Max's Birthday 2010

On April 30th, 1986, and little boy named Maximilian was born in Stuttgart Germany.

Yes, Max had his birthday just last week, and he invited everyone down to his house for a birthday party. I always look forward to getting out of Oberursel as I never really feel at home here, and it's always nice to go to someone's house.

KC and I drove together after work on Friday to Baden-Baden. It was quite chaotic and Friday evening rush hour on the autobahn didn't help us getting there any earlier. After 3 hours of the driving, a drive Max says shouldn't take longer that 1.5 hours, we finally arrived.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by Max, Richard, Nicholas, Max's Dad and Gabi. Max was cooking white asparagus with hollandaise sauce, spanish ham, and potatoes. It's a traditionally German dish and since Asparagus is in season right now, everyone likes to eat it. I have to agree it was quite tasty.

That night, the plan was to go to the Baden-Baden Casino. Baden-Baden's casino is quite famous and was frequented by my Russian cultural ancestors like Turgenev and Dostoyevsky. They lost a lot of money there, and I was set on claiming back what should be mine. Just kidding.

To go to the casino, you have to be dressed, and you need your passport. A regular driver's license doesn't work as I learned the last time I was here for Max's birthday. We got into the casino and you feel like you're in a James Bond movie. The casino is architecturally gorgeous and there are a lot of paintings and wood work to look at.

I've only been to a casino once, and that was in Windsor, so this was quite a different, and much nicer. No loud noises from the slot machines/computers, and much more elegant. I liked it a lot. At first, we all walked around together just to watch the high-rollers, and there were several. They were playing blackjack, and of course had to be Russian. Russians basically are the reason why Baden-Baden survives financially.

I just played with 10 euros, and bought 5 2€ chips. Since there were no slot machines, we played roulette. I learned the rules, and I actually made 2 euros. I couldn't decide what number to play and found it difficult because it seemed like an utter waste of money. At the table, there seemed to be a lot of frequent players, and it was interesting to watch. People loose their manners when it comes to money, and it was quite strange playing with people who were betting 500€ just in one turn. There were a lot of French people there, and the people were quite peculiar. It seemed one was playing with his monthly earnings in increments of 500€, and in a matter of minutes he had lost almost 3000€. This put me off, and so I went to the bar and ordered a cocktail.

In the end, I came out even, except that the cocktail and entrance set me back 13€. I guess that's not too much to spend for a night out though, so I wasn't upset. At around 2am, we all walked back to Max's house and went to sleep.

The next day, we woke up and ate breakfast. I have this tradition of driving to the bakery with Max's dad. Ever since I've been coming to Germany and staying with Max, I've gone to the bakery with Max's dad. It's nice to talk to him and since I'm up always early, it was something to do.

Unfortunately the weather was bad, but Max hadn't planned much, to my great surprise. Usually Max plans out everything when he throws a party. It was pretty much a relaxed day. Later on though, more people arrived at we walked through town and went to the castle. I mean there's not much else to do there, so it was nothing new to me, and since I had just been there 2 weeks earlier, it's pretty much repetitive.

That evening, Max bbq'd for his guests. We had chicken, sausages, and steaks. It was very good, and it was cool to see Max using their grill from the USA. We also had macaroni salad, cucumber salad, and potato salad... what else! Max also made an oreo cake for dessert which was very good.

I had brought along, per Max's request, red party cups that I had bought when I went to the US commissary when I was in Wiesbaden. We used these cups to show Max's german friends how to play flip cup. Unfortunately Max didn't have any ping pong balls, so we couldn't play beer pong. I didn't really play much, as KC, Gabi, and I had a very interesting conversation, and we perhaps had too many Caipahrinia's to drink. One of Max's friends from home arrived with another American, and KC was all too happy to find another American with whom she could talk to. (KC is a friend from high-school who was transferred to work in Frankfurt. She speaks just basic German). We had a really interesting conversation about high and low context in language. It's especially apparent in German and English and results in a lot of cultural mishaps between the two languages. For instance,

- I said to this to my host dad over Christmas break. "Oh shoot, I bought clear silicone but need white silicone, and now I can't finish caulking the bathroom" And what I really wanted was to say "Deltev, take me to the store I need to buy silicone or else I can't finish my project in time". Americans say things indirectly to avoid confrontation and to remain polite. We don't like inconveniencing people, so we ask in a round about way so that they respond in a way that let's them choose to offer what we want to us. This is inherent for American's and understood given context.

in German you would have to say...

"Detlev, I bought the wrong silicone and need to go to the store before it closes for the Christmas holidays, because otherwise I won't finish my project. Would you mind driving me now?"

Perhaps not the best example, but this is the direct questions German's want. German's hate when Americans beat around the bush, but I have to say this is one of the hardest things for me to change. When you read this, you think, that's not hard to say, what are you talking about Henry, but in context, you'd realize that you too would be very indirect in the way you formulate questions to remain polite.

Getting back, we had a great conversation, and it was nice to hear other American's perspective on these things. That night everyone went to sleep at different times.

The next morning, about 20 of us ate breakfast, and I went again with Max's dad to the bakery. This time it was quite embarrassing as there was really a long line and they were almost sold out. Luckily, we had made an order, so it was really for us to pick up, but we had ordered something like 60 rolls. That day, everyone left around noon, but Max had invited me and KC to visit in Grandparents in Freiburg for the afternoon. Only later in the evening did we drive back to Frankfurt.