Heimattage

Rachel wrote this detailed account of our Sunday together and so I thought I would share this with everyone here instead of rewriting it again! And don't worry- I'm really bad at writing frequently, but it's hard to get the internet for long periods of time. So when I get to Tuebingen it will be a lot easier. Have fun!


Ok, so Chelsea and I had an amazing time tonight! This morning we rolled outta bed at around 10:30 am and got ready for what we guessed was a Heimat Fest (festival for the town). We went 20 minutes away to a little town called Weitingen and stayed there all day! First, we passed through a tiny Flohmarkt (flea market) and got to see all the fun, old stuff people were selling. Then, we make it to the festival and we see tons of people! Apparently, the town looks forward to it every year and they set up food tents and beer and wine tents. Plus, they had this amazing German polka band! It was hilarious! Well, after eating some kind of food called Scharfsnudlen (noodles with sauerkraut) Chelsea and I hung out at the bench while the town parade went by! We saw horses and people dressed in Lederhosen, and we saw tiny kids dressed like bakers or farmers. It was adorable! After, we simply sat around and chatted with Chelsea host family and their friends. Thats what Germans love to do. Sit around, drink some good beer, eat and talk. Its awesome, so relaxed and calm.

During the evening, Chelsea and I couldn't help noticing the rambunctious group of young guys dancing and singing to all the up-beat and energetic polka music (apparently a favorite genre to the town). It was hilarious! Then we noticed a friend of theirs rolls up with a music cart that when he turns the handle, music comes out (dont know the name of this thing but you'd know what i was talking about if you saw it). The head of their newspaper comes over to Chelsea host mother and she explains to him that we come from America. He gets super surprised and shuffles us over towards the front of the dance floor area and tells everyone in town that we're "hubsche damen nach America" (two pretty ladies from America). Haha, Chelsea and I go beat red! Then the guy who had the music cart plays us some tunes and the whole town starts clapping and singing. We got out pictures taken too from all these random Germans, which made us laugh even more.

At the end of his songs, the guy with the music cart comes over to us and we strike up a conversation because he had worked in South Carolina for 3 months. He spoke really good english and told us his name was Andy Gaus (but he liked to be called Gaus). He's awesome! Such a funny guy and full of sillyness and he was well-liked by everyone in the town (its so small everyone knows eachother anyway). We start talking about tons of things and he realizes that he's a good friend of Chelseas host brother, Temo, so it was fun to talk about our trip and adventures thus far in Germany.

After a while, he shows us that the town always does a tug-of-war with the neighboring villiage, with the fire depatment guys and then with all the girl bartenders (about 10) against the fire dept. guys. It was hilarious! After the merriment, the band played some more lively music and Gaus and Chelsea and I started dancing with his friend (the rowdy bunch of young guys, super sweet people!!!). We all started dancing, and they were singing to us in German and teaching us their songs. Then, a famous song came on about a bird and it has these fun dance moves attached to it, and this is when the night got even more amazing! We mimicked their dance moves and started grooving to the fun music, and everyone was getting into it (young, old, German, American!) and we did the ho-down with them and then we danced to their version of a Dixie Land song.

The group of friends seemed to have such fun with us and were totally fun, harmless and goofy! By the end of the night, we stepped off to the side, still enjoying the music and watching Germans dance, drink and laugh, and talked with Gaus some more. He told us that they have a little concert in their town on Oct. 2nd and that we should come and enjoy their music again. He was an amazing person to talk to, and we could tell by all the other Germans, he was a sweet and kind (and super goofy!) young guy who has grown up in that villiage all his life! How interesting is that? I love this culture!

everyone here is so friendly and wonderful. They always offer you food or drinks, they lend you a jacket when you're cold, they teach you their language and their culture and they love hearing you speak German. They laugh and joke and have a good time and they love to talk and catch up with old friends. Im glad to have had this experience because it was the first time really that we've visited a place and actually interacted fully with Germans. Usually we stroll through a towns streets, talk to the other international people, perhaps talk to the ice cream seller for a moment, but never have i truely met new people and interacted in their old traditions. We had a great time tonight and i hope i have more experiences like this one!!