On Sunday I made the most delicious baked good I have ever made in my whole long life. It's called a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, and it is just the embodiment of everything dessert should stand for. It's a torte with three chocolate layers and one firmer cakey crust on the very bottom to hold it all together. Between these layers come cherries and whipped cream, and the entire thing is decked in a ton of more whipped cream. Fine grated chocolate is sprinkled on top, accompanied by a few more cherries. The last, most challenging step is putting this treasure away in a cool place to let it chill out for later without burying your face in it first. Parting with this miracle the moment after I had finished it was heartbreaking, I don't know if I can express it. Imagine Beethoven having his hearing taken away. Oh wait... bad example. I think you get my point, though. Later, when we finally sat down to eat it, you could almost feel the electrons in the air buzzing more buisily than usual from the tension. This was a big moment! What if it didn't actually taste as good as it looked? What if it turned out I was lactose intolerant? What if Santa wasn't real? Well, my doubts were set to rest when Heiko made it through his whole piece without saying any comprehensible words, choosing instead to stick to moaning and heavy breathing in between chewing. It was amazing. I feel like a more successful human being after having baked that baby.
And it actually snowed here on Sunday night! The 23rd is officially my favorite day of the month. I was so happy that I went outside and did my First Snow of the Year Dance. If you've never experienced it before it's a sight to see, let me tell you. Anyway, I must have energized the Snow Gods or something, because that night it snowed more than my family could remember it ever having snowed here before. I didn't actually ask them about that, I'm just assuming that was the reason they only had two pairs of snow boots for a five person family. Me included in that five. Well, short story long, Susan, Consty and I all went outside and played in the freshly fallen Freude. Freude is the German word for happiness. Sorry, I needed to make use of my bilinguisticity (I just made that word up) to complete that alliteration. We built a snow man, threw snow balls (I nailed Susan in the head) and skidded around the solid three inches on a bike, which was a new experience for me. I also saw part of Miami Vice in German that night and ate wurst with cheese in it. And another piece of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. Delicious.
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine flew to the US for a little while. I asked him to bring me back some Cheez-its for a little taste of my country and because salty snacks are hard to find in Germany. He brought me back four boxes. FOUR BOXES! I gladly spread the wealth, having known I would never have gotten through them alone. I love Cheez-its, but they are extremely dangerous for me. I never reach a point where I think, "There is no way I will fit one more of these miniscule crackers in my stomach," so then I eat one more. And one more. And one more. Suddenly half of the bag is gone. I swear, I have no idea where they all go. I only eat them one at a time! That should mean I don't eat very many, but it just doesn't.
I was invited to two birthday parties this weekend. I'm just a really big deal here. You know, like a celebrity. I think people invite me to things because they want to further observe my curious behavior. They want to know, for example, if I regularly break out into song upon the smallest, most obscure cues. The answer is of course yes, and everybody seems to be okay with that.
I'm going to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow with a half-American friend. I'm really excited, and I hope there is good stuffing. I looove stuffing. Is it weird how so much of what I consider relevant enough to write about concerns food?
Consty got an iPod Touch. It's really cool. I looked at Concord on Google Earth and saw my house.
Christmas time here is going to be so cool, and I only have 15 more days of school until vacation. I can't wait.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm thankful to you for reading my blog.
Tommy
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Living It, And Living It Well
I am so happy with my life right now. I come home almost every day from school with "gute Laune" (in a good mood- in German it's something you have). Just about every day the first thing I do is have a yelled conversation with Consty, not because we're mad at each other, but because I'm too busy eating to go upstairs and he's too layzy to come down. We're both interested in each other's days, so we make use of the necessary volume of voice in order to communicate how it was exactly like the day before.
Everything has really slowed down and settled in a lot. My family feels like a family, my bed feels like my bed, and the food seems normal. I have an awesome group of friends and I make new ones every day. I have yet to get into a real argument with anyone, but sometimes they get a little frustrated with me because I don't feel too obligated to do well in school, and they have to. I try to always be outgoing and it continues to pay off; I get to know a new fun person so often that I don't even attempt to learn names the first time I meet people anymore. It might sound like I'm bragging, and I guess I am a little bit, but I'm just so excited with my situation. I'm invited to a birthday party for the next three weekends, and I'm totally stoked.
My soccer team hasn't been doing so hot, but it's still a blast. The team members are just really nice, supportive guys, and they're fun to play with. I start every game and play all 90 minutes. Along with daily pull-ups, push-ups and crunches, all of the soccer I'm playing me has me in excellent shape. That just means I can eat more. And I do. A lot.
I was in the paper, which is pretty cool. I'll see if I can get the picture up on the page.
My friends here have really cool names. Constantin, Florian, Mateo, Jonas; it's just makes greeting people a more enjoyable activity. My favorite greeting that I've learned is, "Gude," except you have to say it like there are about four Us. Just stretch that vowel like your life depends on it. Guuuuuuduh is roughly what it sounds like. People think I'm really friendly because I'm smiling whenever I say hi to someone, but it's really just because saying hi in German is so great.
On Tuesday night my American friend Mateo came over. We slept from 10:40 pm until 12:40 am and then didn't go back to sleep until we had seen the results of the election and speeches of the aftermath. We sat on the couch in front of a TV and a laptop so as not to miss anything, ate cake, ice cream, yoghurt, chocolate, and anything else we could find, and just did not sleep. As my family left the house for the day, Mateo and I crashed into bed and didn't wake up until around 2 pm. Germany is incredibly happy with the result of the election, to a degree that I'm pretty sure the American public would never be with the election of any foreign official. In many cases they are better informed about what has been going on in America for the past few months than about their own politics. The States really had the eyes of the entire world focused intently upon it, in case any of you hadn't realized it. I've met only one person who supported "MC Cain" (that's what the Germans call him) in the entire three and a half months I have lived here, so if the election had gone any other way than for Obama I would be living in a very unsatisfied country.
I'm going skiing this winter on a glacial resort with my Consty and a few more friends. We stay and ski for a week, and that's all I get for the whole winter. It'll be tough without snow this year, but that should be a blast. Hopefully I'll figure out some way to transport my skis from my house in Concord to my house in Trebur. If anybody knows any secrets I'd love to hear them. I really want to ski on my skis this winter, and I'm desperate to find a cheap way to obtain them.
Now for the inevitable sad-but-funny story you've all been waiting for. If you've been following my entries you already know that I have school until around 5:10 pm every Monday, and that I ride my bike. Well it kind of goes without saying that when you ride your bike somewhere in Germany you lock it up. Combination locks are not quite as popular here, and my lock is one of the more commonly found ones that uses a key. When my family first gave it to me I was really worried that I would lose the key, just like I lose just about everything I actually need to keep track of. I had been, however, extremely responsible and did not ever misplace it. The lock is an old one and requires jiggling and sometimes a bit of force to get it open. This past Monday school had finally come to a tiring but successful end, and I crouched down in front of my bike to try to get my lock open. I jiggled it one way, jiggled it another way, pushed it in, took it out, and did everything else I could think of to liberate my captivated steed (Josh, you better be laughing). Suddenly I heard a small click, but the two ends of the lock had not seperated from one another. I stood there dumfounded, and eventually realized the key I was holding in my hand was only half the size it had been about fifteen seconds before. The rest of the key was broken off. Inside of the lock. It might as well have been in another glaxy for all the use it would do me there. I stood there for about a minte, just staring at my situation, and eventually turned and trudged slowly to the bus stop. I waited another half an hour for the bus, rode another half an hour on the bus, got home, and was greeted by a raucously laughing family. They absolutely love how absurd it is that I get myself into these situations so often, and I guess I do too, it just takes me a few more hours than it does for them.
Well, that's about it. Sorry this entry was a bit uneventful, but my life just seems fairly normal at the moment. Maybe in the next couple of weeks something truly worth an entry will happen, and you will have your belly laugh at my expense. I'm more than happy to provide. ;)
I truly hope you're all satisfied with your lives. I know I am.
Tommy
Everything has really slowed down and settled in a lot. My family feels like a family, my bed feels like my bed, and the food seems normal. I have an awesome group of friends and I make new ones every day. I have yet to get into a real argument with anyone, but sometimes they get a little frustrated with me because I don't feel too obligated to do well in school, and they have to. I try to always be outgoing and it continues to pay off; I get to know a new fun person so often that I don't even attempt to learn names the first time I meet people anymore. It might sound like I'm bragging, and I guess I am a little bit, but I'm just so excited with my situation. I'm invited to a birthday party for the next three weekends, and I'm totally stoked.
My soccer team hasn't been doing so hot, but it's still a blast. The team members are just really nice, supportive guys, and they're fun to play with. I start every game and play all 90 minutes. Along with daily pull-ups, push-ups and crunches, all of the soccer I'm playing me has me in excellent shape. That just means I can eat more. And I do. A lot.
I was in the paper, which is pretty cool. I'll see if I can get the picture up on the page.
My friends here have really cool names. Constantin, Florian, Mateo, Jonas; it's just makes greeting people a more enjoyable activity. My favorite greeting that I've learned is, "Gude," except you have to say it like there are about four Us. Just stretch that vowel like your life depends on it. Guuuuuuduh is roughly what it sounds like. People think I'm really friendly because I'm smiling whenever I say hi to someone, but it's really just because saying hi in German is so great.
On Tuesday night my American friend Mateo came over. We slept from 10:40 pm until 12:40 am and then didn't go back to sleep until we had seen the results of the election and speeches of the aftermath. We sat on the couch in front of a TV and a laptop so as not to miss anything, ate cake, ice cream, yoghurt, chocolate, and anything else we could find, and just did not sleep. As my family left the house for the day, Mateo and I crashed into bed and didn't wake up until around 2 pm. Germany is incredibly happy with the result of the election, to a degree that I'm pretty sure the American public would never be with the election of any foreign official. In many cases they are better informed about what has been going on in America for the past few months than about their own politics. The States really had the eyes of the entire world focused intently upon it, in case any of you hadn't realized it. I've met only one person who supported "MC Cain" (that's what the Germans call him) in the entire three and a half months I have lived here, so if the election had gone any other way than for Obama I would be living in a very unsatisfied country.
I'm going skiing this winter on a glacial resort with my Consty and a few more friends. We stay and ski for a week, and that's all I get for the whole winter. It'll be tough without snow this year, but that should be a blast. Hopefully I'll figure out some way to transport my skis from my house in Concord to my house in Trebur. If anybody knows any secrets I'd love to hear them. I really want to ski on my skis this winter, and I'm desperate to find a cheap way to obtain them.
Now for the inevitable sad-but-funny story you've all been waiting for. If you've been following my entries you already know that I have school until around 5:10 pm every Monday, and that I ride my bike. Well it kind of goes without saying that when you ride your bike somewhere in Germany you lock it up. Combination locks are not quite as popular here, and my lock is one of the more commonly found ones that uses a key. When my family first gave it to me I was really worried that I would lose the key, just like I lose just about everything I actually need to keep track of. I had been, however, extremely responsible and did not ever misplace it. The lock is an old one and requires jiggling and sometimes a bit of force to get it open. This past Monday school had finally come to a tiring but successful end, and I crouched down in front of my bike to try to get my lock open. I jiggled it one way, jiggled it another way, pushed it in, took it out, and did everything else I could think of to liberate my captivated steed (Josh, you better be laughing). Suddenly I heard a small click, but the two ends of the lock had not seperated from one another. I stood there dumfounded, and eventually realized the key I was holding in my hand was only half the size it had been about fifteen seconds before. The rest of the key was broken off. Inside of the lock. It might as well have been in another glaxy for all the use it would do me there. I stood there for about a minte, just staring at my situation, and eventually turned and trudged slowly to the bus stop. I waited another half an hour for the bus, rode another half an hour on the bus, got home, and was greeted by a raucously laughing family. They absolutely love how absurd it is that I get myself into these situations so often, and I guess I do too, it just takes me a few more hours than it does for them.
Well, that's about it. Sorry this entry was a bit uneventful, but my life just seems fairly normal at the moment. Maybe in the next couple of weeks something truly worth an entry will happen, and you will have your belly laugh at my expense. I'm more than happy to provide. ;)
I truly hope you're all satisfied with your lives. I know I am.
Tommy
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