German Punk Rock

Well, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote. I hardly have time to write this account, but I figure that I must, it has been roughly five days since I last wrote – which only seems like yesterday.

And so I’ll begin with where I left off.

As I said in the last note, my suitemate, Bernhard, invited me to a party. I finished writing at about nine o’clock, and we decided that we weren’t going to go to the party until at least 10 or 10:30. I went back to my room to study up on some German. Bernhard, whose room is next to mine, was playing guitar. I could hear him playing through the walls. I didn’t know he played guitar, much less the impressive repertoire he knew. One song that I immediately recognized was “Halleluiah” by Jeff Buckley. As we walked to the party I told him that I heard him playing and that I especially enjoyed listening to him play “Halleluiah.” I found that we have some similar musical taste and we both agreed that Buckley’s life was cut much too short. I told him that I have a bunch of Buckley’s music and that I’ll give it to him if he’d like and he accepted. Now I just have to find some blank CDs.

So we arrived at the party, which was in a medium size room on the bottom floor of my building, but I forgot the five Euro that it cost to get in, so I ran back up to my room, got it, and then went back. Party guest received unlimited drinks with the five Euro, so I wanted to make sure to get my money’s worth.

There were about 30 people at the party. I was the only American when I arrived. Some people were surprised to see an American. I was very welcome to their party, but I guess the IES EU students that they had hosted in the past rarely socialized with anyone other than Americans. This, I thought, was a shame. I have heard some bad stories about past Americans. I hope that I can reverse this trend. Everyone at the party was quite friendly; many approached me and started conversations.

I’m about as poor at remembering names as Chief Justice John Roberts is at swearing in Presidents, but I can recall some of the people that I met at the party. They were all interesting and had a lot to share with me, but I can’t for the life of me remember their names.

A girl explained to me that she was often the target of criticism – friendly criticism, to be sure – because she was from Bavaria. She explained that Bavaria, which is in the Southeastern corner of Germany, is like the Texas of Germany – sometimes they think they’re another country and peoples and often express superiority among their fellow Germans. I later told Brett Aho about her Bavaria/Texas comparison and he said that he had never heard that comparison before, but that it makes perfect sense.

So she hangs out with the group of kids that my roommate, Bernhard, hangs out with. They were mostly all law students. They want me to come to class with them sometime. Their semester ends in mid-February and then picks up again in April, so I told them that perhaps I can join them in class next semester when, hopefully, I’ll know some Deutsch.

I was also invited to play Fußall (soccer) on Sunday. I was never any good at soccer; in fact I am quite bad. I was winged off international sports at an early age and stuck to the American sports, but I figure it’ll be a good experience, even if I get my ass handed to me.

Well the party was not much different than American parties except maybe a little better organized. Music played loud over some speakers. It was louder than I would have liked, but I was still able to talk with people there. Two ladies worked the bar, they were quick with drinks and easy on the eyes, but made poor mixed drinks. They simply mixed vodka with flavored soda. “Das ist nicht so gut,” I shared with a few of the people I was with. They all agreed. The party beer, Freiburger, was a cheap local brew, and while it was the least favored beer I had since I arrived here, it was better than any beer at a college party in the States. So I can’t much complain.

Another American, Pedro, arrived about an hour into the party. He is in the same IES program as me. He is a student at UC Berkeley, but grew up in Boston. Pedro seems like a sharp kid who decided, like me, to try and break the comfortable mold of only socializing with Americans. He’s a country music enthusiast – like me – and we plan to jam sometime in the near future. He is suitemates Bernhard’s friend Ferdinand.

Well the party went on, and I drank more, and as I drank more the more I continued to drag my German language further through the mud but also, the more I drank, the more I tried to speak German. I think everyone I talked to appreciated the effort.

A German punk rock band played at about 11 p.m. I forget the name of the band, but one of their longs went like this, “Yippieh yippieh yeah, krawall und remmidemmi.” Whenever they played this chorus, they silenced their instruments and had the crowd sing along. Of course, the first part is gibberish, but one of the kids I had talked to there explained that krawall meant rioting, but I don’t know what remmidemmi means, if anything.

The band sounded like most American punk rock bands I have heard: Loud and incomprehensible. They played a set that consisted of about 10 or 12 songs that lasted about an hour. It was a three piece band consisting of a guitarist, bassist and drummer. The guitarist sang lead while the bassist sang backup. There were no guitar leads taken and most of the songs sounded the same. But it was a lot of fun, everyone was having a good time and that was all that really mattered.

Most of the party moved outside after the band’s set finished. I talked politics with most of the law students. They’re encouraged about the new American administration. It’s amazing how much the election of Obama has already improved the States’ standing in the world.