OT foreign language was:homemade hummus sunflower seeds

[Guest guest]

Glad to hear! This is my last year as a german major (yay

graduation!) and my last month in my year long adventure in Germany.

Though I've never had the opportunity to take a linguistics course

(though always wanted to) I've had to learn a lot of " middle high

german " and study a lot of dialects to learn where words come

from...and also to read the books ha!

 

People certainly do cook a lot here, a lot more than in the US I

find, especially students. At my university in the US if people were

hungry at night together the answer would be 'order a pizza' or

something like that and here people plan menus and cook together

inside or grill outside and sit together and enjoy meals-salads,

main courses, and lots of fruit. And people don't eat out a lot here

either. In the past year I've eaten out 4 times. And I used to eat

out once a week in the US! I like the menus in restaurants here

better too. Instead of laying things out in different various

sections there are the following sections: poultry, meat, fish,

vegetarian (also appetizers, soups, drinks, wines) and the veggie

section was always just as long if not longer than the others! So

I'd never have to go searching for something to eat, it was stated

clear. We did a thanksgiving dinner here too in november-it was a

potluck deal-we do a lot of those too.

 

I like it here because I've gotten a chance to try lots of foods I

never would have had a chance too-I used to watch Iron Chef a lot

and they would rave about pears from Italy and wow they really are

delicious. Its neat to know that my produce comes from spain or

italy (or of course germany) or various eurpean countries. Hmm foods

I've gotten to like since I've moved here have been nutella, sweet

cherries, and poppy seed bread. But its especially great knowing

that the food I eat is under such strict rules as far as whats

allowed to be put in it, organics, and where its from and such. I

also love the lack of nutritional info on things...most packages

don't have any at all and some have calories, fat, protein, carbs

and thats it. All have ingredient listings though. But I used to be

around a ton of number counters in the states and its a lot more

relaxing to just look at the food and decide-is it healthy or not?

and have that be enough. No stress.

 

Ive always loved to cook since I moved out of my parents house

(started eating a lot healthier too where it was up to me and not

what was in the fridge or pantry) and every year I always learn new

things about cooking and try new foods and recipes and such out but

it's been great in Germany being able to do that with the variety of

foods available here. Its also been interesting seeing how Germans

cook as opposed to americans. I love eating my main meal in the

middle of the day, I love meals revolving around potatoes and

Germans are crazy for asparagus which is something I had when it was

in season in the us but never have I seen so many cookbooks devoted

to asparagus in my life LOL!

 

Im eating breakfast currently getting ready to head out to class.

Breakfast today is oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins, a broetchen

with strawberry preserves and a glass of soy milk + calcium.

 

My mom had sent me some quaker instant oatmeal plain and I tried it

last week and all it did was make me sick. Then I looked at the

ingredients and realized that plain meant oats plus a ton of other

processed ingredients. So much for plain? So I went out and bought

oats at the organic store and have been fine ever since. I'm hoping

it was just the ingredients though and not the fact that it was

american food, otherwise I'm in for a lot of trouble when I get back!

 

-Katie

 

, " organic_homestead "

<organic_homestead> wrote:

> , " budgiegirl2003 "

> <budgiegirl2003> wrote:

> I'm a fan of umlauts but they don't make

> > pretty tattoos.

> >

> > -Katie

>

>

> Katie,

> I love it when you mention quirky things about Germany. I lived in

> Munich in 1990-91, as part of my German Language major. One of my

> favorite classes I took was a Linguistics course in which we

studied

> the history of the German language and why their language rules are

> such. It made perfect sense to me!

>

> And it seems to me that Germans love to cook. Everyone on my floor

was

> always cooking. And my first big meal I ever cooked was

Thanksgiving,

> because they all told me that every year the American student

cooked

> up a big Thanksgiving meal. Well, I had lots of help; and it was my

> first time at a fresh market, too.

>

> Germany was the first time I had french fries with mayo, I fell in

> love with Nutella, I gained an appreciation for good beer, and I

built

> up my own cooking skills (at 20 yrs old it was the first time I

really

> had to fend for myself).

>

> Denise