birthday party

My mom's wanted a new cuckoo clock for quite some years, so as she's close to der Schwarzwald (where cuckoo clocks are made) now's her chance to get one. Siegfried drove us to the area, with Heinz (who says he needed a new head after last night) coming along as a translator. While there, we saw what claims to be the largest cuckoo clock in the world cuckoo at 2pm. Think i got it on video too.

Afterwards we walked around the largest waterfalls in Germany as well as through some other small towns in the area. On each small town's central plaza is an area where a large screen has been set up. When a football game is on, the plaza fills up with people coming to watch it on the big screen and enjoy the many shops set up around it. Also, the town buildings are lined with German and other flags. I've heard various Europeans say how strange it is to see U.S. streets lined with U.S. flags, but the World Cup changes everything, being partiotic takes on a new meaning. It's a wonderfully festive time town throughout the country.


We returned around supper time and Dorle made me some good vegan fried rice with tofu, and i was told that Rebecca had invited me to a party to celebrate her and a cousin's recent birthdays. The party was a gathering of 30 or so locals in their 20's, along with a lot of local beers and buckets of sangria with long straws in it.

It was a great party, and luckily for me plenty of people spoke some degree of English and spoke with me throughout the night. At times everyone started speaking German (or Schwabian (sp?), to be exact) but i just sat back and enjoyed the interpersonal interactions.

Ended up getting home around 3:30-4am, another well-worth it long night.