no, unfortunately that doesn't mean i went again.
There are just a couple tidbits I wanted to share that I forgot to mention.
The first bit is just a meal i forgot to include in the giant Oktoberfest story. Saturday in the Augustiner Bierzelt, i enjoyed a delicious Bavarian dish for dinner - Kalbsbeuscherl mit Semmelknödel. ...Veal soup with a dumpling. Tasty.
The second bit could have - and actually would have - been its own entry had i not forgotten to mention the Kalbsbeuscherl. So i'll give it its own title, and you all can pretend it's a separate entry.
Homesick?
I know you'd love to think where this is going, mom, but it's not quite what you might expect. Don't get me wrong, It'd be nice to come home to visit for a weekend, but I'm also thoroughly enjoying my time in Europe.
I'm actually referring to a feeling that set in somewhere along the 11 hour bus trip back and lasted until sometime yesterday evening (until I had an "oh yeah, i'm in Rome" moment and regained my excitement for learning Italian). The best way to describe it would be homesickness. ...but is it possible to be homesick for a place that's not really home?
Germany was such a wonderful experience. I stayed in a home. Enjoyed cooked meals (hot breakfasts). I was in a place where i could understand 95% of what people were saying, rather than only 5%. It was easy to get around, and there was noticeably more of an American influence in Germany than there is in Italy (which is not necessarily a good thing nor a bad thing. ..just that much more of a reminder of home).
So call it what you will. I'm not sure if I can technically be homesick for a place where i've spent no more than 60 hours of my entire life. but that's kind of what it was. All I know for sure is that I can't wait to spend next semester in Germany.
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3 comments:
Aww...Adam...Germany must have felt more like home because I'm sure you're missing all the HOT breakfasts that I've served you in the mornings with a smile and... LoL! (Gotcha - that's Lots of Love!)
I'm glad you had a great time in Germany staying with Uwe and Thea.
Adam:
I always always ALWAYS felt this way going back and forth from Italy to Germany, and from France to Germany. Then I would curse myself for learning a language where the people didn't have as much "flair," as they like to say in German (and it's "Das Flair"), or terrific southern food or wine like the Italians, or sunshine or Tuscan villas, which make every German sigh (whereas the folks in Rimini call the German tourists on their beaches "Teschi Fritti").
And then there was the whole aching baggage of WWII (of course the Italians had a hand in WWII as well, but that kind of gets obliterated by the German wrongdoings). And with a language comes the culture, so by now you are feeling closer to the German culture, as I always did. So I always felt I was growing closer and closer to a language and culture that made me ache, in a strange way. But aren't those Germans nice people? You will make friends for life.
But one thing I always regretted was not getting more Italian into my head than just the basics in the whole year I spent there, so if you can find room in your brain for another language and culture, don't forget where you are and try to absorb as much as you can, even though it's painful and incredibly difficult at the beginning. Your time in Italy will be over very soon.
Tante Peggy
TEDESCHI FRITTI, is what I meant to write. It means "fried Germans."
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