COBBlog

So as those on campus right now at Concordia are either gearing up for finals or packing to go home, I am starting my second week of classes of my second semester here in Jena. The weather is getting warm, it’s not raining (at the moment!), and it’s getting really hard to go to class. However, as STUDYING is part of a study abroad program, I am willing to put in the effort to learn something here in Jena.

One thing I have found interesting here is that no one really buys books. At least not those in the classes I have taken so far and those I am taking now. No, instead the professors will either lecture you for the whole hour and a half while the students take furious notes, or there is more of a discussion class where one reads a few texts or articles before going to class and then talk about them.

I am taking a mixture of both classes…and thank goodness since my discussion class on Women in the Second World War has a HUGE three-ring binder full of articles to read for class (I’d say it’s a good two to three inches thick).

But hey, I go to Concordia. We read books in a couple of weeks and write papers at the same time…and that’s only in one class! I can handle it! But wait…those books and papers and articles at Concordia are nearly all in English. (more…)

Friday night Ginesa, a Cobber alumni, came to visit me in Jena for a few days before heading off to a Fulbright Seminar in Berlin.  Being as we are two crazy Cobbers in a foreign city, we took the opportunity to fulfill our dreams of styling ourselves a bit as Audrey Hepburn.  After buying our crazy blue and white striped classy beach hats from C&A, a store here in Germany, we proceeded to mosey around Jena looking for photo opportunities with our hats…as well as getting marvelous looks from those walking past us.  We managed to find Hanfried, a statue of Johann Friedrich von Sachsen in one of the Markts here, a gigantic ice cream cone, a bench to catch some rays (even though it was cloudy) and the main university building on campus - not to mention stopping by one of the malls and having a small photoshoot of “different faces in crazy hats” along the way.

When the wind picked up and our hats were having trouble staying on our heads, we headed to Tegut (grocery store) to buy some ingredients to make homemade tacos and berry pie since we were craving Chipotle and Perkins.  As neither restaurant can be found here in Germany, we decided to make our own - or at least attempt to. At Tegut, we found the tortillas to be quite more expensive than in the States, and Ginesa said she knew how, so as she mixed up the tortilla batter and fried them in a pan, I cooked the meat using eine Menge (a lot) of spices as they are not as scharf (hot) as the ones back home.

After cutting veggies, we went to work on our next creation: the PIE!! In Tegut, we weren’t able to find a pie crust, so we compromised and bought pastry dough that we had to press together to create the perfect crust.  Neither of us had ever made a pie without the help of our moms, but thought ‘how hard could it be?!’ We thawed a bunch of frozen fruit (most of the way) and added the mixture along with gelatin and sugar to the crust.  Oops! We forgot to put the crust in the oven before adding the not-so-thawed fruit (i.e. mistake #2).  Getting creative, we made a lattuce crust top so even if the pie didn’t taste good, it would look pretty!

We invited two of my roommates to join us for a crash course on how to eat tacos and what a pie is - very hard to explain without making one as they don’t have such a thing here.  The tacos turned out marvelous and hat gut geschmeckt (tasted great).  One of my roommates made the comment that “spicy food is healthy”, which sent the table into laughter.  Then came the dessert…We pulled the pie out of the oven and tried to explain the Unterschied (difference) between cakes and pies, saying how pies have a flaky crust with fruit filling normally as we but into our “pie”.  Somehow the dough had not exactly gotten completely cooked and the filling was no longer really gelatin, but rather soup.  The roommates just looked at us, saying the “pie” was too sweet, though Ginesa and I found it a bit tart.  Oh, the different cultural tastes: literally!  Overall, we were given lots of compliments and were not banned from the kitchen: a good sign if you ask me!  Perhaps later we will try again and improve our pie-making skills??!

Greetings from Jena on all,

Heather and Ginesa

The phrase “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure” was SO true a few days ago.  Twice every year, in spring and fall, in Jena there are a few days that people are allowed to put out Sperrmüll (things they don’t want anymore that is garbage to them) on the street corners or near their houses.  Sometimes this “Müll” is not garbage at all.  People are allowed to put out nearly anything that they don’t want anymore, though not their normal garbage like food and bottles and such.  One can put out sofas, televisions, computers, clothes, shoes, closets, shelves, beds, mattresses, bicycles, etc.  The city hangs up notices on the doors of the block they will be picking things up from and the inhabitors have until a certain date to put things out on the street corner. 

So Sunday my roommate, Teresa, her boyfriend, Jonas, and I went out “shopping” around all the Sperrmüll down the mountain from our apartment.  Wow, were we able to find so many cool things!  Many shelving units that were in great shape (too bad we didn’t have a place to put them, or a way to bring them up the mountain to our apartment), rollerskates, wooden laundry baskets, clothespins, rugs for our room and the bathroom, a coffee pot, shoes, a mirror, a clock, an action figure that will make a great present for another roommate, christmas ornaments, magazines and an atlas from the GDR (German Democratic Republic…old East Germany) and some dishes and a small table. 

But the best find of all came near the end. We were looking through this big pile of “junk” when this older woman, who was still putting things onto the pile, came up to us and asked us if we needed a television. She explained that it was still in working order and didn’t want to have to take it apart to put it on the pile (one is supposed to do so with televisions and computers for some reason. Thieves or something? I’m not sure.). “The only thing that is wrong with it is when you switch channels it gets louder and you have to turn the volume down,” she said. Teresa and I looked at each other and said we’d take it. Afterall, I didn’t have a television and Teresa’s always saying it’s a great way to learn the language…at least you get to hear it and such.

So the lady brings out this television and the three of us wonder how we’re going to be carrying this fairly large TV set up the mountain. Then Teresa remembers: Jonas lives in the area, is from Jena, and his parents have a car. So we brought the TV to Jonas’ apartment and are just waiting to get the car to bring it up the mountain.  Then will come the test: does it really work?! 

I’m sure you’re asking, ‘But don’t you have to pay for the stuff?!’  That’s the best part of Sperrmüll….it’s someone else’s junk! They’re throwing it away! So no, you pay NOTHING! We were able to get so much stuff for FREE Sunday that it makes you really wonder why people go buy the expensive things from the store. But why don’t we have such a thing in America? It’d be like a garage sale without making money, but you’d be getting rid of your stuff anyway. Maybe when I get home I’ll see if I can arrange something like this in my neighborhood…

Just like at Christmas, I spent Easter with my roommate, Teresa, and her family in Heiligenstadt. It was nice to get away from Jena and have some wonderful home-cooked meals. What could be better?

Good Friday (Karfreitag) we ventured out to the train station early and made it to Heiligenstadt in time for lunch. Since we weren’t sure if the Schaffner (ticket checker) would be on board and didn’t have much time to wait in line to buy a ticket before we left, we rode “Schwarz”, which means without a ticket. Always makes the trip more exciting when you have to wait to buy your ticket.

Anyway, for half the trip we are able to ride for free as we are students and we can take the train about 50km out for free. However, after Gotha, we had to pray that the Schaffner wouldn’t come to our train car. Five minutes before our stop, we see the Schaffner coming. SO CLOSE! But wait…she is at the back of our car, so at the next stop we move farther down the train car to avoid the Schaffner. No worries…we paid on the way home!

Since it was Karfreitag and Teresa’s family is Catholic, we weren’t allowed to eat any sweets or meat, so lunch consisted of potatoes, Quark (sour cream) and tomato soup. After lunch, we got busy and began painting our eggs that we had blown the contents out of the night before. Two hours later, we were finally done painting and decided to bake some Plätzchen, which are basically sugar cookies, just not as sweet.

However, our adventure of baking the Plätzchen turned into somewhat of an experience as the dough kept getting too hard and then sticking together, but hey-the cookies still tasted good!Easter Saturday we went shopping in Heiligenstadt for a bit before lunch since one of Teresa’s nieces was to be baptized the next day in Kassel. After finding her a present, we ventured back through the snow (yes, it was SNOWING!) to “frost” our Plätzchen with white chocolate we melted and then put sprinkles on them. Not too bad, and fairly tasty! (more…)