Happy New Year to my friends and family around the world.
2012 is going to be a good one. I can just feel it.
On the eve of our new year, I went to my friend Elise's house for a traditional German dinner of raclette. I wish I had pictures of it. Basically, everyone gets a small tray, about half the size of a business envelope. You fill the tray up with different treats, like onion, mango, mushroom, etc. Then you cover it with cheese. You place the tray into this heating element, that melts the cheese until it sizzles. On the top of the heating element, you grill various types of meat. Then you take the tray out and place the mixture over cooked potatoes, and finish with freshly grilled meat. IT IS AMAZING. After stuffing our faces with raclette, we finished with a traditional New Zealand desert of pavlova, or like a meriangue covered with kiwi and creme.
oh boy. were we finished. Elise and I almost decided not to go out, but thinking about what my dad said, "you are in germany. go. experience it" we decided to do the traditional Bavarian thing and go into the center of Munich and watch the fireworks. New Year is the one day a year when they are allowed to light fireworks and boy, do they light fireworks. It was like a war-zone!! They are lighting off fireworks everywhere you look. The whole streets are filled with people and you can hardly see in front of you because of all the smoke. They have no discretion: young, old, weak, strong, they let those things off in every direction.We were running and screaming as we dodged all of them going off. It was a blast. (literally)
The really cool part was how historic the buildings were. We were basically in the middle of one of the oldest parts of Germany, some things dating back to the 1500's, and they were being lit up like Fourth of July. It was pitch black outside but you could see everything in the sky. It was gorgeous. We had such a fun time. Oh, did I mention it was pouring rain??
Elise's host-brother lives in Missouri and is visiting for Christmas. We met up with him and his american friend and went to a proper German New Year's Party. That was interesting... a nice cultural experience. They just..well... drink. A lot. And eat sausage. Pretty much what you'd expect! We kind of spent most of the time entertaining ourselves and then about an hour trying to hail a cab, but I'm glad I went.
When we returned home, Elise, Bret and I sat together and finished off the rest of the pavlova. and by that, I mean I finished the rest of the pavlova. It was so delicious. All in all, New Year's was a smashing hit.
2012 is going to be a good one. I can just feel it.
On the eve of our new year, I went to my friend Elise's house for a traditional German dinner of raclette. I wish I had pictures of it. Basically, everyone gets a small tray, about half the size of a business envelope. You fill the tray up with different treats, like onion, mango, mushroom, etc. Then you cover it with cheese. You place the tray into this heating element, that melts the cheese until it sizzles. On the top of the heating element, you grill various types of meat. Then you take the tray out and place the mixture over cooked potatoes, and finish with freshly grilled meat. IT IS AMAZING. After stuffing our faces with raclette, we finished with a traditional New Zealand desert of pavlova, or like a meriangue covered with kiwi and creme.
Elise's host-brother lives in Missouri and is visiting for Christmas. We met up with him and his american friend and went to a proper German New Year's Party. That was interesting... a nice cultural experience. They just..well... drink. A lot. And eat sausage. Pretty much what you'd expect! We kind of spent most of the time entertaining ourselves and then about an hour trying to hail a cab, but I'm glad I went.
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