Day 4

The run I did.  For fun.  Something is very weird with me right now...

Day four of not talking to anyone other than Paul face-to-face.

It's starting to get to me I think.  I'm starting to think crazy things, like,  "I'll go for a run.  Yeah!  That sounds like a super, super entertaining thing to do right now!"

...

Very atypical.  Worrying.  Onset of cabin fever.  I knew this was going to happen sometime during the break.  Must. Not. Have. Freakout.

Also, it makes me excessively boring.

Paul:  "How was your day?"

Me:  "Good."

Paul:  "What did you do?"

Me:  "Homework.  ... Fed the fish?...Watched a video about hair braids?.... Ummm...potato...eating?"

The highlights of this week: 

1) German-English practice with my old students.  I love them.  They are awesome.

2) Going out to lunch with German-class folks to say goodbye to my Japanese, French, and Pakistani buddies.  If nothing else, knowing them gave me one of the best pieces of trivia I'll ever learn:

"snow" in Urdu is "barf" 

3) Juha-Matti being nice enough to let me go to his house and play his piano when he's back home in FinNland.  Thank you, Juha-Matti!

4) Going out with Paul tonight to listen to a "band" play, as described on their poster, "Disco Pop Rock Pub Music."   I'm pretty sure we're just going to be able to sit somewhere with bemused looks on our faces and eat fish.

So. Many. Houseplants.

Paul, After a Night of Social Excitement (read: Introvert's Exhaustion)

Our party was flappin' fantastic.

The final stragglers, around 11:30.  We're party animals like that.

Big thanks to all twenty-five people who smooshed into our living room and kitchen to chat with a whole bunch of people from everywhere around the world and take guided tours to our teal bathroom.
 

One of....six....(yeup, I just counted) substantially sized
houseplants now gracing our window sills.

And huge thanks to everyone for the houseplants and cutlery and gift certificates and candles and the cupcakes and the Pakistani fritter things and the pringles (I don't know who brought them, but bless you) and the cinnamon rolls and that fancy bottle of Hungarian dessert wine (thank you, Hungarians); the pistachios, the philo-dough feta things (thank you French people), the cookies, the people who were brave enough to try my Reuben sandwich cracker dip--thanks to you!  

WE'RE GONNA PLAY BINGO so RAISE THE ROOF!

 And thank you friendly next-door neighbors and "Tilo from the Roof" for dropping by and taking it in stride when a very excitable American accosted you saying, "Wanna play BINGO**?!  There are PRIZES!"

And thank you everybody for adding to our sticky-note map of Germany!  It looks awesome--all covered with your tourism suggestions.  And thank you, Roman and Geraldine, for leaving sticky-notes in other random places that we keep finding (Okay!  Okay!  You've convinced us to go to Marseilles!).

It was seriously, seriously so incredibly fun to have you all over.  Please come by again soon! 



**Not a chance that I actually "hand calligraphied" the Bingo game.  But I did find a cheap version at the "euro store" in the city center.  I also learned that Bingo is pretty much the most popular game ever in Pakistan--where it's called Tambola  (TAMBOLA!  Way more fun to yell.)    I also learned that Bingo is pretty much the best game to have when you have 25+ people in your house sitting on your floor.  Also, the best prizes are rainbow cellophane tape and body scrub.   And mars bars, but that's a given.

In Honor of My German Class

I already told you one of the reasons why my German class was (it ended on Thursday) so rad.  But, there are other reasons too.  Like, how awesome our instructor was or how these people are totally on "homie" status with me now.  They are seriously, for really, some amazing people.  I totally cried at the end.  I did.  Could have been partly relief that I finished that gol darned qualifying test, but I know most of the reason was because I'm going to miss these folks!

A Letter to the S-Dude

Dear S-Dude,

(You know your name and I know your name, but on the internet it's good to be safe sometimes and not use it--instead you use a cool secret name.  Especially if you're still a rad kid and not a boring adult.  It's a rule or something.)

Last night Paul and I ate bugs.  But I'll tell you more about that at the end of my letter.  Yep.  Have to read my letter to get to the bug eating.  Sorry.  I'm tricky like that.

SO, I hear you're coming to visit us in Germany in a couple of months!  S-Dude, I have to tell you, this makes me really happy.  Because, S-Dude, you are a rad kid and are always fun to hang out with.  I thought you might like to know a few tips about visiting Germany--because it's kind of a different place, you know.

There's different money.  People talk in a different language, which means you usually can't understand them unless you also know their language.  There's no macaroni and cheese (but there is a McDonalds).   The chocolate is really good here (do you like chocolate?  I forget.).   Also, the streets are different.  They aren't big and flat and black like the streets at your house.  They are narrow and are paved with thousands (millions!) of flat rocks with lots of gaps in between them that are filled with sand.  Also, the light switches are really big and flat.  And there are no drying machines for your clothes so you have to hang them up in your house and wait for them to dry.  Kinda of weird huh?

BUT, there are also a lot of same-things.  Like, in Germany, there is snow in the winter and flowers in the summer--so that's the same.  In Germany, kids go to school like you do.  In Germany, there are doctors and dentists and shopping malls and grocery stores.  I know kids that really like to play soccer--and you know that game too.  People wear the same kinds of clothes and everyone likes mashed potatoes--just like in America.

I thought, for this first letter, you might like to know some German words.   These can help you speak and understand the different language here.  For now, there are just three short words to think about:

1:   "Hallo"   (You say it like HAH-low).   Can you guess what this word means?   It's really close to English.   ...   If you guessed, "Hello" then you're right!  You can say "Hallo" to anyone in Germany and they will smile and might say "Hallo" back.

2:  "Danke"  (You say it like DAHN-kuh).   This means "Thank you."  It's really useful.  When you buy an ice cream cone and someone gives it to you, you can say, "Danke."  Or, when someone says, "Hey!  You're reading this really long letter so well!" you can say "Danke."

3.  "Bitte"  (You say it like BIT-uh).  This means "Please."  Also really useful.  You can go into McDonalds and say, "Chicken nuggets bitte." and they will get some for you.

Okay, so here's the story about eating bugs.  We have a friend here who told us there was a German restaurant that served bugs to eat.  I said I didn't believe her.  She double-dared me to eat bugs.  (Also, did you know a lot of people in the world eat bugs?  In most countries in the world, eating certain kinds of bugs is the same as eating popcorn.)  So, I told her I would try it.  Paul came with me to help me be brave.

This is what we ordered:

Crickets

Dung beetles

This is how I felt before eating my crickets:

 And Paul was brave enough to eat the dung beetles!

This is Paul eating a beetle.  Really.  It's true.

The crickets were really crunchy and didn't taste like anything--I didn't really like feeling their little cricket legs in my mouth though.   I'm just not used to cricket legs in my mouth, you know?   One of our other friends got silkworms, and they kind of tasted like peanuts.  Paul said the dung beetles tasted like...juicy beetles.  So, I don't know.  You'll have to ask him more about that.

I hope you have a good week at school!  Let me know if you have any questions about Germany I can answer in another letter to you!

Heidi

Dear People Who Sent Us Various American Foods for Christmas

YOU ROCK!!

Oreos, Mac&Cheese, Chocolate chips, and beloved Ranch Dressing--these are a few of our favorite things!

Thank you!!!

P.S. And he's wearing THE shirt.  Am I right?  I know, right?!

Solstice

We have a good friend in Oregon (who I will call "LovePuppet") who would give everybody presents to celebrate the Winter Solstice each year, often including some kind of dark chocolate.

So, because we live in a place where it will be midnight-dark at around 3:30pm, and, in the spirit of the beloved and missed Love Puppet, we went to a chocolatier in town to get the darkest hot chocolate we could find on the Solstice.

I usually think it's weird when people take pictures of cafe or restaurant food (hey!  Look what I digested!), but I kind of can't help myself when it comes to amazing edible things.

Like, take this hot chocolate.  They literally melted a chocolate bar, poured it into a cup, gave us each a pint of whipped cream to add to it, and were like, "Welp, have at it!" (but, you know, in German).

A chocolate bar, people!  Melted!  Into the cup!

Happy Winter Solstice from der Nord!

Tandem

Uni-Rostock Mensa

I have a friend named Elizabeth.  She's from Medellin, Colombia, and we have lunch together twice a week because that's part of our Tandem agreement.

In Germany, there's an idea that everyone understands called "Tandem."  Think of it like two-way bartering.  One person has something the other one wants, and so does the other person.  So, you trade.  In our case, I know how to speak English and Elizabeth knows Spanish.  She needs to practice English and I need to practice Spanish.  And so a Tandem was born.

We went to the Mensa today, which is a university cafeteria.  We had mashed potatoes (pude de papas/Kartoffelpüree), pork (carne de cerdo, Schweinefleisch), and vegetables (verduras/Gemüse).  We talked about food and vacations and weather, todo auf Spanisch.

Tandem is totally messing up my head.  I can't help but throw in German words between Spanish words.   Ich habe una problema.  The most repeated offenses today went something like, "Ja! Yes! Sí!"  or "aberrrrr...I mean pero!"

Elizabeth gets it though.  And we can generally understand each other no matter what.  Understanding is always way easier than speaking. So we get weird looks when we walk down the street, her speaking Spanish and me answering in English. And then we laugh and say, "Alles gut!"

And did you know that Elizabeth's boyfriend is on a championship Water Rugby team?!  Did you even know that was a thing?!

It is!!!

You can break your leg and drown at the same time!  Fun!  I'll have to ask her at our next Tandem about how you can spectate that sort of thing.  And how do the refs ref?  Are there underwater sonar whistles (Unterwasser-Pfeifen/silbatos bajo de agua)?!  Do you know?!  I need to know.

Also, this is the biggest cookie sheet I can find here!  Das ist a problema también!