Expats - again!

I almost didn't go.

My drinking buddy, Rebecca, was housebound with an absent husband and no babysitter available due to a bank holiday ensuring they were all out enjoying themselves (how dare they?)

But then I saw that Michelle, another regular expat & also fellow bookgrouper was definitely going as she was alone for the long bank holiday weekend and in need of entertaining.

So to begin with we were just 2.

Then another couple came into Lulus, Nicole from New Jersey (originally) & Philip (I'm unsure of the spelling due to the fact he's) German - I jokingly said he'd have to sit at the bar - you'd think if he's had a Yank staying with him (I think they're just friends, but still) since December, he'd get jokes by now, but no....ho hum.

I wondered whether they were going to stay as they seemed quite put off by the fact that there were only 2 of us - clearly never heard the phrase 'quality not quantity' .

But they did.

She it turns out is trying to find work in a French speaking country (quite why she's doing that from a German speaking one I have no idea, American logic, go figure) and has been swamped by the bureaucracy (is that how you spell that?) how you need a job to get a visa but need a visa to get a job, I thought about being sympathetic to her plight but then thought no, remembering the hoops we hae to jump through to even get into the US, and was interested in finding other expat groups around the area - there aren't many.

Philip loosened eventually (as much as is possible following the consumption of a capuccino and a hot chocolate - a German male who doesn't drink beer - I didn't think they existed!) we managed to agree that the lack of films here in original language (ie. not dubbed) was awful, we discussed stag parties (you wait till I tell you what the German ones are like - it's worth a whole blog to itself!) and we got really stuck into the Eurovision Song Contest, he was quite shocked (or maybe offended?) to have it put to him that he might watch it 'but I'm not...'
he hesitated
'I'm not homosexual'

Michelle and I thought this highly amusing, and told him that in the UK we just watch and laugh and tka ethe piss, gay or not, we know we don't stand a cat in hells chance of winning, we just sit back and bitch about it - maybe it's a cultural thing.

Then he thought he was on a roll and told us (by then 5, native English speakers who have varying degrees of German) a German joke (in German)....

....

....

and then had to explain it


in English


and finally we laughed.


Maybe he should have sat at the bar*!






*that's a joke by the way, he was a very nice guy, whose English is heaps better than my German, but I thought that that made a good punch line to my story...and in my defence I have had 2 martinis (1 fuzzy & 1 chocolate)