Luckily I did not partake in that un-American activity. However, I am guilty of the number three offense- spending the 4th of July in a foreign country!
Actually, this weekend was a lot of fun! Granted this was the first time in 21 years that I did not see a single firework explode, but there were lots of other elements to this weekend that added up to an…explosive time.
After work on Friday we picked up “The DFW Firecracker” himself, Matthew James Kiesel, who had just flown into Cologne from London that afternoon. Seeing my old roommate, and someone who I had spent a considerable amount of time with for the past year, for the first time in almost two months was certainly a great experience. I felt kind of like the annoying uncle when I got out of the car to get his bags, “Ohhhhh Matthew, I think you’ve gotten taller!”
That night we were invited over to Herr Blasé’s house (the CEO of igus) to experience an American cookout – German style. Although I did not eat as much as I did at the igus volleyball tournament, I certainly helped myself to as many hamburgers, sausages, helpings of kartoffelsalat, and glasses of Kolsch that they would offer me. Just trying to be a good guest! I know that the four of us (me, Brandon, Anthony, and Matt) had a great time being guests in his house (which is awesome!) We had some great conversations about international politics and some TCU talk (neither which I will shy away from). For those of you who don’t know, Herr Blasé went to TCU for his undergrad and MBA in the late 70’s early 80’s. He’s stayed up to date on everything happening in the business school and on campus, so it was great to talk about teachers, but a little sad to have to break the news to him that they tore down the Student Center. Rest in peace, student government offices.
There are two settings for conversation that I enjoy immensely. 1) Sitting outside at a Tex-Mex restaurant with a margarita and queso dip 2) Anywhere that resembles anything close to the beauty of the German countryside, and German food. Clearly the secret to good conversation with me is having food and/or alcohol present!
Saturday we went to The RheinKulture music festival in Bonn (about a 50 minute train ride away). We had known about this music festival since one of our first days of work, but honestly I didn’t know what to expect. One of our co-workers is a DJ for electronic music – his stage name is tüttechips – so that’s how we even found out about it. There was tons of people there- almost 200,000!
Here are some pictures:
This guy wasn't suppose to be in the picture.
PiKapp International ScholarsI think I mentioned this in the last post, but I have been trying to see Ben Folds live since I was a junior in high school. It was great finally getting the chance to see him, but I was really disappointed with the crowd. I was probably 1/7 people (of the 30,000 packed around that stage) who knew the songs he played. He tried to be funny between songs, or do his typical routine of getting the audience to be a back up chorus to his songs, but they all failed. Everyone was there to see the band after him, something called like SchillerSwainRammstein. Sadly he did not play Philosophy, Andrew. Regardless it was awesome to hear him perform live!
This weekend is The Christopher Street Celebration, or gay parade, in Cologne (which is a pretty funny time to have a friend come visit!). The PDA between all couples (gay and straight) seems to be a lot more frequent this weekend – which is a ton! Germans get a rap for being cold or insensitive, but from what I’ve seen here, they aren’t afraid to show their significant other how much the love them (or their neck, ear, etc.) in public. I think being in Cologne this weekend might have tested Kiesel’s catholic school roots! Haha
Short week before an expensive trip coming up.
*I’m completely making that up
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