getting balanced
Closing in on six weeks in Munich—it’s been pretty bizarre. What’s surprised me the most is how easy it was to adjust to the big things: the U-bahn, the language barrier, paying in Euros (well, let’s not talk about finances really… other than to say that Greece better default for the sake of my bank account.) It’s the little things that are the hardest to adjust to. Bagging your own groceries. Always keeping to the right. Not being rude, but dealing with German “constructive” criticism… It’s hard to keep track of who you really are when it feels like you’re constantly reacting, not acting, you know? So I’ve been trying to take a little more time for myself, to kind of collect my thoughts and figure out what’s what.
The other day I walked through the Englischer Garten from Giselastraße to Studentenstadt. I hadn’t spent much time in there before, but it was nice to just chill out and stroll for as long as I wanted. And it’s really fucking beautiful there. Really. At Scripps they always say that learning is (oh my god I forget the English word but verbessert) by being surrounded by beauty, which is why the campus is so ridiculous. In the Englischer Garten it’s kind of the same thing; you really can’t be sad or mopey or stressed there, and if you are, it’s easy to turn it into a more constructive mopey-ness, if that makes sense. It made me realize that I haven’t done any writing in a really long time. I miss that.
Then today I finally made it down to the Pinakothek der Moderne, to chill out and see some art. I went there with the intention of seeing some Egon Schiele, but I’m a moron, and it turns out they don’t have any Schiele. Balls! BUT—surprise surprise, they’ve got the Francis Bacon “Kreuzung” (I think) triptych. And that guy is insane in person. It’s unbelievable. There’s a lot of awesome art there, lots of Max Ernst (my favorite surrealist), Magritte (the funniest surrealist) and Picasso (Picasso! Picasso!!) and some that I’m not too fond of—Kandinsky, I’m looking at you and your pastels. I love that museum though. I think next Sunday I’m going to check out the Brandhorst. They’re having an exhibit of Sigmar Polke, who I really dig.
Tomorrow (after finishing my homework of course) I’m going to go down to the Hugendubel-bubel-mubel-shubel and finally get my copy of Brecht’s Edward II. Should probably start reading that before classes pick up.
