If you've ever wondered, how wet could one really get in a 20 minute bike ride in the rain, you might be surprised...
On Saturday I packed up my things and headed down to the school (in the rain) to board the busses for the annual student trip to Malente. The second year students every year organize a retreat to a hostel in the countryside. They rent out the whole hostel complex and most first years and some second years go up to meet, mingle, introduce the new students to the extracurricular activities, and then have a really big party. Everything's taken care of (food, transport, etc.) and it was really impressive how well-run the whole operation was. We left Hamburg around 10:30 and arrived at the hostel around lunchtime, where the hostel staff had prepared a meal of standard German fare. We sat at long tables in a large room while dishes filled with cabbage, beef stew, potato dumplings, and noodles were passed around. (It felt a little like summer camp, except the people were less obnoxious...) Shortly after lunch student group and activity leaders set up stations in various rooms around the hostel, and over the next few hours new students walked around to find out more about them. Dinner then was a barbeque – German style, of course. No hotdogs and burgers, but rather little steaks and sausages. The meat was then accompanied by tub-fulls of macaroni salad, potato salad, cucumber salad, and sauerkraut. Also, by then the beer had been broken out -- amazingly vast quantities of beer that they sold for 1 euro each (with a 1 euro bottle deposit) throughout the rest of the day and night. And not the crappy little Astra beers we usually drink but whole bottles of Beck's. Then when dinner was done they cleared out the room and turned it into a dance floor, complete with strobe lights. The party ran until almost dawn, and then at 7 or 8 on Sunday morning those who had been sleeping got up and swarms of students cleaned up the place before eating a really big breakfast (with coldcuts, waffles, bread and jam, cereal, etc.) and heading back to Hamburg.
The international students were completely welcome to come too, and except for our beers it didn't cost us anything. However, because it came during a string of 5 days off from classes, many students instead opted to travel to farther-flung places. Despite Americans being about 2/3 of the international program, there were relatively few at Malente. In fact, I think I was the only American woman who went. But not only were we welcome to come, but we were also invited to find out more about the student groups and partake in them during our remaining months here. I mostly found out about the sports teams, some of whom I'd already played with in the past weeks.
In fact, that's how I knew there was going to be a soccer game up at Malente, from having played last week in an outdoor scrimmage on Friday and an indoor game last Sunday. So I planned ahead and packed my shorts, socks, shin guards and cleats. And it was a good thing I did – especially the cleats. Because remember the rain? The field we played on was essentially just a giant mud puddle fringed by slick grass. There was a definite advantage held by the players who were wearing cleats and had some measure of traction. It was a fairly unstructured game, but a lot of fun, sloshing through the mud and puddles. (A definite advantage was also held by the people not afraid to play through the deep ones. Like me!)
Overall, especially Saturday, I had a great time. Even at the party. I don't think I'd ever done a retreat like this ever before, and I also don't think I'd ever been inclined to. A weekend of drinking? I don't think so... But I enjoyed it in spite of myself, at least well until the night. Even in the waning hours people were drunk, but not disgustingly drunk. And people were nice. I was wearing a ThinkGeek t-shirt, the one that says, "There's only 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't," and nearly everyone stopped by to admire my shirt... (And most of them got the joke! Do all German kids learn binary in school?) I was also paid some lovely compliments about my soccer playing, which really made my day.
Still, there were some poignancies. The generation gap amazingly does not matter in many, many instances. We are all law students – smart people, with a common esoteric interest that we can talk about among ourselves, even transnationally – but rarely to the other people that we know. But I'm 31. And the German law students are for the most part a good 10 years younger than that. Even the second year students, several of whom I'm friends with. Which sometimes doesn't matter, and sometimes sort of does. Never mind my own existential doubts about what I think I'm supposed to be doing with my life right now – that part's not the problem. And in a sense it's kind of cool that I get to do the "kid" things again – or in my case, perhaps for the first time. (It took a lot of maturing before I could lighten up to the point where I could learn to let go in situations like these and even begin to enjoy myself.) But it does seem to be a barrier to making certain substantive social connections with my German peers. (And to some extent the other foreign students, who are also generally younger. However, the Americans, because they've already completed their undergraduate education, are usually at least a few years other. And there are several who are 29, and a few who run 26-28, and I think technically there may be at least one student on the program who's older than me.)
But I don't think it's age that's behind my aches and pains. I think I'm actually in pretty good shape for my age. Or at least I was, before this weekend. The soccer game aggravated some horrible blisters that I picked up from the indoor soccer game that have yet to heal. (And when I say "blisters," I really mean the complete absence of the exterior layer of skin on the backs of my ankles, which has not been able to heal properly, what with needing to walk around every day while wearing shoes. And playing more soccer...) I also got some sort of itchy hives and/or rash on my knees from running into the brush to get the ball when it went out of bounds. And then there's the dislocated jaw... Well, not completely, but I did get nailed in the jaw by an elbow early in the game. It was good to know that I do not have a "glass jaw," however, and not only didn't I get knocked out (or cry), but I stayed in the game and kept playing for another hour. Unfortunately it was a solid shot that made my jaw move sideways suddenly, and it hasn't quite gotten over that trauma yet.
And then on top of all that, there's the foosball injury I somehow sustained on my finger. It's the first time I've ever had to stop playing out of concern for bleeding on the handles, but I guess there's a first time for everything. But all that's ok, and despite drinking vastly more alcohol than I have in ages, or perhaps ever, I'm not really any worse the wear for it. Although the lack of sleep did make me cranky, and I fear I was a little pissy with some friends when we got back to school. I've been wrestling with some pedestrian issues in the back of my mind that the trip brought to the fore, and I was in no condition to deal with them. I guess that's what makes the age gap so pointless to worry about, because even 31 year olds can act 13 from time to time...
Backdated to when it was written. Posted on 10/3.