Cloudy with a chance of pie

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week, surprisingly I've been a bit busy! I also have not done much exploring, the weather has been terrible. I should be used to this after seven years of practice in Seattle, but somehow the rain and the grey and wind are all getting to me. (I should also have good rain shoes, and yet...) I'm not sure if I'm bothered more because I know Zoli is someplace warm and sunny - I'll know the answer if my weather dissatisfaction magically disappears in a week.

Saturday I was invited to go on an excursion down the Elbe - we took two ferries to get to Teufelsbrück and then walked back on a path along the Elbe. Unfortunately I only took one photo the entire trip, on the first ferry before we went inside to avoid getting soaked.


The tide was high while we were walking, there were huge container ships on the river and it was obvious that it would be a lovely walk if the weather cooperated. Regardless, it was a lot of fun and much of the conversation was in German (very, very good for my listening comprehension, though I didn't say much). We didn't walk quite all the way back because of the rain, but the trip ended with us making waffles (topped with sour cherries and whipped cream), which apparently is a fairly common thing to do as an afternoon snack with friends. Given that I am an unrepentant waffle-lover, I was very pleased. Also pleasing: I was able to follow most of the German waffle-eating conversation and got some recommendations for nice cafés close to my apartment.


Other than working on my fellowship application I have been preparing a bit for Thanksgiving. I will have awesome (!!!) visitors and we're taking the train down to Strasbourg to celebrate with friends there. I am bringing pies and there's no canned pumpkin to be found here, so I roasted some using these instructions and half of a 2 kg pumpkin. (I'm going to use a different pie recipe however, I will let you know how it goes once it's made.)


I also bought myself someone to talk to while Zoli is gone.

So far the conversations have been rather one-sided but I have high hopes.

Catharsis

I've had a lot of conversations in the past week about the results of the election, both with people in the states and with Germans here. The reactions are much the same, primarily relieved giddiness - I expected that from the Americans, but it's both embarassing and gratifying that the world is as pleased with our electorate as I am.

I went to bed at 11:30 (5:30 EST) on election night due to a headache. (I blame Wolf Blitzer and the stupid CNN holograms, good lord that was annoying.) I woke up at 3:30 am, got online, turned on the TV with the sound really low and started emailing Zoli updates of the state-by-state results. It was looking good, but I was holding my breath until it was pretty darn sure. I stayed up until 5am when they called California for Obama, and oh man was it worth it. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but it was a surprisingly emotional moment. This is both the first time that the presidential candidate I voted for won (the electoral vote anyway) and that I voted for someone I supported wholeheartedly. On CNN they were showing the huge crowd in Grant Park, with people waving American flags - and sitting in my PJs on my living room floor, an ocean and half a continent away I felt really, really proud.

I was surprised at how many German networks were covering the election live. I guess they didn't have anything more interesting to show at 4am, but most of the networks had correspondents in the US, either in Chicago or in Washington D.C., and they were all so excited. The next evening several networks had biographical programs on Obama, as well as programs chronicling the campaign. My favorite response from a German so far was that of my soon-to-be boss - he congratulated me when I saw him on Wednesday, and I said that I was very happy with the outcome. He responded by saying "We're all very happy!" (He also asked me some questions about the electoral college and (thanks to AP American History) I was actually able to answer them!) So - it was quite the eventful week. Now I feel that I can actually take a breath and not flinch quite as much when I show my passport at the bank or immigration.

My week was quite relaxing after that, with time to make cookies to fuel a scrabble game

and the concentration to get some good work done on my fellowship application. I went to the market as usual on Saturday and bought a few spices I was missing.

I don't know if it was spillover excitement from the election or what, but I went a bit overboard in the fruit-purchasing department.


Some of this is slated for applesauce, the Hokkaido pumpkin will become soup and a practice pumpkin pie, but the rest - I may have to get creative.

Election day jitters

Since we arrived here over a month ago I have been surprised at how much press the US election gets here. Every day the German newspapers I looked at had something about it, often on the front page, and the radio news reports would often have a short blurb with the latest updates. Today, the first thing mentioned on the radio news breaks has been the US election. Right now on many of the German TV stations they're reporting the election. They even have reporters in the US to cover it! I think it's really telling how the fixation on this decision extends as far as it does outside the US.

I had an interesting conversation with some colleagues about the election, and they were primarily mystified that people in the US don't seem to care what the rest of the world thinks of them. That, and they were amazed by the length of the campaign. A Brit in my lab pointed out that on the BBC news homepage there's a corner devoted to the US election above the other UK and world news.

I'm also anxious to see the results of the election in Washington state. The governor's race there is extremely important and there are several propositions that are significant as well. (Speaking of Washington, the New York Times had an article about the two neighborhoods where I lived in Seattle, in case you're curious. It made me homesick.)

I'm not sure how late I'll be able to stay up watching CNN - the first east coast polls don't close until 1am here. But I have a beer, some brownies, popcorn and a cabbage pie, so hopefully they will see me through a few of the poll closures.


Does anyone remember those Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas and how they were a reward for Book-It in elementary school? (They apparently still are.) I loved those things even though (as my mother pointed out) they were not at all cost-effective. While I was making the pie (I guess it's really a galette) it reminded me of those pizzas. There's something about having a miniature version of a food that you don't have to share with anyone else.


I have to say that now I'd take a personal cabbage pie over one of those pizzas, but that probably wasn't true when I was eight. Happy election day everyone. May you have your own personal cabbage pie (or pan pizza) to see you through the evening!

Numbers and letters

One of the few things I can say consistently and comprehensibly in German are my numbers and letters. I attribute this entirely to my sister Alisha. When I was in fourth or fifth grade and she was in high school she decided to run an after-school German class at my elementary school. I honestly don't remember how many classes we had or how often it was. I do remember recruiting a few of my friends to take it with me, so there were maybe five or six of us total.

Alisha and a friend of hers taught us some very basic German, including the alphabet and some numbers. Those are really the only things I remember specifically from that class (with the exception of "Du bist ein Dumbkopf," which we all thought was the most hilarious insult EVER and used it regularly on the playground). But numbers and letters are the things I can reliably say and understand even without having thought much about it since taking German in high school. It's quite useful because people have a hell of a time spelling my first name on their own so I find myself spelling it fairly often. The numbers certainly come in handy at the market where there usually isn't a cash register display I can use to cheat. I might not understand the first time they ask if I want all my vegetables in the same bag, but I definitely understand how much I need to pay. (Except 85, for some reason 85 has been screwing me up recently.)

I've noticed that my listening comprehension is already getting better. At the market on Saturday I was actually able to understand a (very basic) conversation going on in line behind me. (I also heard someone speaking English which was a first at that market.) That really is one of the worst parts of not understanding German, my ability to eavesdrop is severely compromised unless someone is spelling out a word. I have yet to find a good use for "Du bist ein Dumbkopf" but I'm sure I'll have the chance eventually.