Nancy Gets Pushed Off a Cliff

So I should begin with talking about my first days in Munich. It was a rough series of events....first my landlord pulled a "Surprise! You don't actually get the room I said I would rent you, but you CAN sleep on a couch for 500 dollars a month!" Which I immediately walked out on, and ended up bumming for a few days while looking for real housing. And then I got to work and Infineon said "Surprise! We're not actually going to pay you what we said we would- how about a third of that amount?" and then my boss said "Surprise! Your project was cancelled, but we DO need some tedious manual labor done!" and my co-workers ALL said "Surprise! Only one of us speaks English!"

So not the greatest start.

In addition, I had absolutely no idea how to meet people- my two other Stanford peeps were off chilling with their co-workers, but my 45 years old+ non-english speaking buddies at work were not really the "let's go drinking!" type, so I turned to desperate maneuvers.... which is how I ended up in Austria

So I was wandering around one day trying to find more permanent housing or someone to talk to, and I noticed a table of 3 nice looking people at a bar downstairs from where I was staying. I awkwardly walked past and smiled twice, and finally gave in the third time and asked in German if I could chill with them because I was new and lonely and needed a stiff drink but wasn't quite desperate enough to drink alone. And they let me! They said they had been curious when I smiled (automatic for me, but rare in Germany) and were hoping I would come talk to them! (btw, I love Bavarians). So we talked and drank for a few hours (all German, of course, so I mosty just stumbled along inane small talk, but I had been practicing my slightly embarrassed winning smile, so it was OK), and then we decided that Wednesday night was a GREAT clubbing night and hit the road...where we found an amazing club with strong, well made 3 Euro Cocktails! Now, a deal like that doesn't come along often, so we felt morally obligated to take full advantage of it, and proceeded to drink and dance the night away. Completely. When the dancing was done, I realized I had about half an hour to get to work, and proceeded to go directly there without stopping by home (incidentally, that's really becoming a habit of mine- but its SO efficient!)

The next day I get a text from one of the guys, who is an outdoors guide from Austria, which contained a train number and time for Friday. Ever curious and somewhat reckless, I hopped on the train Friday afternoon and headed off to the random tiny Austrian town, where I had arguable the greatest weekend of my life (besides every other weekend in Germany). As soon as I got there, Miguel (German, but with a Spanish father) tossed me a wetsuit and said we were going Canyoning. I was like, "cool! That sounds fun and relaxing!" Which I continued to believe until we went to the center of a bridge and I was tossed off the side and into a raging river. The next two hours was an adrenaline filled adventure of sliding down waterfalls, jumping off cliffs, and rapelling down wall faces. (http://www.faszinatour.de/adventure-sports/canyoning/video.html) We finally hit the end, and then gathered wood for a fire and BBQed deep into the night, listened to the river, watched a herd of wild horses meander by, and drank good bavarian river-chilled beer.

The next day continued to be awesome- Miguel works at an extreme/outdoors sports company with an amazing group of guides from Germany, Austria, Scotland, and England who are bound by a common love of the great outdoors and Schnapps. The owners of the place were great and let me tag along the White Water rafting trips for free, and I spent the afternoons having drinking contests with the English and Scottish guys (NONE of which I lost, incidentally). We all went clubbing one night after a particularly heavy Schnapps hour, which ended in all of us dancing on tables and all the guys (not me, sorry) taking off their shirts and waving them around while dancing like crazy people and singing along where possible. The other night culminated in a huge barbecue with endless food and beer and more good times, german lessons, and salutes to Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was having so much fun that I missed 5 possible trains back, and ended up once AGAIN going directly from partying to work, after a 2 hour 5am train ride. My coworkers may think I'm a mad person (and it may be true), but when I'm getting paid BELOW minimum wage, I'm sure as hell going to live it up with no worries :) plus, the only jokes we mutually understand are jabs at me about falling asleep at work because I party too much- so...it facilitates bonding?