I can't believe I forgot to take my camera last night! The official mission was to entertain business customers- one American, seven Italians- but Aaron and I were determined to continue our St. Patrick's Day tradition from last year of going to the English pub in Flensburg. We picked up one of Aaron's colleagues and the American customer and headed to McMelson's for a pint of Guinness before meeting the rest of the crew for dinner. I just love how they can make a shamrock in the foam on the top of a glass! We even got scratch cards and I won- a top hat that looks a bit like a glass of beer but has a brim shaped like a shamrock. Wow! Cheap junk of course, but doesn't winning something just make your day anyway?
Afterwards we headed down the street to meet up with Aaron's boss, more colleagues and the Italians for a big traditional German meal: mountains of meat, sauerkraut and potatoes. All the guests were delighted, which was of course all that mattered. After dinner, we sang. We were treated to a surprisingly good rendition of "O Sole Mio" from the Italians and several German folk song solos from Aaron's boss. We Americans realized that we didn't know many folk songs but we did manage "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." The Italians wanted us to sing Bruce Springsteen or Elvis or Frank Sinatra. Ha! There is plenty of good American music but maybe not so many true traditional folk songs. We rounded out the evening with "Silent Night," sung simultaneously in three languages. You can imagine how lovely it sounded!
2 comments:
SO COOL! silent night must have sounded awesome! once i had to sing a song representing the US- all i could come up with was john denver´s country road. we sing way too little in the US. in norway they sing at every party- birthdays, weddings, etc. it is so fun. they have booklets printed out and everyone expected to sing. something we should take back to the motherland?????
Absolutely, Cortina! Let's start singing at all our parties when we get back to the States. At our party it was actually the Italians that started singing "Country Road," but they didn't know many words! All I could think of was "Home on the Range" and "Yankee Doodle Dandee"- nothing as pretty as "O Sole Mio!"
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