#18 Adam in Quakenbruk, and taking over Bremen with Tom

I was kindly picked up from the train station by adam who treated me to one of his favorite german meals; burger king. We then headed to his apartment which we were welcomed by the main light in his main room which is a bright red light. Imagine looking up at his apartment window and seeing me with my shirt off with a bright red light behind me; exactly. So you can imagine my dissapointment after standing there for a number of minutes and not getting any takers. Adam has two beds, both in his room and the foot of each bed facing each other so when we would wake up we would sit up and be looking directly at each other. So while dragging one of the beds out to the main room adam tells me that for breakfast I can eat some of the corn flakes in the cupboard. While I'm thinking to myself how nice this is of him, he adds, I bought them on accident and hate them, if you add some sugar it will make them better. So with the bed out in the main room and tucked behind the couch and under the slanted ceiling I can now sleep comfortable in my little cocoon.
I got a chance to walk around Quakenbruk which is a quaint little town where everyone knows everyone's business. I went to the mid-friday farmers market and explored the city.

Adam was raised by Giggles and The Footer. If you visit their home you will see lots of frog statues and frog things around the house. The story behind the frogs I will not be able to tell because the Footer swore Giggles to secrecy about the story. Now, Quakenbruck means frog bridge. All around town there are little frog statues in front of shops that are all painted different ways; we quickly named these 'Footer's Frogs'. You will see a seperate folder of pictures with these frogs and you may also notice letters held up near each frog which may bring us closer to understanding the deep, intellectual inner workings of the Footers mind. Feel free to comment under this blog or ask footer questions (footer-you feel free to explain as well, if only the frog part of the story was the strange part.

Adam plays professional basketball here in Germany. Friday night the trainer of the team had invited the coach and all the players over to her house for dinner. This turned into the team + Steve dinner. They would not serve any of the team alcohol this night but we quickly came to the conclusion that I am not on the team which would mean that I was allowed wine while the rest of the team sipped on apple juice. While sitting outside with adam and a couple of other players the hostess continued to bring us plates and plates of delicious meats put together by the self proclaimed grillmeister; she also felt it necessary to keep my wine glass full at all times. At one point she became busy putting meat on my plate and instructed one of adam's teammates to top off my glass. The teammate she picked out was not only a basketball player who is used to being pampered, but one who is used to top notch pampering as he has had a few stints in the NBA. When she told him to go inside and, "grab steve some wine," I just broke down laughing and could hardly contain myself. Needless to say he was very confused and didn't retrieve my wine. After thanking our hostess she made me promise that when I come back through I would stop by again; how could I refuse.

It didn't take long to understand adam's life here in Germany; it reminds me of...oh yes, the same life he lives in the US. He wakes up and eats some cereal, goes to practice, comes home and eats an american deli sandwich or pbj and watches american tv. He then rests and dreams about happenings in the US before heading back to another practice where most of his teams are american including the coach. Back home to read books or listen to music sent from the US. Even at restaurants he orders in english, but to give him credit he will say goodbye or thank you some times in german.

My next day of walking around the city an old lady was walking down the sidewalk and had a bad fall. I ran over to help her and helped her from her stomach to her knees which is when I think she said to give her a moment. So while standing there and waiting for her and some movement she continued talking to me in German and I just rubbed her shoulder and back for moral support, not having any clue of what in the world she was telling me; alright well maybe she was saying "I can't believe I fell, I'm alright, I'm ready to get up, do you have any idea what I'm saying". A few older people came to help and check on her and I think they were asking her if I took her down. After getting her up I gave a smile and walked away a new man, a little confused but I also felt like a small time superhero (who doesn't speak german).

I then headed north saturday afternoon to visit a german friend, Tom who lives in Bremen and I haven't seen for a couple of years. We decided that we would take over the city. We sat at his house, had a great dinner and decided to drink a few beers with a couple of shots to help it go down smoothly. A couple hours out on the town and it was time to walk home. On the way home there was a big house with a wedding party which of course I thought, "I've seen wedding crasher, I can do that" So into the party I went not thinking about the small details; once again my lack of german and the fact that I had on shorts and a big sweatshirt. I didn't stay too long.

The next morning was not the best morning I've ever had but Tom was there to help me feel better, with a plate of sandwiches, a tall glass of water and a playboy magazine he thought would help the recovery. Low and behold the magazine was in german so I couldn't even read the articles, the nice gesture made me feel better though. We then went on a tour of Bremen to check out the downtown, the river walk, the university, and the lake. Tom had recently seen his first episode of friends and quite enjoyed it, so he decided to order a season. Which season would you start with, probably the same one that he chose to start with; season 9. We watched 9 episodes of season nine on Sunday, made for a successful day.
Tom-Thanks for the great night out and full city tour; I loved it and enjoyed eating more German food in 24 hours then I have during the week with adam.

There are more pictures in the Germany folder.

Choos