When he was little, Max was convinced that grandparents had lived a life in
black and white when they were young. After all, he'd seen the photographs.
And, until last summer, he also thought that in England the weather was
always bad and the food really "lame". Now Max knows better.
black and white when they were young. After all, he'd seen the photographs.
And, until last summer, he also thought that in England the weather was
always bad and the food really "lame". Now Max knows better.
Max went to England last summer. With his granddad. It turned out that the weather
was great and the food a revelation. Plus: His granddad was colourful company!
was great and the food a revelation. Plus: His granddad was colourful company!
The "Kalterer See" where Max and his brothers love to go for a swim.
Max (12) lives in South Tyrol, near Bolzano in the beautiful northernmost region of Italy. His dad Joseph is a farmer, his mum Antonia a secretary. Max has two younger brothers. Their mother tongue is German and - as all kids in South Tyrol - they grow up learning Italian. The school system there is bilingual by default, of course English is part of the curriculum too.
Antonia allows her kids to watch Netflix series on a condition: Once they've seen one episode in German they have to watch it in English a second time before they get on with the next one. The result is not all too surprising: The kids speak English without a German accent.
A granddad in black and white.
Antonia grew up in Munich, Germany. When her mother died five years ago Antonia realized that her dad was getting very lonely, his wife Luisa really had been the pivot of his social life. But Martin did not want to leave Munich and live with Antonia's family for fear of being a burden on them. So she decided to enlist him as her kids' travel companion instead.
Martin, a civil engineer and a specialist for hydroelectric power plants, had travelled extensively before he retired. His employers had sent him to all continents over the years. He'd been looking forward to travel with Luisa, but she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just two years after his retirement.
Antonia's boys spend many weeks in and around Munich every summer and when Martin spends Christmas and New Year with them he takes them skiing in the Dolomites. But last summer the time had come for the first trip further abroad: Max and Martin went to London! By train.
Antonia and the Hayes family had connected via the Global Natives Club in 2018, there had been plenty of dialogue by email, face time and text. They knew they would get on well.
Now this was the deal: Martin should take Max to the Hayes' Battersea home and stay for two or three nights. Then he was free to pay two long-planned visits to old friends in Bournemouth and in Penzance. After three weeks he would return to London, perhaps spend another couple of days there and then take Max and his new pal Kenneth back to the Alps. All worked out as planned and by mid August Kenneth saw the mountains for the first time in his life.
But this story is mainly about two prejudices and how they crumbled:
1.) What about the food in England?
True enough, legions of European teenagers had been sent off for decades to spend a few weeks in language camps in the UK, coming back with tales of bland sandwiches filled with nothing but a couple of slices of cucumber or a few leaves of lettuce. That wasn't enticing.
But what Max had not anticipated was the wealth of simply wonderful ethnic food in London. Now, that was something he could not have experienced back home! During these three weeks in London he turned into an enthusiast for Indian, Thai and Vietnamese food; he tried and loved Russian cuisine and even dug into Cajun and Creole food with great gusto. What's more, Max developed a passion for seafood and even learned to sing "cockles and mussels"!
2.) And what about the black-and-white past of grandparents?
When Max and Martin started their journey together it dawned on them that they had never had time for each other before. Not on their own, undisturbed and uninterrupted. Not for a real one-to-one talk. Their train ride took them from Bolzano to Innsbruck, then on to Zurich and Paris. There they spent a whole day before they continued their journey to London. Now they had plenty of time to talk.
Martin realized what an excellent sense of humour Max had and that he was ever so alert and mindful. He was good in technical things too, a real digital native. Martin used his smartphone and other gadgets every day and didn't really require help (as many of his peers certainly would) but Max could still show him a number of hacks and apps he found extremely useful.
For the first time it dawned on Max that Martin wasn't just a man with silver hair and black-and-white photographs of his childhood. He was a man full of wisdom, life and laughter. Martin told Max many stories and anecdotes. He told him how he met Luisa, the love of his life, how their firstborn child died within a week, how Antonia was almost untamable as a kid. He told him about the many - and sometimes quite dangerous - projects he worked on in Africa and in South America, how he once was hit by a falling crane in Saudi Arabia and had to be flown back home with a broken spine.
Martin and his past became more colourful by the hour.
When they eventually arrived in London the sun was shining brightly.
They felt they could have done with a bit more time to talk.
