This Pilgrim's Journeys

I had so much yummy food while I was in Germany!  My host mom gave me the recipes for some of my favorite foods, which I am going to share with you.  However, some of the ingredients are different than what we have in the US so I need to find out some more details for some of them, as well as translate it into my units of measurement, and you may have to, as well.  But, here they are!  I may update this post if I find out something important about one of the ingredients.  Happy German cooking! Amerikaner  (sugar cookies, German style) 100 gram butter 100 gram sugar 1 package vanilla sugar 2 eggs 45 grams milk 1 little bottle butter-vanilla-aroma 250 grams flour 1 package vanilla custard powder 2 teaspoons baking powder Mix all of the ingredients.  Make little cookie piles with a spoon (like any cookies) on a baking tray.  Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) Nuss-Streifen (really yummy nut cake!) 120 grams butter 3

Here is a short snippet of a video I took inside the Hofbräuhaus.  And yes, it was as loud and busy as it appears!

Here's the video of the man I met in Nürnberg who was singing Christian music in English.  Enjoy!

Here is a video I took to encompass the entire castle of Burghausen, since it wouldn't all fit in one picture!

Goodbyes are the worst thing ever.  And that made Tuesday one of the worst days ever. I woke up and felt awful because my stomach felt awful, because I knew I was leaving (and I was tired, since I only got 5.5 hours of sleep).  I ate an Amerikaner (sugar cookie), but couldn't even eat a whole Bretzel for breakfast because I just didn't have an appetite.  Elli didn't either, and even Lukas barely ate anything, which is very unusual for him!  I managed to fit all of my stuff into something to take it all back to America. We left for school, but first Julia said goodbye to me and then her dad, and I almost cried, but I managed to keep myself steady.  Then, as we drove away from their house, the scenery ( so  lovely!) that I'd seen so many times passed by out my window and again almost made me tear up because I probably will never see it again. At school we dropped off my luggage with the others in the one room off of the lobby and basically all of the Germans and Ame

School again!  But we didn't actually sit in class with our hosts, because we had to get ready for the farewell dinner that night.  But first, we all took a field trip to town for most of us to get license plates.  I (and maybe five others) didn't want one.  We then stopped at a grocery store to buy candy (because you can never have too much German candy, for example one of my favorites - Duplo). Back at the school, the others decorated and Frau set Jake and I up with a computer to type up our MC script.  It was in a teacher IPC-type-room, which was kinda awkward, especially when a teacher would be there for a little bit.  When we finished that, we worked on our farewell speeches. Then I had my last German (school) bus ride.  For lunch my host mom made basically meatloaf and mashed potatoes. She also made tomato salad, just for me.  :)  Then I worked a little bit on packing (you know, there is absolutely no incentive for packing when you are leaving a place, especially a pl

Sunday was our Chiemsee day! First we drove to Altötting to pick up Ethan and Maxi, and Nici, her mom and Cassandra met us and followed us in their car.  At the Chiemsee we got on a boat (well, about 4 times the whole time we were there) to go to the different islands.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, but also with some nice puffy clouds.  The Chiemsee is so beautiful, too - full of sailboats and other boats and with the Alps in the background... First we went to Herren Insel, where King Ludwig's copy of Versailles palace is - Herrencheimsee.  We did an inside tour (which was free because we were students!) and there is so much gold inside it is ridiculous.  This one he also ran out of money to finish (and no wonder!).  There are 70 rooms and only 20 of them were finished.  So we got to see the unfinished staircase and rooms and so now I know what castles/palaces look like behind all the glitter they add on.  Also, we saw a 1/2 ton chandelier and a super-expensive (at least  a h

Saturday was München (Munich) day!  My host parents drove Elli and I to the Mühldorf train station and soon the rest of our "group" for most of our day arrived when their trains from other towns arrived.  Our group (with a few additions and subtractions later) was me and Elli, Nici and Cassandra, Ethan and Maxi, Kenny and David, and Eric (his host was sick).  Poor Eric sat by himself while the rest of us were in the group seats of fours.  And, an odd part of this excursion was that, for some reason that I either don't remember or never really knew, all of the Americans in our group called me "mom" throughout the whole day.  Granted, I was the oldest of all of us there, including the Germans, but really?  Oh well. Throughout our day in München we went on the subway about four times and the rest of the time we walked and walked and walked...but it was fun.  And of course, always more stairs.  What else?  First we walked a bit through the city and got to a park w

I was pretty tired for school after staying up so late...but at least I wasn't the only one!  Ethan was talking to Cassandra and I and said about Jake and Kenny, "they stayed out so late at a club last night!" We said, "Um...yeah, so did we."  He was pretty surprised! That day we had chemistry, English, the break, German, French, and art class (yay!). Back at home, lunch was yummy" Spätzle with meat and sauce.  Back in my room I opened my second Kinder Überraschung Ei (egg).  I got a mini.  Then I took a nap and we went out to buy birthday presents for Veronica and Kaylee (for the b-day party for the both of them later that night).  Back home, her grandma came over and I talked with her a little, and she told me, "Du kannst gut Deutsch!" (you can speak German well). We left for the birthday party, and one the way stopped so one of her friends could meet me.  He was nice and talked to me a little bit.  I also met another friend who was there to

Thursday was probably the longest day that I had in Germany.  It was good, but I was a wake for a very long time! We all met in the Aula (lobby) in the morning, in anticipation for our day trip to Berchtesgaden and the Königsee.  Then we got on the bus for a lovely (ha! sarcasm) two hour drive.  I slept for a good bit of it. The first thing we did in (near?) Berchtesgaden was take a tour of the salt mine there.  We had to wear jumpsuit-like things (ha, that was fun to fit into while wearing a skirt...good thing they weren't very tight!).  First we filed in for our group photo and then sat on the little train-like thing and rode through tunnels to a big, cavernous room.  They had some history with cool special effects there.  Then we went down the wooden slide - just sat, held on to a few others, but our legs up and went.  I wasn't a big fan of the steepest section (for the same reason I do not like roller coasters), but it was survivable. ;)  We walked from place to place,

After homeroom on Wednesday we sat through German and then two math classes.  Then in English Ethan and Corey presented their PowerPoint on the history of American music, and then the teacher asked us some questions about America and what not.  Then we had another French class and Jake joined us because Ollie didn't have any more classes and he was coming home with Elli and I to work on translating our MC stuff (we had gotten our English draft checked). Lunch was Schweinebraten - and it was SO GOOD!  Definitely maybe the best thing I had eaten so far in Germany.  After lunch Elli helped us with the translation, which she is just amazing at! Then my German mom took Jake and I to the Bauernhof Museum, basically an old farmstead place with at least three separate house and barn areas spread out among fields and lanes, and we got to walk all around and check it out and it was actually really awesome.  It was kind of funny, actually, how much fun we had doing that, because it looked

Tuesday was a long day.  We met at the school at 6:45 and the seniors (the grade of kids who came over to the US through GAPP last spring) were there early getting ready for their water attack on the other students (it was when the graduating seniors had their "crazy-day").  We saw several of the Germans who had come over. The bus ride to Neuschwanstein was horrendous.  The traffic was so bad through München (Munich) that we were driving for about an extra hour, so instead of three hours, it was four.  Yuck!  I listened to music almost the entire ride there. Finally we arrived, and it started to drizzle a bit as we waited for those who needed to use the bathroom (and public bathrooms, or the "WC," in Germany almost always cost 50 cents to use), but then, thankfully, it cleared up and we didn't have any rain the rest of the day.  Then some went to wait in line for a horse and carriage to take them up to the castle, and the rest of us walked.  Cassandra and I