Adventures in Freiburg

I think that it's safe to say that all of you (assuming anyone is actually reading this blog, which I doubt somewhat) have begun to gather that I am not a terrific blogger. Unfortunately, this is somewhat true. In my own defense, it's very difficult to muster the motivation to both write in my journal - which I have been doing almost every day for the past decade - and to post a blog. I'm a lazy human being, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. ;)

Anyway, some things just need to be written about, and having a new facebook relationship status is one of those things. It's a rather long story, but it's very much in line with the way I like my life to work - unpredictably and full of amusing coincidences.

So last weekend I went to Freiburg, which (for those of you who don't know) is located very close to the borders of France and Switzerland. For those of you who still don't know, here's the link to a map: http://skl13.ukl.uni-freiburg.de/plaene/freiburg-germany.jpg. I took the train on Thursday afternoon around 1:30, which would have been fine had I not planned to leave at 11:30, bought my ticket, and then left my passport at the Collegio and realized it only when I was on my way to Stazione Centrale. I'm a smart cookie sometimes, I tell you what.

So having gone back to the Collegio, gotten my passport, bought a new ticket, gone to Centrale, sat on a train for 5 1/2 beautiful-Swiss-landscape-filled hours, gotten to Basel, bought a ticket to Freiburg in Basel, and had a 40 minute train ride in a train 1000 times more beautiful than the Cisalpino train I took to Basel, I finally arrived in Freiburg. Lisa was waiting with a sunflower. :) I got a bit of a migraine around that point, so after I saw her apartment, met some of her roommates, and had some dinner, I went to bed.

The next morning, we ate some really amazing cereal filled with Nutella (really) and had coffee with some of Lisa's classmates. Then I went to class with her and kept myself occupied by looking up words like Tintenfisch and Biber... "octopus" and "beaver" for those of you who are not Germanically-inclined. Afterward, we met Lisa's (and Kyle Fyr's) mentor and friend Pamina for lunch, delicious dessert and coffee, and an impromptu tour of Freiburg. Afterward, we caught a ride with some girls from the very modest Freiburg lindy scene and rode slightly out of town to a dance with them. Everyone was incredibly nice, and the dancing wasn't too bad. We had lots of fun, but got back a little tired out.

On Saturday, we got up early and caught a ride with Pamina on the beautiful fast train to Basel. We spent the morning and early afternoon walking around, eating the most amazing apfelstruedel I have ever even conceptualized, looking at a gigantic flea market by the university, having some delicious hot chocolate, and talking while we climbed up one of the hills. When we got back in town, we messed around for a bit after we met Pamina's husband Reto at the train station, and then we stopped by Aldi (the German answer to Walmart, only somehow much, much worse) to get some food for a birthday party for Lisa's friend Cameron.

And that's where the really interesting part of the story starts.

To summarize, my relationship with Cameron started with making out and then moved on from there. Cameron actually got confused about where we were all meeting and came over to Lisa's apartment a little bit before the party actually started (well, technically it was a good 20 minutes after the party was supposed to have started, but it obviously hadn't started yet if he wasn't there), and I noticed that he was a very good-looking guy. We had met on the tram Thursday night and had seen each other briefly Friday morning, but I hadn't really noticed him... After a bit, we went over to Lisa's friend Trish's apartment and got somewhat tipsy pre-gaming on some kind of alcoholic something made from apples, some other kind of fig-flavored alcoholic something, and some nice dark beer. Then got on a tram and went to Stusiebar and kept ourselves that way for a while with (in my case) some more semi-local dark beer. When in Germany...

There was a dance floor with lame & phenomenal mid-90s dance music and eventuallyCameron and I started dancing with each other... and then dancing close with each other... and then we did some good kissing. As my mother aptly pointed out, there's nothing like a little alcohol to break the ice. And even though we were drunk, he did not get fresh with me; instead he told me I was beautiful. I was surprised and quite pleased, to be honest.

Gradually we started to sober up and went outside, and then we sat there and talked until the bar kicked us out at 5:00 in the morning, then talked some more waiting for the bus, and he seems pretty great - I don't ever remember clicking with someone so fast. Ever. We've talked a couple times and emailed a lot this week, and he's coming to Milan next week during part of their break.

So that's the story so far... I met a guy and made out with him and then realized that he was pretty cool and now we're starting our relationship long-distance. It's ridiculously not-me, but I really don't have much to lose just getting to know him and seeing what happens. But he studies linguistics (we talked about phonetics when we were trashed, which was a major factor in the decision to give it a try) and speaks German very well and is learning Korean... A pretty cool guy. We'll see what happens!

Anyway. I'm sorry if that offended anyone's sensibilities with my story (particularly those of any family members who might be reading this), but I will close with the disclaimer that I neither get trashed nor make out with strangers on a regular basis, and that I try to conduct myself with dignity at least 95% of the time. Last Saturday night just happened to fall into the other 5%, but even then I still stayed in control. Don't worry, you raised me well. ;)

I have a bit of a nasty cold from last weekend's exhaustion and the cold, rainy weather we've had here for the last few days, so I think that I'm going to head for bed pretty soon. Hope you're all doing well!