If you would of told me a year ago that I was going to have a mixture of cultures to celebrate my birthday and none of those were going to be American or Mexican, I would of called you crazy. I am honored to say, though, that I was able to have an excellent birthday away from my loved ones back home, all thanks to my friends over here and my host family.
I honestly don't believe my day could have started better. Awaken by its glorious scent, I woke up with a flower (don't know what kind) on the desk next to my bed. It was a small flower, with yellow pedals, that screamed Happy Birthday! What I liked the most was the note at the base of the flower. With some grammatical errors, but still written with love, there were 5 "happy birthday" in different languages. I was able to recognize English, Spanish, German and French while the fifth one I believe it was latin. After two weeks, that flower and the note are still in my room as a memory of how much my youngest host sister and I love each other. For breakfast, I had to eat by myself since everyone else had to leave either to school or work, but on the table, crepes were waiting for me along with a special sweet sause by host mom makes for the crepes. Best breakfast I have had here in Germany so far! It was so good, that I took a little bit longer than usual enjoying the flavor and therefore, I was a little bit late to my neuroanatomy class, the last one of the semester I should say. This is another fact that made me enjoy my happy birthday a lot. It was not the fact that I did not like the class and therefore I was glad neuroanatomy was over. On the contrary, I enjoyed being in that class especially since we all got to know each other very well, including the professor. What I liked was that neuroanatomy was my second to last class before I graduate. Having one class less means I am getting closer to my graduation! The drawback was that we had our final that morning, but even then, I enjoyed having our last neuroanatomy class on my birthday. After neuroanatomy, I had to proctor the physiology lab midterm. When everyone finished and gave me the papers, I started getting everything together when all of a sudden I hear everyone who was taking the midterm come in singing happy birthday. The best part of that was Kristin in the middle holding a delicious looking cake. And it was delicious. That day, I was not suppose to eat until lunch since I was fasting, but I could not resist myself. I cut myself a big chunck of it, and decided to leave the rest for everyone. According to my colleague, that cake is a really german tradition.
For lunch, two of my friends and I decided to treat ourselves to a chinese buffet. I had been craving chinese food ever since we arrived, and I was finally going to eat some for my birthday. The food was so good, we all agreed we have to go back sometime before we leave back to the US. But the food got even better for dinner. Before dinner, since I did not have to study for neuroanatomy anymore, I had a lot of free time. My host brothers and I decided to go to the store first in order to buy vegetables my host mom needed for dinner. She had told me she was going to cook something really french, but I could not figure out what. After coming back from the store, my host brothers and I decided to wrestle around while we waited for dinner to be ready. But before dinner, I received another surprise. My host dad had just gotten back from France that morning, and he had brought with him eclairs! So while we waited for dinner, my host brothers and I didn't just wrestle, but also enjoyed some delicious French pastries.
The dinner was really French. My host mom decided to make a salad plus snails! When I went to Paris, I wanted to try snails but I did not have the opportunity to do so. Now, for my birthday, I was going to eat what to most of my friends sounded like a bad idea. It was good! Tasted like chicken with pesto sauce. To top the salad and snails, we had bread with cheese, but this dish was different to all the other dishes I have tried since I arrived to Germany. Yes I have eaten a lot of bread and cheese, but more than a dish, this was a game. We had to grab a piece of bread with a special fork and dip it in melted cheese. If the piece of bread fell on the cheese, then we had to do something silly infront of everyone. I was so nervous that I would drop my bread, but at the end of the day, we all had to do something silly. Even better was the dessert. My host mom decided to bake a huge cinammon and pear cake. Since there was a lot left for the next day, I decided to make that my breakfast and dinner along with a cup of hot chocolate.
No comments:
Post a Comment