Week of Thanksgiving!

Nov. 18th-24th

On Monday, I went to Chris's house to watch a movie. He rented City of God from the library and said it was one of his favorites. It's based on a true story about kids in the slums of  Rio de Janero. It was interesting, and had a sort of happy ending as well. (As happy as you can get with these types of things). 

On Wednesday, I made cookies for the Thanksgiving Dinner. The International Office puts together a dinner every year and everyone brings a dish and a present. I spent all last week trying to get ingredients together for my chocolate chip cookies. They turned out to be chocolate chunk cookies, because I couldn't find chips anywhere. I also had to make my own brown sugar (1 cup of regular sugar + half a cup of molasses for those that are interested), since that is also a rare commodity over here. The cookies actually turned out okay. Ann-Kathrin told me they tasted like the ones you can get from Subway, and those are freaking delicious, so I took that as a huge compliment.

The dinner was a lot of fun. Instead of the typical giant 25 lb bird, we had four smaller turkeys. It was just as good as anything I've had before. There was also pumpkin soup, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes. Everything was delicious and I'm grateful I had a successful Thanksgiving in Germany. After everyone was done eating, we exchanged gifts. It was like Secret Santa, where you just pick out a random present. I got a bottle of wine, which I'm always happy to get. Ann-Kathrin got a  Rubik's cube and we spent the rest of the night trying to solve it. We ended up stopping once we got one side done.

Close Enough! 

On Friday, Mike, Laura, Robin, Chris, and I went out to Sausalito's. It was a nice way to unwind at the end of the week. I spent most of the night learning how to do the last half of the Rubik's cube. I don't think I'll ever be able to string it all together. Mike had to write down the instructions on a napkin, so now I have a sort of cheat sheet. 

Saturday, I went to the K20 Museum in Düsseldorf. For my art history course, we have three museum excursions throughout the semester. We actually get to see firsthand some of the art we discuss in class, which I think is always a nice thing. I managed to find the museum by myself. I looked it up on Googlemaps the night before, but was still kind of worried. I knew to keep the Rhine on my left and managed to stumble upon the place. We focused on the American section of the museum and learned about Warhol, Pollack, and Rauschenberg.

Name that artist! 

 It was a fun way to spend a Saturday, and I'm looking forward to our other excursions. Okay, I'm done for now, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: der Würfel- "cube" The Rubix Würfel is both frustrating and fun.