The past does not always paint with a golden brush
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So (it is always a good sign when your blog post starts with “So”! Me thinks) the other day I received an email from one of my oldest and dearest friends. And by “old” I am not referring to her age but to the length of our friendship. I met Annette on the first day of my very first class at the Ludwig-Maximillians Universität in Munich, a class I showed up to a week late… By the time I made it to class everyone had already gotten to know each other the previous week when yours truly was missing because she had no idea when her “Introduction to English Literature” was actually going to take place. It sort of set the stage for the remainder of my years as a student. When I finally showed up a week late all seats were taken but the one next to Annette and we became friends instantly. I guess when you have to analyze Jane Austen’s “Emma” and her match making skills you have no choice but to bond and bonding we did. For the next 4 1/2 years our friendship grew through the good times and the not so good times.
We only lived a few miles apart, Annette in one of the student bungalows in the Olympic Village (which were torn down a couple of years ago), me just up the road in Fasanerie, and many evenings and weekends were spent together. In the summer we often packed up our picnic baskets with caprese salad and trifle and headed to the nearest Biergarten on our bicycles, meeting up with friends over wheat beer and soft pretzels. On days when we had no class and on weekends you could find us along the banks of the Feldmochinger See catching sunny rays and enjoying the summer heat in Bavaria. Then there was our annual white asparagus feast in May. We survived the long and cold winters with ski aerobics at the Olympic Village Gym, followed by hot tea and crispy bread with honey or Nutella, Kaesespaetzle at the “Scheidegger” and the annual holiday baking in my kitchen.
We only spent time apart during spring breaks, when Annette went off to South Africa where her aunt and uncle owned a farm and I worked, and summer break, which I spent in California every year.
Sounds lovely? Well it wasn’t!
I know that for a lot of kids out there college is the most fabulous time of their lives and they can hardly wait for it. The partying, the endless supply of alcohol, and finally escaping their parents’ prying eyes. For me it was anything but.
Since I had already lived away from home for two years before I moved to Munich – and when I say “away” I mean “far away”, 7000 miles to be exact – the novelty of escaping your childhood home had already worn off. And as German kids are allowed to officially have a drink at the tender age of 16 – although most have their first taste unofficially at an earlier age – my experience with alcohol poisoning had happened in high school and I had no desire to repeat the joys of losing two days of my life. The only time I got even remotely drunk was on my very last night in Munich when I celebrated my departure with margaritas and ended up falling asleep on the last subway ride of the night which resulted in instant sobriety when I realized I was one station short of the end, 50 miles out of Munich. At 2am! Without a penny of change!
When I was still living at home I often dreamed of the day when I could just do whatever I chose to do, spend nights away from home and never having to explain myself afterwards to my parents who were strong believers in curfews even after I had turned 18. The amount of nights I did not come home while I was in college: ZERO! For some reason nothing seemed as exciting as sleeping in my own bed every night and waking up to my room mate playing classical music CDs and the smell of her brewing coffee and baked goods on weekend mornings.
Instead of partying I hunkered down for the first times since 7th Grade and actually worked hard at getting through the Master’s Degree as fast as possible and move back to the place my heart belonged to. And studying hard I did, often taking on more than double the workload of the regular degree requirements for the semester while completing and handing in term papers before the term was actually coming to a close in the summer. But I did not mind as it allowed me to fly back to California the beginning of August, rather than the middle, meaning that I could spend three full months on the west coast. A time I waited for nine months out of every year. June and July were some of my favorite months even back then, but for different reasons as they are now, and November SUCKED, even more so than it does now!!! Stepping off the airplane in Munich on a cold, damp November evening after having spent three glorious months in the Bay Area was about as depressing as it gets. The only positive (if you can even call it that) was the fact that I had usually scheduled my return flight a day before classes started up for the winter semester and was therefore right back in the swing of student life within 12 hours of touching down.
The most fun I had in Munich was my last year there and the fact that I knew my time was coming to an end helped me skip along through my thesis on victorian women (don’t be jealous now!), my final exams in English comprehension, American History and Political Science, and my summer that, for the first and last time, I spent in its entirety in Munich.
17 years have gone by since that last endless summer at the foot of the Bavarian Alps. Annette graduated six months after me and when I left she inherited all my IKEA dishes, some of which she still uses today. After her graduation she worked in Munich for a year before meeting the love of her life in South Africa and settling into her new home in Johannesburg where she has been raising two boys. We have not seen each other since she visited me in 1995 but we have remained in contact and are able to pick up where we left off. One of my future travel plans does include an extended trip to South Africa and I am sure it will be just like old times when I get to see her again. We will probably eat caprese salad, trifle, and crisp bread with honey or Nutella.
I have noticed that Annette often wants to write about our days in Munich and although she does not say it directly I can read between the lines that she misses her days as a student. I understand that her experience was different from mine in that she did not have to overcome constant heart ache but I also remember how stressed out she was about school and getting her degree, something I hardly ever worried about. I had never worked hard in high school (my mom always blamed hair graying hair on my lack of interest in school work during my teenage years) but I realized early on that I was making up for my disastrous high school years when I became a university student. Annette on the other hand always doubted herself which overshadowed the good times she had. It is curious that she only wants to remember how fun her life was and on several occasions she has mentioned that she would love to go back in time. I say: NO WAY!!!
On Twitter I follow “MunichPhoto” and get to look at a new photo of places in and around Munich every morning. I truly and utterly love it as I recognize most of the places in the photograph and can usually recall that last time I went by. But I realize that the enjoyment is due to the fact that I can reminisce from the place I call home, the place my heart belongs to. For the same reason I also thoroughly enjoyed visiting Munich a few years ago, dropping by the house I lived in and revisiting all the old familiar hang outs. I even went back to Annette’s old bungalow. All with the comfort of knowing that I would be going home! The place I love most!
Yes, we did have some good times during our years in Munich but I was glad when I could close this chapter of my life. I never looked back from that day my dad picked me up, the day I said “Good Bye” to the hardest four 1/2 years of my life!
Today’s Running Tip: Staying warm and injury free while traveling to alpine climates!
One of the ways to warm up in icy conditions is to run on the treadmill, run up the staircase, or jump rope for 10 minutes before hitting the road!
