A quaint town in the northern part of Bavaria, Bayreuth was a spontaneous destination. Due to a sudden change of plans, I decided to make it a transitional stop on my way to Berlin. The reason why I chose Bayreuth was because my good German friend who studied at my high school for a year goes to University there. Since our last encounter, it had been over 3-years since we had seen each other. With a short time frame of only 12-hours, we made the most of our time together. We retold some old stories and caught up on our new lives. She and her boyfriend met me with some bikes at the bus stop and we exchanged long and tight hugs to show our excitement for this moment After greeting in German for a short-period, my exhaustion from my day trip to Munich, only a few hours ago, had caught up to me and we gradually slipped into English.
The sun was setting beautifully behind the town’s building as we rode the bikes to her apartment. When we arrived, I needed to take a quick shower and rehydrate before we went out to dinner with some of her friends that she had planned to meet me for this special occasion.
Later that night we went to a few student bars and I was enveloped in their hospitality and stereotypical German directness that I had become accustomed to in this past year. The magical experience of switching between different languages among similar folk was a relished moment whenever it occurred. Sometimes using a mix of both. Although I hadn’t studied German in over a year and I have some ways to go to improve my German speaking abilities, I was still able to effectively recall and use enough German to communicate my ideas whenever I spoke it, which for me was a triumph in its own. In my time in Germany, I had the opportunity to go from textbook to reality in order to truly test my capabilities of the language.
The next morning started bright and early! My friend had invited me to attend her 8 A.M. Bio- Chemistry lecture that was all in German, of course. Thinking of the unique linguistic opportunity of this situation, I went with her. I acted like a fly on the wall, listening in on the lecture in befuddlement. Not because it was in German because I actually understood a lot of what the professor was saying, but rather that it was Bio-Chemistry!
To continue the German University lifestyle, we made our way to the “Mense” for some Bavarian cafeteria eats. I had Schnitzel with sauerkraut and roasted potatoes. Although it wasn’t anything to write home about, in terms of the style of cuisine, it was certainly delicious and satisfying. After a short tour of the University botanical garden, which had a live “Corpse Plant” getting ready to bloom, I gathered my things and we rode to a nearby park before I need to catch my bus to Berlin. Unexpectedly, it began to rain on us pretty intensely. Not long after the rain was joined by hail and lighting. We sought refuge near some building by the bus stop. Despite being fairly wet, my friend and I were laughing at the situation and made the most of the last hour we had together and made pacts to visit each other again not too far in the distant future.
