germany

I'm here in Endingen, which is a tiny town among so many tiny towns each with lots of pointy red roofs and a few churches clustered around medieval town centers. I have been mostly spending my time practicing bassoon and enjoying a large variety of cheeses.
I spent my first week in Europe as sort of a camp counselor for German middle school kids who go to Switzerland each year to hike and canoe. We camped by some little town that, despite boasting a population of 66, dates back at least to the 17th century- probably older. Once on a hike we passed a bridge which spanned the Franco/swiss border. I was excited enough to walk across for a couple minutes, but none of the European kids was as impressed by the possibility of casually strolling across an international frontier.
We all sang campfire songs- most of them in english, actually. T was impressed how much English these kids can speak at such a young age. Definitely a few 11 to 14-year-olds whose English unquestionably surpasses my German.
The kids were all pretty interested in hearing about California and such. I entertained them with some circus tricks and dance moves which they then requested for the rest of the week.
A couple days ago I went to France with Julian, his sister, her husband, and their infant son. On the way to a medieval castle we stopped at a sort of monkey petting zoo. I politely fed the monkeys popcorn and didn't mention that I've always hated monkeys. They're like terrible little perverted, bad-mannered people. The castle was really cool, though. It had been restored in the first years of the 20th century under the order of Keiser Wilhelm II when that region was still in Germany.
Tonight Julian, his brother, his father, and I went out to a winery/restaurant for some local cuisine (potatoes, sausage, mustard...). The owner and his wife were honored to have a foreign guest, so they hot out the accordion and sang some German songs. Then they brought out a guitar and I played some willie nelson and elvis and then Julian dug into his endless repertoire. There was a brazilian lady there as well who ended up singing a few of the well-known bossa novas, and who turned out to be Julian's neighbor. We all played and sang late into the night while the owners kept bringing wine.
Tomorrow we will go to Freiburg, where I hope to open a bank account and to activate a cell phone that Julian's sister had extra. The next day I'm off the Tubingen to meet the other CA kids and to start my German program.