fun crowd).

Not everything you do will be that light though, as some of the museums, and of course the visit to Dachau you make will be sobering, if intensely interesting visits. Exploring Munich in every way will take up a lot of your free time.

That said, the social stuff will really start to pick up, with events like house parties and nights out peaking your interest more and more. And you’ll meet people like Ally, an English girl you’ll travel with to places like Dachau and Nymphenburg, and Davina an actual German who will teach you quite a bit about the Munich mindset. Sorcha’s birthday party will be a night to remember and lead to going out with her and some others for Fasching with makeup that’s gets crazier and crazier as the night wears on, and watch a whole rugby game for the first time (understanding very little of it).  Along with the new people you meet you’ll get to know the others better and better. Hours chatting with a drink in hand really leads to some good friendships. There will be awkward times too, sometimes your fault and sometimes not (for instance prepare to get lost, repeatedly, for a while) but February completes the creation of the groove that you ride along in for the next few months.

March: Even as you start to get a handle on your new life and schedule, things will be changing. You’ll move into the second of the three apartments that ESO insists on moving you to, this one a lot nicer actually than the other two, with a real bed and lots of space, enjoy it while you can.

Your social circle will start to expand and even spin-off into new circles as some people for whatever reason rarely interact with others. You’ll meet Noka, someone you will spend many hours playing (and generally winning) online Scrabble with, and plenty more random people who you’ll see only occasionally, like the coach for Germany’s women’s lacrosse team.

Culturally you’ll explore more of Munich and really become part of it at Starkbierfest, the first, but definitely not the last, Munich beer festival you’ll attend. Standing on benches and singing songs with lots of other people may sound dull but it’s a really great time, plus the beer is good and cheap and the costumes are hilarious. You’ll even get to see behind the scenes of a club where you’ll find out why being a bartender is so much fun while bonding with Mauritz and Barbara. You’ll also learn how St. Patrick’s day is celebrated, that is, oddly but in a still fun way.

The biggest thing you’ll do in March is a long weekend in Vienna, traveling there by train with Kerre, Roisin, and Ally. It will be a great trip, and really whet your appetite for the travel to come. I won’t give too much away but it’s going to be great and will cement your friendships with the three as well. During the Easter weekend you’ll do another train trip, this time on your own, to Nuremberg as well. Nuremberg is intense in some ways, but well worth the visit you make.

In terms of new friends, March will be the month you’ll meet Yorkshireman Adam, and other English folk like Melon (whose real name is Michael and whose nickname you won’t really use for a while) and others in the Eurocopter crowd. You’ll get to know Finns like Ida and Anni, German Luisa (whose alcohol tolerance is truly laughable) and more Swedes like Sara too, even as you spend more and more time with the crew from your early days and start to feel a real part of it. Sadly, March will be the month that both Roisin and Ross leave Munich. Ross will have one hell of a going away week though, so that will be something to enjoy even as you sadly say farewell and prepare for the next stage of things.

April: Though definitely still winter, April feels more like time on a beach than anything else thanks to a few key events early on. Most obviously, you will go to a bar that actually has a beach, sand and all, inside of it. I mention this only because it’s a good way to remember that you’ll meet another member of your happy crew there, Casey. Casey in many ways exemplifies your increasingly common habit of meeting cool people, chatting them up, then introducing them to Fraser, Jamie, and the others so that they come out on Saturdays and become totally integrated with the group. Sure it might happen otherwise and of course you can’t take all the credit, but that first domino for a lot of people is you, and that’s something you can feel happy about. There are others like that you’ll meet, like Patrick from (obviously) Ireland, although in his case it takes a while for him to really join in due to his own crazy schedule.

Continuing the beach theme, you’ll have an unlikely but fun first visit to the Isar river (a rock beach) where Kerre will introduce you to new or recognizable faces, some of whom you will get to know better like Andy the German, Kayla, a Canadian, and Charne the always amusing South African, not to mention Amy, an English girl who works with Melon whose stories never fail to entertain, especially when they happen right in front of you. You’ll start to hang out with what you’ll think of as “Kerre’s crowd” on occasion, including a cool dorm/bar that Andy runs for a while. This is one of the side circles I mentioned earlier.

Oh, something to note. When you go to a club called M-Park, bring earplugs. Though every club is loud, this is the only one that actually makes you deaf for days afterward, it’s not the best sensation, seriously get the plugs. Oh yeah and when you leave, don’t forget Casey, she gets annoyed when abandoned.

As for the core group, the main event would be the Cage party part two, a very long night and very wild in its way, not to mention full of mistakes and embarassments that you won’t notice for a long while after. But the bad stuff passes and the good memories stick around. Still, it’s worth watching yourself a little that night.

In terms of new routines, you’ll start going on Tuesday to Shamrock, a fun little pub, for karaoke although mostly you’ll be there to hang out with people. You’ll also begin spending some time at Fruhlingsfest, the spring beer festival, where sometimes you’ll have a lot of fun with people who are ultimately much more transient friends than you might wish, but at least the experience is great. Fruhlingsfest in general is a good deal of fun where you can apply the lessons of Starkbierfest and the comments of German friends to really getting the most out of it.

May: May really signals the long-awaited emergence of spring as the cold finally eases and the ski coat becomes less necessary. And of course the best way to celebrate the advent of warm weather is to hang out in beer tents for Fruhlingsfest, which you will do with much joy. Speaking of fun, that first week is when you meet Aleks, a lovely Polish girl whose very presence amps up the nights out, especially when combined with the other girls who rapidly become her close friends such as Casey. Speaking of Casey, don’t worry, all the violence is friendly and not what it seems at first. This is also the month you’ll meet Jennie, another good addition to the group, and Olly, who is not only a good guy but has the funniest and worst luck in clubs you’ll have yet seen including falling asleep and getting kicked out and being so sick from overdrinking he disappears for half the night and confuses everyone as to his whereabouts. Foreshadowing your summer trips, you will also meet some Scottish friends of Jamie and Fraser, proving that it’s not just them who are…the way they are.

Not all social interactions are so crazy of course. One weekend will be rather mild and involve a random afternoon of cards where you will meet some who will have a startling impact on you considering you won’t seem them much afterwards like Alina, who will leave rather suddenly in a few weeks but not before creating some real memories.

You may have noticed I didn’t mention work much, well that’s because at this point, with the end in sight, you’ll start working a lot harder and not only that but you’ll be applying to lots of jobs (more on that later). One of the other reasons you’ll be working hard is to build up hours for a l0ng weekend in Prague this month. It’s a great trip and an introduction to the free tours that become such an important part of later travels. It’ll also introduce you to the “friends for a day/night” phenomenon common to travelers on long trips, and one that you’ll have your fair share of although happily not all the time since Facebook makes it oh so easy to keep in touch. Good thing too considering what comes next month.

June:As the days reach their longest, your time in Munich will shrink. To counter, you fill your days with experience, hardly sleeping with all that you do, and hardly needing sleep, so exciting are your activities. First comes Paris. Though you haven’t seen her in years, you will meet up with Claire from your Arizona days in Paris for a fantastic five day trip. Don’t worry about the long time since you’ve seen her, you fall naturally into a comfortable friendship, and meet some fun people while you’re there as well. Just remember not to spend too long in the Louvre lest you totally lose your mind in there.

The big event starting in June is the World Cup. I know right now you’re not really big into soccer (and be sure to learn to call it football) but it’s much more exciting when you’re surrounded by manic fans. And whenever Germany wins there are street festivals so that’s also something to look forward to.

At work you’ll have a pleasant surprise in the form of a couple of new interns. Olivier will ultimately be your replacement, but you’ll end up closer with Oana, a Romanian who will work in a lot of areas to help boost ESO’s profile. She’s very good at it and a lot of fun to hang out with although it will sometimes be tricky to get her out and about. Another new face is Colleen, an American Au Pair who joins the group and is very quickly an integral member, and her ideas for brewing beer are interesting too. June is also a month of more visitors, such as Deidre, whom you met in Paris coming to see you, and Anna visiting Jamie and Fraser from Scotland.

There will be circus parties and 3D movies,  music festivals like Tollwood, and a long reel of nights out that fill your blog with stories to remember, which is a good thing because all too soon it comes to an end.

July:Beginning and endings define this month. Firstly the biggest ending, leaving Munich, starts with a going away party you throw for yourself. Relish it because contrary to your previous experience, you bring together literally dozens of people for the party. Sure it’s Saturday night when people go out anyway, but it’s still really fun, especially when you share the little rhyme you put together for the occasion. The whole night is great minus the absence of people you wish could be there like Fraser who is out of town or others who are long gone. Still between having dinner made for you by Jamie and Roel, shared toasts and other drinks, reminiscing with both people you haven’t seen in a while and those you see all the time, and happy spontaneous crazy things going on all night, it really makes everything perfect.

That last week will have non-stop events with a barbecue for the fourth of July (yes you will celebrate it even in Germany), and Germany losing to Spain in the World Cup (don’t tell anyone) standing out from the rush to see everyone and do everything that you can. Eventually though, after a confusing and long day in the gardens and at a bar, with just a few hours of sleep, you will leave Munich and begin the next phase of your time in Europe, traveling.

Your first stop will be to Berline where you’ll begin to develop an idea of the best places to stay and tours to go on. You’ll meet one of Clara’s friends that you’ve been chatting with and a randomly one of Thea’s good friends as well as you explore the city and its environs. The next stop on your journey will be a long weekend in Stockholm. Amid the Scandinavian debauchery and beautiful scenery you’ll have a wonderful time that alas feels too short even though you’re every excited to head off to Amsterdam.

In Amsterdam, although you’re only there for five days or so, you will become surprisingly close very quickly with people you meet on the tours you take (another good reason to do them). Christina, Katherine, Mike, and you will explore both the cultured and highbrow end of Dutch life as well as the seedier side of things like smart shops and Maison Rouge.  The time will fly by, even the nights out and seeing the castle hotel that Katherine stays and pretty soon you’ll be off to the airport again to go to London.

On your first trip in London you’ll spend ten days seeing the sights, taking in museums, a play at the Globe, meeting people randomly at the hostel and elsewhere and otherwise filling up the hours. Even so you won’t see everything before you leave, but you plan on coming back so that’s not a big problem, and while you traverse the British Library and other places, the months change yet again.

August: Leaving London, you head to Bath for a couple of days to look around the area, drink some cider and have a strange encounter one evening with one of the people working at the hostel and her friends. You don’t know it yet, but you’ll be coming back here too. Leaving bath you’ll spend a memorable day playing drunken bowling with Amy in Stafford on the way to York where Adam will put you up for a few days. Hiking in the rain and drinking with Adam and his pals is a nice change of pace and helps you recover some energy that you know you’ll need.

The reason you’ll need that energy is because after leaving York you head up to Scotland. After a short stay in Edinburgh you hop on an amazing bus trip around the Highlands, drinking whisky, wearing kilts, searching for Nessie and otherwise having a blast with a bunch of new pals and the hilarious Kay and Andy as your bus leaders. And fresh from that tour you hop a plane to Dublin for another, even longer tour around the Emerald Isle. This trip somehow even tops the one in Scotland with a bunch of new pals, lots of great sights, and of course an exploration of the Irish drinking tradition. There’s also bike rides in the rain, parties in Belfast and wandering through fairy circles to add to the fun. Afterward, a few days in Dublin round things off including an amazing tour of the Guinness brewery with some people from the tour and a randomly met but great gal named Rachel.

Flying back to London after that you spend some more time in the city, this time crashing with Portia and hanging out with her and her crazy friends. Around now you’ll realize the time you gave yourself to travel is not enough so you extend it a couple of weeks, a move entirely worth it as I can attest. Having had so much fun on your first two bus trips, you then take a third to Wales. Greta, your guide is the funniest person you will have ever met and a fantastic guide to boot. This trip is also notable because there are only eight of you on the trip so things like a barbecue in a Korean style hut (with plenty of juicy stories) and partying in Cardiff become a lot more intimate and fun in some ways. So much so in fact that you done more, again with Greta, this time to Cornwall and southwest England (and a brief stop in Bath again). You’ll go surfing for the first time (and yes the water is cold) and also for fun keep growing out a beard for the first time in many years, this time successfully growing a nice beard that looks pretty good. Alas the trip ends as all good things must. This is it for you and Europe for now though, as leaving the tour you head straight to the airport and fly back to Seattle, ending the fantastic trip you’ve been on for nine months.

September: You might reasonably be wondering why, if Europe is so fun and there’s no job or anything calling, I would go back to the States at all at this point. Well, living out of a suitcase is tiring for one, but mainly you pick now to go back because your parents have invited you to go with them to Hawaii for a couple of weeks. Your father has a conference on Maui and they won a week in a condo on the big island at an auction so it all works out pretty well.

Your parents will have moved out of the house by this point into a really nice condo in Kirkland, so that takes getting used to, although it’s easy to adjust. While waiting to leave for Hawaii though, the rest of the year falls into place with an unlikely interview for a job whose solicitation was too confusing to understand. A job with the EPA, you applied back in February just because your brother insisted. When, months later you’re asked to a phone interview for the position you find out it’s one very similar to ESO but in Washington DC with a human health research part of the EPA. As usual you ace the interview, but unlike the many other jobs you’ve applied for recently, you get accepted and now have to plan to move to Washington DC in a month. It’s very sudden but very welcome considering you had no idea what you would be doing after the Hawaii trip.

And it’s not long before you put it out of your mind to jet off to Hawaii. In Hawaii you travel very differently than you did on your own, in a far more upscale way with fancy hotels and restaurants and awesome but expensive trips. You’ll go surfing again, and hiking and stargazing at the top of Mauna Kea. You’ll go snorkeling by a beach and off shore, on a helicopter ride over lava, and ziplining through a high forest. It’s nice to spend time with the parents too, especially in a relaxed setting like this.

And then it’s back to Seattle for crazed packing and preparation.

October: After returning from Hawaii you briefly panic about packing but quickly figure out what is essential and what you can get later. Luckily you’ll be able to crash on Zack’s couch until you find your own place and so you head off in mid-October to DC. Once arrived you and Zack coordinate getting around pretty well and you begin the surprisingly arduous and frustrating process of finding a place to live. Many emails and open houses later you still just can’t find anywhere to live.

Happily there are good things too. You start to reconnect with people you know in DC that you haven’t seen in a long time like Teresa and your cousin Melissa, and make new acquaintances and possibly future friends as well such as the amusing Melissa and Annie who you first meet under false names but get to know a bit better later.

You’re not in DC long before you, Zack, and Rebecca go to Dallas for a few days for the scientific conference your father is in charge of. It’s fun seeing Michelle and her family but the best is getting to speak on science journalism to grad students and others interested in non-research science careers. You also meet some cool people and have a couple of memorable nights at bars with them, staying in touch even after the conference is over with a few of them like Jennifer, Dariya, and Karolina. After going back to DC, the hunt for housing begins again in earnest but still with no success before you start working at the beginning of the next month.

November: Starting the new job is stressful at first but you quickly adjust to the pace and style of the office. Generally speaking you write and do your projects a lot faster than the machinery of government can easily accommodate, which can be dull at times, but except for the hassles with your ID pass, the job is pretty good and your boss is really nice to boot.

Outside of work you’ll expand upon your social activities, both with your brother and on your own. You’ll meet new people and try new things but I have to be fair and say that there’s no Toytown equivalent that you’ll find. Still, between hanging out again with Carolyn, Teresa, Juliet, Clara and others, and new pals as well, your social life isn’t too desolate though I will say you’ll miss Munich and Europe some.

It being November, the end of the month brings Thanksgiving and a trip up to New York and New Jersey like most years. This year the meal is at Ronnie’s but you spend the day after at Michael’s on Long Island. It’s a good trip. you get to see an awesome show about Andrew Jackson with your father, and even see Patrick Stewart on the street.

December: Near the end of November there’s a spot of great news when you finally find a place to live in a really great apartment building. Finally in early December you move in along with your new bed. Your roommates, Beth and Elizabeth are very nice and living centrally is another big plus. It’s one of the best aspects to your life in DC and a welcome improvement over similar aspects in the previous year.

Unfortunately at the same time your office moves from close by in downtown DC out to Crystal City in Virginia. While not the worst commute ever, it does make getting to and from work a much longer process. Ultimately it’s worth it though since you’re close to the places you want to go out to on evenings and weekends, something you wanted a lot after your time in Germany. Other than that you adjust well to your now generally settled schedule of work and other activities and start really having a life beyond it, at least until near the end of the month when you return to Seattle for a vacation.

The vacation in Seattle is short but sweet, with a couple of days with family in Vancouver, seeing friends like Ian and Thea and random nights out when you’re not spending time with family. Shortly after the new year it’s back to DC, rested and ready.

January/February: The last couple of months have a few highlights worth mentioning. You’ll start going out more often on weekends with Carolyn and meet new people in an interesting tandem way with her. Your boss will send you on a trip to a conference in Charlotte for a few days, which you’ll enjoy and learn quite a bit at. And on her way to Israel from Arizona, Rachel, your pal who at your point in time you’ve just reconnected with, will stay with you for a while, a nice reunion.

Mostly though, life is without too many major ups or downs at the moment. I anticipate good things to come, and am as you know, hopelessly optimistic though I try to hide it. We shall see what the next twelve months bring for me. For you though, all I can say is enjoy this truly wonderful upcoming year, happy early birthday, and pack an extra sandwich or something on that flight to Munich.

Your future self,

Eric

The tours also provided a great way to meet people, especially people of similar age and circumstance to myself. The easiest to meet were others traveling alone of course as gravity naturally drew people not talking to anyone else to speak to each other, usually during the milling around before the tour began or during the break provided during the three or four hour tour.

But this isn’t the story of the tours, no this is the story of a young woman I met right before the tour I took in London began. This is the story of Alexa, and three outlandish events on her journey from her home in New Zealand:

Alexa doesn’t immediately stand out in a crowd. Pretty, with shoulder-length brown hair, a smattering of freckles across her cheeks, and a wicked glint in her eye, it’s only when she flashes her dazzling and infectious smile that heads start to turn. In between puffs from her inexhaustible supply of cigarettes, she told me about life in Havelock North and her decision to save up money and, much like the thousands of other Australians and New Zealanders I encountered, travel the world. What made her story different from so many others was that instead of immediately departing for Europe or North America, Alexa instead went to South Africa. In short but vividly descriptive sentences, she described her unconventional trip along the eastern coast of Africa.

Hitchhiking, even in a country like Denmark, let alone the United States has always struck me as very risky. In South Africa and Mozambique it feels like just asking for trouble. Yet, with the nonchalance of those blessed by an endless fountain of luck, (or, although not true in this case, lack of brains) Alexa talked about what it was like, never knowing whether the next ride would come, how far it would take you, where it would drop you off, and what you would do that night. My particular favorite was when she and a friend actually hitchhiked by boat across a lake that was on the way to their destination, because apparently just regular hitchhiking in Mozambique was not enough for her.

Apparently even that adventure was but a prologue however. Alexa next related how she flew to Dubai from Africa, planning on both seeing the sights and meeting an aunt who lives there. While going through customs, (and waving at the waiting aunt) the security personnel removed a large Ziploc bag of uncooked macaroni Alexa carried with her in case of emergencies. Rather than just shifting the bag around, the customs police proceeded to actually crush the macaroni. Normally, this would be a mere irritant, quickly forgotten, but unfortunately Alexa, though scrupulous otherwise, was unaware that three small seeds of plant acquired and disposed of in Mozambique, had gotten lodged inside the U-bend of some macaroni. This would be very bad in any country, in Dubai, Alexa was immediately escorted to an airport holding cell with nothing but her bag and her guitar, without even a chance to explain to her bewildered aunt what was happening.

A lot of people might still be in that holding cell, or on their way to prison, but Alexa took it all in stride. Picking up her guitar, she proceeded to strum away, singing her favorite songs to keep her spirits up. Within just a few hours, she was taking requests and before long was laughing and joking with the airport security like old friends. Over the next few days, they took her on car tours of the city, made her stay much more comfortable and did everything but let her go. The day before her scheduled flight to Egypt, the head of airport security told her they would let her go without charges, much to Alexa’s relief. Relief rapidly switched to surprise however when he then pulled out a diamond ring and professed his love and asked Alexa to marry him. Playing the delicate balance between saying no and not angering the guy in charge of her freedom, Alexa gracefully declined his kind offer and boarded her plane as quickly as possible with another quaint anecdote to add to her collection.

As was typical with all her journeys, Alexa hadn’t made plans for where she would stay in Egypt. Aboard the plane she inquired of friendly flight attendant as to possible places to stay in Cairo. Before the attendant could respond, the gentleman sitting next to Alexa spoke up. At this point in her story I could already see the broad shape of what was to come, and started laughing even before she told me how the man, in his 30′s, told her that she could stay with him and his family, no problem. The only thing was that she would have to pretend to be his girlfriend of the last couple of years.

Naturally Alexa accepted, even with all that acceptance might imply, and spent a week or so with the man and his family. The mother and sisters in the family apparently thought the world of her, buying her gifts and treating her magnificently, showing her an Egypt not many tourists see. Of course my immediate question was if the kind stranger tried to take advantage of the girlfriend fiction. He did not at all Alexa explained, because according to him (and I had this verified as a real idea among some Egyptians), her freckles indicated that she had AIDS and he didn’t want to catch it.

I was quite speechless when she finished that story with the description of the many gifts she had taken with her on her flight to London. A short story or screenplay with that kind of arc would be immediately dismissed as unrealistic in all the wrong ways I thought, which made it seem even more realistic somehow. And with the perfect timing characteristic to her stories, the tour began.

Alexa’s had more adventures that I didn’t put down here or only heard about later. She puts herself in the way of opportunity and never refuses an experience, an admirable, if to me rather scary way to live. Still I always look forward to our chats both for the stories and for her unique viewpoint on many topics. Perhaps it’s just a matter of degree rather than kind that makes her stories so intriguing to me, everyone has a few, hers just seem bigger and happen much more frequently. Whatever it is, it’s another great tale of Europe and the people I met.

• A year ago I arrived in Munich and went to my first Toytown event where I met most of the core group of people I would spend time with for the next six months. The speed with which time passes impresses and frightens me. At the same time, I’m rather proud of how I’ve developed since I started this blog, which was also about a year ago.
• Writing about health and environment is rather sobering, especially when the information comes in such a raw form the way it does when working at the EPA. The scare tactics employed sometimes by media outlets aren’t present in the scientific papers and abstracts, but that just makes the content even more disturbing sometimes. Of course everyone knows that fuel exhaust and chemicals in plastic are not good for you, but to see how they cause asthma, developmental problems, and even obesity is very disturbing. Lifelong problems in essentially every aspect of physical, mental, and social health just because your mother was in the wrong place at the wrong time seems almost satirical in its awfulness.
• My friend Rachel spent the week in DC before leaving early this morning. Wonderful to see and hang out with her, a reminder of a very different time in my life. I look forward to hearing about her international travels as they now begin.
• I’m not sure why it’s so easy to predict other people’s short-term futures but I am getting pretty good at it. Conversely, predicting or even just estimating my own seems an insurmountable challenge. Every day comes out of left field and I find myself in a perpetual state of surprise and confusion. Distance from a situation is probably the reason it’s easier to understand but the disparity is still ridiculous in its starkness.
• As someone who works to take responsibility for my life, waiting patiently and relying on organically occurring events is nearly intolerably irritating yet forcing the issue only leads to negative outcomes. Laid-back amusement is not my default mood despite the evidence otherwise. It’s the dark side of optimism. I could no more stop thinking things will improve than I could stop trying to improve them. Giving up is much harder than persevering.

More coherent posts will come soon, including some humor pieces.

Formality- Washington DC is the capital of the United States. Unsurprisingly therefore, a lot of people you meet and see work for the government either directly or with the seemingly millions of lobbying groups, non-profit organizations, foreign envoys or other entities that are here for that reason. That means a lot of nice suits and similar outfits, even more so I’d say than places like Boston or New York (outside Wall Street at least) and a similar level of formal wear even in social settings like bars. Not just high-class wine bars but pubs and even dive bars in certain areas. As someone from Seattle (where the joke is that to be formal we wear socks with our sandals), this feels a little stifling (and entails a lot of shopping for new clothes). On the other hand everyone looks good when dressed up so the city takes on a classier air than it might otherwise.

Transport- Munich spoiled me a bit with its hyper-efficient, always very clean transport. Not to mention the allowance of eating and drinking (and alcohol) on board. DC strives to be efficient but doesn’t always quite make it and while the cars are usually quite clean, it’s because of strict no food or drink rules enforcement. I also rather miss the ‘honor system unless you get caught without tickets’ system in Germany, as well as being able to get unlimited monthly passes, public transport here is expensive. On the other hand it does work well overall and doesn’t cram unnecessary stops downtown like other cities often do.

Food- One big plus about this city is the enormous abundance of wonderful restaurants and other food-providing places. I have yet to have a bad meal (that I haven’t cooked myself at least) and there are honestly hundreds of places to try just in the downtown area. Often expensive but usually worth the price in my opinion. There are plenty of grocery stores around too, which helps in the saving money area and I haven’t had any issues with their quality either.

Nightlife- I’m not a nightlife expert by any means. Until living in Munich I merely dabbled my toes in the pool of drinking, dancing and assorted activities. Post-Europe, I feel a bit more qualified to make comparisons however. Like the rest of America, DC goes out to the clubs generally much earlier than Germany, at ten or eleven rather than midnight or later because the clubs and bars close at tow or three if you are lucky. After-parties therefore play a much larger role, and pre-gaming can sometimes begin almost as soon as dinner ends. At the same time there’s a restraint (in most, not all) that isn’t present from what I remember in my travels. Partly this is because alcohol is prohibitively expensive, even more than European cities, and often of  a lower quality that makes one even more reluctant to buy it. But it also derives from the subtle yet surprisingly strong Puritan view that many people here have, even when they insist they don’t. It comes out in disapproving looks when people order more drinks, or the reluctance (especially but not always in guys) to dance in any way that is not grinding or at best not one-on-one. Still, like most things, you just have to find the right venue and group to go with, that’s the real key.
Of course these are just a few aspects of the city and living here but they stick out in my mind, and really that’s what matters…

Portia and I had a lot of fun, whether going to the Notting Hill Festival, a celebration of Caribbean culture, or just going to the movies, which we did twice in rather quick succession. We explored London’s biggest comic book shop and more than a few pubs, a really great and relaxing break between more hectic trips.

One of the best things we did was go to the monthly adult night at the London Science Museum. Roisin, a friend from Munich I have written about before, invited me to come as she was back working in London and pretty busy otherwise. The event was free but by getting Portia and I on their guest list we received VIP status, which meant goody bags, faster lines, and free drinks at the bar (yes there was a bar at the science museum).

Portia and I went to a friend of hers apartment first as she had told him she’d say hello. He was currently still living with his now ex-girlfriend, an awkward situation to say the least, especially since they still grew jealous of each others dating lives and periodically fell back into a relationship style of behavior.

Portia’s friends are generally a colorful cast, thought that only hints at some of the fascinating and sometimes hilarious stories and quirks that defined them.  My favorites were the girl who married to stay in the UK (blackmailing her “husband” to do so) and the kleptomaniac stalker with a gambling addiction and a tendency to use her girlfriends ruthlessly (she wasn’t actually what Portia would call a friend, at least not anymore). Meeting these characters and learning their stories, both firsthand and from others revealed a very strange world and reinforced my belief that there is nothing so strange that the human mind cannot rationalize, ignore or otherwise make mundane. Pointing out oddities and absurdities only sometimes awakes a reexamination, more often they are dismissed as normal, all logic aside.

Getting back to the story, the former couple decided to accompany us to the museum and we walked through pouring rain (it was London after all) to get there. Roisin met us inside and while Portia’s friends wandered off, she and Roisin and I proceeded to get our goody bags filled with old-fashioned British candy as part of the night’s theme along with a glass of wine. The candy was mostly good if strange except for the “sherbert” a sugary white powder that seemed more like cocaine than any child’s snack.

We went on various virtual rides and looked at cool exhibits about biology and astronomy and everything else, even making our own constellations with glow-in-the-dark stars. I also quite liked the exhibit that would turn a picture of you into the opposite gender. It wasn’t perfect though as it left my facial hair in, making me a bearded (and rather ugly) woman in its final picture. Experiencing the “4-D” movie about Apollo 13 was also great. The CG looked amazing and the vibrations, water splash and other effects that added the extra dimension were the icing on the rather nerdy cake.

It’s always a some small worry to me when friends from different parts of my life meet, you never know if they’ll get along. Roisin and Portia though gave me no concern as they are two of the friendliest, most open people I know and entirely justified my opinion. I was sad when the night ended, not least because the seemingly endless train and bus ride back to Portia’s could be a bit of a grind, but definitely worth the night out.

Of course, that was just one night of many…

This particular trip, the compromise my dad and I made on what to see (as Spider-Man doesn’t start until next week and Scottsboro Boys did not appeal to me) came to Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, a show neither of us had heard anything about but that promised spectacle and history with a rock soundtrack in a combination that I thought would appease both of our tastes.

And I was right. BBAJ entertained nearly non-stop, reinterpreting and explaining the relevance of Old Hickory (as Jackson was known) to today’s politics, with plenty of fun analogies to rock stars and friendly jabs to “emo” music (something my dad was entirely unaware of as a phenomenon until now). I was probably a nearly ideal member of the target audience true, educated enough to get the references to Susan Sontag and Michel Foucault, young enough to laugh at the Green Day-esque makeup worn by the seventh president of the USA, and open-minded enough to take deliberate anachronisms (like phones in the 1830′s) the way they were intended. But my father still enjoyed it a lot even to the point of buying the soundtrack afterward.

It’s the humor, as with most things in life, that makes the show work. Jumping into the audience and asking a woman if she wants to see his “stimulus package” and ordering two female hangers-on in the White House to make out for the amusement of tourists might seem juvenile, but it also reflects the real rough humor of Jackson and his friends, just as a song about blood as a metaphor for love and rubbing said metaphor all over himself and his wife Rachel teases at some of the over-the-top lyrics common in emo music.

Broadway shows, and all cultural missives from New York and the coasts really, have a reputation of entirely generated by a politically liberal elite that dismisses or denigrates other viewpoints, but this show worked hard to balance its inevitable political message.  It points out the selfishness of both the frontiersmen wanting to take all the land from anyone else occupying it and the corrupt semi-aristocracy that controlled the government (for better or worse) until Jackson.

Jackson, though ultimately a sympathetic figure (as nearly anyone examined closely is) has defeats and triumphs and his flaws are pointed out as much as his better aspects. He really opened up elections to a much broader segment of America, but his reputation was based on often unjustified except by greed land grabs from Native Americans and other European settlers. He dismantled a lot of the corrupt infrastructure, but was the source of economic troubles. He strengthened the idea and power of the United States as a country, not just a collection of states, but partly by protecting the slave holding rights of southern states. So like anyone, his legacy is mixed and while “sometimes you have to write your own story,” it’s ultimately true that “you can’t shoot history in the neck.”

Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson entertains, informs, and maybe even inspires people to read more history, or rethink current politics, or even just try to be a rock star. I liked it, I recommend it to any theatergoers. As for the history, Jackson would probably have few regrets, as he puts it in the play, “Presidents don’t ask permission.”