Go Karts and New Friends!

It snowed a little bit today! Everyone laughed at me because I was so excited about what they considered no big deal, so I had to explain how rare snow is in Georgia. Nonetheless, I am really excited! So I had so much fun last night! About eleven people from my dorm drove to a nearby town to ride GoKarts. The other two girls, one guy, and I just watched. You had to drive for twenty minutes, and it was cold, so we just observed while drinking hot chocolate (Kakao) and eating nuts (Erdnüsse). When the guys came back in, we sat around for a while. They laughed hysterically about the race, and we began to get to know each other. Then we went to dinner at a restaurant, talking and laughing the entire time. My favorite thing about this group is how much they love to smile and laugh. Even when I have no idea what they are saying to each other, I seem to enjoy myself! Honestly, I feel like I have known these people forever because they are so friendly and easygoing. We went back to the dorm, and I had planned to go to bed. But when they found out that I did not have to work until 11:00am today, they convinced me to go to a bar here in Straelen for just a couple of hours. So we walked in the freezing cold to a little bar not far from our dorm and stayed for about three hours! All night, everyone asked me lots of questions and complemented my German. Gradually, they became more comfortable with me and would speak some English. One young man named Christian lived in California for six months, in order to learn the language and experience a different culture, so he translated things for us when we had trouble communicating certain words or phrases. One difference that I have noticed here so far is the drinking atmosphere. In America, some people use alcohol as an excuse to be loud, obnoxious and inappropriate. But that is not so with this group. As is custom in Germany, they drank much beer throughout the night, but they never got crazy or acted stupid or silly. They just enjoyed each other's company, talking about work and school and asking me questions about America and my life. For you UGA students...I made the mistake of telling them about Jager Bombs (a mixture of Jagermeister with Red Bull for those of you who do not know), and another young man, David, kept asking me if I wanted one. I refused multiple times, thinking he just wanted to oblige me. But then Christian explained that in Germany, if a man offers you an invitation to drink, you must accept the offer at least once or it is considered quite rude or unfriendly. So I drank a Jager Bomb in Germany hahaha! (But don't worry, friends, you still know me.) They like to toast to each other also ("Roast"), so we did that often. Ultimately, I had a blast and did not go to bed until after 1:00 am! As I mentioned in another post, everyone drives home on the weekend. Christian, however, lives nearby and offered to hang out with me when I am bored on the weekends. He is picking me up at my dorm tonight to show me around Straelen and the neighboring towns. He told me that he did not want me to get the wrong impression; he has a girlfriend and just wants to show me around Germany as people showed him around America. (That explanation is for you Pops, wink wink) So I am super excited about that! I am so thankful for these people and their kindness. They are very open and sincere, and I look forward to getting to know them better. I hate to admit it because I do miss all of you very much, but I fear that I will be extremely sad to leave this place and my new friends when May 2 finally arrives...