Well, what a surprise. Looks like people from DR are even more spontaneous than me! :) My host mom always says I'm too spontaneous, although I think it would just be considered normal in other parts of the world.
"So, where do we meet?"
"McDonalds. Where else? That's the international meeting point of exchange students."
Lol, stimmt :D
So I call Toon (the Thai exchange student), and she seems pretty happy to be coming along. We ride the 420 into Braunschweig, and go into the Asian shop that we are both in dire need of. I tell her about stuff under the Chinese section. She informs me about the Thai section. We both agree, that the stuff in that store is crazy expensive. She sees certain brands, and tell me which ones rock and which ones suck. Then we go to the beer/wine isle, because that for some reason is filed under the "Thailand" category.
"Hey! That's Thai beer! Chang!"
She doesn't drink, but is so excited to see food that she's used to seeing back home. That's the same deal with me--just seeing anything Chinese brings back memories of America. How ironic is that? After looking through the whole store and exchanging Chinese and Thai recipes and comparing how we cook stuff (we are going to plan an all Asian buffet for ourselves with our Asian skills (or lack thereof) :D), it was time to pick up Oscar at the Bahnhof. He screwed up his trains (actually, more like trying to look for a glove which he thought he lost), and was arriving late. We waited for him in McDonalds.
As soon as we walked into McDonalds, Toon said she needed to use the bathroom.
"I think it's free."
Hold up.
"No it's not, you need to buy something and punch the code you get into the machine so that the door will open."
Lesson learned: most public bathrooms are not free in Germany. And definitely not at the Bahnhof.
Then we both decided to grab the only empty seats at McDonalds. It was the perfect seat--just by the window, where we could see if Oscar came. But one problem. Right next to us, there's a couple making out for forever. Literally, they didn't stop for like 5 minutes. Why would one make out at McDonalds..I have no clue. What made it worse was:
-Toon was so surprised and asked if she was allowed to take a picture of them. We both died laughing.
-I thought the couple was gay, because the woman had a really short men's hairstyle, and also looked like a guy to me. That only brought back the horrible memories of "Interior. Leather Bar." (the movie we watched at the Berlinale).
-I forgot what Oscar actually looked like (not that profile pictures on Facebook are ever representative of a person's actual appearance). Geez, please, please..not another replay of me trying to find my college interviewer in Starbucks. That was (one of) the most embarrassing and horrible moments in my life.
Finally, Oscar came.
"Hi!"
"Hi!"
He tries to hug me (which I've gotten used to by now, because Germans always hug each other as a greeting). But wait. Then he got too close to my face, and Toon and I had the weirdest looks on our faces.
"Oh yeah, sorry. I forgot you guys aren't Spanish! Sorry!"
Culture problems, you see? In lots of Spanish speaking countries (like in the DR), and in many countries in Europe, people kiss each other on the cheek as a way of saying hi. If this happened in the US, I would have screamed and ran away. But I think for some reason, Germany has made me a whole lot more sensitive to cultures and being accepting of them.
Later, we walked around Braunschweig, and I swear, he just couldn't stop talking. But that's ok, Asian people like us don't talk so much, so we appreciate it when other people pick up the conversation and keep it going :) But actually, we talked a lot too..about what we thought of Germans, AFS and it's good and bad aspects, suicides in Braunschwieg (where a man jumped off the horses from the Schloss), Chick-Fil-A's french fries, expensive Starbucks, gelato, soccer games in Hamburg and getting free rides to Hamburg, drunk people, drinking, where to get cheap/good quality clothing, Thai people in the DR, host families, and just about everything in between. A good 5 hours is not to be underestimated.
Then Toon's host mom picked us up, while Oscar wanted to eat at Mr. Sub because he saw that they had Chick-Fil-A's french fry style.
It was a good day.
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