return to my europe journal

Because every time I get blogger's block--I make you go back to my time spent as an exchange student in Germany and France! It's actually pretty entertaining, but more than that---it's a way for me to get these memories off of cheap notebook paper and onto something (hopefully!) a little more lasting.

This is an entry from just a typical Friday night in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany; spent with my friend Miriam and her boyfriend Rolf. This entry also brings in a new character---LARS. Who was Lars? Read and find out..... (and remember--I'm 18 in this entry! )

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6/12/93



This day was a total FLASH before my eyes. I feel like such a schlaffi! Ich habe die ganzen Tag schalffen! I slept in until 12:10 pm, and so the day went by extremely fast. Miriam's father came for a visit at 3, and we all ate cake and listened to he and Miriam's mother discuss "arbeitsloesigkeit" for over an hour (soooooo boring.....good cake though). Finally, it got to be too much, so Miriam, Marcel, and I played a computer game. I think I came in second. Kind of hard to tell when everything was written in Deutsch computer-speak.



Got all glammed up later on to go to the disco. Rolf picked us up and we decided on Die Pharoa in Landau. Great 500 beat a minute European techno. Looks the same in there as it did 2 years ago! I'm certain I'll smell like smoke for the next week! I danced for over an hour until the strobe lights made me so dizzy I had to sit down. Heidi (my American friend) showed up. We tried to talk, but it's hard to talk over techno, so we went to stand by the door for a while and cool down. As we were standing there, WHO should come up the stairs but my old German boyfriend LARS!!!! You should have seen the look on his face when he saw me! It was hilarious! Like he'd seen a ghost! I told him when I left last time that I'd be back, and he didn't believe me. Proved him wrong! Anyway, he gave me a big hug and his phone number and even showed me that he still wore the silver skull ring I'd given him two years ago. Finally the girl he came with had had enough and stood behind him sighing loudly. Guess I wouldn't have wanted my date carrying on with an old American girlfriend either!....



Not sure if I'll call him or not. At one time we had something very strong between us. But we knew the distance would just be too hard. He's a lieutenant in the army now and I'm sure that's bound to have changed him some. STILL--I'll never, ever forget that combination surprise/excitement/dumb-founded look on his face. It was great!



Well, it's now 3:00 AM, and so ---with some sped-up version of Kraftwerk still ringing in my ears---I say GUTEN NACHT und TSCHÜS BIS MORGEN!



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****Ah, youth :) !..... And I did end up calling Lars, by the way. And we did go out a few more times...... BEFORE he got shipped off to Berlin, 10 hours away, for military training. And that was the end of that. :)*******
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BIG REVEAL: Concerning yesterday's post......to all those who guessed 30+ Singles Dance---you were RIGHT! Our church is famous for them. Emphasis in attendance was laid heavily on the + part of 30+. The handful of 30 somethings that were there were huddled together in a corner-- though I admit the others seemed more desensitized to the whole spectacle than I. As George Michael would say "I'm never gonna dance again"....but not because I got no rhythm, but because I am deeply, deeply traumatized :) !!! (HOWEVER.... I may go back just to record me a little sumpin' sumpin' for the blog.... ).

*p.s. I know I have some German readers (I throw you in with the Germans too Andrea!). How do I make an umlaut on my computer? I've been adding an extra -e to umlauted words, but I'd like to be able to have it look like actual Deutsch! Danke!