Have I introduced my German teacher? Lothar is loved by all who know him. Prien born and raised, lives in the house that his great great greatgrandparents built, and owns quite a bit of Prien because his family is old money and one of the richest families in Germany (He is actually really quiet about it, but my hostdad told me). He has lived all over the world, raised a daughter on his own, also had a few aupairs, speaks at least 8 languages fluently that I have heard used (and these are not languages like French or English, these are sometimes obscure, like a Hungarian dialect), and reads literature even in languages he does not know well (such as English philosophy). He loved to talk about depressing (though important) concepts like pollution, political injustices, and overpopulation, because he "wants us to think about the world we're leaving our children". He helped found the Green Party in Germany, makes bad jokes that I sometimes fake a laugh for, for a German he has very poor sense of time, he bikes a few hours every morning. and he'll be 70 next year!
The second last point is the most important here. One time I made the mistake of mentioning that I was late because I'd ridden my bike instead of driving. So he invited me to bike together sometime. I managed to avoid this friendly offer until today. I could not make excuses any longer. We planned to meet at 9:30 and bike for an hour. When I told my hostparents they laughed and laughed (it was 25 degrees today and we took a leisurely breakfast in the sun outside - jealous Canada?). They love how un-sporty I am - I think it is their running joke. It was funny to me too until they pulled out their biking gear. There is actual protective wear for biking! With padding! I thought people wore biking gear cause they thought it looked cool. I had no idea the risk involved!
They insisted I wear it. Let me just say biking has to be the world's least attractive sport. I would take the Norwegian Olympic curling outfits over a pair of padded bike shorts any day. They even make biking over-wear to wear over top of your biking wear so that people can't see your padding in case you wanted to waddle into town and show off that you are super sporty. It's great.
So we started on our beautiful bike adventure. We rode to the Chiemsee and then started to do a tour around the lake. We stopped a few times when we could get a good view of the Islands or the Castle and Lothar showed the places his wife takes the people that come from around the world to learn how to fix major water pollution problems. At the end of the tour they all do a Chiemsee tasting and drink the water together. He told me all of this in English, which was interesting because despite all his languages, English is not his best. But then to show off he quoted Robert Frost. And I learned how to say show off in German.
It was a really great bike ride and completely beautiful. There is nothing like biking with mountains (from another country!) on one side and a lake on the other. But I didn't want to bring my phone and my watch doesn't work so I had no sense of time. We rode for 2 hours! I thought I was going to die! And it was totally flat until the last 20 minutes (because I just so happen to live on top of a massive hill) and I seriously considered letting go of the pedals and falling backwards down the hill again. Do adult bikes do that?
All in all a great experience. I did a quick map of it and I think it was around 21 kilometers. Which in 2 hours is not so fast, so now I have been invited by my hostdad to join when he does a bike ride around the entire lake on the weekends. Oh joy!
The second last point is the most important here. One time I made the mistake of mentioning that I was late because I'd ridden my bike instead of driving. So he invited me to bike together sometime. I managed to avoid this friendly offer until today. I could not make excuses any longer. We planned to meet at 9:30 and bike for an hour. When I told my hostparents they laughed and laughed (it was 25 degrees today and we took a leisurely breakfast in the sun outside - jealous Canada?). They love how un-sporty I am - I think it is their running joke. It was funny to me too until they pulled out their biking gear. There is actual protective wear for biking! With padding! I thought people wore biking gear cause they thought it looked cool. I had no idea the risk involved!
They insisted I wear it. Let me just say biking has to be the world's least attractive sport. I would take the Norwegian Olympic curling outfits over a pair of padded bike shorts any day. They even make biking over-wear to wear over top of your biking wear so that people can't see your padding in case you wanted to waddle into town and show off that you are super sporty. It's great.
So we started on our beautiful bike adventure. We rode to the Chiemsee and then started to do a tour around the lake. We stopped a few times when we could get a good view of the Islands or the Castle and Lothar showed the places his wife takes the people that come from around the world to learn how to fix major water pollution problems. At the end of the tour they all do a Chiemsee tasting and drink the water together. He told me all of this in English, which was interesting because despite all his languages, English is not his best. But then to show off he quoted Robert Frost. And I learned how to say show off in German.
It was a really great bike ride and completely beautiful. There is nothing like biking with mountains (from another country!) on one side and a lake on the other. But I didn't want to bring my phone and my watch doesn't work so I had no sense of time. We rode for 2 hours! I thought I was going to die! And it was totally flat until the last 20 minutes (because I just so happen to live on top of a massive hill) and I seriously considered letting go of the pedals and falling backwards down the hill again. Do adult bikes do that?
All in all a great experience. I did a quick map of it and I think it was around 21 kilometers. Which in 2 hours is not so fast, so now I have been invited by my hostdad to join when he does a bike ride around the entire lake on the weekends. Oh joy!