We are moving a bit slowly today, because of last night.
Last night we dove head first into German assimilation.
Last night we gathered with some close friends and took a big German bite of ….Volksfest.
Volksfest is Stuttgart’s answer to Oktoberfest. We hear it is just as good as Oktoberfest in Munich – but without the tourists to crowd it up. I can tell you this – I cannot imagine how Munich could improve on what we did last night.
We walked into a tent full of approximately 5000 people (no exaggeration) who were gathered around tables with benches, all placed around a stage where a band was playing. Many were in traditional dress (dirndls and liederhosen) and all were swinging a huge beer (called a “mass”) and singing along and toasting each other. Each mass holds a liter of beer (approximately 4 bottles) and our price of entry came with 3 mass and half of a baked chicken.
We found our group and didn’t even bother to sit down. Everyone - every single person - in the whole tent was standing on their bench. They were singing and dancing and toasting and laughing. They saw us approach, reached down and pulled us up..and the rest was history.
We had a fantastic time. Good friends. Great music (everything from German drinking songs to eighties songs to JOHN DENVER). Everyone was kind to each other. There were no fights. No women dressed in a ridiculously provocative manner. No slobbering drunks or crying girls. It was a huge group of people, enjoying themselves and respecting each other. The beer disappears quickly. There’s so much toasting and glass swinging that you don’t really realize how much you’re drinking until you’re empty. The glasses are large – and HEAVY! Even when they’re empty they’re heavy! My forearms and hands are actually a little sore from holding my mass…er masses…all night.
We got home after midnight, hoarse from singing, tired from dancing. Our clothes smelled of smoke and spilled beer. We slept in (waaaayyyy in) and kind of shrugged off our list of things to accomplish today, opting only to run the errands we needed since the stores will be closed tomorrow. The rest will still be there tomorrow and a veg day on the couch is definitely in order!
I don’t know if it’s good news or bad – but we have tickets to go to Volksfest with some other friends next week too! We’ve already made our plan for next time: We’re both going to shave one mass from the number we drank last night. No sense blowing another Saturday!
Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
MAYBE I'M A SAP....
As I sit here to collect my “blog thoughts” this morning – I have to wax sentimental a bit. I have had a very social week full of family and friends, and when reflecting upon this, well…I must admit…my cup runneth over a bit :)
We have new friends with whom I feel connected and who make this German adventure feel like “life”. They experience new things with us, we teach each other little tricks and steps we’ve learned as we’ve tried to maneuver gracefully through this new culture. We laugh and scratch our heads together over lessons we have still to learn – and with them, I know we share an experience which will bond us together for many years to come (elephants, dear readers, lots of elephants!)
This week, I socialized with one of these new friends each day – one day for an adventure at the open market and coffee, another had lunch with me in my neighborhood and then was still here as I had an Ikea delivery and a couch sale happen simultaneously! Yet another was kind enough to invite me to the Pumpkin Festival with her in-laws for a day’s adventure. And tonight, we will meet another couple at Volksfest.
In addition to our “new” friends, this week brought us in contact with many of the “old”. We’ve managed to set up three weekend visits with friends we met at other duty stations (San Diego and Norfolk), and are SO excited to be reconnecting with them while we are here. The old friends are the ones that make my heart glow just a bit when I see their names in my inbox – and with whom we already share a library of stories that start with “Remember that…?” We can’t wait to add a few more of those stories to our memory banks. What a richness they add to life!!
We’ve also heard a lot from family this week! We got anniversary cards from “home” in the states and letters from some of our family members who don’t use email. Hubbalicious’ parents have finally received a healthy offer on Hubbz’s childhood home – so (if all goes well) they are about to start their retirement, and have already started penciling their visit to Stuttgart into their calendar. And I even had some pictures of our niece and nephew hit my inbox this week. What a treat!!!
All of this emotion has to go somewhere, right? (Thesis, Woman. Thesis!) Here it is: We are in the midst of a wonderful time in our lives. The scenery is beautiful and interesting and each new day is full of promise of some flavor of adventure. But YOU GUYS – you are the ones that make our lives good and happy and rich and substantive. Your involvement in our lives makes up a majority of the reasons that we know – we are SO blessed. See? Cup….overflowing… :)
We have new friends with whom I feel connected and who make this German adventure feel like “life”. They experience new things with us, we teach each other little tricks and steps we’ve learned as we’ve tried to maneuver gracefully through this new culture. We laugh and scratch our heads together over lessons we have still to learn – and with them, I know we share an experience which will bond us together for many years to come (elephants, dear readers, lots of elephants!)
This week, I socialized with one of these new friends each day – one day for an adventure at the open market and coffee, another had lunch with me in my neighborhood and then was still here as I had an Ikea delivery and a couch sale happen simultaneously! Yet another was kind enough to invite me to the Pumpkin Festival with her in-laws for a day’s adventure. And tonight, we will meet another couple at Volksfest.
In addition to our “new” friends, this week brought us in contact with many of the “old”. We’ve managed to set up three weekend visits with friends we met at other duty stations (San Diego and Norfolk), and are SO excited to be reconnecting with them while we are here. The old friends are the ones that make my heart glow just a bit when I see their names in my inbox – and with whom we already share a library of stories that start with “Remember that…?” We can’t wait to add a few more of those stories to our memory banks. What a richness they add to life!!
We’ve also heard a lot from family this week! We got anniversary cards from “home” in the states and letters from some of our family members who don’t use email. Hubbalicious’ parents have finally received a healthy offer on Hubbz’s childhood home – so (if all goes well) they are about to start their retirement, and have already started penciling their visit to Stuttgart into their calendar. And I even had some pictures of our niece and nephew hit my inbox this week. What a treat!!!
All of this emotion has to go somewhere, right? (Thesis, Woman. Thesis!) Here it is: We are in the midst of a wonderful time in our lives. The scenery is beautiful and interesting and each new day is full of promise of some flavor of adventure. But YOU GUYS – you are the ones that make our lives good and happy and rich and substantive. Your involvement in our lives makes up a majority of the reasons that we know – we are SO blessed. See? Cup….overflowing… :)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
FINDING ELEPHANTS
A few months ago, a friend posted this video on Facebook, featuring an elephant and a dog who had become best friends as they spent time at an elephant habitat in Tennessee (of all places!). The video opened by stating that the elephants on this elephant sanctuary (all female) seemed to arrive and immediately seek out a buddy to whom they could relate. They would eventually find a friend and the pair would be great friends for the duration of their stay.
It got me thinking about friendships and transience and how to coordinate the two through the moves I’ve made, and will make, in my life. It’s a question I get a lot from friends who cannot understand a life without staying in one place and weaving themselves into a community. “How can you stand it?” they ask. “Don’t you miss home?” I do. I absolutely do. I miss having my friends and loved ones in my everyday life. But I also enjoy the clean slate of moving to a new place, and the opportunities and the people I will find there.
As a new elephant to the sanctuary, I come with the sum of my experiences to a place where I frequently know no one (save Hubbz). Sometimes the terrain is as unfamiliar as it must be to an elephant arriving from Africa to a meadow in Tennessee! It can be tough and it can take awhile – but eventually, without fail, I find a soul I can relate to, and then things seem to just fall into place. (I must add that so far, I've been EXTREMELY lucky and managed to find truly amazing friends).
If that person is also transient – and especially in a place like Germany – there’s an unspoken knowledge that eventually, we’ll both carry on to another new place and we’ll find new elephant friends who anchor us and share our new place experiences with us. We may lose touch over the years, but for now, I know that I will absolutely be there if she needs an instant favor –and she will be the first girlfriend I want to call when something ridiculous happens in the neighborhood. So that's how we do it. One elephant at a time….or a dog…apparently that will work also :)
It got me thinking about friendships and transience and how to coordinate the two through the moves I’ve made, and will make, in my life. It’s a question I get a lot from friends who cannot understand a life without staying in one place and weaving themselves into a community. “How can you stand it?” they ask. “Don’t you miss home?” I do. I absolutely do. I miss having my friends and loved ones in my everyday life. But I also enjoy the clean slate of moving to a new place, and the opportunities and the people I will find there.
As a new elephant to the sanctuary, I come with the sum of my experiences to a place where I frequently know no one (save Hubbz). Sometimes the terrain is as unfamiliar as it must be to an elephant arriving from Africa to a meadow in Tennessee! It can be tough and it can take awhile – but eventually, without fail, I find a soul I can relate to, and then things seem to just fall into place. (I must add that so far, I've been EXTREMELY lucky and managed to find truly amazing friends).
If that person is also transient – and especially in a place like Germany – there’s an unspoken knowledge that eventually, we’ll both carry on to another new place and we’ll find new elephant friends who anchor us and share our new place experiences with us. We may lose touch over the years, but for now, I know that I will absolutely be there if she needs an instant favor –and she will be the first girlfriend I want to call when something ridiculous happens in the neighborhood. So that's how we do it. One elephant at a time….or a dog…apparently that will work also :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)