The World Cup is here!

I'm not really that excited about it, but it is a little exciting. The games started on Friday with Germany earning a 4:2 win over Costa Rica. Most of you probably know this, but I figured I'd mention it in case you're too busy with the Stanley Cup. By the way, I'd rather have the Stanley Cup. There are so many people in Munich right now! I'm glad my schedule is so lax that I rarely have anywhere to be. (Ha ha ha.)

Last weekend's trip was good. We went to Bad Hersfeld on Friday and spent the evening hanging out with Ina. Hanna was still in Goettingen, but she came on Saturday and we hung out with her all afternoon and evening. There was the annual JazzFest happening, so we spent most of our time in town walking around and listening to the music. On Sunday, Olivier and I slept in because I totally forgot to set any sort of alarm at all (we wanted to get up at 9:00 and ended up waking up at noon), but it wasn't too tragic because I used to sleep like crazy when I was there before, so I made a joke about some things never changing and we all had a good laugh. Then we had an amazing lunch, the likes of which I haven't eaten in, easily, 9 months. It was so fantastic; it was Rouladen with Rotkohl and Kloese (and potatoes, thank god because I don't like Kloese). Then we waited for Ulrich to get home from work and all sat out on the terrace eating cake (Elvira makes amazing cakes, too). The funniest part was that Hanna and I had discussed when we had to head to the train station, but forgot to (or just plain didn't) share the plan with Olivier. We had decided to leave at 3:50 so that we could take our time getting to the train station; the train was leaving at 4:11 and the station isn't too far away. After chatting for a while Hanna asked what time it was. It was 3:56. The two of us we like, "Oh, crap!" and stood up to quickly pack the car and head out. We get all of the stuff into the car and I use the facilities one last time, and Olivier is no where to be found. I say to Felix, "Do you know where Olivier is?" "I think he's still on the terrace." "Really?! Could you please go tell him that we're waiting for him?" So Felix goes down to the terrace and when he comes back up, he tells us that Olivier is finishing his cake. What?! It turns out that after Hanna and I stood up and ran off, Elvira looked at Olivier and asked, "Where did they go?" "I don't know. That cake was amazing, by the way." "Thank you. There's one piece left, would you like it?" "Yes, please." *sigh* I guess I should be more clear in the future! Don't worry though, we made our train just fine, and had a good laugh out of it.

So then Olivier and I headed back towards Frankfurt to meet Eddy in the town where he lives, Darmstadt. We got in fairly late, and it was a Sunday in Germany, so not much was going on. We got a walking tour of Darmstadt and then had dinner. Actually, I'm lying a bit when I say that nothing was going on; see, Monday was a holiday, so there was a long-weekend-marathon party happening at an old castle thing that is part of the university. It was actually kind of a bust, though. See, I think the marathon thing ended in the afternoon and then they went back to their usual schedule at the bar in the basement. Their usual schedule involves something called a Boys and Girls party. (This should actually be read as "gays and lesbians party.") That doesn't bother me, but it was kind of lame anyways, and I think it made the boys uncomfortable. At any rate, we headed home and went to bed.

The next day we took the train into Frankfurt. Monday, as I mentioned, was a holiday, so there wasn't much going on in the city. Not that we needed much, at least not in the way of shopping, and it was mostly the stores that were closed. We headed up to the top of a tall building, I think it's called the Main Tower, or something, where there is a viewing deck and we got a great view of Frankfurt. We were really lucky, too, because I guess if it's too windy they close down the tower; Eddy said that he's tried to ascend the tower 4 times, and it's been closed twice. Anyways, we walked around for a while; there was an area set up on the bank of the Main with kiosks and food stands. We stopped for apple wine (which is hard to come by in Bavaria, and I love), and then met up with some of Eddy's friends and had another drink. We took the train back to Darmstadt and then checked the internet to see if we could find a karaoke bar open in Darmstadt. We didn't find one, but did find a band playing at a local Irish pub. They were pretty terrible. It was just a cover band, but maybe they only sounded bad because we sat way at the back of the bar instead of near the stage, and the sound might just not have travelled well. We had something to eat and headed home because it had gotten very late and we hadn't realized it. Then the next day we got up and headed home.

I feel I should also mention that the weather in Hessen was really pretty good, except for Saturday, when it rained, but it was still some of the nicest weather we've seen all year. Then, on the way home, as soon as the train crossed the border from Hessen into Bavaria, the sky clouded over and it started raining. We were getting really sick of the weather here (mostly because it's supposed to be nice by this time of year) but then, suddenly, the weather is quite pleasant. It's nice to wake up to blue skies in the morning. Of course, now that I say that, it will be crappy tomorrow, but then I won't feel bad about the fact that tomorrow is my busy class day.