Christmas in Wannweil, the beginning.

Well I made it to Stuttgart yesterday without any trouble. I did, however, forget my gift package that I spent so much time on. Left it sitting in my room, smart as I am. Oh well. So far hanging out here has been fun. A little bit insane, (Mathias's house is FULL.) right now we've got: Matthias, his wife, his daughter Theresia, his son Oskar, his son Merlin (yes, that kid has the coolest name ever), Janco, and Jessica is coming today I believe. Add me into the equation and the three story traditional German house is starting to seem substantially smaller. I'm going to take plenty of pictures of everyone, so stay tuned.

Last night I went out with Oskar to a local sort of youth co-op club thing he sometimes works at and played Foosball (kicker, as it is called in Germany). First I must point out that I have been playing a LOT of Kicker since I came to Germany, a LOT. That being established, I can proceed to recount how Oskar and his friends Kickered my American ass. Still lots of fun though, they were surprised I had any game, being an Ami (American). From there I followed Theresa and some of her friends to a Reggae Party. There was good music, to be sure, but hanging out with a predominantly 16-18 year old crowd was very strange. The fact that it was a 16-18 year old crowd of Germans made it all the more strange. Reminded me of high school, a place I don't generally revisit during my meditations. I saw a woman in a wheel-chair rocking out in the middle of the dance floor during a brief parting of the crowd, and the image has been lingering ever since. I wonder what my adventures would have been like had I grown up in a place where one could essentially pick a music/culture scene at will to subscribe to.

Well, Matthias, Merlin, and I are going to go for a stroll around Wannweil (the suburb of Reutlingen - which is itself a suburb of Stuttgart - in which this upstanding German family lives), and I need to put some fresh batteris in my camera.

Bis bald, ('till soon)



EZ