Winefest - France

Look a church!


Yvonne was upstairs and I was in her room, in the basement. Yvonne’s cell phone started to ring so I picked it up and started to bring it to her. “Your phone is ringing” I called. Here is the conversation that ensued:

Yvonne: Who is it?
Shaun: Nicole
Yvonne: Who is it?
Shaun: Nicole!
Yvonne: What does it say on the screen?
Shaun: Nicole!!
Yvonne: I know, but what does it say on the screen?
Shaun: Nicole!!!

Then Yvonne answered the phone and talked to Nicole. She thought I kept saying “A call” and couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t tell her who was on the phone.

We picked up Nicole and headed to the wine country for a Winefest. Another of Yvonne’s friends lives in the wine country and we drove to his house and had a dinner of pizza and then waited for others to come and go to the Winefest. The guys house we were at, Stefan, also speaks English and as Yvonne and her friends always do they were speaking English to include me in the conversation. Some new people arrived and looked at us with confused looks “Why are you speaking English?” The new comers asked. Yvonne explained that I was there and I don’t know German. Then the usual questions ensued, how long have I been in Germany, when will I leave, what do I think of Germany, why don’t I know German…

On the walk to the Winefest Stefan informed us that he had spoken with the Winefest people the night before and learned about all of the wines and would be leading us in our own personal wine tasting, one bottle at a time. Stefan would get a bottle of wine and bring it to us and then talk about it and pour us glasses until the bottle was empty and then move on to the next wine. It was interesting to learn about why the different wines taste differently and the whole process.

One of the German girls in our group asked me “what does ‘drag’ mean?” I explained that it is when a man dresses as a woman or vice versa. She looked at me really confused so I asked her the context she meant. She was talking about the movie she had just seen “Drag me to Hell”. I explained my error and what the word meant in that context. There are a lot of words in English that have multiple meanings and can make conversations turn out strange. The other example I have in my mind right now is the word “trunk”.

The Winefest was a lot of fun with drinking, dancing, eating and good people.

Sunday morning we woke up, ate breakfast and decided to head to France. It is so cool to go to other countries for the afternoon! We headed to Strasbourg near the border to Germany. As we were walking around the town a guy on a bike came up from behind me and said “bring bring” with his mouth to simulate a bike bell. I almost fell on the ground laughing because he was so serious in his face and his tone when he said it.
On the drive back to Tuttlingen I was again reminded how beautiful sunsets in this part of Germany are. The sky is beautiful and then the way the light enhances the trees, fields and flowers is amazing. I tried to take pictures but none of them turned out anywhere close to the real thing.

Once back in Tuttlingen Yvonne and I packed up our stuff and headed another 1h30 North to Stuttgart where Yvonne will start graduate school in October to look for an apartment for her to live in while in school.

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09_18_09 Wine Country & France small