please someone PM me and tell me where the the next drum circle/am is.
seriously ... am I the only deadhead in CH?
You just gotta poke around
I think that was the question ... poke around where? with whom?
In 6 months I have only found two CH peeps that at least know there was a band called GD - they think it was a country band !!! wtf??
there are 1.9M FB followers of the official dead
there are 257 and 136 in the ONLY european based FB pages.
see the disconnect?
I was hoping to meet CH based folks that I may have something in common with - its looking like this quixotic mission is again going to end up with trying to meet American ex-pats. Silly me for trying to integrate.
ps ... also ... what does this mean:
"Groaned at 2 Times in 1 Post" ... did I really get 2 negative reactions for asking if there is a deadhead community?
No, I'm guessing you got negative reactions for saying Switzerland is more hick than Maine:
I forgot that was still out there ... well I guess it does point out that 0 people answered a shoutout for other Americans in Bern. really?
You're joking, right? There are 10 replies on your thread, and one person even shared a link to our monthly EF dinner club.
https://www.englishforum.ch/daily-li...r-bueller.html
Not everyone in the dinner club is American (I think I'm the only one most of the time) but we all speak English. We have diverse tastes in music, books, entertainment, travel, politics, etc. It makes for interesting conversations.
If you want a carbon-copy of yourself that might be a challenge to find, but if you just want to meet up for a meal and a chat then watch the calendar for August and sign up.
After taking a moment to figure out how to get back to previous posts, I see that there are indeed comments on that thread ... my bad ... I had no idea. Now that I looked at it again i see that I responded to one post very early on.
I guess I was expecting a PM that would have dinged my email so that I would have known I needed to respond. I didn't get any such PM's. I also guess it would have taken the form of "sure ... come on over Thursday for a BBQ and beers." To tell you the truth I forgot I was even a member on this site until I got a PM just the other day.
As to carbon-copy ... huh? There are 1.9 million Face Book members in the Grateful Dead group alone and about 700k for Phish ... Europe has a combined community of less than 500 people?!? Is that possible? I'm not looking for a carbon copy ... I'm just looking for someone from my tribe. I found peeps in Montreux ... however they were just American heads passing through and jamming out in front of the Jamaican duo.
Whoosh...
Whichever way your pleasure tends
If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind.
Clearly the GD and Phish are not particularly popular here. I’d suggest trying another interest. What else do you like ?
I give up ... this site claims 30,000 english speakers.
ZERO Americans in Bern in this site that want to hang out.
ZERO Musicians that would like to make music
ZERO fans of jam band music (gd, phish, mmw, ...)
I thought this forum might be more helpful but it seems that's not the case.
I saw the soullessness of CH at Gurten Fest last weekend ... if that's the alternative then I'm going home.
Please give instructions to terminate this account and delete all information
(pursuant to the right to be forgotten)
Okay, before you go I just have to ask - why so grumpy? Perhaps you had the impression this was an American Expat Forum? It's not. It was actually founded by a British man who wanted a place where people who speak English could meet and discuss life here. Our members come from dozens of countries. Some members are even Swiss.
If you're young and hip and like to hang out, my impression is that Bern can feel a bit small and boring. It explains why you didn't like Gurtenfestival very much. There are probably a lot of Americans here, but not all of them belong to English Forum. If you want some more options for meeting people, try Internations, Meetup, Glocals, and the International Club of Berne. Of course the last one is not just Americans but you never know who might share your interests.
I'm American and you've been invited more than once to our English-speaking dinner club in Bern - once by another user and once by me. If that's not good enough, I'm sorry. I'm not a Deadhead, but I've been to a Dead concert back in the 90's. Does that count? It was quite an experience.
If you love music and can tough it out here instead of moving back to Maine immediately, Bern has a great Buskerfestival coming up in just a few weeks. I really enjoy it: https://www.buskersbern.ch/en
Otherwise you might find more friends by journeying to the bigger cities like Zurich. By the way, here's a list of threads where musicians wanted to find other musicians. Maybe you'll find a jam buddy or two in one of these threads:
Tom
I see you've got your list out, say your piece and get out
Guess I get the gist of it, but it's alright
Sorry that you feel that way, the only thing there is to say
Is: every silver lining's got a touch of grey
I really don't want to come across as grumpy. Being misunderstood seems to be par for the course in CH. Again - that's not meant to be mean - just a fact. I've been here for 6 months and have no social interactions to show for it. Sure I can pretend to be something else and have superficial chit-chat but I was looking to make real connections.
I know this was an English Forum and that's why I led with "any americans here?" in my first post. I assumed I'd get 10-20 people saying "Hey Now .... come on over" but instead I got crickets. Even worse trying to find musicians - I firmly believe the American style experience of "Man Caves" and "Garage Bands" are not part of the European social fabric ... I didn't want to be right on that but it seems that way from my multiple attempts to get past "crickets" that this is the case.
"Young and Hip" .. yes at heart ... I am 50 and have not found anyone my age that I can relate to. Things are over complicated here, way too serious, people don't randomly talk to each other, and the hippy culture that is alive and well in the USA in 2019 is not represented at all. Getting drunk and high at a techno festival is about the farthest removed from a spiritual path of self realization and connection with those that came before and will come after.
I'll give you an example: I was shocked that when asked for a used bracelet from the GurtenFest, the person told me they wanted 20CHF. Who does that? ...ITS USED AND HAS NO VALUE TO THAT PERSON THAT LEFT THE SHOW! That is the metaphor for the culture here ... cold, calculated, commercial. It's not that I am poor - I'm a professional and make good money - it's that I don't treat life as a financial transaction. Why? .. because I believe in kind, caring, giving world ... not a soulless excuse to get f%&ed up and try to make a buck.
Don't get me wrong - that same shit exists in the USA too ... Just there is the option to not participate in that world and find a tribe that matches my philosophy.
"I'm American and you've been invited more than once to our English-speaking dinner club in Bern - once by another user and once by me. "
.... I was not aware of the invite until today so please excuse my not attending the event. Not that your event is like this, but ... in the past I have attended 2 other English speaking events and it was exactly that - the only commonality is the English language - I'm looking for just a little more. I don't want to be someones curiosity and that is exactly what it feels like.
"I'm not a Deadhead, but I've been to a Dead concert back in the 90's. Does that count? It was quite an experience."
... yes that absolutely counts!!! So you're prolly around my age if you went in the 1990's ... As such you must understand that this is not a band experience or just another party but a lifestyle ... like taking a month off in the summer to drive your VW bus from show to show ... I did this with my teenagers for the John Mayer/dead and PHISH shows.
So when folks don't understand the significance of "any deadheads in bern" then there's really no more conversation past that is there? Now - before you call be a one-trick pony, let me share the amazing time I had 2 weeks ago at Montreux. That was the first time in 6 months that I found "fellow travelers" - we had a blast!!!!! ... unfortunately they actually were travelers and not folks that I can routinely hang out with in CH.
This is about being alone in a foreign continent, not understanding anyone (yes i do speak fluent high german), and being thwarted at every turn when trying to do something about the situation .... this may make someone seem grumpy - but I'm just more disappointed than anything else.
so ... having said that ... If there are no other american deadhead musicians in the wings that wanna hang out then please remove me from this site. This is the only reason I am on this site - to find that. I've been here since January and the connection hasn't happened.
You told me good-bye, how was I to know
you didn't mean good-bye, you meant please don't let me go?
Hey, I think it's nice he came back to reply and explain a bit more. It's not easy to make friends in this country and at least he's trying!
All of my replys have been GD lyrics