The Challenges of Being an American in Germany

As I’m sure all of you can imagine, moving to a foreign country has its challenges – new language, feeling like an idiot all the time, annoying bureaucracy, homesickness, a wardrobe that doesn’t really cut it, etc etc etc.  The list goes on!  Today, however, is about the culinary challenges:

I’m getting really bored of the beer here.  Ok, Germany has great beer - and they are extremely proud of it and ALL Germans laugh at me when I say I miss American beer.  However, a rotating “diet” of just Pils and Hefeweizens is getting a little old…I would kill for some Schlafly Pumpkin, or an APA, or a Vanilla Porter…the list goes on.  I haven’t even found an Irish bar in Detmold where I can get a Guinness!!  Anyways...I think this indicates I’m having a pretty good year here, if my idea of a problem is the non-extensive beer options. 

Another “problem” I ran into lately was baking chocolate chip cookies here.  Something that I could do in my sleep in the States became a full-on project here in Germany.  Here are the steps:

(1) Research “baking soda in Germany” to come up with the right translation/brand name of something that will function like baking soda

(2) Spend about an hour at the grocery story perusing the baking section, to finally settle upon some weird powdery stuff that’s labeled “Vanille” and two different types of brown sugar that are clearly both not quite right

(4) Spend a good 15 minutes hacking up a semi-sweet chocolate bar into something resembling chocolate-chip sized pieces

(3) Preheat the oven, ie, pull up one of those online translators for temperatures and things like “cups to mLs”

(4) Measure out very in-exactly the supposed metric amounts of flour, sugar, etc etc

(5) Be very concerned when the vanilla-powder-stuff doesn’t appear to dissolve into the mix well, and when the consistency of the dough is quite strange

(6) Bake! And watch the dough rise a frightening amount, and resolve to bring some American ingredients (baking soda!!!) back after Christmas

(7) Burn slightly…ok that has nothing to do with Germany, just my ditzy-ness!

All of those issues aside, it was of course still delicious!  The roommates and I devoured the first pie-plate I made, and I managed not to burn the second.

Food-issues aside, a quick note on Amsterdam – it was one of the most fun trips I’ve ever taken.  It was so fabulously refreshing to be in an actual city, where you have to fight through crowds on the street and there is still life going on around you when you’re walking home from the bars at 4am.  I didn’t do all that much (I’d been once before and done some of the tourist sites like the Anne Frank House already), so I spent just a lot of time walking around the beautiful canals and eating and drinking (in healthy, moderate amounts, of course).  We did take a walking tour one day, which at least gave me a great sense of the city history and layout, and I was able to make it to the Jewish Museum – but aside from those two activities, it was a very chill weekend!

This week starts a new schedule (it’s a new quarter); it’s basically my old schedule plus two new classes.  This weekend it’s off to Hamburg (the final large German city on my list of must visits!) and then Monday through Wednesday we have an Assitant-Meeting in Düsseldorf.  I’ll have an update next weekend at the earliest, I expect!