Days since last round up: 7
Hours until lockdown (at time of writing): 6
Major achievements: two children delivered safely to grandparents
Failed ventures: yet another visit from England cancelled
Reading: Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alexander Döblin
This week has been a strange one, and not just for those of us on our years abroad, although the second lockdown hit Europe a good few days before Britain. Not quite as drastic as France, Germany’s new restrictions come into place tomorrow (Monday 2nd), and will see gyms and restaurants closing; food places are still allowed to stay open for take-away, there are no formal restrictions on moving about the city but we’re advised to keep it to a minimum, shops can stay open and, most importantly for me, schools too.
Something like this puts everything in perspective a bit, as well as relieving some of the pressure to be having the perfect year abroad, doing something fun every day (obviously not a reality), once it’s taken out of your control. The down-sides are, of course, that the weekend day trips I had planned up to the end of my time here won’t all be possible, even if things do start to open up again in December, and, for the second time, my parents have been stopped from visiting. I think there’s an instinct when something like this happens which feels a bit like a crisis, that makes you want to surround yourself with familiar people and comfortable environments, and being abroad that’s not always easy. Having said that, things have been going surprisingly well with the family this week, and overall I’m not despairing about the weeks to come. What I will miss is the friends who’ve chosen to move back home and are leaving Munich earlier than planned.
It’s been a week making the most of my soon-to-be-limited freedom, starting with a brunch date with a newly-arrived friend who I met during debating at school and haven’t seen for almost 2 years, and once the announcement hit on Wednesday, being sure to carry on exploring restaurants and cafes while they’re still open - a week of many favourite finds.
There have been the usual ups and down with the girls, but generally the mood has been very good, starting off with the easiest Monday morning so far, then featuring a ‘circus’ performance, more pancakes (without fighting over who gets to pour what this time), and colouring in around the table before bed. There are still more difficult points, involving doors being slammed in my face when they want to play by themselves, and painstaking chivvying to get the younger one to eat her breakfast, but she’s nowhere near as resistant to the bedtime routine now, even getting excited at the prospect of a story so that she’ll get pyjamas on and brush her teeth really quickly. Pick-ups from nursery have been especially good, with both of us in a good mood these are some of the times when I feel like I’m actually just having fun with the younger girl rather than a slightly tricky job.
Lockdown measures actually provided a bonding moment with the family, when me, the mum and the dad watched the Tagesschau together on Wednesday evening, while the kids were playing at a friends, and discussed the whole situation and how all the different countries were handling things. The end of the week was very relaxed, with me only working a few hours on Wednesday and Thursday while the kids played at a neighbours’, but things picked up on Saturday with a long journey to the grandparents’, where the girls are now spending their autumn half-term week off. A train journey with a three and a seven year old is never going to be relaxing, but they both behaved really well, and with some other children their age sitting nearby, the time actually passed really quickly without much stress at all. The 2 hour wait at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station (not Germany’s finest unfortunately) and the 3 hour journey back alone was as tiring as expected, but a small get-together with a new arrival from Oxford and her group of German friends was the perfect way to relax after a long day.
Sunday was my first holiday-day and last day of freedom, so I made the most of it with a brunch in Maxvorstadt, and a trip to Schloss Nymphenburg, a palace just outside of the city centre, with gorgeous grounds that provided a perfect autumnal wander to pass the afternoon.
The day was topped off by dinner with another Oxford friend, who’s also decided so stay (the numbers are reduced but we’ve still got a little community), which ended abruptly, according to the recently introduced ‘Sperrstunde’ which means restaurants and bars can only serve until 9pm, with ‘It’s Time To Say Goodbye’ being blasted from the speakers as a not-too-subtle reminder that we had to leave.
It’s been an odd few days and everything is still very strange, I can’t get over how unprecedented this all feels and my last few weeks here are certainly going to be a new experience. It’s not time to say goodbye to Munich just yet, but at least for November the city will be quite different to how I’ve experienced it so far.
