weekend in Meckenheim

Well this past weekend i visited my friend and her family in Meckenheim and had a blast! Unfortunately it was like a 5 hour train ride to Bonn so i got there late on Thursday night. The next Friday i went to school with her and felt really weird because they all spoke German all the time and one of her classes was French class too. So that class i was totally messed up because i know very little German and absolutely no French! But it was cool for me to experience what it was like to go to her school, she is in the 12th grade and she has one more year until she will graduate.
So later that day we drove out to a place that overlooked the Rhine river about 20 minutes away from her house that was pretty spectacular.




And later that night we went to the giant field, next to the school, where all the local kids showed up and we just sat and listened to music, danced, and drank the night away. I think that in America we need to adopt some of the cultures of the Europe and to instill them in our lives. Here in Germany they have these huge multipurpose parks where anyone can come and do what ever they want... as long as they don't get to loud and trash the place up. And like drinking in public, i think that it should be legal to do this, just like here in Germany. Needless to say i learned some new German drinking games that night! :)



just a pic of before people got to the party field

The next morning her older brother was graduating from high school too, and of corse i wanted to come witness this happening and im glad i did. Of course it was all in German but it was different... they had lots of live music from some of the graduation senoirs and they had a little skit where the teachers of the class stood on stage with little rabbit posters and another teacher came by and fed the rabbits... i am assuming this was representing the teachers giving something back to the students as knowledge and growth... But after that we all headed to the Seit river for lunch and then stuck our feet in the water and skipped rocks like a family thing.

Later that night we were invited to a huge 4 person birthday party for some of Lisa's friends which was held in a warehouse that had been converted into live band stage and dance floor, and outside this place was a buffet and bar with tables and tons of food for all the guests. I have never been to suck a cool big function where there were 150 friends all together parting and dancing in a warehouse! That was a total blast!

And then came Sunday!!! the battle Royal!!! Germany vs. England!!! We started that morning with a traditional Germany breakfast of rolls, cheese, butter, cheese spread, and strawberry jam(which we picked the strawberries Friday morning, so it was fresh) and sat around and talked for a while. Then we headed to the soccer field with some friends and played soccer for about 2 hours before the game!!! I have never played soccer before but i have a new appreciation for the sport now!!! I was really tired and worn out when we stopped but we headed home and showered then got the house ready for the game! They don't have a tv in the living room but her father had a projector that we put on the wall and hooked a big sound system up to and it was great. I think there was about 35 people that came over to watch the game and they all went crazy!!! Im just glad that Germany won so that i didn't see 35 people go ballistic about a loss! Haha! But it was great fun and Germany beat England 4 to 1 and everything was fine. Immediately after the game all the young people jumped into the cars(me included) and drove around the city waiving and yell with pride to everybody that Deutschland had won!!! We must have driven around for 30 minutes screaming and yelling until i went hoarse. After this unfortunately i had to catch the train back home and tell this new city and family goodbye and head back to Berlin...




a typical German back yard of a townhouse..