texans.

no. it didn't work out. of course not.

of course i wasn't able to spend a whole evening in the company of two texans and *not* discuss us politics.
at least it wasn't me who started it.

in the middle of entrees at oberkirch, fred asked me who i'd vote for in the us elections, i asked him whether he really wanted to get into this, he said he did, and so the fun started.

it really was fun.
we had an animate, intelligent, interesting discussion on just about every single issue you, the european, aren't really supposed to discuss with texans you both don't know very well. european - us relations. iraq. abortion and partial birth abortion in particular. the death penalty. the justice system. wm3. gun culture. what have you: 't was all the good stuff.
and it was so much fun for all of us. it really was.

every once in a while, fred would exclaim "oh, i love this!" when i let off all my euro-views on why we love and hate and love to hate the us. it really was lovely. not just because of the wine we consumed and the nice dinner we ate during the discussion.
it was just another instance of realising how awesome communication is, once you get it started. and that communication is the key to understanding.

it really was a fantastic evening.
fred was as hyper as he had been at the tour: i wish i had energy like him, just for one day. his work acquaintance jim was fabulous company, too: smart, well-spoken, interesting.
i enjoyed the night with the two of them so much.

after dinner, we went to freiburg's newest and hippset bar, "wiener-", where we went through three jugs of excellent south african red before they turned up the lights and politely threw us out at 3am, heading home to -yes, it had to happen- watch the debate.
we laughed, had brownies and coffee and jim and i shared more wine, we snickered and laughed about what was being said, and it was more fun than any debate i had watched alone. obviously.

it must have been 5am when they left. or whenever. they left when it was over. and it was very very early in the morning.

the handymen putting in the new windows in andrea's flat started their work at 8:15am today. with a sledgehammer.
so i've got about 3 hours of sleep on my back, i have a slight hangover, a persistent feeling of fragility.

not of the political kind though, luckily.

ha.