Some Odds and Ends

Here is my brief update for the beginning of week two in Munich.

Sunday morning I did some math on travel in Munich. To walk from my apartment to downtown Munich takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes. I know because I did this. It was a good walk though! I also did some math on transportation costs…

I was on two missions that morning. One was to avoid spending a lot of money on bus and sub fares while staying here through the summer. I figured investing in a used bike would be a good idea. Its cost would be equivalent to monthly bus fares. I would get exercise. I can take a bike to other cities in Germany through trains. And at the end of my term, I could sell it again for a decent price. On the recommendation of my tour guide from the previous day, I purchased an old seven-speed off of a bike touring company called Mike’s Bikes. In the US, I would expect to pay around $40 for such a bike. Here is cost about as much as a new US bike. I looked everywhere, and an affordable bike is pretty tough to find… at least in Munich. New ones with multiple speeds range from 300 to 2000 Euros! I purchased a used one for 110 Euros. Not bad in my opinion. It is NOT my jeep, but it has air conditioning very similar to the Wrangler’s!

Also while downtown on Sunday, I bought some big train tickets. I decided that since I’ll be away for Easter this year, I may as well go all-out and see the Pope on the biggest day of the year. SO… I bought tickets for a round trip to Rome for Holy Week. It. Will. Be. Incredible. I was just informed today from the Bishop’s Office that I will be able to obtain a ticket to the Easter Papal mass, so that was very exciting news! I’ll be posting more updates on this later.

Today was Monday of the second week of work. The learning continued as we began using software and placing sensors on cars. We were also hooked up with some super chic steel toes shoes! Yeah, I know… you’re jealous.

After work, I took my new set of wheels to buy a bike lock and visit Real. Real is the German equivalent of a Super Wal-Mart… only BIGGER! They had nearly everything you would ever want. AND they actually took credit cards! That was a big surprise!

That’s all I have for now!