Today, Karin left the office a little early because she was
going to one of our co-workers church weddings! The reason I say church wedding instead of just wedding
is because in Germany, the whole wedding process is not like it is at home.
There have to be two completely separate ceremonies for a couple if they want to be legally married and then do
the long, white dress kind of wedding that takes place and is performed by a
pastor. Claudia, the woman who is getting married, had already been married by
the state, but now the church marriage and reception were to happen tonight.
Karin and the office all signed this map that was really cute and the office
gave that to her as her wedding present.
Once Karin left, I talked to Max about the international
student whom I was to welcome on campus tomorrow. Apparently, the
student is going to arrive in Reutlingen around 12 or 1 p.m. and I would just have
to give him his key and show him where he was living. The Valpo group is
heading to Stuttgart tomorrow, and it would have been fun to go, but I figured I should
let them have some things that they did on their own.
Tonight, we ended up hitting the town. Eric didn’t
want to buy the bus pass for the evening, and it was a beautiful night, so him and I
ended up walking to town. Along the way, I helped the Valpo students to the
correct bus stop (they were going to go the wrong direction!). Once our walk/tour began, I saw so many
new places! This group’s tour of Reutlingen took
them to really beautiful places that I never saw on my tour. We walked through
a cool tunnel of bushes, down a set of stairs by a waterfall, and past a few
new restaurants. Good things to know! I didn’t bring my camera, but I will be
going back again as soon as the weather is nice.
Eric and I decided that the Irish pub was the best bet on
where to find the Valpo people. When they weren’t there, we went to two other
places to see if our fellow Valpo people were there (which they weren’t!). We finally
ended up back at the Irish pub for a drink (cider, yum!) and when we left, we
found everyone at an outdoor table at the very same pub. Once everyone finished their drink, we
walked to another bar that the group had seen on their tour. About half of us
ended up trying a Sex on the Beach, the drink special of the day.
It was also here that three of our group members decided to
get a Jaeger Bomb. The bartender didn’t know what it was, though, and the
person who was ordering described it as red bull and Jaeger. The three of them
ended up getting 16 ounce cups full of Jaeger Bombs instead of just the shot!
While we were here, a few of the girls mentioned wanting to go
dancing or clubbing, so I mentioned the club, Top 10, in Tübingen. I think we are going
to try to go tomorrow when they get back from Stuttgart.
Allie decided she wanted McDonalds tonight, so Eric, Allie,
and I walked over by the train station. On the way, we came across the small
bar where my group (RT-89) had an
amazing, hilarious night.
RT-89, Spring 2011 on our bar crawl the first week in Reutlingen.
We stopped by the old place so Allie and I could use the
facilities and so Eric could get himself a nice shot of gin (questionable
taste, if you ask me!).
On our way out, we ended up talking to one of the men
sitting at the counter and he told us (at least I THINK he told us) that we shouldn’t
be in this bar, there are better places to be. He ushered us outside and we
ended up talking to this man for about 15 minutes about pretty much nothing. He
said a lot of “sheiss egal” and told us about this place called Billy Bob’s
where there was some good food that we should meet him at in 20 minutes. There
was also someone else who came out of the bar, a late 20-something man who was
a bit too interested in me and Allie. He took a brief interlude in our conversation
to start making out with a girl who followed him outside (in the middle of the sidewalk) and then came back to our conversation. He seemed just as eager to
meet us at Billy Bob’s with the other guy. Needless to say, we did not meet our
friends to grab some food.
We did, however, make it to McDonalds! I ordered a
cheeseburger and Allie ordered a meal off of the Deutschland McDonald’s menu. Just
like last time, the woman taking my order knew that I spoke English. When
talking to just me, she just smiled a knowing smile and kept speaking in German. When Allie
ordered (with me helping along the way) she switched entirely to English.
When we finished ordering, we took a seat and waited for our
food. As we were eating, one of the women working behind the counter stopped by
our table and asked us, in very good English, where we were from. It turns out
she was from Georgia! I think she was excited to see people from the States. We
didn’t get to talk to her long, since she had to get back to work, but it was
nice knowing we weren’t the only non-natives in the restaurant.
We hiked our way back to the Hochschule once we were
finished with our food. It was a nice walk. It was good to hear the first
impressions of both Allie and Eric. I think that they will do well in Reutlingen,
once they settle in a bit more and begin classes.
What a day! My long blog post attests to that. It’s moments
like these that we will never forget.
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