Today we tried to make Chocolate chip cookies....

It turns out that the Metric system doesn't like me very much, so the first batch looked like this:

 

Then with the second pan on the way, we quickly added tons more flour into the mix and it looked a little more normal and less butter-soaked.

 

Overall that was interesting and fun, Anni and I also made a Quark Torte. For those of you who don't know what Quark is, it is this crazy stuff that Europeans use instead of sour cream, but they use it in cakes (Torte) and once in a while on potatoes.

I've been trying everything here and so far everything is a little different from home, the jelly beans are huge, pickles look weird, always mineral bubbly water, and even the gum is sometimes in blueberry flavor.

 

That there is Quark Cake, I forgot it's real name, but it is a cake with Quark mixed with pudding inside. Pretty interesting, huh?

Here is a mighty fine example of a mushroom. They pick their own, we eat them every day. We even sometimes have Mushroom Schnitzel. 

Sometimes Erika, my current host mom even bakes some homemade bread, but this is German bread, so it is dark.

Bread. German style.

 

 

Mushroom Schnitzel.

This place is weird. I like it.

On an  unrelated note, Anni just let me cut her hair!

She was talking about how she wanted a haircut this week and somehow I was offered and being as I always love cutting hair for some reason, I did! 

Personally, I think it looks pretty darn good. Anni said she didn't want to cut the front portion, so it is very interesting, but I convinced her that just a slight angle with the front would look classy, and that's how it is now. I still want to cut it a little more though..... I think she looks pretty good with short hair.

 (You can compare this to the first photo)

 

Pets!

The other day we discovered that the cat "Blackie" had another baby kitty, and it it ridiculously adorable, to top of that one month old cuteness, there is a hedgehog that comes to eat the cat food every evening! It is friendly and I picked it up and pet it, I kind of want to call him Ralf.
Did I mention Germany has wild boars? I really want to see one!

We fed the fish a fly, it looked weird.

Yumi

Ralf

Yesterday we went to the zoo, then the mall and ran into some other Australian exchange students as well. The zoo was interesting but a little sad because there were animals that looked so bored.

Being with other exchange students is awesome, they go through all the same things, lack of friends and family back home, as well as school and language troubles. When we hang out it is always so much fun and they are my best friends here. I really do still think I'm in a dream, this can't be real, my reality is so amazing here that I just have trouble accepting that is is real.

Today I rode the Scharmützelsee Fahrrad tour with my host family and it was really fun. They speak only in German to me, which is hard, but I'm glad they do. I have already learned so much in the last 2.5 weeks.

This is not uncommon

Fish sandwiches, if you look closely you can see the scales are still there.

Mückel!

We went here and looked around, it is a climbing place in the woods, we are going to go there soon hopefully.

Water snake. We also saw a legless lizard the other day, it looked like a chubby snake.

Yummm, cake is not just for birthdays.

Tomorrow is my first Rotary meeting, in which I will probably give my official presentation auf Deutsch and probably have a lot of listening to do. I already gave a short presentation to the some of the teachers and school director in a conference last week, and that wasn't too scary. It is really great getting to meet so many new people.