Dieses Wochenende

This weekend there was a huge street festival which apparently happens every year around the same weekend here in Tübingen.  Apparently the city has a number of sister cities or maybe sister regions, and this street festival is in celebration of their relationship with Provence and Umbria.  There were street vendors selling food and wine from these various areas.  Right around the corner from my dorm, there was a butcher who, for the last few days has had a pig’s head in the booth.  I’m not quite sure what the deal was with the pig’s head, but there it was.  There were also cheeses that smelled awesome, and some that smelled absolutely disgusting, along with some very cool hand made leather goods and baskets.



Friday was our Bureaucracy day so we didn’t have class.  I was still waiting for a couple of things to come through, so I couldn’t finish up all of my tasks and officially matriculate at the university, so instead I stopped by the street faire.  It was neat, but a bit expensive, so I didn’t buy anything.  I did however need to prepare for our Internationales Abendessen, so I ran to the store for some ingredients.

So, you’re probably asking yourselves, what did you make?  Well, I made Macaroni and Cheese.  Let me start by saying that while I have eaten several varieties of homemade Mac and Cheese, I have only ever made it out of a blue box, so this was a bit of an adventure.  I think most of us in my language course were struggling to make some of the things that we would normally make easily at home, simply because some of the ingredients were not easy to find.  For example, cheddar cheese is EVERYWHERE in the US.  I mean it’s almost like the default cheese in the shredded cheese area of the dairy aisle.  However, here it’s a specialty and therefore costs more.  This was fine, because I didn’t need a great deal, but still I had to really look for it.  I added some cheaper cheese too it just because I knew I wasn’t sure if I had enough cheese in there.  I didn’t really worry about measurements, because to be perfectly honest I usually eyeball things anyway. It turned out great.  I didn’t take any pictures, but there wasn’t any left when I packed up to go home.  It was great to taste so many different dishes from throughout Europe, and we had a really good time.

There were a couple of interesting conversations to be had at the party, but what I thought was one of the most interesting, was when my classmate Nicola, from Italy, asked me why I don’t hang out with all of the other English speakers.  If you ever go to any international school, or program you will notice that the English speakers all cluster together and speak English to one another.  I was somewhat guilty of this when I studied abroad as an undergrad, but we did make an effort to speak German to each other as well, and we hung out with a lot of Germans, so I can’t say that we were as bad as some students I’ve seen.  Anyway, I explained to Nicola and some others there, that I thought it was a little silly to sit around speaking English when I was trying to work on my German, and that I’d rather meet people from other countries and learn about their cultures, than simply hang out with Americans, Canadians or Brits.  I mean I don’t have anything against them, but I’m not here to work on my English. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that he noticed it first off, but also that he commented on it, and then everyone kinda joined in.

As things were wrapping up a few of us decided to meet up at 2:30 in the city to go to the festival in town, and I told them that I would kinda lead them around.  It worked out well, and it was a beautiful day.  There were so many people there and the crowds were crazy, but we had a good time walking around and seeing the sights.  After that we went to a nearby park and just sat around and talked.  There was an Erasmus party going on at 10pm at the Jazzkeller, so we decided to meet up again and head over there together.  The Jazzkeller was ok.  The party itself was apparently downstairs in the actual Keller, where there is dancing and music, but the cover was 4 Euros and very few people were interested in paying so we headed out to the Blauer Salon – which is apparently closed on Saturdays – and from there headed to the Schlosscafe.  After the Schlosscafe, a few people went home and a few of us headed to a recently renovated bar called Collegium, which is less than a block from my place.  By this point it was probably 2am, and while others were headed back to the Jazzkeller for more drinking and partying, I decided to call it a night.

Today was the last day of the festival, along with a big road race in the area.  I could hear the start of the race while I was making my breakfast.  I decided to see if any of the stuff at the vendors had been marked down, since it was the last day, but it didn’t appear so, however Osiander, the big book store in the area, was having a sidewalk sale, and I got some Reclam books for 2 Euros each – a better deal for the thicker books than for the thin ones, but still each was on sale, and three children’s card games 2 related to grammar and vocabulary, one related to basics of German politics.  I think they might be something that could be useful in the classroom.

All in all it’s been a good weekend.