I hung out with some people last night, Meg, Andreas' au pair from Australia, her boyfriend Florian, and all the other people who wandered into the local hangout spot "Dreamtime." It's not a bad place, but all my clothes from yesterday smell like smoke now. The number of smokers here is pretty impressive, which is to say: everyone. The long and short of it all is that it was nice to actually be around people again: watching "Big Trouble in Little China" everyday, as good a movie as it is, is getting a little old.

Of course, I couldn't understand 98% of the conversations, but it didn't matter; I learned some new words and actually got to speak German in a context that was an actual conversation. Florian turned out to be a really cool guy. I already knew Meg.

As fun as it was, though, I was struck by the strange absence of anyone above the age of 18 who isn't 65 or a teacher. It was cool to hang out with everyone: I had missed real human contact, but the six years between us seems to make a pretty big difference. I am lead to consider if I am in fact a boring ass person, which seems likely, or if the age gap really is as big as it feels. Highschool was odd enough once, watching other people plod through it in another language just maginfies it about a hundred times. And I should say, sitting on a couch while the people on either side of you make out furiously is just as awkward in german as it is in english. I almost gave them the key to me room as long as they'd do the laundry afterwards.

This is not to say that it wasn't nice to actually talk to people, I just miss my own age group. On the bright side, I was invited to have beer with all the teachers the night Fall Break starts the 29th, which will be fun.

OH, and it's cold as hell here now. It's amazing.