Day 23: Friday Brain Cramping (regularly scheduled) and a very wet Don Juan

[Photos to be added shortly]

Today, we had our usual Friday classes. Fridays are difficult because the brain can only soak so much up and by the end of the week it's getting really hard to even make cogent sentences, in English or in German, preferably one language at the time.

In Amelia's class, we reviewed complex sentence structure rules (term used loosely) today and she ended up hopelessly confused.  Perhaps the homework assignment will help her understand better.

In Andrew's class, they moved on to something... that now he can't remember, perhaps something to do with temporal prepositions, but he was dazed and confused at the time.  Yes, it's been a long week.

During the morning coffee break, we walked up to the tourist information office, which also functions as the box office, to pick up our tickets for tonight's show. We also bought t-shirts. Finally, someone has a nice t-shirt in a size big enough for Amelia! Europeans (and Germans specifically) are not often fat. We also bought a few postcards so Amelia can keep up the daily correspondence to our elderly homebound friend Bob (who has no access to email or the Internet).

After classes, we skipped the Friday fish lunch in the Mensa and went out for a quiet lunch of pizza at our favorite restaurant. We were there just in time to get served (lunch ends at 2pm) and ended up in the restaurant with only the owners (three generations) as they also ate lunch. We had fun talking to the daughter (age 14 months) and wife of the waiter/owner (his parents, from Sicily and Naples, own the restaurant).  His wife, however, is Russian. So we were speaking German in an Italian restaurant with a Russian who wants to learn English. We can't make this stuff up! It was fun!  We have spoken (bad) German with many Germans, but also with people from other countries of every continent. It's pretty fun and interesting, if sometimes frustrating when German is the only language we have in common and we reach the limit of our German speaking abilities.

Then, we went back to the Mediothek at the institute for a couple hours of studying.

That was followed by a cheap dinner at the nearest Döner Kebab house. These are common small restaurants, usually in a corner building, that are both eat in and take out (with an exterior window for ordering takeaway) that usually serve a mixture of German and Turkish (or other Middle Eastern) and perhaps American foods. Most have some combination of pizza, schnitzel, bratwurst (and curry wurst), döner (like gyros), burgers, falafel, and fries. This one is next door to the Goethe Institute. Another is about five doors down and yet another is a block or so over from that one. There are probably more we haven't noticed.

Most restaurants in Schwäbisch Hall have very set hours such as 11am to 2pm and 6pm to 9pm or some such. A few are open later in the evenings, especially on weekends. The Kebab houses, though, usually open at 10 or 11 and stay open until at least midnight. So these are the go-to option for eating at odd hours in the afternoon or night or just for inexpensive food.  For about $11 we can both get stuffed on bratwurst and fries and each have a small coke (slightly smaller than the US can of Coke).

This restaurant has a TV that was playing some sort of music video countdown and we saw Amelia's favorite German song (Haus am See by Peter Fox) being played!

Then we wondered home for more layers of clothes and our rain jackets, just in case, before walking to the Marktplatz (town square, market place) for the performance of Don Juan on the giant steps of the church.  The actors do their think on the giant steps (53 steps high) and the audience sits in chairs placed on the square below. It's a bit strange, but very interesting. First, we stopped at the bar to share a stiff drink. ;)

Then, we found our way to our seats, in the expensive section in the middle, row seven on the left aisle. Here are some before photos. We are not allowed to make photos or use phones during the performance so these are all you get.

Unfortunately, rain started coming down about 15 minutes into the performance. Everyone int he audience pulled out rain slickers and such. Some pulled out umbrellas. Most had very small umbrellas they kept down low so others could see, except for the man in front of Amelia, who seemed to have a golf umbrella and hold it very high, which obscured half the stage from her view.  After about half an hour, the stage manager came out and paused the performance because the rain was just too hard. He said we'd wait 10 minutes and see what happens. Meanwhile, we were soaking wet through our pants (below the rain jackets) and many people were pretty uncomfortable as it was a cold rain and the temp was about 50 degrees F. After 10 more minutes and more rain, the performance was cancelled. So, we spent over 80 euros and only saw 30 minutes of the show and got soaked. But, because it was cancelled we can get a refund tomorrow at the tourist information house.

We sloshed home and got out of all the wet clothes, leaving them hanging around the apartment to dry, and did a bit of study and reading before going to bed.