Last night was nice. We went to Stuttgart with a friend of Leo’s as well as Leo’s brother. We walked around the market which is supposed to be the best Christmas market in Germany. I tried the traditional German holiday drink which is hot wine with sugar. It was very sweet and warm, but two cups were plenty. Following the market, we decided to go to a bar for a drink, which was nice and warm inside. I tried some sweet beer, which was pretty good but I was feeling sugar overload by this point. We spent about an hour there and then headed back to the house where Leo and I stayed up talking late into the night about all sorts of things. It’s so funny how we’ve gone so long without seeing/talking and we talk like we never left each other. To me, those are true friends.
Today, Leo and I went into a nearby village to pick up a few things for her mom. It was so picturesque…all the little buildings with their German style. Postcard material.
After that, we went to the gym where one of her brothers works and did a little jogging/biking and tried a protein shake. Her siblings are so adorable. For the most part, I think they understand some of what I say, but they’re so shy to talk back. Simon made us our shakes and told Leo how badly he’d like to talk to me but he’s too slow and then he handed me my shake and says, “for pretty skin and strong muscles.” It was adorable and then I laughed and he turned a brilliant shade of red. How cute.
When we left the gym, it was dark and we had to hurry home to watch Leo’s acting teacher on some TV show, a German one, similar to that of CSI. He played a drunk and he did a very nice job. After the show, we got ready to go to a class reunion type thing of Leo’s high school. Here, I got to meet all her good high school friends, which are so pleasant and really nice. They spoke to me in English and we had some good conversation. After a couple hours or so, we headed out and went home. It was a fun time. It’s interesting to see how universal a lot of things are; that in the end, we are all very similar no matter where we are from. This reunion of friends occurs every year around Christmas when everyone comes home for the holidays. This occurs in the US too. Some people look forward to it, others go because they “should” go, others don’t go or don’t want to go. It’s interesting to me…and it also makes me miss home a little bit. Seeing Leo be reunited with her good friends that she hasn’t seen for months, seeing them hug and laugh and talk about so many things, really gets me thinking about my wonderful friends back home and how around this time of year we are always trying to get together and when we do, it’s like we’ve never left one another. Makes me wonder what it will be like when I finally do get home…
Reminiscent,
Maribel