Dangerground!

Oh my goodness, I have been crazy busy. The past month has just flown by. My summer course ended on Thursday, and I've spent much of the weekend saying goodbye to new friends whom I've gotten to know well in so short a time. It is incredible how close we've become, even through language and culture barriers, all of us just here for the same reasons: to learn and live and experience Germany, to have an adventure.

Taking off (no worries, only a summary of the important and interesting stuff) from where I left off 12 days ago...

Grilling night was awesome. More than half of the 80 or so students in the IFK showed up, and we played volleyball, talked, ate wurst and drank beer. (There, Scott, are you happy? We're doing traditional German things!) I, Özge, and the Tequila Mädchen (2 Japanese girls... more on the name later) discovered a play place designed for children... on which no child should be allowed. It consists of six or so various play stations, including a giant continuous motion machine (you know, the metal balls dangling from wires that are supposed to move continuously once started) that didn't move continuously; two different tonal things, like upright xylophone-type deals (this made me rather happy, as I could play the Rugrats theme and Jingle Bells... ha), and a spinny roulette wheel. Ok, so these are fine for kids. Great. Love 'em. Fun for the whole family.

However, next on the path: little standing boxes just chilling out there, that, when you jump on them, tip to one side. Ok, fine. Kid's dumb, he gets hurt, his own fault. I can handle that. At least they're not pussyfooting around playgrounds like in America, where nothing is fun anymore. (It's just too damn safe, you know what I mean?)

Next up: A giant top. Yes, a top. The kind that balance on one point and spin around, and when they get unbalanced, tip to one side? Yep, that one. Thing about this one, is that it spins if you stand on top of it and run around in circles. Even better, load an American, 2 Japanese, a Turk, and/or a Frenchman on it and proceed to jump up and down and scurry from edge to edge. Safe for children? Maybe. Safe for 20-30 year olds in a festive mood? Probably not.

Oh, it gets better. Then, we found the slide. This is the most massive, amazing, beautiful, intimidating slide you've ever seen. High in the air is a tower of small logs, stacked haphazardly like pickup sticks. Out of it emerges a daunting chute, slick cold metal like water flying off a waterfall, two nearly 90° bends as it reaches toward the ground. Safe for children? Ha. Safe for me? Apparently not.

Yes, it is amazing to clamber your way up the pickup sticks to be king of the hill, then terrifyingly whiz down only to do it again. The other four stations in this area were contructed with logs in the same manner... except they included no slides, instead were connected together by three ropes, two of which you held on to, the other you tightrope walked.

Of course I was the first to conquer all of them. And, of course, on the last time down the slide, I jumped off and started running... only to roll my ankle. I sat there laughing, but by the end of the night could hardly walk on it and went home rather than wandering around the town with most of the rest of the group. (It turned out better, anyway... it rained on the group, and Florian, Amanda, and I met David and Rhaban - a tutor and his friend - in the parking lot and ate more wurst.

Fast forward: for the next week, I walked around with an ankle the size of a small baseball. However, the coolest part? I couldn't feel it at all.

Moral of the story: Children's playgrounds in Deutschland = fun at a cost.

Nachwort: My ankle is completely fine now. Please do not worry.