Frankfurt and Reflections

So, knowing that I’m only in Germany for two nights, I tried to make sure I had the most German experience that I possibly could! The first step: Cuisine. I came in with a specific list of German foods that I wanted to make sure I could eat while actually IN GERMANY! Schnitzel, Strudel, beer, and appelwine were all accomplished in my first night, while in Geissen. Today in Frankfurt I also got some Bratwurst from a street fair vendor, another type of German cake (which, unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of), and apparently the hibiscus tea I had today is particularly popular here… who knew? Then we had dinner at Madeleine’s grandmother’s house and she made us real Frankfurter sausage, and we ate it IN FRANKFURT! DOUBLE WHAMMY! Oh, and she also made a delicious Hazelnut Kuchen (cake) and I fell in love immediately. Don’t worry, I made sure to get the recipe (I really regret not getting any of my mother’s recipes in Russia, hopefully I can request them by mail someday)!

Other than that, the German experience of the day involved taking an audio-guided bus tour through Frankfurt, walking through the old part of the city, checking out the Kaiser Dom, and doing all of this with a real-life German, Madeleine, who is AWESOME.

Also, Madeleine’s grandma is seriously THE BEST! Her name is Rita, and she speaks as much English as I do German (which is none) but she talks ALL the time, which is surprisingly comforting. Madeleine has just about stopped translating for me, because Rita will just look at me and have a conversation all on her own. She asks me questions in German, and I always smile and answer “what?” but then we both just smile at each other until I figure it out. I love that she speaks to me normally instead of as if I were deaf or stupid, because miming and yelling in order to get a point across between a language-barrier just emphasizes the fact that the barrier exists. It’s even worse when people don’t talk at all because they figure they won’t be understood. It’s nice that Rita and I can just talk to each other with the mutual understanding that not many of our words are being understood. The main ideas usually translate: Generosity, Gratitude, Laughter… those are the most important messages anyway, as far as I can tell.

So yeah, I really like Germany! I’ve learned lots of German words (which I have no idea how to spell) and I love to read German signs out loud, asking Madeleine if I said them correctly. Tomorrow I am going to buy a pretzel for my train to Belgium, and then I’ll meet up with Guillaume in Ghent. Wish me luck!

Gartenartikel,

Sarah