And so it begins! (Insert clever German phrase here)

Disclaimer: Although we recognize the dorkiness (is that a real word?) of this blog, we have chose to ignore said fact, as we believe that this will be the best way to let all of our loved ones back home in the States keep up with our lives while we're here in Munich. We hope you enjoy it, and if not, please lie to us and tell us you love it anyway.


We arrived in Munich on Tuesday morning after a "grueling" (see photo below)eight-hour flight. As our apartment is not ready until next week (more on that craziness in a later post), we will be shacking up at the Munich Marriott for the next week (rough life, we know). After checking in on Tuesday, we set up our online bank account with Deutsche Bank. We went with DB because they are one of the only German banks with online banking in English. However, nothing else is in English, so the 10+ letters they sent us with the instructions of setting up the online account, activating debit/credit cards, etc. were in German. Hooray. We managed to translate enough of it though, so our account is all ready to go! We also attempted to set up our cell phones with a provider here in Munich, but we are still experiencing technical difficulties. We'll figure it out sooner or later, I'm sure haha.

Since we're great at prioritizing, we also accomplished the very important task of purchasing lederhosen for Matt and a dirndl for Kristin. These are the traditional outfits that the Bavarians (read: people from Southern Germany)wear during Oktoberfest and many other festivals held throughout the year. This weekend, we'll be traveling with friends to the town of Straubing for Gaubodenvolksfest, the second largest beer festival in Bavaria (read: Southern Germany) behind Oktoberfest. Matt's friend Markus is from the town and is taking us and a few of our other friends from Munich to the festival for the day. Matt went to Oktoberfest last year, so this is old news for him, but I am very excited since I have yet to attend a German festival. We are both really excited to see another German town and experience the festival with the locals. We will be wearing aforementioned lederhosen and dirndl, so get excited for pictures!

And despite the jet lag and lack of sleep, we still went out with friends to celebrate a birthday on Tuesday night! Everyone that we have met is so friendly and welcoming. It's nice to have a group of friends already -- one less obstacle in our new city!

Overall, things are going (mostly) well so far. We have experienced a few challenges, as expected, mostly due to the language barrier. But our German friends are very helpful and Matt and I know we can get through it together. Once we get our cell phones up and running, we'll pass along the phone numbers. For now, you can call us at our "home" phone number on Skype(don't worry, it's free for you). We sent it to most of you via e-mail, but if you still need it, just let us know. If we don't answer, you can leave us a voicemail. And you can always e-mail us at ksterdis@gmail.com or matthew.j.shoaf@gmail.com.

In response to an overwhelming amount of questions regarding methods of communication, I will post later this week about the various ways to get in touch with us. Until then...

Cheers!
Matt and Kristin