Small World

Last night I went to one of the coolest hostels in Munich and had a few drinks at the bar there with Patrick and our friends Alex, Marius, and Ben.  Shortly after arriving I was sitting alone at a table while Patrick went outside to meet our friends and a blonde girl asked if she could have a seat at the table with me.  Hostels are pretty great places to meet people because for the most part everyone is outgoing and always willing to make new friends.  She sat across the table from me and I discovered she was from Adelaide, Australia and she had been traveling Europe for the past 4.5 months.  Wicked!!  I told her how I studied in Australia for a year and we carried on a pretty good conversation until she got tired and went back to her room....she was heading to Scotland in the morning.  The next person I got to know was a young guy from India whose name I won't even try to spell but we bonded over the fact that learning German is really difficult.  He has been living in Munich for the past year and a half and works as an IT specialist in a French bank...so he doesn't really have to speak German for his job but speaking German, in my opinion, is a necessity if you are going to live in Germany.  He hung around for a while and played some pool with Ben and Patrick but after a while he also decided to head out.  The coolest part of the night came when 4 guys sat down at the table with Alex and I.   They were from Slovakia (and I impressed them with the fact that I knew their capital is Bratislava, haha) but they are all working in Munich at the moment.  One of them who spoke very good English asked me where I was from and after I told him Delaware he said "Oh yes, I know Delaware!  I used to live in Maryland."  Turns out he was a photographer for 6 months in Ocean City, Maryland...the beach I always went to as a kid...and he often took trips to Delaware to go shopping.  What a small world!  Usually when I tell people I'm from Delaware the next question they ask is where the hell is that?  It was just a really awesome experience sharing some drinks with people you wouldn't meet just walking down the street in your hometown.  I am in love with how multicultural Europe is!

Oh, and a tiny life update:  The family I was an au pair for wasn't the right match for me so I left.  Since I don't have a new family yet and can't get an au pair visa before my tourist visa expires I will be heading home in 2 weeks for the holidays and flying back in January to give life in Germany another try!  I love this country too much to give up :)

Tschüss!