Happy Halloween

The Red Sox won the World Series, Germany's clocks turned back an hour and I played soccer with a group of Lithuanian friends since I last wrote.
Always something goingn on here in town which is nice. Harry Potter came out in German on Friday and there were several parties for it. Only a few months late. The translators need to sspeed things up. Next week is teh TV premier of the movie Hitch, which I saw in Spring 2005, in Australia. Little bit behind on things. For the past few Sundays Ive been watching the night movie with my old roomate, Franzi. Good to watch American movies, hear German and have more opportunities to speak German, especially with someone who speaks some English.
Tomorrow is a German holiday, Reformations Day. Not sure what is is all about, but there is no work, most shops are closed like Sundays, and people get to sleep in and then party with family and friends.
Hope someone reading this goes Trick or Treating tomorrow.

More cooking school: Seafood seminars

This week, my third at my cooking school, I again started with a new class, but this time not in the kitchen.
Everyday Im in a seminar with a class of older students, learning this week about fish and seafood. Yesterday we learned about a lot of types of fish, both salt and fresh water (which they call sweet water} fish. Then we went to the learning kitchen, where at every cooking station there are 2 people. We got to cut up fillets of salmon and make a sauce using the leftover body parts, including the head. Good practice for a cheaper way to buy fish.

Today was awesome. We had a demonstation on crustaceans: lobsters, crayfish, prawns. All live and squirming in their boxes while we examined them, before tossing them into boiling hot water, with several students saying Im sorry, in German. After they were cooked (12 minutes for a 500 gram lobster] the head chef showed us how to cut them up and different ways to serve them.

After crustaceans came some more fish, this time to be used for sushi. The sushi seminar was sweet as we got to use lots of veggies and types of fish, before then tasting our creations. Mine looked damn good, and the chef said that it was the best, as it showed exactly what was in it, when cut open.

So Ill be in a new class for this week, learning more about fish. No clue what next week brings, perhaps another class, or more seminars.

And I should say Im sorry for not stopping 3 lobsters and many other creatures from dying in boiling hot, spiced water, but it was in the name of education.

Me with Erfurt in the backgound

Me in my school getup

Feeling goofy as ever.

Cooking School week 2

Things are going well in class and I know my way around the kitchen pretty well already. But of course there are going to be things that I mess up on due to the language. For instance today, when the Chef Marquadt told me to put the egg white aside and the yolk in the batter, I put the egg whites in the batter and set the yolks aside. Luckily, the chickens in Germany produce a lot of eggs, so no harm done.
I try to practice saying words that I have learned. Today for instance after hearing the word for brush, I repeated it, and was then given the brush by the student. I guess that means I was correct.

Weimar Zwiebelmarkt

Weimar, home of so many important figures in Germany, from Goethe to Schilling, is also the home of a very large onion festival held every Oktober. I went with my German roommate Franzi, and some other international students from the Uni.

It was like a lot of German festivals, with beer tents, lots of food vendors (with lots of onion products), booths selling random things from onion puppets to cookware. Tons of people. It was packed and was hard to move around with the crowd. The fact that they had a 10k race as well going through the city closing off streets, made it even harder.

The best onion food is definitely the Zweibelkuchen: onion cake. There are several variations and we had two of them. One, a cake bread base with spiced onions on top. The other was more of an onion quiche and more filling. The customary drink with Zweibelkuchen is Federweisser, a sweet white wine that is still fermenting in the bottle. It is only available for a couple months out of the year, from August to Okotber normally. It tastes like an alcoholic lemonade, and is very popular in Germany. I don’t think that is available in the States, but it may be with a different name. The grapes used are leftover grapes that aren’t good enough for their high quality wines, but are perfect for a product that still ferments while sitting in the bottles with a loose cap. A cork would cause the bottle to explode with the fermentation in it.

Myself with Franzi my German roomate and Paige, a fellow American, eating Zweibelkuchen with Federweisser

In Weimar, my friend Paige, a person in my program living in Hamburg, met up with us. She had studied in Weimar for 2 summers and knew a lot of the city and was our tour guide. Saw Goethe’s garden house in the amazing Ulm Park. Lots of cool buildings including the amazing Elephant House, the best hotel in town where Hitler came to and spoke on the front balcony.

Weimar was a great city. I like it more that Erfurt. Lots of history, a great park, interesting buildings all over and although smaller, it seemed like there were more areas to go to. I plan on making several trips there as it is less that 5 Euros by train round trip. Perhaps I’ll look for an internship in a restaurant there.

And back to onion and vegetables, lot’s of onion garnishes and decorations at all the stands. But the best thing I saw was actually a garlic schnapps. Surprisingly quite tasty, although the girls said my breathe was horrible afterwards. Definitely something unique to the onion festival.

Cooking school day 1

I just had my first day of class today at the cooking school. My day is from 7:30 until about 3pm, quite long compared to the other people in my program who have one or two classes a day. It was longer than expected, but for most of today I was cooking or preparing food. After getting suited up in the typical chef outfit, consisting from the hat, to the jacket to the checkered pants, I got a tour of the kitchen, with lots of appliances and things I have not worked with before so it will be good to learn to use those.
There are about 15 other people in my class right now, who were in the main kitchen doing the cooking. I think I am going into a different class next week as this one as a two week fall break starting next week. It would be nice to have the break right at the start, but I should be in a class that fits me better.

Erfurt

On Tuesday, Oktober 2nd, 2007, I moved to Erfurt, my new home for the next ten months. I'll be going to the Erfurt Gastro Berufsbildungswerk, in other words a well respected cooking school. The people from my program have said it is a great cooking school and is hard to get into. I must thank the German government for that.

The countryside changed a lot leaving Köln. From the big city with a huge river, to lots of open fields, grass, trees, some hills and not a heck of a lot. They call Thüringen, my state, the green heart of Deutschland. Great for hiking and relaxing and it is a popular spot for German tourists to come. A little bit of a change for me from the city of Köln, but it looks to be a great place.

Erfurt is dominated by its huge cathedral and church, sitting together on top of a hill looking over the city. I go from one amazing cathedral in Köln to two amazing relgious buildings at the heart of the city. There are lots of cool buildings throughout Erfurt, and the facades on most buildings are picture worthy. They have the longest bridge in Europe with houses on both sides so it doesnt seem like you are on a bridge. It is called the Merchants Bridge as it used to have only shops along it.

My apartment is near the train station and is on the small and dirty side. But that should soon be changed as next week Ill be moving upstairs to a new, bigger room. Im hoping it will be a little bit cleaner. Its a good location and close to everything in the city. There is a bar/cafe downstairs and a kebab place next door. So far I havent seen a roomate yet, but he is rumored to exist. And I might be getting another one today.

I have a meeting with my cooking school today. Ill find out when my classes will start, perhaps tomorrow, and what subjects Ill be taking. I should be placed with a tutor, someone to show me around the school and help me get started there. The program helps out a lot and makes it easier for people to move to new cities without being too alone.

Ill get pictures up soon. I have to figure it out as Im on a different computer now, a German keyboard with lots of things out of place, so my punctuation might not be as good as normal.

Lille, France

As I only had a few days left in the western part of Germany, I traveled to France because it is close and I hadn't been there yet on this trip. I went with my friend Paige to Lille, France where we stayed with some friends we know through couch surfing. It was an amazing time with some great people who quickly became good friends. Speaking English, German and me butchering French, we got along great. My French, in which I have no experience, got a little better, since with nothing to start with other than wee, as I now know several words.

It was raining most of the time we were there, but we got a good tour by Antoine and Fred, from Paris came along as well. Pretty cool place with awesome buildings, lots of people shopping and a hilarious fitness demonstation put on by one man on a stage in the rain. Just working out and doing aerobics by himself with everyone laughing at him. Quite entertaining.

Back at the apartment after a stop at a great microbrewery, Fred, the master chef, chef number one as he called himself, cooked up a tasty omlette and pasta. It took quite a while, but was well worth it as we watched the Simpsons in French before going out to the student area where the bars were. The French in this area love their French and Belgish beers. A nice change from the great German beer which can only have wheat, water, hops and barley due to a purity law.
It was a late, fun night, ending with Beatles songs back at the aparment.

The next mornign after a great French breakfast with lots of pastries, we got a ride back to the train station to go back after just a short trip. The GPS navigator in Fred's car used Yoda's voice: Bear right, you must after 300 meters. Hilarious and the best way to travel.
I have just another day left in Cologne, leaving Tuesday morning. Time's almost up. But I'll be going to Aachen tomorrow to see even more of the local area.

Deutsche Polizei Cars

Yesterday, outside the Cathedral, there was a car show for old German police cars. While many of them were amazing, the highlight was definitely a remote control kid car that a real dog was riding. I've attached a video in which you can see the dog in uniform move at the end. He was just going around through the crowd beeping his siren and cruising. You have to love the Germans.

Language School

So as I come to the end of my time in Cologne, I'd like to say that my language school was awesome. Highly recommended. Carl Duisberg Centre. We've been hanging out with the staff all the time and yesterday played soccer and threw the frisbee around for several hours in the park at a grill party (that is actual German : Grill party, as grillen is a word).

My class has been sweet. From the start where I went to the wrong class to now, I've had a great class. Fredrick from Kenya, Misbaudeen from Nigeria, Anisa from Albania, Dagnachew from Ethiopia, Professor Yutaka from Japan and even Nathan in a different program from the US are some of the people from class who are quite memorable.

The whole class jokes around, loves to argue and has several inside sayings. Whenever someone comes late, we all tell the person to come punctually (Kommen Sie bitte Punktlich!). I'll miss the class.

Veran from India, Fredrick from Kenya and Anisa from Albania

And now I have just one week left in Cologne. Kinda of sad to leave as it's been a fun place to live and has become another home for me. But I'm off to Erfurt early next week to start cooking school. Still haven't chosen the exact date of departure as I hope to do some traveling in between.

Rhein in Flames

On Saturday in the small town of St. Goar there was a wine festival and fireworks over the Rhein. Nothing like tasting some amazing wines from the region and then watching an hour long firework spectacle over the largest river in Germany. The best part about the fireworks is that they had three locations, a castle in St. Goar, a barge and then in the town across the river, St. Goarhausen, there was another castle that set off fireworks.

One of my favorite wines so far has been the Federweisser, which in english means White Feather. This is a wine that is not fully done fermenting. The wineries use grapes that can't be used for their top quality wines, and then make this wine, selling it while it is still fermenting with yeast floating around, hence the white feather. It's really tasty, tasting like lemonade on the first day you drink it and getting stronger every day after it has been opened.

In this video you can see the outline of the castle in St. Goarhausen on the hill above the Rhein.

Germany vs. Romania : Fussball!

So on the 12th, I got to see my first international soccer game. The German national team played Romania in Cologne in front of 44,500 people. It was amazing. So much energy in the air as German won 3-1.

It didn't start off too good, with Romania scoring in the 3rd minute and looking better, but as the fans were saying, the game is a full 90 minutes.

Everyone was chanting and singing throughout the game as well as waving flags. Lots of German pride all around. More than expected from what we had been told.

Lukas Podalski, the 22 year old superstar used to play for Cologe a few years ago, so the crowd loved him and keep shouting his name whenever he touched the ball and especially when he scored the 3rd goal.

I'm now all set with a German scarf, a little German soccer vocab and some awesome German soccer songs.

Mosel Valley

Last Saturday, the 8th, I went with 4 people from my group in Cologne to meet up with 5 people from our program who are studying in Saarbrucken, the capital of the German state Saarland.

We met up in the town of Cochem, a centrally located city on the Mosel River, an amazing, slow paced river filled with wineries and small towns. The way people describe the Mosel is as everything the Rhine wants to be, but cannot. Smaller, slower paced, and the ablity to relax and enjoy yourself. Another difference is a lot more bridges compared to the ferries on the Rhine.

Our group of now 10, after realizing we didn't have time to rent bikes to ride along the river, set out on an amazing hike up to Burg Eltz, a 700 year old castle that has never been destroyed. Hiking through the woods, past the stream, it felt like being in Portland, with lots of green everywhere.

The castle, Burg Eltz, is amazing. Very picturesque and sits on a natural bend in the river which acts as a moat. Inside, on the tour, we saw everything from the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the kitchen, the armory, the meeting room with the symbol of a joker allowing anything to be spoken in the room, and the symbol of a rose to keep what was said in the room in the room.

Lots of pictures, and then on back to the city for some wine tasting and some Doner Kebaps, one of the best and most common meals in Germany.