TNDC

Last night--Thursday, December 10th--I went to my first 'Thursday Night Drink Club' get-together in Köln. Every week starting at around 8 or so, a group of "ex-pats" gets together to share some beers and just talk in English at an Irish Pub in AlterMarkt. The group was originally just a few Americans, Brits and Aussies living in the area, but over the last few years its grown to a much larger group of people from all over the world. I decided to check it out for the first time, and it turned out to be a lot of fun, but at the same time quite a surreal experience. I didn't arrive until about 8:45ish and there was barely anyone in the place. After having a mini-panic attack thinking that there was no one there, I found a small group of about 5 people sitting at a long table in the back. First things first, I walked to the bar ordered a Kölsch, and then a little apprehensively walked over to the table. As I approached most of them kind of stopped their conversations to look at me. I just asked "Is this the English table?" and immediately everyone smiled and welcomed me. We went around the table with introductions; there were 2 girls and a guy from England, a German girl, a guy from India and a fellow American from Kansas City, Missouri. They all were really nice and I had a lot of fun talking to a few of them. As the night went on, more and more people started to arrive. Eventually there would be 2 more Americans (a guy from Dallas and a guy from Brooklyn), a Frenchman, an Aussie, a girl from Greece, 4 Italians, a hilarious guy from Malaysia, a Pakistani and a few others that at the moment I forget where they were from. It was crazy to be in this setting--especially because it was, sigh, Karoke Night. I was talking with the guy from India for awhile. He was really nice and pretty funny. At one point the Pakistani guy sat next to him and introduced himself. After telling me his name and where he was from, the guy from India looked up at me and said "Look! An Indian and a Pakistani sitting next to each other and we're not even fighting!". It made me laugh. Even though I was "new" to the group, they all made me feel as if I had known them all for years--it was a lot of fun. Robert from England asked me at one point what I was going to sing. I pointed to my pint of Guiness and told him nothing unless I had about 4 more. He just laughed. At one point later in the night when the bar was pretty crowded a group of 3 locals went up to sing. The song started and I immediately realized I knew it. I started to sing a long at the table and everyone stopped to look at me--the song is all in German. I was immediately asked by a number of people "How in the hell do you know the words?". I just laughed and kept singing. At the end of the song, I stood up and said "whoa, I just blackedout, what happened?" and everyone--luckily--understood my humor and started laughing. It was a nice feeling to have back again :)
I had a lot of fun and definitely plan on going more. Clayton, the guy from Dallas is also planning to go to the DMB concert in February so its nice to know I will have someone to go with. I'm also tryin' to get him and another guy I met last night to go to Jam in the Dam with me in March.. but I have some time to convince them ;)
That's all I have for now--time to go on my daily walk with Emilian. Will write again soon! Hope all is well Stateside--I miss and LOVE you all :) xoxo Megan

..Oh and check out the AMAZING pic I took of the Dom last night when I was walking to the U-Bahn station to go home--I swear that thing will never cease to take my breath away.