Neuhaus and Lauscha

Before I get into my weekend festivities, there is a much more important matter of a birthday we need to discuss. That´s right, on the 6th day of the 12th month known as St. Nicholas Day, is actually an important day of a different Nicholas we all know and love. "And who is this person that is more popular than any St. Nicholas," you may ask. Nicholas Brunetti, of course! sooo...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

All gifts, cards, and well wishes should be sent his way today.

Okey dokey. Now to begin with the story of my Wald weekend. On Friday, Luis, Micha, Sandy, I, and our stuff, all squeezed into a European-sized car and prepared for about an hour and twenty minute drive through southwestern Germany to Neuhaus. We made a short stop at a cookie factory where you can buy about a billion different kinds of cookies for really cheap since they are produced right there. They also had a little table in the back where you could drink coffee and eat cookies for free!

We somehow managed to fit all of the cookies we bought into the few remaining pockets of space in the car and off we went. We arrived at our Wanderhütte, chose our beds, and then made a short trip to the grocery store to load up on enough food to feed the 13 people in total who would be there by Saturday night. Only 4 more people came on Friday, of those only 2 in time for dinner.

After clean up we moved all of the tables and chairs and Luis and I taught a little Salsa and Merengue. When everyone was all danced out, we played a little less active game where you all sit in a circle at a table and position your hands so that the people sitting to your right and left each have a hand between your hands on the table. Then someone starts and you go around the circle-one slap on the table means the order of the hands doesn´t change, while two slaps reverses the order. If someone messes up or takes too long, they must remove one of their hands. Sounds a little confusing, but is actually harder to explain in words than to play. It´s really fun, though.

Saturday, we went for a little hike in the forest and we did a couple team-building activities. First, we played the game where one person is blindfolded and their partner must lead them around first by guiding them by their arm and talking; and once the blind person feels more comfortable then they are guided only by their partner´s explanation of what´s in front of them. The second blind activity we did was this: everyone was blindfolded and hung on to a string so we all stayed in a group. We had to move and communicate as a group to find our goal destination, which was one of the trees labeled with a sign and some candy. This was really funny, and we spent what felt like a good five minutes stuck in some little trees and talking about what the hell we should do next. Apart from that, we found our goal pretty fast.

We hiked back and had a late lunch at about 3pm. The 3 more Aiesecers came and we spent some time chit-chatting and warming up with Glühwein. Then it was back outside in the cold while the sun was setting for one final team-building activity. We had to get all of our team members through a "spider web" before the big spider caught us. The person going through the web could not touch it at all because it was poisonous, so if they touched it they had to go back and start again. You also could not go over or under it you had to go through one of the spaces in it, and two people could not go through the same space. We managed to do it without too many setbacks. I was the one that was lifted to go through one of the highest spaces and I have to admit, it was a little scary.

We cooked dinner and again after clean up, it was game time. We played a LOT of this game Palermo, which is basically a version of a game that I feel like most people know. The name seems to always be different and a few of the rules, too, maybe, but the concept is always the same. In this version, one card is dealt to every player, and you are either a mafioso or a citizen. It is then night time in Palermo so everyone shuts their eyes. The mafiosos "wake up" (open their eyes) and select a victim. Then the mafiosos go back to sleep (close their eyes). Then the moderator says it´s morning in Palermo and everyone wakes up to see who was murdered during the night. Then everyone must discuss who they think the murder(s) are. Finally nominees are chosen and voted on. The person who is chosen as a mafioso is "killed" and this is repeated until the mafiosos win and kill all of the citizens or until the mafiosos are caught. The way the citizens know if they have caught all of the mafiosos is if they go to sleep and everyone lives through the night. It is a great and entertaining game, and we played it for a loooooooong time. Most people went up to bed after that, but about six of us stayed up for a little while longer to have another little Salsa session.

Sunday morning we woke up and took the train to Lauscha. Like most German cities around this time, they had a Christmas market. They are very well known for their glass blowing, just like much of the south. We went to the glass museum, which was really cool. Then we had a lunch of Bratwurst and Glühwein, and went to this place called the Glass Studio. You could actually watch a few guys making, vases, little figurines, etc., and of course they had a ton of stuff you could buy. A few of us got to make our own ornament. It was really neat. I was a little nervous for some reason-I think it was mostly because of the extremely hot ovens and me being at the end of a pole on which the other end was a glowing red-orange clump of melted glass. Now I have to manage to bring my ornament home without breaking it-no small task indeed.

I, of course, took a ton of pictures of the whole weekend. I also sent the link to all of the people who were there, so hopefully they will upload the pictures they took, too. Mine are already uploaded and I will post an update if anyone else adds more.