How do you do? I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas/Hanukah/KWANZAA!! etc, etc. I sure did. we were at M’s parents house. Although her mom was super ill she just wouldn’t go to bed and rest. So she cooked. M’s dad cooked as well defying everyones expectations of his kitchen usefulness. We had venison on the 24th and carp on the 25th. It was very good although carp has a lot of bones and I had to spit lots of little bits into my napkin here and there. This is supposedly a North German tradition. On Friday I had enough though and I was extremely ready to go home. I’d could get into it here but I won’t.
Anyway, we booked a super last minute trip to Cologne/Köln for New Year’s and we will leave on Tuesday and get back on Friday. Not sure what we are gonna do once we are there but I’m sure we will find something.
Yesterday M and I went out to the Irish Pub (every city’s got one) and met up with Herbert, a Panamanian friend of ours and we proceeded to put ourselves around a few pints of various alcoholic beverages. We then wandered to a few other establishments to continue doing the same. At some point in the evening I was sitting around the table with a Panamanian, a Serbian, and a German. I then realized that each one of those countries has in one way or another been one the receiving end of American military “intervention”. There were no political discussions reflecting this because there didn’t seem to be any need to have any but it makes one realize how often America likes to go in and blow shit up in order to achieve little or nothing. The exception of course being Germany. If you ask most of the worlds inhabitants, they will probably say that they got what was coming, or it would have been worse if the Americans had not gotten involved and handed Germany’s ass to them, or something something, something. This is however not the point I’m trying to make. The point is…umm…uhh….that we were all sitting around the table enjoying ourselves and not letting the politics of our respective governments get in the way of that. Maybe if the leaders of countries would just get together and have a drink in Lüneburg while listening to some good music, the world would be a better place. That would be sweet. In fact I hereby declare myself a diplomat in helping quarreling countries/ethnic groups/Hetfields & McCoys sort out their differences over a pint/bottle/glass/snifter here in Lüneburg. What’s that? Muslim/Teetotaler/etc. and can’t drink alcohol? Most pubs have alcohol free beer in bottles. See? We will find a way. We shall overcome. Koffi Annan, I can be reached at the above email address.