Sabotage!

Hi All

Had some things that made me laugh, so I decided to share them...

Thanksgiving with the Uni

Ok, so I know that Thanksgiving is over and that it’ll be in my posts a second time, but really…one can never have enough Thanksgiving. I went to the dinner the Study Abroad office here puts on in the Mensa (think cafeteria, because it is one) for all the American students. The students from Colorado help to do the entertaining and all of their host families are invited. Everyone else was supposed to bring a side dish – so I made a vegetarian tortellini dish and helped Jake make…mashed potatoes. It was kinda funny, because we thought that they’d make a huge helping of those at the banquet, but he decided to make it anyways. Well, we got there and they had huge quantities of Turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberries…but no mashed potatoes!

The Colorado group had decided to put on a skit and have Sara sing. After the opening remarks, Grant (a student from CO) wheeled out the Turkey. Now, all the CO students had costumes (stereotypical pilgrim hats and headbands with feathers) but Grant had taken his a step further. It was probably the fact that he got the green feathers that prompted Sara to arrange them for him in a very…herb-like fashion. So he got lots of laughs.

The skit they put on (in between dinner and dessert) was also rather funny. At first you saw 5-6 pilgrims “paddling” a boat (sitting in chairs and scooting along) with the guy in back asking

“Are we there yet?”

One person “No…”

“Now?”

Three people: “No!”

…”Now?”

All: “NO!”

Girl “And if you ask ONE MORE TIME, I swear, I will TURN THIS BOAT AROUND!”

Now, this was all in German and while it directly translated, I got the impression that kids don’t ask their parents that here. Must be all that public transportation. It was hilarious, however. The skit culminated with all the settlers and natives celebrating German-style: knocking back a beer.

After the skit, Sara sang a song in German: Liebebrief (?), or Love Letter. She sounded good, and poor Tekla (her accompanist on keyboard and also from CO) had a hard time using the crappy keyboard without pedals. But it was definitely amazing to hear her sing “for real.”

Then came the most exciting part of the evening for me – pumpkin pie! Mmmm, it was homemade too. Grandma, I know you’re going to read this, so can you make a pumpkin pie for Christmas too? I definitely have had a deficit this year. And for those of you not in the know, I am pretty much directly responsible for the best rule ever at my Grandma’s. The rule is: “You can always have pie for breakfast at Grandma’s!”

Mmmmm, I can’t wait!

Fireworks

See how thoughtfully I separated this next section so no one will think that anything blew up at Thanksgiving? I know, I know, I’m pretty much amazing. Anyways…

Due to the fact that UNESCO (some large corporation?) was in town, Regensburg decided they would launch off fire works. So, I get my doorbell rang by Eric and Claudia around 10 o’clock and we wandered down to the riverfront. Then we waited. And waited…and waited.

Finally, there came an announcement of which one of the few words I was able to catch was “sabotage!” So I turned to my interpreter (Claudia) and the scoop. Apparently, the announcer was saying that the mechanism to launch the fireworks in time to the music was sabotaged (to which Eric said “Yeah, right. The batteries are probably just dead.”) so they were going to attempt to light them manually.

At any rate, the music swells into one of the songs from Fantasia. Suddenly, the music cuts to…chanting monks? I kid thee not…chanting monks. Next, Flight of the Valkyries.

came up and then a couple others of no special merit. Finally, right before the finale, they played “Yellow Submarine.” I didn’t know what amused me more; the music or the fireworks, but I definitely had a fun time

After the fireworks, Mr. Announcer came back on and told us that we better be grateful…someone loves his job.

Oh, Goldener Turm

So, while there is the perk of living in the altstadt, sometimes I discover there are hidden perks – like scaring children.

While rushing of my room door to run to the bus stop for Karate, I suddenly hear a scream. A scream of terror consisting of what sounded like about 25 young girls. I gave it little thought, because as I passed Russell’s room I noticed his door was open and figured it was the soundtrack to his movie or something.

Two flights of stairs later, I fling the outside door open to hear a collective:

“GASSSSSP”

Facing the door (and a costumed actor/ historic tour guide) was a group of 25 or so girls under the age of 12. Not quite sure what I should do, I made a “gasp” face of my own and hurried past them. As I walked past, I heard the tour guide going on about ghosts. Then again, they could’ve been horrified that I dared wear bright red sweatpants in public.

Hard call, really.

Anyhow, I hope you’re all in the holiday spirits….

Steph