Velcome to Germany

So there we arrived on that pleasant Emirates flight in Hamburg, standing in long line of Middle Eastern and Arab passengers waiting to be frisked for our transfer. It must have been fatigue, when I greeted that Northern German security with the Bavarian greeting 'Gruess Gott', which literally means 'A greeting to God'. Northern German security was quite delighted. 'Well, finally a righteous greeting' the large Teuton said, winking at his colleague. 'All those other guys just say salaam aleikum'.

Dinner at the historic Weinhaus Neuner was pleasant. Even though a whole room full of mono-ethnic guests is always a bit disturbing at first. In this case it was obviously company policy. A few friendly Itlians asking for a table were told that kitchen was closed, despitte the obvious fact that it was 9:30 and a few empty tables were still laid out with silverware. No reservations accepted for the next day either. I think I overheard a muffled 'fuck you' from the departing 86'd Mediterranians.

New Year's eve we spent in Munich with our friends from Milan. We ended up in quite a nice lounge bar with a DJ spinning Disco worthy of a Long Island wedding (in a good sense). There was Andrea and a few of his Italian friends with us, having such a good time that a lot of people seeing us through the large window pane joined the party. The proprietress, a short, stocky and very drunk Bavarian woman who reminded me of my old landlady on the Lower Eastside. She bought us a round of 'shorties' (German code for sweetish liquors in fancy colors with a guaranteed hangover), screaming 'oh those fucking Italians. I can't stand those fucking Italians', going into a tirade against that nation two hours South of here that our friends were from. Who took it in stride by the way. I guess they're used to that type of German behavior.

Had I mentioned the special section on 'the black body in Hip Hop' a German paper recently featured? It'll be a long way to modern cosmopolitan social skills around here I'm afraid....