Halloween Weekend & Wine Tour

Frankfurt

This past weekend, two fellow CBYXers, Helen and Whitney, came to visit me in Mainz. Thursday night Helen got in and we went to a school-sponsored bar crawl…. And all the bars were on campus (only in Germany). Friday, Whitney got in and we all got lunch with Khoa and Howard at a Thai restaurant (you know, trying to expand my horizons) and walked around the city a bit. We then made our way to Frankfurt for dinner at a well-known German restaurant with Khoa and his friend, and then met up with another CBYXer, Kris, and his friend to go to one of the biggest techno clubs in Germany. This place got a lot of hype from Germans and foreigners I talked to, so we were really excited to go, and were even convinced in spending 20 Euro to get in. Big mistake. It was definitely very UNDERwhelming, and we didn’t exactly have the greatest time. We were also locked out of the Frankfurt train station until about 4:30am when it opened back up, and then missed the first train back to Mainz. Ah well…..

Wine Tour

Saturday was much better. With only about 4 hours of sleep, we made our way back to train station to meet up with some friends and go to Ruedesheim and Bingen, two beautiful wine-growing regions along the Rhein river. We first made our way to Ruedesheim, where a festival was going on celebrating the last days of growing Federweisser (a special kind of wine produced around here). The town was super small, and we definitely got that “typical German town” feel, especially since there weren’t very many people at the festival, as opposed to the bigger festivals where a lot of foreign tourists come in. It was pretty cool. We then took a ferry across the river to the town of Bingen, where our vitner awaited us. He had the coolest dog that followed us around the entire day. I’m biased, though, since it was so similar to my dog, Samson, back home, only a smaller, girl version. She was a small, chocolate lab named Vinya (Italian for vineyard) and incredibly playful and energetic all day. Samson, I miss you!

Anyway, the tour was interesting. Some of my friends that went said it was way different than any other wine tour they had been on, but seeing as I’ve never been on one before, I don’t really know why. He walked us through the really small town up to the hills of his vineyard, and showed us the difference between grapes by allowing us to eat them and taste the difference. There also happened to be a castle at the top, where the city government did its work, so he took us up there to explore it a little bit. There was a well outside the castle that was extremely deep and looked like it went on forever. It really reminded me of the eternal hole in the movie 300, where the Spartans just throw people into it hahah… it was kind of eerie.

After touring the vineyards, we went to his restaurant in the middle of town and sampled a couple of his wines. He told us he definitely wasn’t in this business to make profit, and that he had actually lost a lot of money this past year, but it is a family business and it is what he loves to do. He also designs the wine labels himself, which I found pretty impressive. We then ate some traditional German dinner (cold gamey meat platter, anyone?) and headed back to Mainz.

Halloween

Saturday night, we went to a student dorm for a Halloween party. While the majority of people were dressed up in “scary” costumes, Whitney, Helen, and I dressed up in our dirndls from Oktoberfest (we have to get as much use out of them as possible!) Whitney talked to a girl from Bavaria and she said she didn’t understand what was “scary” about dirndls for Halloween. She tried to explain to her that in America, we pretty much dress up as whatever we want and it’s acceptable hahah… it was a bit awkward though.

Random Festival

Sunday, we ran into some random festival that was going on in the entire city of Mainz. It was especially weird since NOTHING happens on Sunday in Germany, so to see so many people out and see even businesses open was a pleasant surprise. We walked around the whole day, checking out random concerts that were going on, and trying out all the fun festival food. We tried looking for signs about what the festival was for, but we still have no idea.

French Dinner

Monday and Tuesday were spent getting some much needed errands done. Tuesday night, my French friend, Jenny, and her French boyfriend, invited me, Khoa, Howard, and our Korean friend, Jay, over for a “traditional” French dinner. Although they went to college in France, they are actually both from a really small island next to Madagascar called Reunion that was once a French colony (but is now part of actual France), so they said the dishes they made weren’t as traditional French as we would think. It was basically just rice, beans, and chicken, but sooooo much more delicious than it sounds. The sauces, spices, etc. that went with everything were amazing. I really need to start trying more things! Haha…. Then we had a chocolate cake for dessert that Jenny’s boyfriend made from scratch (keep in mind that in our dorm we have no ovens) so that made it that much more awesome. I told them I would cook them Cincinnati chili sometime, but I don’t think anything I make could beat the French! Next week Khoa is going to make some traditional Vietnamese food. There's a first time for everything...

Other News

-          Met with my regional rep this morning. Definitely need to find an internship soon… and it seems like it will be harder than I originally thought.  

-          Apparently Khoa, Howard, and I are getting a private German tutor since the University won’t allow us to take more German language courses since we attend the Fachhochschule. Let’s hope it helps.

-          Going to Berlin this Friday-Monday for an inWent Seminar over Media and Politics. I will be seeing Helen and Whitney again there, along with some other CBYXers. We’re getting free transportation, room, and board, which is definitely a good way to spend my first time in Berlin! We are also getting a tour of the German Parliament and tours of the big media studios. Whitney and I are going to spend an extra night there for some free time as well. Can't waitttt

Check out pictures from Frankfurt, the wine tour, and Halloween here!