BMW Welt

It's a quiet Tuesday night. After a couple of invites to go to dinner, I think it is time for a night off, of socializing that is. Last night simple plans to go to dinner turned into a nightmare on the U-Bahn. After a wonderful Mexican meal (yes, Mexican, I know I'm in Germany, I miss Chipotle, okay?) we all decided to look for more drinks. So, doing what any logical tourist would do, we pulled out the map :). After walking up and down the same street for 20 minutes, we found a potato bar. No worries, they didn't serve only potatoes... of course, there was beer!

The U-Bahn shuts down around midnight, and I make sure I leave around 11:30. I get to the platform and train is going the wrong way! Someone assured me that it is coming back, the right way, so I wait. I get on going the right way, the train goes two stops than then starts going in reverse! I get off at the stop where I got on, and the train keep going. It then comes back on the same track going the right way, so I get on again. By communicating the best I can with a couple of folks, we all have to get off and transfer to another train to get home. What was a 10 minute trip took an hour with all of the confusion. There were announcements about all of this, but of course they were in German. When I frantically asked in German if anyone spoke English on the train, they all answered in perfect English, "No, I don't understand." It's very strange that just after I posted the video on language barriers the same situation happens to me!! So, given that not so pleasant adventure, I think I'll just cook my frozen microwave lasagna dinner in a saucepan on the stove top and stay in tonight.

Continuing with the BMW trip, above is Riccardo in one of the luxury cars. They were everywhere. It was a showroom and business all in one.



This is the corner stone of the building. As you can see it is fairly new. Many sponsors and businesses wrote little notes of prosperity and placed them in the corner stone before it was placed in the ground, kind of like a time capsule of sorts.



This is the "handing-off area". When you purchase or lease a BMW here, you get to go through a type of ceremony. They actually call it the "handing-off ceremony." You are brought to a room where they tell you all about your car. While you are going through all of the features and benefits your car is brought up from the basement in a glass elevator and placed on a spinning disc. You are then "ceremoniously" brought down to your car, which is shiny and new and spinning slowly for you to admire. You then drive it down the ramp within the building, out the door and on your happy way. Trent actually leased a BMW in this way and picked it up the first weekend to drive to Salzburg. It will be waiting for him upon his return to D.C.. Nice. I'm jealous.



This is where you can customize your BMW. You sit here with your salesperson and go through a computer simulation of exactly what features you want your car to have and can see exactly what it looks like on the screen. Cool.



The building we toured was the new building which purpose is the mostly sales and new cars. This is the older BMW building, which purpose is the manufacturing business. This older building also houses the museum. I haven't been to the museum. It wasn't part of our trip. Maybe I'll go next week. However, the BMW Welt trip was pretty comprehensive and I really don't feel the need to return... outside of my visit to pick up my new car that is :).

After the tour we went to their corporate office and sat for a presentation from the head of their trademark legal counsel. Unlike the presentation at the German Patent & Trademark Office, this one was all about trademarks. I loved it! And I want our presenters job :).

Barriers & Birthdays

This clip is true it's almost not funny - okay, it's pretty funny :). Whoever said that everyone speaks English in Germany is sadly mistaken. The younger population does usually speak English, although if you ask them, they are reluctant to admit it. On the first day I arrived, in the store at the airport, I asked if the sales lady could speak English... she said, "not really, but she could try if I really wanted her to". Whatever! Case in point - this clip is right on. (Thanks Bryce!)



This clip is just plain hilarious! And a message for the lady that works at the AIRPORT... she was such a liar.



Last Saturday was the Munich 850th Birthday Celebration! A group of us planned to meet up at Odeonsplatz at 9:00 PM to enjoy the festival. The place was absolutely crazy!! With a lack of cell phones, we all got split up. Luckily I found Brain and we were able to watch the show in the rain :). I met up with the others the next morning at the Central Station to go to the castles, and they had a different experience at the festival. There were concerts, techno music etc. going on all over the streets, and they were there. The above video is of the performers rehearsing for the evening's show at Odeonsplatz where it was held. This is a great video to get a sense of where I have class everyday...



This was an amazing performance. She was actually dancing on the side of the church!! The entire show was over 2 hours long, and consisted of the history of the city of Munich. Munich was incidentally hit by multiple waves of the plague. Brain and I discerned that her performance signified the devil's/death's want to take the church and the people's faith. The videos for this part of the show were of medieval drawings of the plague... kinda yucky.



This was another great part of the show I found courtesy of YouTube :). The pictures on the screen are of the great Kings of Bavaria. I hope you enjoyed these little movies... I should stop procratinating and get back to my papers :).

Conversations & Law Firms

With international students come international conversations, both in and out of the classroom. Over lunch yesterday, a few of us were having a discussion about citizenship in Germany. Professor Carroll remarked how unless you had family hertiage in Germany, the fact that you were born here doesn't make you a citizen as in the United States. Two students from Turkey remarked how this is the same in their country, and generally is throughout Europe. As a new country the United States wanted to grow and welcomed a law of citizenship by birthright. Even today, as the issue of U.S. immigration falls under great criticism, this rule of law remains. I don't know how many people know about Europe's immigration policy, that some may say is stricter than the U.S. Oh so many years ago, when I researched a permanent move to Belgium, I faced many obsticles without a work visa. And the work visa was impossible to obtain.

Later that same day, I was chatting with an international student about the structure of our Software Contracts class. This student is particularly inquisitive in class. Debating and questioning everything in a way that I have never seen done in the United States. He mentioned that it is very difficult for him to understand how the professors can end a class with the answer to all of the questions as "it depends." I explained that "it depends" : ). But really, it does in a common law system, where one decision doesn't always follow the one before. Each side of the argument is (well most of the time anyway) given a fair shot. He explained that in the civil law system, where there is a statute for nearly everything, there is (or should be) an answer. People know what crimes they are committing and what their punishments are, and never ever would a professor leave a question so openended and unanswered. There are points to both sides.

Last night we had a reception at Bird & Bird, an international general practice law firm that has a renowned IP reputation. I knwo this to be true, as I was able to work with paralegals and attorneys from their Hong Kong and London offices on a project for a mutual client in South Carolina. I still remember their dissapproving faces when my boss offered up Hooters as a suitable place to have a business dinner. Sorry, side bar. The food was great (at Bird & Bird, not Hooters : ) ), and the attorneys were very friendly and informative. As the American J.D. students will most likely not be practicing Bird & Bird attorneys, the firm was more interested in meeting the local L.L.M. students as possible new hires. Either way, I collected a couple of business cards and know I will be seeing their name in the future, if not working with them as foreign counsel for IP protection abroad.

But, more commentary on great food!! A group of us (above from L to R, Richard, Trent, Brian, Chris, Amy, Andrea, Denise, James, CJ & Pinky) went out to an amazing Italian restaurant, and to a bar in the University district for a few drinks.

My dinner at the Italian restaurant: tortellini (filled with veal, I think?) in cream sauce with ham. Yummy! And of course, you can't forget the accompanying beer!

This is my beer (a Wiessebier) at the Paulaner restaurant. I had some yummy sausages and mashed potatoes with it. This was a casual dinner that followed class and a trip to the Hofgarten to have a beer. It was a nice day for once so we had to take advantage of the sunshine, and what better way than to sit outside and have a few beers. By the way, this is a baby 1/2 liter beer. Liters are really the way to drink around here.

We were all meeting at the school before we headed over to BMW last weekend. I got there a little early, so snapped this shot of the sign. We don't have classes in this building, but most of the student lockers are here as well as a study room. The study room is always a bit crowded and noisy. I've moved to the library to get any reading done.

Here we all are at BMW. We are just milling around in the lobby before the tour starts. This was an amazing building, very modern. More BMW to come... stay tuned...

Austrian, Greek or German... The Food is All Good!

IT'S STILL COLD HERE!! It's is currently 58 degrees, cloudy and rainy. This is not what I signed up for. I just checked the forecast and more rain tomorrow. All of the nationals say that this is why the country is so green. But enough already, I could stand a little less "green" and a lot more sunshine. Its Tuesday is business-as-usual, which includes class, studying and running errands such as purchasing replacement pencil leads. Yep, it's not all glamour in the country of the Fairytale Castle. It was an uneventful Monday and one of the first weekday evenings I've had "off" as pretty much everyone is up for going to dinner to try new German or other wonderful European cuisine with, of course, a sample of what the special beer or other tempting beverage of the house may have : ).

Speaking of meals... Munchner Suppenkuche!! When it rains, one wants a nice hot bowl of soup, and where better to go but a soup kitchen!! No, we didn't have to show our student IDs to prove that we needed free soup (it's not so free). Could it have been the model for the famous Jerry Seinfeld "Soup ___" (shhh... it's illegal to say that word here), one never knows. All I know is that it's good!! I'll have to take a picture next time (and there will most likely be a next time : ) ) I go.

But, I am not done with my exursion to Salzburg - there's more! Above is yet another photo from the tour van (I think you can see my reflection in the window) ... this is where Constanze, Mozart's widow lived after his death. I know it's just a building but I love all this history stuff : ).

This is a monastery in the city of Salzburg. You could walk up this small mountain (yes, I am being sarcastic) to take a tour and eat at their restaurant. This was the first restaurant in Salzburg, and the city started with this monastic development. I bet they have good beer : ). Side note about monks and beer. I have learned that the beer in Munich is so good (and so famous) because the monks who first developed the area brewed and perfected their own. When they would fast, they would brew a special beer that was like a meal so get them through their hunger. I think it was either the Helles (lager) or the Weisebier (wheat beer), I forget. I think I may have had a couple of them by the time someone was telling me this story : ). Another side note: food: I had the best Wienerschnitzel yet in Austria. Yum!

The Salzburg Music Festival happens every summer in late July. They were already preparing when we visited.

This is the interior of the Hohensalzburg. It is the fortress that the Prince-Archbishop would retreat to in times of war. I believe it was built in the 1400s. I didn't really get a great shot of the outside (it was cloudy and rainy - go figure!), but I thought the inside was impressive. This was the last shot I got before I was told to put my camera away - oops!!

Ahhh, the perfect end to a day trip to Salzburg - Ouzo. After we returned, we journied to an excellent Greek reastaurant. The food was the best I have had so far. So good, we want to enlighten others and are making plans for another trip : ). As is Greek tradition, you finish the meal with a shot of Ouzo, a licorice tasting liquor. However, the waiter didn't just give us a shot - he gave us the bottle.... [insert your own ending here] : ).

Salzburg, Austria

I have found a new place to study - the library - how novel! After hearing that finals in summer programs abroad are no exception to the rule, I am trying to be more diligent. Some of my colleages are gone, having left for home yesterday of or the day before. There are only a few new students for the second session of the program, most of which seem to be L.L.M. students from other countries. There are not many J.D. students that are joining us for these next two weeks. On the upside, I like these two new classes that I am taking. Not only is the format more condusive to law school, which makes preparing for class easier, but they seem to be more doctrinal (so far). No longer are we speaking of the morals of a door (I bet you didn't know that a door had morals, or that it speaks through scripts, as in scripts for a play - neither did I), but we are reading cases and pulling rules and actually discussing "law" instead of "theory". I like it and it is making focusing on my two "theoretical-like" papers more difficult.

It's still rather cold here for July and was raining all weekend. Today there is no rain, but as I sit here inside the library, I have my jacket on and my nose is cold. It's seriously like fall weather.

Yesterday was an adventure and I went off-roading in the Bavarian countryside in a bus - but this blog isn't there yet. You will just have to sit in suspense while you read about Salzburg : ).

Above is an example of the kind of art one finds in the Buchhiem museum - hmmmmm..... interesting....

Two Saturday ago, a group of us went to Salzburg. There were five of us, and up to five people can ride on a Bayern Ticket for 27 Euros. That's a good deal at only 5 Euros and change a person! It's a two hour train ride and we left early in the morning. A few of the group decided to book a Mozart & City Tour of Salzburg, although it was more City than Mozart. Our tour van (which isn't really good for picture taking or looking up any building more than one story high) speed by Mozart's house, above. This is the best shot I got.

This yellow building is where Mozart was born. Zoom! It was a rush to quick, take a picture down this narrow alley, through two archways filled with hundreds of people... again, this is the best shot I got. Pretty unimpressive.

We actually stopped here, long enough to get a picture - that's me! This is one of the Austrian Prince-Archbishop residences. There were many. The Prince-Archbishop that built this one loved water games and built a garden out back that was used to trick his guests into getting wet as they walked and dined in the garden. Strange sense of humor.

There were so many Sound of Music Tours to take in Salzburg. We didn't do an actual tour, but Andrea, Denise and I are posing infront of the actual gazebo where Lisel and her beau danced and sang "I Am 16 Going on 17." Okay, time to start research for one of my papers.

Has the Novelty Worn Off?

It's only weekend number two, but already a little weariness has crept in. Most of us are all on European time, so naps aren't as frequent, but finals for some are tomorrow and final paper deadlines are set. This can all create a little stress simply because we are all taking two classes within a two week time frame and haven't had time for the material to sink in. The class structure is very different than the semester long doctrinal classes we are used to - some of the classes aren't even doctrinal at all. What to expect is becoming difficult. Lucky (maybe) for me, I don't have any finals tomorrow. My courses for this session consist of two final papers both due on August 16th. However, with finals in classes I haven't even started two weeks from tomorrow and returning on August 10th with a full time job, I almost wish I had the finals and could be done with it. Just another challenge - although I can't say that I'm thrilled about this one...

On a good note I was able to do a load of laundry! Seriously, this is an accomplishment. Word to the wise, it is extremely important to always arrange accomodations with laundry facilities. I was lucky enough to have connections in high places (at a hotel with a laundry room : ) ).

Above is a view of the Bavarian Parliament from the roof of the German Patent & Trademark Office. You can see for miles from the rooftop! By the way, I have been so busy that my pictures have fallen behind. As mentioned earlier, we visited the Office last Friday and BMW Welt today. But bear with me, I'll catch up : )!!

Here is everyone from the first session perched atop the roof of the German Patent & Trademark Office including the officers and examiners that gave the presentation on patent prosecution (not trademark - bummer!).

The "old" trademark for the German Patent & Trademark Office. The new trademark is a rectangle with a splotch of paint or some other kind of liquid sprayed on the retangle. Innovative and modern maybe, but I can't say that I'm a fan. The retangle is supposed to represent structure (patents) with the splotchy thing representing creativity (trademarks/copyrights). The mark doesn't really shout "official". I'd like to know if the registrations place the "old" or "new" mark on their certificates. If anyone knows, please feel free to comment... I haven't seen one in awhile... most trademarks I've worked with don't just file in Germany ; ).

After visiting the Office, a bunch of us headed down to the Starnbergersee in Starnberg which is a beautiful lake southwest of Munich and just a short S-Bahn ride away. The boat above takes you to the "Museum of Fantasy" or the "Buchheim Museum". You can see another just like this half-naked masthead at the museum... along with a bunch of other strange items.

A view from the boat, overlooking the lake! An interesting note about Buchheim, he was an eccentric crazy man; a collector, artist and writer. He wrote the war novel Das Boot, which I am sure many of you are familiar with.

Germlish

We finally have a nice day in Munich! It has been rainy and cloudy with few exceptions, but today the sun is out and I'm thinking of ditching my jeans for a pair of shorts. I am presently at my apartment, awaiting the FedEx man. After a small panic attack realizing that Bluebook cites were required for my paper I frantically sent for the ever-loved "Bluebook" (yes, it is blue). Now the paper is due a week after my return ... and I can add the cites later. Scheiße (that's German for "shit" - hehe). Too bad a FedEx from the U.S. costs an arm and leg - lesson learned.

Speaking of how cold it has been and my jeans, I only brought a few pair and have been wearing them every single day. Laundry time! I decided to find out where the nearest laundromat was ... it's 2 miles away!! And they just happen to be on vacation so the place is shut down. Who shuts down a laundromat?? Many students are staying at the Max Emmanuel Hotel, and are planning on sneaking me in so I can use their washers - yea!

Another set back - communication. The calling card doesn't work, the cell phone is broken, and what the heck is Skype?? Some students have been able to purchase disposible phones for arounf 15 EUR, so I think I'm going to get on that train. Too bad I already gave everyone my phone number. Oh well, I'll just have to switch out the SIM card.

Above is another angle of the residence palace. I feel so lucky to have these grounds as my "second home". There are worse places to have class everyday : ). Just picture that guy walking to be a little shorter, and then dress him in a Napolean outfit. Voila! You have the past. Cool.

Wienerschnitzel! I was told by many that if I have one meal in Germany it has better be this. It was excellent. It is flattened breaded veal. Now I would not normally eat veal in the States, but when traveling you must make exceptions. This plate was eaten at the Hofbrauhaus, although I had better in Salzburg, Austria.

Riccardo, Richard and Mike at the Hofbrauhaus! Dinner and beer, and then more beer. This eventful evening was the birthplace of the phrase "Skutchien Sie Bitte" which is Heather-Germlish for sckooch over please. The vocabulary has grown : ).

Last Friday we had our first "study visit" and we traveled to the German Patent and Trademark Office. The Director and Examiners generally rambled on about the prosecution of a patent in Germany, much of which I was already familiar with, but nothing on the comparitive aspects of their trademark prosecution. I should have asked ... I blame the Hofbrauhaus from the previous evening ...

James is stuck in an elevator above. After the presentation at the Office we travled up to the roof to take some pictures. The elevators were strange to say the least. They have no doors and they keep moving! You just hop on two at a time and hope you don't miss! Then you hop out and hope you make it on solid ground before the elevator swallows you up again! All of a sudden, the elevators stopped and James was stuck. We took pictures. What else could we do : ) ?

Here is me at the top of the German Patent and Trademark Office overlooking the city of Munich.

Mike's Bike Tour

It has been exactly one week since I landed in Munich! At this time last week, I was waiting to meet my fellow students and on the way to the reception kick-off for the program. Who knew at the time that the week would have been so full of excitment, laughs, lots of beer (and ouzo - man, that stuff has kick), and that I would have added another country to the passport! Okay, maybe not added to the passport literally ... Austria doesn't care who you are, as long as you traveled from within the EU. If you have followed this blog all along, what I have feared has come true. Late nights, little sleep, falling behind in the school work ... but, it has all been quite worth it. I am actually taking today off to catch up on reading and brainstorm on what I'll be writing my papers on. It is such an icky day outside, rain and chill, with absolutely no sunshine. A good day to stay in and add another post. I was hoping to explore my neighborhood a little more and maybe find a laundromat, but no, everything is closed on Sundays. Next Sunday at this time I'll be on my way to another reception to meet everyone new that will be joining the program for the second session. The time is flying by!

Above is the English Garden and a favorite place to study. I wanted to go running in the Garden this morning, but too much rain. Maybe tomorrow night. The Garden is a great place to ride through on a bike, it is so large. I was able to do a little of that on Wednesday, as the school set up a bike tour through Mike's Bikes.

Here we are, on the bike tour! Most of us were a little wobbly on the bikes at first as we made our way through the narrow streets and cars. In fact, at this point on our tour, we were already a man down. No worries, she lived, thanks to James the Assman (no joke, he was appointed to bring up the "rear" and ensure that no one was left "behind" - haha).

Our first stop was just outside the royal residence and opera house. I have mentioned before that our classes are on the grounds of the palace of Ludwig I, and thanks to Tony the Tourguide, I now know a little more of the history. Napolean was going to confiscate all of Maximillian's lands in Bavaria, and most likely do away with Maximillian himself. But smart Max set his daughter up with Napolean's step-son and not only avoided execution, but was deemed the first King of Bavaria by Napolean himself. Napolean still took all the land, but Max kept his life. It was Max's grandson, Ludwig II, that built the famous castle Neuschwanstein that Walt Disney used for his famous trademark.

Here's me getting ready to continue on from the residence to the plaza and church. The plaza/church, which are only about two blocks from the spot I am standing, is where Hitler, in his first attempt to take Munich, waged the battle that landed him in jail. After he was released and made Chancellor, he built a monument at the plaza in the form of a large swastica. Two guards were posted on either side, 24 hours a day. This monument symbolized where he first failed at his ambitions to take Germany. If you went through the plaza and past this monument, you had to do the Heil Hitler salute. If you didn't ... you simply disappeared. Of course many were not particularily excited that Hitler was in power, so to avoid passing the monument, they ducked through an alleyway.

The monument has been removed, and it is illegal in Germany to speak of Hitler and the Riech and do the salute.

Moving on to a much less depressing subject - BEER GARDENS! Above is the famous Chinese Beer garden in the English Garden. After riding our bike's around some more, we entered the English Garden and had dinner and beer here. Drinking and biking, everyone must try it : ).

Here is what I had at the Garden that night ... and many times since : ). Bratwurstl and potatoes, with a nice big beer!! This beer is a Weise beer (wheat and yummy!). After dinner, we traveled on through the English Garden and found the Isar River where the surfers were riding the waves. It was dark by then and we had to travel back before we got caught and all received citations for riding our bikes without a light! I have many more stories and pictures to come ... but not enough time ... stay tuned!

But For the Grocery Store, I'd be a Local

Day three and I already feel all settled in. It seems as if I've been here much longer. That seems to be the general consensus of all of us students. We are so busy trying to fit in everything like rockstars, which we are not. Study study and more study - over 80 pages of reading a night AND the professors are not giving us a break because it's summer and we're in Germany - they are Socratic method all the way! Then of course we all want to take in as many of the sights as we can, which consists of waking up early to take in some culture (or finish up the reading!) before the 9:00 AM class, visiting different areas and restaurants for lunch (after speed reading the last 30 pages for the afternoon class!), and finally either finding a true German beer hall for dinner (only one beer please, I must comprehend what I'm reading tonight!) or simply taking the scenic route home to our apartments through the English Garden (stopping to read chunks of 20 pages or so on this bench or that!).

Above is the famous Hofbrauhaus. It is conveniently right around the corner from our classes and I walk by it everyday. A group of us are planning a good time there on Thursday night. I can't wait!

Before I chatter on about the pictures below, I must comment on my trip to the grocery store... never go at 6:00 PM. It is way too busy and when you don't really know German and the cashier is simply refusing to speak English (of course she knows it - she was about 20 years old and the store was in Maxvordstadt!), everyone behind you just wants to get their groceries and go home. There I was trying to make change and holding everyone up because I didn't know what chocolate I wanted! Not the best way to meet my neighbors. One of my neighbors is French by the way, we share the balcony. I actually spoke a little French with them : ).

This is the inner courtyard of the residence of the last King of Bavaria, Ludwig I (don't quote me on that, I haven't done my homework, he could've been the II or the III or something like that). We take our classes across the street from the residence, but on the actual grounds of the estate. It is kind of neat to think that modern intellectual property geniuses (not me ... hell no ... the Institute (they say) is the largest and most innovative in the world for IP research) are postulating on the same grounds as royals once did. Past meets present.

A couple of new friends from D.C. wanted to see my apartment, and we detoured through the English Garden on the way. This string quartet was playing, and they were so wonderful!

Here he is, the man of the manor - Ludwig! When I get some time (yeah right) I'm going to look up his history. I'm actually quite interested on where I go everyday, who walked there and what they did. Maybe the guides on the bike tour tomorrow will fill us in.

The infamous Glockenspeil! A couple of us went adventuring for lunch, an ATM and a SIM card today and wandered into the Marienplatz. It's a one minute walk from where we have class. We are truly close to everything : ).

Foreign Exchange

As I walked through Chicago-O'Hare Airport (rather nostolgically), I heard a little German accent behind me say, "Excuse me, I am flying Lufthansa to Munich, do you know where gate B17 is?" Julia was traveling back to Hanover after a one year exchange at a high school in Indianapolis. As she spoke of how her parents paid $10,000 for her to travel to Palm Spring with her host family (who had no high school aged children) rather than worthwhile American cities rich in the history and culture of our country, such as Washington D.C. or even New York City, I couldn't help but think that Julia got the raw end of a deal. But, she was emersed in American culture, attending an American high school (even though she said it was so much easier than in Germany) and placed with people who did not know any German. It made me think. Here I am traveling to Europe to socialize with other American students, with classes in English at George Washington University, not a German university. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I would pass if the classes were in German! But I think that maybe we take our American ways and comfort with us to more of an extent that do other countries. I am not going to Ludwig-Maximilian Universitat to study, and have yet to see Ludwig-Maximilian set up shop at NYU with classes all in German, a little bubble of safety all around. If you know of a situation where this has happened, please post a comments to correct me. I guess I will have to break out of the American safety zone all on my own...

I would love to continue on about my asking directions everywhere I go (in German!) because I always seem to get lost... or about how I almost started a small fire in my bathroom when the converter slighly blew up when I tried to dry my hair... but those stories will have to wait. I have twenty more pages of reading to do before I sleep, so I'll leave a few pictures and get back to work.

A BMW advertisment at baggage claim in the airport. When you walked in front of it, the ignition starts and the lights turn on. I had a lot of fun with this, as I spent the good part of five hours in the airport waiting for the time to meet my landlord and get the keys to my apartment.

The Welcome Reception at the Max Planck Institute. I met lots of great people and better yet, they had food, which I wasn't expecting. It saved me from stepping out of that American safety bubble I was talking about earlier to eat somewhere on my way home : ). I got lost on the way here, and had to ask for directions as usual. An older woman refused to continue with the directions because said it was closed on Sunday and I shouldn't be going there. I asked someone else : ).

The view from the balcony of my apartment. I'm on the sixth floor, with air conditioning, but no electricity in my bathroom (okay, that last part is my fault, but there were so many sparks it was like the Fourth of July - pretty ; ) ).

International SOS

Five days and I'm on my way! There seems to be an endless list of things to do before I go, which ironically grows rather than shrinks each day. For example, I am currently waiting for the latest updates to install on my computer, so I can then install the latest security software. I guess the Munich IP Law Center and Max Planck Institute are very protective of their network. Rightly so. Last week I registered through George Washington University's International Travel Insurance. Then this morning, realized that I have similar insurance through my International Student ID account. Then, of course I made sure that I had property and liability insurance abroad from my local insurance company, and found a doctor in Munich that is in my medical insurance network. Think I'm prepared?? Maybe, but the fact that each one of these companies mentioned being airlifted out of the country in case of a medical or political emergency just makes me nervous. At least it's a fully developed country and I've had all my shots - haha.

With all that still has to be done, I admit that I am getting excited! I'm even getting a little (I'm not a complete nerd!) excited to study again. I have received all of my books with the exception of the study guide. But for those who know me, if I don't know what a patent or trademark is by now, well, I should have been fired six years ago. Fellow Mitchellites that have returned from study abroad have tried to impress upon me the minuscule importance of the course work in comparison to the experience of the country. This may be true, but I would love to have certain letters stamped on my transcript from GW Law : ). Will it be a challenge to fit certain little letters in with experiencing the fullest of Munich and beyond? Yes, but when have I not welcomed a little discomfort. Game on! Stay tuned to see what unfolds. I have been known to survive on 1.5 hours of sleep. However, I am old now ... if I run out of EUR I don't think they would hire me as a table dancer in the clubs anymore ... [sigh] those were the days ; ).