The Thursday before Ash Wednesday is known as Women’s Day of Carnival. Basically, it’s a day when women go out and have a good time (cut guy’s ties off, drink, dance, kiss random blokes, etc) without their boyfriends, husbands, whatevers.

I woke up at 5h on 23 February, taught my 7h30 – 9h class and then hung out in the office for a bit while waiting for the first of the festivities. The German classes at my school were having a Carnival party 10h – 12h, and I decided to attend even though I wasn’t not enrolled in a class (the German teachers had invited me). The party itself was okay. There was a lot of socialisation (one of the main reasons I went), a few games and delicious food (no alcohol was allowed). Since the students learning German are from different countries, there was a large variety of food. I first honed in on the Polish (golabki – my favourite) and Thai food, and then sampled various other things. Okay, I admit that the real reason I went was for the food..lol.

Thirty minutes before the end of the festival, M and Mrs M showed up. While M was stuffing his face (he’s never met food he didn’t like – even better if it’s free), Mrs M informed me that even though we had considered going out together that evening and leaving M at home, she had decided that she wanted to be with a woman on Women’s Day and had found a female friend to go out with. They had planned on going to Mulheim-Karlich, one of the biggest places for Women’s Day in the area (and perhaps the country?). I had no problem with her decision, and then mentioned that since she was going out with a friend, that left M free to go out drinking with me. She agreed. The significant part of this is that M has been on a short leash ever since Mrs M came to live here (yes, I have told both of them that to their faces (not in a bad way)) and we hadn’t had a Guy’s Night Out in a long time. This was our chance. I then told M that his leash had been extended (in those exact words) and he looked quite happy.

After cleaning up, the fun began.

2003 was my first Carnival in Germany and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had heard about Women’s Day, but didn’t have any plans for it (I usually have five day weekends at this time of the year) so I got a hold of Js and was told to meet her at Location X. It turned out that she and a friend were having champagne and they invited me to have some. After a bottle was finished, we had a second one and after that was finished we left and went out to a pub for the rest of the evening. That became our first annual Women’s Day Pissup.

I arrive at Location X at 12h30 and we started off with cheap champagne, beer, ~~too much~~ lots of Carnival music and an assortment of food (not that I was all that hungry). We danced and sang (making complete fools out of ourselves in our secluded location), and also talked about this and that for several hours, all while not letting our glasses become empty. Js, A, Mt and I left for Old Town at 18h30 and eventually found a place that didn’t have too many drunk Carnival Idiots about an hour later (the walk was only twenty minutes, finding a location took twice the time).

However, I had lost interest in being with them. I had been primarily been speaking German for most of the day and was tired of it and hearing idiotic Carnival songs. Not to mention the fact that the three Germans only spoke to me once every ten minutes (I started timing it out of boredom) after we left Location X, so I called M to see when he would be free. He informed me that he was taxiing Mrs M and Friend of Mrs M to their destination and would meet up with me a bit later. We met up around 21h and he started in on his first beer (I was already more than tipsy). We stayed at that place for until they closed at 23h (2 beers each) and had great conversation.

Topics covered:

Travelling (as always);

Beer;

Mrs M (not in a bad way);

My birthday (he brought it up);

How fortunate he has been to have had a wedding day (I brought that up);

Life in general;

Circumcised vs uncircumcised penises (don’t ask – he started the discussion – can’t believe I’m admitting in public that that was discussed);

Other silliness and nonsense.

After leaving that bistro, we searched for another place that didn’t have too many Carnival Idiots, and ended up at the kebab shop that we had frequented a few days prior (for lunch) due to the facts that they had beer for €1.80 for a .5 litre can and we’re cheap. Just as we were finishing our second beers, the friend that Mrs M had gone out with SMSed M and asked him where he was. Here’s how the SMS exchange went (as relayed by M):

FoMM: Where are you?
M: In Old Town with J. Where are you?
FoMM: In a taxi. Cut the crap.

This is where it got weird. M attempted to send FoMM an SMS, but since I was right in front of him he accidentally sent it to me (oops!). It said something that caused suspicion on my part, and I sounded him out about it due to the fact that it was a major trust issue we had had during our difficulties last year (and I was drunk). He gave me an explanation that I’m still not sure I believe, but it wasn’t the time or place to talk about it (it will be discussed in the future on an occasion when we’re alone (and sober)).

SMSes continued:
FoMM: Do you want to meet up or not?
M: Where shall we meet?

After that, FoMM SMSed the location where they had ended up to us, and off we went. We arrived there spent a while talking to FoMM and Mrs M (Mrs M was sober – she had only had one drink (she rarely drinks)). Actually, I spent the time talking with Mrs M while M was talking to FoMM. I didn’t mind, as I don’t really like FoMM.

FoMM left around 12h30 and the three of us left thirty minutes later. A few minutes after departing we passed the kebab shop that M and I had had a few drinks in and got permission from Mrs M for one more beer (reminding her that she was supposed to be out with FoMM and he and I were supposed to be having a Guy’s Night Out helped). We started our journey home at 2h30, I walked them to our normal point of separation (the former launderette) and cycled home, arriving just before 3h.

Having been up for 22 hours and having been drinking for 14 of them, I got undressed and hit the bed like a rock after a day of lots of fun and way too much beer

Relaxing Friday

Saturday 25 February, 2006 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

After a long Thursday (which will be blogged about), I decided to have a restful Friday.

I woke up at 11h and just kicked around for a bit. I rode over to the M’s flat because Mrs M and I had decided to go for a stroll at 13h. We walked along the Mosel promenade for 2 ½ hours, talking about nothing in particular (I seem to be pretty good at that). As we were walking back to their flat, M called us. He was in the centre of town and asked us to join him, so we did (arriving thirty minutes later).

The three of us went to a local bakery for coffee/tea and then Mrs M drug us through most of the stores in town for a couple hours looking for ‘the perfect’ set of earrings (and browsing through everything she passed on the way).

Random comment made to me:
M: ‘I guess an advantage of not being married is that you don’t get forced to go shopping a lot.’

M and I did come up with the idea that if shops had bars, they’d make a lot of money from all the bored husbands/boyfriends that were obliged to accompany their loved one on shopping endeavors.

As we were walking back to their flat (my bike was still there), M presented the idea of dinner and a movie – to which I gladly agreed.
Conversation just after:
J to M: ‘Go on then, read my mind.’
*M thinks for a few seconds*
M: ‘Tacos.’
J: ‘Yep.’
Mrs M: ‘You two are getting good at that.’
J: ‘I know. Scary, isn’t it?’

We stopped by a local supermarket and got what we needed and proceeded back to their flat. M then drove me back to my flat so I could get my laptop so that we could also download their remaining photos from their trip to my computer and so that I could burn them onto a CD.

Mrs M made her dinner of fish (she can’t eat chilis) and then M and I made our tacos while the three of us enjoyed hours of great conversation about this and that, and then watched Munich. I arrived home around 23h45 after a wonderful day of chilling out with good friends.

Germany definitely didn’t suck yesterday.

Note: The rear gear changing levers of my bike broke off (literally) while I was cycling to their flat. The front one still works, so I can only use gears 21 and 14.

Women’s Day

Friday 24 February, 2006 in Uncategorized | 6 comments

Yesterday was Women’s Day of Carnival. Even though I am not a woman, I still had a good time. Let’s just say that I arrived home at 3am and have no desire to drink alcohol for the next several days (weeks?).

Commemorative coins that nobody knows about

Wednesday 22 February, 2006 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

As of 6 February 2006, Germany has been issuing commemorative €2 coins. I first discovered this by accident when I received some in change while in Frankfurt last weekend. I wondered what was going on when I noticed that the back sides of the coins were different and made several inquiries about them in both Frankfurt and when I went back to work on Monday, but nobody knew.

I finally found the info on Wikipedia on Monday evening and it appears that Germany will be issuing one commemorative coin per year for each of the states of the republic.

The US has had a similar thing going on for a while now (since 1998?) with quarters, and this was well publicized before it started. Based on the fact that the numerous poeple I asked about them not having any knowledge of them here in Germany, it appears to not have been made public knowledge, or if it was the advertising campaign was a flop. Here’s a link to the German Bundeslaender series so you can see the order in which the coins will appear and what will be on the back side of them.

Sunday in Frankfurt

Tuesday 21 February, 2006 in Uncategorized | 6 comments

I had arranged to meet B, Jen and Sparky, Hamish and Calvin for brunch at Yours Australian Bar in Frankfurt at 11h. I was a bit early and decided to meander around that part of Frankfurt for a while, and stumbled across a Hard Rock Café! I had no idea that there was one in Frankfurt! I thought I had missed it when I looked at the website a couple years ago and saw the ones in Munich and Berlin and learnt about the one opening in Cologne a few weeks later, but it isn’t on their cafe locator. I wonder why not? If they have chicken nachos, this could make my trips to Frankfurt a bit more expensive.

I arrived just as they were opening and claimed the table that B had reserved for us. B arrived about ten minutes later, and was followed by Jen, Sparky and Hamish. Apparently I had some kind of cloaking device on as the group of three walked right by B and me when they walked into the restaurant (we didn’t see them due to the fact that B and I were looking at a couple of books that she had brought with her that were of interest to cyclists). Calvin was the caboose shortly after the others sat down.

We decided to have the all you can eat buffet, quite a good deal at €8.90 (plus drinks). It had hot and cold breakfast and lunch food, all of which was quite good. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there and then were invited back to Jen and Sparky’s flat in Darmstadt. At first I had thought that there was going to be a transportation problem, but B also had a car, so she and I took the metro back to her flat to get hers – problem solved.

Due to the fact that B lives quite close to a motorway entrance that Sparky had forgotten about, we beat them to their village. I thought that I remembered how to get to their flat, and got us within a couple of kilometres from it before I called them to make sure that we were going in the right direction. That was when I discovered that we had arrived first (but they were only three minutes behind us). While we were on the motorway (the A5), we saw a quite bad pileup in the other direction that had involved about twenty cars.

We spent a couple hours in Darmstadt before returning to Frankfurt so that Jen and I could see Rent at the English Theatre. B dropped me off and then went about her business for the evening, and Sparky dropped Jen off and hung out with Hamish and Calvin while Jen and I were enjoying Rent.

Rent is one of my favourite musicals. I had seen it on Broadway twice and also own the CDs, so I’m very familiar with it. I wasn’t sure how good it would be in Germany, but figured that they probably couldn’t completely kill it and had decided to go. I had sprung the idea on Jen (who had never seen it, but had heard good things about it) at Thanksgiving and she also expressed interest in attending, so the idea was born and tickets were bought (€35).

I had wanted to see a show in the English Theatre ever since I found out about it a couple years ago, but hadn’t done so (I’m still not sure why). The theatre is quite small (it has a capacity of 300 people) and we had tickets in the third row. While this might be a bit too close for some shows, it wasn’t for Rent in a theatre of this size (it would have been way to close for the large theatres in NYC). We could see the expressions on the faces quite clearly.

The show wasn’t as good as it had been on Broadway, but I wasn’t expecting it to be. At first the Roger character seemed a bit odd, as he had been blond in the other productions I had seen and also a bit taller than the Mark character but wasn’t in this one. He also had a funny accent in the sense that he didn’t sound like a native English speaker at first, but we later found out that the entire cast was from the UK. There were a few other things that were different about this show, like Angel not wearing a Santa dress while singing ‘Today for you, tomorrow for me’ and a few other minor omissions, but nothing major. Overall, I was quite satisfied with the performance and feel that I had gotten my money’s worth.

Sparky was waiting for us and dropped me off at the train station in plenty of time for my train, which was 12 minutes late.

As far as the people go, frequent readers know that I met up with Jen and Sparky a few times last year, so I don’t need to make it known yet again that I think the world of them. Same with B (a non-blogger, but friend I met online), who I had spent time with the previous Sunday. I have been following Hamish’s blog ever since I first learnt about it (sorry, don’t remember from where) before he moved to Germany and it was a delight to finally meet him after all this time. I had viewed Calvin’s blog back in January once after discovering that he had linked to me (thanks for that, Calvin) but didn’t have much time to read it before Hamish linked to it last week, so I didn’t know much about him. I’m glad to say that it was also a pleasure to meet him.

I can honestly say that I haven’t met a blogger that I haven’t liked or got on with, so it appears that the Whiney Expat Bloggers in Germany Network is a success.

A donut pyramid at random bakery.

Catching up

Monday 20 February, 2006 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Thursday was nothing special. I finished work at 13h15 (which was quite nice) and then M and I went for a 2 ½ hour walk to nowhere, talking about nothing in particular for the first two hours. The last part was spent having a meaningful conversation about a few things that needed to be discussed (not in a bad way).

I finished work at 11h35 on Friday, and then went off to the launderette and supermarket (my usual routine) and then met my friend Ela at her flat at 14h, and we went for lunch at the Chinese place near the train station. We had a nice two hour talk about our lives (we hadn’t seen each other in two months), travelling and whatever else came to mind.

After parting ways, I cycled down to the Rhein after stopping at the school to pick up my schedule (it wasn’t ready when I had left) and have a brief chat with Js. While we were chatting, M SMSed. Here’s how our exchange went:

M’s SMS: Fancy stopping by around 7?
*remembered that M was sneezing and coughing earlier in the day*
J’s SMS: Are you feeling up to it? You appeared to be quite ill this morning.
M’s 2nd SMS: Get your ass over here at 7

I then called him to see if there was anything I could bring, and he told me three beers (he already had three in his fridge) and a DVD from the ones I had bought in Thailand. I obliged, and also picked up a wine cooler type thing for Mrs M along the way.

The bike incident I posted about Friday evening happened when I was riding to their flat.

We exchanged cordialities when I arrived and had a seat and started on drinks and also nibbled on the munchies that Mrs M had bought. Their TV was tuned to CNN when I arrived, and they let me change it to the Olympics. We watched the games and talked about everything under the sun for four hours, including watching CDs with digital photos of our winter holidays. We were having such a good time that we never got around to watching a DVD!

I unintentionally woke up early on Saturday (6h) and chatted for a while before leaving for the train station. My train left at 9h48 and I arrived in Frankfurt at 11h13 (on time!) after a change in Mainz.

Instead of a day trip to Frankfurt, I chose to stay overnight due to the fact that I had absolutely nothing planned for the weekend in my town. I had known about a special rate that is sometimes offered by the Best Western Hotel Domicil. The rate posted at the hotel was €109, and the rates on the internet were about €100. The special €40 rate was available so I booked the bargain. The room was small, but functional and nice. It was a bit too ‘generic US hotel’ for my likes after all the quaint European hotels I’ve patronised in the past several years, but considering the fact that it was in central Frankfurt (near the FBC building for those in the know), I’m not complaining.

After dropping off my bag, I took to the streets of this modern city. I wandered past the Deutsche Bank towers and then up to the Opera House and down the pedestrian walkway that is also the main shopping area. I normally visit Frankfurt on Sundays, so it was quite a change for me to see the shops open. I wandered through several of them, not in need of anything, and then ended up at the Hauptwache area – not too far form the cinema I had been in the week before. I had thought of going to KFC, but then realised that that was reserved for Cinema Sundays. I made my way up the street and ended up in front of the cinema and highly considered going to see a show, but remembered that there was a reason that I had given ‘Cinema Sunday’ its title.

Speaking of Cinema Sunday, I’ve just remembered an amusing story that I had been meaning to write about. After telling M about Cinema Sunday several weeks ago and inviting him and Mrs M, M asked me the following day about how I had heard about ‘Cinema Sunday’. Apparently he had thought that it was some kind of organized event and was quite surprised when I told him that it was something that I had invented and was the only participant in, and that he would be the second.

Back to Frankfurt.

It wasn’t too cold (9ºC), so I continued my stroll even though there were intermittent showers and came across Rossmanns. Rossmanns! What luck. Now, before you expect any earth-shattering info on this chain of drugstores, let me save you the disappointment. There isn’t any (so you can skip over the next paragraph). However, there is nostalgia.

When I lived in Poland, buying film or getting it developed in my town was quite expensive, so I used to save those needs for when I went to Olsztyn, the ‘city’ closest to where I lived (66km). Even if I didn’t have any photographic needs, I still visited Rossmanns and frequently found cheap CDs and other things like that there. It was always one of my must-dos whenever I visited Olsztyn, so my amble through Rossmanns was more reflective than anything else.

As the rain increased, my visitation of various shops frequented and I finally made my way back to my hotel around 16h, in time to catch quite a few hours of Olympic events on EuroSport, including ski jumping. Believe it or not, ski jumping is also something nostalgic for me (more so than Rossmanns) due to the fact that Adam Malysz was the champion of the sport when I lived in Poland.

I also discovered that the hotel offered it’s guests five minutes of free cable modem internet access, so I signed on to receive my email after discovering that my laptop had a port for a cable modem plug. However, I wasn’t able to get it either by Outlook or signing into my mail provider directly. How odd.

I haven’t had time to do a proper write-up on Sunday, but will after I finish correcting 15 essays, planning lessons and working (so look for it tomorrow).

Notes

Monday 20 February, 2006 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

Home safely
Great time with new and old friends. Topics discussed:
   deer sex;
   S&M basements;
   dumping dead bodies in wells;
   being well fed;
   city life vs. village life;
   meeting nice guys at gyms;
   what is considered summer weather;
   California, USA, Philly, NYC;
   many others.
Rent – quite good
Write-up soon.

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