I woke up to the smell of something burning

More specifically, the smell of burnt sausages. And also sugar. And then there were some insistent Latin drums pounding me out of my sleepy stupor at the ungodly hour of – oh. 11.30am?! How did I sleep so long? The drums might have had a point.

These smells and sounds were the signal that Spring had well and truly descended on Schöneberg; or at least, that the Primavera festival had arrived. Three times a year, Akazienstraße is closed off to cars and opened to that most Berlin of concepts: party meets street market.

I had really been meaning to get up early to soak up the festivities, but a late night catching up on Game of Thrones left me immune to the offensively perky rays of sunshine which were doing their best to reach my back-courtyard bedroom. Not to be perturbed, I applied the basic necessities (dry shampoo, deodorant, a pair of earrings) and stumbled out into the sunlight to find some breakfast. Well, brunch, let’s be honest.

Fresh coffee and ripe Bio-erdbeeren (that’s organic strawberries to you and me) was a good start. But I am a lady with an appetite, and in Germany any street festival is basically code for “If you see it, try to eat it”, so I took a more languorous walk down my beloved Akazienstraße to see what else was on offer.

 

French cuisine was well represented across the board, and I definitely indulged in a Nutella-banana crêpe.

Speaking of international relations, I’ve yet to meet a German who finds a Wurst (sausage) joke funny; and yet to find a Brit that doesn’t. But Salami-Mann? Seriously? “She wants his sausage,” sprung immediately to my mind - and then I felt so embarrassed that I went off to eat my shame.

These captivating things are called Feuerkuchen (Fire-twist) and I’d never seen them before. They’re made by wrapping dough around a hot metal rod (oo-er, mister!) and waiting for it to bake – the end result is a cinnamon-y, jamless doughnut which is utterly moreish.

  

You literally cannot make it through Spring in Germany without eating Spargel (Asparagus). The white kind is particularly popular, and it’s a type of national symbol for the end of Winter. Supermarkets proclaim “Der Frühling ist da!” (“Spring is here!”) when it’s first in stock, and from then on you won’t be able to find a cafe, restaurant or street vendor without Spargel on the menu.

Perhaps the nicest part of the festival for me was this blue tractor, adorned with flowers. Back in October, the community organised a festival called Kürbisfest (“Pumpkin festival”) and the same tractor was there too, featuring a host of funny pumpkins - as demonstrated above by my friend Nicki.

The friendly farmer behind the wheel shouted out when he saw me shyly snapping away at several meters’ distance, “Kommen Sie doch näher ran! Ja, noch näher!” (“Why don’t you come in a bit closer? Yes, even closer than that!”) and went on to encourage me, in that characteristically gruff but essentially well-natured Brandenburg tone, to not hold back.

He said that good photos only come from getting up and close and personal with your subject – so I took his advice to heart, and got up close and personal… with the radishes.

 

/2/ fruit salad

The first week back at College for me was spent hurriedly writing an essay (on 1840s German Novellas) and revising for my mock exams (on German historical linguistics). That means there were days I didn’t leave the house and made my desk into my nest/safe space/study zone.

I have a lot of tricks and tools which I use to get myself in the zone: fresh plants on my desk, a candle, Brahms in the background, wearing a certain type of perfume, a mug of Earl Grey… and, my favourite, fruit salad.

It’s healthy, there’s vitamins and sugar and calcium and fibre, you can have it for breakfast, lunch, dessert or even just a snack, it’s super quick and easy to make and you can nibble at it all day.

I just chop up some fruit (usually apples, pears, oranges/clementines, bananas and other fruits in the summer if there are some, add a “dressing” of yoghurt mixed with orange juice, and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top. Perfect!

Make Yourself At Home

A couple of weeks ago, I prompted Ellie (who you must know by now) to write about a quotidian journey, which could get monotonous if you don’t enjoy its individual beauty. She wrote a wonderful post about her walk home which you can find here, and prompted me in return to write about how to make yourself feel at home when travelling or moving somewhere new.

So in the spirit of being strong within yourself and not calling your Mum every day (I’m guilty of having done this the first few times I travelled independently), I’ve prepared a five-point-plan of suggestions to overcome homesickness!

I never travel without a handful of teabags; it’s up there with “toothbrush” and “passport” for me when I pack. Obviously eating is a very primal urge and you’ll have strong emotions, memories and connotations linked to it, so if it’s something you can take with you, do.

There’s a lot to be said for diving straight into a new culture and indulging in the local cuisine, but it’s not cowardly to brew yourself a cuppa to enjoy. Equally if you have a weird favourite food (pasta, baked beans and cheese here, judge me all you like!), then make it, and scoff it down! Life isn’t just about sashimi, tagine and foie gras - though if that’s what does it for you then by all means, fly your flag!

I never used to listen to the radio before I went to work as an au pair. Stuck in a house which didn’t feel like home, in a family which didn’t feel like family, I came to rely on my mornings where I would tune into BBC Radio 4 and listen to whatever happened to be on at the time. Stephen Fry’s voice came to be my comfort blanket! Oddly, now that I’m back, listening to the radio makes me homesick for Iceland.

The point is that listening to the radio, reading a book you love, or watching TV shows or movies on your laptop is one of the best ways to tune out of any stress you’re having and relax into a familiar mind-set. And obviously, these stories have the added property of transporting you away from your situation, be it dire…  or actually quite nice!

When you’re away from home, it can have the tendency of feeling like empty time. It doesn’t matter if you’re on holiday and actually have no commitments, or if you’ve just started a full-time job in an unknown city; if you haven’t got a routine, or things to do, you can feel like you’re drifting. You’ll start reminiscing about all those happy days you had so much to do!

Well, everyone always has chores, so grab a pen and paper (or a laptop, you modern harlequins) and write yourself a to-do list. Sort out your finances, send your grandparents a postcard, tidy your room, sort out your jewellery box. You’ll be surprised how doing mundane things can make you feel far more settled! It’s also a good way to leave your house and your room. You might meet a friendly face in the queue at the post office…

Being by yourself might not sound like the best idea when you’re craving the comforts of home, but think about it: what is the one thing that was always there back home? You. You are that thing. The more time you spend with yourself, thinking, writing, reading, eating, the more you will find that you carry your home inside of you and can just unpack it easily wherever you go.

This is hard. Don’t expect it to work straight away. It takes practice. But soon you’ll find that having the space and the alone-time to do what you like and not be watched or judged, to fill your own time and not have it filled by others, is something you can cherish, and something which allows you to be comfortable wherever you are.

At the end of the day, what better way is there of feeling at home somewhere new? The best way to lose that homesick achey feeling and not pick holes in your day-to-day is to remember that it’s your life you’re living and it’s up to you to make the most of it.

And don’t play the “I didn’t want to come here” or “it’s not like I thought it would be” game. It doesn’t matter whether you bravely chose to move to Rio de Janeiro for the sunshine and are now missing England’s rainy skies, or whether it’s that your parents have sent you to an austere boarding school and all you want is your old room with it’s weird but familiar furniture, it’s still your life.

It’s easy to rely on the false friend of skype or phone calls but, though comforting and vital to your happiness, they don’t really help you feel at home. They help you feel far away from home, and if that’s all you have you’ll quickly find yourself having nothing to hold on to where you actually are.

So get out there! Explore where you’re at! Find new people to fill your heart, new tasks to fill your day, new stories to fill your mind, and new food to fill your stomach. Before you know it you’ll be moving on again, and will miss that which you never knew meant “home”.

ugly good food

Bavaria. My homeland. Spectacular mountains, idyllic pastures, fairy-tale castles, romantic cities, quaint traditions, pretzels, Lederhosen, beer, you get the jist.

Yet nowhere else in the world – in the world, my friends – does food look SO bad… and taste so good. Maybe it evolved that way to frighten off predators? Is Darwin’s law at work here? We may never know. All I know is this is food I miss on a daily basis. So in a bout of homesickness, hunger and gluttony, let me present to you the five greatest perpetrators of this heinous crime, of repelling people from their deliciousness with their ugly appearance.

5. Leberkäs

Coming in at number five, it’s Leberkäs, whose name encouragingly means ‘Liver Cheese’. Be not afraid, liver and cheese are not components. It’s a kind of massive sausage – TWSS – and I’m just going to go right ahead and quote Wikipedia here and tell you that it “consists of corned beef, pork, bacon and onions and is made by grinding the ingredients very finely and then baking it as a loaf in a bread pan until it has a crunchy brown crust.”. Om nom nom nom nom. Often served, as you can see above, with potato salad and a fried egg. Considering its relatively bland appearance, this is the least punishable offender.

4. Schnitzel, Kellogs Style

You all know Schnitzel, right? Yes, it’s a real thing. You beat some meat, you cover it in breadcrumbs, you fry it, hey presto you’ve got yourself a heart attack on a plate. Is it possible to improve on this tried and tested recipe? YES! Replace breadcrumbs with cornflakes and it suddenly becomes silly and odd in a good way all at once. They only thing is, it looks like your meal has some skin condition. Not appetizing, unless you know what’s coming.

3. Kaiserschmarrn

I hope you’re ready for more fried food! Bavaria is. Well, many people say Austria is to blame for the utterly heavenly Kaiserschmarrn, but to be honest Austria and Bavaria are like two peas in a pod. Two, deep-fried, butter-coated peas in a beautiful sugary pod. This dessert, which looks like soggy chips after snowfall, is what happens when you make pancakes, tear them into tiny shreds, and – you guessed it – FRY THEM. Dust with icing sugar and gorge yourself.

2. Currywurst

Another three step recipe – don’t you just love the simplicity of German cooking? No bain-maries here. No tender simmer, no artfully cut vegetables. Currywurst is happily exactly what it sounds like. Step one, get a sausage (that’s a Wurst to me), something like a frankfurter would work. Step two, cut it up. Step three, slather it in ketchup and curry powder. Yes, curry powder. Yes, I really mean it. Do it. Do it now.
P.S. Step four, more curry powder. Usually it’s a three step recipe but you’re a novice and you didn’t put enough on the first time.

I. Germknödel

Words cannot describe the infinite glory of the seemingly soggy pile of dough and custard. I dream of Germknödel. Every year I go to Germany, I pretend it’s to visit my 91 year old grandmotehr but really – it’s to eat Germknödel. I can’t get enough. When I die, I want to come back as a Germknödel.

What are they? Well, Wikipedia once again comes to the rescue because I do not have. The words. Here goes: “The dessert's main ingredient is a yeast dough with sugar and fat, usually butter, added to the dough. The dumpling is filled with Powidl, a sweet and spicy plum jam. The dumpling is steamed and then served still hot with either melted butter or vanilla dessert sauce, and topped with crushed poppy seeds and sugar.”

IT IS LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER TASTED.

Hope you enjoyed that. I know I did.

Images shamelessly stolen from Google.

Skills I never knew I had

Today I did something I thought I could never do. Then I did, and it was awesome.

 

PS… about last post’s drama, I’m just going to leave it at that. I’ve made my bed and I’m not only going to lie in it, I’m going to get comfy. Kant, come at me, brah! I can take you!

iv As long as I post…

Yes, as long as I post it doesn’t need to be especially good. Here is a blow by blow of today.

I woke up ten seconds before my alarm went off from a very tense and stressful dream which about a rather mundane series of events in which my brother and I realised it was too late to order a taxi because it wouldn’t arrive in time to take us to our destination.

The next few hours (and I mean hours) were imbued with the same tenseness and stress, which was really difficult to shake off and quite annoying as I couldn’t really settle down. I started focusing on all the things which are causing me stress:

• my gradual weight gain (12 pounds since August)
• the fact that both of the references I have been putting down for jobs have effectively disappeared which means the last four months were a total waste
• I can’t decide on what to do about my summer holiday
• my illness last week means I had to skip a week of running
• I’ve not been studying Spanish/Icelandic/Norwegian hard enough, or focused enough on my German reading list.
• I’ve not yet applied for my German passport

Eventually though, with the help of Gilmore Girls, I calmed down and then had a nice enough day.

• I tidied the kitchen instead of procrastinating
• I read my book (All Quiet on the Western Front) for about an hour
• I packed my bag well in advance
• I had a shower
• I ate healthily, every two hours, and carefully noted down how much I ate of what

In the afternoon I set off, because my brother was taking part in an Elocution competition (basically performance poetry and short scenes from plays) and I was going to watch it with my mother. It was relatively enjoyable even though my brother’s House only came second. A lot of the performances were good, some bad, none dreadful. Wilfred Owen’s ‘A Terre’ was sadly slaughtered, but the Year 13s (last year) were good throughout, including one magnificent rendition of a passage from Truman Capote’s ‘In Cold Blood’. Coincidentally, that guy is going to Oxford next year too so maybe I’ll bump into him around town.

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In the whole day I ate 1535 calories… plus unexpected but very happy-making takeaway from a Himalayan restaurant. So were it not for that well-received surprise I should be very proud of myself.

I don't’ regard calorie-counting as a healthy long-term approach to eating, nor even a successful or healthy short-term approach to weight loss. However, concentrating on calories makes me more aware of my portion sizes. That’s the problem with me; I have a healthy and balanced diet, I just eat too much. I have two healthy breakfasts, not one fry-up. That kind of thing is easier to change (I hope) than changing the foods I eat. So I don’t take calorie-counting too seriously, since I know that if I get obsessive about it I’ll just push myself into depression.

So my approach to ‘weight loss’ (I hate that phrase, since what is important to me is actually fitness, not weight or thigh size) is increased awareness, encouragement and no militancy regarding food; and perseverance and hard work regarding exercise.

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Bloquiry

When is the last time you went out to see a concert, play, recital or other such performance? What was it like?

ii Strawberry Tea

Inspired by simply breakfast, I concocted this. I’m not feeling that eloquent right now, so just… enjoy. I plan on it. I also thought it would be interesting to show you the before and after photoediting pics.

                    Before                                                After

   

   

I am also instituting a Bloquiry; that is, a Blog-Enquiry. Every day of BEDA I will ask you, the reader a question. As an incentive to reply, I shall dedicate my next post to you and if you have a blog, I’ll do a review/promotion of it! I like the internet community but have never quite got involved in the blog community (unlike YouTube and some forums). This is my attempt :)

Bloquiry

Favourite biscuit?

Advent 2010 VI: Vitamins

Today’s post will be short because I have a headache and for some reason I’m really tired.

This bowl of fruit appeared today in Loa’s house, and it made me far happier than I ever thought a bowl of fruit could.

The sun began to set about half an hour ago (it’s 4.10 now) and so I can see a beautiful pink-peach-lavender watercolour over the mountain.

What does/did/will your sunset look like?

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Fröhliche Weihnachten & Gleðileg Jol!

xxxF

Experimentation

I’ve been baking.

When Loa put out the advert for the opening of her new children’s clothing shop, Emil og Lina, she wrote on it: “Miss Potter will be baking.” That’s me… so bake I did. I made Vanille Kipferl, Schokoladenherzen, Basler Leckerli (or tried to – failure because there is no honey) and Experiment Cupcakes.

Why are they called Experiment Cupcakes? Read on…

Find recipe for cupcakes on the internet. Don’t have half the ingredients so make up for it by doubling the amount of banana. Look into cupboard. Chuck in some cocoa powder, then some more because the colour hasn’t changed enough. One teaspoon of cinnamon. Two teaspoons of cinnamon. A tablespoon. Recipe says ginger next? Don’t have any ginger, cloves will do. Oh, I do have ginger. In it goes. Dough’s looking a bit wet. Add a handful of oats to soak up the liquid, then another, then another. Oats are healthy. Ok, now oven. DING! Huh, they look funny. Let me eat one. Yum. Oats are healthy.

I put all the biscuits in a tin but I’m not sure that was a good idea because they taste a bit funny now……… It’s not airtight, and it’s intended for tea.

O.o

But, hey, photos!

Sitting in the tin, looking surprisingly evil…

Schokoladenherzen! Or rather, Schokoladenglocke und –mond.

Yeah… I’m not going to claim I baked these, but they taste great!

Experiment Cupcakes!

Crescent-moon Vanille Kipferl.

Sand on my tongue

Dear Diary,

Today I ate some chocolate and some rice crispies and some old stir fry and I drank almost a bottle of a very orange fruit drink which is probably juice.

I watched Happy Feet and Shark Tale, both of which were genuinely entertaining, though the voices in Happy Feet make it the winner for me. I love Elijah Wood.

Regarding Icelandic, I memorised the indefinite case endings for relatively regular nouns. There are almost 50 endings in that set. I wrote a four-line poem which I am very proud of even if it took an hour and is probably mistake-ridden, but here it is:

Ég vet ekki lengur, hvað ég er að gera hérna

Ég bitaði eplið, sem lofaði mikila gleði

Ég eftirsjá ekkert, en ég vil að fara heim.

Af því að núna er allt bara sandur á tungunni minni

And finally, today I decided that I’m coming home after Christmas. I’m really happy with that decision.

Yours sincerely,

Fiona

The Cake God

I am truly, as my friend Shawnee put it, a “cake god”. In the last week or so, I have let there be cake three times and let there be cookies once.

First was the banana cake which I just knocked out, bored, on a Wednesday afternoon.

This was followed by a dark-chocolate sponge drenched in buttery chocolate icing and with an icing sugar heart on top, made for a friend’s 19th birthday.

On Monday I made the dough for cookies with dark-choc-chip and mixed chopped nuts, which I baked in two batches, and stored in traditional cookie jars… at least, until my family gobbled them all up! I tried to photograph them but our kitchen is such an ugly hospital green that the picture looked sickly.

Finally, today. The moistest, tangiest, softest lemon cake the world has ever seen, drizzled with home-made lemon marmalade.

I’ve now got my eyes on the Mississippi Mud Pie and the savoury ham muffins.

OK, OK, I can’t claim all the glory. Some dues must be paid, and mine go to the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. Now, I’ve read the reviews on Amazon, which are mixed to say the least, but I swear by it. Don’t even believe those who say you have to stick to the recipes like glue. As long as you don’t deviate too much from the path of righteousness, it will make a god out of you too.

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In other, more Iceland related news, I have booked my tickets! Or should that be, ticket. Singular. I’m fleeing on October the 5th at 21:15pm.

I’ve also done other boring stuff like e-mail Vodafone Iceland in order to sort out a SIM Card, finally figure out my residence permit and health insurance, and then there's money. Argh! I hate havign to sort out money stuff.

It’s still all going a bit slowly, which is a frustration for a number of reasons. I want to know what my money situation will be like there. I want to KNOW she can take me on as an au pair! I hope I'm not being pushy or an imposition because I really got on well with her and am genuinely looking forward to meeting her again and getting to know her grand-daughter, and just being in Iceland.

Argh. Bureaucracy. I hate e-mails and phone calls. I know if we could speak to each other face-to-face we’d sort it out in a matter of minutes! Distance truly is a barrier.