Erich graces E-town

Erich came back to Erfurt to visit last weekend. On Friday as soon as I was finished with work I rushed off to the Hauptbahnhof to pick him up. We went out to Stadtgarten, where there was some slightly wannabe yet still danceable music being played. The dance floor seemed to take ages to fill up, everyone waiting for everyone else to dance.

I rather showed myself up by galloping over to my cynical roommate Robert to ask him why he wasn't dancing, and at that moment getting the worst hiccups I have ever had.


On Saturday there was warm weather in Erfurt for the first time anyone could recall, and the Germans were having a field day. The center of town was packed; dogs and ice creams were everyone's new must-have accessory. On Sunday Erich and I went back for more ice cream. Then we took the train to Weimar to check out the Bauhaus Museum and take a picture in front of the gold man.

Erich told me a story about how he was looking for a job the summer before coming to Germany and stumbled across an obvious pyramid scheme, which he sort of experimentally allowed himself to get tangled up in, just to see what would happen. He did a splendid imitation of the terrifying passive-aggressive type who interviewed him, asking,"Are you excited?? Are you really excited?" like an evangelist at a charismatic church. 

He also told about a woman he had worked with who sat so long her rear was the shape of the chair, and I said I kind of felt like that too sometimes. Then in the gift shop of the museum I picked up a small art piece, a carved man whose seated square body fit perfectly into a square chair, and I asked, is this what you meant?