Anyway, last weekend was my first Dult experience, and we went all the way to Passau for it. Kathryn and I wore our Dirndls (which Heather still refuses to purchase), and we bought Erwin Lederhosen that morning. My Dirndl is black with blue embroidery and a blue apron, and I am absolutely in love with it. So so much. The little white blouse that goes underneath has cut out shoulders, which I also love, and a heart-shaped neckline. So wonderful! Anyway, the four of us went to Passau early to buy Lederhosen and look at the three rivers, and then everyone else showed up a few hours later and we got to Dult - which I had soley been imagining as a Bierfest, so imagine my surprise when we got there and there were carnival rides!! SO awesome! After a beautiful ferris wheel ride we got beer and settled down to begin our German education. A Maß of beer is a lot, pretzels bigger than your face are most certainly worth two euro, and random slices of cheese and varied seafood are standard fair food. Also of course, so many sweets it's impossible to imagine. I still really want someone to give me one of those gingerbread (I think) hearts that say silly things like "Du bist mein Sommerschein" and "Ich hab dir Lieb."
This weekend Dult came to Regensburg! And it will be here for two weeks! Friday night was the first night, and we spent it watching fireworks and riding the bumper cars, and watching insane amounts of people crammed into a beer tent. Saturday was spent doing more rides, drinking more beer, eating more pretzels, and just general outdoors enjoyment. That night was Mike's fabulous birthday party, so all in all I had a most enjoyable weekend, however none of my homework got done and all my working out this week has been for naught. Ah well, of course I'm off to eat pancakes tonight and screw it up some more. As Kate, Kathryn, and I keep saying, I love my life!
Another cultural experience, however a not-so-German one, is this new salsa dancing class I'm taking with Heather, Erwin, Oscar, and hopefully Kathryn at the Uni. Well, part of this class is that on Wednesday nights they have salsa night at a club downtown. I went two weeks ago with Heather and Erwin, and while watching them practice and work out their basic moves they had learned, this man came up to me clearly seeing I was sort of the third. He keeps trying to get me to dance and I'm saying no no I can't I don't know how, but he sort of grabs my hand and drags me onto the floor. And at first I'm actually really excited because he shows me the basic steps and tells me what to do more or less, and it means I get to spin around a lot and sort of look like I know what I'm doing, and because he knows what he's doing it's really fun (a good lead is a crucial thing). But then we start sort of moving off into this corner where I can't really see Heather and Erwin anymore, and these songs all run into each other because there's a DJ that makes sure they keep going and they're already long and they all sound somewhat the same. Anyway, as we're over the in the corner it become a little more touchy and like close dancing, with some shaking and grinding type stuff, but I'm like hey, it's salsa! you have to get close to dance it properly. But then the man lifts up my hair and is like, "du bist heiß" in a way that was only sort of a question (because I was sweating a lot) and also sort of really sketch, and then he BLEW ON MY NECK. That's when I got hesitant, but I couldn't escape because he had me very tightly enclose in his arms and I was still trying to be polite. After a little more unfomfortable neck time I found a break in the song that could maybe be the end, and was like I have to get back to my friends. And that's when he grabbed me and tried to kiss me, and I just like turned my head from his tobacco-smelling breath and was just like uh, nein! And I ran back to Heather and Erwin, and we left. It was hysterical in hindsight, and maybe he wasn't trying to be a creep, maybe that's just how the end of a salsa dance works, but it was still sketch to me. In a hilarious way.
Okay, so now I have to go read Goethe. I have a 117 page play due on Tuesday that I haven't started, and reading middle German makes it especially time consuming. Oh but I'm so tired! Maybe I'll take a nap first...
Also, to anyone reading at Wesleyan know that I have had you all in my thoughts for the past week. I am so glad that you're all safe and that things are starting to move forward again. I love you all, and know that I feel the sadness and confusion from here too. Hugs to you all.
