Wein Abend

Breaking from my usual of detailing school or family outings, I have a little bit to write about a fun night of partying at a friend’s apartment in Bremen. The evening, Friday, Jan. 6, was dubbed “Wein Abend” (wine night) by the hostess, Amelie.

Amelie is a friend I have made while living around Bremen. She is also a language teaching assistant and teaches French, because she’s from France (duh?). Oddly enough, most of the friends I have made that live in or around Bremen are neither German nor American. I have more French, Spanish, and Italian friends in my host city than those other two nationalities combined (almost all of whom are also language teaching assistants).

Anyways, it was a fun party – with lots of wine (every guest brought at least one bottle), cheese, bread, yadda, yadda, yadda. We were at Amelie’s until, oh, about midnight or one in the morning or so. Then we decided it would be a good idea to go out and hit a couple of clubs before it got too late. So, it was at around that time when our group of at least 10 people, a mix of several different nationalities, hit the streets. Long story short, we weren’t walking back to Amelie’s until 7:30 in the morning!

A good story that came from this night: Upon waking up on a mattress in the middle of Amelie’s living room (I wasn’t about to go home at 7:30 in the morning while still…under the influence…and already developing a hangover), I quickly realized that a very important item of mine is missing – my bag! I bought a bag that I call my “side satchel,” and take it with me everywhere. Eva, my sis, likes to call it my “man purse” when I refer to it. Anyway, this thing is extremely important to me. Not only for practical purposes, but also because in it are my house and school keys, my iPod, and a Christmas present from my family – Obama’s newest book, The Audacity of Hope. The first words that came to my mind are not appropriate for this type of media and audience.

Now, imagine this situation. You wake up fairly (that means very, in this case) disorientated and a little hung over from a long but fun night with friends, only to first realize that you are missing some very important things. To say the very least, I was not feeling too good about my current situation.

Despite my current levels of high stress, I was able to sit down and logically think out what happened. We first thought it was at the first club we went to, because she didn’t remember seeing me with it at the second and final club. Upon further review of the photos on my camera, however, we were able to establish that it was indeed with me at club #2. So the next thing we did was call Helga, who was also at the party and whose apartment we stopped at on our walk home early in the morning. To my great, great relief, it was there! Crisis Averted!

Photos from the night (the last one is "upon further review" picture!):