This post covers Monday 2/22 to Wednesday 2/25
So these three days were the last days of the February session at the Goethe-Institut. Because almost all of my American friends were headed to Vienna on Thursday and my South American friends were all headed home, we knew these last three days had to be filled with fun. Monday night we made some turkey and veggies for dinner and then headed out to Stammtisch. It was, of course, fun, and we stayed out longer than we normally do. We were probably there until 11:30 or 12, debating if we should go to Barfüßer, the dance club. We ended up not going because we knew we would be there at some point later in the week. It was definitely a good night and a great last Stammtisch with all of us together.
Tuesday night a few of us made some delicious spaghetti and prepared for the Goethe Goodbye Party. Why the school would decide to throw a school-sponsored party the night before the last day of classes is beyond me, but we weren’t complaining. We headed to the Goethe-Pub for our last Goethe Party together and we all had an absolute blast hanging out and dancing the night away.
So yes, the next morning was the last day of class. After the classes, we had a short closing session that was fun to sit through. We saw pictures of the events we did during the month and had presentations for a few people. Then we all feasted on chicken—yeah they served us a whole half of a chicken, bones and all for lunch. It was delicious, but it became even more apparent who the Americans were because we all ate with our hands while everyone else used a fork and knife. Oops.
Wednesday night was, as to be expected, awesome. A group of us Americans went out to the amazing Chinese place so they could enjoy it for their last time. After laughing over random stuff at dinner, we all headed back to the Wohnheim to start our own goodbye party. All of us had an awesome time hanging out, (drinking—if I even needed to say that), singing, dancing, and taking pictures with everyone. After living it up in the Wohnheim, we all headed to Barfüßer, the dance club for a last night party together. We first tried to get in there around midnight, but the cover charge was there until 12:30…so we headed to Olli’s to get another beer and chill for 30 minutes. We headed into Barfüßer around 12:45 and danced like the crazy foreigners that we were. There were a surprising number of people in the place for a Wednesday night, so we had soon coaxed several groups of Germans to come join us on the floor. It was an awesome time and a great way to say bye to everyone. As I decided to leave (around 2:30…and I was the first to leave), it took about 30 minutes to give hugs and say (more like yell) goodbyes over the music. All of the Brazilians insisted I come visit Brazil at some point, so right now I’m going to aim for Brazil in 2014 because it is hosting the World Cup then. Also my friends that were going to Vienna said I was welcome anytime in their new city and that they were looking forward to me visiting. It was a bittersweet goodbye. I had a blast with everyone, but I didn’t know when, if ever, I would see some of these awesome people again. I went home and fell asleep that night both happy that the month had been so awesome and sad that it ended to so quickly. I will always treasure that February in Schwäbisch Hall.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The strongest beer in the world
This entry is for Friday 2/19 through Sunday 2/21.
That weekend was our last weekend all together. The Americans (all 15 except for me and one other) were headed to Vienna on Thursday to start their semester there. The Brazilians and the Argentineans were headed home on Thursday because their summer break was wrapping up. Everyone else was pretty much leaving, too. So we had this weekend and the next Monday-Wednesday to enjoy each other’s company as much as possible.
Also, a slight bit of a scare came on Friday when I heard that the branch of the Dresdner Bank that I use had been robbed a few weeks earlier. They hadn’t been robbed by gunpoint, but instead thieves had contrived a way to procure the pin numbers of all of the cards people used at the ATM and took over 100,000 Euros worth. I checked my statements and breathed a sigh of relief when everything was ok. Apparently the robbery had taken place on January 30th, and I opened my account with them February 4th. What a close call!!
So Friday afternoon started out in an entertaining fashion. We went to feed the ducks!! We spent about thirty minutes chucking old bread at the swarm of ducks down by the river. Definitely a good time. We then played soccer outside later that afternoon. And that was something to see. We decided to play outside. It was roughly 35 degrees Fahrenheit and softly, but steadily raining. We walked to a park about 20 minutes away and played on a snow- and mud-covered field. It was a ton of fun, but we were sliding everywhere and people seem to get hurt every other play—nothing too serious, but enough to have them sit out for 5 minutes. The kid with the terrible circulations to his extremities (me) was miserable at points because he couldn’t feel his hands or feet about 20 minutes into the 2 hour session. But we all still had a great time. I’m surprised no one got extremely sick, though.
After showering and cleaning up, Derek, Ben, Andrew I., and I met up for dinner. We decided to try a new thing for dinner and went to a pizzeria close to my house. It was actually pretty decent pizza, and it was a good size (about 10 to 11 inches in diameter). That being said, it wasn’t anything compared to American pizza and made me crave some good ol’ Pizza Hut and Domino’s. It was an enjoyable dinner, though. After that, we headed to the Supermarket and then went back to the Wohnheim. It was a blast hanging out with everybody, and around midnight we all headed down to the disko (dance club) again, called Barfüße. If you recall our first Friday night in togas, then you will remember that we went to Barfüße that night, too. At first we were the only people on the floor. Just a bunch of international kids looking like fools in front of the Germans just hanging out at the bar. However, we eventually coaxed a few of them to come join us and by the end, we all had a blast dancing and being stupid with everyone.
That next Saturday morning, we all awoke bright and early for our Goethe-sponsored trip to Heidelberg! We boarded the bus at 8:30 and departed on the two hour trip. Our arrival to Heidelberg greeted us with clouds, bitter cold, and snow. None of us were surprised, but we had been told sun might be expected. Somewhat disappointed with the weather, we headed to grab some delicious breakfast at Kamps. I had an Amerikaner and a cinnamon scone (the German word is escaping me right now). The scone was scrumptious, as is expected, but the Amerikaner was definitely a new experience. I loved it, and it tasted good, but it was unlike anything I had seen in America, which I find highly ironic. Someone even asked me what they are called in America, and I said that I had never seen such a thing. It was about as round as a large sugar cookie and was frosted with chocolate icing. However, it was about an inch and a half thick and had the consistency of a muffin. It was intriguing, to say the least.
After breakfast, our tour guide (another one of Die Freunde des Goethe people) showed us around. She pointed out some historic buildings and then took us into the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Ghost Church). It is a famous and beautiful church in Heidelberg and serves as a distinct landmark on the city’s skyline. The church was gorgeous on the inside and we spent about 40 minutes in there looking around and hearing about the history. We then headed through the streets of Heidelberg to the famous Karl-Theodor-Brücke, which translates as the Karl Theodor Bridge. It is the old, famous, and picturesque bridge in Heidelberg. If you have ever seen pictures of the city, you have probably seen this bridge before. It was definitely awesome, and I made sure to get lots of pictures. After the bridge, we headed to the University of Heidelberg.
If you don’t know, the University of Heidelberg is the oldest university in Germany and the third oldest in Europe. I want to say it was 1386 when it was founded, but I’m not positive on that date. I do know it was the late 1300’s. It is also famous for being a home to the Romatic movement in Germany and harboring a myriad of intellectuals throughout its time. The actually university now is in a different place because of size/demographic constraints (about 30,000 to 40,000 students attend now), but we saw the old buildings just how they were. One of the coolest things we saw was the Studenten Karzer (or Student Jail). The university actually had the right (and fully exercised it) to incarcerate students that broke important university policies, such as noise, alcohol, and curfew violations. The normal sentence was two weeks in the prison, and by the end (this practice stopped in the mid 1900’s, I believe) it was more of a sport to say that you got into the prison than a thing to be feared.
At the University of Heidelberg, they had student groups comparable to what we know as fraternities. They weren’t fraternities, per se, but they were groups of students with common beliefs. Each group had its own color of boots and hats and its own crest. In the prison, these different colors and crests were EVERYWHERE. I don’t think there was a square inch of wall that wasn’t covered with something. The people who spent time in there obviously used their boredom to decorate the place. There are drawings, markings, and sayings everywhere you looked.
We had a two hour break after we all toured the Studenten Karzer, so a group of us headed to the other beautiful and iconic church of the city, the Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church). The inside of it was also beautiful and breathtaking. Then we headed back to Heiliggeistkirche and climbed up the tower. After about a 10 minute ascent up a never-ending spiral staircase, we made it to the top. The views of Heidelberg were amazing, and I got a lot of awesome pictures from that.
Once we were back on the ground, we had to decide what to do for lunch. We discussed several options, but we really couldn’t decide on anything. After checking on a few menus, we happened to stumble into a place called Vetter. It might have been the best accidental discovery since Columbus landed in the Caribbean. The place was obviously a brewery, noted by the huge beer vats and chandeliers of hopps. As we were looking at the menu, I noticed something very unique. They served a beer called Vetter 33. It was the STRONGEST BEER IN THE WORLD at 33% alcohol. I kid you not. They even sited the Guinness Book of World Records that they have the strongest beer as of 1994. So yes, we stumbled into the brewery that just so happened to make the strongest beer in the world. INSANE.
They only sell this beer in 0.2 liters. Most beer you can buy in 0.3 or 0.5 liters at restaurants, but this stuff was so strong they could only give you so much. We all ordered a regular beer to try and then split the Vetter 33 among the four of us. I ordered a beer called the Terminator, which was like a really dark red lager. It was heavenly, and it is easily my favorite beer that I’ve had in Germany. (So thus my favorite beer in the world.) Ben got a Hefe-Weizen, which is a wheat beer, and he pointed out that when they brought out the Vetter 33, that the head (the foamy part at the top) of it was darker than his wheat beer. It was crazy! The Vetter 33 was so dark. It was very sticky and clung to the sides of the glass. It almost reminded me of molasses. It was definitely good, but none of us wanted too much of it. It was good to split between the four of us. The beer definitely had a kick to it, too, that reminded you that is no normal beer, but instead 33% alcohol. Oh yeah, and the food was good too. Some tasty wursts and fried potatoes. Can’t go wrong with a lunch like that.
We then headed back across the Karl-Theodor-Brücke to a winding road called Philosophienweg, which translates to Philosopher’s Way. This is a famous road in Heidelberg that famous philosophers have walked in order to encourage their thinking and aid them with developing novel philosophies. We decided to walk up to it and check it out. The road up was definitely tough. Not only were we full off of our awesome meal, but the path was straight up a hill. It wound back and forth up the hill, but there was no secret that we were hiking up a steep slope. The view at the top, though, was a great reward, and we walked along for a few minutes soaking in the overlooking view of the entire city of Heidelberg and the philosophic atmosphere. Then we headed back down to meet up with our group.
The next stop was the Heidelberg Schloss (castle). It is another iconic structure in the city, and we hiked up the steep, steep, steep path to get there. It definitely took some effort to get to the top of that sucker, too, so between the Philosophienweg and the path to the Schloss, we certainly got our exercise in. Once we were in walls of the Schloss, we saw more amazing views overlooking the whole city of Heidelberg. Absolutely gorgeous. Then we headed inside of more mind-blowing things to see.
At first we walked in, and I saw this huge wine keg (Wein Fass auf Deutsch) that was probably 10 to 15 feet tall. My jaw dropped, and we got plently of pictures with that. But THEN we walked into the next room. Nobody could believe what we saw: a wine keg that had to be at least 30 feet tall. I am not kidding. I look dwarfed next to this thing. It was big enough to walk around on top. It holds over 200,000 liters of wine and has only been filled three times. It was just so massive!! You have to see pictures to believe it.
After we left the castle, the group of us who had first discovered Vetter took another group there to prove that we weren’t making up the fact that we had drunk the strongest beer in the world. We sat down and had another (why not?—how often are we going to be able to do that?) and then walked down the Hauptstrasse. The Hauptstrasse is the longest pedestrian zone in Europe at 1.6 kilometers in length. That’s huge! We didn’t even make it half was down before we had to turn back and head home. We boarded the bus around 4:30 and headed back to Schwäbisch Hall.
That night was pretty chill. We mostly just set in the kitchen and hung out. We made potatoes, veggies, and brats for dinner, and it was, as always, delicious.
Sunday I was supposed to go to Nürnberg again with a different group of people, but I decided to instead sleep in and take a day to relax. I was starting to feel slightly sick and figured a day of rest would be better for my body than another day of cold weather and traveling. Besides, I should be back in Nürnberg again in the next few weeks. So Sunday was a relaxing day. That night, Andrew I, Andrew K, Ben, Derek, and I headed out to Olli’s to grab a beer and just hang out. We were only there about an hour just talking and enjoying each other’s company until we headed home for the night. Chalk up another great weekend on the record books.
That weekend was our last weekend all together. The Americans (all 15 except for me and one other) were headed to Vienna on Thursday to start their semester there. The Brazilians and the Argentineans were headed home on Thursday because their summer break was wrapping up. Everyone else was pretty much leaving, too. So we had this weekend and the next Monday-Wednesday to enjoy each other’s company as much as possible.
Also, a slight bit of a scare came on Friday when I heard that the branch of the Dresdner Bank that I use had been robbed a few weeks earlier. They hadn’t been robbed by gunpoint, but instead thieves had contrived a way to procure the pin numbers of all of the cards people used at the ATM and took over 100,000 Euros worth. I checked my statements and breathed a sigh of relief when everything was ok. Apparently the robbery had taken place on January 30th, and I opened my account with them February 4th. What a close call!!
So Friday afternoon started out in an entertaining fashion. We went to feed the ducks!! We spent about thirty minutes chucking old bread at the swarm of ducks down by the river. Definitely a good time. We then played soccer outside later that afternoon. And that was something to see. We decided to play outside. It was roughly 35 degrees Fahrenheit and softly, but steadily raining. We walked to a park about 20 minutes away and played on a snow- and mud-covered field. It was a ton of fun, but we were sliding everywhere and people seem to get hurt every other play—nothing too serious, but enough to have them sit out for 5 minutes. The kid with the terrible circulations to his extremities (me) was miserable at points because he couldn’t feel his hands or feet about 20 minutes into the 2 hour session. But we all still had a great time. I’m surprised no one got extremely sick, though.
After showering and cleaning up, Derek, Ben, Andrew I., and I met up for dinner. We decided to try a new thing for dinner and went to a pizzeria close to my house. It was actually pretty decent pizza, and it was a good size (about 10 to 11 inches in diameter). That being said, it wasn’t anything compared to American pizza and made me crave some good ol’ Pizza Hut and Domino’s. It was an enjoyable dinner, though. After that, we headed to the Supermarket and then went back to the Wohnheim. It was a blast hanging out with everybody, and around midnight we all headed down to the disko (dance club) again, called Barfüße. If you recall our first Friday night in togas, then you will remember that we went to Barfüße that night, too. At first we were the only people on the floor. Just a bunch of international kids looking like fools in front of the Germans just hanging out at the bar. However, we eventually coaxed a few of them to come join us and by the end, we all had a blast dancing and being stupid with everyone.
That next Saturday morning, we all awoke bright and early for our Goethe-sponsored trip to Heidelberg! We boarded the bus at 8:30 and departed on the two hour trip. Our arrival to Heidelberg greeted us with clouds, bitter cold, and snow. None of us were surprised, but we had been told sun might be expected. Somewhat disappointed with the weather, we headed to grab some delicious breakfast at Kamps. I had an Amerikaner and a cinnamon scone (the German word is escaping me right now). The scone was scrumptious, as is expected, but the Amerikaner was definitely a new experience. I loved it, and it tasted good, but it was unlike anything I had seen in America, which I find highly ironic. Someone even asked me what they are called in America, and I said that I had never seen such a thing. It was about as round as a large sugar cookie and was frosted with chocolate icing. However, it was about an inch and a half thick and had the consistency of a muffin. It was intriguing, to say the least.
After breakfast, our tour guide (another one of Die Freunde des Goethe people) showed us around. She pointed out some historic buildings and then took us into the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Ghost Church). It is a famous and beautiful church in Heidelberg and serves as a distinct landmark on the city’s skyline. The church was gorgeous on the inside and we spent about 40 minutes in there looking around and hearing about the history. We then headed through the streets of Heidelberg to the famous Karl-Theodor-Brücke, which translates as the Karl Theodor Bridge. It is the old, famous, and picturesque bridge in Heidelberg. If you have ever seen pictures of the city, you have probably seen this bridge before. It was definitely awesome, and I made sure to get lots of pictures. After the bridge, we headed to the University of Heidelberg.
If you don’t know, the University of Heidelberg is the oldest university in Germany and the third oldest in Europe. I want to say it was 1386 when it was founded, but I’m not positive on that date. I do know it was the late 1300’s. It is also famous for being a home to the Romatic movement in Germany and harboring a myriad of intellectuals throughout its time. The actually university now is in a different place because of size/demographic constraints (about 30,000 to 40,000 students attend now), but we saw the old buildings just how they were. One of the coolest things we saw was the Studenten Karzer (or Student Jail). The university actually had the right (and fully exercised it) to incarcerate students that broke important university policies, such as noise, alcohol, and curfew violations. The normal sentence was two weeks in the prison, and by the end (this practice stopped in the mid 1900’s, I believe) it was more of a sport to say that you got into the prison than a thing to be feared.
At the University of Heidelberg, they had student groups comparable to what we know as fraternities. They weren’t fraternities, per se, but they were groups of students with common beliefs. Each group had its own color of boots and hats and its own crest. In the prison, these different colors and crests were EVERYWHERE. I don’t think there was a square inch of wall that wasn’t covered with something. The people who spent time in there obviously used their boredom to decorate the place. There are drawings, markings, and sayings everywhere you looked.
We had a two hour break after we all toured the Studenten Karzer, so a group of us headed to the other beautiful and iconic church of the city, the Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church). The inside of it was also beautiful and breathtaking. Then we headed back to Heiliggeistkirche and climbed up the tower. After about a 10 minute ascent up a never-ending spiral staircase, we made it to the top. The views of Heidelberg were amazing, and I got a lot of awesome pictures from that.
Once we were back on the ground, we had to decide what to do for lunch. We discussed several options, but we really couldn’t decide on anything. After checking on a few menus, we happened to stumble into a place called Vetter. It might have been the best accidental discovery since Columbus landed in the Caribbean. The place was obviously a brewery, noted by the huge beer vats and chandeliers of hopps. As we were looking at the menu, I noticed something very unique. They served a beer called Vetter 33. It was the STRONGEST BEER IN THE WORLD at 33% alcohol. I kid you not. They even sited the Guinness Book of World Records that they have the strongest beer as of 1994. So yes, we stumbled into the brewery that just so happened to make the strongest beer in the world. INSANE.
They only sell this beer in 0.2 liters. Most beer you can buy in 0.3 or 0.5 liters at restaurants, but this stuff was so strong they could only give you so much. We all ordered a regular beer to try and then split the Vetter 33 among the four of us. I ordered a beer called the Terminator, which was like a really dark red lager. It was heavenly, and it is easily my favorite beer that I’ve had in Germany. (So thus my favorite beer in the world.) Ben got a Hefe-Weizen, which is a wheat beer, and he pointed out that when they brought out the Vetter 33, that the head (the foamy part at the top) of it was darker than his wheat beer. It was crazy! The Vetter 33 was so dark. It was very sticky and clung to the sides of the glass. It almost reminded me of molasses. It was definitely good, but none of us wanted too much of it. It was good to split between the four of us. The beer definitely had a kick to it, too, that reminded you that is no normal beer, but instead 33% alcohol. Oh yeah, and the food was good too. Some tasty wursts and fried potatoes. Can’t go wrong with a lunch like that.
We then headed back across the Karl-Theodor-Brücke to a winding road called Philosophienweg, which translates to Philosopher’s Way. This is a famous road in Heidelberg that famous philosophers have walked in order to encourage their thinking and aid them with developing novel philosophies. We decided to walk up to it and check it out. The road up was definitely tough. Not only were we full off of our awesome meal, but the path was straight up a hill. It wound back and forth up the hill, but there was no secret that we were hiking up a steep slope. The view at the top, though, was a great reward, and we walked along for a few minutes soaking in the overlooking view of the entire city of Heidelberg and the philosophic atmosphere. Then we headed back down to meet up with our group.
The next stop was the Heidelberg Schloss (castle). It is another iconic structure in the city, and we hiked up the steep, steep, steep path to get there. It definitely took some effort to get to the top of that sucker, too, so between the Philosophienweg and the path to the Schloss, we certainly got our exercise in. Once we were in walls of the Schloss, we saw more amazing views overlooking the whole city of Heidelberg. Absolutely gorgeous. Then we headed inside of more mind-blowing things to see.
At first we walked in, and I saw this huge wine keg (Wein Fass auf Deutsch) that was probably 10 to 15 feet tall. My jaw dropped, and we got plently of pictures with that. But THEN we walked into the next room. Nobody could believe what we saw: a wine keg that had to be at least 30 feet tall. I am not kidding. I look dwarfed next to this thing. It was big enough to walk around on top. It holds over 200,000 liters of wine and has only been filled three times. It was just so massive!! You have to see pictures to believe it.
After we left the castle, the group of us who had first discovered Vetter took another group there to prove that we weren’t making up the fact that we had drunk the strongest beer in the world. We sat down and had another (why not?—how often are we going to be able to do that?) and then walked down the Hauptstrasse. The Hauptstrasse is the longest pedestrian zone in Europe at 1.6 kilometers in length. That’s huge! We didn’t even make it half was down before we had to turn back and head home. We boarded the bus around 4:30 and headed back to Schwäbisch Hall.
That night was pretty chill. We mostly just set in the kitchen and hung out. We made potatoes, veggies, and brats for dinner, and it was, as always, delicious.
Sunday I was supposed to go to Nürnberg again with a different group of people, but I decided to instead sleep in and take a day to relax. I was starting to feel slightly sick and figured a day of rest would be better for my body than another day of cold weather and traveling. Besides, I should be back in Nürnberg again in the next few weeks. So Sunday was a relaxing day. That night, Andrew I, Andrew K, Ben, Derek, and I headed out to Olli’s to grab a beer and just hang out. We were only there about an hour just talking and enjoying each other’s company until we headed home for the night. Chalk up another great weekend on the record books.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Wait. What?
This update is for the week of 2/15 through 2/18
So Monday was an easy going day. I wasn’t feeling too great, so I decided to stay in most of the day. That also meant that I didn’t go to Stammtisch. There isn’t a whole lot to write about that Monday. As I was lying in bed, I thought about how I would remember that day and what I would write about it in this blog. It was then that I decided to adopt the goal of making every day noteworthy. I decided to live my life in Germany so that every day was some sort of an adventure and that every day I could have something new or exciting to write about in the blog, if nothing else. I owed myself, my friends, my family, and Rotary that. So if you expect my blog to get less verbose as I spend more time in Germany, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Every day will have some sort of adventure to document.
On Tuesday, I still wasn’t feeling too hot, but I decided to head to the Wohnheim around dinner to see what my friends were up to. I ended up having spaghetti and ravioli with everyone. It was good to hang out and talk with them, and making food always brings a certain sense of accomplishment. The good thing about these slower days is that is gives me some free time to read and study my German. Also, I get to communicate with people from home then too, so slower days aren’t as dull as the blog might indicate.
Wednesday proved to be another one of those slower days. I spent the day walking around Schwäbisch Hall and studying my German. Relaxing isn’t so bad, either, you know? I think it’s good for me to have a few days to lounge around and enjoy the slightly slower life compared to my warp speed existence at USC. I’ll give you a guess what I had for dinner. Anyone? Yep, that’s right. A good ol’ döner. Yummmm.
Thursday was definitely more fascinating and action packed than the earlier days of the week. After class, a group of us went shopping around Schwäbisch Hall. It was my first time doing so, and it proved to be yet another educational experience. I stepped inside an H&M for the first time in my life. If you don’t know what that is, don’t be alarmed. H&M is a clothing store of sorts for the sheik. I ended up actually buying a scarf there because I needed one to keep my neck warm. I felt so out of the loop without a scarf before, anyway. I think I might have been in the 1% of Schwäbisch Hall’s population that didn’t own a scarf. So it was productive and adventurous. After H&M, we headed to Müller’s, which is kind of like a bigger, three-story Walgreens. Müll means garbage in German, so the store name implies a catch-all type of store (not trashy, though…just the fact that you can find a little bit of everything there). The last store we hit was a sporting goods store, and it was interesting to see all that they had in there. I might have to get a German soccer jersey that I saw in there. But it was good to check out the shopping scene around the town for an hour or so.
A group of us decided to cook another American meal for dinner: fried chicken and fries. Well, it turns out turkey is cheaper than chicken, so we went with that instead. We spent two hours cutting potatoes into slices and turkey meat into tenders, rolling the turkey in eggs and then flour, and frying the meat and potatoes in boiling oil. It was definitely a long process, but it was rewarding. And tasty. It was also a learning experience because it was the first time any of us had try such an endeavor. We successfully made enough food (two bags of potatoes and 3 kilograms of turkey) for about 9 hungry boys.
After cooking this food, we headed to the Schwäbisch Hall Kino (theater) for a movie. The Goethe Institut pays us back the 4 Euros it costs to for the ticket, so the movie turns out to be free for us. We knew the general direction of the theater, but it took us about 20 minutes to actually find it. We arrived just in time for the 8:30 showing of “Stille Hochzeit,” which means “Quiet Wedding.” The movie didn’t have subtitles because we were in a German movie theater, but the four of us that went got the gist. It was about a small town in eastern Europe during the rise of Communism. The whole story was pretty strange, but the basic idea was that the Russians invaded and took over the town right during the middle of the wedding, forbidding any loud noises, partying, or public congregations. The family and the whole town just moved the wedding inside that night, covering all of the windows and allowing no noise at all. They did everything from cover the cups with cloth and not using silverware to prevent clinking to “playing telephone” to relay messages. It was actually kind of comical at some parts, but overall it was indeed very strange. At the end, they decide to have the band play and dismiss the quiet to have a full-blown party. However, not 30 minutes after doing this, the Russians drive a tank into the house, shoot a few people, and take the rest of the men away in a truck. And that’s how the movie ends. The best part of the whole production was probably my friend’s reaction (that he blurted out in the middle of the theater) once the credits started rolling: “Wait. What?!” The ending was just so abrupt and the movie as a whole was just so weird that we couldn’t wrap our American minds around it. Of course, we understood the concept and lesson of the movie, but it seemed more like a waste of money than a poignant piece of cinematography. At least we went to see it and it was free, right? We just went home and called it a night after that. We knew that our last weekend together was coming up, and we definitely would need our rest to make it through that.
So Monday was an easy going day. I wasn’t feeling too great, so I decided to stay in most of the day. That also meant that I didn’t go to Stammtisch. There isn’t a whole lot to write about that Monday. As I was lying in bed, I thought about how I would remember that day and what I would write about it in this blog. It was then that I decided to adopt the goal of making every day noteworthy. I decided to live my life in Germany so that every day was some sort of an adventure and that every day I could have something new or exciting to write about in the blog, if nothing else. I owed myself, my friends, my family, and Rotary that. So if you expect my blog to get less verbose as I spend more time in Germany, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Every day will have some sort of adventure to document.
On Tuesday, I still wasn’t feeling too hot, but I decided to head to the Wohnheim around dinner to see what my friends were up to. I ended up having spaghetti and ravioli with everyone. It was good to hang out and talk with them, and making food always brings a certain sense of accomplishment. The good thing about these slower days is that is gives me some free time to read and study my German. Also, I get to communicate with people from home then too, so slower days aren’t as dull as the blog might indicate.
Wednesday proved to be another one of those slower days. I spent the day walking around Schwäbisch Hall and studying my German. Relaxing isn’t so bad, either, you know? I think it’s good for me to have a few days to lounge around and enjoy the slightly slower life compared to my warp speed existence at USC. I’ll give you a guess what I had for dinner. Anyone? Yep, that’s right. A good ol’ döner. Yummmm.
Thursday was definitely more fascinating and action packed than the earlier days of the week. After class, a group of us went shopping around Schwäbisch Hall. It was my first time doing so, and it proved to be yet another educational experience. I stepped inside an H&M for the first time in my life. If you don’t know what that is, don’t be alarmed. H&M is a clothing store of sorts for the sheik. I ended up actually buying a scarf there because I needed one to keep my neck warm. I felt so out of the loop without a scarf before, anyway. I think I might have been in the 1% of Schwäbisch Hall’s population that didn’t own a scarf. So it was productive and adventurous. After H&M, we headed to Müller’s, which is kind of like a bigger, three-story Walgreens. Müll means garbage in German, so the store name implies a catch-all type of store (not trashy, though…just the fact that you can find a little bit of everything there). The last store we hit was a sporting goods store, and it was interesting to see all that they had in there. I might have to get a German soccer jersey that I saw in there. But it was good to check out the shopping scene around the town for an hour or so.
A group of us decided to cook another American meal for dinner: fried chicken and fries. Well, it turns out turkey is cheaper than chicken, so we went with that instead. We spent two hours cutting potatoes into slices and turkey meat into tenders, rolling the turkey in eggs and then flour, and frying the meat and potatoes in boiling oil. It was definitely a long process, but it was rewarding. And tasty. It was also a learning experience because it was the first time any of us had try such an endeavor. We successfully made enough food (two bags of potatoes and 3 kilograms of turkey) for about 9 hungry boys.
After cooking this food, we headed to the Schwäbisch Hall Kino (theater) for a movie. The Goethe Institut pays us back the 4 Euros it costs to for the ticket, so the movie turns out to be free for us. We knew the general direction of the theater, but it took us about 20 minutes to actually find it. We arrived just in time for the 8:30 showing of “Stille Hochzeit,” which means “Quiet Wedding.” The movie didn’t have subtitles because we were in a German movie theater, but the four of us that went got the gist. It was about a small town in eastern Europe during the rise of Communism. The whole story was pretty strange, but the basic idea was that the Russians invaded and took over the town right during the middle of the wedding, forbidding any loud noises, partying, or public congregations. The family and the whole town just moved the wedding inside that night, covering all of the windows and allowing no noise at all. They did everything from cover the cups with cloth and not using silverware to prevent clinking to “playing telephone” to relay messages. It was actually kind of comical at some parts, but overall it was indeed very strange. At the end, they decide to have the band play and dismiss the quiet to have a full-blown party. However, not 30 minutes after doing this, the Russians drive a tank into the house, shoot a few people, and take the rest of the men away in a truck. And that’s how the movie ends. The best part of the whole production was probably my friend’s reaction (that he blurted out in the middle of the theater) once the credits started rolling: “Wait. What?!” The ending was just so abrupt and the movie as a whole was just so weird that we couldn’t wrap our American minds around it. Of course, we understood the concept and lesson of the movie, but it seemed more like a waste of money than a poignant piece of cinematography. At least we went to see it and it was free, right? We just went home and called it a night after that. We knew that our last weekend together was coming up, and we definitely would need our rest to make it through that.
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