One of my more interesting classmates

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In the school kitchen I always see the same faces. Asian faces, to be exact, because we're the ones who are too cheap (and too poor) to eat out.

There is a guy from Japan who always eats pasta because it's the cheapest thing you can buy and eat around here, and he has a funny little sense of humor (regarding the pasta, and overall).

The other day while we were eating it came about that we started to talk about what we did before we came to Germany.

Turns out that Mr. eats spaghetti everyday back in Japan is a shoemaker. He hand makes shoes! I looked down at the shoes he was wearing and I asked him if he made them. Yup, he did. That is sooo cool. And what was even cooler for me, personally, is that I have noticed his shoes before and thought they were really nice and would have complimented him on them had he been

1. a girl (cuz you just don't go up to a dude and say, hey I really like your shoes) and

2. more profficient in German or English (cuz I don't want him to get the wrong idea, as if I was hitting on him or something).

So during our lunch that day, him with his spaghetti, me with my spaghetti, we talked about his shoes.

I asked him how long to make a pair of shoes.
It takes 5 days to make a pair (the pair he was wearing).

I asked how long he's been doing this and why is he here studying German.
He's been a shoemaker for 5 years, and he's here because in the fall he wants to go to Munich and learn how to make orthopedic shoes.

I asked him how much he would sell his shoes for (because, you know, if I wanted to buy myself a pair...)
He said he works for a company, and the shoes go for ... and he's calculating the exchange rate in his head....


between 1000 and 5000 Euros.

*gulp*

Ok. So guess I am not coming back to the US with my own pair of handmade shoes.

The ones he's wearing, he said, would probably go for 1500 Euros.

We had a good talk. I didn't have a camera with me during lunch that day but I said I will take a photo of him and his shoes the next time when I see him. And next time? Turned out to be dinner, in the kitchen again.

PS. He washed my dishes for me again. First time was about 2 weeks ago when me and another girl and him were eating dinner together and afterwards we played rock-paper-scisscors to see who should do the dishes and he lost. He did mine again for lunch because he said I was a good teacher. :-p

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Photos

Mr. Shuhmacher
Funny man, very nice.

Mr. Shuhmacher II
Posing for me.

Mr. Shuhmacher's handmade shoes
He took them off for me so I can get a better shot.

Comments

[Markk]

Glad to year you're enjoying Germany
These youth hostel situations are kind of cool, huh? Thanks for the myrids of updates along your travel. Glad you will have lots of good memories!

[Wendy]

not just crazy man on the street!
See you got a nice shoemaker washing your dishes! That's an improvement from being accosted on the street with a proposal.