In the spirit of remembering better than our recent Beer Olympics, I figured I may add a sub entry to cover the past few days.
To start with, now that my computer is alive… again… one of the American girls from West Virginia and I have decided to undertake a trans-European adventure during the week of Pentecost, the week that I was originally slated to road trip to Prague, Vienna, and Munich. Well, if I hadn’t already said, those plans fell through and I thus have gone to plan B.
We’re flying out of Frankfurt Hahn on June 10 to Poland, the city of which escapes me. All I know is it is roughly an hour out of Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration camp. I confess that this is not exactly high on my priority list of places to go in Europe due to its depressing history, but I think it will be a good experience. That, and my friend is a psychology major who cites it as one of her must-go places before leaving Europe.
The fact that plane tickets to and from Poland are dirt cheap doesn’t hurt either. Search me as to why this is… everyone I’ve spoken to that has visited Poland says it’s a beautiful country, so I’m not sure why airlines are bribing people with low prices to go there. For example: flying to Barcelona from Frankfurt Hahn costs roughly 100 Euros. From Poland? 12. That’s worth the flight to Poland as it is, being that flights into Poland are only 22 Euros right now. Two cities for the price of one! (Technically, far more… but you get the idea)
Speaking of Barcelona: that’s where we fly to from Poland on June 12, two days after our Polish arrival. I just watched a movie about Barcelona at an event the university’s international organization put on [Spanish Abend (night)], and the shots were beautiful. Penelope Cruz being in it was certainly not hurting the movie’s case either. Not that it is particularly a surprise in either case… when one thinks Barcelona, one thinks beauty. Likewise for Penelope. But maybe that’s just me… I’ll be able to say for sure in about 2 weeks! Probably not so much for the Penelope bit, but hey… one can hope.
From Barcelona, we fly to Rome on June 14. Yes, these are relatively short stints in each city, but there’s so much to see and so little to see it in! My poor camera is going to be raped for the better part of a week before I fly back into Frankfurt Hahn Trier-bound on June 16. From there, I will literally stop by my dorm to gather a few things before catching a train for Stuttgart to see the Southside Music Festival from June 17-19. Epic win.
Yes yes, it will be an action packed week-plus. Funny thing is, after Southside, I’ll be in Trier for a day and some change to attend the Monday and Tuesday classes I have that week, then head out Tuesday night again train-bound for Paris until the 25th, at which point we will literally go straight into class from the train for a two day seminar that counts for a semester class. June is likely to make my head spin a bit, but hey… people always say youth is wasted on the young, and I intend to set that mentality astray.
All this traveling (at least, the flights to Poland, Barcelona, and Rome) only cost about 120 Euros… not bad! I think the initial week’s traveling will cost less than 500 Euros when it’s all said and done, which is not too bad for the money I’d say.
What is money for if not to be spent anyway, right? Money is replaceable. Memories are not. Now, someone write a book titled that please.
In other news, the past few days have been epic to say the least. Friday, I was so ridiculously productive that I scared myself. I somehow managed to roll out of bed prior to noon, and over the course of the day managed to get two projects done! Well, mostly done anyway… not much more to do. Two separate presentations that I have been putting off are not in the rear view mirror, so I am quite happy. I did, though, look like a bit of a nerd sitting in the Menza (cafeteria) stealing internet until around 7 in the evening, though.
After that, the friend I will traipse across Europe with in the coming weeks invited me to Spanish Abend (as mentioned earlier), where we met some interesting people over a few homemade Spanish dishes and watched the movie about Barcelona. Quite enjoyable.
Then, Saturday came. Oh, was it epic. The Erasmus Beer Olympics, thoroughly organized by one of the rugby-playing Brits. It was quite an undertaking, too; roughly ten teams of four joined the events, which included beer pong, quarters, flip cup, chug race, handless beer-chug suicides, and something involving tearing up a cereal box with nothing but your teeth… before chugging a beer. Quite entertaining, really, although I must admit I don’t really remember the last bit of it; when I woke up on my floor this morning, I had to look through the 600 some-odd pictures I had taken. See, there are those memories again!
Each team represented some nation that typically has little recognition. I seriously had not heard of several of the countries represented, but I was on the team for Sweden. If you have Facebook, do feel free to see those epic pictures. Needless to say, body paint was involved, and flags were proudly worn. Literally.
The team for Belgium had the most original costume in my opinion. Custom made shirts said (in French or Flemish, I’m not sure which) ‘Beer in, beer out’ with arrows pointing up and down. Clever. Then, panties were worn on the outside of tights with the word “Belgi-b-um” with lovely hand-crafted drawings of different specialty waxes for that region of the female body. They were truly hilarious.
Each team was required to bring two half-liter beer kistes as entry fees. A kiste contains 20 beers, and a half liter is roughly the equivalent of a “40” in America. As of this morning, I saw very few left. I’ve no idea what happened to the used kistes; you technically get paid to return them, as you must pay a deposit for every bottle you buy in Germany, with money being given upon the bottles’ return.
Winners were put on pedestals made from varying numbers of empty kistes placed on a picnic table in the courtyard of Martinskloster (where the event conveniently took place—my residence). Once announced (through the drunken screaming, of course), the Brit organizer played the winning team’s country’s national anthem… quite a lot of thought went into the planning of this event, to say the least!
All the while, there was a random group of Germans who had decided that Saturday was Monk day, and ten or so of those living in Martinskloster came out dressed in full monk and priest garb (gaudy crucifix necklaces included). They took a little blow-up raft to the Mosel and put putted about for a while before coming back to Martinskloster to bathe in a blow-up kiddy pool while drinking with the best of the Erasmus students. I think they were highly amused with the coincidence of our Erasmus (et all) Olympics, just as we were highly amused at their religious sentiments. Or lack thereof.
All in all, I must just say that life is good. Where else can you go to play beer Olympics at a student dormitory?
This morning, when I went down to survey the damage, I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone had already cleaned up the place. I was going to help, but I guess some others beat me to the point… a 50 plus person beer Olympics naturally generated quite a mess! I was a bit unnerved when I walked into the hall leading to the “party room” and saw a blow-up sex doll chilling with a beer propping her up. The religious Germans had christened her the day before, and decided she was destined to an existence of beer guarding. Hilarity. Once again, the politically correct world I am used to in America dissolves before my eyes!
Today I’ve been quite lazy, lounging in the sun on the bank of the Mosel river catching a tan and reading a good deal of Robinson Crusoe. Random, I know, but ever since I read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 in one sitting en route to my friend in England’s place a few weeks ago, I’ve gotten back into the reading kick. Unlike me, I know. I’m pretty sure I read this book back in 4th grade or so (my more intellectual days), but obviously can’t remember. New to me!
Thanks to Skype and a coffee shop whose internet I have been stealing all afternoon, I got to talk to a friend of mine and some family. Skype allows you to call regular phones for a marginal price… something like 5 cents a minute or something. This comes in handy considering none of my family thinks to log onto Skype for the free-ness that exists… figures.
So, I bid adieu for now, as I sit in the calm afternoon of pleasantry that is Trier, all the while looking straight at the ancient Roman gate Porta Negra.
Life is grand.
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