It finally got hot here. For months the weather has been in an uncharacteristic (so I've been told) flux of really cold, then warm, then mostly cold, then kind of warm. The first two months I was here, in March and April, I probably wore my winter jacket for 60 percent of the time, and my other jacket for 30 percent of the time. On my second day in Germany, a snow storm hit Munich that would hold up for the better part of the next two weeks. Beautiful and unexpected at first, but the novelty of a half foot of snow in March wore off and melted away, as what was initially white snow became muddied, dirtied, and expected.
Every two weeks or so, when the biting cold would release its jagged winds, I would think of how I wanted to buy gloves. Nothing fancy, just a cheap pair of cotton gloves. Okay, maybe not cotton gloves. Leather. A cheap pair of leather gloves. If such a thing exists. But whenever I would mention this to someone, to whichever acquaintance I was with, I would be dissuaded by promises of quickly approaching heat waves that would mark the rest of the summer. I never bought them, which I suppose is just as well. I certainly won't be using them from now on. Although I did see a woman yesterday walking around the city in a thick leather mini-skirt. Now I'm not one to judge, but if it barks like a hooker and acts like a hooker...
This post unfortunately won't have any appealing pictures of food. This past week has been too busy for me to get around to playing with anything like that. I did have every intention of publishing a post around last Friday on these fried Eggplant slices that I made (the eggplant obsession will.not.stop), but I ended up curling up on the couch gripping my stomach, moaning dramatically just to hear the sound of my own pained voice (I was the only one home). I'm not sure if it was that I used to much oil (very likely), ate too many (also likely), or just because my body has become unaccustomed to fried foods lately (semi-likely). Needless to say, in between my stomach-clutching, moaning, and subsequent self-pitying, I did not feel very keen on taking pictures of the oil-soaked Aubergine. But don't fret, Aubergine. I still love you.
I spent the last seven days working on a presentation that I originally didn't think I had to give, realized that I did have to give it, and then realized that I would be the last person to present in my class. It was for my German class, and had to focus on two people who have contributed to society from my home country. I watched the first couple people present over the first few weeks, before remembering the words of my German professor in an e-mail, telling me that I would have to give a presentation and for me to send my notes and my slides to her once it was finished. Whoops. I told my German student-teachers, and signed up for a date a week away. Because about 60% of my German class is from the Ukraine, there really hadn't been a terrible amount of variety in the presentations. In fact, I think there were only two people who presented who didn't come from the Ukraine. (I'm realizing at this point that this post will essentially be a rambling of absolutely nothing of any value, so I'm gonna run with it. But I have more important ramblings, so this one is gonna have to cut to the chase.) Bottom line: I narrowed "United States" to "Nashville", picked Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, made a 20 minute Powerpoint presentation, completely memorized my whole speech, presented, and it went flawlessly. It went so well that my teachers grabbed me after class to compliment me. Pats on the back for me.
I feel like I should issue a warning right now that my harmless little food blog is about to go into semi-political territory, and if any of my three readers would rather just enjoy my musings on garlic and lemons, then read no further! Flee to the hills and save yourselves!
WARNING: SEMI-POLITICAL MUSINGS TO FOLLOW
It just took all of the self-restraint that I could muster not to comment on a Facebook status update from someone that I went to high school with that I just saw. And not someone I was ever really friends with, so I don't know how appropriate it would be to point out how big of a...um....(the only adjective that I can think of starts with an "F" and ends with an "ing" and is not "filthy" or "finicky") idiot he OR SHE (politically correct) sounds like in that update. Anyways. The status update was "Reasons why Americans are laughed at: twilight, justin beiber, and obama."
Okay. Let's take care of the easy things first. Twilight. Fine, whatever. I won't throw up my hands and disagree. Moving on to Justin Bieber, who is um...Canadian. So I'm missing the connection. And the last point. I just don't know where to begin. "Reasons why Americans are laughed at: obama"... I'm not sure if this person has ever been out of the country (to a place that is not Cancun, Mexico), or if this person has ever spoken with someone who is not from the great land of Amurika.
(Trying to pick my words carefully....and go!) I didn't think that I would change that much by moving to Germany. I'm not completely sure that I have changed all that much. But there are some things that I've slowly been made aware of, that really change my perception of how I view the world. Okay, that may totally negate the "I'm not sure I've changed all the much", but a world perception isn't that big of a deal! Maybe it's because the country that we live in is so big, or maybe it's because we only have two neighboring countries, but the mindset of people in America is that America is the center of the world in absolutely every way, and that if anyone dare disagree, regardless of country of origin ("You're from Brazil and you DON'T think that America is the best country on earth?! What the hell is wrong with you?! What kind of bullshit are they teaching you in schools?!"), they're some kind of America-hating terrorist.
I kind of always figured that people in every country operate the same way, as in people from every country view themselves as the center of the world, more important than any other nationality, and somehow blessed by a generous God who deemed YOU personally worthy of living in this country. Well, go figure, this isn't exactly the case. In fact, it's not the case at all. And it's funny now that I think about it. Back when Bush was in office going about his whole...I don't even know what to call it...his whole little mission or what not, and the French weren't patting our back, flying "Go America!" banners, or singing our national anthem on cue, the reaction here was just incredible. I think that the pièce de résistance (definitely only realized the irony of using a French phrase in the context after I wrote it) was the whole "Freedom Fries" ordeal. I thought it was ridiculous back then, but I think it's horrifying now. The basic thought of that whole embarrassment was a proud and resounding "I don't give a horseshit what any of the other countries in the world think about America. We're right! Always have been, always will be! I'ma put a boot up your ass if you don't agree with it!" Bringing this whole rant full circle (at least semi-circle), to the dumbass whose status that started this whole thing. It wasn't Obama who muddied the image of America overseas. I'm sorry, but are you kidding me? Talk to any European over here, and they will tell you about how they, too, grew up idolizing America. But then in the 2000's everything changed. And the face of that change was George Bush.
I'm not trying to rip Bush a new one right now. That is irrelevant. I don't care if you supported George Bush or not, but the absolute truth is that it was George Bush who changed how the world viewed America. That is an absolutely unbiased statement. And half of our country was proud of that, and embraced it. So don't pretend now that Obama coming into office two years ago has negatively affected how people view America. If anything, the simple fact that we elected a black man will lift up our muddied image. Because in other parts of the world, women get elected to positions of leadership, gays get elected to positions of leadership, and GASP! even big, dykey lesbians get elected to positions of leadership.
But what I find so horrifying, is that here, people actually get that we live in an international world. I think that there are so many people in America who don't realize that. Of course, it's good to love your country (as I do), but patriotism should never suggest infallibility. Should we allow other countries to guide our policies? No, of course not. Everyone is playing with their own self-interests. But we must realize that the world that we are living is actively changing. I love America, I really do. With love comes responsibility. Like a friend who I love that I see err, I would give my advice, voice my concern, and help to solve the problem, and so do I follow these steps with the Land of the Free.
QUICKLY BACK TO (MOSTLY) NON-POLITICAL BABBLE THEN I'M DONE, I SWEAR
Okay, by this point, I assume that I have two readers left, and those would be my mom and dad. The others have either fallen asleep, gotten offended, or just were never there to begin with. Just want to wrap this up with some brief musing on the Oil Spill. (Groan, I know).
Last semester, I remember posting a status on Facebook making fun of the fact that I drove from my apartment to class, when the walk was under ten minutes. Yeah, real funny. Of course, I was poking fun at how lazy I was, and never had a second thought about it. Until this Oil Spill.
That statement that I made seemingly embodies the road that we have taken in the past forty years towards complete dependence on oil. This spill is nobody's fault in particular. It's a generation's fault. It's several generations' fault. I feel like this has also turned into a political musing right now, but I'm not exactly sure how it came about in America that caring about the environment became a liberal issue. It's not a liberal issue. It's a humanity issue. Is this oil spill the wake-up call that I needed to stop acting like I have every resource at my fingertips, taking two showers a day, washing clothes over and over again because they got wrinkled, and driving a distance that would have taken 5 minutes walking? It was a combination of the lifestyle here and the oil spill that awakened me. I haven't been back in America yet. I don't know if there has been an awakening there. I can only hope so. I guess I'll see in a month.
I SWEAR MY NEXT POST WILL BE FOOD-RELATED!!!!!!
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