Aufgabe neun: Und Guten Tag Köln!

This is weird.

First off, apologies for not updating this until now. I have access to the Internet here, but it's rather expensive, so I figured I'd do it en masse, rather than pay the fee every day. Plus, I had so many freakin' friends here, it was very very busy. More on that later!

So I arrived on Thursday to the scene of the crime. It was a very very odd feeling. I flew into Cologne airport, the same airport where I first came into Europe. So many memories flooded back to me. And yet, so much had happened in a year. Especially after a few days in Munich, the language barrier faded away. Customs that were foreign to me were now common. What was once painful to accomplish became routine. I could read all signs with ease. The Fahrkarteautomat (train ticket machine, of course, being in German it's all one word) that gave me such a problem the first time was handled within seconds. "So viel hat in ein Jahr passiert..." I told one German I had met the previous year. So much had happened in a year.

When I was in Munich, I had a very similiar feeling as I had when I was in Paris last year. It was my first stop in Europe, and although I was staying with friends, they all had to work during the day, and I fended for myself during the day. That was just fine, but at the same time, I was in a strange city, people speaking a different language. It was different that I was staying with friends, so I did have some familiarity, and this time I did know the language, but obviously it's not my first language, so unless I forcibly listen and consciously translate (which I did quite a bit of), even then, the sounds around me were of a completely different sort to that of which I was used to.

It did give me a great experience though. I brought with me "Der Tod in Venedig" (A Death in Venice). It was written originally by Thomas Mann of Munich, so it's written in low German. It's a dual language book, and it's much more approachable for me now. But the best thing was the story starts out in Munich, and now the story of him walking down the streets of 1911 Munich, I had actually been on the streets he was talking about, and knew the relativity of the paths he was going. It was very much like when I read The Da Vinci code after going to Paris, and I could see in my mind where they were going.

But going back to Cologne, it was quite different. It wasn't new. And so much had happened in a year. So many good memories had started to flood back to me. I ran into a lot of people that I had met the previous year. One was with interesting consequences.

I ran into one guys, and he was speaking German with someone I had met previous. "Wie geht's dir?" he asks. "Es geht mir ganz gut," I replied. (It's going for me completely well.) Continuing in German, he asked "We've met, haven't we?" "We did," I replied in German. He paused, trying to think of how he met me. "Where are you from?" "San Francisco." He paused again. "You're not German?" "No, I'm American." "But you speak German." Both me and his friend laughed. "Ja, naturlich." He paused again, and then said in English, "You didn't speak German last year, did you?" It was starting to come back to him. "I did, but not very well, and I've taken a couple classes since then." "Wow," he said, and then repeating something I heard quite often on the weekend, "Du sprechst Deutsch ganz gut!" "Vielen Dank! Wirklich..." I thanked him.

Another guy I ran into, we chatted for probably over an hour in German. We went and did some bar hopping. He was quite impressed. Honestly, I'm nothing short of amazed at how well I did. A week in Germany was better practice than months of classes, and I did far better than I had imagined. And I should be. I studied and practiced and learned, and watch so many freakin' hours of German television. I think the trip to Germany was the glue that put it all together. Obviously I can learn all the vocabulary I want back home, but without having live people to put it together in conversation, that would be much more difficult. And that's what I got. I'll be sad to leave it.

But the vacation is only half over. I had to change my razor yesterday. It was brand new when I started the trip. It's kind of odd. This is the longest vacation I've ever taken, well, paid one. :-) Stuff like having to change the razor, I'll probably have to do some laundry in Paris (that sounds weird saying that), stuff you normally don't have to worry about on shorter trips. I read on a travel blog once that a woman woke up on the first day of her third week on vacation. She felt like she was playing hooky from school or something, that as Americans we're obliged never to be gone for more than two weeks, and that her first day over that was like she was bad or something. I was in a bar in Munich and one of the guys was talking about his upcoming vacation, "But it's short, only two weeks." It's so different.

But back to Cologne, it's been very fun. Mostly I've seen so many friends this weekend. We'd go out during the day, some shopping, eating, take a disco nap, go out and at night. I'm actually a little looking forward to a few calmer days in Paris, before the fun starts in Madrid again, but I don't have so many friends going there either. And to get away from the Americans! There was a couple bars I stayed away from because there was so many Americans there. (Being Thanksgiving, it's and easy long weekend for people to get away.) I didn't fly 5000 miles to spend in Europe only with Americans. :-)

Speaking of which, I had to explain the story of Thanksgiving to several Europeans. Since they don't celebrate it here, they just think it's "Turkey Day". I was watching the German news, and they had a news item about it, and all they showed was a turkey eating contest, with Americans stuffing their faces full to see who could eat the most. And of course, who one? Some tiny Asian woman, eating 2.5 kilos of turkey. I felt compelled to correct their view. They understand now why it's such a big American holiday. It is very interesting. We often get a very filtered view of each other, filtered by what we see on TV, either in news or TV shows. I've seen more American shows dubbed in German this weekend: The Simpsons, Star Trek: Enterprise, Will & Grace [I swear they use a man to dub Rosie], Spongebob Squarepants, Friends (if you can imagine "Ach mein Gott!"), freakin Columbo, and a few movies (I watched a bit of Logan's Run). That's how they view our world.

Of course, the opposite is true. I bought my friend Uwe a drink. I took the cold drink and put it on his skin. "Ah, that's cold!" "But you're German. Don't you like pain?" I joked. "Where did you get that idea?" He looked shocked at the idea. I laughed. "From any German movie I'd seen." :-) I also learned there's certain things you don't joke about here. I arrived late at a party after taking a disco nap. "There you are!" a mixed set of German and American friends said. "Well, I had to show up." And then I said with a thick German accent, "You know, this is Germany, and either you come to the party, or the party comes to you." After they realized the joke, the Americans laughed, and the Germans were extremely shocked at the un-PC-ness of the joke. But they still laughed. :-) There's also a couple jokes I can't repeat in general public. :-)

Oh and by the way, European men are just absolutely beautiful. There's been more than a few men that I've met this weekend that just made me go "Wow." I said "Wow" an awful lot. There was a gaggle of Italians here, and it's so weird to see especially young Italian men, and then they open their mouth and they actually start speaking Italian. (You'd expect it from their grandmothers. :-) ) One I just had to go up to and say hi. He was absolutely adorable, a bit younger, very distinct features. He didn't speak English (or German), but I couldn't leave Europe without at least doing that. :-) I met one German guy who just had all the perfect German features, tall, very muscular, and in the German army. I told my friend, "So, he can go up to his CO, say 'Not only am I gay, but I have a boyfriend, and we live together,' and his CO's response would be 'Okay. Do you want to sign him up for benefits?'" We just seem so completely barbaric in comparison. And then there was my dream man. He was from Dresden, in the former East Germany, and he was tall, he had these piercing eyes, and yet, he had this soft incredibly sexy German accent that made me croon. Every word he spoke was music to my ears. If ever in the world there was husband material, he was 100% pure. And of course, he's taken. Man, I gotta move. :-)

So my Munich friends all left today. So I guess I'm a bit sad about that. And I leave for Paris tomorrow. How sad. Wait a minute. I'm going to Paris. And then Madrid. Oh great, two more languages. Well, just the fact that I'm leaving Germany is sad. But Joe, you can do this. :-)