Deutschland's Top Chef

Sidetrack from Christmas break...

I decided I was watching too much American TV online during the day, so I started turning on the regular TV set while I eat lunch to try for a bit of listening practice, and to see what daytime television auf Deutsch was like. There are lots and lots of stations that are available, but for a reason explained to me by my landlord but I didn't quite understand at the time, I only get about 9 of them. Most of them have some sort of Jersey Shore-type show that runs all the time, but for a few hours starting around 2pm at least one channel has two cooking competition shows, in which people make a dish or a complete meal and try to stay on the show for another day. Both are hosted by colorful chefs who run around between guests, stealing bites and offering advice, or demonstrating some quick-and-easy recipe to try at home.

Since living alone means cooking for yourself for every meal, I've amassed a small collection of favorites. Breakfast is some sort of müsli, which is just a type of cereal that always seems to have some kind of oats in it. I always just get the cheapest one on the shelf since it's reliable and actually not too bad. It has dry oats, a little bit of some kind of crunchy thing, and bits of real chocolate. With milk or plain yogurt, it's not bad. And at 5:50 in the morning it's the best I can do.

Lunch is also fairly simple. Usually it's a sandwich with a few pieces of lunchmeat. Lately I've been fancy and toast it, spread with pesto on one side and melt slices of gouda on top.

Dinner is always a variation on chicken breasts, various types of pasta and tortellini, rice, or meal-in-a-bag mixes. I've also tried my hand at making Spätzle (pronounced "sh-petz-luh), which is delicious but time-consuming.

Here's a selection of what I've managed. They all look really greasy but that's just because I haven't figured out how to soften my flash to keep it from reflecting so harshly off the food.

Müsli. Yes that's a sheep in my bowl.

Greek salad

Something called "Maultaschen," which are a lot
like potstickers. With chicken and red peppers.

Spaghetti with pesto, chicken, onions, and peppers.

Käsespätzle, plain and with pesto and tomato sauce.

Tortellini with chicken and pesto

Spaghetti with actually a lot of chicken. More like
chicken with a garnish of spaghetti.

More tortellini with pesto and tomato sauces and leftover
feta cheese.

Homemade teriyaki chicken with mixed veggies and

stovetop rice.

Okay, here's the thing about stovetop rice. I'll admit, I'm Asian, so you might think that being able to cook rice is like being good at math - it just comes with the territory. Actually, that's kind of true. Not every Asian is good at math. I'm not good at stovetop rice. I like love rice so it's kind of depressing to keep making rice that turns out either too soggy or that is crunchier than a gravel driveway. I'm used to having a rice cooker that makes perfect, fluffy rice every time. I'm also used to cooking more than 1 portion at a time, which also makes a big difference when you only need enough rice to barely cover the bottom of the pan. It's harder to get the temperature and simmering just so, so that it boils and then steams without burning or just soaking. If you do the same method for 4 people, it's much easier because the layer of rice is thicker and it magically helps manage the boiling/simmering/not burning.

Maybe I just need to find a smaller pan. Or maybe I'll somehow manage to perfect the art of rice cooking before I come home. Maybe with the help of this chart, I'll figure it out.

Christmas in Germany - Traveling with Margaret, Part I

I'd make this all one post, but with all the pictures it would be ridiculously long and nobody would read the whole thing.

On December 26th, my entire family checked out of our hostel in Frankfurt and took the train to the Frankfurt airport, where my mom and dad hopped on a plane for a short ride across the ocean back to the Pacific Northwest. However, Margaret and I bought ourselves our first train tickets to start our own adventure - an unbelievable two weeks running around Germany. First stop: Worms.

Christmas in Germany - My family comes to visit!

Almost exactly one month ago, my family arrived in Germany. I think we all lucked out by the fact that they arrived on a Wednesday, which is one of my days off from school. Since they arrived in Frankfurt, I figured I could meet them there and then we'd spend the day walking around the Weihnachtsmarkt, or Christmas market, in downtown Frankfurt.

Before they left home, we'd arranged a meeting point in the airport so that we could find each other. It worked perfectly! And man, seeing them for the first time since last summer was such a great feeling! So once we were all together, we headed out from the airport to the Hauptbahnhof to stash their luggage in some of the 24-hour lockers most big stations have. After spending several minutes trying to figure out how to shove several suitcases and carry-ons into three lockers, we finally headed off to the market. First problem: nobody had written down where the market actually was. Everyone had read about them, but without writing down directions. So I took a guess as to where it would be, and after I mentioned the place and the trains we could take to get there, everyone agreed that it was probably right.

The market was good times. We got some food and, of course, some Glühwein. Let me just say that crepes with Nutella and bananas are the way to go. I've had other crepes, like with applesauce and other things, but nothing has reached the level of Nutella with bananas. We also started our collection of Glühwein cups with some quality Frankfurt mugs.

We did a bit of walking around outside of the market too, but it was raining off and on with scattered downpours, so it wasn't the best day for it. But we had a great day, and caught our train home with no problems, except a 20 minute delay that meant we missed our scheduled transfer. I managed to catch a Deutsche Bahn worker and got her to validate our passes in time to run to catch a train leaving the station two minutes after we arrived there. Basically, the train stuff all day was really complicated and I don't think they would've arrived in Cologne unless I met them. The train stations in Frankfurt are super complicated and the network of trains is confusing, plus with tons of luggage and being tired, I think it would've been overwhelming. I was stressed trying to figure things out and I actually slept the night before!

The next week and a half were awesome. We took day trips to Aachen and Düsseldorf to see a few things, check out the various Christmas markets, and add to our growing collection of Glühwein mugs. Each city, and sometimes each market if there are several in a city, has its own unique mug that has a special picture or design on it, and usually the year. Some places had mugs from years past, and it took us a long time to figure out how to get the current year's mug. We ended up buying several drinks, from hot chocolate to "kinderpunsch" to Glühwein, to try and get the 2011 mugs. Toward the end of the two weeks, we figured out that you can ask to trade mugs for a clean, current mug. That would've been so much easier to know sooner, but probably not as fun.

I still had school, so for several days I left the house before everyone got up. Since they were staying with me in my itty-bitty apartment, it made moving around a bit tricky. With two cots and an extra mattress on the floor, there was just enough room between beds to squeeze through.

When I got home, they'd have folded up the cots and cleared out all the floor space, and we'd make lunch together. Some days they'd take off before I got home and would spend the day in Cologne checking out different things, like the Dom or other various churches, and of course the Christmas markets. Sometimes I'd meet them downtown, and other days I'd just head home and they'd be back not too long after. I ended up buying them a cheap phone since I had an extra SIM card, so meeting up with them wasn't a problem.

I think my favorite part about having them here was just the fact that I had someone to sit around my apartment with. It was so nice to come home and have somebody to chat with, cook and eat with, play cards or even just watch tv with. Plus, I didn't have to pay for groceries! Total win. But it was a new experience for me to cook dinner for four. I'd gotten used to estimating what I could eat, but figuring out how much would be enough for four people with different appetites was a bit of an adventure. Of course, my dad wanted some German potato chips and other snacks, so we never went hungry, that's for sure!

After the last school day before break, we took off for Koblenz, a town about halfway between Cologne and Frankfurt. I'd booked our stay in a DJH hostel, which are practically everywhere and reliably clean and include breakfast, but I hadn't really looked at the distance between the train station and the hostel. It turned out to be a half-hour walk to the other side of the city, and up a mountain. The hostel was actually part of an old castle. But with all the luggage we brought (my folks' stuff, including all the things we bought as well as an obscene amount of mugs - I can't believe they fit everything in so easily! and my backpack for the next part of my Christmas journey) it was a trek and a half. We lucked out by discovering there was a nifty lift that you could take from the bottom of the mountain up to the castle.

The castle at the top is the DJH hostel in Koblenz.
Coolest place ever.

After checking in, we headed out for the evening to explore the city and see a few of the major sights. This time, we took a bus back to the downtown area. We walked along the river, through the old town, and found someplace for dinner. This was where I introduced my family to the wondrous Döner. None of us were very hungry, so we got two to share; one with veal, one with chicken. We passed the two round and round so everyone could sample both. The flavors are quite different, but both are absolutely delicious.

At the Deutsches Eck, the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers.

We walked around a little more after dinner but it was pretty cold, so we headed back around 9:00. We had some time in the morning before our train, so we got to see a few things in the daylight as well.

Then we were off to Frankfurt. We stayed at the same place Isabel and I had stayed at when we first got to Germany, since the location is great and prices reasonable. We celebrated Christmas here, and it was much different than most Christmases I've experienced in the past. It didn't feel like Christmas usually does. There wasn't a tree, I wasn't at home, and a lot of the familiar things I'm used to doing around the Christmas season just weren't there. Instead, we did things differently. We talked and read and played cards (which are all normal, I guess) and played cards and drank German beer (which is not that normal) and went on long walks all over the city. On Christmas eve, or "Heiligabend," we were out walking along the Main River when we noticed tons of people gathering on the footbridges that go over the river. We decided to stick around to see what was happening. We ended up standing on the riverbank next to a group of four people who seemed to know what was going on, so I went over to ask them what everybody was doing. They told me that on Heiligabend at 5:00, all the church bells in the city ring together. People like to stand on the bridges because they can hear the different bells equally without being overpowered by a specific church that's too close. It ended up that they had brought a flask of plum schnapps with them to keep warm, and they offered me some. I was kind of cold, it sounded good, and it was Christmas. I thought it would be bad form to turn it down, so I said yes. And you know what? It was delicious. I ended up chatting with them for a few minutes, and got to hear about a few of their kids who lived in the States or had been to the states. They also told me about different things or buildings in Frankfurt too. My favorite piece of information they gave me that I hadn't known before was that sometimes Frankfurt is referred to as "Mainhattan," a sort of word-play on Manhattan and the Main River since Frankfurt could be compared to New York as a major economic center of Germany.

The Christmas markets may be over and no Glühwein to be bought,
but that doesn't mean you can't bring your own wine and tables to the
marketplace and keep the party going!

Mom gets too close to the animals in the Japanese Garden

Dad makes the mystical beast angry

Occupy Frankfurt. Good location right next to the European
Central Bank

To sum up this part of Christmas break: having my family here was probably the best gift I could have asked for this year. After spending so much time alone in the first few months, having a part of home here with me was a welcome change. I loved being able to show them what my life is like here and see some new sights with them!

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and on the 26th, my folks headed home. Margaret and I dropped them off at the Frankfurt airport before beginning our own crazy adventure. Check it out in my next post.

Briefly

My family is here! I picked them up last Wednesday in Frankfurt since I had the day off from school. We were able to check out the Weihnachtsmarkt there before catching our train back.

I'll say more later, but it is so fun to have them all here! We are all sleeping in my one-room apartment. Needless to say it's cozy with two cots and an extra mattress on the floor. You really have to be careful where you step at night. But we have had a great time just hanging out and playing games (I am SO good at Boggle, it's kind of sad) and visiting the Weihnachtsmärkte in Aachen and Düsseldorf. Today I had to do some laundry and do the readings for my university class, so the fam is on their own exploring Cologne.

I've been addicted to a new artist lately that my friend Tom recommended, so I thought I'd pass it along...

November

November, the third month of this crazy adventure. Also the busiest by far of the three months. It seems like almost every weekend there was something. Pretty fantastic. The past several months have been so unlike the last three years of having just a few minutes between school, work, and activities that I sort of felt like I was doing something wrong. So to have things to fill up some of that extra time was really nice.

First - a day trip with Robert to Aachen and the place called the "Dreiländerecke," or the "Three Country Corner," where Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium all meet. First, in Aachen we visited the cathedral. I'm pretty sure it is the most beautiful church I've been to. There are unbelievable mosaics depicting different saints, apostles, and just patterns decorating every single arch, curve, and wall. Everything is sparkly and brilliantly colored. The stained glass windows are incredible. Worth a trip.

We spent a little bit of time walking through the pedestrian areas full of shops and little fountains or sculptures, where we found this slightly creepy yet uniquely interactive fountain. Each of the several figures had moveable joints, so you could bend them into really odd poses.

But the main attraction for us on this particular day to the far eastern reaches of Germany was the Dreiländerecke, or the three-country corner where Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands meet. It turned into a bit more of a safari than the half-hour bus ride and five-minute walk we had imagined it to be. It was actually more like a half-hour bus ride, and a half-hour hike along a dirt road and trail through a forest to get to the top of the hill. But it was worth the effort. Just before we reached the official corner, we climbed an observation tower to check out the view.

Semi-creepy, yet pretty forest. Robert: "this is just like those
movies where the hikers get lost and then killed by the
serial killer!" *quote may or may not be exactly accurate,
but the gist is the same.

Some would say this is the best view of all...

We kept going. Just another 20 minutes and we were there! It was glorious. There were snacks!

Practicing for the main event...see below

On the ground there are lines to mark the national boundaries.
I totally jumped over Belgium.

I'm playing in the Big Band and Wind Band with Nicolaus Cusanus Gymnasium, the school I work at. The week after our trip to the Dreiländerecke, I got to go on the bands' 3-day retreat. We took a bus out to a hostel in a small town about an hour northeast of Bergisch Gladbach, where we slept, ate, and rehearsed Wednesday through Friday. It was a great opportunity to get to know some more students and for them to sort of get used to me as well. I discovered they play a card game they call "Arschloch," or "Asshole" in English, but my family plays it too! Except we call it Slimeball. I spent a few hours playing with them one evening, and it was fun to just sit around with some students and a few teachers. I roomed with a music teacher from NCG, whose class I sit in on every Friday, and learned that he played trombone in the Deutscher Oper in Berlin for a few years before he became a teacher! It isn't every day that you get to meet a professional musician of that level who is now teaching.

The  next weekend, I went to Düsseldorf for a meeting of all the foreign language assistants working in the Cologne-Düsseldorf area. That's roughly half or a bit more of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and it includes assistants from Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, China, etc., so there were lots of us there. It was especially nice to see some people from the Fulbright program that I had only seen once since orientation. I also enjoyed meeting several other assistants in Cologne, and learn that there are a few that actually live pretty close to me.

Apart from having lots of opportunities to chat with other assistants, we got a tour of the NRW government building, got to visit a museum about the Ruhr region, the Weihnachtsmarkt in the Altstadt of the city, and several other things that gave us the chance to learn and see more of the region we all work so close to.

Other things I did this month:

• Played in the Big Band/Wind Band concert.
• Went skiing at an indoor, one-run "Skihalle."
• Taught a lesson in a 13th grade class.
• Celebrated Thanksgiving by buying a counter-top oven and baking a pizza.

Travels

Man, a two-week fall break is pretty sweet! It gave me lots of time to stay up until the wee hours of the morning and sleep in until noon if I wanted to. That's quite a change from having to get up at 5:45.  I was fortunate in a way to have my university class cancelled for the same two weeks, so I had absolutely no obligations to worry about during the break.

My original plan was to spend the entire two weeks just traveling around Germany, spending a day or two in a city before moving on. That means spending a lot of money and planning well in advance where I wanted to go, neither of which I was prepared to do. So instead, I chose two cities in an area of Germany I had never been to and spend 5 days checking them out.

First stop: Lübeck, about 5 hours north of Cologne in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Welcoming Oktober

Well, I've been in Germany for over a month now. So much has happened! I've been through orientation, where I was "trained" to teach English to students, I found an apartment, I have a consistent work schedule, I've taught three lessons and sat in on or helped in countless more, I'm officially a student at the Universität zu Köln, I've seen the view from the top of the Cologne cathedral, I've visited Beethoven's house, attended a concert celebrating Beethoven, and as of two weeks ago, I've spent a weekend in Bayern and experienced Oktoberfest.