Day 3

(I apologize there are no pictures for now. I have to use Katie's camera to transfer them over since I forgot mine. Bear with me!)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Katie had class till 2pm, so I woke up late and had a very long breakfast with Johanna and Martin. We talked about everything! In the midst of all of these ancient buildings, history, shops and stuff, you might find it surprising that our little breakfasts we had together were among the most enjoyable things I did. It's the truth.

I can't even remember everything we talked about, but much of it was me asking what this word or that phrase was in German. They told me about themselves and I showed them pictures on the internet of Texas, though Martin has been there before. He told me one of the most odd things about Texas was the way the flag, both Texan and American, is flown on practically every doorstep. I can see how this surprising - you really don't see any German flags flying around here, though I have seen the Thuringia and Erfurt flag a couple of times. Someone - I can't remember if it was Martin or Katie - told me, "You aren't proud to be German." You can be proud of your region or your city, but not of your country. I think that's kind of sad, but the US could definitely take a lesson in humility.

Anyway, we ate these German rolls with butter, jam, nutella, you name it. I sort of just followed Johanna's and Martin's lead. Something kind of funny though: they put much thicker slices of butter on their rolls than I'm used to seeing. At one point, I forgot to put butter on one piece of the bread and ate it. It was pointed out. Martin explained to me that German breakfasts usually consist of bread and some kind of cheese or meat. I have also seen downtown in the morning that people will eat a sandwich for breakfast, as in, bread, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and some kind of meat, what I usually see eaten for lunch in the US.

I'll go ahead and tell you, I have eaten more here than I have anywhere else. Everything is so delicious. I have noticed, though, that the food here is surprisingly heavy compared to what I normally have. You don't drink 2% milk here. It's whole milk. (Katie laughingly told me how Martin referred to the milk in Texas as "watery.") Almost everything includes bread and meat. Popular "fast food" here is not McDonalds or Burger King, though they do have them here. Instead you'd go to a Döner, which is a Turkish kebab place that serves lamb meat with lettuce and some kind of sauce in a roll. It's really good.

I've also been to a Danish chain restaurant that serves crepes and waffles with any kind of topping. It's very easy to grab a bite to eat here. If you're in a hurry, there is almost always a bakery nearby with ready-made sandwiches, doughnuts, danishes, pretzels, and all sorts of things for you to pick up. It's pretty inexpensive, too.

I would get so fat living here!

Anyway, that evening Katie took me to one of her university's "Multicultural Nights," which is basically a party everyone from her class goes to at a bar (pub?) every Tuesday. This was a special Christmas edition, so we watched a bunch of Christmas favorites in a back room, drank, and ate cookies. That's where I met most of Katie's friends.

Of course, I'm terrible with names, but I can remember where most of them were from. I got to talk to Ravi again, who is originally from Sri Lanka and did his bachelors at Brighton in London for 4 years. He's VERY funny and smart. (And a great cook, but I'll get into that later!)

The guy next to me was Khalid (sp?) and he's from Afghanistan. He's worked with CNN and a bunch of other media giants. He's been all over the world attending different schools and working. I felt so unaccomplished next to him! He's extremely nice and told me about his wife, whom he just recently married. Congrats to them!

I also talked to a girl from Denmark, whose English was so impeccable that I could have mistaken her for someone from Britain. She, Katie, a guy named Sören (from Germany), and I compared and contrasted all of our different Christmas traditions. In Germany and Denmark, Dec. 24th is the big day rather than Christmas Day, though you generally celebrate the holiday for three whole days. You open all of your presents and eat a huge feast on Christmas Eve, though eating elaborate meals carries on the following three days. While in the US people put Christmas lights all over their houses, they are generally restricted to windows and indoors in Germany. All four of us use Christmas trees, but only Katie and I seemed to do the tradition of hanging up stockings.

It was a ton of fun getting to listen to everyone. We were from all over the world, but all of us wanted to know more about each other and our respective homes.