Stammtisch
Every-other week, Luis and Verena, the FUBESTs student assistants, set up a "Stammtisch" for us. Stammtisch doesn't have an exact translation to English, but it basically means either a table reserved for the regulars or a reservation that a group has on a certain day.
For us, it means that every-other week, Luis and Verena choose a bar (usually they try to choose very different ones), invite their friends, all 75 FUBEST kids, and our tandem (conversation) partners. This usually ends up being about 50 people.
The first time we had Stammtisch, we were in smaller groups at a bar in Kreuzberg, close to where I live. It was a rather small, expensive bar, that I probably wouldn't have gone into otherwise. Since it was at the very beginning of the program and we were only about a third of the group at a time, it was a good chance to get to talk to people.
The second Stammtisch was at "Clash Bar," also in Kreuzberg (you can see I live in a hip part of town). This was a much larger bar, in the punk/metal scene. Also a cool location, my favorite part probably being the beer called "Tod und Totschlag" (or a similar name meaning death and murder). They also had a pool table and some foosball ("kicker") tables that we occupied for quite some time during the night.
Last night we had our third meeting, at a Hookah bar in Friedrichain. The place was decked out with pillows and stages to sit on, but seemed rather unauthentic. There was a wide variety of cocktails, all pretty expensive, a kind of unfriendly staff (all though, with 50 people, I don't really blame them) that was all German, and nicht-so-gut Hookah. In the end, it was still fun to get out and talk to everyone in a casual setting and meet some of the Germans that got stuck there. I definitely look forward to the coming Stammtisches and what new locations Luis and Verena will think of.
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A post script:
In other news, I am going to Leipzig tomorrow and staying the weekend. However, the BVG (or metro-transit of Berlin) has decided to take a "Warning Strike" starting at midnight tonight and lasting until 3 p.m. on Saturday, since their contract is about to be rewritten, and they obviously have some demands. Although it won't affect our train, I have no idea how I will get to the train station tomorrow! I hope that they don't strike again soon, since getting anywhere without public transportation will be a hassle... (But if they do, it will sure make for a good blog post.)
4 comments:
Should "Stammtisch" be capitalized each time you refer to it? I was thinking if it was similar to a party I had at my house each Saturday for college football, I wouldn't capitalize "party" each time I used it in the invitations (e.g. Hello all, come to the Party this week!)
The way you say, "we had Stammtisch" made me think of how I would say "we had dinner." The names of meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) seemed to be the best way for me to understand the grammatical usage. It is acceptable to say "I had dinner" and "I am having a dinner for friends" using the indirect article, both of which were used in your post.
I wasn't sure if it was capitalized since it was a planned event, like how we capitalize the Million Meter Row. Or perhaps it was a German language rule to capitalize certain events which occur on a regular basis. I could understand this interesting capitalization rule since different languages differ on many things. For example, Bengali doesn't even have capitalization at all.
Hi Donny, I can't help but answer this. In German ALL nouns are capitalized - anywhere, anytime. Even though this might seem odd, it actually helps when you learn to read the language, because it helps you to sort out the structure of a sentence, i.e., finding subjects and objects. I find it interesting that Bengali does not have capitalisation at all. But I'm sure the language has other markers to help you sort out what is going on in a sentence.
Actually Bengali really doesn't have any markers to help make reading easier. In fact I've heard native speakers say it's hard to pick out the proper nouns in the texts. I think it's neat that German has such a feature. Bengali also has very little punctuation, and perhaps why native speakers tell me its harder than English. For example, no quotation marks, which makes it quite difficult to determine if a bit of text is speech.
Hey Hey, Hola Kristina, I liked reading your blog, dont forget I'll be in Berlin in just over two weeks, I just met a young lady from Berlin, she is headed home the same day Im headed there.
Kenneth
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