Christmas, Nazis

Sorry it has been so long since my last post...Mettenschicht seems like a distant, blurry, vomit-smelling memory. So, Christmas, pretty sweet. The holiday season made for some very easy lessons to teach at school. I focused on the commercialization of Christmas as well as America's multiculturalism. I also distributed an article about a Wal Mart employee who was trampled and badly wounded in a mad dash for a Tickle Me Elmo doll. Good thing he has health care. Yikes. I also told my students that in addition to Christmas and Hanukkah, we all celebrate Festivus in America, because Seinfeld was not only a popular TV show, but in fact, a critical American cultural artifact.

For Christmas, Katy and I traveled to the land of her forefathers, and the enemies of my forefathers; England. Her Great Aunt Eva lives on a cliff overlooking the English Channel in the town of Hastings. It was beautiful there, and I greatly enjoyed blasting cigs on the roof overlooking the sea. We spent the week eating various large meals and drinking with assorted segments of the family. I felt largely out of place, being that they were not, in fact, my family at all. But surprisingly, being around old people feels pretty much the same whether you're related to them or not. I was given a swiss army knife, a pair of hardcore winter gloves, and assorted travel sized axe-style body washes. All things considered, pretty useful, good smelling gifts.

On the 30th of December, we returned to Germany to ring in the New Year in Berlin. After spending the night at a nice hotel, we met my fellow German scholar Colin upon his arrival to the capital. We proceeded to kill many beers, perhaps too many, and the night was not the untz-fest I would have hoped for. Without the Disco Biscuits, New Years Eve just doesn't rage hard enough. We did stay for a few more days in Berlin and had a very fun night of untzing at an underground club with a couple of Colin's friends. Now that we have a friend living there, we will probably make frequent trips, as it is a fairly dominant city.

We've now been back in Zwönitz for a couple weeks, and things are back to normal. It snowed a great deal here, but the cold spell has broken and it is now melting and falling off of rooftops, causing me great trepidation. Last weekend at the town pub 'After Work' we met a Nazi. A real one, from Germany. He spoke remarkably good English, though with his 'Fuck America' t-shirt and rabid anti-everythingism, what he had to say wasn't all that pleasant to hear. At one point he threatened to hit me, but I was confident that he would not do so in such a public place...but he was extremely large and intimidating. He hailed Hitler repeatedly, much to the chagrin of the other bargoers. He was impressed with my knowledge of Punk Rock, though I wisely left out that I stopped listening to such music at about the age of 13. After posing drunk questions to me he would cut off my answer by shouting 'Its not your fucking problem!' He then proceeded to light a cigarette in the bar (no longer legal here) and announce, 'This is my town, I do whatever the fuck I want.' I have to hand it to him, no one tried to stop him. It also opened the door for us to begin smoking indoors. Eventually he left to return home to his young daughter (good one), and I was left fairly shocked. Germans dislike Turks and other immigrants, but to be an out and out Nazi in this country just seems absurd to me. Oh well, at least it made for an interesting evening.

Well, that's all for now. I'm back to teaching and beginning to make plans for a trip during my February break. Also, my tennis season begins in earnest in a couple weeks with matches every other weekend. I look forward to getting out there and fucking some shit up.

Oh, and...
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