June: Baguettes, Döner, and Fajitas

Well, ain't I suddenly just the blogging fool?

Sorry for the neglect of late, dear blog. These last few weeks -- wait, months -- have just been fantastically intense.

Let's go back a few of those weeks to when Mom arrived in Mannheim (go free ticket vouchers!) on June 19th, and when we, about 3.5 seconds after she de-trained, hopped right back on an ICE headed for Paris.

Yep: Paris. Ooh, that sounds nice, I'm gonna say it again: Paris. Heee. And you know what, in accordance with all gushing cliche over the last two centuries, I will confirm that that freaking city is freaking beautiful. Where else can you casually point your camera upwards and shoot a photo like this?

I'll let Mom tell you about most of our adventures, including the sweetly naive American soldier dudes who asked us if there were any good jazz bars in town. I'll just say that we always have the best time together, whether it's ooohing over Rodin sculptures or making up complex histories for random passersby and seeing how long we can "converse" about them while keeping a straight face.

("Oh, I'm glad she's up on her feet again," Mom would say, suddenly nodding at a lady strutting by with a poodle.

I'd look up and catch who she was talking about. "Who, Francesca there? Yes, that was pretty tragic about the lion-taming accident." Here I'd shake my head sadly.

"Well," Mom continued, "at least Paolo was there to fight the lions off. Who knew that his sneaking into the circus to see Francesca would have been such a stroke of luck?"

And so forth. We're so weird. But at least one of us knows where she gets it from...!)

That Sunday, we got back to Ludwigshafen just in time for the Germany-Turkey game in the European Cup. I gotta admit to some nervousness leading up to the game: there has been no little social friction between the two communities in the past, and Ludwigshafen itself has the largest Turkish population in Germany. And if previous games were any indication, there was going to be some riotous celebration long into the night afterward, regardless of who won. I just hoped no hotblooded drunken soccer fan took it as an opportunity to pick a long-awaited fight with his neighbor.

Thankfully, no one else was in the mood for brawling, either. The game was certainly suspenseful; Mom, Nadja, Bert, and I watched it in a beer garden with a projector and giant screen. After Germany won 2-1, the town did indeed erupt -- but fortunately, fans on both sides were almost painfully conscientious to avoid provoking each other. Goes to show you how weird the communities' relationship is when the biggest reports on the news the next day were that, hey, nobody set anything on fire last night!

Ludwigshafener celebrate peacefully in Berliner Platz, the city center

The following weekend, because we just decided, hey, we're not exhausted enough, Mom helped Bert & me move into a lovely new second-storey apartment in Friesenheim.

Friesenheim is still a part of the greater Ludwigshafen amoeba, but unlike Lu-Mitte (where we were before) it is decidedly lacking in ugly highrises. And the apartment is brilliant. Built in 2002, everything is spacious and bright and very well designed, including an enormous balcony that runs the entire length of the place and looks out over greenery. And -- I have my own office! It's cozy and neat and painted a warm terra cotta. As I sit here, I'm watching the evening descend through the double glass doors that access the balcony. It also moonlights as a guest room... hint! hint! ;)

The move took place on a Saturday, and Mom was a champion helping to unpack and settle us in while Bert & I had to work the next week. Specifically, I had been contracted by the Fachhochschule in Heidelberg to give a 4 1/2 hour lecture on German Society & Culture to a group of international visiting business students. Piece of cake! said my brain. Foolish brain. Turns out, four and a half hours is a really long damn time! But it was worth it in the end. After the lecture, some students even came up to say it was the most enjoyable session they'd had in the program so far!

I felt bad having to work so much while Mom was visiting, though. Happily, Bert, shedding his Clark Kent attire and donning his tight Superboyfriend underoos (in this case, bike shorts), rode to the rescue by taking off from work to lead Mom on a little bike tour of Ladenburg, one of the cutest towns on the Neckar.

Then that evening, Heidi and Jens arrived from Chemnitz for a weeklong visit; and the day after that, we picked up Nigel at the Mannheim train station. Seems we moved to a bigger place just in time! And just to top the numbers off, a few more friends came over that night to sit on our new balcony and enjoy Mom's delicious spaghetti for ten, and help us create a colony of empty bottles with which to christen the kitchen.

I should mention that my friends and Mom got on like a house on fire. She's so laid-back and funny that I don't think anyone really notices that "someone's mom" is there; she's just one of the group. Bert's mom is kind of like that too, actually... in fact, Bert even commented on that, saying that although they barely speak each other's languages, the two "würden sich trotzdem gut verstehen." :D

Alas, all good things come to an end... I had to take her back to the train station the next day, Friday. We would have been sadder about it, had we not known that we were going to see each other a week later in Seattle!

But first there was more wine to be drunk. The next day, we were joined by two more weekend visitors: Bert's friend Christina and her partner, Stefan, both of whom had just returned from bicycling around the world for two years (!) in order to take pledges for cancer research (!!). They had the most amazing stories and pictures, including one of a city rising before them through a mountain pass: Katmandu, the capital of Nepal (!!!).

In return for regaling us with tales of high adventure, Nigel fed everyone fajitas:

They were a hit.

We like-a the sal-sa!

With seven people, however, even our spacious new apartment had reached its capacity, and Christina and Stefan happily pitched their well-used tent on the balcony for the night.

All of this was over the course of about two weeks. Two days after hugging the last of our guests goodbye, I was packing a bag myself to head off to the States until August.

But that is the stuff of another blog entry...