Meat the Parents

I've been getting along famously with my guest family (Gitta und Phillip).  Not Brad Pitt famous, but a solid Ben Stiller, maybe even a Daniel Radcliffe.  That's about as good as I could hope for, as I only understand about 70% of what they say, and can only say about 15% of what I want to.  However there is a language that usurps all nationalities: food.  I have long believed in the power of food to make life beautiful, and thusfar, my stay in Germany has more than lived up to my beliefs. I honestly don't know how they make everything so delicious.  There's this one salad that Gitta has made three times now--it's just freshly sliced tomatoes, really good mozzarella, about 2 cups of basil from their garden, and olive oil.  Despite my roller coaster relationship with tomatoes and tomato products, this is one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten.  And their soft cheeses, my god.  I don't know if it's because they're raw, or just that they're made really well, but unf.

What surprised me the most was my lack of trouble with eating German meat.  Going in, I promised myself that I would try everything that was offered to me, even if it looked disgusting (which some of it has). We eat pretty extensive amounts of meat at least once a day here, and I've yet to have a problem.  Pictured above is a Döner kebab, aka a Turkish gyro that I always want inside me.

The weather here is either very beautiful or rainy and gloomy. I actually don't mind it either way; the rain is a bit of a reprieve, and doesn't make me feel guilty for not constantly going out and seeing everything that's ever been built or written in Germany.  When I do go into the city, I've been pretty good about bringing my camera and capturing the pretties.

This is a sculpture that's in Breisach, a small city on the German/French border. It's Europe's namesake, Europa, riding on the back of a bull (Zeus).  Pretty much the same story with any of Zeus's paramours; he wanted her, Hera didn't want him to have her, he got her, this time by posing as a bull in one of her father's flocks. Anyway, the triangle represents Germany, France, and Switzerland.

This is a picture of the Münster, at the center of Freiburg's inner city.  It was built about 1200, but as you can see is getting a bit of a facelift at the moment.  Phillip loves to remind me of America's relative infancy. I've yet to play the Nazi card.

And finally, I saw this when I was walking around a place I could probably never find again.  I have no idea what it is, but I rather like it.



Blahging finished.