First Visit in Iserlohn

The weather here has been excellent. I love October in Florida and I love it in Germany as well. The leaves are change colors before my eyes and there hasn’t been a drop of rain for almost a week.

Sorry to keep you waiting for my Iserlohn weekend up date but I made a spur of the moment trip to Regensburg yesterday to spend a evening with Alex without having to compete with the weekend crowd. We had drinks with 2 of Alex’s colleges and one of them, Max, I got to speak with quiet extensively. I met him and his girlfriend Veronica the first week I was in München and I couldn’t talk with them at all. He is super intelligent and speaks French and German, no English. I use my conversations with him as a barometer for my German language progress and last night indicated to me that I am in the right direction.

SO the visit to Iserlohn went well. Alex and I arrived at Hagen in two different trains. We were in Köln at the same time but there wasn’t enough time for him to change to my train; I arrive 20 minutes before him. Actually, the middle brother, Roland, picked us up from the train station. He’s a bit shy however very friendly. We drove 15 minutes from Hagen to the home of Alex’s parents/grandmother to introduce myself to Alex’s Oma. I have to use the Formal “Sie” with Frau Gentemann, something I am not very used to. She immediately asked if I understood what everyone was saying and I apologized for not being so talkative on her birthday back in July. I found out later she has trouble pronouncing my name, “Wie heißt sie? Hezza?” So perhaps we are both a little shy with each other and mostly we smiled a lot.

Afterwards, Alex, Roland and I had dinner in the “Ruhrgebiet”, basically and area northwest of Iserlohn known for its roll in coal mining and steel. This area was pretty critical in WWII and the Allies bomb the hell out of this place and successfully ‘captured’ it. Alex’s Grandmother rented out 2 of the floors in her 3 story house, while she waited for her husband to return from Russia (he never did).. The top floor was rented out by an Allied supporter that the Nazi’s didn’t know about. Once the area was secured by the Allies, a sign was posted outside her house saying, ‘Don’t mess with this one’. Alex and Roland tried to explain the dialect and other unique aspects of the Ruhrgebiet, but most of it flew over my head.

The next evening Alex and I had dinner with both Roland and Martin at La Cubana. Yeah I know; a cuban restaurant in west-central Germany? Trust me, the food wasn’t close to cuban or anywhere near the Caribbean, especially when what looks like a “burrito” contains large cubed chunks of chicken and its served with a side of Pommes Fritas. But the atmosphere was festive and a large black and white cat with a pink nose (it looked like Squink) wandered in and sat on my lap and purred contently for about 5 minutes.

lf to rt: Alex, Roland, Frau Gentemann, & MartinSunday, we all had a formal Lunch at “Hiddemann im Spiek”, Frau Gentemann’s favorite Restaurant. The average age at this place was probably around 70 and the meals were a healthy portion of traditional German food for the area, I’d say more sophisticated than Bavaria. The conversation was too fast and complex for me but the exposure helped get me acclimated to picking out words.

The rest of the time was very relaxing. Far different from the hustle and bustle of big-city München. My time in Alex’s hometown reminded me that there are many poor areas in Germany; effected by the extremely high unemployment rate. Iserlohn is very much a tidy, small town place, but there isn’t any expensive landscaping and what is there is maintained enough to keep it from impeding the streets and walkway. Alex’s 70′s-esque high school looked as if it hadn’t ever been updated. His hometown is a completely safe place and I would believe that people there get along fine without exposing themselves to a word of world news.

So until next Christmas…Iserlohn awaits. But in case you want to go “ga-ga” over some silly photos that Alex and I made, Ya’all can knock yourselves out!

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