Hanne

24 May 2009

End of May already eh, where have all these days gone?! So many things have been going on, including two 21sts, Saturday classes at uni, a movies overload and blood donation. It’s hard to know where to start!

So let’s begin this morning… I just had the coolest two days showing Dad around Freiburg and farewelled him at 8am today. He arrived on Thursday evening and I was at the train station half an hour early to be there to meet him. It was such a treat to have a visit, it was only two weeks ago that he decided to come to a conference in England so knew he would be in the area. We had quite an action packed two days, visiting Clara for dinner, walking around the uni and the old city, climbing a hill to a lookout point. Yesterday we went for a train trip to Lake Titisee, which is pretty much the most touristy spot in the black forest. Cuckoo clocks, beer mugs, Lederhosen… you name it, they have it in the souvenir shops. They also had an assortment of wooden figures from Africa and Thai Buddhas. Not too sure what that was about… In case you forgot to go shopping on your last world trip, perhaps.

We found a store called ‘Hanne’ so of course it was time to do some posing in front of that, and then Clara’s parents picked us up and took us up to their hut. It was great that we had the chance to visit them there because we saw both sides of the Black Forest. The contrast was amazing! From bustling kitsch photo-ops to absolute quiet up in the mountains, both within a few kms of each other. So we had pasta for lunch and admired the trees and the field. And you may be relieved to hear that I finally saw some cows! Breisgau is apparently quite a famous milk-producing area. Only up until yesterday I had seen exactly 0 bovines, which was beginning to be of some concern… It was also one of the reasons I have not been eating eat here, because if there are no animals about then where does it come from?? Now my mind is a little more at peace, at least with regard to the ‘local’ milk!

Dad and I also did some shopping to stock up my cupboards with essentials such as chilli flakes, tumeric, cinnamon and ginger. I really miss my dad’s cooking so we had some cooking lessons, making coconut-vege curry and then a briyani. Yum, I think I will be quite popular with my flatmates now (provided I don’t get tooo friendly with the packet of super-hot chilli!)

Maybe I should really change professions and become a cook because I love preparing food and trying new recipes… Or study nutrition or something. It would be fascinating to do more sport science stuff. Especially after last Wednesday. Wednesday was blood day, you see. I went with a couple of German friends to the blood centre to donate, and we had to eat lots of good food before and after. Well, and chocolate and cola. Apparently beets are good? Anyway, we went along to the blood centre and after standing in three lines and filling out 2 forms, watching a film, having all the measurements done and then getting two doctors to sign my papers it was time to actually donate. Which was pretty much the same as back home, only right arm instead of left. Then when you hand in your forms at the end they give you 25 euro so that you can buy nutritious food and stay healthy afterwards. That was strange, I am not used to that, usually you give blood just to help other people who need it. Different ways of doing things, I guess. And this does actually relate to nutrition in other ways too, because I am pretty sure I overdosed on sugar. 3 milos and lots of bikkies and chocolate bars later I was like a kid at a birthday party, completely buzzy. Until the sugar wore off. Then it was baaaaad…. :P

There is a really good film club here in Freiburg called the aka film club. Run by the uni, they show several films a week and entry is only 1.50Euro. So I have been to see several films there, including an excellent Norwegian black comedy. ‘The Art of Negative Thinking’, if you have the chance to see it, do! It is awesome.

And another random snippet, the people here celebrate their birthdays in. So the party starts the night before and then at midnight everyone sings and gives presents and then you party some more. And spend your birthday cleaning up! This is a new phenomenon for me, and one I discovered this week. On Tuesday one of my flatmates turned 21 and today is another flatmate’s 21st(we celebrated with a bbq in the park last night).

I think that is about all for now, hopefully I will not be so slack at writing in the future! (Got a trip to Prague to look forward to on the 1st of June)… Until next time, then!

Liebe Grüße,

Hanne

P.S. some German words:
Zimt = cinnamon
Mandeln = almonds
Blut spenden = donate blood
die Zahnfee = tooth fairy