Posted by: Shanna Germain | 07/21/2009

Pg. 112: Eau de Cologne

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The Colonians (Colognites? Kolners? What do you call someone who lives in Cologne?)…anyway, they love their eis (ice ceam) here, young and old. As soon as the sun comes out, everyone has a cone in their hand.

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Stats:

  • Weather: As evidenced by my clothes. AM: jeans, long-sleeved shirt, socks, shoes, scarf, coat. Froze. Later AM: jeans, t-shirt, socks, shoes. Sweated. Early PM: Same outfit as Later AM. Froze. Late PM: Didn’t leave the house.
  • Mileage: Many. 4,235 cobblestones.* (Number made up, may or may not be anywhere near exact.)
  • Food: Shrimp salad. Two soy mochas. Yes, count them. Two. Since I will not be having anything resembling decent coffee or chocolate for the next however long I’m in Scotland.
  • Discovery: So. Yeah. I’ve been walking around thinking I’m all cool with my umbrella, with the Oscar Wilde quote in German, and the word “WETTER” in English. However, as Danielle kindly informed me, the umbrella doesn’t actually say “WETTER” in English. Wetter is the word German word for “weather.” Oh, yeah, I so knew that.
  • Media: Smack the Pony and more Smack the Pony, courtesy of Danielle
  • Worst Thing: I’m ready to go home.
  • Best Thing: I’m ready to go home.
  • Word of the Day: WETTER!

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Last night, my friend Danielle came into Cologne to visit me. He brought me gorgeous and thoughtful gifts: A bottle of champagne, as well as wine and marmalade produced by his family, and his company for more than half the day. He also brought a fountain of knowledge about Cologne, Germany, the German language and the country’s history. It was wonderful to walk around the city, to explore the streets and parks, as well as each other’s minds. He is funny, articulate, a delightful storyteller and an amazing human being. He introduced me to about a million authors that I now must read, two comedy groups I can’t believe I’ve missed out on (Smack the Pony and Little Britain”), and about a hundred story ideas. Which, of course, I loved.

Now, it’s time to clean and pack… and head back to my temporary home on the isle.

Far and fast, s.

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This little girl was crawling around on the grate outside the apartment all by herself. I have no idea why, but she looked incredibly cute.

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“Wine is bottled poetry.” ~Robert Louis Stevenson


Responses

  1. “Wine is bottled poetry.” ~Robert Louis Stevenson

    Best quote ever!

    Little Britain is hilarious. Danielle has good taste. It comes on an Austrian channel down here late every Tues. night and sometimes makes us actually scream with laughter.

    There’s a really funny sketch with Dame Sally something who’s writing a novel, typed by her secretary, and she never gets past like ten pages.
    In her ploy for more pages she has one character ask the other, “Have you ever read the Bible?” The other character says “Why no, I haven’t.” The first character says, “Oh it’s lovely, let me read it to you. Chapter One. Genesis. In the beginning…” Then she lets her secretary type up the rest. Hehe. Guess you have to be there (see it). : )

    • I know! Isn’t it fantastic?

      I can’t believe I’ve never seen LB before. Silly, really, since I laughed so hard just from Danielle telling me about it. Oh, the Bible. I need to write that too. Someday 🙂

  2. ha! that was such a fun day…:-)i just wish i wouldnt talk so much..i still have 209430688789 things i want to ask you..so..come back soon!

    and i loved when we spoke about wetter..your face iun that moment..so precious!!!:-)i guess that ll be a running gag for a long time..

    @ j.bells..thak you for the flowers..:-)

    • Oh, no, you didn’t talk too much! You’re a great storyteller.

      And yeah, I’ll never forget the German word for ‘weather’. Not ever!

  3. Danielle, I’ll give you flowers any day. You’re very cute, as I’ve seen from your website. : )

    Found Little Britain – Dame Sally Markham snippet on you tube:

    Hope Shanna returns to Germany and maybe visits Konstanz next time. We have a nice castle here, Meersburg. The old German lesbian poet Anette von Droste Hülshoff lived there. Beside the castle is her “lust garden” where it is rumored she had wild affairs with both genders.
    But don’t know if that’s true or just a rumor. : )

    • Oooh, that sounds awesome J! I’d love to come back and see more of the country, and the people! 🙂

  4. Okay, that Smack the Pony is hilarious. Thanks to the wonderful thing that is YouTube, I was able to go through their dating skits and all I can say is: Hilarious!

    The pictures of the kids are precious – ahh, young and innocent. That’ll change soon enough ;p

    • Isn’t it hysterical? I about peed my pants 🙂

      And yeah. Give them another year. They”ll be hellions!

  5. yes come back..first konstanz and then hop over to me so we can cook and talk and explore the 3 country corner..hehe*


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