Q: Wie viel Uhr ist es? A: Party-Zeit!

My roommate, Flo, had a birthday party on Friday. Birthdays are handled strangely in Germany: in America, the birthday boy/girl is usually pampered a little bit. People buy him/her dinner, organize a gathering, whatever. In Germany, you have to shoulder onerous responsibilities on your own birthday. The night before Flo's birthday, he was baking a cake to bring into work. So on your birthday, you are supposed to bring cake and give it to other people! Then you have a big party at which you buy copious amounts of food/drink with your own money, and that of your reluctant roommate, and then tons of people come over and don't bring you anything. No drinks, no presents. So basically on your birthday you have to entertain everyone you know, at great personal cost.

Also, if it is around Oktoberfest, everyone will wear lederhosen. Even though Oktoberfest had not technically started, I guess everyone was welling with so much Bavarian pride that all the men wore lederhosen, and the ladies all wore a dress called a Dirndl, which looks a milkmaid's dress. What's amazing is that there is absolutely no sense of irony about it. As can be seen in this blurry photo, I myself wore a pair of lederhosen; Flo for some reason has two. I found them very funny. Objectively, they are ridiculous. The cut is very unflattering, there is ornate embroidery all over it, and a huge flap at the front which is only used for going to the bathroom. Those who are really with it have complex suspenders, a hat, and special leather shoes. Even though everyone is dressed like lumberjacks at the prom, they dance to techno music and drink complicated shots and do everything else that Germans normally do at a party. It is very surreal to watch a roomful of men in lederhosen dancing to "Blue."

This was the longest social event I've ever been to that was conducted solely in German. I did pretty well for the first hour or so, when it was relatively quiet. But when everyone started pouring in and yakking at light speed, I was completely lost. I found, though, that by concentrating on facial tics and body language, I could figure out my expected contribution to the conversation without knowing what it was about (laugh, nod, say "huh!", etc).

This was very taxing and not a great deal of fun, so I went to sleep pretty early (i.e. around 2). Unfortunately, for complex architectural reasons, the party was still technically going on in my room, while I was sleeping (still in my lederhosen). One girl was somehow under the impression that I was Norwegian, so she shook me awake and started talking to me in Norwegian. If you are very tired, this is the one thing that is bound to make you exceptionally angry and disoriented. I mean, even if I were Norwegian, this would not be a normal thing to do. I think that she spoke no other languages. Anyway, I certainly could not communicate with her, so through gestures I asked her to leave me alone and not steal anything. Ah, new friends!