The Continental - Hamilton College

traveldeutschlandwith drewalumnus drew lafiandra misseshamilton. badly. from a bar in the landof beer and leather, he penned thislove note to the student body.my dear Jamiltonians and Hamiltoes.You probably don’t notice it on yourwalk down Martin’s Way, or whileyou shotgun UCs in your South quad(Oh? You live in South? That’s socool!). But this guy here—he kind ofmisses you.Last year I left our sacred plains of Academia and came to theFatherland a.k.a. Germany; Deutschland; Dutchington; the Landof Beer and Leather—whatever jiggles your pudding. I received aFulbright grant to teach English in German high schools, improve myown language skills, and, unbeknownst to my students, frolic aroundBavaria in leather duds tasting local brews from modest, liter-sizedsample glasses.Just like on the Hill, you fall into a schedule and I’ll be jiggeredif I can fall out of it. I wake up earlier than a milkman (that’s right, amilkman) and I actually have to get ready in the morning. I actuallyshower, groom, eat breakfast, pack my briefcase (thank you Salvo) andleave the apartment when it is still dark out. At what point did the era ofBacchalian Tuesdays abandon this poor twenty-four-year-old Germanmajor?I know, I know. You’re saying, oh bananas! That’s how it is outsideof this resort on the Hill? Well, yes and no. Though your post-collegeexperience may differ from mine, I work four days a week with Fridaysoff and have a grueling three-hour work day. On long weekends, I travelas far as my paychecks take me, which is usually to the Turkish single’snight on the first floor of my apartment building. But sometimes, Itake the hour-long train ride to visit classmate Andy Mention ’07 inMunich. There is this great deal in Germany: when traveling in onlyone Bundesland (e.g. Bavaria, a state), you can buy a pass for only €2784 the continental | spring 2008(approx. $4582 American), and up to five people can travel with it forthe whole day. The catch, of course, is finding four Germans to split theticket. Those of you who have spent any time in this wonderful countrywill note that the natives are great people. They lead the modern worldnot only in low greenhouse emissions, but also in being some of theweirdest, most awkward people to walk the earth. The fact that theGerman language has no word for ‘awkward’ alone makes conversinga relatively hilarious endeavor. Anyhoo, my best experience whilst“training” around was splitting the ticket with four blond fillies thatwere studying—you guessed it, English. I was like, holler?So after all of this, it doesn’t sound like I miss you all that much.Well, there my dear friends, you are wrong. Being able to find somebroham at four o’clock Monday morning and drinking a celebratoryI-just-finished-my-Anthro-final bottle of whiskey will never be matchedhere. Dressing up as Severus Snape to frighten little children and adultsjust isn’t appreciated here. Grinding with biddies at the ELS RockyHorror party won’t happen anyplace other than Hamilton—trust meon that one. Hamilton holds a painfully permanent place in my heart.I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night thinking that I haveonce again crashed on the sofa in the Fireplace Lounge, but wake up torealize that I am actually wearing clothes, negating the possibility of theformer scenario. I then go to the Hamilton website and I see what y’allsare up to. Shout outs to Greg and Magda: Watson fellows I presume?Also, to the Curling team: Respect.So the next time you whip out your key to shotgun some brewdogsor beerhammers or whatever the devil you kids call them nowadays,remember that somewhere in Germany there is a kid who is missingthe hell out of it. In the meantime, there are four blond German womentrying to get into my apartment. Toodles.