VIVA MEXICO!

Last night, I was getting a little restless, and, as it was a Saturday night, I wanted to go out, preferably dancing. It had rained all day, Amanda and I made a million pierogi, and I was ready to go work off some excess energy. Thus, I called my friend Yu to see if she was interested, but I got no response. I then SMS'd Florian to see what he was up to. He was game for heading into the city, and we were about to take off when I got a call from my friend Miguel inviting us to a Mexican party celebrating the Mexican Independence Day, which is this week.

Holy goodness, is there ever a thriving, vibrant, open, friendly, and welcoming Latino community in Trier! I met around 20 Latinos, many from Mexico City, a few from Spain, and one particularly good-looking one from Venezuela, who has lived and worked in Trier for the past four years. Everyone was super welcoming to the two lost little Americans and their gangly German friend.

The party was a blast, held in the common area of a Studentenwohnheim for the Catholic college in the city. Delicious, flavorful, REAL Mexican food was devoured, including rice, mole, chili con carne, and some delicious taquito-type food. YUM. How thankful I am for the Latino community here! They were also very giving with their tequila, many various bottles and sliced limes lying around, everyone always asking if we had a drink.

After eating, it was around midnight, and one of the Mexican men got on the table and explained in Spanish and Deutsch the reason for our gathering, and we all yelled "VIVA MEXICO!" many times, celebrating Mexico's independence.

Then, oh then... came the dancing.

At this point, people were starting to loosen up a little, and the natural friendliness that is so often found in Latinos really geared up. I found myself talking for hours with four guys in particular, trading topics like one of their recent trips to Paris, one's home in Venezuela, jobs, school, and everything.

Over our conversations was the thump of beautiful bass, the glorious sounds of reggaeton, salsa, and other traditional and new Latin and Mexican music. A few people started dancing, and soon Amanda and I were being pestered to dance, also. I was interested, but I also was enjoying the conversations a lot, particularly with the Venezuelan, Eric. He asked if I knew how to salsa, and when I replied no, he said that when the next salsa song came on, he would teach me how.

And, oh, how he did! Eric is an incredible dancer! Wow! He can break dance, moonwalk, pop it with the best of them... and he taught me the basics of salsa, a little samba, and merengue!! It was SO much fun! I found myself whirling around the room for the next five hours, being grabbed by a different boy for every dance, and even when Amanda and Florian were practically walking out the door at 5 am, I was hardly ready to leave!

But, leave we did, walking outside, Eric accompanying us, and attempting to call a taxi. As the clubs were all emptying out at the time, we got no answer from two different taxi services, so Eric walked with us to the Porta Nigra, where there is perpetually a taxi or four waiting.

Thus, we arrived home, exhausted and excited... but with still enough energy to eat some of our millions of homemade pierogi.

Things are really looking up, guys! I'm excited to hear from my new friends (can I say that already) whom I met last night, and orientation starts next week!! Wow. Even though the weather is, as Amanda so aptly described, like a beautiful November day, the sun is shining, I've eaten REAL food again and danced my heart out (at least until tonight), met some great people who are here for the year (or longer!), and life is just plain awesome. :)

You're not gonna like this one, Mom...

So, Wednesday night, Amanda and I hopped a train at 5:50 pm to Luxembourg city with the express intent of seeing one of our favorite bands, The Faint, perform. We arrived in the city around 6:45 with an hour and room to spare to find the venue (which was supposedly a mere 200 meters from the train station) and also find something for Amanda to eat.

As we had been informed, the venue, den Atelier, was only a ten minute walk from the train station, which meant that we would, as expected, probably have to leave the concert with a half hour remaining in order to catch the last train from Luxembourg back to Trier for the night. We wandered around, found a delicious hamburger, and made it back to den Atelier, an old auto warehouse that had been converted into a venue in 1995 and has since hosted some huge name bands, including the Smashing Pumpkins (twice), with time to spare.

My goodness, was it good to see hipsters again, to see those music snobs who really DO exist everywhere! Luxembourg is actually a pretty cool city... I like that it's bigger than Trier and seems to have multiple genres of people, unlike the fairly static groups one sees in Trier. On the way to the venue, I got sparkled at, and Amanda and I were oohlala'd from a car. (Yeah, maybe a little creepy, but more hilarious and awesome that we were oohlala'd in a French-speaking country!) To pass the time before the opening band, we played Hipster Bingo, picking out such trademark hipster features from among the audience, such as trucker hat, 4 foot girl, Asian hipster, boy wearing girl jeans, and ironic mustache.

The warm-up act was talented, but laughable, mixing a bass, guitar, keytar, and drum machine well, but in a boring manner, and pairing it with lyrics straight out of an 8th grade poetry class. (Who whispers "my father's eyes" eight times during a bridge? Ugh.) But, they were amusing enough... and then The Faint came on.

Holy goodness, was I blown away! I had been expecting a great show, having heard the huge synth noises emanating from the venue during the sound check, but WOW. They are even better live than recorded, and their sound guy is incredible! (His name is Dutch... really, it is!... which apparently goes over quite well in Holland: "Hi, I'm Dutch." "Really. You don't sound Dutch.") They played almost all of their songs that I was hoping to hear including some good stuff off of their newest release, and also had a great show visually. The lead dude, Todd, wore a lab coat and goggles and ran around being awesome.

During the show, we met a chick who sort of "owns" her own media company. Basically, this means she runs around following bands throughout their tours, being a good girl groupie, and trying to get interviews with them. She does things like follow MCR their entire tour (not fucking sure why) and trying to get an interview but getting rejected by their media people, then holding up a poster at their last show and having Gerard grant her an interview.

Aaaanyway... yeah, her first words to me, after "Where are you from?" were, "Are you following The Faint?" Well, no... we're not exactly fangirls. But, I did start a conversation with her, and, after hearing we were from America, offered to see after the show if the dudes in The Faint would want to talk with us a little. This worked out well for us, as Amanda and I had already pretty much decided to say screw the train and stay for the entire show, which meant we'd get the privilege (?) of hanging around Luxembourg until 5:17 the next morning.

Thus, after hanging around the venue for a while after the show, I popped my head in the tour bus door asking if Brigitte was inside. Magically, a bunch of people started coming out of the bus, and Amanda and I ended up spending about four hours on the streets of Luxembourg, standing outside the tour bus, talking with various members of The Faint entourage. They were very nice, particularly the keyboardist, Jacob; the sound dude, Dutch; and the guitarist, Dapose. Their merch girl/tour manager/whoever exactly she is was also super... when she found out we didn't actually live in Lux, but had to wait around, these were her words: "Oh, you don't live here? You want some booze or something?" Ha.

And that is how Amanda and I ended up with a traveler of lime vodka and a huge bottle of Jim Beam, gifts from The Faint. (No, Mom, we did not drink it all. Enough to keep us warm... but we still have half the bottle of whiskey left over, and Jacob was the one who drank most of the other half!)

A good evening was had by all. We caught another train at 5:17 am, made it back into freezing cold Trier at 6:07, bussed back to the Uni, ate tortellini, and slept. We saw a great show, got oohlala'd and sparkled at, and hung out and talked about America and Europe with some great guys from Omaha, Nebraska.


Note to those in the Cities: The Faint are playing at First Ave in November. I highly recommend going... it's a great show!


NOTE: Thanks to Brigitte of TasteItTV for the great photos! Left is lead singer, Todd, right is Jacob, keyboardist.

Further news on the PDA Phenomenon

It's not so much that PDA irritates me or disgusts me, it's that Germans seem to take it just a little farther than Americans do. They really are a more liberal country.

For example, the other day, Amanda and I were sitting outside on a bench by the lake, just surfing the Internet and enjoying the day. A couple were also out enjoying the day... in fact, it is my belief that they enjoyed it quite heartily. They were lying on the ground together in the sun, in the middle of a green space next to a walkway, happily making out and fondling... for about 3.5 hours. They were still there when I finally left.

Another example: many German couples (granted, I see mainly university-age couples), instead of just giving each other a peck or holding hands will happily and completely obliviously grab, fondle, and make out with each other in very public places, such as directly in front of me in a café on the Uni which also currently contains 18 other people.

Do not like. Do not understand.

Is it just the hidden-until-now conservative American side of me? Am I wrong to be a little uncomfortable or offended by this? Is it only because I grew up in small-town Minnesota?


For those of you who are thinking, wow, this girl just has way too much time on her hands to be blogging about this... yes, you are right. Currently taking book recommendations for a massive Amazon order. Have recently been very into memoirs and autobiographies... anything that'll make me think.

Please respond.

An observation.

I'm a little surprised at (and a little tired of) the number of skinny little pale white girls sporting really bad white girl dreadlocks in Germany. What prompts this phenomenon? Is it the manifestation of marijuana and Rastafari culture through self-expression in a country that has relatively few black people to make white girls feel like dumbasses for having dreads?

Whatever the reason, dear white girls, you're not black. While I am all for self-expression and freedom of opinion... my opinion (and advice) is: Your hair does not dread well. Just give it up.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'...

Things are finally starting to gear back up here in Trier. Every day, I notice more students and become more familiar with faces I see around. Mao is coming back to Trier today to pick up her suitcase, which she left in my room as she travels the country, and I hope to spend some time with her before she has to pick up and leave again for her final destinations in Germany before heading back to Japan. Then, this evening, Amanda and I hop a train to Luxembourg City, where we will see The Faint in concert at an old auto warehouse that is apparently only about 200 meters from the main train station. With any luck, they will time everything just for us, so that we can see the whole show and still catch our last train back to Trier for the night. ;)

Miguel, a friend of mine from Mexico who is studying at another school in Trier for at least the next semester, informed me a few days ago that a whole gob of Mexicans is coming very shortly to Trier to study (25 or so!). He just introduced me to the first to arrive, Daniel, and it looks like my level of activity may very quickly rise... which will greatly benefit my sanity. Tomorrow, we are heading to a club in Trier, Forum, which is a pretty typical hip-hop type club. Friday, we have no plans, but I'm certain something will pop up. Saturday, we may make a day trip to Köln or Bonn and afterward hit up the club Produktion in Trier with Yu and Florian. Then, Monday is a Spanish national celebration, so the Mexicans are throwing a bash... with real, delicious Mexican food!! :D

Things are definitely looking up, my friends. Here starts the insane whirl of activity that will be my next year in Trier, I fear.

(How do you like that rhyming? Pretty snazzy, eh?)

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Today, instead of getting a mere 62 cents Euro for every U.S. dollar, I receive 70 cents on the dollar.

Pretty sweet, considering I waited until today to pay a deposit on my apartment. Rock on.

-----

Dear economy,

Please continue to stabilize. It really helps me.

Thanks. I really appreciate it.

Love, Amanda

WELCOME TO MY LIFE.