Tuesday, March 27, 2007

i love to cook

This should come as no shock to anyone reading this blog. I love to cook and bake. The Foodnetwork was like a dream come true after being slightly obsessed with cooking shows since I was in kindergarten. That´s right, The Frugal Gourmet, and Grahm Kerr were my favorites as I was rubbing my blanket, and sucking my thumb, or so my mom tells me. I don´t know if I am really any good at it, but I love to do it, especially baking. And thought I do have this passion, it is not something that has always been easy to follow. Let´s face it, cooking can be kind of expensive... yah, if you have most the ingredients and spices on hand, it´s not so bad, but having been a college student 4 of the last 5/6 years I haven´t had the best stocked kitchen, not to mention I have moved every year for the last 6 years. Another inhibitor is quantity. Yes, I want to make the whole recipe, be it a casserole, lasagna, cake or otherwise, but who´s going to eat it all? Me and my roommate? Two people for a recipe that is supposed to feed 6-8 is a little daunting, not to mention unhealthy even spread out over a couple of days. However, all my luck changed in coming to Germany.

Here I have a built in family of 5 to cook for, an 'unlimited' budget seeing as that the family pays for food, and the time to try out new things. It is amazing. I have been able to test out a lot of new things, as well as expose my host family to some of the things that I like to make back home. I end up baking a lot more which is oh so fun, and really what i like to do the best. I do this a lot of times with the kids, because it´s a great (learning) activity they can help with, that yealds pretty/tangible/tasty results. It´s all been really fun for me. Last Friday i made homemade soup for lunch, traditional German apple cake in the afternoon, and on Saturday Lasagna for dinner. And yet, I never get tired of it because there is always something new to try.

You know how people ask the question 'What would you do if you never had to work again, but still had money?' and your answer is supposed to be the career you really want to do. Well, that is basically the situation I have been put into, and all I am really doing is traveling, reading and cooking... maybe I should take the hint.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

madrid, madrid, madrid

I concluded my trip in Madrid, because my good friend Lindsay is au pairing there as well. This was my second time seeing her here, and it was so great a second time. I got in Friday mid-day, and we just chilled, got some coffee, and headed to a museum. There was this really cool M. C. Escher exhibit that we went to. His work is so amazing and innovative. It is so cool how all his images come together and flow from one thing to the next. After that we just rested at her house, before our big night out. We went out for dinner with some of her friends (all of whom are au pairs as well, and most of whom I had met on my first trip). Anyhow, we had a delicious Spanish dinner and then went to this club. We managed to get in for free, which made it even more worth is. The disco was huge with 7 different rooms each with different types of music. The highlight of this were the dancers, which I only hope I am able to put a video of on here... such a laugh!!

Anyhow, we didn´t get home until 5 am, so that meant a nice bit of sleeping in on Saturday. After we pulled ourselves out of bed we headed into Madrid and went to the Tyssan (sure I am spelling that wrong) Museum, and say some great more contemporary works, and followed that up with shopping on Madrid´s well known shopping street, and lunch with a friend. That night we went to good bye dinner for one of Lindsay´s good friends who is also an au pair. Her family bought this great Spanish paella for us and it was such a nice night. Sunday was my last day, so we tried to get up a little earlier, and we went to this huge market called El Rastro. I think everyone got some good deals, and we all left with out being pick pocketed (which is super common in such a crowed place) And just as Lindsay and I were thinking that afterwards, I felt a felt something touching my bag behind me, and sure enough when I turned around to grab my bag, there were two girls with maps out, attempting to make a steal. I guess it was a little initiation to Madrid for me, but still really creepy. Don´t worry they didn´t get anything. We were on our way to the Prado, hugely famous museum in madrid, and once there, we did the fastest tour ever... really, like, went around and saw the five most famous paintings there, scanning others along the way. While, I appreciate the fact that it is really famous, I must admit it´s not really the kind of art that speaks to me... Given more time and energy, i may have stayed longer, but I´m not that sad about it. Then it was off to hang out with another of Lindsay´s friends before i left and flew back to Germany.

It was such a great trip!!! Way less exhausting than my first vacation, and the highlights, were definitely seeing friends, and getting a view of the Spanish lifestyle from an insiders perspective. I am happy to be back in Germany though, I definitely think this lifestyle is a little more my speed, or maybe it´s just what i´m used to... anyhow, onto the next adventure!!

Thursday, March 15, 2007

on the road again

Today I am in Cabra. It is a town about an hour and a half away from Cordoba, where my friend Amanda is teaching English. We went to high school and Davis together, so it's going to be great to catch up. So I've just arrived, but yesterday I was in Granada which was amazing.

I arrived in Granada yesterday at about 12. I was supposed to leave Antequera on the train earlier in the morning, but of course the train was delayed and they didn't know when it was actually going to be there. So I headed back to Carrie's for breakfast and got a later bus to Granada instead. I checked into my hostel, and got started right away with a mini city tour. I did a ton of walking and saw some of the well known old town neighborhoods. I had an afternoon ticket for the Alhambra, which is THE thing to see there, so I walked up the huge hill around 2. The Alhambra is the old Islamic castle type building in Granada, which has been amazingly well kept and restored. My first stop was to the Generalife, which are the old palaces gardens. The views are amazing from up there as are the vegetation and buildings. There is so much detail and symmetry involved, that the whole thing is breath taking. I think the pictures will speak better for themselves when I am able to post them. I went to the Alcazaba, which is the old fortress. There wasn't a whole lot to see, but again the views were great, and you got to see a bit of where and how these people lived. Finally I went to the Palace buildings which are the most spectacular of all. The rooms are symmetrical, and have these amazing designs carved into the walls. The ceilings are intricately carved and put together... again all of this will be better explained in photos. That night I was a bit too pooped to experience the Granada night life, which includes free tapas with a drink order, but I was treated to a homemade Thai dinner by the hostel. Oh sooo good, and it was nice to hang out with some other travelers for a bit. I called it a bit of an early night so I could get up this morning and take one last walk through the cute Granada streets before catching the bus to Cabra.

All in all the trip is going really well, and I'm glad I opted for this. I still can't believe that I am in Spain and seeing so much, and I still have a lot of Madrid to discover this weekend. In my times of awe, I just relish in it when I tell myself "This is why I came to Europe to be an au pair!!!"

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

the adventure continues

I spent my second day in Malaga, and really that was enoug time to see most of the prettier parts of the old town. I made it into the cathedral, and went into a few stores, but managed to not buy anything, yay me. Then I went into the local market with all the fresh produce and meat stands, which i had walked by on Sunday but it was closed. I picked up some fruit, meat, cheese and rolls to have for lunch on the beach than ran to catch the bus. I had asked for a recommendation for good beach from one of the guys working at the hostel, and he told me about one, that was supposed to have a stop on the bus... but i had been on the bus for a while with no sign of this beach and decided my best bet was to just get off and walk down to the cost, at least i could see the water. I didn't find a beach right away, but i sat on a bench and made my sandwich and had a great view of the water. I wandered around a bit afterwards and found a different beach a little further away than the one i was originally going for. I planted myself on a bit of grass and read my book while enjoying the amazing sun and sounds of tiny waves. The rest of my day was pretty lazy, i made my way back to the hostel and hung out on the roof terrace on a hammock and read a bit. Basically just killed some time before catching the bus to Antequera.

The bus to Antequera left at 8pm from Malaga, so i got there at 9 and met up with Carrie. My friend Darci moved to Washington D.C. at the same time as I came to Germany so we had a little goodbye BBQ a couple of weekends before hand. She had some friends from Uni come one of whom was Carrie, who I am currently staying with. She had plans to come to Spain at that time, so we exchanged info, and when i found out I was going to take this trip I got in touch with her. So last night when I arrived, we went out for some traditional Spanish tapas, which were oh, so tasty and just had some time to catch up and exchange about our experiences so far. Then this morning we had some breakfast, which included me eating traditional churros (deep fried dough) dipped in hot chocolate (but so thick, it really looked like a melted chocolate bar) but hey, i'm on vacation right? :-) We then walked around the town a bit, saw the local out door market and did some shopping before meeting up with her friends for lunch. It's the director of the school she teaches English at and her daughter who is 24, and they made us this amazing Andalucian soup thing for lunch. It is raw tomatoes blended with some garlic, pepper, olive oil, vinegar and bread. It is eaten kind of like soup, and you dip a lot of bread in it as well. There were also artichokes, ham, cheese and chocolate fondue involved, so needless to say we were all happy campers! After lunch, Carrie had to go to work, so I walked around town a bit by myself and went up the hill to the castle area, which has some great views of the city. It has been amazing weather still, and so refreshing to be with a friend and resident of the town. It's super nice to be able to vacation but still kind of feel like there are homes along the way. I am soooo happy to be here.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Málaga

YAY!!! another vacation! My host family has taken the week off for a ski holiday in Austria, and while I was grateful for the offer to join them, I decided to take a holiday of my own. I booked my flights before Christmas, so this has been a long time coming. I have friends here that I wanted to see, and it's even better because the south of Spain is having wonderful weather at the moment.

Yesterday I got up at the crack of dawn in Germany, so I could catch the 5,30 S-Bahn from Stuttgart to the airport and make my 7,15 flight. Begin a very long day. But, the flight was fine, and i caught the bus directly into Málaga and found my hostel. I headed out right away to make use of my one day here to see museums and such. A lot of that stuff is closed on Mondays. So I went to the new Picasso Museum, which had some interesting works (155 donated from his daughter-in-law and grandson). But just as amazing was the building that it was in. Such details in the ceilings tiles with influences left over from the Moorish rule of southern Spain. I then did some more walking around and made it to this contemporary art museum, which was free and really great. In fact the temporary exhibit they had was by an artist who just recently had an exhibit in Nurnberg in Germany. I had read about it in a magazine and wanted to go, but never made it, and now i still got to see some of her work... crazy how small a world it is. After that I sat in a plaza and had some lunch, and walked to the Alcazaba, old palace here. It was beautiful and open with a lot of vegetation, and it makes me even more excited to see the Alhambra in Granada. I finally went back to the hostel after all that for a shower and some rest, but went out again for another walk, followed my a movie at the hostel. Finally around 10, I decided to should try to see some of the night life, even if it was by myself on a Sunday night. I really didn't do too much on my own, but i went to a cerveceria (brewery) and had a little beer and calamari. Then back to the hostel, to rest up for my next day.

This morning at breakfast, a girl came to join me at the tabel outside, and ends up she's from Germany, but my german was better than her english, so we talked in German! go figure that it takes me going to another country to practice my German, haha. My impressions of Málaga so far is that it is pretty, and just so different from Germany. It has a ton of palm trees, and narrow street with tall buildings. It is very much a little city on the ground floor, but then there are apartments above all the businesses, which really isn't something i see too much in Germany, though it is no new idea... it is also a different experience to be whistled at and kissing noised at on the street. Yes, this is a Spainish steriotype that exisits, it's just kind of funny that that was what i pictured that made me want to go to Germany, and kind of makes me happy that i am living there. More Málaga to conquere today, the last few sights that are open on Mondays, and then hopefully the beach... when i left Germany it was +9C and upon my arrival in Málaga the temperature read +21C - i love it!

Thursday, March 08, 2007

HAHAHA

It seems like ever since I got here, people have been telling me that I need a German boyfriend to help me speak better German.... yes this is an obvious one, though SO much easier said than done. With my limited knowledge of German, and the fact that most of the time when I am out and about I speak English (i know, not good) it has made this task of a relationship a little difficult. I finally had a talk with my German teacher the other day about how I don´t feel like I am benefiting all that much from the class. I need to speak more, and the whole classroom format of learing isn´t the best for me. She´s been really great about incoporating more talking activities into our lessons, but today, durning our coffee break she says to me, "You know what you need to do to improve your German is come to class, pracitce the grammar and find a German boyfriend" My response was "Genau!!" which means 'exactly' however I eaxplained it´s not something you can just go to the store and pick up, haha. So we had this little dialouge and after the break we are all stitting down again and she tells the whole class that they need to start finding German guys to set me up with!!!!! Oh my god, I have never laughed so hard, or been as much shock in my entire life!! It was hilariuos. She then adds, that the need one guy each for Fernanda and Rabbia too (the two other au pairs in my class) but it was still quite a moment. Finally at the end of class she shakes my hand good bye and says that while we are all out at the museum in Stuttgart on Saturday we can look for my German guy... Oh, Frau Eugenia!

Sunday, March 04, 2007

nicht mein bier

Naturally, every country has it’s own way of saying the same things, here is a wonderful example. In most countries the saying ‘It’s not my thing’ would litterally translate. In German one can literally say this as well ‘es ist nicht mein Ding’. There are; however, different country specific ways of saying this with a little more abstract wording. I believe in the states one might say ‘It’s not my bag of chips’ and who knows how many other expressions there are for this one simple sentence; in Germany the saying is ‘Es ist nicht mein Bier’ literally meaning ‘It’s not my bier’ how German J… I LOVE it!

Thursday, March 01, 2007

cafés, cafés everywhere

So I am sure most of you are aware that Europeans live in a café culture. Meaning that they are everywhere and it is really a way of life for a lot of people. They are frequented by people of all ages and it is just a place to relax and have a cup of coffee. There is no pressure here to finish in lightning speed because others are waiting. As with all European restaurants, the waiters are not paid mostly from tips so there is no rush to turn tables for the maximum wage for one night’s work. Patrons are encouraged to take their time and not be disturbed during the meal, and actually have as little, impersonal contact with the wait staff as possible. Which is sometimes a nice thing and sometimes not. However, back to the cafés… I have joined a gym (fitness studio) here in Germany and one of the first things I noticed was that we have a little lounge area at the entrance where you can buy a cup of coffee and just sit and relax after your work out (which to me seems a little counter productive, but flash back to the quote to live by in another country “it’s not bad it’s just different”) So of course they would have a little café set up in the gym. Not only do the fitness studios support this lifestyle for the members, but also McDonalds had jumped on board as well in their European locations with the McCafe, yes it is italicized on the building. I have not yet been to one of these cafés within the McDonalds (Supersize Me will keep me out of that place for a LONG time) but it just goes to show that it is such a big part of the culture here, that a foreign rum company was persuaded to live up to what it’s customers are used to.

Another aspect of eating and cafes here in Germany specifically is eating outside. I think all Europeans practice this a lot more, but being outside is a way of German life. People go for walks all the time on the weekends, when they are alone, or have company. When the weather is good it is basically unheard of to do anything inside. In terms of dining people eat outside whenever possible. Even when the weather is cold, people like to sit outside and use blankets provided by the restaurant, very interesting. It sure makes sense though, and it is such a nice way to enjoy the environment in which you live. I think sometime in America things are too artificial and stale. Just something to think about and take back…