The Wedding

I had this great opportunity to go to a wedding. It was the son of my landlady who was getting married. We were told it started around 8ish in the evening. An American friend and myself arrive at the groom's house around 8:30 and are basically the first ones to show up. There was this ornate arrangement of flowers and traditional things of dates and sweets right at the entrance of the house ( I would have taken a picture but I felt awkard enough as it was). This was a gathering of the groom's family I think. Women all dressed up in elaborate dresses all sat in one room while the men sat in another. Slowly over the course of a few hours, more and more people show and soon its packed, standing room only in the house. All during this time, waiters are bringing coffee, tea, and little sweet appetizers. Then my friend and myself were invited outside and we see these guys all dressed traditionally with flags (pictured). They start playing music in the street and go into the house. They play and dance around a little while. Then they take a place in one of the rooms and start playing really loud. Making any attempts at conversation impossible. Then soon after everyone starts getting up and leaving. I had no idea what was happening, but thinking, 'where's the bride?'. Sure enough, the bride was some place else and we were all going to her. So we got a ride with some folks. We followed the music guys, b/c no one apparently knew where this place was.We got lost, but eventually found our way! The bride's family ( i think) rented this huge fancy place for the reception or something like it. There were atleast a couple hundred guests. Both families were 'well to do' to say the least. It was a culturally packed night for me. 

Music Galore

Here are the music guys inside the groom's house. They sing and play and people clap and sing along. The camera guys were around the entire evening. Since they are at the heart of the action I was trying to capture, they are in most of my pictures of this evening. 

Another shot of the groom's place

 

Scot and the groovy groovy hiptones

Hey its me and the music guys in the background. We are in the street about to go into where the bride's place. These are the guys we followed from the groom's pad and got lost on the way 

Bride's Box

Here is the bride, as she is brought in to the reception hall. They play really loud music and dance her around a bit and show her off to all the guests while she's in the box. Afterward, They walk around and make sure they see all the guests, then they go to a raised platform (so we can get a good look at them) and sit and take pictures with family while we watch (and go deaf)This whole time they are bringing drinks and little sweet appetizers. I had to leave early, around 1:30am. They were bringing the first course of the meal when I left! The wedding would continue on until around 7 am. 

The boxes

Here is the bride and groom in their boxes as they are being carried in on the shoulders of the attendants. In a more traditional wedding, the bride would actually be carried through the streets in a enclosed wooden box. 

Upon the Roof

ah, the city life.These are some shots from my roof top. You can see lots of satellite dishes and clothes hanging out to dry. I don't have a tv or satellite dish. My computer provides plenty of distraction as is!

more roof tops 

up on the roof

I have started a new language class, this is my new book. It has a little dialogue and then extra phrases and verbs that go along with it. I am in class with 3 others. A young couple with a 4 month old child and a nurse from the Congo. Its a diverse class! 

Introducing my new coffee maker! Some friends back home helped me buy it! THANKS! 

I am finally feeling better after a bout with bronchitis. I was feeling rather horrible and was trying to stay away from antibotics because I thought it was just a viral thang. I found on the internet (not the best place for medical advice) that the asthma inhalers are the best thing for viral bronchitis, so I got me one and it seemed to help alot, especially with the coughing. The families here were so helpful and made me lots of chicken soup. It was all very yummy. So today I needed to go to the market to get some more fruit and I see these HUGE oranges. The watch and apple are there for a comparison. The oranges just seem rather large to me, so I had to buy some.  

me in rehe

Its ME! In Rehe germany. I had a quick jaunt there to discuss a conference we will be having there later this year. It was nice and snowy! I was in a wardrobe dilemma: do I pack light and hope I can fit enough layers into my backpack/carryon (save the hassel and chance of losing it along the way) or take a huge ski jacket a friend loaned me which weighed more than my carryon and pack a suitcase. It was MUCH to warm to wear the jacket here in Mor. and couldn't carry it, too big to fit in my bag. So i decided to just try the layering method and take a carryon. It was only a few days, so it was not a huge deal. It worked very well. Of course, We didn't spend much time outside, thankfully. It was a productive and fruitfull time overall. I got to connect with folks that i've emailed alot but had not talked with them face to face, until this trip.
I have some sinus stuff going on which doesn't help the fact that the little tube in your ear that equalizes the pressure when you fly doesn't work so well. So I am having trouble still with my left ear.

The place

This is the conference center in germany. It was a wonderful place, very german. It came with a heated pool and sauna (for an additional entry cost, that is), lovely conference rooms with fireplaces, german food which was tasty (sans the liver). They had some rules though. Before eating, we were to be waiting outside the dining hall. Then they would open the doors and we were to come in and sit down quickly. The manager of the place would then read a bit of the Word, and pr. over the meal (in German). Then we got in line for the buffet of delicious breads, cheeses, and who knows whatelse was on it. Also, you had to wait at the end of the meal for another reading from the Word and another pr. It is a good practice, I was just not accustomed to it. Also, on the tables were this little trashcans. At the end of your meal, you would put all the left over food and trash into these little trashcans, and then stack your plates at the end of the table. This conference center was really a sorta an assisted living place as well. There was a group of elderly folks living there. Once the pr. was said, they ran to the buffet, while all the americans were., of course, talking very loudly. Its amazing how loud we really are. Another interesting rule (country wide I believe) is that you could not take off your shoes. The entire place was carpeted and when folks from this region of the world see carpet, they think to take off their shoes. Its a polite custom in north africa, but an offense in germany. Another rule, country wide apparently, is that there are 'quiet hours' from 1pm to 3 pm everyday. This is difficult for americans to adust to, being a loud people that we are.

This conference center was in the snowy woods. There was so much snow on the ground and it snowed alot while we were there. It was the dry cold, which meant it didn't feel very cool. Not much wind or anything to rip through you. 

It love these trees! 

A beautiful cathedral in germany we got to look around in. Those germans are all about being on time. The hours said they would close at 5:00pm and indeed, as the bells were ringing 5:00, the doors were being locked....with one of our group inside! But the guardian was gracious enough to let him out. 

An action shot of me being hit from behind with a snowball....being bushwacked, there's no honor in that:) 

A closeup of Scot getting bushwacked  

Its all syrup

well, its been a while since I last posted, so I figure I SHOULD post
something.
Since I have been living alone I have tried my hand in cooking. I have
entered these deep waters very gently starting with the easiest of things:
boiling water, spaghetti, eggs, French toast, pancakes, and the most
challenging for me so far: syrup.
Now, I know, many of you can just run to the local grocer and select from
such a variety of syrups, its mind boggling why someone would even need such
a huge selection of syrups. Here, syrup can not be found as such. So I have
attempted to make my own.
At first I was wanting to be creative. So I researched the web for syrup
recipes and found some with apples and pears and cinnamon. I like all of
these ingredients so much! And it was simple enough, cut of apples, pears,
throw in some sugar and a little bit of water into a saucepan and there you
have it. I have done this recipe a few times now with great success! One
day, when I was feeling very sure of my syrup making abilities, I thought to
myself, " if I can make this exotic fruit syrup, surely I can make the plain
ole everyday syrup (sans the maple extract)" So, wanting to try something
new, and not having any fruit in the apartment and feeling a bit too lazy to
walk a few hundred feet to one of the sellers; I decided to make plain ole
syrup (sans the maple extract). Seems easy enough. You just mix sugar and
water and let it boil until it gets sticky. I am not sure what happened
exactly, but the syrup jumped from the liquid state to a thick black mess,
very tar-like in feel and appearance. This made a horrible stench in the
apartment and had to open all the windows. Then when I took it off the fire
(gas heat), it quickly become much like plastic! A hard, black, stinking
mess I had. I thought I had lost the spoon and pan I used because it setup
rock hard (rock candy?). But with a little hot water and time, it all came
out of the pan just fine. So I figured I must not have been paying
attention. So, today, I thought I would try my hand again and keep a careful
eye on it. I am not much for multitasking, but I thought I could do it. So I
add sugar, water, a little vanilla sugar, and some cinnamon and let it cook.
I kept a watchful eye on this brew as I was making the pancakes. The brew
looked good, smelled good, and was nice and sticky. So I took it off the
stove, and started to pour it onto my pancakes, but I noticed it wasn't very
flowy. Then it setup and became like really old frosting, nice and hard. But
it wasn't black and it tasted good, but it was like rock candy on my
pancakes. But I would say over all, it looks like I'm getting better at it.
If you would like to add your favorite syrup recipe, please do.