What do you mean it’s Wednesday tomorrow?

Time is just flying by at the moment. I can’t believe I’m into my third week at work already! It’s probably a good thing though – if it’s going fast I must be enjoying it, right? I mean, we all know what they say about time flying…

So last week was the 5 year reunion of the very first year I spent in Karlsruhe. I was one of the group of internationals who did their year abroad in 2003/04 (yes, I do realise 2003 was 6 years ago. Obviously it was the 5 year reunion of when we left). The first of the group, and probably the person I most wanted to see, arrived on Sunday 6th September, which is why I cooked dinner that day. There were 6 of us and I made pumpkin lasagne. It was a total experiment… I had never made anything with pumpkin before, never mind lasagne, but it turned out great.
Monday was my day of rest, then on Tuesday the next group arrived, and from that night on things were just crazy. Most nights I went to meet the others straight from work, coming home just in time to fall into bed before starting all over again the next day. I’m in desperate need of sleep now, but it was all good fun and really great to see the others again. None of us seem to have changed much… the only difference is now we have grown up jobs. And 2 sets of couples who met back then are married now. The last of the group departed yesterday but we’ve already decided when the next reunion will be… in 5 years time, 2014. But this time we’re doing it in August so that the teachers can make it as well.

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Weekend activities

I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me. The group of friends that Jan went to uni with are having a kind of reunion in Karlsruhe. Most of them live here anyway, but we don’t see as much of them as we’d like, but others have moved away so they’ll be coming down.

It all starts tonight when Jan and I shall be cooking. Last year his friend Eff married a Japanese girl. I didn’t go to the wedding because it was on a Friday, 10 days after I started an internship. Not the best time to ask for a day off! Jan was there though. At some point during the evening all the guests played musical chairs (kids games at a wedding – strange people the Germans!). Whenever someone failed to get a chair and had to leave the game they were given a piece of paper with instructions on, some nice thing to do for the happy couple. Jan’s said “invite the bride and groom to your place in May 2008 and cook something nice for them.” Of course, Jan being Jan, he didn’t actually manage to invite them for dinner in May. So tonight he’s finally getting round to it. This means I’ll be going round to his place tonight to help him cook, and I’ll be staying the night (a fact that his flatmate wasn’t too pleased about but tough. it’s not just his flat!)

The cooking shall be followed tomorrow by an activity for all – karting. There were various options for things to do (I wanted to go paintballing but too many people said no to that. Boooo). The choice was eventually made for go karting, because it was the only indoor suggestion and the weather forecast doesn’t look good. So karting it is… my legs hurt just thinking about it!
The evening shall be spent recovering with a meal and some drinks at Vogelbräu, a local brewery, then on Sunday morning we’re all going for breakfast somewhere… location to be decided.

Phew. Lots going on. Told you it was going to be a busy weekend! So I’ll be back on Sunday evening to tell you all how it went.
In the meantime have a great weekend people.

Beelzebub in a bottle

Jan and I went to the Bierbörse again yesterday. We had to. We had to find beer for my dad. He’s a big fan of beer is my dad. Not just any beer though. Oh no, it has to be proper beer. No lager allowed. The kind of beer he has isn’t chock full of chemicals and – shock, horror – can actually go off. Over the last few years his friends and relatives (with the exception of my grandparents) have developed a kind of competition to find new beers for my dad. Everyone wants to be the one that presents him with the most beers he hasn’t already tried. Jan and I have a slight advantage here, being in Germany. Everyone else can only check out their local supermarket and hope my dad hasn’t already discovered the ones they find. The beers we find tend not to be available in England. Big points for us. So yesterday we headed to the Bierbörse and checked out the “113 beers from throughout the world” stand in search of interesting beers. We ended up getting three – one from Brazil, one from Ethiopia (cos it sounds dead cool, even if the beer turns out to be crap) and a French one that I chose purely for the name. It’s called Belzebuth and has a great picture of a demon on it. Beelzebub in a bottle.

Later we went and met some of Jan’s friends at Cafe Max. The group that he hung around with at university are planning a kind of reunion next weekend. Most of them still live here and we see them reasonably often, but some have moved away, so the Karlsruhe dwellers decided a reunion was in order. They are currently trying to plan activities for the weekend, so we met up last night to discuss it. A number of activities had been suggested, including clmbing, bowling, paintball and go karting. Personally I was for paintball (I’ve wanted to do that for sooo long) but I was outvoted. Boring gits! Bowling, they decided, is boring and can be done any time. So it’s been decided that climbing will be the first choice with karting as an indoor alternative for bad weather. Boo, the two things I least wanted to do.

Today we’ve mostly been looking at tourist activities in Scotland. The boyfriend and I are planning a trip to Edinburgh. In October. Are we insane? Yes, it is entirely possible that we are. Oh well, if it rains I suppose we can always just spend all our time in bed 😉