Schwarzwaelderkirschtorte and other long words

Last night we made Schwarzwaelderkirschtorte (black forest cherry tort). It was my idea to make it since we were dying of boredom yesterday. The recipe was a little different than the one we made at home for Lily's birthday party (I was disappointed that there was no espresso frosting), but nonetheless I'm sure it's going to be delicious. However, baking in Germany is very different than baking in the US, I noticed. For example, (I'm sure you can still buy this in the US but,) we used vanilla sugar instead of vanilla extract. I asked Dagmar if they use vanilla extract but she said that they rarely use it for baking. Also, I found it particularly annoying that we had to weigh all of the ingredients instead of measure them because all of the ingredients on the list were in grams and not milliliters. When it came time to make the whipped cream, we had the pleasant surprise of discovering that we didn't have enough cream to whip. And instead of simply running to the store (like I have done so many times in my baking past) we found ourselves asking the neighbors and going to grandma and grandpa's, begging for cream like starved homeless kitties because all of the stores close at six. SIX! That's right, no twenty-four hour, late night "we forgot to buy cream" runs here. 

The past behind us, I think this post is a great place to compare the Werth Family to the Fischer Familie. To start, both of our families are ridiculously similar in that there is Joern, who is my age, and then there is Lars, who is Josh's age, and last there is Inga, who is about Lily's age. And no, sadly there is no one Bethany's age. However (quick back story), the month before I left for Germany, I had a lot of free time because I had finished all of the coursework that was possible for me to make up. During this time, I got to do many fun things like pick the kids up from school everyday, and hang out the laundry, and dig out the endless pile of dishes in the sink, and basically all of the crappy jobs that my poor mother has to do everyday. But in doing all of these jobs, I realized how sucky being mom is, and how all of the work that she does is not easy or fun, at all. I now have a much deeper respect for my mother that I didn't have before. But anyhow, this applies to the Fischer family because Dagmar does so much work and no one even gives a second look. Before, I probably wouldn't have thought about it twice either, but now I see what a pioneer she is and try to help with what I can. Anyhow, another comparison with our families is that the Joern has similar pet names for his mom that I have! At home, I love to use silly pet names for mom like boss and sister, but then I came here to realize that Joern calls his mom "Mutti" (moo-tee) and I instantly added that to my list of words to call mom by. 

Another thing that I noticed here in the Fischer household is that Inga is pretty much Lily. For instance, Lily and Inga both love puzzles and Friends® Legos® as well as playing sports (Lily likes sports, right?). In my opinion, I think that they would get along very well if they were to try the short-stay (3 week) exchange together. However, I don't think that Lars and Josh would have gotten along all that well if they were to have done the exchange last summer together anyways, so maybe Moritz was for the better. I think this because one, Lars is first and foremost a vegetarian that eats fish (don't get me started on how much that annoys me) and two, I just don't think that their personalities would have gotten along. Last there's Jan (yahn, or John), Joern's dad who opposes the entire family in their wanting to visit America. He's a lot like dad in that he likes music, occasional beers, and walking. No one is quite sure why he opposes a family trip to America, but my theory is that he thinks he's going to like it too much and want to stay. 

Today is Sunday, so this morning Jan and I made the trek all the way downtown to the Frauenkirche (Women's Church) where they were kicking off some three week poor people luncheon outreach. Since we weren't going to eat, we got shoved into the side pews and couldn't see the front very well. Nevertheless, I managed to stay awake! The walk back was quite a huffer because of the hill that our house is on. I'm still deciding if I like it or not. Anyways, all is well here and I still have to do my homework. 

12.3.17 

Nat