As Gwen mentioned, we went for the wine and cheese, two commodities that for whatever reason are far superior outside of Germany. I wish I knew more about wine, but I swear looking at long aisles of Bordeaux and Alsace regional wines selling for three to five Euros per bottle I kept thinking about how some of these bottles would probably cost 50 or 60 bucks minimum at some restaurants in the States. Might as well stock up while we're here (even though 'three to five Euros' *IS* roughly fifty to sixty bucks now given the current weakness of the dollar). Similarly, I don't know a lot about cheese, only that France has some of the most liberal cheese laws allowing more exotic stuff to be produced and sold (kind of unsettling to think about actually - basically anything, from any orifice or pit of a goat or cow or other barnyard mammal, of any age, can me be made into a cheese....) and that there are very few cheeses I don't like, so we just picked up "half kilos" of several different kinds to try out or at the very least stink up our house with.
Last night upon our return from Luxembourg (did I mention we just jaunted up there for the day?), we met up with Pete and Kane (a PA from Baumholder) and went over to the Christkindlemarkt here in downtown Kaiserslautern. 'Tis the season for these things, and basically most cities in Germany take a large portion of their walk-platz, or downtown, and set up various booths which serve specialty foods and/or sell knick-knacks. There is music and merry-making to boot. The most notable thing is the famous "Gluhwein", which is a sweetened, spiced, and heated red wine which is very good and both promotes cheer (alcohol!) and helps one battle the bone-chilling cold which permeates Germany at this time of year.
One thing we forgot to do at both places - a gross oversight in fact - is bring the camera. We've learned that any time we experience anything "local" here, we really to have to bring the camera. Not only for the multitude of Funboys (when's the last time I had one of those pictured here? What's happened to this place?) that appear at these places and events, but just for local oddities in general. (For example, at the Hypermarkt, one of the clothing stores had a fashion display which featured mannequins dressed in something akin to a J. Crew get-up, only the heads on each mannequin were adorned with animal masks - life-size ones - the overall effect of which was downright creepy, especially for anyone who's read Stephen King.) So the camera is a must.
In other news, thanks to my parents, "Rock Band" has arrived and we had our first band session the other night with Pete, Gwen and myself. The overall impression is that it's quite fun though we have some work to do in terms of figuring out all the nuances, especially regarding the user interface. Guitar work is a little different than in Guitar Hero, and though the Guitar that comes with Rock Band is a sweet wireless version, its also got mushy keys and none of us seemed to be able to play at even 75% of our best on it. Drums are just a blast, and quite fatiguing. Singing is pure comedy, especially since for every line there is a little arrow which tells you whether or not you need to sing at a higher or lower pitch - this arrow constantly shifts up and down and the singer must respond to compensate. The overall effect is that everyone sounds not unlike a male teen going through puberty at many points in the song. We'll try to get some "concert videos" or at least pictures up soon.
(Pulled this one from the archives. This one's from a train ride to the airport in Stuttgart on our way to Croatia. They start the Funboys young here. This kids glasses never came off, not even in the dark stretches of the train ride. Somthing tells me he sleeps in them. Also not pictured are the sweet all-white shoes. This kid has probably made out with every chick in the sixth grade...)
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