Daring Dandy Dinner

Friday evening consisted of a lot of sharing of food, alcohol, and opinions.

My lovely German boys have been so wonderful to me ever since I've been here, I thought it would be only right to reward them for their kindness with a dinner at my home, furnished by my fabulous mom and her friend, Jaishree Aunty (u know that Indian thing where everyone is ur aunt).

I picked up some Bombay Gin to go with the Chicken Biryani my mom and Jaishree Aunty made, along with some tonic and some juice for those who like to roll like snoop “sippin on gin-and-juice.“

Marielle, koko, julia, jan, janek, david, jarod and erica joined us for the fabulous dinner party at my Bavarian home. (in fact, janek said that he owned a stuffed animal very similar to one on top of my china cabinet lol!) We started off with drinks and starters (some sort of german thing which jarod said looked like coleslaw) and moved on to some amazingly spicy chicken biryani. I think Jaishree aunty had a lot of fun watching all of us pant because of the spiciness. Note to all: If your mouth is on fire DO NOT DRINK GIN.

Dinner was a blast ---I think everyone had fun. My mom gave Janek a pack of Biryani Masala because he liked it so much, and poor David was a little blown away by the spices and he was (therefore?) quieter than normal since he was "tired" or "eating". My mom was really impressed with everyone and is glad that I have found “such a nice, smart group of friends" for myself here in Munich.

By the time we had eaten and drank as much as was avilable (the gin, 2 glasses of wine and some amazing champagne) the conversation had turned to politics. I was warned to never talk about politics with a German because they will talk for days, but I must say I quite enjoyed the conversation that followed. We debated over issues such as whether as residents of western nations we had the responsibility to spread democracy, whether people in developing nations needed it. We debated whether we were spreading it so that those who live in the 3rd world can also be "free" or whether it was because we viewed non-democratic nations as a threat. Needless to say, the conversation was very interesting and everyone had very different ideas about what democracy is in the first place, which made for some very different opinions and some wonderfully emotional conversation.

Having just returned from the middle east, Erica was able to tell us about her experiences of working in Egypt which were absolutely amazing to hear... (Shes a blonde hottie, so her experience would be very different than anyone who has a different hair color than she does).

As females who have experienced living in developing countries, Erica, my mom and I seemed to have a different ideas in the entire debate. India was never "liberated" by a western country. In fact, it was the Brits who actually perpetuated the violence between the Muslims and the Hindus by separating India into what is India and Pakistan today. However, because India has so many different languages and religions within its borders, it is possible that this made it easier for the Indian Politicians to turn it into a democratic nation. We seemed to be united in our belief that if people are doing fine on their own in a non-democratic nation, they should be left that way. Who are we to impose our Western beliefs? What works for us may not work for them, especially if they are already working just fine. But, if a nation wants to become democratic, then we should help them, should they ask for or require our help.

In regards to who is spreading democracy and why, I think that Americans dont just spread democracy to the nations which they percieve as threats, but also to nations which threaten their own citizens, such as Zimbabwe and various other African countries.

The boys were separated in two schools of thought. The first: Democracy is and should continue to be spread to all nations which are not democratic irrelevant of whether they are a threat to the developed world. The second: the Western world only tries to spread democrasy to nations which are a threat - fuck the rest - and thats probably how it should remain.

I didnt take any pictures that night, though I definitely should have-at least at the begining of the night..I dont know if it wouldve been entirely appropriate to be snaping shots of us arguing.. hahaha it was so loud at one point I remember being afraid that my neighbor would knock on the door. Luckily in such an old buildling, the walls are pretty thick so everything was just fine.

Lol and Jan, the sweet thang that he is, invited my mom to the game on Sunday... Lollll i thought that was soooo sweet that he did that, and my mom did, too.

Overall I think dinner went fabulously, and I wanted to thank all my wonderful buddies for coming. My mom and my aunt enjoyed meeting you all very much, and I sincerely hope that the end of my stay in Munich does not mark the end of our friendship.

love always,
nikki