Kirschwasser

Yesterday I met a student from Freiburg who's going to be studying in Winnipeg this year, and she's agreed to be my tandem partner! That is, we can both practice our languages, my German and her English. This is really great because there isn't a tandem partner program at U of M, and I won't be taking German until second semester, so without the practice my German would get very rusty very quickly, which would make me... a saaad panda. But have no fear, we have a plan! To speak and, in turn, keep everyone in good spirits!

Obviously, she had lots of questions about Winnipeg for me and Warren (fellow Winnipegger). We tried really hard to think of as many nice or exciting (or even slightly exciting) things as we could for her to look forward to. I think we did a good job. We left her feeling very curious, and found ourselves a bit nostalgic.

In other important news!

I just made myself a Schwarzwälder (Black Forest) Mocha. That is, half coffee, half hot chocolate, and a couple shots of Kirschwasser--literally translated: cherry water. Or more accurately, cherry liquor. On its own, Kirschwasser ("Keersh-vahssa", with a tiny slightly rolled "r" sound at the end) is absolutely foul stuff. This is my opinion, and also the opinion of many many others; except for old people, apparently.

Around last fall, the people on April's (fellow Winnipegger, & BFF!) floor had a farewell dinner for one of the students that was moving away. And as a gag gift, they all gave him a bottle of Kirschwasser. Because it's awful and only old people actually drink it. (Or it's used in baking, which is delicious.) Everyone had a good laugh about it, and then decided that we should all have some shots. Obviously, April and I had no idea how gross this stuff was, so we tried it. And we tried it once more just to make sure it really was as awful as the first shot. It was. At least got us talking with some German-speakers! And a Polish-speaker, too, if I remember correctly.

Another little anecdote about Kirschwasser: A few months later, April and Warren decided to have a sort of German-off. They both promised to speak, read, listen to, and write in German and only German for a full week. No one was even allowed to speak to them in English because they wouldn't reply. It was actually a pretty cool way to get everyone into the habit and on a roll of speaking German to each other. Even those of us not participating in the German-off spoke auf Deutsch to one another. It was a really fun week, we all felt really good!

Anyway, about the Kirschwasser. For each time one of them spoke, read, listened to, or wrote English, the punishment would be a shot of Kirschwasser. A pretty good incentive, I think. At the end of the week we had a party and April and Warren did their shots. I may be wrong, but I think the score was 11:4. April took her four shots; I don't think Warren took more than five... (Don't quote me on it.) I don't blame him though.

So, conclusion: Kirschwasser = better German!