Another fun night hanging out with my floormates!
After everyone signed the wall, I was recruited to draw our mascot, Fridolin.
One afternoon some friends made mini muffins to share with the floor.
I explored the Hochschule München building that houses the architecture library.
In the library I stumbled upon books on the architecture of Robert A.M. Stern, whose New York City firm I worked for.
I found it interesting that in the halls they have labeled samples of wood species and marble varieties to provide examples for the architecture students.
These samples are both practical and beautiful.

Chilly, rainy, and sometimes snowy weather limited most of my activities this week to being indoors. As usual I worked throughout the week but found some time for fun too! I’ve kept running with some floormates roughly once a week, though I never feel like I am improving. One run this week became a learning opportunity, as many of my daily interactions do; I learned the word “Seitenstechen,” which means “side cramp.”

On Monday evening the whole floor gathered for a group dinner of vegetable Tikka Masala. Then the night naturally evolved into a party. Tuesday was another exciting day because we had a new floormate move in! She adds to the ranks of “Ausländerinnen” (females) and “Ausländer” (males), or “foreigners,” because she is from Vienna, Austria. We chatted over dinner and darts and began getting to know her. Another evening was spent playing Schafkopf and timidly participating in a jam session with my more musically talented floormates, two of whom attend the music university here in Munich.

Friday was an event-filled day. I made a trip to Hochschule München’s architecture library to check out some books in person so that I could check if they have a specific image. While I had been to the main library before, it was exciting to check out another new place. Another new floormate arrived in the afternoon. He adds to the ranks of Bavarians, specifically those who mainly speak Bairisch. He was very eager to play Schafkopf with us. Later in the evening we had another smaller group dinner of Chili with “Grünkern,” or “green spelt,” and afterwards we played an online escape room!  

Saturday was another fun day. After going on a run and playing badminton, we hung out in the kitchen late into the night. Sunday was a day full of casual hangouts, waffle and pizza eating, badminton and ping pong playing, and Star Wars watching.

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