We Grill A Lot.

As I've said, Germans love being outdoors, so any excuse they have to take advantage of that, they take. Therefore we grilled a lot, especially during my last weeks in Freiburg.

For Christoph's Birthday party, we grilled. He, the beloved cook, baked four varieties of delicious, made-from-scratch bread. He marinaded all the meat (about 6 pounds or 3 Kg) in a variety of sauces. And then add this to a wide selection of beverages and you've got "grillen".



As it was Christoph's Birthday, Janine bought for him his own easel that he could finally use here in Freiburg. He loves to paint, but always lacked the supplies to do so.

Funny story-- I always thought Janine and Christoph were dating, as they would commonly shower together or "uebernachten miteinander". Then I met Christian, who seemed to be dating Janine and I was completely confused and started making bad assumptions about the German Culture. Turns out they were just friends with benefits. That's something we have in America. Noooowww I understand.
The next night, another group of friends and I gathered to grill at StuSie. We met in the park and slowly tried to light the grill. With the introduction of rain, things went even worse. We hauled the grill to Viktor & Dora's building, planning we might be able to grill on the balcony. When finally let into the building, we realized that the coals were still going and we had no good way of getting it up 7 flights of stairs, so we definately put the lit grill in the elevator, as seen here at left.











Finally, everything was set up, about 10 people showed up with meat, bread, salads, and drinks. We grilled on the balcony without any of the roommates knowing we were there (for the first half).
Here you see Philipp with his stick--a necessary item for a man and fire. Behind him is Simeon (Darina's Boyfriend) and Darina.

This is also the night when Philipp and Anne officially started dating. We were pretty excited for him. Although, the details were really unclear until the next day. We were at the apartment grilling and he and Anne were just talking forever in the other room. We checked on them and they were simply conversing. That night we decided to go to Waldsee, the only club or bar popular on Monday nights, and Philipp and Anne were going to come along too, just later in Anne's car. But after arriving at Waldsee without them, I receive a text saying they wouldn't be able to make it. Then my response inquiring for details, and the lack of a response therafter. I'm pretty sure, but this was also the night when the next morning since I hadn't heard back from him, after he told me that he "always writes a response", I was really concerned for his safety. I ran to an internet cafe to search headlines to make sure nothing happened. Fortunately, we met up for Schnitzel that night and everything was alright. I was simply worrying for no reason.


Other things I learned about Germans:
*They pause the water during a shower to apply soap, then restart to wash it off.

*There is no Santa Clause, it's The Christmas Man here. And St. Nick comes around December 8th to put candies in stockings.

Now to move on to the last posts of my Deutsche Adventure.

Later Days,
Rick