Climbin' Up the Mountain Children... and a Happy New Year!

So after our trip to Baden Baden, we thought "Hey, it's still early, let's meet up at a bar" which is probably one of the most ominous sentences in the English language. I headed back to Hotel Goldener-Adler, where I had dinner with Noriko and Wuhao (p.o.d. "wu" is actually a childish nickname for Wuhao, except Wuhao doesn't have the language skills to explain to Peter and Eva that his name is actually Wuhao) We had some pretty amazing omelets.

Then at 9:00pm I headed towards the bar in Horb, which is called... Catweazle ... because why not? It's not a very large bar, which means that a seemingly middle-sized group of Americans and Brazilians, seems like a hoard of thirsty vikings. We enjoyed a couple rounds of beer, laughing, comparing cultures, etc.

Then Brian piped in.

"Hey, so there's this big Karneval party in my village tonight. We could totally walk there, it's no big deal"

Party: Truth

Village: Truth

Walking Distance: Lies

We figured that since we were wearing our "liquid jackets" the walk wouldn't seem so bad. 

Well, we were wrong.

It wasn't actually that far, if we had been walking in a straight line, it would have been no problem. But instead, we were walking on a twisted path, up a mountain, in the middle of the night. Needless to say, the walk lasted an hour, a treacherous, sweaty, uncomfortable, cold hour.

But the party actually made up for it. Karneval or Faschings is a big deal to the Germans of Swabia, as the major religion here is Catholic. Basically Karneval is when all of the Catholics decide to get their party on, because Lent is coming up, and they need to be cool until Easter. Trust me, they know how to get their party on. It was a little bit similar to Halloween in America, people dressed up in crazy costumes and went all out with make-up and so on. The party in Brian's village consisted of three outdoor tents that served alcohol and snacks, and then a big dance hall where they played a ton of American music. The Germans shamed us by knowing all of the words to songs we barely knew. 

(A hazy picture of the Faschings Party)

(Maya and Cassie at the Party)

Then around 2:00 in the morning it occurred to those of us that didn't live in Bildechingen... that we should probably... um... find a way back down the mountain. Taxis are pretty expensive here, but at this point, we weren't willing to walk back. Especially since I'm the only one who lives in the city of Horb itself. 

So five girls who live in the village of Ahldorf reluctantly accepted a ride from this 20-something guy who was sober and had a car. Fortunately I had my head somewhat loosely attached to my shoulders, so I snapped a quick photo of his license plate, in case the girls were missing the next day.

(Calm down mother, people are actually really really nice here, and this isn't as dangerous as it sounds)

(Just in Case)

I however shared a cab with three girls who live in a small village on the other side of Horb.

I made it home at 2:30, and was asleep by 3:00.

Then Sunday happened.

So during the Baden Baden trip, one of the girls from China, Wenting, mentioned to me that Sunday was Chinese New Years and in celebration, all of the Chinese kids were going to eat lunch at a Chinese restaurant. They invited me, and asked me to invite all of the Americans who would like to come. I said yes, because it sounded like fun! So I spread the word amongst the Americans, what was happening. I of course left one vital factor out of my equation. The hangover factor. I should have known that no one else was going to come.

I however, live with Wuhao, who knocked on my door promptly at 11:00 so I would have time to shower and head over to the restaurant.

To be fair, the group of Chinese kids were VERY excited that I came, and they kept waiting for the other Americans. 

(Happy New Year! P.S. Wuhao's in the orange shirt)

(Which of these things is not like the others?)

For the first hour and a half, I was the only person who didn't speak Mandarin, which made it difficult to understand what the hell was happening. Finally the waitress came in and I thought "Oh sweet salvation, someone who will, at the very least, speak German!"

Nope.

She proceeded to speak with the group very quickly in Mandarin, occasionally inserting words I recognized like "American" and "Vegetarisch" I was able to order soup and some sweet & sour vegetables. While we were waiting for the food, I tried my best to learn their names. I remember Wuhao, Wenting, Yuen, Chuen and Yin. There were a lot more.  

I tried to be as open as possible, but it was all I could do not to laugh when one of the girls literally folded her napkin into a lotus blossom and handed it to me as a gift. I always feel a little guilty when people live up to stereotypes, like "all Asian people can do Oragami". When the teeny-tiny shoe fits...

Finally Sebastian and Noriko came, both of whom speak German, so for the rest of the lunch I understood everything.

We had our own little room, so after lunch we played a couple of games. We played a game were every person drew a card, and whoever got the Ace picked an activity and two numbers (or letters J,Q,K) and whoever had those numbers had to do what the Ace said.

Which is how this happened

In all it was a good day. Despite the headache. Despite being the only American.

Not bad for the first weekend.