By lumping the two weeks together I may actually have something interesting to write about. Things happen a whole lot slower when you’re settled, but I’ve been keeping myself busy. The language classes are going well. There were a few days there that I nearly strangled someone out of sheer boredom, but now we’re back to things I still find a little challenging, so that’s nice. I’m getting a bit more practice writing letters and sentences using various conjugations of irregular verbs and all that sort of fun stuff. I can’t imagine having to learn this all from scratch – I’m really lucky to have a basis to build from.

Both the last weekends I’ve headed out of town. The first weekend to visit Kathi’s family just outside Munich, and the second I went to vote in Frankfurt and then headed down to visit the family for a few days. Both times it was really nice to get out of the city a bit and smell a bit of fresh air. It’s nice that only an hour out of the centre of Munich is greenery and villages. We stayed with Kathi’s mother, sister, brother-in-law and nephew; it was really nice to hang out and meet them all. On our second night there we went to a party that someone in the village had organised, which was a lot of fun despite the intermittent rainstorms. There were a variety of bands, plenty of food and a fire for BBQing – we had marshmallows! Between the rainstorms and before it got dark, Kathi and I went for a wander through the fields and got a really nice view down on the surrounding countryside. I also played Scrabble in German for the first time (challenging)and ate some really tasty home-made pesto (garlicky).

Back in Munich it was the same old routine, but last Thursday I headed to Frankfurt to do a pre-poll vote in the upcoming Australian Federal election. In Australia voting is compulsory and I think that’s a good thing, so even though I would be exempted for being overseas, I always make the effort to go in and have my say. This is my third election overseas, which makes me realise just how long I’ve been away! Anyway, while in Frankfurt I also caught up with a friend from Munich who has a short term contract there. It was nice to catch up and hang out in between my voting and his work.

On Friday evening I headed down to Stuttgart and then to my relative’s place. By the time I got there it was pretty much time for bed, but I had time to hang out on Saturday. We visited my German grandpa (my grandma’s sister’s husband) in the nursing home then went to a garden party held on the plot of land that one of their friends owns. It was another nice community party where everyone brought food for themselves and some to share, then sat around enjoying each other’s company and drinking wine. I’m starting to see some familiar faces amongst the friends and acquaintances which is cool too.

I headed back to Munich on Sunday, in time for class on Monday. This week is a little less busy than last week was, I had a few people I know passing through Munich and it was cool to catch up with them. One of the afternoons we did a bike ride along the Isar River – a nice easy ride through the trees and into areas that seemed a world away from the big city. We ended in a beautiful beer garden and whiled away the evening with drinks and currywurst.

It’s hard to believe that my time in Munich is coming to an end already. This weekend I’m heading to Vienna to meet a friend from Uzbekistan, then I’m planning on meeting up with my relatives who are headed to Garmish (just south of here) for a holiday. When I get back from that I’m off back to the Stuttgart area to see people again before I fly to the States. And zip! The time is gone.