The British are Coming, the British are Coming!

He'll probably hate me for this, oh well.

So, I thought I would try something new for this post. I got the idea while on a Skype call to a friend in Houghton (Say hi to Andrew!) and thought it would be cool to do a video blog, a vlog if you will, for today. There are a lot of emotions behind my evening last night and they are SO much easier to show than write about. I am, after all, quite the chatterbox.

Unfortunately, my microphone on my laptop is a total failure and all you can hear is the crackling from it over my voice. Gah! I was really excited to do it too! Oh well, I guess I'll write it out and maybe look into a new microphone..?

Ok, so I'll start with Friday afternoon. At work I got my own desk on Friday. Yeah, two months in and after the move, I had no desk. Luckily, one of the women in the department is out on leave for a child and I could use her desk. But, around noon, everyone left for the weekend and I had to stay until 1 PM for the IT guy to come up and set up my desk for me. I have the largest monitor in existence now, along with my laptop. I took a picture of the new set up (shhh, don't tell! I'm not sure I'm actually allowed to do that.) The set up was really quick and I was ready to leave, shut down my computer and went to walk downstairs to leave. It was pouring. I turned around, turned on my computer and waited maybe another half hour and it stopped raining. I got ready to go and went to the grocery store to but some food / snacks for the weekend. Then, back to the apartment I went.

I just sort of hung out here for a while and there was a big soccer game at 8:45 PM, so I left here around 5:45 or 6 PM to go into town. I kid you not, I got to the square for public viewing at 6:30 or 7 PM. Completely full. This is getting ridiculous. I will go to at least one game in public viewing while I'm here!

Hochstift A La Carte - the "festival" I went to.

Since that soccer game was pretty much a bust, I wandered around some and there was this big festival going on. The big, well known, good restaurants from Paderborn had booths with tables set up and you could walk around, try food, have a few beers, and enjoy the atmosphere and music. It was pretty cool. I have been craving something *different* recently and I found a sushi place at one of the booths and thought, I'd have some.

It's different here with how you buy sushi than in America. In the US, you buy a roll (between 6 and 8 pieces usually) but in Germany, or maybe it was just this one place, you buy it by the piece. I decided on four California roll pieces and four salmon roll pieces. In total, with a beer, it cost me about 6 euro. Not really a horrible price, but a bit expensive. They brought it to my table and the soy sauce was the cutest thing EVER. It came in tiny plastic fish. You unscrewed the cap at the fishes mouth and squeezed the sauce out.

I had another beer and a vodka energy (pre-mixed in a can and very strong) before I rode my bike back to the apartment. It was about 9:30 PM and I didn't want a ticket for riding my bike in the dark with no light. I was honestly thinking about just calling it a night, or maybe getting on Skype with family or friends but since this week is Marcus' (the Swedish guy) last week, I thought I would see if he was home or wanted to go out. I mean, worst case he's not there or says no and I go on with my original plans.

My new German flag scarf so I would
fit in in Paderborn for the game

I knocked on his door and we chatted for a bit and I asked if he wanted to go to the city and he said yes. Awesome! I don't like going places alone and I had someone to go with me! We decided to walk into the city and the whole time he complained about walking. He drives everywhere and has never walked into the city. Wow, and I thought Americans were lazy.

We checked out the festival and walked through town a bit and decided on a beer. We went to one of the Irish pubs and ordered two beers. While waiting for the waiter to bring us back our drinks, two guys came up to the bar and ordered drinks and I looked at them. The one in front immediately apologized because he thought that they had "cut us in line" but I said nope, we're waiting for our drinks and have already paid. Mind you, this whole exchange was in English, this is one of the big Brit hangouts. The second guy pops his head over the first one's shoulder and points an accusatory finger at me and says "you're American." Um, uh, yeah... What about it? I was super confused.

Marcus and I decided to go outside and drink our beers at a table in front. The Germany v Greece game was on in the pub and it was quite loud, outside was quite nice though. I finished my drink after some time and conversation and drunk British and German men squabbling hilariously and telling me "not to laugh." I went inside to buy another drink and while waiting to order, this very drunk British man asked if he could guess my age. What the heck, I don't care. He explained the rules of the game to me, he was "very good at this" and he would guess within two years each direction. He asked again if he could guess my age and I said sure. He looks me in the eyes and says 28. I about died of laughter and informed him that no, I am in fact much younger. Oh boy, this guy was drunk but he was still putting on the moves, he said he was very sorry and he needed to make it up to me by buying me a drink.

Of course, all his friends showed up and I met a bunch more British men but I was kind of stuck at the bar and Marcus was still outside. Luckily, he came in and saved me. I like going out with guys to drink because I can always use them as an excuse. Oh, this is my boyfriend. He played along too, for most of it. We stayed at the bar and I met this crazy guy from South Africa and a pretty cool girl from Germany who hangs out only with the Brits.

At some point, the German girl, Julia, says "OK, we're going" so I said bye, it was nice to meet you and the sort. She informed me that she meant we're all going to the next bar. Mind you, this was after a few Jäger bombs and  other drinks. I asked where they were going and she said "Mango", OK, and I'm supposed to know what that means? We walked down the street, around a few corners and into another bar. I had another drink but soon, I told Marcus it was time to go. We said our good byes and walked / stumbled / nearly crawled back to the apartments. Not too sure how I got my zippered shoes off, I struggle with that when sober.

Lots more to come! I need a break from writing though. Saturday is next!