Öppe Please and Thank You

On Friday night Matthi and I went to a small pub in Greven called Öppe, which is owned by our mutual friend's parents. If you consider my last trip to Greven, I think think I am the most frequent American customer that Öppe has ever had in the history of its greatness...what an accomplishment on my part! Every other weekend, Matthi meets with his group of guy friends at the pub for a "Stammtisch" (get-together)...so of course I tagged along. We entered the back room of the pub where they all meet, and my eyes became huge as I looked around. I was in a room with fifteen German guys and I was the sole girl in the room--not to mention the sole American in the entire pub. (I included a picture of some of the guys in the room, though not everyone made it in the photo). After awkwardly sitting for a while in the room and listening to all the guys crack jokes and "prost" (cheers) each other, the room got a little quieter. Conni (one of Matthi's good friends) took the quiet moment to LOUDLY turn to me and yell, "SO MAGGIE, WHAT IS UP?!" to which the entire room started cracking up. But let's be honest...how many girls get to be in a room full of 15 attractive German guys? God I love having Asheville School connections!

After about half an hour of getting free drinks from Matthi's Stammtisch pals, I decided to wander out into the main part of the bar to hang out with some of the guys who are not part of the "Stammtisch group." Well, I definitely chose the wrong time to sit down at that table (filled with six German guys..I was still the sole girl), because within the first five minutes I was there, Maik lost the dice game and had to buy a round of shots...Jägermeister shots. For those of you who are unaware, I HATE Jäger...but what is a girl to do when it is put in front of her as a nice German offering? I gulped the nasty, sweet liquor down and was pleased when my stomach chose not to make it reappear on the table (I was a bit worried it would). Anyway, the two crowds converged after a while and we all joined in the main room of Öppe. At one point, a song came on the speakers and the next thing I knew Matthi and his friends were pumping chairs above their heads! I guess the song lyrics call for this sort of behavior; however, I am not exactly sure. Also, Bernd (the owner of Öppe who enjoyed my Tennessean presence two years ago) informed me (through a German translator) that everything was on the house for me since I was the American guest. Ha, you gotta love the foreign attention! Anyway, the night was long (actually, Matthi and I made it home at the wee hours of 4:30am), but I had a great time catching up with old friends, laughing about language barriers, and taking a ton of pictures.