THE LIFE OF THE RIDDLE

THE LIFE OF THE RIDDLE

Monday, August 18, 2008

What did you do all day in Germany?

So I've been home a few weeks now and people keep asking me about my trip. I try not to mention how cold and wet Germany was and how much I missed my husband. "Oh how fun" they say. "It was great" I say. "So what did you do all day?" they ask. "we had classes all day that really stressed me out because it has been a while since I studied German in an academic setting" I think it. But I don't say it. I just stop after "We had classes all day." So far no one presses the issue further.

So here is what we did all day.

We did projects. We explored an industrious section of Leipzig one day and then did a presentation for our classmates describing this area.Here we explored a printing office in Germany.


Above: Some kind of junk shop. We were fascinated.

Finally our display!We did other class presentation. This one was originally called "Music in Leipzig." Then Whitney our fearless leader and resident good German sprecher had the wonderful idea to dress up like Bach and do a talk show with Bach as the host. I think it was funny because everyone laughed. The pictures say it all. We all wanted to take turns with the Bach Wig.
Where did we live?

We lived with Frau Strube. We pronounced her name wrong the entire time we were in Germany. On the last day when our wonderful friend Denise picked us up she said "oh her name is Frau (Mrs) Stroobe not Frau Strube. (same spelling WAY different pronunciation) I don't think Frau Stroouube ever noticed because she did most of the talking. She was a nice old lady who missed East Germany, loved plants, had lots of books, no cats, and always pointed out ways that we wastefully Americans could save water and electricity. She made us breakfast every morning. She tried to feed us black tea and liver worst but we forgave her.




Then when we were not in class we went to concerts. Here is us at a concert at the Gewand Hause in Leipzig.



Food was also an important part of our lives. Here was our first day eating at Auerbach's Keller. This was Goethe's college haunt when he was writing Faust. I went into the bathroom stall and he had carved his name into the wall. I have no idea what Goethe was doing in the Women's bathroom stall but I understand that he was quite a womanizer so I can only imagine.

This was our first innocent day.
Goethe and Faust.

2 comments:

Julie Lovell said...

Joan, your blog is by far the most entertaining and interesting one I read. You always turn life into an adventure. Keep blogging!

Oma said...

Lach mit Bach made me laugh. Glad you had fun, thanks for the photos, but glad you are home.