Upon leaving our three hour tour of Thomas Frankl’s studio, I realized I had not taken a photo with him. It was a shame and I could not leave the country without one photo with him. So I emailed him back and today I get to meet with this gracious man once again. As we arrived he was quick to serve us pretzels, cookies and water. As we snacked we began creating him a Facebook account. This was an interesting experience, for one, I never signed up for anything on a German Website and for two, I never thought in my life I would sit next to a Holocaust survivor explaining the ins and outs of Facbook privacy while creating his site. Meeting him and spending hours with him learning his story was surreal enough. Now he has a Facebook.
Next our class met a Heuriger that is a super authentic Heuriger. It is only open four weeks a year, just long enough for it to serve its yearly wine. It was delicious. After the first round of wine pitchers were refilled we ventured into the world of debate. The question: to legalize Marijuana or not. I chimed in since I was raised in Humboldt County and remember pot was what we seasoned our garlic bread with. To my knowledge, we never sprinkled it on our bread, my dad just called his stash in his tin oregano. However today I am careful as to which butter I spread on my toast in the morning at my dad’s. It was a fun lighthearted debate, I think, anyways most in our group are happy when a little schloshed. We did not solve the problem of legalizing weed and I do not want to turn this blog into a debate on the subject so I will change the subject.
We left the Heuriger happy and warm, returned to our apartments and then I headed out with the group to the Rathaus. We made it to the nightly film festival just in time to catch the closing credits for the show. The Rathaus was however spectacular lit up at night. I was going to walk home from the innere stadt, but I grow tired and cold so I catch the Ubahn. I crawl into bed still in awe that I now have a picture of myself with Thomas Frankl. I am beyond excited to know that he has agreed to come speak with Kathy Stuart’s Summer Abroad class 2011 (and more with willing health). It makes me want to come back next summer just to spend more time with him.
After a few conversations I have decided to eat, live and breathe German. I have since ordered a few comic books in German online and have bookmarked Der Spiegel online. I am also enrolled in more German courses at UC Davis with the ‘weiter’ determination to conquer my lack of confidence in speaking and to learn to hear listen and comprehend in German.
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