Das Est Goot Fraus and Fralines

Tonight I had an activity with the 14 and 15 year old girls at church. I'm standing here before you, right now, admitting the truth. I was dragging my feet something awful. The activity was to go to the high school and watch the upper German classes put on "The Little Mermaid" all in German. Seriously? The girls were dying to go. You're with me right? Doesn't that activity sound like a root canal? I knew it was going to be hot in the Pantheon, I knew it was going to be drudgery, ridiculously boring, and especially since I didn't have a child in it (heck, I didn't even KNOW anybody in it) what on this big green earth was I thinking putting myself through "The Little Mermaid" in bad German by High School students? (Like it matters that it was bad German....)

So I took a very large water bottle and trudged off to the High School with the girls. The last thing I said to Glynnis, (my friend and the other leader) as the lights were going out, was: "Hey, maybe we can close our eyes and put on a fake smile and rest a little during this."

Well kids, color me pleasantly surprised. It was FUN. It was FUNNY. I laughed a LOT. Those teenagers were so clever, yet ridiculous, and although it was all in German, the costumes, sets, and props were full of sass o frass. This is a generation that was raised on DVD's, (it's all about influences baby) and although they incorporated the Hans Christian Anderson story, you could definitely see the Disney language breaking through. (Ursela's eels were my favorites. Two twin brothers played them...they were dressed in black tights and turtlenecks with their arms trapped in, and they had used black duct tape all over bike helmets to form eel snouts. They moved in unison... twin simpatico... so funny!)

I love the teenage mind, how fresh and silly and sassy it is. To see it tapped and pushed in a positive way was an absolute delight. Viva los Viva los Viva los TEENAGERS!!!! I hope Cold Play writes a song about funny German speaking teenagers and puts colorful special effects with the song and acts real cool when they sing it and advertises it on TV over and over and over again so everyone will download it. And I hope all funny German Speaking Teenagers get the royalties. That would be cool.