Summer Camp

Half liter and One liter beer at Hofbrauhaus

I never went to summer camp but right now I feel I’m going to one: I love it!!!!. Monday of last week was just like the first day of summer camp. July brought a lot of new students to the school. The majority of them are here just for 1 month to learn German during their summer break from school (most are going to college and then there are some that are still in high school). Some of my classmates from last month are also here this month. Meeting all the new students the first couple of days was exciting. It was once again asking and being asked the routine questions to learn about each other: how long are you staying in Munich? When did you get here? Where do you live? Why are you learning German? For how long have you studied German? and so on. Once again we have a very diverse group of people. We have students from the U.S, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Holland, Russia, Brazil, Italy, England, Syria and Madagascar. The school has prepared an aggressive plan of activities to keep all of us entertained during the month of July, so last week was pretty hectic. And since most of the people are here only for 1 month they want to take advantage of their time here and do something everyday. We have already formed a nice group of about 7 or 8 people who always go to all the activities planned by the school or the ones we organize ourselves when there is nothing planned.

Last week we went to what else but a couple of beer houses to get something to eat and of course to drink some beer. In Munich depending on where you go the price for a half liter of draft beer can cost anywhere between 2.50 and 5 euros on the average. The 0.3 liter beer can cost between 2 and 3.50. Now, the price for a Diet Coke (0.2 or .03 liters) can be anywhere between 2 and 3.00 euros. So from an economical point of view it does make more sense to drink beer. Right?? On Wednesday we went bowling for a couple of hours after lunch and ended up going to the famous Hofbrauhaus afterwards. This brew house is one of the most famous ones in Munich. It is quite a folkloric place. It is always full (mostly tourists) and there are some people who find it be too much: too crowed, too touristy, too cheesy, and too loud. But I love it. You are guaranteed to have a good time in there, especially if you go with a group of people. The place serves only about 3 types of beers (white, dark and helles) in the 0.5 or 1.0 liter glasses and sells traditional Bavarian food: pretzels with mustard, sausages, sauerkraut, pork, potato salad, and mashed potatoes. The waiters/waitresses wear the typical Bavarian dresses and they have trouble understanding the meaning of the word service. However it is lots of fun. You sit on some very long wooded tables with benches (picnic style) and you have to find yourself a place where to sit down. You usually have to sit on the same table with other people you don’t know, but after the first beer you end up cheering with them (Prost! in German), coming up in their pictures and they end up coming up in yours. And even those who do not speak a word of German learn some of the very basics of the language from their German neighbors.

On Thursday the school went once again to the Tollwood festival. This time around I couldn’t make it since I had already made plans to go to a salsa dancing class. Not that I came here to learn how to dance salsa but when my tandem partner told me about it I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to see some Germans trying to move their hips to the rhythms of Marc Anthony, El grupo Niche and Oscar de Leon. We got to the dancing studio and the advanced class was going on. I have to say that I was very impressed with what I saw: very advanced moves executed to perfection, very natural movement of the hips, and a very natural way of dancing. I entered the "rueda" (circle of dancing couples) to discover the person calling out the different steps was German: "guapea, dame, setenta, enchufa, etc etc" with of course a heavy German accent. "Eeehhh, excuse me??? Habla español? Repeat please?? "– That is what I felt like saying but of course didn’t. I could hardly understand him so I just let the men lead the steps. I was also laughing inside because every time some one stepped on me or I made the wrong turn they would tell me something in German and I would just smile. It was just surreal. The teacher showed up a couple of minutes later. He is Cuban but of course he taught the class in German: "Zurück, bin ban ban, Links, bin ban bon, Rechts, bin bon bun", die Hüfte (the hips) bin ban ban". Once again very surreal. After the class there was a 15 minute introductory class for absolute beginners. That was just too much for me to try to describe it. All I have to say is that I admire their will and enthusiasm in wanting to learn something that is so different from who they are. But with perseverance, discipline and practice they will get to be where my counterparts from the advance class are.