So I'm writing to you all from frankfurt germany...ok side note...if see the word you spelled zou...it is because the german keyboards have the y and z in opposite places....ok back to writing. We arrived here after having a crazy time in amsterdam. Amsterdam is a very cute town with beautiful buildings and curving canals. it was interesting walking along the streets and seeing stores for weed and other soft drugs right next to other typical stores. Also it was funny to see tons of fast food restaurants on every street...not hard to imagine why that is....haha. For the rest of our amsterdam story, I will have to ask people to talk to me directly for alllll the details of the trip in Amsterdam ;) haha
So Frankfurt, well it is a very business like town...it is the banking center of Germany and Europe, there is a huuge university here that is in an old US army base. there is definately money in this town of about 600,000 people. We are staying with Oliver, a guy we hooked up with on that couch surfing website. He is really great...a middle and high school teacher of philosophy, econmics, politics and music. Music seems to be his passion, in the same room I am writing from he has a collection of different style guitars, amps, CDs of all genre, and other components for making music. He has a band with some friends but he also goes to jam sessions at local bars. We were lucky enough to come at the right time. On Tuesday night he brought us to the local jam session's annual dinner...it was in the basement of this small italian restaurant called Franco's. It was small and cozy. thez cooked pounds and pounds of meat (pork sausage, beef sausage, pork chops, chicken legs, steak...) all over a huge fireplace. We also had the chance to try some apple wine or ''apfelwein'' or in the Frankfurt dialect ''Ebbelwoi'', which is very traditional in this part of Germany. the dinner started and kendra and I did feel a little out of place. But everyone was nice and a few even spoke some english. later some others came down and one guy was from Chile, he learned english in Alaska, and is now living in Germany. We hung out with him for awile, talked about a variety of things, drank steins and steins of good beer and listened as people started to pick up their instraments and jam.
Let me lay out the details of the mix of people and cultures in this small room.
We had Kendra and I who were from the US and had studied in Spain. there were a mix of germans who spoke english, a woman from Brazil that spoke german and sang ballads in Portuguese. there was a german who lived in brazil for 7u years and spoke fluent portuguese...there was a guy from chile who spoke english and german. and then finally the family that owned the bar was italian, spoke italian and german. Throughout this whole mix, people sat or walked around, ate, sang, played music, improvised....people sang brazilian ballads, german folk, jazz, christmas music....whatever they felt like.
Kendra and I had a fantastic time. it was almost surreal.
Yesterdaz we spent more time in the christmas market and walked all over the town, Last night we also had some ''hand cheese with music'' or ''HandKäse mit Musik'' which is another traditional food here. it is a special type of cheese and then zou soak it in oil and vinegar with onions...the music is the what zou soak it in. It was very tasty. Todaz we are going to the zoo with Oliver and will hang out in town and then we are making oliver dinner....american chili and apple crisp. tomorrow we leave for Prague Czech Republic for Christmas with a family there. I will try to get pictures online...be patient!! and I will write soon....
I hope all are well!! Merry Christmas
This is the Handkase mit musik, Jever beer, and rye bread with butter.
--note-- Oliver said we need to note that if a german saw this picture they would be dissapointed. you do not eat this with beer but apple wine instead!!!
Myself, Oliver and Kendra