I had a bit of a flurry of writing there. It's not particularly interesting, but please just indulge me - or else merely lead me to believe you have. I also got confused as to what I had written in an email and what I had written here, so some stories may be missing vital elements.
I thought yesterday that the lady who had cycled round to give me the key to my room didn't like me, yet at 9.15 this morning she was rather cheerful with me. She even asked if I slept well, although she was still insisting on speaking only German. She demonstrated the ventilation system, and how to shut it off if the outside noise was annoying.
It emerged later that the reason for her cheerfulness was almost certainly because she had already exacted her revenge with the sign she put by my door. As far as anyone here is concerned, I'm a Bankhart.
Nevertheless, little does she know that I still haven't signed the contract for the room. Although that is something I really should do.
I ended up rather on my own to try to sort out my life - which made me feel a bit put out at first, before I then decided was quite reasonable, because I hadn't asked for more help and because I'm an adult (of sorts). Nevertheless, I didn't manage to get any of the necessary paperwork done today - so I'm not enrolled, have no address and no bank account. I don't much like that. There were things that I probably could have done, but they relied on having things that I couldn't yet have until I had done the things which I couldn't do. This meant that even the things which I could do couldn't be done, except for one thing - although that itself couldn't be done because I don't know what a TUM Automat is, or where or how or why I should put 28 Euro into it in order to get a receipt which I needed. And it didn't seem to matter, since I only needed the receipt to do something else which I couldn't do because I hadn't done yet another thing.
I am not certain, but I think that the way in is via the medical insurance - so I found the office, and it's open for a few hours tomorrow (but no other time during the week). In addition to this, I figured out how the Munich rail/bus system works and so I should be able to do more tomorrow, hopefully. It is quite a wonderful thing. Although it feels like it has swallowed up a lot of my money. It hasn't - other things have. But I shall blame the transport system, because it's one of the few things that I can actually remember paying for. I may be able to get a monthly student travel card - but not until I get through several other layers of things to do first.
I found a spanish/mexican restaurant near the Marienplatz, and had fajitas. They looked extremely professional and nice. I'm hoping to survive them.
The waiter was nice. He seemed foreign to me - but since I was more foreign, he was the one in control. I got his "smoking / non-smoking" question at the second attempt, and so he positioned me at a seat hidden at the back.
I accidentally gave him a tip. Well, perhaps in my soul I wanted to. I had thought about it, and I wasn't sure. What I did intentionally give him was a little head nod - which I have been using a lot here. It's a nod which says "Yes" to whatever he thinks that I'm thinking. I find it helpful in that, not only does it mean that I don't have to try to figure out how to express in German what I'm thinking, I don't even have to think it. When I don't know what I'm should be thinking, the nod means that he has to think what I might be thinking, and then understand that I agree with this. He is at least likely to think that I am thinking something relevant to the situation. In actual fact, I am likely to be thinking, "Time for the little nod".
Unfortunately, in this instance what he thought I was thinking was that I wanted him to keep the change. Fortunately, that wasn't much. But it has taught me that I really should be more careful with the nod - it is a powerful weapon, but potentially a very expensive one.
I went twice into a shop whose name I have forgotten, but who boasts to be "A World of Books". Indeed, it was a glorious place. There is a point whenever one is descending from the top floor, however, where the elevators stop going down. You may search and search and check all the many elevator options - but you will find that they are only going up. For me, it took some time to find the stairs, and longer still for the realisation to hit that they did not demand any particular direction from me. I suppose the shop has no wish to speed anyone's exit. They're all very cunning.
I held open the door for 2 elderly people, and received a warm smile from both and a "Danke schön. Das ist nett. Vielen Dank" from the woman - which was much more enthusiasm than I had expected. I blurted out a "Bitte schön" - which may or may not have been appropriate. It was a charming experience anyways, and made me smile for quite a time. It would have been sullied had I headed into the ladies toilets behind her, but at the last moment I noticed the skirt on the stick figure. Then, having veered towards the left just in time and entered the male toilets - which smelled rather badly - I somehow turned the tap on and couldn't turn it off. So I smiled apologetic to the slightly disgruntled looking man behind me, and fled. I later decided he may actually may have been more disgruntled because I was grinning at him while he was still fixing his trousers. Which I hadn't quite noted at the time.
They have such a desire to get on with life that sometimes German men are still fixing their trousers after leaving the bathroom altogether. Some don't even wash their hands. Nothing can hold them back.
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There were numerous photos (of the trip as a whole, not the man), but I'm not good enough to have figured out how to post them yet. A number of the photos were taken looking backwards as I made my way to the U-Bahn station - mostly so that I could use them to find my way home. I was rather proud of that, as a sort of more astute and technically advanced method developed from Hansel and Gretel. I'm hoping for a happier conclusion.
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