The English Pub

Regrettably, this is going to be a picture free blog entry. I always like to include at least one picture of the event....more if I can really fit it in (you might have noticed already).

Last night our English friend, Emma, brought us to and English speaking club.

Let me explain a few things about that name, however.

First of all, they mean English as in the British English, not really American. They had lots of cool English beers like Monty Python's Holy Grail, Old Speckled Hen, and Newcastle. And when they say club, they mean like a gathering and not dancing. In other words, it was a lot of older people who moved to Germany from England and who wanted to get together and speak English from time to time. Might sound stuffy, but they were all quite friendly, talkative, and rowdy once you got them to drink.

We were quite lucky to stumble into this little pub on the night we did. Heck, it was lucky we stumbled on it at all. You'd have to blame our friend, Emma, who just seem to find it at random on the internet and drag us all there. But tonight was special, it was Sing-Along night. Packets were passed out with tons of song lyrics. I didn't recognize too many at first, but then I started going through one by one and all I could think of was, "bless my mother." There was one children's song CD she would always play in the car that had sons like "Drunken Sailor", "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", "A Waltzing Mathilda", and "Loch-Lomond". I proudly requested those on the sheet of paper being passed around

After a very delicious veggie lasagna and creamy fruit dessert (I really need to learn how to make both), they started singing the songs I requested. After a few drunken rounds of "Hey Jude" and a very touching, albeit drunk, version of Scarborough Fair, I heard John say they were doing "A Waltzing Mathilda" next. For any of you who don't know this, I love this song. I used it as a sign project once and had to sing it while I signed in front of the class because I couldn't find a version to my satisfaction.

John who was in charge of the bellowing singing, was leading everyone in the song, but not very many people seemed to be into it. About half way through the song his voice started to give out. Can't say I blame the ol' chap. He had been singing for a while and drinking nothing but beer. Let me say again, I love this song. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that as soon as he faltered, I lifted my voice above the crowd and sang the entire next verse by myself....or at least until John got his breath back and then people started to join me in the chorus again. After the song, John came over to me with a huge smile saying he owed me a beer. He kept good on his promise and got me a Newcastle before we had to be back at the train station to head home for the night. This story may not be really epic but I thourghly enjoy it. Me, a little Ami, who just belted out an Australian folk song in an English Club in Germany. Anyone else have culture shock yet?