Tuesday has typically been the day of the week when I have gone to the movie theater in town. When I went in September, it was my first experience in the town theater, and let me just say that it’s a step down from the interesting theaters you find in St. Louis (Tivoli, Moolah) and no megaplex either. But with the combination of good & cheap Chinese beforehand and friends in town to go with, the quality of the theater didn’t matter. Although both times I went, we were in the smaller theater called “Black Magic.” You knew this is what this particular screen was called because the words where on the wall by the screen, spray-painted in bright neon colors that were lit under a black light. The curtain was a nice sparkly gold too. All a bit kitschy for my taste, but somehow fitting to watch “The Simpsons Movie” or “Superbad” in…

Well the movie I saw last night fit the atmosphere of the cinema I was in. I come home from grocery shopping yesterday afternoon and I was chatting a bit with my landlady. She was a bit concerned that I was bored since Ruesselsheim isn’t the most happening town, and invited me to a foreign film in a nearby town. 5 euro ticket, a free ride, and a very cozy theater followed by an even cozier place for mulled wine next door to the cinema made for a pleasant evening. I brought Rachel along as she wanted to go to the town cinema, but this time instead of Ben Stiller, we saw a more serious film, and certainly not Hollywood. The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters was an exotic tale about forbidden love. The storyline about the lesbian lovers didn’t make me really want to watch it, but it was the film playing that night and nevertheless an escape into a different world. It was just the right place to be on a rainy November night.