327 words
First of May is public holiday in Germany, just after thirtieth of April which is national holiday in Holland. You could already tell this on Wednesday, when supermarket queues were prohibitively long, making the prospect of ensuring non-starvance for that day even less attractive. But I managed.
Following a tradition that Yassin started in our first year, he treated a whole bunch of friends to a specialty: Puréed water melon with vodka and orange juice – drunk with straws right out of the melon. It's brilliant. Apparently he learned about it while he stayed in South Africa. Many people I know have some links to South Africa. Odd.
So we indulged in that along with some cake and salads and even a waterpipe later on. Unfortunately, owing to the weather, we had to do it at his place rather than outside on the meadow where we usually enjoy it. Afterwards we went to sit and play some boules on a piece of lawn next to the strange old cemetery, just a couple of metres away from the grave of Lichtenberg, a 18th century scholar and cynic who lived in Göttingen.
Almost all of the people there participate in that quotation game we play. It's quite an easy idea: Everyone submits a quote and everybody else has to find out where it's from. These days everything is made harder by the fact that most quote-worthy things can be Googled for, thus people have to choose more obscure snippets. If you feel like helping me, why not have a look at the current quotes and tell me if you happen to regonise one. Many of them are in German, but a few are in English as well.
I also met Christian and Ulf again after a long time. They're both having parties soon. Just in time, I'd say.
Die Mathematik ist eine gar herrliche Wissenschaft, aber die Mathematiker taugen oft den Henker nicht.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg