The Kenyon Germany Connection

The summer holiday is in full swing here in Germany, and the period was exemplified by the spirit of this past week. It was a laid-back, slow week; most of my days were spent reading, writing, and napping. As if to join in the lethargy of everyone else getting a break from work and school the clouds have largely gone on vacation as well, and the weather is the better for it. It has been a good break. That said, I am reminded of how restless I become without any major activities to keep me occupied.

On last Wednesday evening we held a joint birthday party for TigerMom Monika and sister Anke, who share the same birthday. Preparations for this actually began last Tuesday, and continued all day up til party time Wednesday. Moving drinks and food and furniture along with cleaning were the tasks given us, and the familiarity of the chores reminded me of parties my family hold back home, with the hustle and bustle around the house in transit from everyday to party day and the unquestioned authority of the maternal head of the house. At Williams family parties, however, we never rent a full-sized fridge for beer. I think that might not be a bad habit to get in to.

    The spread. Thankfully, we were not needed in the kitchen, so the food turned out excellent.

At the party, the under-fifty set all sat at the oldest collected "Kid's Table" I have ever been a member of. I was the second youngest to Steve's girlfriend Sam, who visited for the week; in fact, the youngest neighbors at the party sat with us and brought along two baby monitors for their two children. I thought this was funny, especially since in my own family I have finally reached the age where I am usually no longer relegated to such a table when we meet, as Justin, Tori, Katelyn and I have moved up to adult age (Those all count as references. Let the games begin). Move to Germany, back to the bottom rung. It was a nice time, though, talking and drinking and eating with my host family and teammates. Probably better to be at the kid's table. My limited German could never have come close to keeping up with the laughing and singing and joking that continued at the main table long after I went to sleep. I think everyone had a nice time, especially Monika, and that was what we all wanted.

I did nothing much the next few days, as Mitch took a quick trip to Brussels from Thursday to Saturday and Steve and Sam left for Rome Saturday morning. But, finally, I got a visitor of my own to prepare for. Steve and Mitch have both had several visitors, and not having anyone familiar come myself after seeing the lift it gave them had begun to wear on me. I'm in a much different place in life than they are, so it makes sense that more people should find reasons to visit them than I, but even that logic doesn't make it any easier. I never really expected any visitors during my time here; the hope for that died sometime in late April. I was pleasantly surprised then, a few weeks ago, when plans were actually set in place to meet up with my good friend Kaye.  Kaye and I became friends only after I'd officially signed with the Tigers and she had committed to taking a job just outside of Hamburg upon graduating from Kenyon, which is ridiculous. Sometimes I forget that even though I feel I made good use of my time at school, I didn't uncover every stone, especially on my own, and I left without actually meeting many amazing people. In this case I got lucky. She and I have had mutual friends for the past few years at Kenyon, and in such a small place, the two of us were bound to cross paths. Somehow we never did, at least not to our cognizance, until February of our final semester when our good friend Kirkley realized that we would both be in Germany this summer. We became fast friends after that, and my last semester was the better for it. So, after spending the first part of the summer at home in Atlanta, Kaye and her parents came to Germany last week. Her father has been conducting genealogical research in Germany for a few years, and conveniently for us the ancestral home of the Ottens (Kaye's last name, for those of you unaware) lies outside of Bremen, a city only a short train ride from Osnabruck. She was able to plan on taking a day away from the genealogy to visit Osnabruck, after which I would come back with her to Bremen and spend two days and a night with her family while they sought out their German ancestry.

After preparing everything for her arrival on Saturday, I took a bus to the train station to pick her up and show her around the city. I managed to find her right as she got off the train, which surprised me. Finally after being here for two months I feel comfortable with the city and all that goes along with getting to it. It took longer than it should have, but at least it has happened. I surprised myself even more: I was able to get everywhere I wanted to show her without a map, and while we wandered between the landmarks found some new ones. I feel comfortable in Osnabruck; it is no longer just where I am staying while I'm in Germany. It's not quite home, though, so I shall say its where I'm living. This is still a big step, one I wasn't sure would happen. I've lived a great deal in my head since I've been here, too much, I think. Now I'm more here than I am other places, mentally, which is quite an accomplishment for me. We mixed the tour between the modern city and the old, successfully ordered lunch, and had a great time. Home finally came to Osnabruck. We had a nice dinner at home with the family, where I finally met my other host sister, Silke, and then it was off to Bremen by train on Sunday morning. 

 Love the street art. One of the new landmarks found wandering.

      Still not quite Middle Path, but enough for me to take pause.

The train ride to Bremen was easy, so while Kaye slept away some of the rest of her jetlag (you're welcome for only Snapping pictures of you to Leah and not posting one here) I got some reading done. Upon reaching the city we found her parents and geared up for another day of wandering. Kaye's parents are really very remarkable people. They are both involved in public health, as they describe it, which is why she grew up internationally, but you'd never know it; I never felt out of place with them. They treated me like someone they had known for longer than a few hours, and I cannot describe how much that hospitality meant to me. After a nice lunch at the foot of a windmill we used iPhone directions and her mom's curiosity to find some of the local landmarks. Bremen is a bit bigger than Osnabruck, and I could tell from what little of it we saw. The historic district is much less separated than ours is, however, at least from what I saw, so we took in a good amount of the city. Unfortunately on Sundays many things are closed, and we missed out on touring the Beck's brewery. The third best German beer* and still didn't get to see how it's made. Maybe next time. Anyway, we saw some incredible churches and old buildings and a statue that Kaye's mother had been looking forward to seeing that came from her favorite Grimm's tale, The Musicians of Bremen. I even stepped out of my comfort zone and had a glass of wine in an old wine cellar restaurant, which supposedly housed twelve of the oldest wines in the world. The giant decorative casks around our small cafe table looked fit to the task.

Train stations have been some of the coolest buildings I've seen in Europe

Kaye and mother with the Musicians of Bremen...should've gone with the glamour pose

 Too bad that confused looking tourist got in the nice picture with Kaye and her dad...

Wine cellar

On Monday we went out to the countryside for the genealogical fun. Kaye's father hired a German genealogist to help him in his search, and he proved to be incredibly thorough. They had traced the family back all the way to the 1600s, even though the initial immigrant to the U.S. came over in the 1830s. It was incredible walking through the small farming village the family seemed to have links all over, especially when a knock on a door on a whim proved to introduce us to their closest living German relative. I was honored to be privy to these discoveries, and I wish that I could find something out about my own family, especially since I just recently realized I'm more German than I knew. I planned to conduct some of my own research at a museum that had been recommended to me in Bremen, but it was outside the city and out of reach. Sorry Aunt Mary and Bama. After a full day of this, we returned to Bremen, and I said goodbye at the train station and took the short ride back to Osnabruck. It was a fantastic weekend, and perfectly timed. 

A real thatched roof...one of the cool buildings in the village

It's good to have someone from home close now. With our schedules, both of us being professional athletes of sorts (Kaye moved over here to train and ride dressage horses. I don't quite understand all that goes into it, but I assure you, it's a big deal. I plan on learning how much, if I can) we may not see each other often, but Kaye being only a little over an hour away by train is certainly reassuring. She owes me a city, anyway, so I look forward to seeing Hamburg once she's more acclimated. No pressure. Until then, I plan to enjoy my break, biding my time until I get to play again. But that day will come. For now, I'm happy to have taken another trip with another great group of people. If that remains a theme in my travels, I will be better for it.   

*For the reasoning behind my ranking, follow this link. The evidence is indisputable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my-VMxj6YlI