Thanksgiving

Hey everyone,
I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. We had 12 people altogether for Thanksgiving dinner at our apartment. It was my first one away from my family, and the first one that I cooked most of the main foods. A week previously Christian and I went to Karstadt and ordered a 7kg fresh turkey. The one that came in was actually 8kg (approx 16lbs). When I was prepping the turkey for cooking, I found that they really mean it's fresh, the neck and more than a few of the insides were still there. So removing those was a rather unappetizing adventure.

We had some interesting times cooking the bird. Christian was at work, so at first I had a hard time getting that thing in and out of the oven by myself. You might be wondering, well why would you need to get it in and out? Well, that's because the first time I put it in, I forgot to put the chicken stock in the bottom of the pan so the initial drippings wouldn't burn. After I hoisted it back into the oven, I remembered that I needed to wrap the bottom tray in foil to ensure that the tray wouldn't get drippings and burnt bits on it.
Things got easier when Christian got home, he could help me hoist it in and out of the oven each hour to baste it. I couldn't find a turkey baster in any store that I went into earlier that week (my German teacher didn't even know what one was when I asked if she could tell me the German name so I could ask for it in the store). Apparently, they aren't very common here. Anyway, we were able to use a spoon and a tiny cooking brush to baste it and take out the excess juices each hour. First, it was browning too soon so we covered it tighter with foil, then we took it off, and then saw that it was again browning too soon and put it back on. Overall it was about 4 1/2 hours of cooking. We also made stuffing from scratch, mashed potatoes, and green beans with almond slivers. Our guests brought nice food too, a wonderful appetizer, food from Italy, from Sweden, and a super delicious homemade Bavarian apple pie!

It was a really nice time, and I was very thankful for being able to celebrate the holiday with friends and in a somewhat traditional way. It was sort of hard to explain to the international guests that Thanksgiving is such an important holiday to Americans. Granted, it was originally a holiday shared with the Native Americans whom eventually got a pretty rough deal later on (to put it lightly). However, today it has a deeper meaning. It's one of the only holidays that's not totally wrought with commercialism (I'm not sure if a turkey counts), and its a holiday that every person in the US can celebrate, regardless of religious association, ethnicity, or heritage. It's a time to get together with people you love and with friends. All day and evening, there was that little spark of electricity that I feel on holidays like the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Yes, it's just a day like yesterday was and tomorrow will be, but there's something about knowing that all over the United States, people were doing the same thing I was doing. Getting their food ready and looking forward to the time when everyone gathered together. I had a warm feeling off and on all day, even when things were getting a little hectic, and I took the fastest shower of my life before the guests arrived.

I have a little over two weeks left here in Germany. I really will miss it, and I'm not so much looking forward to getting back into the habit of work and school one right after another this spring semester. However, I'm able to take some classes that I hope I'll enjoy, and maybe I'll keep the hours at work a little lower until the summer since I plan to participate in some clubs on campus (like German club!). I'll miss Christian most of all, of course. We won't have the chance to live together in the same country again for at least a year and a half. If things go according to plan, he'll come and visit Fort Wayne for a couple of weeks in March, and if things go really well, he may stay for awhile in June. But that's all up in the air at the moment.

I think it will be nice to be home, especially for Christmas, but I keep having the feeling that as soon as the holidays are over, I'll be very homesick for Germany again. I know that I'll be able to come back and visit plenty of times, but to have had the opportunity of living a different life in a different culture, through a different language is something you never know you'll get twice.

Ronny and his girlfriend are coming to visit us today and stay the night, so that should be fun. We'll eat sushi and maybe go to a cool bar for awhile afterward. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and you're enjoying the holiday season. Good luck, Barnes and Noble people with retail and the crazies that come with it! Talk to you soon :)

Just a Passive Reminder

You know who you are.

U2

Let's see, what can Berlin have to really celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall?

I know! We should have a free U2 concert outside in front of the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the Berlin wall's demise! Great start, and let's see... we'll to build a huge wall around the concert so that people without tickets can't get in or see the band. That wouldn't be reminiscent of any oppression of that time would it?


Berliners Outraged Over Wall Blocking Free U2 Concert


Thanks Bono...

What? So Soon?

Hello again!

This is the shortest time I've had between posts! I've had a really good/ productive day today and I'm listening to Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, so I'm feeling pretty good. It's been awhile since I've had a good day mixed with productivity and I gotta say it's a nice change to have one of those thrown into the mix sometimes. Today I successfully registered online for the two classes that I really really wanted to take this semester! I wasn't allowed to register until 8am Indiana time (2pm here), so when German class was out at 1.30, I went straight to the computer lab to make sure I would be able to register the SECOND that I could because one of the classes (the one I've been trying to get into for every semester for 2 years) had only 2 free spots left today. And I made it! Huzzah! The other class is with my favorite professor. Also, I'm excited about taking my first online class. It's a writing course, therefore I think it's pretty perfect for me to take online, since I'll only have to go to the professor if I have serious questions and the other questions can be answered through email. That leaves enough room to possibly take an extra class this semester or otherwise work a little more. But we'll see since the courses I have are definitely getting more challenging.

The other productive thing is that I'm now in a slightly more advanced class at GLS, and so far, really enjoy it. There was a little bit of a terrifying mix up this morning in the first half of classes, since they accidentally initially place me in a class an entire level higher than I thought, and I felt pretty embarrassed since everyone in my class and the teacher pretty much knew I was in way over my capabilities... anyway, the class I have now seems to be filled with pretty interesting people and the one teacher that I met today was very nice, though she is a little strict (which is good!).

Ok, I wanted to put up some pictures from Potsdam. Basically, my parents and I went to San Souci Palace. The palace, and the "guest" palace, and the grounds in general were absolutely beautiful. And HUGE. To do the entire tour of everything on the grounds, gardens, and both palaces would have taken approximately 4 hours. Since there are so many pictures, I'm going to give you the LINK to my flickr account and you can browse through them when you want.