Hallo,

today we had a great game again at the end of the 3 hours. Till this time I thought it was a hungarian game but it turned out that it’s an international one. 😊 Called Land/Stadt. You have to write up in one line Land, Stadt, River, Animal, Profession, Boy/Girl name, Food/Drink, etc., and then someone has to say the ABC in him/herself, another one has to stop him/her at a certain letter, so that everyone has to write words which start with that exact letter. It can be a real fun, I haven’t played this for about 25 years :D

Then in the afternoon we took a big walk in Westpark, which is quite near to my place, the Schwantalerhöhe. Have you been there? If not, it’s really worth a visit. A huge park with some lakes, many greens and wild-gooses, runners and bikers. The place is even more popular in the warmer months, people use it for making barbecue; they bring tables, chairs and live social life.

The weather was not that nice like in the morning, therefore the pictures haven’t been that good, plus the Japanise garten is closed and fenced for the wintertime, so I used some from last October for my collage. 😊

Schönes Wochenende für euch,

Szilvi

Each time I go to my home country, Mexico, I bring along some stuff that I find will make my stay in Germany easier and not miss too much. Here is a picture of  most of the things I brought with me from the holidays. The gray mortar is called a molcajete in Mexico and it is made out of volcanic rock. It is specially used to make all types of sauces and it is a very heavy. I also brought lemon grass from my garden, since it is my favorite tea and reminds me of home. I also brought some hot pepper on a can and dried, I use these for sauces and different Mexican dishes. The small glass bottle is Mezcal, another type of cactus distilled, like Tequila, but with a more smoked flavor. I also brought Mole, which is a paste made out of more that 50 ingredients, including all types of peppers and cacao, this you cook with dome meat, chicken or corn tortillas. The small cup is made out of pewter and is a special collection from Frida Kahlo, a very famous Mexican painter. Of course I couldn’t forget to bring Mexican candy, which is completely different from what you know. Pur candy is almost always spicy with different flavours and hotness.

Usually I do not like chocolate but what I do like is cacao and drinkable chocolate. The cacao I brought toasted ready to peel and the drinkable chocolate comes in tables and it has some cinnamon and is quite delicious. To prepare the hot chocolate, either with milk or water, the traditional way, I brought a grinder, which is the wooden artefact, in de middle of the picture. This instrument helps you stirr and make foam.

The truth is that you can find almost all of these things here in Munich but obviously not so fresh and definitely not at the same price. I am thankful for being able to visit my beloved country but the last days I was there, I could wait to come back home.

Claudia Rendon

Hallo,

we had a really good day today again; Dominik, our teacher is still keeping up with creativity in games, which of course always means a lot of fun besides learning.

One of them was about bodyparts – he showed the parts on himself and we had to find out, but not just like that – he made two groups again, so it was a small competition at the end. Always the first two people in front of the lines had to answer, which bodyparts did Dominik point at, and the quicker person got the point, which has been written onto the board. So we could collect them for our groups.

The other game was about professions – we all had to write one profession onto a paper which went away to the person who were sitting beside us. No one was allowed to read, we had to keep the papers at our forehead and we were guessing what that could be. The others answered our quesitons – is that job done during the day or the night, whether you can earn a lot of money with it, are you in an office or outside, etc. We all enjoyed learning by these games. 😊

Schön Abend,

Szilvi

What is the first thought that comes into your head when someone tells you to cross under a street through a tunnel? My first thought is to avoid it, since I have always had the impression that these tunnels are scary and full of vagabonds and people doing funky  activities, but this tunnel completely changed my mind. I had always crossed Landshuter Allee across a bridge with my bike, but because the weather has been so crazy lately I walked and was faster to go through a tunnel at Dom-Pedro Strasse. The moment I stepped inside this tunnel, I was transported into another dimension. It is full with colors, characters, spectacles and food. It has become my favorite place to pass through, since I cannot get enough and I always find something new that captivates my attention. It is a project by Martin Blumöhr made as an associative painting of the district’s aspects. Before going down and entering the tunnel, it states all the information regarding the project and what I found very interesting is the fact that it was design by having a direct dialog with the passing people in 2016 and 2017. I think this type of projects are a great example of teamwork and integration, since neighbors and wanderers were put into consideration and will always feel part of this piece of art, therefore they will take care of it and treasure it.

Sometimes while walking through this beautiful city you don’t see too much of this type of alternative art but prepare to be surprised and lifted up your feet, since this passage is exactly what it does. I hope that people keep doing these projects and I hope to be a part of one dome day.

Claudia Rendon

Hello again,

the new lessons were rather hard today, so even though I wanted to visit the Münchner Stadtbibliothek in Gasteig and trying the Sprachcafé they organize, finally I decided just having some rest this afternoon.

As we had some nice, snowy days at the weekend, we used it for getting some fresh, cold air beside the Isar, the river of Münich. Actually it’s much smaller and shallower than I expected, but even in this size I enjoyed walking along and watching the seagulls, swans and ducks. Many people were running, walking their dogs or just hanging around like us. The place has a pleasant athmosphere around, and it’s very popular.

We walked away till Thalkirchen where you can also find the Hellabrunn Zoo, which I pretty much would like to see from the inside, it is in my plans for the next couple of months.

As we followed the road, it also took us around the Naturbad Maria Einsiedel, which I was also suggested to try in the summer. The speciality of the bad is the biological water treatment, which means that the bad is free from any kind of chlorine or chemical additives.

Still many-many new things around. 😊

Bis bald,

Szilvi

I totally love this city!

I remember going to Hamburg for a rugby tournament and leaving my phone charging in the bathroom, while playing, without any concern. Later when I came to pick it up, it was gone and there was a note to go to the cafeteria. There I was told that Hamburg is not like Munich and I should take care of my stuff and never leave them like that. I couldn’t believe it, since I had the thought that all of Germany was very safe, unlike Mexico, which is where I come from.

But like it has many times proven, Munich is a different city, the other day I ran out of my house and hours later realized I had lost my right glove.
I thought I would never see it again and I was about to throw away the left one, when I came back to my house and  found my lost glove hanging on the entrance of the building. This made me so happy, but I understand that when someone looses something inside a building it is not that hard to get it back, but this time I had to treasure the moment, since I found my left glove carefully left out for me to see. I lost it while taking a foto of the street full of snow for my parents. I am really thankfull and I don’t know if these gloves were destined to stay with me or it was just good luck but I feel like leaving cookies out for the people that took the time and care to let me find my gloves back. I believe in karma and I know these individuals will get their cookies one way or another.

I wanted to share this special moment because I feel really gratefull and know that Munich is filled with great people that value and care for their neighbor citizens.

Claudia Rendon

Hello again,

the third week has started today and luckily we had a lighter school day with lots of fun. Dominik prepared an entertaining card game again. It was a bit like poker; we had to find the needful matches at each other. (Of course I won twice! 😉) He wrote up a noun with four special features, then we started collecting what we had the most from, so we had to ask each other if the other person has exactly that one card we still need for our collection. We all enjoyed it. I really appreciate his efforts and creativity to make more fun of Deutsch lernen. 😊

We also had really good conversations in smaller groups today – we had to talk about some of our exact problems in our daily routine, what we should do differently everyday for being more effective (for example going to bed earlier or learning, cleaning more) and we had to give advices to each other how to manage our lives a better way.

On the left side of my new collage there is my classmate at Bildungs Lokal before Christmas. We were at the Sprachcafé there and besides learning new words and having discussions in German we made some creative decoration stuff from bakery packeges. Had a really nice time together with some other foreigners. 😊

Bis bald,

Szilvi

We have different types of assignments in our German classes that keep us busy and eager to learn new words. This week’s assignment was to present a kind of art that is typical from our home country. We first had a discussion of what is considered art, and it is any type of performance, object or construction that reflects someone’s taste or feelings, from Architecture to music. As I come from Mexico, I wanted to talk about something historical that truly represents Mexico, we have specific pyramids, handicrafts, music, food, etc., but then I realised that every country has this. Of course art and costumes change with time and location, but at the end, I couldn’t find something that really represented the way people experience Mexico. But then it hit me, Mexican Wrestling is completely unique and it shows all the folklore and rascality that Mexican culture has. Maybe it is not the most refined spectacle you may see but I am sure it will keep your attention and you will have a good time. I brought a typical colorful mask to class and showed a video of the acrobatic fights. Although it is only a spectacle and it is known that the winner is arranged, people attend this fights because of the show. Here you will see wrestlers flyup into the air out of the ring, one thing I find extremely funny is the fact that you can hand a wrestler a chair or any random object and he will use it to knock down the other wrestler.

Mexican wrestling came from Greco-Roman wrestling and was invented on 1863, when Enrique Ugartechea became the first Mexican wrestler. Mexican wrestling has become very popular with and without the masks in other countries, mostly USA and Japan.

Everyone in my class was completely astonished by my description and the video. I hope you get the chance to experience this spectacle, since I am sure you will have a good time. It may not become you favorite spectacle but you will remember it forever.

Claudia Rendon

Hello Everybody,

another week is over, which was not easy again but we learnt a lot.  Dominik is really good at balancing between hard and easier topics, grammar so we might can deal with it. :D

One of the girls in the class called Tamta, came from Georgia (not the american state but a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe). She speaks a very special langue. One day we had the chance to take a look at a book she is reading recently. It has been written with their special georgian letters, we could not even read it, not to understand. 😊 I find that very interesting to get to know people from different countries and to realize that, finally how similar we all are…

On the way home I often jump into one of the shops to buy some food. Yesterday I found something surprising on the shelves – hungarian Pick salami :D

In the evening we took a bigger walk around the Teresienwiese and the Bavaria statue. It seems extremely empty without the tents and crowd of the Oktoberfest and the Tollwood. There will be a summer fest there, but hopefully we don’t have to wait that long and they will organize something else earlier. 😊

Schönes Wochenende,

Bis Montag,

Szilvi

Hello again,

a bit more than a week ago the weather was warm and sunny, so we decided to make a trip to the Starnberger See. That is 25 km from the city, not a big distance and really worth to see.

The lake’s water is excellent quality and very popular bathing place in the summer. Even now, in January it was nearly crowded, many people were sitting and walking around, the restaurants’ terraces were full. The lake also has a 49 km cycling path, so it meets all the possible requirements. (Interesting historical data that King Ludwig II of Bavaria was found dead in the lake in 1886. Poor him.)

We were sitting on the pier and enjoying the surprisingly strong winter sunshine, then also walked around a bit. I would definitely like to go back in the future.

Today school was lighter with a bit less grammar, we learnt about how to express certain periods, terms, appointments and how to talk about events.

We have also got the new information from BildungsLokal that they are organizing a program to the Pinakothek der Moderne. If I take part in the program , will inform you about that too.

Bis morgen,

Szilvi