Saying hi courtesy of Aidan Jones (Flickr)

We all know that learning another language is hard work. Even after over twelve years getting to grips with German, I still hear myself make the odd mistake – infuriatingly often in the very simple territory that I was supposed to have conquered many years back. Nevertheless, after having lived here for a while, simple things like greetings and pleasantries usually just roll off the tongue without requiring too much effort – “Guten Tag” and “Wie geht es Ihnen?” and so forth.

Until last month.

Last month I gave a little house and started renovating. Now, you should probably know that I am one of those people who doesn’t have a clue about building. I would have liked to keep it that way, but then some nice people gave me my little house for free, just because they didn’t feel like doing any of the work that it needed. So I grudgingly, hopefully, decided I would try.

Fall is here, and I might not have even noticed if it hadn’t been for the Federweißer—a new wine, sold in open bottles mid-fermentation. It’s sweet like apple juice, with a delicious yeasty tone that lingers pleasantly on your tongue after every sip.

We were in a tiny village outside of Mainz when the subject came up. Was there Federweißer already? Or was it too early even for new wine? “Well why don’t we just walk over to the winery and find out,” my friend’s father said—a sentence that made me swoon for small-town Germany once again.