This Saturday was packed with activities, notably a meeting with Herr Todtenhausen, the Bundestag member I’ve been assigned to, and a gathering with the Mädels (my friends from school). My meeting with Herr Todtenhausen (whom Melina and I have secretly nicknamed “Onkel Manfred”) was at 13:30, so at around 13:28, I said my goodbyes to Melina, traveled two floors down, and pressed the doorbell button at the apartment marked “Todtenhausen.” Herr Todtenhausen called something in German when I rang the doorbell (probably something like “coming!”) and a few moments later, he opened the door while pulling on a jacket. Immediately he introduced himself as Manfred, told me I could use “du” with him, and then we stepped back into the elevator to walk to his car. It was a bright icy blue (he switched to English to provide this exact description to me) because he didn’t want a boring gray car like all the others. I felt very detached from my surroundings because my mind, originally filled with preplanned questions I could ask Herr Todtenhausen to keep up a conversation, turned blank with the effort of keeping up with his fast German.

He took me his office while telling me story upon story about his house and his son and his wife and all the traveling he’s done. Looking at me curiously out of the corner of his eye while driving, he said, “it’s very obvious that you’re from India, or someone in your family comes from India. I’ve been to the country, it’s very apparent.” It was a statement that clearly warranted an explanation. I launched into the practiced line that I said constantly while working at the rehabilitation center back home. “Yes, my parents come from India, but I was born in the United States, so I am an American citizen.” This was always the first question I was asked by the patients in the center, and it never felt like it was out of a true interest in getting to know me, but out of a strange curiosity, as if I was an alien from a distant planet. He jumped from the topic immediately to ask me about my own interests, and shared that he had studied electrical engineering (and had also become a “Handwerk Meister”) but then he switched to politics. I asked him how he had made such a drastic switch, and he told me that during his time working in the electrical engineering field he had put together several foundations for animal rights, and he had been so successful that someone one day suggested that he run for candidacy. He went through the process (which involves several stages of increasing importance) and prevailed.

He showed me around his office, which was clean and small and decorated with the lurid yellow, pink, and cyan shades that represented his party, the Freedom Democratic Party. On his desk was a selection of Christmas snacks and two small packages. He encouraged me to take one Christmas snack for myself and then he pored over the packages.

Picking one up and holding it to the light, he asked, “What the heck is this?” I picked up the other and read the label.

“Hänger, dreiecke.” I didn’t know the noun, but I did know that the verb “hängen” means to hang, so I took a guess. “Perhaps it’s something decorative to hang.”

He was turning the package over and over in his hands, and asked yet again, “what in the world is this? Is it something for tea?”

Thinking that he perhaps hadn’t heard me, I said, “Maybe? Or it could just be something you can hang in front of a window or from the ceiling.”

Interrupting me, he exclaimed, “It’s from India!” Pointing at me almost accusatively, he said, “you should know what this is.”

I looked at the package again and realized that in small letters, smaller than the hanger description, there was a label stating that it was from Delhi, India. I hadn’t even noticed. I stayed quiet and smiled.

Before we left the room, he tossed the package to me and said, “you have Indian descent, so just take this.”

At the cafe, he ordered me a “Waffel Komplett” (a huge waffle with ice cream, whipped cream, and cherries—I thought I’d throw up!) and a Milchkaffee, and ordered himself two slices of cake and a Latte Macchiato. During our quick meal, which was at perfect Kaffee and Kuchen time—around 3pm—he propped his phone up so we could watch the Bavarian FDP elections. He explained that new candidates are selected in each state of Germany regularly and that today’s was Bavaria’s day. It reminded me of the caucuses and primaries held by states in the United States, but since there are far more political parties in Germany, these events last much longer and are held more frequently.

While I described the meeting to Melina and Andreas, emphasizing how nice he had been, Andreas scoffed and said, “He may be nice but the party is completely Scheiße.” I’ve heard that a lot, particularly regarding the FDP’s policies on taxes. Stated in their platform and through various policies they enacted or attempted to enact, they’ve shifted tax burdens from high income earners to middle class citizens and provided more support for companies but less for small businesses and the “ordinary citizen.” I smiled and said that I didn’t know enough to comment, but that I had heard some things.

A few hours later, I was off again, this time to the Hauptbahnhof to buy wine glasses so I could paint them for a Christmas present for Melina, and then straight to the party with the girls at Luisa’s house. There, I played Karaoke for the first time in my life, both in English and in German, guessing at the notes for the songs I didn’t know. We then played Just Dance, Mario Kart, and Mario Party. It made me realize how much I’ve improved because I was able to keep up quite easily with the conversation and even land a few jokes in German of my own. I closed out the night watching Bibi and Tina with Luisa and Viki, and left promising that I’d watch the rest of the movies with them at another time. I truly hope I can. There are so many people I’ve met at this school that I would love to continue spending time with, and as my German improves I’m excited to unlock an understanding of aspects of their personality and character that I may not have picked up on before.

Last modified on 2024-12-22