I happened to be observing it from Giessen, where Bryce Schmidt, a friend of mine from Bethel, is doing Intermenno work. I set off for Giessen after my German course on Tuesday. First I had to catch a train to Hagen. The ticket from Hagen to Giessen was cheaper, and I can go to Hagen for free on my student pass. (The ticket was not so cheap however. At 55 euro, it still hit the pocket book pretty hard.) To Hagen was maybe a 30 minute train ride. On arriving in Hagen, I switched trains to Siegen. The train I boarded must have been a fairly new train. Along with a toilet every couple of compartments, it had a nice LED display in the front of each compartment showing in rotation the date and time, final destination, and next stop. To get myself into an American mood, I listened to Sujan Stevens's Illinois and Michigan albums on the way. My next train change was in Siegen. From there, I took a train to Giessen.
Bryce had offered to "pick us up" at the train station in Giessen. That would have consisted of him walking to the train station, finding you, and walking back with you to his apartment. I figured I would save him a trip, and just follow the directions he gave us, The directions weren't that difficult to follow; Giessen is more like Kansas--flat with streets intersecting primaraly at right angles. I had carefully noted the directions and final address from the google map link Bryce had sent us. I left the Giessen trainstation, and confidently followed the directions to where Bryce's apartment was supposed to be. Bryce said it should be easy to find, because it is the only apartment building in Giessen that says "Jesus Lebt" on it. When I got to the address that I had so carefully noted, there was no "Jesus Lebt" on the building. I figured that it must not be as apparent as Bryce has said. After a bit of searching around the building, I couldn't find any way to ring the apartments in the building. I went around back, where there was some kind of entrance that looked private. I couldn't see another place to enter the apartment, so I tried the handle. It was locked. I was beginning to think this wasn't the right building. It was, however, the correct address. I decided I would keep walking and looking for the allusive, but evidently apparent, "Jesus Lebt." I walked until the next major intersection with no success in finding Jesus. I thought I would walk back the other direction on the other side of the street. Maybe "Jesus Lebt" was a little too high for me to see on the same side of the street.
That ended up being the case. I found the "Jesus Lebt" building at an address a bit before the address that I had written down. The door was freshly refinished, and therefore propped open. I let myself in, but I wasn't exactly sure where I could find Bryce. Names weren't on the doorbells, so I asked a couple of young German women who were leaving the apartment if they knew an American named Bryce Schmidt who lived in the building. They asked if it was the one who was always speaking English, and I told them it probably was. They pointed me to the first floor. I rang the doorbell, and Bryce answered. (I eventually asked Bryce why the address was wrong on his directions. He told me that he was trying to line up the little green arrow on the google map with where his apartment actually was.)
I was the first to arrive, and Bryce was working on some chili for us to eat. I had been on a train through my normal meal time, so I was glad he had something for us to eat. The other attendees included Charles Schrag, who had visited me in Wuppertal just a week before, Jon Huber, another friend from Bethel doing Intermenno, and Alyssa, who was a friend of the Intermenno folk.
Charles was the last to get there at about 9pm. We all ate Bryce's delicious chili together. Afterward Charles informed us that there was a bar nearby that was showing the election. We thought it would be interesting to see the Germans reaction to the election. After watching some election coverage at Bryce's we set off to find the bar. We ended up getting sidetracked by another party that was at a university building nearby. There were a lot of people standing outside the building, and inside they were displaying election coverage in what looked a bit like a lecture hall. There were a lot of people there, and they cheered every time a state was called for Obama. We stayed for a while, but eventually went back to Bryce's apartment. By this time it was 2 or 3 am, and results were coming in fairly steady. We ate and drank our way through another couple of hours of election coverage, periodically checking on our local races online in commercial breaks. Then at 11pm est or 5am in Germany, the race was called for Obama. The five of us were very happy, and very tired. Next McCain came on and gave an gracious and thoughtful concession speech. We stayed up until Obama came on to address the thousands gathered in Hyde Park. At about 6:30 am, after Obama's speech it was time for bed.
I woke up a lot of times realizing my mouth hanging open on the train ride back to Wuppertal the next afternoon. With greasy unkempt hair, I am sure I was a sight to see, but I was too tired to care. I didn't even bother putting on the change of clothes I had brought with me. One of my trains back was late 20 minutes, because we passed another train that was carrying new cars that had evidently had a serious derailment. But eventually I got back, took a shower, changed my clothes, practiced trumpet, did my homework for Thursday, and went to bed.
Here are a couple of pictures of the night:
LEDs
Chili
Charles and Jon
That ended up being the case. I found the "Jesus Lebt" building at an address a bit before the address that I had written down. The door was freshly refinished, and therefore propped open. I let myself in, but I wasn't exactly sure where I could find Bryce. Names weren't on the doorbells, so I asked a couple of young German women who were leaving the apartment if they knew an American named Bryce Schmidt who lived in the building. They asked if it was the one who was always speaking English, and I told them it probably was. They pointed me to the first floor. I rang the doorbell, and Bryce answered. (I eventually asked Bryce why the address was wrong on his directions. He told me that he was trying to line up the little green arrow on the google map with where his apartment actually was.)
I was the first to arrive, and Bryce was working on some chili for us to eat. I had been on a train through my normal meal time, so I was glad he had something for us to eat. The other attendees included Charles Schrag, who had visited me in Wuppertal just a week before, Jon Huber, another friend from Bethel doing Intermenno, and Alyssa, who was a friend of the Intermenno folk.
Charles was the last to get there at about 9pm. We all ate Bryce's delicious chili together. Afterward Charles informed us that there was a bar nearby that was showing the election. We thought it would be interesting to see the Germans reaction to the election. After watching some election coverage at Bryce's we set off to find the bar. We ended up getting sidetracked by another party that was at a university building nearby. There were a lot of people standing outside the building, and inside they were displaying election coverage in what looked a bit like a lecture hall. There were a lot of people there, and they cheered every time a state was called for Obama. We stayed for a while, but eventually went back to Bryce's apartment. By this time it was 2 or 3 am, and results were coming in fairly steady. We ate and drank our way through another couple of hours of election coverage, periodically checking on our local races online in commercial breaks. Then at 11pm est or 5am in Germany, the race was called for Obama. The five of us were very happy, and very tired. Next McCain came on and gave an gracious and thoughtful concession speech. We stayed up until Obama came on to address the thousands gathered in Hyde Park. At about 6:30 am, after Obama's speech it was time for bed.
I woke up a lot of times realizing my mouth hanging open on the train ride back to Wuppertal the next afternoon. With greasy unkempt hair, I am sure I was a sight to see, but I was too tired to care. I didn't even bother putting on the change of clothes I had brought with me. One of my trains back was late 20 minutes, because we passed another train that was carrying new cars that had evidently had a serious derailment. But eventually I got back, took a shower, changed my clothes, practiced trumpet, did my homework for Thursday, and went to bed.
Here are a couple of pictures of the night:
LEDs
Chili
Charles and Jon--Austin
1 comment:
You political junkies were real die hards to stay up all night and watch returns. We old folks were glad to have the election called as early as 10:00 p.m., though we too stayed up until Obama's speech. This was such a historic moment in U.S. history, we didn't want to miss it. It must be very interesting to view the U.S. political system from abroad. Great stuff. Thanks for writing about it.
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