How many German’s does it take to replace a bike tube? Only one, but we had 5 helping and one sad American onlooking (more on this later).
The week began normally with work, casual hangouts, a run, and darts. On Monday I had the added responsibility of the last day of being on “Küchendienst,” or “Kitchen Duty.” Throughout the previous week one other floormate and I had to take out the trash as required. Trash here is separated into these categories: plastics and metal cans; paper; glass (often times further sorted by color); “Biomüll,” or “biodegradable waste;” and “Restmüll,” or the miscellaneous remaining trash. The final day of our service entails a deeper clean of the kitchen with tasks like cleaning all the surfaces and appliances.
Our floor decided to have a Taco Tuesday. While many of my floormates are taco fans, at least one of them had never had one before. Big group dinners have been fun from the teamwork in cooking, the conversations while eating, and the camaraderie while cleaning. I volunteered to take the lead on making guacamole. After dinner we played Durak, a Russian card game that was new to me.
The weather on Wednesday was beyond beautiful, mid 60’s and sunny, so I couldn’t possibly reject an offer to run that day. Later I went on a long walk with Samantha, Mallory, and Matt. Post dinner our floor had another jam session in the kitchen.
I am happy to announce another exciting development: I now have a bike! Germany, and specifically Munich, is very bike friendly, but since I lack significant previous experience and enjoy long walks, I wasn’t planning on getting a bike during my time here. Like in most cases, here is where the Roncalli community proved to be kinder than I could have ever imagined. My floormate Vreni was home for Easter and told me she had an old bike lying around at home that she could bring back to Munich for me if I’d like. She said it would need some repairs but that it would still work. I took her up on the offer and luckily for me her friend who lives in Roncalli’s Rückgebäude agreed to fix it. On Thursday afternoon I baked him peanut butter cookies as a thank you.
On Friday I took the bike for a very short test ride to meet Samantha near the Koenigsplatz and from there we walked into the Altstadt to meet Alyssa for cupcakes in the park! Later that afternoon I participated in yoga in the Innenhof with Roncalli’s “Mind, Body, and Soul Arbeitskreis.” Roncalli has various “Arbeitskreise,” or “work groups” that both let Roncallists express common interests and also help the dorm function smoothly. After dinner Marlene, my new floormate from Vienna, and I went to Hackerbrücke, a nearby bridge over the train tracks, which is a popular spot to watch the sunset. When we returned we played darts and a card game with the others.
Saturday was quite an adventurous day. A few of us when on a biking excursion. We biked through and beyond the north end of the English Garden to the “Feringasee,” or “Feringa Lake,” where we chilled and ate lunch. We all got in the frigid water but to varying degrees. Clary went all in. I went in up to my belly button or so. The others didn’t go any deeper than their knees. It’ll sure be nice on hot summer days! From there we headed out on the next leg of the journey, but unfortunately we had to improvise as I ran over a nail on the trail and got a flat tire. We split into two groups. One group biked into the nearest town to buy a new bike tube but had to take “Schnelltests,” or “rapid (Covid) tests,” and get a negative result to be allowed in the store. The other group walked the broken bike to the nearest train station that had a public bike repair stand. The other group met us there, and after repairing the bike, we were on our way to “Speichersee,” or “Speicher Lake.” From there we biked into a small town for some ice cream, and then we made our way back into the city by following the Isar River. It was pretty cool to see the country and even smell some manure! At one point we biked past a BMW test track. Our journey was somewhere around 28 miles! That night we made “Öfen Gemüse,” or “Oven Vegetables,” and black bean burgers, which we devoured after the long day!
Sunday was much calmer. I went to Mass at St. Benno’s, then returned and had blueberry pancakes with floormates in the Innenhof. Then I biked to the nearby “Alter Nordfriedhof,” or “Old North Cemetery,” which is Munich’s second oldest public cemetery. I walked around and did some sketching. A routine pizza evening was a nice way to end a busy and tiring week!
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