Munich 1996-1997
The Placement

Better belated than never. This is the attempt of collecting and sharing the feelings, joy, pain and hardship of spending almost a year in Munich to absolve the compulsory placement.

This is where the two sides of the course (those who started in Berlind and thos who started in Cambridge) came together... for me anyway.

What do I remember? Dragging Schteev out to The Jam constantly, him ordering a halbes Halbes (before knowing that this also refers to a quantity of class a drugs), meeting at his place for breakfast and having to step over a handful of sleeping girls, the boxershorts incident with Nicola's neighbour, doing laundry and playing silly games in the house, a green mobile (with belt clip!).

I met Schteev first. I had started at Attachmate Intl Sales GmbH. Two weeks later two things happened that should have a major impact:

1) Schteev joined as second intern

2) The Managing Director for Germany left the following day

Now, stay calm, I personally don't believe the rumors that the MD didn't like red haired british interns. The way I saw it, I had someone who didn't know Munich either, was not my uncle and didn't mind exploring the different beer brands available in Munich. If there was any money left after the beer each month we would decline joining the other staff for lunch, because we were broke and then march to Burger King to spend a fiver on junk food.

The job was not terribly exciting so we found other things to do. ICQ Instant messaging was one of them, the NME chat room another. I started my new hobby of moving flats constantly. The first one with a strange, constantly jogging post officer was abandoned after 2 months. The next one was only slightly bigger than an aircraft toilet but had the added benefit of a landlady who had a compulsory disorder which manifested itself in having to clean my room constantly (when I was out, of course). The third one proved to be more suitable and by then the others had moved into the house and I could do my laundry there. Hmmm, never understood why they didn't give the house a name. Anyway.

Many a nights I was force fed Baader Meinhof, New Model Army and Schteev's pasta. I got used to it. I took my revenge when Prince's Emancipation set came out. Three hours of my music for a change ;-)

I will never understand, though, why the only fire extinguisher was locked in a metal cage and the Giesskannen full of heating oil stood in the main hallway. But then again, the shower looked like a gas chanber, which made the environment as a whole somehow fitting together.