Gamma writes that all of Germany is consumed with Euro Cup fever at the moment:
We have been watching almost every soccer game in anticipation to see who will place where in the European cup! The Americans have SO been Germanized! We argue about how bad the Swiss will OWN the Polish or if the Spanish can conquer the Russians…it’s intense…soccer is god here.
She also writes that there are more bicycles and motorcycles than cars, likely due to the "OUTRAGEOUS!" price of gasoline. Heh… we might be headed that way soon. Gamma will celebrate her 16th birthday one week from today — in Germany — but I suspect that the coveted driver’s license might not be good for as much as it was for her sisters.
Might need to trade the Mousemobile for a Vespa or something.
She says the weather has been excellent, and that they’re feeding her well. That’s good, because her first note home had some interesting culinary hints:
1) I like sweinebarten….a lot.2) Germans are nice, but not if you get in the way of their bike (whether you apologize or not)3) It is cool to have a couch in your room (i have one!!!!)4) If the cheese is cream colored…don’t eat it5) If the cheese looks old…DON’T EAT IT!6) if the cheese looks yellow-orange with regular edges…it is probably safe to assume you may eat it…7) if the meat has ”stuff” in it…don’t even THINK about eating it!
"Sweinebarten" is pork roast. I bet there’s a recipe for it in the German cookbook that Anne brought me back in April.
Heh.
I spent three weeks in Germany (mostly in Halle, but also a five-day meeting in Heidelberg) back in 1997. Lunch was the big meal. We went down the street to the fleischerie, where the meals featured pork, sausage, Kartoffen and/or cheese. After lunch, we’d go across the street to the Handelhaus (G.F. Handel’s birthplace) for a coffee, then back to the lab. By 3 PM, I was ready for a nap–post-prandial torpor.
I loved the tidy streets in Germany.
A couple years later, I sent my grad student to Halle for two months. Unfortunately, he was vegetarian and lactose-intolerant.
If she has time for travel, she should try to spend a day or two in Vienna.
Tell her to check out the white asparagus, too.
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/germanys_favorite_veggie.php
Off topic, you are hereby “tagged” with the “Random 7 Meme”. Rules (and my post) are here:
http://oz.deichman.net/2008/06/random-seven-meme.html
🙂