I am a lil nervous.My first ever blog,its difficult but am giving it a try.So please for god sake dont be too much of a critic.It was February or March, I don't exactly remember when I first got the news of my internship in Germany and I was really excited,on the top of the world you can say.When I came to know my close friend,Mani would also be put up there for the summers,it has been planning time since then.Yeh karenge,woh karenge,wagerah wagerah.All plans hawa mein.I will be writing another blog,giving details of my masti wala life in Pilani with my frnds,jisme ab kuch mere liye to paas out ho gaye,really good ones,haan kuch abhi bhi pilani mein mere saath hi hain..but in this I will an Indian in Munich.
Life's been good since the last two months.Never ever thought a foreign country would treat me like this. I knew it would be a great feeling to live in one of the best cities of the world,'MUNICH', but to describe it in one word, Munich is awesome. For those of you who still have their minds in the world war days and consider Germans as arrogant and rude people,I must tell you,come and visit Germany.I will be relating some of my experiences here and int the rest of Europe,and most of these experiences are worth remembering.
I landed in the Munich airport on 17th of May and was amazed to see the excitement in the air.There was a bavarian football match that day and you could see the people getting excited and geared up since morning.My guide took me to my room and said ok we will meet on Monday.It was then i realized I have been left all alone in a small room,with no internet,no1 to converse with.Ya i was feeling home sick.It was the first and the last time I had cleaned my room here.I somehow managed a 3 pin to 2 pin converter and jab ghar par baat hui pehli baar, tears almost rolled off my eyes.The first time I went out of my home,there was a couple playing frisbee.I asked them to show me the way to metro station,they sat on the road,and made a miniature map for me.It was so much fun,they knew little English and tried their level best to explain me and ya eventually they succeeded. I am not so dumb after all.
Well, the first few days were not good,bought a ticket for 5 ppl,partner ticket as they call for 11 euros(well it was the first day of my travel and some1 helped me buy dat,so please don laugh),13 euros for a laptop converter was a bit too much.I waited in a queue for around 4 hrs to get my room contract and finally when my chance came,they said we are sorry you are at the wrong place.I felt as if nuthing could go good for me in Munich,but lifes changed since then.My apartment mates are really cool,have become great friends with guys from america and poland, and a gal from slovenia.I must confess,theres a really beautiful girl in my apartment,and am still looking for an opportunity to say something more than a hi to her,at least ask her where is she from.(use dekh kar meri sitti pitti gum ho jaati hai..)
I got a really cool office,and those of you who think techies are book bugs who don't enjoy,better change your views,coz the people I am here with(in my university) are really crazy and have loads and loads of fun,and I feel lucky to part of this group.
Ghumna firna started from the very first week, and slowly and gradually I began to feel a part of Munich,(an Indian at heart though). The 42 km ice caves in Austria was one of the highlights of my eurotip.
Mani came down to Munich one weekend and we had a splendid time,it was great to meet a close friend after such a long time.
There is a system of car pooling here,and I took a ride on a bmw car wo go to dresden.219km/hr was just enough,or was it? It was in chezk republic that we got duped for the first time in Europe.It was a disc, and 5 euro entry eventually turned out to be 15 euro one for us(only because of some carelessness). And the only way I could console myself was koi nahin yaar ek nayi sikh mili hai ki one has to be extra careful in discs and places like that.Dresden is a beautiful city in the North of Germany but I did not find the people as good as they should have been.It was morning 5 o' clock,I had to catch a car from Dresden back to Munich and I was waiting for the car near the main station.Mani had bluntly refused to see me off and so I was standing alone.A hefty guy came,totally drunk and tried to get the valuables from me.That was one bad moment, I could not understand what to do next,but thankfully by that time my car came,I just ran into it and ohh good I prayed really hard.All is well that ends well and I was happy to be back in Munich
Life moved on and next couple of weeks were normal routine,with office,shopping at LIDL and then back.It was during this time I tried my hands at cooking,and turned out to be a really good one.We had a bar-b-q at my place,and all I could have is a pizza,that also self cooked.I am a vegeterain but I don't mind that and I am proud to be one.
I wanna share some of my experiences here,experiences which have really left a mark in my life.
I was standing near one of the automats(to get tickets) in the main station here with one of my friend,Mani staring at it,when one German lady came up and asked do you need some help.It was a real surprise as I was well versed with the system here by then and was just waiting there,and the lady preassuming that I could not operate the automat came upto help me.This was the first time in my life that a stranger came and asked me do you need some help, and I am sure most of you would never had this wonderful experience.
There is a langer out here,where we get amazing Indian food as prasad.(thanks to Himanshu that I came to know about it) The other day we were served mangoes along with food.It was almost two months that I had eaten or even seen one and I will never ever forget the feeling which I had after that first bite.I just felt like crying,it seemed as if I had obtained a valuable treasure.Ya in that same langer,there was a German guy who took my used glass and washed it for me.I could never ever have imagined a German doing that for me, but thats the way people are here.
My stay in Munich has been a real experience with me cooking for the first time.That taste and satisfaction which self made food gives you,I am sure you would like whatever you cook(be it without salt,sugar or other basic ingredients).It was only after eating almost entire of the pyaaz ki sabji which I had cooked once,I realized that actually it was not cooked.I had forgotten to put on the gas,but by then I had already my gtalk status as'amazing pyaaz ki sabji' coz I had liked it so much.
I should not forget to mention my friend,Parikh who shares the same name as mine,who works downstairs in the same University as mine,TUM.The long lunch we always have with the most common dialogue being,chal yaar 5 min baad chalte hain,and kabhi kabhi dese 5 mins would add upto an hour or maybe more than that.I remember the first week when I had just come,he told me once,aise paise mat kharch kar,last mein kuch nahin bachega,thanks for the advice yaar.I have been really lucky to have a great group of friends here,never felt that I am away from my country.Himanshu ki girawat ho ya vijay cartographer ka sab kuch makhana,parikh ki bakwaas ya Sunil ke dimag mein kuch na chamkna,each and every experience has been wonderful.Naga ka 0 euors mein bhi kuch ghumne mein negative mein jana and saath mein foto clik karenge coz...Ohh how could I forget the Muggna of IITK,dat has been an integral part of our trip.
.Ya all thanks to nonoh.net and gtalk to make my life easier here.
Well I am not sure how this is going coz I have never ever written one,nor am I a regular reader of blogs,but hopefully you guys are not getting bored.
Italy trip was awesome,3 days of total masti.We met a lot of nerds during those 3 days,but expert Parikh was more than successful all the time. Even i tried my hands with one from IIT kgp,khoob ullu banaya uska. From 14 hrs of work we do to 4 papers already published during 1month of intership to 1 patent to what not. Made him realize he is just a useless creature,a burden on planet earth.It was fun. There was a guy who met us in a train from rome to venice, and would do anything to join us in our masti, but no ways.One guy actually offered us tea to drink,expecting that hum baachon ko bevakuf bana dega(aisa woh soch raha tha)....but we are no longer pepsi kids,have grown up to taste the thunder.The night out near the colosseum, jahan Himanshu poori tarah gir gaya tha..parikh would describe it better..was awesome.waise main pyaar se so raha tha but himanshu and parikh had a great time..unhi se poochna unhone kya kya dekha...:)...vatican musuem,sistine chapel,all dese places were truly worth it. Haan isi beech we lost one grp member of ours,Ankita,waise she wud never accept ki woh kho gayi thi,she will say tum 6 log kho gaye the..main tumhe khoj rahi thi..and we had a really difficult time..but we r intelligent ppl,we found her..or rather I would say she found all of us.It was in Rome and Rome is a beautiful city,a must watch for any eurotrip to be complete.Just walk through Rome,the huge buildings,the ruined places,the beautiful fountains in addition to the wonderful company I had made it truly marvellous.And its worth mentioning, me and Himanshu always having burgers, customising it to vegetarian,essentially leaving nothing inside it and consoling each other, kitna mast hai yaar, 5 euro mein aur kya milega...ohh god, its diffcult to be vegetarian(its bad to be good). On our way from Rome to Venice, we met an Indian girl, an Indian girl in Europe who joined us for the tour of Venice,was really coincidential,she was a good company,ask Vijay for more of the details.Venice,a city built on water...it was truly amazing,cannot describe it in words..Ya but beware of asking any1 dere to click a photo of yours. A rude no will be the most probable answer.The journey back was more eventful, with one of our trains gettin 10 mins late,we missed the next one,and so got the opportunity to visit verona,another beautiful city.I should also mention the excel sheet we made hisaab karne ke liye(money matters the most) coz it was so complicated, finally we were successful,only Himanshu could not believe it.He supposedly gave his part and had to give more and more, thanks to Sunil, who could not remember who paid for his McD lunch or train fares...:).
Four days of no sleep trip and to go to work directly from the station was a bit taxing(actually it was more tha na bit) but had no other option.jab bhi mauka milta office mein hi so raha tha..parikh ko toh usne guide ne sote hue bhi pakda and even cliked snaps of him sleeping with his mouth wide open. It was fun.And miser parikh ke room ki keys deserted him,bechara had to pay 50 euros..3 more days of wrk and den off to paris.had planned to go to 'nice' but cud not get reservation so got stuck in paris for 3 days.paris was nice,eiffel and louvre d best places,but in my opinion paris is a bit overrated.Coz after what I saw in Rome and Venice,Paris was a lil disappointing,not in terms of its beauty,but the way things are managed,people,etc..I don wish to be rascist though...The view of Paris from Eiffel was simply awesome.Will never ever forget it.Palace of versailles was also really beautiful..And haan went to langer with Mani in Paris and ate some wonderful food.And the treat which Sunil gave us in one of the so called restuarants in the Indian street in Paris(there are two) was mind blowing.And when we came back from Paris it was like 11 days in all, and 3 days at home,(including the Rome trip,dese were in continuous weekends) and was totally drenched out.But had to come and work,I am a responsible guy you know..Eurotrip is almost over.I will keep updating,but it has been a real learning experience till now.Surely I would have only 2 days at home after going back,(had 1 while coming here) but the trip will be a memorable 1.Apart from the work and all,the trips,the friends I made,the feeling of living so far from your country,being all alone in your room,going to office every morning and waiting for the weekends like a lunatic....chatting,wasting time,gossipping with parikh about ppl during lunch hrs..to talkin over fone with Mani saying 'mera time paas kar main bore ho raha hun..raaste mein hun..'...sab kuch zindagi bhar yaad rahega..
Please, please its a request..i have written it for the first time,its a lil long and may sound boring.Please comment on it,compliments later on.. I wanna improve it, please send me any suggestions whatsoever you have..
