A crazy cooking expedition, A goose egg on my head, and ADORABLE German children!!

Hello reader!! I'm sorry that I've left you hanging. There have been a million reasons why I haven't written, but the important thing is that I'm writing now. So my last post about my life was on October 14, but I'm not going to give you a play by play, because during the Autumn Holiday's my life was pretty much the same, so I'll fill you in on the exciting things.

So I desperately wanted to make a pumpkin pie, because this is the first Thanksgiving where I've missed out on that. So I got a list of things together for a few meals and the pumpkin pie for my host father to buy. Well it turns out that you can't buy canned pumpkin here or pie crusts which are already made. The pie crust thing wasn't a huge deal, because it isn't all that hard to make, but I was a bit nervous about making pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin. Not to mention that it was the family's only pumpkin from my host mother's mother. OH BOY, so I was a bit nervous, but hey it was going to be an adventure. As it turned out Jonas was the one who bought groceries, I'd like to think that it's because he likes my cooking, but it probably was just a coincedence. Hahaha.

So I started my ridiculously crazy pumpkin pie mission at 2:30 on October 16th. I also cooked some pork burritos that evening so I ended up being in the kitchen from 2:30 to 7:15 with a break of 20 minutes with Anton. (Remember reader no one is forcing me to do this, I wanted to, so I'm not telling you the time for pity. It was a great time!) It was nice because I was rocking out to my music, because I had the house to myself. So I prepared the pumpkin, microwaved the pumpkin, made a pie crust, pureed the pumpkin, made the pumpkin filling, and finally cooked the pumpkin pie. Then I made supper and home made whip cream! I also made the pumpkin pie with fresh ginger not powdered ginger.

So when we sat down to eat I was soooooo nervous about what they'd think about the food, but mostly about the pumpkin pie. I know I shouldn't be, but I completely, totally was. Lutz knew I was, so he told me that if it was bad he'd tell me or if it was good he would also tell me. Maybe I should have been a bit shocked by that, because I don't think that would happen in Canada. I mean if a guest makes supper, no one complains even if it's awful. Well maybe some people would, but most people wouldn't. However, I wasn't shocked, but deeply appreciative.

I come from a family which is very honest and straight with each other. I never have to worry about my parents sugar coating things. I'm told how it is, so honesty is a trait I really appreciate. So I believed him when he told me it was good. I knew he wasn't just saying that.

Marion had never tried pumpkin pie before, so I was a bit nervous that I would give her the wrong impression about it. However, I took my first bite and if my mouth wasn't full of pumpkin pie I would have sighed in relief. It tasted fine. A bit different than usual, but OF COURSE it would be. We don't make it from a real pumpkin, or with fresh ginger at home. Marion and Lutz liked it so I was quite pleased. It was a slice of home and I ended up having a few slices over the next few days. YYYUUUUMMMM!!

While I was making super Jonas came in and looked at all the food rather longingly. He was going to visit a friend in the hospital so he'd be missing supper. I told him not to worry, because I had made way more than Lutz, Marion, and I could eat by ourselves. He seemed quite happy when I told him that. I left 3 Burritos in the oven for him. The next morning....they were all gone. I wasn't surprised.

That evening I watched the most EXCELLENT German film ever. It's called KeinOhrHasen which literally translates to NoEarsRabbit. It is the most hilarious film. I watched it with English subtitles, but I'm starting to catch more of the German. Not enough to go without subtitles, but enough to make me quite happy. Anywho this film is HILARIOUS. If you can find it in Lethbridge watch it, if you can't seriously order it over EBAY or something. Seriously! It's a great film for guys or girls.

The next day I tried sketching and painting a bit. I couldn't believe the whole afternoon had gone by while I was up in my room. I sketched some apples and some lemons which weren't half bad. Then I painted some cartoony faces which are kind of silly, but I like them. The colours are goofy, because I was working with water colours and didn't mix any new colours.

On Saturday Lutz and I went to another city to help his sister move. He asked me if I wanted to and I said sure. Why not?? Like seriously, why not?? As an exchange student you have no idea what could be funner than you expect so I said sure. Stephan was there, so I was able to talk to him a lot. I helped some, but as it turned out there were a ton of people and most of the things they ended up needing help with was moving heavy items. I'm not quite physically cut out for that!!!

There was some good food there, so I experienced some more German food. They've had Christmas goodies in the stores for at least a month now. Lutz keeps bringing some home for me to try. So I have now figured out which things I like and which things I'm not as fond of. There were more German Christmas sweets here to sample. I thought of Tannis and Faye when I had Peppernut cookies.

On Sunday I had a meeting with the exchange kids who I haven't seen since August. It was only my district, so it was good, but in some ways a little sad. I chummed up more with a group of girls in the other district. I won't see them until the Spring. Too bad...but I got some awesome new pins and stuff for my blazer. I'll have to take some more pictures. It is looking so SWEET! I also got to meet a few exchange kids who have been here since January and will leave in January. Most countries send their students in the summer, but some send them in January. (It has to do with when their schooling ends.)

So we hung out together for awhile, and then answered questions about our countries for potential exchange students. Most of the German kids want to go to South America so they didn't talk to me too much. So there were maybe 5 or 6 who were interested in Canada. There were probably 40 potential kids there at the very least.

I communicated all in German that day. That was AMAZING. Sometimes people would have to explain to me a word in English that I didn't understand, but I was able to understand and communicate a fair bit. I was sooo proud. I definetly have a ways to go especially grammatically, but I am starting to get somewhere! Finally!! My family called that evening when I got home so that was really nice.

Monday was my first day of Prakticum. All of the students in my Grade have a job shadow for 2 weeks called Prakticum. So instead of staying home for those two weeks, because there would be no classes at school Theresa's mother offered for me to come with her as my Prakticum. She works in an Elementary School. Her class is filled with 12 students who for one reason or another aren't ready to go to Kindergarten. So I am only at school for the mornings and I have my afternoons free. So this is quite nice.

The kids are soooo sweet! Theresa's mom, known as Frau Streube, had to do some photocopying before class started so I stayed in her room to look around. So I was looking at this and at that. I saw a puppet of Hitler amongst the fairytale puppets. I was a little bit stunned, but then I realized that even though these kids were young they would hear about the World Wars and that they would still even be branded for his, Hitler's, crimes. Which of course is crazy. It's been sooo long, but it hasn't been forgotten. I've talked to people who've said that their tour bus was egged in England because it was identifyably German and others who have been treated really poorly when they have travelled to France when the people there found out they were German. It's good not to forget, but that's not right or fair. These people aren't the ones who commited these crimes, so why are people still punishing them?

As I was looking at German children's books the bell rang and the children came inside. They saw me and asked, "Where is Frau Streube." I told them that she was here today. Then they all started laughing. I definetly have an accent. I didn't take it personally. (People lately keep telling me how cute my accent is...well cute isn't what I'm aiming for, but OK! Lol.)

Then they started chanting Frau Streube and pounding their little fists on their desk. CUTE! Then she arrived and they were satisfied. We played a lot of games, but all of the games in the room are educational so it is good for the kids. We also celebrated one of the kids birthday's. All of the kids coloured a picture for him and Frau Streube had a present for him as well as candels. We all sang Happy Birthday in English and he tried unsuccessfully to blow out his candels. It took him a few tries, but he finally managed it.

Frau Streube also introduced me and told them that they could help me with my German and I could help them with their English. It was sooo cute, because at play time a girl wanted me to play the game Memory with her. So we played that with a few other kids. Then a few of the boys brought over two huge baskets of plastic food and wanted to know the names for all of them in English. CUTE!!!

When I got up to help a boy with something I hit my head on the ceiling. (The ceiling slants down in that place. Child friendly, but by no means adult friendly.) When I got home I realized I had a goose egg on my head. OOOCHHHH!

Frau Streube had meetings in the afternoon so she arranged for me to tour the city (14 000 people) with another girl who was taking her Prakticum at the school. I actually knew of her, because she is in a few of my classes. However, we had never spoken so it was nice. We ate donners, talked (all in German), walked around the city, that kind of thing. Then Frau Streube took me back to Oberellenbach.

Tuesday was Prakticum Day 2. We played games, did all sorts of exercises, and many of the kids wanted me to play. It was really adorable. I also helped mark their homework, which took like 10 seconds a sheet for me! I also gave them cute little stamps if they did it all right!

That evening Marion brought home a batch of new movies for me to look at. A few of them are German kids films. Excellent! The vocabulary might be easy enough for me not to need subtitles. The words the kids at the school use I know, but have a difficult time understanding because they don't speak clearly or pronunciate very well. That evening before going to bed my throat was starting to hurt. A few of the little kids at school are sick and none of my family is so I think I know who the culprits are! That's okay, I forgive them, just because they are soooo cute!

I had a lot of trouble sleeping during the morning and I woke up a bit sick. My head was banging and my throat was sore. Other than that I was okay. I'm glad that my stomach was alright. So it was annoying, but manageable. I didn't have to go to my Prakticum, because Frau Streube had the day off. Twice a week another teacher teaches her class. One day she gets off completely and the other day she teaches other teachers how to teach.

So I had a lazy day I figured out what little Canadian presents I can give the kids and some things for the teacher. I also figured out some farewell gifts for my host parents and some gifts for a few girls that I had to miss their parties, because I was away in Southern Germany. I might also have to miss Theresa's birthday, because I'm pretty sure that's the weekend I am gone on the Drama trip. So I've been invited to 4 and I've only been able to go to 1. It's not that I'm usually crazy busy, they just happened to shedule it on the few evenings that I was. It's really too bad.

I called it a night early and that brings me to today. I didn't have to go to my Prakticum, because today is the day that Frau Streube teaches other teachers. She figured that the vocabulary would be too specialized for me to understand, so it would be quite boring. However this was OK. I slept in, went for a run (I've been really good about keeping that up), and then I did a few random things before Marion came home for lunch. We ate together and she drove me into Rotenburg, because I had drama that day at school. (My grade is the only one that has Prakticum, so school is still running.)

So then I had an hour to kill. So I stayed at her shop. Her shop is right beside this cool second hand shop. I ended up finding a shirt there. It is really cool looking! I would have loved to buy another one, but it was too big for me. SOOOO COOL. Then I dropped into the grocery store on my way to the school. I picked up some chocolate bars to attach to a few of the Birthday presents I made up yesterday. While I was there, one of the girls from Drama approached me. She told me that Drama was cancelled. OH MAN!

So I took the bus home and had a good conversation with another girl who is also in my Drama class and is a potential Rotary Exchange Student. I was really happy with myself, because I understood most of what she said. Once at home I went for a nice long walk with Anton. He was exstatic to get out! To top it off there was a clear blue sky. I almost died of happiness. I found myself smiling a lot to myself while I was walking. Even though Drama was cancelled it had been a really good day.

Then I came home and made supper and Lutz enlisted Jonas to help me. So I've made pulled pork and it will be done in the next 5 minutes. Everyone is super hungry, but I got home late to start it. The other meal would have taken longer so I figured we'd just have to make do. I love pulled pork, it is a family favourite. I hope it goes over well! Jonas was thrilled to see how much meat there was. Well it's ready now, so I need to go. Until next time reader. =)