There’s a brand of portable toilets in Germany called toi toi, which I thought was odd. In French, ‘toi’ is the informal form of ‘you’, and I wondered if there was any connection. Not that ‘you you’ was a logical name for a portable toilet, but it was the only connection I had to ‘toi’.

Later, I come to find out there’s a phrase in German (toi toi toi) that you use when wishing someone luck. A friend has a big day coming up and you simply say to him, ‘toi toi toi.’ The word here sounds like ‘toy’ in English, so say that three times and you’ve just wished your German counterpart luck in whatever he’s got in front of him.

Back to the name of this particular portable toilet company. It’s only ‘toi’ doubled. Not the customary three times. Almost as if they’re wishing you luck as you go in to do your business, but not too much luck. Reserved luck.

Can anyone explain this cartoon to me?

There are several from the same illustrator pasted around my neighbourhood in Munich, and I simply don’t get this one. Any ideas?

Where are we going, anyway?

There’s only one way to ease back into this ol’ Dachshund Blog, and it’s not to ease in at all. My intention is to slog in full speed. As quickly as one can slog, I suppose. Where have I been? What have I been doing? Well, the specifics are rather unexciting for the most part, but there were a few moments in the last several months that have made it really difficult to blog. Difficult to do much more than the bare minimum, actually.

One incredibly traumatic thing happened, however, and I just couldn’t talk about it. Not here, not on social media…not anywhere for a while. There are people I’m relatively close to who didn’t hear about my moment of inexplicable horror until much later. I suppose it’s not fair for me to mention such a thing and then not to be any more specific, but that’s the way it has to be.

Almost immediately thereafter I had a moment where I questioned nearly everything. It’s not quite gone, actually. That moment seems to have spread out into a long surreal moment. I’ve lived in Germany for more than a decade and have really enjoyed it, but in an instant I couldn’t be here anymore.

What’s difficult for me is that being here is part of my identity. This focus of this blog has partially been about being an outsider in a very curious place. A place that’s equal parts charming, preposterous and inexplicable. How can one attempt to explain such a thing, you ask? Those are the best things to try to get at, actually. The ones that might at first seem insurmountable.

So, what happens next? First of all, I’m going to use this space to say goodbye to Germany. There’s no telling what’s in store for me, so it’s entirely possible that I end up back here someday. Perhaps I only come back here periodically. We shall certainly see.

I speak the language, am fascinated by the culture, and am genuinely curious about how they got to this point and where they’re going. My German experiment is by no means completed. However, things do change, and my intention is to take you along for the ride.

There aren’t any definite plans as of yet, by the way. What’s that line about a journey of an incredibly long distance starting with a single step? This is my first one of those. Right now I’m wondering if there are still any of you who’d like to come along.

This week I was asked to do the twitter account at @MunichLovesU, and I’ve already done four of the seven days. I’ve tried to write most of the tweets in German, although I was told a mix of English and German would be fine.

So far, it’s been a little odd. I’m so accustomed to my twitter feed, and here’s an entirely new crowd of twitterfolk. Sometimes I’m incapable of even getting in on the conversation because I’m transfixed by all the shiny new people.

Also…irony’s easy in your mother tongue. No matter how well you speak/understand a second language, nuance can be tricky. Some Germans are more droll than you might expect.If this were some sort of performance, I’d say this was a tough room. Like I say, I’ve still got a few days left. Maybe by the end of the weekend I’ll have gotten the hang of it.

The people I know via social media seem to get me. However, it’s taken a significant amount of time and interaction to develop that. I’m not throwing in the towel. Far from it. More importantly, I’m not using the language barrier as an excuse. I read/write German rather well. If anything, this is challenging me to up my game.

The people at the site asked me a few questions at the outset and included my answers on their blog. As long as they’ve gone to the effort, I don’t see why I can’t send you over there. Take a gander, won’t you:

MunichLovesU and their 52 week

Oh, should I have warned you that it was all in German? Well, you probably wouldn’t have clicked over there then, would you?

Hopefully back to your regularly scheduled blogging soon. There’s certainly plenty going on to talk about. Till then.

Die Neue Synagoge

There’s been a lot in the German media this week about the 80th anniversary of the Nazis taking power in Berlin. Actually, there was much more written about a ridiculous story involving a politician allegedly making sexist remarks to a relatively young journalist more than a year ago, but that’s gotten more than enough coverage. I’m certainly not going to add to it.

The anniversary wasn’t exactly forgotten, but was arguably overshadowed by what seemed to me to be a non-story. Overshadowed maybe but certainly not forgotten.

I took the above photo of Die Neue Synagoge when I was in Berlin last year, and going to that city often makes me think of the plight of the German Jews. Not a pretty story, but important to remember what happened there. Also read something in the Guardian this week that I found compelling. Take a look at Hitler came to power 80 years ago. I remember it like yesterday by Fritz Lustig.

It sounds so cliché to say that we should stay aware of the past to avoid its repetition, but it’s times like these that we need to remember. This generation of people who were actually there are slowly disappearing.

Maybe because I enjoy living in Germany so much, I find myself particularly vigilant about keeping these topics fresh. That’s not to say that I think this country should be forever shunned and cowed by its past.

Nevertheless, most Germans I know have been raised in a particularly pacifistic society that, as a rule, goes out of its way to distance itself from the National Socialists. It’s a difficult balancing act that I think the modern German state does a decent job of walking.

If the German media this week is any indication, this society’s not in danger of forgetting anything. Not remotely.

dragon on a wall in Landsberg am Lech

Because I blogged relatively rarely over the holidays, I have a backlog of photos that I haven’t bothered putting here. There are a lot of dragons on walls and in paintings that I’ve been running into lately.

The one above was in Landsberg am Lech, which is a little village west-southwest of Munich. Because of the drudgery of getting everything set up in the new flat, I’m equating my daily struggle with fighting dragons.

It’s certainly dramatic. I get that.

Even though these tasks aren’t insurmountable, the sorting of them is momentarily daunting. I look at the competing websites that offer a DSL connection and they look indistinguishable to my eyes. I call the service number and they’re quite good at throwing numbers around…numbers that then swirl through my head, as I try to comprehend what exactly it is that I need.

But in the meantime, I’ve got only my phone connecting me to the web. Aside from a few moments in the café, I’m without internet. Last night, I read a book and actually went to sleep at a reasonable hour.

My hope is that even when I’m completely connected again, I’ll remember to turn all these devices off periodically. Just me and a cup of tea and my thoughts.

Dragons be damned.

Not only Homer Simpson might mistake all that snow for a big powdered doughnut. instagr.am/p/UnvvYUoW-x/

— Ken Macbeth (@lahikmajoe) January 18, 2013

If you follow the link in the tweet reprinted above, you’ll find a view from the hotel room we’ve been in since the beginning of January, and I can’t stop chuckling at the powdered snow doughnut.

This is my goodbye to the district on the western side of Munich called Neuhausen-Nymphenburg. It’s been my home the entire time I’ve been in Germany, and it’s a bit of a melancholy goodbye.

I’ve waxed lyrical about this particularly beautiful part of a particularly beautiful city. It’s as a good a time as any to move on, but it’s not easy.

Bogenhausen is no slouch when it comes to neighbourhoods in Munich. Many notable Münchner (residents of München) lived in Bogenhausen, and although there’s not quite the selection of restaurants and businesses as I’m accustomed to, I’m sure the ones there are will include a few gems. Can’t wait to talk about some of those here on the old Dachshund Blog.

Don’t change that channel. Stay with us through the next advertisement, because you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

And now for a link to the photo of the massive powdered snow doughnut, which incidentally has absolutely no calories, or negligible ones anyway. Not many things you can say that about, are there?

Enjoy.

view from the Friedensengel looking down on Munich from Bogenhausen

My friend Dermot held off on telling me how impossible it is to find a place to live in Munich – especially with dogs. And one more thing against me? Many or most people here have secure employment. I’m a freelancer with work in a variety of fields. It’s never boring, but it’s anything but guaranteed.

I’d heard over the years that finding somewhere to live in Bavaria’s capital was difficult, but had never experienced it firsthand.

Here I was looking for a flat during Advent and the Christmas/New Year’s holidays. It was a bit of drudgery and appeared to be all in vain. I was looking at places as far-flung as Augsburg, Landshut and even Regensburg. All perfectly acceptable places, but definitely a commute.

Then I unexpectedly ran into my dog trainer, who I hadn’t seen in years, and told her my plight. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, she informed me that before she found her present abode, she was couch surfing and some nights even sleeping in a barn. For how long was she virtually homeless?

Seven months.

You heard me right. I thought in that moment that my situation was completely hopeless. Here was a woman very connected in the community with tonnes of clients and very well-behaved dogs. She was essentially a vagabond for what seemed like an unbearable amount of time. Where would that leave me?

She took my contact details, but I had no illusion that she’d provide anything different than the many friends who’d been looking/listening for any rental-related possibilities in my adopted hometown.

Everyone wanted to help, but it’s really a jungle here. And each year there are more and more students and professionals making their way to this beautiful city on the River Isar.

Didn’t want to say anything till I was certain it’d work out, but a flat opened up in her building. My dog trainer, who’s the closest thing I’ve found to a real-life dog whisperer incidentally, sent me a text message on New Year’s Eve, and said that if I wanted to, I could live in her building.

It’s been renovated, and is much better than anything I could’ve hoped for. Although I could’ve done with a bit less Sturm und Drang in the search for a home, I’m glad Dermot waited to tell me how screwed I was.

‘Two dogs? At Christmastime? As a self-employed foreigner? I didn’t have the heart to tell you it was nearly impossible.’

Impossible, my arse. Munich Bogenhausen here we come.

doing what they love most…Ella and Louis will definitely spar like this at some point on their birthday

On 13 January 2005 the best red dogs on the planet were born. I went into detail about all this last year at the same time, but I just wanted to share this photo. If I let myself, I’d blog about their love and what an honour it is to take care of them on a daily basis.

My heart doubles in size when I see Ella and Louis playing. These dogs have quite simply been the single most reliable thing over the last several years.

Am thrilled that photos of them bring joy to so many people I know only from the internet. I’ve been using the hashtag #EllaandLouis for a while over at twitter if you’d like a sampling of the joy they bring. Have at it.

an earlier snow in Munich Lehel

Looked out the window a little while ago, and it was actually snowing. The past few weeks have been unseasonably mild in Bavaria. When it’s been wet, everything’s gotten rather soggy.

While I’m always happy to see a bit of the white stuff falling from the sky, this fresh snowfall has made me particularly happy.

Everything feels somehow more peaceful in newly-fallen snow. My schedule is relatively light today, so right now I can take a walk through the park. When I get through with one more appointment in about an hour, I’ll hurry to pick up Ella and Louis (my sister and brother Vizslas that most of you know) and we’ll go for a long, stress-free walk along the Isar River that runs swiftly through Munich.

Plenty more to tell you, but it’ll have to wait for another time. The elements await me, after all.