Our new shared apartment: Adrenalin-WG

We were looking for a new, bigger place to live, as Jule complained about 'too little privacy' in our small two-room apartment, where she did not have her own room - but also did not officially live. Since I got the sense a little more socializing would be nice, we went on the search for a new apartment in our neighborhood Muenchen-Pasing. Excited about this idea our old friend Tom came along for the ride. He would also start college in Munich and so we were four. 

The first apartment we liked very well, but there were only 3 nice spacious room and a storage room. We thought for a moment Tom could be our pet, since he already complained of lack of money and he could to earn a few dollars in cleaning naked for us and live in the closet, but soon realized Tom probably would not be happy with the room, so we continued diligently to tend to the 'for rent' section in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The drugstore on the ground floor would have been nice for us girls, but oh well. 

About two weeks later we found the ad for a 170 square meter apartment with 8 rooms. That sounded very good and the rent was feasible. We just needed to find one more roommate and check it out. Tom and I made ​​our way to the ADRENALINE-WG (WG means 'shared apartment'). In the backyard of a strange Bavarian pub we found the entrance up. The smell of fried liver choked us climbing up to the 3rd floor, our new home. 

Mr. Kulle, the property manager, met us and showed us the apartment. In sharp contrast to the other landlords Mr. Kulle had no reservations about a group of crazy college kids sharing his apartment. He would not as the apartment was formerly used by large immigrant families and construction workers. The latter actually lived there until recently, sleeping in simple iron beds, their position easily to be seen on the linoleum floor. 

All 8 rooms were available - only lacking a front door. But that could be installed, if we wished so. We did. We thought it's a good idea to have a door. Imagine how you wake up from a nightmare and before an old, greasy construction worker is sitting in the corner of your room.

We had some concerns when we said goodbye. Should this really be our new home? "Luxurious" and "upscale" were words that should not be used to describe this accommodation. But at least the bathroom had two showers and two sinks. In the apartment itself were also two toilets. Perfect conditions for a great shared apartment. Tom and I discussed what rooms we would get.

Two weeks later we signed the lease and listed about 17 improvements in the contract, all of which should be done by a certain deadline. One improvement was a entire new toilet bowl in the guest bathroom. Tom's comment: "You do not know so, who has already thundered in that!" One that had "thundered" there certainly often was Heinz, the alcoholic, one floor down.

On February 15th, 1997 it was finally time to move in our new home! A little later, the front door was installed, preventing other house mates from "thundering" in our toilet. We started our communal living, cooking dinner on the two mini-stove in the mini-kitchen in the entrance.

The following months we all changed a lot. Growing up together from early twenties to Mid-/Late-Twenties, when we tried alcohol and experimented with melatonin, and how our awkwardness from puberty migrated into our understanding of live in general and our gender identity.