Well, I'd love to say it was awful, because that would offer so much more amusement value. But it really wasn't that bad. I accept, as Ms Foreigner, that I am only going to understand about 50% of what people say down here, and I've got to say that that is one of the most sensible attitudes I've ever adopted. It makes life so much easier. All pretences of speaking the lingo and proving that I know German are dropped. I act like a friendly, bemused person who, if in doubt, smiles inanely. I ask for translations of strange Bavarian words (they LOVE it when I do that). I nod and look as if I have really committed the word to memory. Why have I spent most of my adult life worrying that people think I am stupid? It's so much easier to play stupid. Even better, you don't have to worry about witty asides or quips, as I do when speaking English.
Anyway, the mothers (no father dared show his face) took me under their communal wing. The two hours passed fairly quickly, and the few moments of boredom I spent counting the dead animals adorning the walls of the room. It went a bit awry when the Catholic sector (Bavaria is predominantly Catholic) started arguing amongst themselves about who would bake the altar bread. A few insults were thrown and I actually thought that two women would start a fistfight. For once in my life, I was truly pleased to be Protestant (how often do you hear people saying that?). I made my excuses and retired. I practised a German thing I'd always seen people do but had never tried out - when you are leaving a group, and you want to include everyone in your goodbye but not interrupt their conversation, you simply knock your knuckles on the table loudly and say ciao everybody. (You have to do it with conviction though - otherwise they just ignore you). I think it worked.
Got home to a quiet house - no nightmares about the rabbit of death - YET...
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