I'm Here

If I knew how to title this "It was the trip from hell" in German, I would. After a three hour delay in L'ville because of weather, a literal run through the Philly airport to get on board a little after 8pm for the 8:20 flight, ONLY to get out on the runway and sit there for FIVE HOURS through the storms, I made it to Munich ... even with my luggage.

So I took the train into the city (a 45 minute ride) and a cab to the Monastery (wound up being just a few blocks) I was recevied by the Guest Master, met the Abbot, and shown to my room. I was able to unpack a little and get a shower before Mass and Vespers. After dinner and Compline, I excused myself to finish unpacking and get to bed early.

This morning I ventured out, found my way to the language school (20 minute walk from the Monastery) and spotted this internet cafe. I also explored the train station in greater detail, where I was sorely tempted to eat my way through the shops and bakeries ... but I didn't. Instead I went back to St. Bonifaz for Midday Praer and dinner. Now I've made my way back to this cafe to post this and check some email.

So other than the actual travel, I'm off to a good start. My room in the Monastery if comfortable, right next to the bathroom and showers. The food is good, and there is beer with meals and in the frig for the taking (They have their own brewery ... Andechs). The dark wheat beer is very good.

This will be it for the first word ... this screen is at a bad angle for my bifoculs, so I won't be at this very long. Next week, I should have access to computers at the school ... and maybe at the Moanstery before then. (I was warned about the keyboard differences, and have tried to be careful, but if there are any weird typos, you'll know why.

The adventure begins!

Outta Here

Next stop ... Munich.

P.S. Do you think this outfit makes me look fat?!

Pictures

Here's a pic I took of the Abbey Church this morning ... it's not the best, but it worked.

It's now after 10pm ... have been finishing up a few things, including a project that I thought was going to be left undone. So having a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction (the proof-reading project and the picture-posting) I can head for bed. The real question is whether I'll be able to sleep.

Tomorrow

Have been wanting to update this, but not having my own web access anymore has made it difficult...I've been gyrovaguing around computers of the Monastery just to check email. So, finally, this morning, I took the camera outside to get a new pic of the church, gathered up the card reader and made my way down here to the computer room in the Novitiate. Now, to get it all to work.

I'm just about packed ... I need to get things arranged in the suitcase and weigh it again. The other day I quickly threw stuff in and weighed it and was only at 37 pounds, but that was without shoes and a few other things.

I need to pull out of here between 9 and 10 in the morning. There's construction on the interstate between here and the airport, so I need to allow for some slowed traffic. The flight leaves L'ville for Philly around 3:30. Then I have three hours or so in Philly before the 8:30pm flight to Munich. I'm scheduled to land in Munich around 10:30 Thursday morning, local time.

OK, here goes ... insert the photo and post ... ... ... ... ...or maybe not ... can't seem to get the "insert image" icon to do it's thing, so I'll post this now and come back later to try again.

Soon and Very Soon

Things are coming along ... I moved the aquarium out on Saturday, and the birds are going to their summer home tomorrow or the next day. Homes are arranged for the plants, but I'm going to hold onto those for a while yet ... I need something to take care of. This morning I made duplicates of all the paperwork (documents, travel insurance, reservation acknowledgements, etc.) to leave here. The clearance table at Staples had some blank books in different sizes, so I picked up a couple to use for making blog and budget notes.

Got an email from my friend at Marienrode and she said it was very hot today - unseasonably so. I zapped a line back and asked her what makes for very hot in northern Germany and she responded it was 29 degrees celsius ... then for my benefit, she said it felt like it was in the 90's. I guess I'm going to have to print out a temperature table. I can guestimate other metric equivalents, but the temperature scale loses me.

When at Staples, I picked up a 1G memory card for the camera and a card reader, so now all I have to do is have someone show me how to use it so I can post photos here.

How long, O Lord, is a little while? 16 Days!