One aspect that I enjoy about Germany is that it doesn't seem to matter what age you are, you can find a group or people who share an interest of yours. Actually, it seems like it's highly encouraged to be a part of a group or a "club." I've been missing singing in a choir ever since I left Concordia. There's just something about singing and music that makes everything feel wonderful. It's a drug-like side-effect that's only comparable to that of exercising, in my mind.
Anyway, I joined a choir at the beginning of the fall semester in October. I had already decided that I wanted to join one back in May when I got here, but it wasn't possible because the semester was almost over. I found three options in Jena. I decided to join the choir that sang a mixture of popular and classical music. They were also a smaller group, so I thought it might be less intimidating to speak and make new German friends.
The audition came around and I was nervous, as usual, but Ben had helped me practice some basic questions that they might ask me (Did you sing in a choir before, which part did you sing, do you play any instruments, etc.), so I felt pretty well prepared. It was all fine until they asked me to sing "Bruder Jacob."
Huh? Turns out that's the name of Frere Jacques in German. I unfortunately didn't know that song in German, but the two choir directors and I sang it in a canon~ them two in German and me in French...I wasn't expecting that twist.
It felt so good to sing in a choir, but socializing was a bit more of a challenge. I thought that since I would see the choir members every week, making friends would be easier. However, I noticed that Germans aren't so forthcoming even when you're all doing something that you love together. I really wanted to strike up conversation but I've learned that Germans don't ask "How're you doing?" as a greeting or conversation starter. So all I could manage was:
Me: <smile> "Hallo!"
Acquaintance: <maybe smile> "Hallo."
Me: "..."
Then I was stuck because I didn't know what I should talk about. I can't ask them how they are! Maybe the weather...? Ugh. Such a struggle. It's boring to talk about the weather every week. Usually I was saved because we would start singing and there wouldn't be time to chit-chat with one another.
Therefore, I was both scared and excited when I found out that there was going to be a choir retreat. Making small-but-not-small-talk in German for 72+ hours, hmm...
Let's just say that I had more fun at the choir retreat than I could've imagined. The first evening we had a couple of hours of rehearsal, but then we just played some getting-to-know-you games. I have to admit those were a bit tough because sometimes I'd have to learn double the vocabulary (a.k.a. someone's name and then a fruit/vegetable that began with the same letter~ side note: not many fruit/vegetables begin with J in German).
The second day consisted in majority of singing (surprise!) and I even managed to convince some people to go hiking with me. :-) In essence, it was nice to be "stuck" together as a group and be forced to talk to each other. I learned so much more about other members than I would have through just weekly choir rehearsals.
Also, I haven't mentioned one thing about food yet in this post...I discovered some standard (and very yummy) German junk food. The top one is two cookies sandwiching a little bit of chocolate. I think it's probably similar to Nutella. And the bottom picture is similar to puff corn but with a peanut coating on the outside~kind of genius!
That's all for this post. Big take-away from the weekend: Germans get a lot friendlier and talkative after they've had a beer. Let's not make that a stereotype, but it was definitely an observation.
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