Bier and Drinks

On Wednesday I went to a little cookout with my Denison exchange buddies, Jenny and Katharina. That was a lot of fun, and a good opportunity to practice German. So let me take the opportunity to thank both of them for the great time I had. :)

Wednesday was one of those few days when, despite the fact that it was a bit chilly and the possibility of rain hung over our heads, I didn't despise Germany's climate. It was that day that I realized that the Wise Guys were right: summer is what's in your head. It is what you make of it. So, the best strategy is to just have fun anyway, and hope that you don't get rained on (it also helps if you have a little a little alcohol to help keep you warm...now I know why Europeans are all alcoholics: their weather sucks; they need the alcohol to keep them warm/forget about their crappy weather. ;) ).


Speaking of alcohol, when I went to the big party at the sports complex Wednesday night (right after the cookout), I tried something I'm pretty sure you can only find in Germany: beer with cola. I only recommend this for the adventurous and those who love beer. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I ordered it, other than "no way this is beer. It's probably some kind of cola drink with some other kind of alcohol." Wrong. It was beer and cola. The first sip was a shock. The next few sips weren't so bad. After that, I just kind of wanted to throw up. But I forced myself to drink it down...and then I bought another one. I have no idea why I did that. I'm not much of a beer person anyway, and mixing beer with anything else was just a bad idea for me. Luckily, I didn't get sick that night or the morning after. But it left my stomach feeling like it had been turned upside-down all day Thursday. Not pleasant.

It didn't help that I'd only gotten about 3 hours of sleep that night. I went to bed around 4am, and woke up around 7am because it had gotten really hot and stuffy in my room and because I felt awful.


Well, at least now I know not to drink that stuff again. You would think the Germans would be purists about their beer, and not let it mix with other drinks. I would have thought that mixing beer with cola would be sacrilegious in this beer-loving society. But I guess the opposite is true. Maybe they think our flavored beers like Mike's Hard are disgusting. I already found out that root beer doesn't exist in Germany. And the Germans who have tried it, don't like it. Who'd have thought?