Meeting Bob

Our first evening in Nashville was great. We went to the Stammtisch, a German conversation club that takes place at a restaurant every week. A German woman who wanted to speak her mother tongue again created it and now there are a couple of persons willing to practice meeting each week. We had the opportunity to get to know a few young Americans as well as older ones, besides getting stuffed on ribs, burgers and other pretty rich stuff, of course. There was Jeanette, an old German woman born in China, who has been living in Nashville for a long time but still longs for the beautiful Mosel river; a few girls from various American universities just visiting the city as we and, of course, Bob Bogan (I dont know if this how you spell his name). Everybody was very friendly and I guess most of us had some interesting conversations both in English and German.

This morning we went to see the Country Music Hall of Fame, a huge new concrete structure sponsored by Ford. They have an impressive display of clothes, instruments and all kinds of country paraphernalia. Now we all know the difference between honky tonk, bluegrass and the Nashville sound. After that we had lunch with Bob and Kathy at a real Southern restaurant in a charming old building. The food was unbelievably sweet and rich. After trying the mashed potatos, bread stuffing, sugary tasting carrots, peas in cream sauce, mashed sweet corn, maccaroni swimming in melteld cheese and those tasty biscuits (a kind of fatty Broetchen) I hardly had room for the fried chicken and roast chicken. When they were serving pork schnitzel during the end of the meal, I had to decline.

Some words about Bob: he is an increbibly curious and active man despite his age of 80 years. Whenever he does not understand something he goes ahead and asks somebody. He showed me and Alexandra the State Capitol and he practically knows every third person there. He would just sneak into any office and see if we could get in. That is how we ended up in the governor's office while he wasnt there. We shook hands with a couple of senators and saw the end of the state's senate's session today. This was very confusing since we did not know about the bills and issues discussed there and, of course, the nice dialect of some of those politicians. Still, it was very interesting and we had a great view over the city. Thank you, Bob.

Bob and the German oak at Magdeburg Greenway

Meeting the senators

The Governor's office