September Postscript: The Bad German

I’m not sure how I managed to overlook writing about this incident; maybe it just upset me too much and I decided not to write it down, but I thought I should document it since it’s pretty much the most negative experience I had with a German in our entire time here.

One brisk morning in the middle of September, as I was out with Marlena and Evelyne on our daily walk, Cody and Eiko ran up ahead on the “high road” trail and disappeared over a low rise. I try to keep Cody within sight, but Eiko tends to wander way ahead on this part of the trail and Cody, being the gregarious dog that he is, tends to follow Eiko. There’s usually hardly anyone out in the mornings on this particular trail so it’s normally not a problem. This time we heard a bit of a commotion and then saw a scruffy black-and-white dog come tearing down the trail towards us, with Cody and Eiko in hot pursuit. Normally this is no cause for alarm, as Cody loves to play chase with other dogs, and they usually tire themselves out and come back. But as the three dogs rounded the corner in front of us and continued down the narrow footpath leading back to the lower trail, I recognized the strange dog as the scruffy mutt belonging to the rude man that we had encountered way back in April. We hadn’t seen him all summer and I was really hoping never to see him again.

Evelyne responded quickly by rushing down the trail after the dogs, yelling at Eiko, with me following and Marlena bringing up the tail, making her way slowly down the steep hill on her bad leg. I think Evelyne was hoping to catch up with the dogs and continue down the trail without having to deal with the man, but that effort was thwarted as the man soon caught up with us and ran ahread down the trail, yelling what I’m sure was something very rude at us as he passed. By the time we reached the lower trail, the dogs – and the man – were out of sight. I started to get a little worried – Cody had never run off like this before, but if the other dog was as unpredictable as his owner, who knows how far they might run?

I called and called for Cody, my voice seeming to echo up and down the length of the valley, but I couldn’t hear a thing – not a distant bark or a whine – in return. I ran ahead down the trail and quickly left Evelyne and Marlena behind as my panic mounted. I began to imagine all sorts of terrible scenarios: what if the guy had gotten hold of Cody and was dragging him off, to be turned in to the police as a runaway dog, or worse – what if he was going to hurt Cody? I jogged further down the trail, past the point where we normally turn to head back up to Evelyne’s street, and approached the area near the road where we had encountered the man last year. An elderly woman was walking along the trail towards me and I stopped to ask her if she had seen three dogs running past. She hadn’t seen them, but she had seen the man. She asked what had happened and I tried to explain it to her. She gently chastised me for having my dog off the leash and I tried to explain that normally it is not a problem, but she pointed out that if I couldn’t call Cody back, then I had a problem. I grudgingly agreed with her. Unfortunately I’ve gotten a bit lazy with Cody’s training and, in all honesty, when he gets going with another dog it is very difficult to distract him. The lady tried to soothe me by saying that dogs usually find their way home, at which point I stared dismally up towards the houses on the opposite hillside and imagined Cody running through the streets of Botnang, where he most certainly would get run over.

I thanked the lady and was continuing on down the trail when the man approached me, now pedaling furiously on a bicycle. He stopped to ask me if I had seen the dogs and I said no. I stumbled over my German and said, “I’m sorry, I’m American and my German is not very good,” to which he responded in a patronizing tone, “You can speak English with me.” I pointed out that it was his dog that was always running off first, so we were really both at fault. This only enraged the guy further and he proceeded to scream at me, telling me to “get my f**king dog under f**king control.” I tried to stay calm and said that he didn’t need to speak to me that way. I repeated that Cody was only trying to play. He said, “Oh, right!” and left without another word, pedaling up the trail. There was nothing I could do except turn around and walk back up the trail after him.

When I finally reached the pond, you can imagine my immense relief when I saw Marlena and Evelyne come around the bend with Eiko and Cody in tow. I yelled at Cody to come, but Evelyne yelled back that she had put him on her leash with Eiko. When we met up, Evelyne explained that they had found Cody and Eiko playing near the pond. They had been yelling for me but I didn’t hear them, nor had they heard me yelling for Cody – odd, since my voice had sounded so loud to my own ears! They had of course run into the man on his bike, and when he saw that they had collected their dogs, he proceeded to beg them to help him find his dog. Evelyne told him in no uncertain terms that she would not dream of helping him given the way he had spoken to us previously. He went off in a huff and we didn’t see him again. Evelyne and Marlena were anxious to hear about my altercation with the man. They had been terrified that he might try to hurt me, a thought that had never crossed my mind – I was only worried about him stealing or hurting Cody. They told me that the fact that the man had used such foul language with me was very bad indeed and if we ended up having to deal with the police over this matter, that I should report exactly what he had said. In the end, we didn’t have to do anything about it at all. I was just relieved to have Cody back, safe and sound.

Postcript to the postscript: We never did find out what happened to the man and his dog that day. Evelyne saw him driving around Botnang a few weeks later and was able to write down his license plate number, just in case we ever needed to identify him. I actually saw him twice more while jogging on the “Dog-o-bahn” with Cody. I already had Cody on the leash in both instances since I don’t like to run so close to the busy road with him off the leash. The man saw me coming both times and quickly put his dog on his leash (not without some trouble, might I add) and stood off to the side while we passed. One time his dog growled and barked at us as we went by. The other time the man actually said hello as I passed. Shocked, I simply said hello in return, without making eye contact, and continued on my way.

9 May: April Showers...in May

Now that the tulips are long gone, the lovely lilacs are on their last legs, and the chestnut blossoms have nearly all blown off and formed snowdrifts on the walkways around our house, it has turned cold and rainy! My new friend Judy from the IWC is getting married this Saturday and, in her own words, is terrified that the German monsoon season has finally begun. I told her there is nothing she can do about the weather, and to just focus on having a happy day. She invited me and a couple other people from the IWC to her wedding ceremony and champagne reception afterwards. John may have to work on Saturday and isn’t all that keen on going to a stranger’s wedding, so I might go alone. I found out yesterday that Beth is going too, so that will make it more fun. I’m excited about the opportunity to attend a German wedding!

Also on the agenda for Sunday is our second trip to the Nürburgring. John's colleague Jürgen has been dying to go again and he will already be in the area visiting family this weekend. John’s friend Gert wants to come with us for a reconnaissance trip before venturing out on the track with his new Mini. So yes, we are taking the E-Class and we will have four people in the car! Should be very interesting. I told John that he can’t expect to tackle the track with quite the same aggressiveness as he did in the Brabus. Of course he told me that I was just as aggressive as he was – I suppose things look and feel different when you are being tossed around in the back seat. This time we will have a boat of a car with rear-wheel drive and slightly squishy suspension, so we will have to be quite cautious.

On the topic of traveling, I have started putting deposits on hotels in the U.K. and bought our tickets to the Goodwood Festival of Speed on June 24. John is still not sure this trip is going to happen but I didn’t want to lose a couple of really good hotels. After I find out what Beth knows, I may purchase trip insurance that would cover our deposits if we had to cancel the trip.

I went over to Shannon’s house this morning for an IWC coffee. I picked up Eliza on the way – I had a little trouble finding her because she dropped her daughter off at kindergarten and she wanted me to pick her up in front of the Edeka grocery store on the way to Feuerbach. Unfortunately I got Edeka mixed up with Lidl, another grocery store. (Why is it that every grocery store chain in Germany seems to have a similar blue-and-yellow logo? Neukauf is blue-and-yellow too!) I found Eliza eventually and we arrived at Shannon’s without further incident. We were joined by Anne M., Heather, Sabina, and Shannon’s very quiet Japanese neighbor whose name I won’t try to spell. We had a great time talking about German dialects, English and American accents, books, dogs, traveling, etc.

This afternoon it was still sprinkling a bit so I just took Cody for a short walk. On our way home we encountered a woman with an 11-week-old Berner puppy named Rebecca, on her first outing in the forest! The woman was a little worried about Cody and said she didn’t want the puppy to have any bad experiences with dogs. I said Cody was very friendly and had him lie down, but he still whined because he wanted to play. The puppy was a little nervous and eyed Cody warily while I talked to the lady. Poor Cody had quite a hard time trying to understand why this wriggly little puppy wouldn't play with him!

26 April: More German Stories

I have been walking with Evelyne and Eiko almost every morning for the past three weeks. Oda had her knee surgery two weeks ago and is doing well. I’ve been over for coffee several times, including this morning. Oda was home because this is exam time (called Habitur) and she only had one class today. We ate poppyseed cake, drank coffee, and talked about movies and languages and school. Evelyne and Oda think it is very funny that we say things like kaput, Gesundheit, and Kindergarten in America. Oda asked me if I might be able to help her find a place to visit in America for a couple of weeks this fall. She would like to attend classes at an American high school, so I think I’m going to try contacting my high school in California first. I suppose I could also check out Ann Arbor, but I think she would really enjoy going to California.

We watched an amazing event unfold this morning in Evelyne’s pond. First we saw the snake that Evelyne’s been telling me about – a Ringelnatter, about 3 feet long, mottled black-and-brown with yellow “half-moons” on its head. It was gliding around the pool, stopping now and then to bask in the sun. Then it wriggled in the water for a few moments and came out onto the grass. It took us a while to realize that it had a rather good-sized frog in its mouth! At first it just had the frog by one hind leg and we were sure the frog would get away (and it didn’t seem like the snake could possibly swallow a frog that big), but the frog just didn’t seem to be trying that hard to escape. It tried to pull itself towards the water, but then the snake got a better grip on it and pulled it back onto the bank. The frog let out a couple of plaintive, high-pitched screams (which, if you’ve never heard a frog scream, I can tell you was just awful to hear), and then, in a matter of just a few minutes, the snake swallowed it! I told Evelyne it was like watching a wildlife documentary – “Life and Death in the Pond.” (Let’s see…that would be Leben und Tod im Teich. Catchy!)

Evelyne talks a mile a minute (in German) and I hardly ever get a word in edgewise, but that’s okay. I think I can actually see my comprehension skills improving every day I spend with her. She always has some rant or rave or funny story to share – she talks about gardening, visiting her sister in Berlin (they were just there last weekend for a communion), her health woes, or the trials and tribulations of raising two teenagers.

The other day we we were walking past the gardens that line the Weg leading into the woods. I think I’ve mentioned these community gardens before – they are very common on the outskirts of cities and people who don’t have yards at home can rent small plots of property from the city. Sometimes they are quite elaborate, with beautiful flower and vegetable gardens, perhaps a small orchard of apple and cherry trees, a cute little shed with windowboxes overflowing with flowers, and usually an outdoor seating area or even a barbeque. It is not uncommon to see families gathered at their garden plots on the weekend, enjoying a cook-out. Several of the gardens along our path are quite overgrown and run-down, however, and Evelyne commented that it is a real shame to see these gardens in such a bad state when there are so many people looking for garden space. I remembered seeing a sign in Botnang that said Garten sucht (“Garden sought”), but it never occurred to me that there was a serious market for garden plots, let alone a garden shortage!

Cody and Eiko are good friends now and Cody always pulls when we are approaching Evelyne’s house, and wants to look in their gate even if we are not meeting them for a walk. He still whines something terrible at their house. I’m hoping he’ll stop that eventually.

29 March: A New Friend

I met Frau W at the appointed time and we set out into the woods. We took a much longer route than I usually do and ended up walking for nearly an hour, speaking German all the while. Frau W talks pretty fast (at least for my slow-moving brain) but I could understand quite a bit of what she said. Among other things, we talked about our dogs and she explained that her dog Eiko is trained as a hunting dog and took second place in a recent competition. She also told me that her daughter, who is quite athletic, is having arthroscopic knee surgery in ten days; that’s why she was practicing with the crutches yesterday. We agreed to meet again for our walk at the same time tomorrow morning.

Thus it is with great fanfare that I formally announce that it has taken me a mere 19 months to make a German friend (outside of the women’s club or other “connections”) in Deutschland. I guess we can all agree that the “aloof German” stereotype holds up reasonably well, at least in Swabia.

28 March: The Most Famous Dog in the Neighborhood

First off: Happy Birthday to my dad! I won't say how old he is, but it is a significant birthday.

I saw Anya and her Frauchen again today and she (Anya's Frauchen, whose name I still don't know, I'm sorry to say) said that she ran into an older couple in the woods yesterday afternoon walking their Dachshund, and they asked her if she had seen me recently. Actually, they asked if she had seen Cody, which I thought was rather funny – they didn’t say, “Have you seen the American girl?” No, they said, “Have you seen Cody?” I guess he’s established quite a reputation for himself in the neighborhood. Anyway, I asked if the dog was named Tessie and she didn’t know, but I knew it must be, as I only know two Dachshunds in the area and the other one belongs to a couple who also lives on Nittelwaldstraße, so Anya's Frauchen would have known them. It’s true that I haven’t seen Tessie and her owners in ages, so I thought it was so sweet that they were inquiring about us! Anya’s Frauchen told them that she had just seen me and all was well.

I also met the woman with the little brown-and-white pointer on the way back from my walk this morning. I have had brief conversations with her in German in the past, and this time we talked for a few minutes and she mentioned that her friend that she usually walks with had been in a bad car accident and would not be able to walk for some time. She said that walking alone was somewhat langweilig (boring) and asked if I’d like to join her tomorrow, so I agreed to meet her at her house at ten past eight. She told me her last name and said to ring the bell at their house when I arrived.

I went jogging by this afternoon and happened to see Frau W coming down her front walk. She introduced me to her teenage daughter, whose name sounded like Ara. Her daughter was holding crutches so at first I thought it was Frau W's friend who was in the accident. I decided it wasn't appropriate to ask why she was holding crutches, but we chatted briefly and Frau W mentioned that her daughter would enjoy practicing her English with me. I told her that was great - she could speak English to me and I could speak my lousy German to her!

26 March: Jetz Kommt Sommerzeit

Yesterday we switched to Sommerzeit, a.k.a. Daylight Savings Time, so this morning we had to get up at what looked (and felt) like 5:45 am instead of 6:45 am. The sky was clear, the air was crisp, and I decided to take Cody for an extra-long walk because my usual morning route in the woods is still very muddy from all the snowmelt. It’s quiet mornings like this that I want to imbed permanently in my memories of Deutschland.

As I strolled through the woods I admired the slender, gray trunks of the naked trees and watched the sun creep over the hill. I startled a blue heron out of the pond – it pumped its wings slowly and soared away into the sunrise – and just moments later, two deer ran across the path not fifty feet in front of me. I haven’t seen any deer in ages. Cody was momentarily frozen in shock at the sight of these four-legged woodland creatures, but then took off after them at high speed. The woman from Nittelwaldstraße with the black shepherd-mix was just up the trail; her dog promptly took off after Cody. This was how I finally learned that the other dog’s name is Anya (before that I had referred to her as “the black dog with the white-tipped tail”). It took some effort to call Cody back; fortunately Anya’s Frauchen had a good sense of humor. (There is no direct translation for Frauchen that I know of, but it is the word you use to refer to the female owner of a housepet; likewise Herrchen is the term for a man.) She and her husband have always been very friendly to me but their dog Anya usually false-charges Cody, barking like mad and only veering away at the last minute. Fortunately Cody and Anya have recently had the opportunity to meet each other off-leash in the woods and Anya has finally decided that Cody is tolerable, although she still isn’t what I would call friendly to him. Now she just acts aloof as we walk by.