May 16th was fathers day in Germany, although not the typical fathers day I would have expected.  In the United States fathers day is celebrated to honor fathers and the family.  Maybe you get together with your family for dinner or just give your dad a call.  No matter what you do, if you are doing something it probably revolves around the family.  Apparently the German fathers day takes a slightly different turn.  May 16th is actually the christian religious holiday Ascension Day to celebrate the day Jesus ascends into heaven. ( It seems like every week or two there is a holiday in one fashion or another right now.  Tomorrow is another holiday.  I think this is the third time in the last 5 weeks.)  Instead of celebrating the religious holiday, a lot of men without children decid to celebrate May 16th as “fathers day”.  Honoring the fact they haven’t become dad’s yet.  We were enjoying the day off by having lunch with friends when a tractor pulling a wagon went past the window.  It was hauling people around while they were drinking.  Similar to a day time hay ride with alcohol.

Even though I fall into that category of a childless man, I don’t think I’ll be taking the part in future “German Fathers Day’s”.  Nothing against riding around in a wagon drinking.  It just isn’t something I would do.  I wonder how the event started and what its historical basis is.  One thing about living in Europe, things really do reach back for centuries.  There might have been people in the United States before it was “discovered” by the Western world, but those civilizations barely left their mark upon the average person from the United States.  Not so in Europe.  Somethings have been around for a very long time.  And there isn’t much that could or would change that.

(The link Ascension Day is a list published by the United States German Mission of United States and German holidays.  Specifically the days the embassy is closed.)

I was driving around today on my own.  I am finally getting adjusted to the differences between driving here and in the United States.  We have been trying to get the flat ready and it is consuming most of my time.  I can’t believe how time consuming this has been.  Scraping the wall paper off has taken far longer than I expected it would, but we are finally putting new wall paper back up.  Something else I can’t believe how hard it actually is.  Gluing it to the wall is a lot more tedious than I could have imagined.  I think I said this before, but it makes me glad I have never had to do it before.  The place has really changed a lot in the last week.  New windows and doors and new electrical wiring.  Also the tile is installed in the bathroom and there is even a toilet hanging there.  I haven’t tried to use it yet though, but I can’t wait until I can.  I don’t really enjoy walking down to McDonald’s to use the restroom.

As I was driving home from the flat for lunch I got a huge shock to my system.  There was an American flag flying outside a building in town.  I’m not sure why it was there, but it made me feel good to see it.  I brought my own flag with me when I came over.  Just a cheap one I bought at Wal-mart at come point.  Seeing that flag flying there in the breeze made me think of home and realize just how lucky I am to be from the United States.  Few other places offered the same advantages as having been born in the United States.  Even living in a country as stable as Germany there is still evidence of other possibilities that exist in this world.  Not that the United States is a perfect country.  Sadly the truth is the United States is far from being a perfect country.

Anyway, seeing that flag flying there made me feel proud of who and am and what I’m doing.  Amazing how symbols don’t really mean anything other than the emphasis we place upon them.  Yet our own feelings is what really gives symbols the power they hold.

As I have written before, I have driving a couple of times so far.  Never very far from home.  Last weekend I finally drove on the Autobahn.  Our little car isn’t really intended to be driven on the Autobahn, but it did a much better job that I thought it would.  The wedding was hours away and we didn’t want to be stranded without transportation if we went by train.  It really wasn’t much different than driving on the interstate system in the US with the obvious exception some places on the Autobahn have no speed limits.  So, if you are one of those people who thought there wasn’t I’m sorry to burst your bubble.

While I was driving I got the car up to 140 kph (90 mph) and I was still getting passed like I was standing still.  Not really surprising because our car really couldn’t handle the speeds.  We tried to keep it around 120 kph (75 mph).  There was a constant stream of BMW and Audi’s passing us by at 200+ kph (125 mph).

One interesting thing I noticed was they opened up the shoulder as a lane.  I think it was to help with traffic by increasing the four lane highway to six.  This wasn’t implemented everywhere.  It was always weird passing a semi on the shoulder.  Other than that it was pretty standard fair.  I imagine someday I’ll be driving at 200+ on the autobahn just to see what it is like.  I think I need to get more comfortable with German drivers before I attempt that though.

We went to a wedding last weekend and I had a great time.  It was a very unique experience compared to the other weddings I have been to.  It all started out pretty normal with a church service at this typical little German town church.  I guess the service ran about 30 minutes.  Three things during the wedding were different than your average US wedding. There were not any bridesmaids or groomsmen. The bride and groom had one person each sitting beside them at the alter, but other than that everyone else was in the congregation. The couple sits for most of the wedding.  And, the pastor read the vows the couple had written for one another. Instead of the short couple paragraph vows common at the weddings I have been to, these vows seemed to take a large portion of the ceremony.  That was probably just my impression though because I only understood a little bit that was being said.

After the wedding the couple road to the reception in a rebuilt Fairlane that was brought to Germany from the US.  They didn’t make it very far though.  Someone in the wedding party using the church after this wedding had parked in the driveway and the Fairlane couldn’t leave.  I thought driving away in a rebuilt car was a nice touch.  Especially since the groom had helped with the project.

The reception was pretty intensive.  Not your normal dinner and dancing affair.  We left around 4 AM and the party was still going.  The reception started with the bride and groom receiving the guests (and their gifts).  Most of which were wrapped in a clear plastic wrapping so you could see the contents inside.  It seemed important to gift something which you could show off.  We chipped in with someone else to give a framed picture.  After going through the reception line we milled around meeting people.  People found out I was from the US and someone came up to me to ask where I was from.  She spoke perfect english and I thought she might be from the US too.  She wasn’t though.

Dinner started with a salad / crab cocktail.  Then followed up by dinner which was served buffet style with a twist.  Each table had their own dishes and we passed them around.  I would go into what food was served, but I wont right now.  I ate so much I was more than stuffed and there was still more food to go around.  Later on the wedding cake was served.  This was actually 5-6 cakes on a stand.  Each cake was a little different.  Mine was some kind of strawberry cake.

After dinner was a mixture of dancing and speeches by family.  Pretty standard fair compared to a US wedding.  Mixed among that were skits and games played by the guests upon the new couple.  These ranged from the groom getting the toes cut off his socks to a quiz show where the couple was asked questions about their relation to skits preformed by the guests.  I have pictures we took, but I haven’t copied them to my laptop yet.  I’ll be writing more about this.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.