Life in Munich (the one with the bitching)

Some people have fussed at me about not actually saying much after moving to Germany. This is partly because I suck at this, okay. It's not you! But also, it turned out to be a fairly rocky landing, and I generally try not to talk too much about grumpy stuff. So, if you don't want to hear me being grumpy, skip this bit. This is a full-fledged rant, and then I'll go back to more travel and less travail.

Gromp the First: Housing

Historically, Bavaria (the German state that Munich is in) has had 13 years of basic schooling, and the other states have had 12 (with all the hassle you might imagine that entails). So, this year, Bavaria switched to 12 years, meaning that twice as many Bavarian freshman are starting university this year. In addition, Germany abolished mandatory military service last year, freeing up another (roughly) 20% of a graduating class. Meanwhile, TUM is one of the better universities in the country, and Munich is widely regarded as the best- or second-best place to live.

Summary: a lot of young people are moving to Munich this summer.

Speaking of living in Germany, next time you think the U.S. has maybe too many choices of
Heinz ketchup, I invite you to consider the possible alternatives. Curry-mango isn't too bad!

Finding housing was interesting time-consuming awful hard. I wrote dozens of people and posted to multiple websites over the span of a few weeks, and maybe three people responded, two of them with flats that were inconsistent with my minimum requirements ("being able to get to work"). Nonetheless, that left one flat! Which I moved into. (Really, it's a WG – Wohnungsgemeinshaft, or a multi-bedroom flat shared with other people.) I live with one other woman.

She's an interesting, smart lady, a recently-laid-off networks engineer who was born in Iran, got citizenship in Canada, and has now lived in Munich for 25 years. She has some interesting stories drawn from years of traveling the world to set up and support telecommunications networks for Siemens.

She's also really difficult for me to live with. Functionally, The Rules make it difficult to cook, clean, or be home; no guests, no before-or-after-hours activities. I stay in my room and play with my computer.

This is the "gromp" post, but it should be noted that this is the window in my room over my desk, c. 8:30 pm every single day. It's huge and all German windows open several ways, including WIDE OPEN. Being stuck in my room isn't exactly a cupboard under the stairs.

I gave up on cooking two weeks into living here, and I haven't made anything that requires heat since.† I shower and do laundry in a very constrained fashion, and, well – mostly I try not to go home. And it's sad, because I really do like her, as a person. A person I don't live with.

And I haven't even mentioned the duck.‡

Of course, I have no friends, since I just got here and barely speak the language; and Germany kind of closes at 8 pm (and Sundays). So since I don't want to go home (and I don't want to go drinking alone), I'm pretty much at work.

Gromp the Second: Work

Which would be okay if work was an academic lab, with other students I might conceivably befriend. But I got bait-and-switched by communicated insufficiently with the lab I'm at. I'm actually working at a small company. <!!> Most of the people around me are a bit older, actual grown-up employees, who go home at six to their existing friends and spouses. I get in at normal morning working hours <horrible face> and wear moderately grown-up clothing. I've seen the professor I'm supposed to be working with maybe twice, ever, literally – he certainly won't be writing me any recommendation letters.

Meanwhile, I've twice been invited to the lab of the guy who was my first choice to work with here. (He didn't answer the email in time.) It's awesome. Everyone is awesome, they've actually already invited me out to do social things a couple of times, people work at all hours on all kinds of neat things, wearing whatever the hell they want, as long as the papers get out.

Sigh.

But: I'm going to stop fussing now, because where I am is neat, friendly, research-focused small company. Everyone is nice, and everything I've asked for (computer, practice talk audiences, robot time) has been provided enthusiastically.

Yeah, this is what I'm complaining about. As everyone knows, I get happier as more robots get introduced to my environment. :-) The one on the right is a custom Meka, with a homemade "neck" to mount a Kinect on. It's sweet.

In short, it's actually a great environment. I mean that! It's just not what I expected. I'm complaining only because I know what small, neat, research-focused company life is like; right now I'm trying to build academic connections. (I know, I know, cry me a river.)

The End

So I didn't write much initially because I was lonely, miserable at home, dissatisfied at work, undergoing the usual transplant shock, and, of course, super busy. Now I'm lonely-ish, dissatisfied at home, getting stuff done at work, and super busy but kinda productive. Things have improved across the board. And they will continue to do so for the next month.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled mostly-travelogue. But it's not much of a blog about my summer if I never say anything about how I'm doing, which is: getting better, thanks.

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† That's not quite true – Marc took pity on me a couple times in Darmstadt. But if you've known me for, oh, six or seven minutes, you know that cooking is important to me.

‡ I will talk about The Duck in due time, I imagine.