Sunday, April 23, 2017

Ein Bier, bitte!

Hallo liebe Freunde!

I have had a good past few days here in Germersheim. I participated in a Kneipetour of Germersheim. Attended some of my first classes, and was able to visit a Street-food tour event on the Rhine! I am meeting lots of cool people from all over Europe, even including some from Germany.

The area of study at this branch of the Johannes Gutenberg Uni-Mainz is languages. More specifically, its focus is Translation, Lingual and Cultural Sciences. As such, its student body includes a good number of exchange students, like me. I have met folks from France, Great Britain, Greece, Spain, Turkey, Belgium and others. It's a cool experience to chat with them. I was impressed to learn that many of my fellow students are studying/can speak 3, 4, even 5 languages. Crazy. My head is scrambled just trying to manage German. Anyway.

My first classes went well. I have a lot to learn and freshen up on. My teachers so far seem very nice, patient and knowledgeable.  I am sure that trend will continue. This coming week I will attend the remainder of my core classes. All  my classes are German-language related, so I am hoping to greatly improve my language skills so I can move on to the next one. I intend to learn Spanish and Swedish someday too.

The Kneipetour was great. We visited 3 different cafe/bars throughout the evening. I was able to try numerous German beers. I also met many cool, and interesting people. I ordered from the tap, (vom Fass). I tried Erdinger  weißbier, hefe-weißbier, as well as Paulener hefeweizen and a Pils I can't remember the name of, Bitburger maybe. Here is a picture of the Erdinger weißbier (center) the beer to the left is the Pils I tried later:
Lecker!

The title btw is a reference to a music video for the song 'Wirtshaus Guadi' from the band 'Equilibrium.' My brother, Nate, showed it to me awhile back and now every time I walk into a pub or bar I think of it. Here is the link if you are interested: Ein Bier, bitte. Funny stuff. Cool band.

The weather was nice today so I walked to the Rhine and visited the Street-Food tour. Most of the food there was BBQ, or burgers and hotdogs. There was some Italian, Mexican as well. I saw a sign that said "Best in the World!" So I had to try their American classic hotdog: 
Ein American classic dog, bitte!

It was pretty darn good, and fresh. There was also some music from a live band!




Ok, barely live *crickets*. Hey I hope I can still rock when I am that age. The music was a great compliment to the environment, the musicians were great.

One of the Mayoral candidates for Germersheim was there handing out pamphlets or whatever. Since I was wearing my american flag hat and stuck out like a sore thumb, I heard him say "nein, keine Amerikanische Stimmen in Germersheim" or something like that as I walked by and made eye contact. It made me giggle. There are tacky posters with smiling candidates all over the city, but he has my vote.  

Germersheim is a lovely city, and everyone has been nice, polite and helpful here.  It is very multi-cultural, too. I look forward to the rest of my short stay here.
Rhein with ship
Catholic Church

I really miss donut-country,
These were gross, cool art though.


Selfie (there are selfie spots around
the city painted on the walkways)




Love all you guys, thanks for tuning in.

God bless and Alles Gute!

Wesley








3 comments:

  1. Wow, that hot dog looks amazing! Fun stuff you are doing and seeing. I'm jealous, and so happy for you :) great selfie and newsy post. I love and miss you, son!!

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  2. Miss you, son! Hope you are doing well and learning much and seeing beautiful places :) l love you!!

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