Word Association.
Nov 20th, 2007 by B.
Jim’s been off since last Friday, and boy has it been weird not traveling for once. Weird in a good way though. Other than getting the kiddos to/from school we’ve been complete bums, something I could get used to…
Anyway, since I’m currently in full-on bum mode but still want to mention the expat blogger weekend, I’ve decided to go with the first sentence or two that pops into my head as I type each person’s name. Here goes:
Ian: Ian was highly intelligent and interesting. Wish I’d had more time to sit and talk with him… and, man, would I have loved to sneak a peek at what he was really writing in that notebook of his. He’s also another expat that I’ll never catch up to travel-wise. But he did fill me in on where/when to travel to Africa with children… could a trip to the Serengeti be far behind?
Adam: Adam is endearing, effervescent & flirty-fun, but I already knew all that. I’m just sorry we couldn’t find a naughty little mohawked guy with a heart of gold for him. Dresden’s gay bars… pfft… what a letdown!
M&M: Michelle and her boyfriend, M., are the perfect metropolitan d.i.n.k. couple: stylish, intelligent, jet-setting, fun. And while I wouldn’t want M. to put gas in my car or try to fill the windshield wiper fluid tank, I’d love to sit down with them again & talk global business… or American -v- German culture… or travel destinations… or… or
J: J is the consummate teacher. Thanks to him we now know how to pronounce ’seat’ (the car) and Leuven (the city) properly! He’s also got this group hosting thing down-pat… a skill I highly admire since half the time I can’t even keep up with my family of four.
Christina: Christina is super cool and was very supportive when we hopped the tram and I reenacted my traumatic ticket/fine experience for her. She’s the together, in charge mom I secretly wish I could be.
Janine: Janine was the uber-brave German (and native Dresdener) who joined us while we whined about the country and talked in trademark really loud/really fast English. Thanks for putting up with us, and hopefully we haven’t turned you off of North America for good!
Cathy & Thomas: Cathy possesses my favorite feisty, take-no-prisoners kind of personality. She’s women’s lib without the need for aromatherapy candles, bubble baths or 3-martini-inspired vagina monologues (yawn). Thomas is smart, fun, and has a natural, completely charming way of teasing Cathy into not taking herself too seriously. I see why their relationship works. Plus you know how most newlyweds can be sickeningly annoying to everyone within a five mile radius? They weren’t!
CN Heidelberg & D.: My favorite memory of CN Heidelberg (wasn’t sure if I was supposed to use your first name or not…) is from dinner Saturday night. Adam said something… can’t remember exactly what… but it was kind of raunchy and CN went from looking mildly bored to leaning in & paying full attention. This is something I can appreciate in a person. heh.
I also spent the first few hours thinking ‘wow, if I didn’t know better I’d swear D. was American!’ Turns out he is, and apparently I didn’t know better. I have no idea why I thought he was German… but he helped argue my case for not effing with the Elbe’s UNESCO heritage status by building some stupid bridge (that’s now being built unfortunately), which I appreciated very much.
Ward: Ward could sell oceanfront property in Arizona (thanks George Strait). This really came in handy with such a large group, and props to Ward for keeping the conversation flowing/entertaining us. But I actually liked him best on Sunday… talking about moving his family to Germany and worrying about all the stuff that future expats (especially ones with kids) do.
D.: At first I thought D. was Ward-lite, but he’s got his own great sense of adventure and, for someone who literally landed in Germany a week ago, he’s handling culture shock 101 surprisingly well. Be it in Germany or Hong Kong, he’ll do fine…
Jim: (when the day is through, I will come to you, and tell you of your many charms…) thanks for putting up with me.
B.: World’s Shittiest Tour Guide (heh, I should so trademark that…)
Parting thought: I loved that the medicine man at Mama Africa spent most of the evening giving us this look:
(we totally deserved it)
I’d post more pictures, but that’s against the rules… so you’re just going to have to use your imagination.
On this day..
- Oh. My. God... - 2008
I quite agree with your assessments of the group and, quite frankly, don’t think I will bother doing one - I’ll just link to yours.
Of course, I disagree with you about your assessment of yourself and will be correcting that when I actually have time to do my write-up.
Hahaha! Thanks that’s really flattering. I am especially proud of the fact I didn’t make anybody sick. I’ll have to update my blog soon!
Very nice people you met. I only met two fellow bloggers when I was in Athens and no one in Germany. I haven’t connected with any bloggers in Wiesbaden yet…maybe someday….ciao
Congrats, B! Anxious to see you and J in Deember, unless of course you all are off to Africa.
Thanks B for the nice review…
I would personally add to your review of Ward, that one wouldn’t want to get into a fight with him
LOL!!
That is a priceless photo, B. My notebook may reveal more banalities and references to websites I should check out and people to look up than anything else though.
And I second what Adam said about Ward!
Me? Together and in charge?? Oh, B., if you only knew! But thank you kindly anyway. I REALLY enjoyed the weekend. What a great bunch of people.
Your comment about Cathy is brilliant - both in describing her, and in describing that sort of other genre of person that is out there.
Probably just tired from all the weeks of cloudy weather we’ve been having!
My friends in college used to call me Slush….because that’s what was always in the gutters in Chicago…along with my mind. I can assure you I didn’t spend any time “mildly bored,” however
As for “world’s shittiest tour guide”…er, were we in the same place last weekend? I don’t remember any shitty tour guides, sorry! The ones I had were great
I’ve had a great time with all of you on Saturday! And don’t worry, absolutely nothing can turn me off of North America.
I hope, I’m gonna have time for a post about the weekend myself soon. Btw, I’ve moved my blog to wordpress, where blogging is really so much more comfortable.
[...] order, and of course I’ve left out many who should be on the list. But if you head over to EuroTrippen’s write-up of last weekend’s whiney expat meetup in Dresden, you’ll find some more [...]
I’m just ever so jealous as I’m still stuck here over in Canada and want to be on the other side of the pond permanently.