I'm on a Boat!!!

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Guten Tag,

I vus in Germany for zee weekend and I saw many different things jah!

Ok, enough with the atrocious German accent. Late on Thursday, we got on the bus, slogged through the traffic and arrived at Schloss Hachenberg 3 hours later than anticipated. It was pissing with rain when we arrived but dinner was waiting so I didn't mind too much. However, the beef (I think it was beef. It was dead whatever it was) was a trifle salty. And when I saw a trifle salty, it must have been marinating in the Dead Sea for a month prior to comsumption. That being said, the meat was much better than the mushy peas, which most certainly did not start off the night as mushy peas! I finally got the key to my room but very little instruction as to where my room was in the 8 buildings. I walked into building 8, which was supposed to be staying in. My directions were "go in and turn left", so I did. Well there are no lights in the building for starters. And there are 3 floors, none with lighting. I also had been thinking of the movie "Hostel" on the way up so that was complicating matters to no end! I finally tracked down a cute German girl and got her to lead me to my room. There are light switches in the castle apparently...

The next day, we had several lectures from members of various German banks as well as an econometrics expert. Don't know what econometrics is? Well, I sat through a lecture on the subject and I'm still trying to figure it out so you're not alone. I wad quite the lunch though. 5 students from the tour were selected to join the speakers in the historic dining room (one of the included photos). The lunch included a paprika and tomato soup, fish ragout and filet mignon and it was excellent. The room added to the atmosphere as well. I think met up with the tour of the castle before sitting in on a presentation from a member of the bank of Canada named Vladimir Putin...I mean Philipp Maier. They looked so similar!!! I then met up with my group that I was going to be presenting with the next day and we spent the following 5 exhilerating hours searching through documentation on industrial production and GDP indicators of both Canada and the EU.

The presentation took place the next morning. I led it, surprise surprise, and it went very well. People did not ask too many questions, which was pleasant, either due to the fact that they did not entirely understand the subject, or they were hungover after staying up until a ridiculous hour singing Triumph's defining hit "The Final Countdown". I still have the song stuck in my head. After the presentation, I wandered around the town with Andreanna and Taylor, the most awesomest person in the world (she may have added that line herself). The town itself was small but quite pretty and it aforded beautiful views on the rolling hills, picturesque villages and the castle. After dinner, some of the German students came up to us to ask if some of us wanted to play soccer with them. A few of us bravely dawned our running shoes (cleats would have been useful, as they had them), and joined them for the short drive through the sketchy Rheinvald to the pitch. The pitch was a mixture of grass field and what can be polietly described as a quagmire. You would run and then try to stop 3 seconds or so before you wanted to stop or you would fall. It still did not work efficiently. I spent more time flat on my back then when I was first learning how to ice skate! that being said, skating actually helped me keep my balance as I was sliding around on the pitch. I think the Germans thought we were going to be a bunch of pushovers but what we lacked in skill, we made up for in shear size and strength. My mixed team actually won the game, but we were all walking wounded. Taylor was limping badly, Alex bore the wore wounds of many a run in with me at the backline and I was limping from almost breaking my leg (it folded under me neatly before popping out from under me when I fell down). I also had a huge welt on my face that I had incurred when I was saving an orphan from a pack of wolves. Actually, it could have been when I went for a header and smoked my head into Alex's, but I like my version better. Martin, one of the GermanAfter the match, we went back to the castle and partied the night away with the other German students.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of church bells rining which normally would have been a pleasant sound, except my head was not so stellar after the previous night's somewhat hazy events. Later in the day, we had a trip to Koblenz planned. The town itself is pretty, but not that stunning. It's basically famous as being the point where the Moselle and the Rhine meet, and for a man who was executed during the 15th century. He smiled and stuck his head out as the axe came down and now there are small faces on buildings all over town. There were also some cool fountains in town including one of a small boy who spat water out at people who came too close. Sinclair managed to escape his wrath, but Sameera was not as lucky and she got a little wet when she wandered close to it. We then bussed to Castle Marksburg, which is one of the most picturesque and well-preserved castles along that part of the Rhine. Ok, let me rephrase that. We tried to bus to Castle Marksburg but the hill was to steep for the bus so we just jacknifed in the rode and held up traffic for a while. After several attempts, we just gave up at drove to Boppan, where we got on the boat, wearing my nautical themed pashmina afghan, that was to take us along the river back to Koblenz. The town was very pretty and the views from the boat were gorgeous. There were vineyards strung all the way along the banks and little villages dotted the sides. We did go past some castles as well, including Castle Marksburg, so I was able to get some photos of it from the outside. We got back on the bus in Koblenz, and went back to Hachenberg where we said goodbye to our many German friends, including the soccer star Martin.

Bye for now,

Peter

Things I learned in Hachenberg:
-My knee can bend in ways that can boggle the human mind!
-Singing "I'm on a boat", while on a boat, is a lot of fun.
-Rob McIntosh, University of Toronto, has some sick dance moves!

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Photos

Schloss Hachenberg
The castle we stayed in for the weekend.

The Historic Dining Room
Rob, Ryan, Xavier, Elaine, Peter.

Hachenberg
The house is this big!

Soccer
One last stretch before we dominated!

Old town in Koblenz
Look at the bottom right for great dancing skills from Rob McIntosh, University of Toronto.

Comments

[Andrea]

rockin' the boat
"I finally tracked down a cute German girl and got her to lead me to ..." HER room! Come on Peter, you've gotta try the "I can't find my bed, may I sleep in yours?" line. Sounds like you're having fun and meeting lots of people. Don't break yourself playing soccer too early in your trip because a nautical themed-plaster cast would only be sort of cool.