My host family invited me to spend the weekend with them at their vacation home in Boltenhagen. Boltenhagen is near Lübeck, where my host Mom is originally from. We were supposed to leave at 4:30 PM. So I made sure I was ready. At 4:30, no one was even home yet. Time came and went and finally we left at 7 PM. Again, everything I’ve heard about Germans being punctual has not applied to my experience here. I’m not sure if it is my host family or if everyone else is like this as well in Berlin.
The drive was horrible again. I had decided to catch up on blogging on the way there. That was the worst decision! I can honestly say that I have never been car sick before coming here. I can read, work, anything in the car, but not here. Just sitting there makes me sick. Their driving is something out of an action film. Suddenly slamming on the brakes only to floor it again. Rinse and repeat this for 3 hours. At the end I literally had to close my eyes and “go to my happy place.” haha. So from my experiences on the autobahn, I can say that I am not a fan. I assume it’s much better to drive on it than to be a passenger though. It is true that there is no speed limit. Although some portions do have a speed limit. In areas where there have been a lot of accidents, they post speed limits, but otherwise it’s free reign. My host Mom told me that car companies used to send their test drivers to the autobahn to test out the car. A few years ago, a test driver hit a car killing the mother and child. The driver served time, and I believe that put a damper on that sort of testing there. But of course there are still people who drive insanely fast on there. Even in Berlin there are people who actually race on a street one block up from my house. Corry was telling me how they set a time and everyone shows up, including spectators. They listen to the police scanners and then have something like 3 minutes to get everyone cleared out before the cops come. To me, it seems like something straight out of Fast & Furious.
Anywho, when we got to their house I was in utter and complete shock. It was gorgeous! Their vacation home was tons nicer than their actual home. Everything was decorated so nicely. My host Mom’s artwork lined the walls too. It really felt cozy. I had found my dream home haha. To top it off, they have solar panels on the roof. All the energy they produce, they sell to the government. During the summer they rent the house out for groups of people to stay in. I believe they said that with the solar panels and the rentals they will have the house paid off in 10 years. Oh and the absolute best part about the house….the bathroom floors were heated!! Ahh! That felt amazing in the mornings!
That night Corry and I stayed up talking for awhile. She is such an amazing woman! She has so many experiences and stories to tell. Although the saddest part was when she was talking about marriage. In a nutshell she said that she wasn’t completely in love with Andre, but knew that he wanted kids and would be a good father, so she married him. She went on to say that sometimes you just have to do that. I was sad for her. Now all the interactions between them made complete sense. My host Dad is wonderful, but all he does is argue, with everyone. He belittles you until you just give in and say he’s right. I couldn’t help but see how open minded and lively my host Mom is, and how close minded and argumentive my host Dad is.
The next day, Saturday, Thimo and I were to ride bike into town and meet Andre and Corry at the store. Andre got the “short bike” out for me, lowered the seat all the way, but still I couldn’t even begin to reach the pedals. Then he got the “children’s” bike out. I still couldn’t really reach the pedals. I had to tippy toe to reach the ground on that bike. I sucked it up and made do. Never had I felt so short. These people really are giants! My 12 year old host brother is a foot taller than me. We rode to town, it was a nice scenic ride along the beach and through the forest. When we got there, I had never been happier to walk again. We grocery shopped to make cookies the next day. Then Corry and I went to a shop next door to make candles. I was super excited! I had never made candles before. It actually was much easier than I thought it would be. We picked out forms. Then we picked which color wax we wanted, broke up the wax into little pieces and put it in the form. When you had filled it, you went to the color of hot wax that you wanted and filled the form to the top with the liquid wax. I made 3 candles. I was pretty proud of myself, but we had to let them set a day before we could pick them up. The guy who owned the shop was telling me that he had a shop in Chicago, but the insurance was too high. He said Americans are stupid and can’t handle scalding, hot wax. I completely agree with that statement. I dropped the lid in the wax pit and almost burned myself too.
After this, Corry wanted to go to a local Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market). It truly was in the country. The stands were set up in barns, right along with the animals outside. A famous popular drink at Weihnachtsmarkts is gluhwein. I had never had it so Corry insisted I had to try it along with gluhwein cake too. One sip of the gluhwein and I knew I hated it. It tasted so horrible. And the cake…not that much better. Gluhwein is a cheap wine seasoned with spices. I have no idea what spices or how to make it though. (Later I would have much better gluhwein and actually like it.) They had a lot of neat things for Christmas. They were fairly inexpensive too considering they were handmade. I had my first grunkohl soup also. I’m not really sure what kind of vegetable it is, but I’ll post a picture of it. It basically was a soup filled with tons of greens and few other vegetables. It wasn’t too bad actually. And of course we had bratwurst.
By the time we left there it was dark. The whole car ride back I was wondering how we would get our bikes back. Soon enough I found out. When we got back to the store where we had parked our bikes, it became apparent that we were to ride the bikes back to the house….in the dark….with no street lights. Overreacting as usual, my first thought was, “Oh no, someone is going to hit me, and it’s not even going to be a cool story. Just oh I got hit riding a children’s bike in the dark.” Naturally nothing bad happened at all, Thimo took me home on the back roads and along the beach. We stopped to get some nice photos at night. Oh, and since I forgot to mention it earlier, it was very cold this weekend. It was in the low 20s or upper teens. When we got back, they had some hot tea ready for us. It was a really nice evening. We all sat there and read, or did something quietly. It was the first book I’ve read in a long time! Although it was for my term paper, but still kind of a pleasure book. It was the story of my tour guide at the STASI prison.
The next morning, we had a giant spread of breakfast items just like the morning before. The breads were “special” compared to our usual breads. We had rolls with cheese on top, multigrain ones, etc. Also, the jelly was quite good. It’s from a berry that grows on the Baltic Sea. It’s called Sanddorn. I looked it up and it says it grows in California also, but I’ve never heard of it or seen it. It’s a small orangish berry. I also love the tea from this berry.
After breakfast, Corry and I made cookies. We made these vanilla little moon shaped cookies that you roll in sugar. Not that flavorful in my opinion, but they seemed to love them. Also, we made these coconut cookies. There are these crazy little disks that you bake them on. They are literally bread wafers. Corry said they are what the church uses as the “bread.” She was right. It tasted exactly like that. Those cookies turned out pretty good. You eat the bread wafer with the cookie. Crazy.
After our Betty Crocker experience, we went to town to pick up the candles. I was surprised by how cheap they were, and amazed at how pretty they looked. The only downside, they didn’t have any fragrance. I was definitely proud of my candles.
Sunday night before returning to Berlin, we had the most amazing supper ever. We had mashed potatoes with gravy, these things that I think are brussel sprouts maybe…I’m not sure of the name, they look like little cabbages. Oh and the brussel sprouts were glazed in bacon pieces and butter. It was quite tasteful. I was so happy to see mashed potatoes I nearly cried. And with gravy too!!! This was such a shock because mashed potatoes are for old people without teeth and babies according to Corry. And gravy, well they just think that is strange. Earlier in the month we had decided to have a mock Thanksgiving. I believe she was practicing the mashed potatoes since I told her how much Americans love mashed potatoes.
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