The Train is On Its Way!

Welcome

As I write this, my good friends Frank and Greg are on a train heading from Frankfurt. They arrive at the Dresden Hauptbahnhof at 20:43. Also, my big brother will be arriving some time tomorrow via airplane. Needless to say, I am absolutely ecstatic about these people coming over to spend time with me. I also can't wait to show them my city and introduce them to my friends. I think Frank knows what he is in for--I gave him a four-hour cycling tour of Blacksburg, and that place sucks compared to Dresden. The reason I am writing this blog entry early Saturday afternoon as opposed to my usual Sunday evening is I wanted to get one more in before all of my visitors arrive.

Wednesday Evening--Campus Party!

On Wednesday evening, Emily and I had the pleasure of attending the largest open-air university party in Germany. This event was very interesting, as it would never be allowed to happen on most American college campuses. There were two stages on the campus grounds for live music; one of them was quite large and hosted bands of national popularity. In addition to the live music acts, there were about five DJ floors in various university buildings. There was plenty of beer to be had, of course. The total attendance is estimated to be around 15.000.

When we first arrived at the party, we just kind of stood there and looked around, regretting the fact that we did not round up a larger group of English-speakers to enjoy the festivities with. We ended up having a good time anyway, though. Later in the evening we even managed to meet up with some of Emily's German friends from work. We saw two bands perform on the main stage. Both of them were a bit poppy for my tastes, but I enjoyed them nonetheless. This is one of those situations in which I find the language barrier to be highly amusing. Like I said, the music was quite poppy, so there were several times where everybody in the crowd knew the words to the songs and sang along. Of course, I did not "know the words" in more ways than one. Since English is just the coolest, trendiest language there is, both of the bands had at least one line worth of lyrics in English. This got me very excited and I cheered for it. I hope I didn't offend anyone.

Thursday Night - Ska Show

I think I mentioned in my last post that ska is very popular in Germany. On Thursday night, Emily, Navin and I went to a show that was actually in a club in the basement of a dorm. Pretty cool, eh? I was certainly a fan of the atmosphere in this place. Perhaps it isn't as cool as Neustadt, but it had a nice studenty feel to it. Aside from the fact that it was a ska show and ska shows are the most fun thing in the world, we saw this particular band because the saxophonist is on Emily's work team (Emily is one of those "well-connected" people who has a "social life"). This was Navin's first time at a ska show. When we picked him up at his dormitory, he came outside and said, "Do you think loafers will be okay for something like this?" Emily and I just laughed and sent him upstairs to change. I guess I should mention that Navin likes to dress well (probably has something to do with that whole "self esteem" thing I keep hearing so much about).

So the band was great, and I got some solid skanking in, which always makes me happy. After the band played, though, there was a DJ, and things got more into "dance party" mode. I was perfectly happy with this, because I enjoyed the music he was playing. Of course, I still have no idea how to dance. My technique for dancing to any music other than ska is to skank, but at the same time pretend that I am not skanking. Emily does not have this problem, though. She has apparently taken some twenty-five years of dance lessons. Am I jealous of her abilities? Not at all. I spent this time learning how to make coffee, which is a much more important skill. Seriously, though, she is so good that some guy at the bar thanked her for dancing. And I don't mean thanked her for dancing with him; he was just thanking her because her dancing added to the atmosphere of the dance party.

Friday - An Evening Sans Motivation

On Friday evening, Rae, Jess and I actually thought that we had the skills to go out at night by ourselves. This is a hilarious thought. All three of us are the kind of people who enjoy going out at night, we but require a "catalyst" to give us some direction. Unfortunately, our usual catalyst was at a barbecue or something, so it was just up to us. We began our evening with some doeners, and then sat on the rock garden and drank beer. This continued for several hours, until we agreed that we should probably do something. We eventually decided to turn to Ohio for help. Luckily our Ohioan friends were home and wanted to hang out with us, and they are more motivated people. Great catalysts. There was even a real live German amongst their ranks.

We hung out around the building for a bit longer and then headed to the tram. The original plan was to go Elbenbiering, although this never actually happened. One person in the group wanted to get a doener, so we went to my favorite Neustadt doener haus, Team Ararat. At this point Jess and I were drunk enough that we saw absolutely no problem with having two doeners in a single night. We had chicken doener just to switch things up a bit. We had brought plenty of beer with us, so there was no reason to go into a bar and pay massive amounts of money. We ended up just dicking around the streets of Neustadt for most of the evening. For me, this is a very agreeable way to spend time. Chances are I'm not going to meet people going into bars and clubs, so why not just have a good time with people you came with right on the streets? We did make it to the Elbe, but just for a few minutes to gape at the view and take some pictures. I never get tired of that view, and I make it even better for myself by repeating the phrase "I live here" over and over in my head.

This was just your classic night of getting drunk with friends. Good times. I am going to collect pictures from the various people we spent the evening with and post them at a later date.

I Am Retarded

A few entries ago, I shared one of many ways to interpret the language barrier. Here I am going to present a second, much more amusing interpretation, though both remain equally true. Let's take stock of my position within this society. I cannot read, write, or speak, and I require special accommodation in public places. Can you think of another group of people who exist under the same circumstances? Last night, for example, I ordered a doener. The man asked me if I wanted to eat my doener in his shop or take it with me. I responded by naming the different types of sauces I wanted on my doener. It's really funny to imagine how funny this would sound in your native language:

"For here or to go?"

"Uhhhh..... Garlic sauce, chili sauce..."

Conclusions and Farewell

The next entry you guys read will be packed full of stories with Frank, Greg, and my Big Brother Alex. For now, Jess and I are going to Grosser Garten to read books. This activity for which we have plenty of motivation.