With the Greatest of Ease

AHHHHHH!


After looking at the pictures of myself from Europa Park and having no luck with the hair wax, I have decided to get a hair cut. I always try to grow my hair out, but then as it grows I hate it so much that I cannot stand the transition to longer hair. Also, I don’t honestly know if my hair is thick enough to make it look anything but stringy when it does grow out. Yvonne had to run some errands and dropped me off at the cheapest hair salon in town to get my haircut. I waited in the lobby area until a woman signaled for me to come and take a seat. She asked me what I assume to be “How do you want me to cut your hair?” in German and I informed her that I didn’t speak German. She started to freak out and made a hand motion for me to stay while she ran away. The woman went to the back and I could see her talking frantically to another woman pointing at her and then pointing at me. I assumed she wanted the second woman to cut my hair. The second woman was telling her that she didn’t speak English either. After much discussion between them the second woman came forward and started talking to me. I pointed to the electric clippers and signaled that I wanted a number 2. Unfortunately they don’t use the same numbering system in Germany, they have millimeter lengths. I shrugged that I didn’t know which one to use and she pointed to one and said a word that sounded like “typical” or “usual” and I nodded in agreement. After she did that I showed her how long I wanted the top to be and she cut it a little longer to be careful and then I asked her to go shorter. It’s not like cutting guy’s hair is rocket science, at least I don’t think so, I’ve honestly never tried. It looks so much better now, I don’t know why I waited so long to get it cut!

I called Yvonne to come and get me and we went to a local store to look for warm clothes. Yvonne and her family have offered me the clothes of her brother but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to look around and see if I can find anything that I like, so I don’t have to worry about ruining someone else’s stuff. I was able to find a cheap sweatshirt and jacket that I liked and got both, it’s going to only get colder as I continue my travels.

Next we met up with some friends and drove out to a rope park. You strap on a harness with two ropes attached and then you climb into the trees and attach yourself to cables. Then you climb over and on things that are hanging in the air. Once you get done going over a bunch of obstacles then you get to slide down a cable to the ground. There were a total of seven courses of varying difficulty. The final two courses were very difficult. There was one with a series of nets several feet apart and you had to jump from one net to the other. You could walk along the cables on the bottom, but you are supposed to jump. I jumped to the first one and hit my shin on the bottom cable and cut it open. I then slowly worked my way from net to net. I was really slow because I wanted to do it right and my muscles were screaming. I was able to do it and I was really proud of myself. The last course had something different from the other courses and required special instructions. You hook yourself to another cable and then jump off of a platform and fly into a net that stops you. Then you climb the net to the top, where you change to a different safety cable and then climb off the net to a nearby platform. Flying into the net was a lot of fun but climbing up the net was real work. It didn’t look that hard but it was a lot of work. It was a great workout and a lot of fun, now I just need to convince my dad to build a small one in his backyard.

Yvonne wanted to go to a nearby town that has a salsa dancing club, because she knows how to and likes to salsa dance. We were also able to convince Nicole, one of Yvonne’s friends, to come with us. We drove to Nicole’s house to pick her up and she wasn’t ready yet so we went in and her family had some friends over for dinner. They insisted that I join them and have some of their leftover food. They didn’t have to insist long and I quickly filled a plate with food and accepted a beer.

On our way to the Salsa club we heard on the radio that Anthony Rother, a famous DJ, was playing at another club nearby to the salsa club. Nicole really wanted to see him and so we bought tickets and then went to the salsa club. The salsa club was pretty much empty when we walked in, but it was huge and had several different types of clubs inside the one club. There was a pop music club, a salsa club, an older music part and another part that I’m not sure what it was. Yvonne went and danced salsa but since Nicole and I don’t know how and when we got there the lessons were over we went to the normal part and I showed all the Europeans my amazing American dance moves. I think everyone was really impressed because they kept looking at me and pointing.

Then we went back to hear Anthony Rother play. Young people in Germany love electronic music. I’m not a big fan but Anthony Rother was actually pretty good. Fog machines were pumping, lights were flashing, music was blasting, people were dancing.

I have included a short YouTube video of Anthony Rother playing one of his famous songs so that you can get an idea of the atmosphere from the video.



It was one heck of a long day, but a really great day.

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