"Bond"-ing with Germans, Saucy Popcorn, Thanksgiving!

On Thursday I was invited to eat dinner with my tandem partner Christine and her roommates Lena and Sarah (and another girl whose name I can't remember!) at their apartment. It was a wonderful time and I got lots of practice speaking and listening to German, reading German recipes, and watching Germany's version of "The Voice" on television. For dinner we cooked Kartoffelbrei (mashed potatoes), Rotkraut (red cabbage), and Frikadelle (fricadelle), a very German meal. We had a mixture of sparkling water and apple juice to drink, then we lounged on the couch and ate gummy bears for dessert while watching the Germans sing their hearts out.

"Skyfall" movie poster

My tandem partner Christine, Sarah and I went to the movies together Saturday evening to see Skyfall, the new Bond movie! The movie was stunningly excellent, it definitely lived up to the hype, and I think I may have loved it even more because I saw it in German and I understood almost all of the dialogue! That's a milestone for me. :) German movie theaters, like almost everything here, are very logical. The tickets cost different amounts depending on where you sit in the theater, so the lower level seats are less expensive than the higher seats. Also, every ticket has a seating assignment on it, so they really maximize the space and make it less chaotic. For popular movies like "Skyfall", people reserve seats in advance, but if they don't pick up their tickets earlier than half an hour before the show starts, they can be sold to others. It's definitely an interesting system. And of course, since it was my first German movie experience, I wanted to go all out! I decided to get some popcorn and a drink from the concession stand. I was feeling mighty grown-up 'cuz I had my money ready and I already knew what I was going to say in my head. It went quite smoothly until- "Salze oder süße?" The guy was asking if I wanted salty or sweet popcorn, but in my mind "salze" sounded like "soße" which means sauce in English, and I surely did not want any soggy, saucy popcorn! So I asked for süße and munched happily throughout the film, but I learned my lesson and next time I'll go for the regular salty popcorn!

Thanksgiving is this Thursday and AYF is having a group Thanksgiving dinner and I wasn't sure what to bring, but since I've never cooked heavy duty dishes like Mac and Cheese (not out of a box) or stuffing, I decided to play it safe and bake my cheddar/garlic butter biscuits. I finally found extra sharp cheddar cheese here in Germany so I think I'm all set for Thursday!

Later this week I'll do another post about the Thanksgiving gathering, hopefully with pictures!

Bis dann!