Subterranean Beefworks

quick

I'm still alive.

It's getting cold here though.

Do you like the new title? Do you fear it?

Alpsee, near Castle Neuschwanstein. Tourist.

Theorietically...

Some nights, when there is simply nothing to do, there are two pasttimes in which I like to endugle. One of them is buying a couple bars of chocolate that I eat while riding my bike around town. The other is picking up a bottle of beer and going to the very end of a platform at the central train station to watch the trains arrive and depart.

Either of these tends to bring pensiveness in spades, for better or worse.

So much the better, it usually leads to something I want to write about here.

I was sitting at the end of the platform one night when I realized there is something about Germany that I just can't get used to: it's the extreme ease with which one can go absolutely anywhere in the country just by stepping onto a train and sitting down. In a span of 10 minutes, one can see a train arrive from one side of the country, change it's signs, and haul off to the other side of the country. And sure, the prices are generally reasonable, especially with the 50% fare discount that my program affords me, but that's not what I find so striking about the extensive train system. Rather, it appears to me that there is a very real possibility to board a train for any given destination and arrive there for free. Based on what I perceive to be a very hands-off society that values responsibility for one's own self, the system is such that you are in charge of buying a ticket to your destination. You can do it from a counter or from a machine, or even from the conductor himself for a slightly inflated rate. What it then comes down to is that you board the train, you stow your bag somewhere closeby, and you sit down. The train then departs. There is no baggage check, no security procedure, and most curiously, nobody standing at the door to validate your ticket as you board.

This feeling of complete personal liberty is even more strongly apparent on the subway and city trains, where there is simply no such thing as a turnstyle, or any indication that there are plans to install one. There are no gates for non-paying customers to jump, no guard waiting to catch you by the throat if you try to push through without paying. Just a big sign that says "No entrance without validated tickets" and a couple sentinal ticket validation machines that are payed as much mind as the volunteers at fairs that try to tell you where to park your car. It is like this in every German city that I have been in.

In the case of a distance train, you will be visited multiple times over the course of your journey by the ever-changing conductors. Their job, or one of them, is to take a cursory glance at your ticket and stamp it. More than anything, I think the stamp is just to give customers the feeling that they actually paid for something. Otherwise, buying a ticket would leave you with the same feeling as eating a bag of rice cakes. You can feel in your jaw that you put energy into eating something, but there is no other evidence like aftertaste or fulfillment to suggest you did. If customers didn't get their stamp, I don't know that anybody would even buy tickets, or travel for that matter.

I can't allow myself to just think about this academically. I think it's possible to actually ride free to anywhere in Germany.

Every long distance train has bathrooms, and every traveller has their gastrointestinal off-days. Packing light and being prepared for a much less than comfortable journey, I think the sly (read: poor student) traveller could board the train of his or her choice, make a b-line for the bathroom, and hunker down for the trip ahead. To be caught, it would first have to occur to the ever-changing conductor that the bathroom has been occupied for the long-term. Then, the always considerate and accomidating conductor would have to be so brazen as to interrupt what could be a really terrible situation unfolding in the bathroom, a decision clearly to the potential detriment the other passengers. In the case that our poor student has to face authority, it would be a matter of explaining through foul (english) dryheaving that his or her ticket is in his or her bag, somewhere else. To take advantage of their understanding is nothing short of cold sin, but if I had to bet, I think the conductors would wish you a quick recovery and leave you to it.

Leave it to an American, accustomed to the crushing gnarled grip of Granny America keeping him in line, to start thinking of ways to take advantage of liberties afforded to a more responsible society.

So wird das Wetter

I made another carafe of tea to write this entry, this time Japanese green tea. The tea leaves themselves promised an interesting taste, but as they steeped, and a dull dish-water pall fell over water, I figured I would be sipping bored. I was right, the tea sucked. That is, until I dumped in just a little more than a reasonable amount of sugar. Now I'm just drinking candy, and I've got nothing to complain about.

One has to figure out how to love their city if they are to find any sort of happiness in it. Though I can't say I'm in love with Munich yet, I have to admit I've got some sort of crush on it. I'm at the point analogous to when you start to notice the particularly beautiful way a certain girl's hair falls, the point after which you notice how great she smells when she walks past you, but before you lose sleep over what to say to her the next time you see her.

Munich has the sort of body that keeps your friends interested when you describe it to them. Curves in all the right places, carries any sort of clothing as though it were fitted... I'm ashamed to admit it, but I know that I've been caught more than once staring at her city-center. Though we don't have a lot to say to eachother just yet, I've been spending ever more time with her, just feeling her out and trying to get a handle on just who she is. Here's how I understand her so far:

She's not too complicated. In fact, you might say she likes to keep things simple, both in the way she looks and the way she functions. She lays it all out for you, take it or leave it, look closer if you feel like it, otherwise, the exit isn't hard to find. Simple as she is though, she has a hell of a lot to offer, and I'm sure she's playing some kind of game with me, keeping her more interesting parts under wraps until she thinks I'm ready for them. Ugh, femininity.

She has her off days, but if you catch her on one of them--and survive--you'll see that she's really rather beautiful when she's angry. It could just be the new novelty of city life, but I find a real satisfying beauty in the weather of a metropolis. It makes one wish they were someplace else writing a poem about it.

There's more to life in a new place than the commute to school and the occasional jaunt through the famous parts of town, and obvious as that seems, it took me until just recently to grow out of this. There are some real pockets of magic tucked away here, sometimes in the heart of the city, and sometimes in the places that are only considered part of Munich for the purposes of tax collection.

. . .

Those dots are the sound of gears grinding as I shift from metaphorical into literal.

Monday is a pretty empty day, and I decided to fill it by climbing at a place called Heaven's Gate, a gigantic silo structure in the east of the city, once industrial but now converted into an extremely impressive climbing gym-- 100-feet high impressive. I only traipsed around the walls of the bouldering grotto, but even this, the more humble part of the building, is nothing short of a blast. Having not climbed in a long time, I got some protest from my muscles and joints, but feeling the satisfying pops, cracks, and snaps as I made my way across the wall were beyond description. It feels like breaking out of an ice encasement. Now if only my program would be so kind as to subsidize the entry fee.

Now that my tea is room-temperature, I think it's time to close this. There is one final thing though.

Since the holidays are approaching, I would like to direct your attention to my Amazon.com wishlist which has a list of, well, stuff that I want. It's really more intended for my family because I always forget what I want for Christmas when asked, but should the spirit move you, don't hesitate. To buy me things.

(And one final hint, CDs dominate the top of the list. If you see nothing else on the list, see the CDs at the top. They fucking rock.)