Life: Idiotropic

Last week we got a flyer in our mail advertising the Somerkirmes in our own little village of Gillrath. It started Saturday and ended tonight. There are shooting clubs here and it is one of those "highly recommended" memberships for the men of the town, so pretty much everyone is a member. In the beginning of each summer festival season there is a big contest to see who can shoot the "birdie." It's not a real bird, but the best marksman is made king for the season and at every local event, he will appear wearing his nice suit with a metal chain adornment hanging around his neck. His wife then is the queen and wears the appropriate gowns and the town decorates the front of their home with flowers and banners and all sorts of streamers.

On Saturday afternoon I heard music playing, so I looked out my window. There was a band playing a lot of men wearing suits with white gloves and traditional green hats with feathers in them, so we went out and took pictures. It was a very short parade with only a band and these groups of men in different outfits. They were very dressed up, but smiled a little and seemed pretty casual. I was the silly American tourist - the ONLY one anywhere around taking pictures of it. That night at 8 was "FRESH: DIE ROCKPARTY." We were at a play in Brunssum when it started, but we could hear it when we came home. They had it near the church at the other end of town, so we could only hear it with the windows open, but at 1230am, the music was still going -- mostly American top 40 rock and roll.

Sunday at 5 was another parade when the king and queen walked into town. There were a lot of events that we missed because it was hard to find out exactly what was going on. We were at a birthday party earlier in the day and in that village there was a king and queen too with their house all decorated and people were starting to assemble for that parade. This is the official beginning of the summer, so most of the villages are having celebrations. Sittard had a carnival in their square this weekend and both Geilenkirchen and NierstraB have festivals next weekend. They are all very small town type events, but fun and they have a good turnout of locals. (Below is the king and queen walking into town on Sunday)

Our festival grounds are a small parking lot. There they constructed a temporary building and they had one little tiny car ride and two carnival games. Tonight was another parade as the king and queen walked to the grounds for the Konigsball - a ball for the king and queen and all the members of the club with their spouses. I think other people were welcomed too, but am not sure. I will find out more and might go next year. Kirk is even thinking of joining the shooting club. It would be a fun way to get to know the locals in the community a little better. A German friend told me that everyone dresses up in fancy "prom" type dresses at the ball, but I saw people walking back tonight in nice clothing, but nothing formal nor fancy.

Most of the houses in town displayed flags all weekend. Most all of them had just two horizontal stripes - each in a different color. Most were white with either red or blue, but there were green and orange flags too. They are very pretty when all lined up house after house. It was neat to see so many people come out of their houses to watch the parade go by. Traffic wasn't disturbed either. A police car led it and a firetruck followed it and they stayed in one lane to allow traffic to go by in the opposite direction. Traffic backed up a bit behind them, but the parade route is not long.

Not only was this a festival weekend, but we got cows!!!!!!!!!!! There are beautiful black and white cows all over the place here, but on Saturday 4 sweet cows arrived in field next to our house. The girls were so excited. They watch them every day from our windows and try to feed them from across the fence. I ran in and got my camera as soon as I saw them. Tinny laughed at me. Cows are pretty common here - not something anyone would take pictures of, but they are so adorable, I just had to take a few photos.

Saturday night we went to see "The People and Robbers of Cardamon Town." A few students and a teacher from Tiara's school was in it and it was geared towards younger children and very funny, so we went. It wasn't high class, but they did a good job and it was amusing. Arianna and Luci (the target audience) loved it and laughed through it. The robbers ran through the audience several times and interacted with the kids a bit as they passed through. At the end the cast all lined up in front of the stage. Arianna asked if she could meet them and ran up all by herself to the first cast member and one by one shook all of their hands saying hi and telling the robbers that they were really funny. Luci ran along with her and did the same - my social butterflys.

On Sunday as we were waiting for the parade, my next door neighbor across the field pointed to my camera and motioned for me to follow him. He's a really nice older man and a friend of Tante Tinny's, so I followed him to his back yard where he showed me a very cute miniature horse. He wanted me to take a picture of it. I guess Tinny had told him how much I loved animals. She thought I was pretty nuts taking photos of the cows the night before. The horse's back was about Elise' height - may be even shorter. I got the kids and they all fed it apples and pet it. It's name is Bonsai and he's four years old. Now that we know he's there, I'm sure the kids will make weekly visits to him. The man doesn't speak any English, but he's really nice and it's about time I work on my German a little bit.