Good People, Beer, and Endless Descriptions of a House

Sam Miner is a good man. Not only did he get up early on a freezingly cold morning and rode the one-hour drive to Columbus, OH, to pick me up and take me back to Athens, he also picked me up again and drove me to a Kroger supermarket. There, he refused to let me pay our coffees to drink while walking along the aisles. And he was patient while I decided for one out of the hundreds of cereal brands. At the check-out, he kindly let me use his Kroger card to save $2.55 on my purchases. Bringing me back home, he made a small detour to what I think is the highest point of Athens (which is very hilly) to show me the view. So I'd just like you to know I'm in good hands here.

The League of Extraordinarily Good Men

In the evening, Sam lead fellow ASL student Rene and me through the bitingly cold Athens (I think the infamous polar vortex was hardest last night, with temperatures around -25 degree Celsius or so, windchill not included) to one of the town's favorite haunts, Jacky O's. He introduced us to two of his friends, and we watched the game Florida State vs. Auburn. Now, most of you might guess that I have no idea of football. That was true until last night. Rene taught me the basic rules. Another good man who I'm glad to share this experience with. 

Oh, and I want to make one thing clear: American beer does not suck! That's an overgeneralization. There is Spülwasser indeed, but that's mostly applicable to the major brands consumed all over the country. I've learned that Ohio alone has about 4,000 micro breweries while Germany - thrice the size and seven times the population of Ohio - has approximately 1,300 breweries, according to wikipedia.org. Of course, Ohioans don't have to stick to the German Reinheitsgebot; this allows for an enormous variety in taste and alcohol level. Yesterday, we tried a few sorts, and some were really good. Earlier at Kroger's, shelfes were stacked with at least 30, if not more different brands of beer. So there's still a lot of tasting to be done.

When the game was over, we went back home, and I entered the house on M*** Street that is still exclusively mine since my housemates won't move back in before the weekend. Directly adjacent to the entrance area you find the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, and a bedroom. A door in the kitchen leads to the back porch. Enter the huge living room and you see not one but two chimneys (both not in operation, unfortunately), a rocker and two sitting areas. The residents of this house did a great job of furnishing and arranging a very unique and cozy living space. There are candles on the first mantelpiece while the other one holds empty bottles of different size and color that reflect the light of the two floor lamps or the string of lights which spans the major Southern window whose 36 small panes are still thickly coated with frost. A phonograph with record collection and a globe of the Earth (where the GDR no longer exists but the USSR does) are situated in one corner while paintings of different styles can be seen on almost every wall. Leaving the living room, you may exit the house through one of the five doors that lead out of it, or you walk upstairs to the second floor. There are another bathroom and three bedrooms, one of which is mine. Although half of it is located under the pitch of the roof, thus allowing only limited headspace, the room is quite spacious. It has one walk-in closet and one wall closet. I don't use either. More space than I need, just like in the full size bed. A lamp, a desk, a drawer, and some minor partitions in the walls complete the ensemble. Oh, and there's the space heater. The ground level heater (slots in the floor) does not quite reach the upper floor. As I've mentioned earlier, this night was really cold and I think all the windows on the house were frozen. My little space heater kept me alive, thanks to the kindness of Natalie. Apart from the space heater, the bedding, and some towels, she also got me this room. We met when she lived in my apartment during a study tour to Leipzig last year, and now that one of her roommates has left, I live in her house. I like that.