Jason, Pam and the Ansbach Fair

When I first joined the Army back in 2000 I came in as an E4, a Specialist, and I was a medic.  My first duty assignment was Camp Stanley, Korea where I was in Headquarters of 6/37 Field Artillery, an MLRS unit just like I was in the last time I was in Korea a few months ago.  (Actually it's the sister battalion and in the same brigade).  Well, one of the first friends that I made there was Jason Kahlenbeck and we've been friends ever since.  He was in North Carolina while we were stationed there and is now in the NC National Guard.  He came over last week to visit a friend and since he was so close, we got together for dinner and some drinks afterward and met his new friend Pam.  We went to Ansbach the next day to walk around and have lunch.  GOOD times all around!  :)

Here's Jason and Pam back at our furniture-less place in Bruckberg.  Very funny story surrounding this....

Okay, so we ran out of beer and only had some undesirable alcohol around the house.  (Like these gross pre-made Mojitos that we thought would be good, ughhh).  So, I have this brilliant idea...why don't Jason and I take my beautiful brown bottle down to the brewery and get it refilled with some Hefenweizen?  We all agree that this is pure genius and so Jason and I head down there, of course...it's 2330 (That's 11:30 pm for you Americans and non-military) and when we get there, the front door is locked up tight.  But....we hear a noise and see a light on in the window around back.  We move to the back of the house, tactically of course, and peer in the windows and to our surprise, we see lots of drunk Germans dancing to a band surrounding a bride and groom.  Score!  We move back towards the front of the building when a side door bursts open and a rather husky German man pops out, belly first and looks at us from behind little round spectacles framed by a pure white beard.  We heartily greet him and he he smiles as he instantly realizes that we're Americans.  "Bier?" we ask, pointing to our brown bottle and then back inside where the music is now pouring out the doorframe.  His eyes light up, a smile explodes onto his face and he grabs us by the arms, pulling us into the building.  He grabs his wife, who speaks excellent English as does he, and introduces us as he summons one of the workers.  "Ich mochte Hefenweizen bitte!" we proclaim as we hand her the bottle....und zwei tasse whiskey bitte!  We get our bottle refilled and drink a couple glasses of whiskey on ice as we wait.  Hefenweizen is unfiltered beer and has quite the head on it when you pour it.  Putting it into a bottle takes time, but it's time well spent.  Our conversation with "German Santa Claus" moves us onto the dance floor where we are hits because we know EVERY word to EVERY song that they're playing and we not afraid to sing them loudly.  Finally, our beer is poured, the bottle is sealed, our whiskey is gone and we've said our fond farewells to our gracious drunk german wedding party guy and head back out into the cool night.  Bottle clutched tightly and proudly in hand, we head back up the hill, to our ladies, mission complete.

Some pictures from around Ansbach, the main hub of our little towns.

Collin on his eternal quest to catch a pigeon.

Jason and I

Me and my baby momma :)

Now that's a smile!  Pam and Jason

The group shot

---------------------PART II-----------------------------------

The next day we were in Ansbach again and we happened to see a big Ferris wheel sticking up.  I said "Hey, what's that?"  Malisa said "Looks like a fair to me, duh."  So, we went and checked it out, and yes indeed, it was some kind of fest for something.  The most interesting thing about this fair were the teenage kids.  The VERY DRUNK, falling on the ground, puking, being put in ambulances, PRE-teen and teenage kids.  The drinking age here in Germany is 16 years old, but there was no way these kids were 16.  They must have been like 13-14 and having other people buy for them.  There weren't that many, probably about 8-10 in the whole place, but Malisa and I looked at each other and we could tell that we were relieved that Collin was still young and innocent.

He had a blast piloting this helicopter.  When he pulled back on the stick, the helicopter rose in the air.  He was doing some pretty cool moves for something that simply goes round and round. 

 

It was a little smaller than the Greenfield Fair, for those of you that can use that comparison, but it was still fun to walk around for an hour or so.

Lastly, since safety apparently isn't an issue here, I took Collin on the bumper cars and we had a good time, although we only bumped one car and that was just a playful nudge. 

So....I hope you enjoyed my little (big) blogging session today.  And many of you may be wondering...."Does he ever work?", "Is he permanently on vacation?"  Well...I spent a couple weeks at IRT (Individual Readiness Training), away from Malisa and Collin doing some training to get ready to go down to Iraq.  Here's a picture of the beds that we slept on.  Can you call a bed a bed if it doesn't have a mattress?  We dug around in the dumpster and found some cardboard that we put on the SPRINGS so that we could put our sleeping bags on it and not have them rip and be a little bit more comfortable.  Some elected to sleep on the ground.  My theory...they do this so that you'll actually be THANKFUL when you get to Iraq and actually get to sleep in a real bed.
 
Thanks for reading!