a little like christmas -- thanksgiving week

it's monday, monday before the probably most important thursday of the year in the united states of america.

it feels a little like the days close to christmas. except it's not christmas. it's thanksgiving time. some u.s. americans i've talked to over the years about the meaning of different holidays make it their favorite holiday.

my german friends probably know the text book examples of thanksgiving: the stuffed and baked turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed sweet potatoes with baby marshmallows, corn and cornbread, squash (oh, the varieties!), jell-o in bright colors -- a feast of food.

that's the obvious. but what makes thanksgiving so christmas-like is the intangible atmosphere of anticipation the days before thursday. people make travel plans booking flights with nervousness -- will the plane be delayed because of the collective commuting across the country? will early snow be a threat to timely travel? people are counting down days to see a loved one after a long break. invitations are traded, dinner plans made. college is winding down for a moment with some classes not scheduled for the week or converted into time to work on your own. in some cases colleges take thanksgiving to start winter break altogether.

although thanksgiving in the sense of "Erntedankfest" [giving thanks for the harvest] is celebrated in rural parts of germany, it is not a native holiday to me as a city person nor to most of my friends. it's certainly not a national holiday.

but a few years of life in the united states of america have firmly established thanksgiving in my mental calendar and anticipation captures me, too. i sat down to "gemuetlich" read a thanksgiving short story in the washington post magazine. i contemplated vegetarian entrees [the course of the meal between appetizer and dessert] which seem to abound according to my selective perception. but a dinner invitation came along that i'm looking forward to, and not only because the considerate host assured plenty of vegetables will be on the table. i scheduled my work to be done before thursday to spend all four days with j. coming from the other coast.

while food is a big part of thanksgiving, community of people is more important. with the scarcity of vacation from work in the united states of america, thanksgiving thursday creates a four-day weekend (at least), long enough to escape from fall routine. like christmas it's a special, visiting for the sake of being together, that lightens up the darkening days of the season. and without worrying about gift giving.

that's next, when "black friday" right after thanksgiving thursday unleashes the biggest shopping rush of the year -- say hello to christmas consumption.

my first baby shower (just attending)

it has nothing to do with a shower in the sense of water, rather a shower in the sense of gifts, cookies, and games.

such showers mostly come for babies and brides. merriam-webster dictionary defines it as "a party given by friends who bring gifts often of a particular kind".

our particularly blue and green colored gifts today were piled up for a fellow student and his pregnant wife, both from south korea where baby showers don't exist. neither do they in india except for a special ceremony during the 7th month of pregnancy, i just learnt about today but not everyone heeds that one either. and no baby showers in germany where friends might bring gifts after the baby is born rather than before, but then i've gotten used to other pre-mature celebration rituals in the united states. for birthdays, for example, when it doesn't seem to be too uncommon for people to have an approach of saying happy birthday plus/minus a week around day x, scheduling during that range for parties, gift-exchanges, and congratulations.

in germany any time after day x is fine, but not before. bad omen. some germans -- maybe more like a joke -- even point at the time on their actual birth to emphasize that it's not really quite the proper time yet for congratulations on day x.

or graduations, where the famous walk with cap and gown is permitted and executed before people actually finish their thesis or degree and just get an empty piece of paper to hold into the camera along side their smiles. i would be so worried about research that my smile would come out rather skewed or not at all.

at least for high school graduation ceremonies in germany, you don't get to walk up the stage to pick up your "Zeugnis" [a fancy card board folder with grades, signatures, and the state coat of arms embossed on front] unless you have passed. in german universities, except for the american studies department i got to know, i haven't heard of any graduation ceremony. people are so worried about finding a job that nearing the end of your thesis often seems less of a celebratory time than anytime else during your studies. maybe that's why germans find the cap and gown so cool.

back to the baby shower. i learnt a baby shower comes with pita chips and hummus, cookies and jelly belly beans. it also comes with baby bingo, pictionary [draw: security blanket, infant, lullaby], and the "don't say the b-word" game. decorations included a paper chain above the door spelling out baby shower, a bunch of blue-ish balloons floating the message "it's a boy" and a gift altar. the beautiful center piece was a baby cake made of rolled up diapers layered in three levels and wrapped up on the outside of each ring with bibs, undies, and other blue and green baby garments. some of them had cute whales printed on them. the top figure of the cake was a little stuffed animal. what might have been a bow on front of the cake was a "cool and bite me" teething ring. okay, i should have taken a photo instead of delivering a poor description.

one visitor to the shower said these kind of non-edible cakes are showing up in europe, too for all sorts of occasions. maybe germany hasn't caught up yet or i'm lagging behind german party trends (the latter might be more likely).

summa summarum: i lost the "b-word" game and had to give my blue clip as a token to the person who caught me using the forbidden word. it was strategically not wise to sit in front of the jelly belly bean plate and i'm still fascinated by cultural traditions in the us of a which are non-existent in germany.

what makes a culture the way it is? why does it function one way in one place and another way in another place?

does anyone have other shower stories to share?

(in)sanity at the mall

a photo collection about the rally to restore sanity or also known as the jon stewart rally today without further comment. read for yourself.

go terps! -- my 3rd college football game

my history with football goes back ten years. when yet another red college football team played, the nebraska corn huskers in lincoln, the capital of nebraska. it was rather cold, confusing but the very first time i witnessed football craziness in u.s. colleges.

next time i set foot in a college football stadium was a homecoming at ohio university. bobcats ruled in green and white and j. and i left before the game got really going.

sometimes you get a third chance in life. so it was with me and football in a game between maryland and duke university, arch rivals i hear.

fear the turtle! doesn't it look mean, our very strong, football-y mascott? well, at least it's huge and a neat backgrop for my football experts and me.

we were of course not the only ones rooting for the maryland terps to beat duke. plenty of folks flocked to the stadium parking lots to engage in tailgating, a pre-party hanging out around the back of trucks, munching on hot dogs and burgers, sipping beer and throwing footballs before the game.

some people set up whole tent cities including maryland flags, tables, chairs, you name it -- just make sure it's red. most of these people don't even attend the university, they just feel loyal to it.

i don't remember much about the game except buying nice big elephant ears, a candy made out of dough similar to Pfannkuchen, fried in sizzling oil and powdered with sugary. unfortunately standing in line for half an hour made me miss an important goal judging by the noise.

my experts repeatedly had to explain moves to me and numbers on the strange board. as this post proves, their efforts didn't stick much which is entirely the fault of my un-sporty memory. at least i remember the outcome -- thanks to reminders on the busses.

from gaza to the university of maryland: al jazeera english talk

"As Ayman Mohyeldin reported on-camera from a rooftop in Gaza, bombs fell from the sky, forcing him to stop mid-sentence and duck for cover.

And Sherine Tadros was given a five-minute window to evacuate before the next attack on a clinic where she interviewed Palestinian families.

For these two Al Jazeera English Gaza correspondents, it was just another day on the job.

...

"They lack the on-the-ground context, and they lack the day-to-day nuances of life and the developments," Mohyeldin said of Western media. "You cannot look at Gaza from yesterday's perspective and try to understand what's happening. You cannot look at rockets being fired in Israel and say it's just the result of a few months worth of policy or a few years worth of policy. That is something that most Western media news outlets have tremendously failed in."

The subject of context rose repeatedly during the conversation as they discussed the implications of generalizing the Arab world.

"I think that a lot of things perceived as bias is really a lack of knowledge and a bit of ignorance," Tadros said. "And we see that a lot in the language that is used in Western media."

The whole article in the Diamondback, the student newspaper at the University of Maryland From the trenches of Gaza -- Two Al Jazeera correspondents discuss experiences, Western media By Leah Villanueva Sept. 29, 2010

baking blondies

after having been well acquainted with brownies in the united states, i finally got to watch how blondies are made -- the lighter colored equivalent without a ton of cocoa or chocolate but plenty of nuts.

maybe because my mom occasionally calls me blondie due to my hair color, i've felt a special curiosity toward this dessert. i had heard of them before, saw them in stores, and probably also ate one or two unknowingly. now i witnessed how they are made. here's how to bake a blondie a la sharon (with a little help from martha stewart).

















already prepared: all the good blondie stuff. [ich habe da schon mal was vorbereitet..] and don't forget your u.s. style measuring cups. as j. always reminds me, not ANY cup will do. it's got to be a proper store-bought measuring cup. i'd say taking an old-fashioned coffee cup -- not one of these giant mugs which are fashionable these days -- will do the job. (but maybe my lenience in this issue contributed to the two cookie failures i've already suffered through).

















melting the butter is crucial, says sharon. do not microwave it but liquify and brown it in a pot. you need half a stick -- that should be 60g for german measurements. by the way, u.s. americans love their salty butter. i think you can take either one. if you go for the salty butter, just leave away the additional pinch of salt from the recipe. (i'm not even sure if salty butter even exists in germany.)

















another common ingredient in the united states of america is brown sugar. it comes in all shades of brown, has a more moist feel to it and is more flavorful than white sugar. for this recipe you need both colors.














after beating the eggs (two small or one large), add some vanilla extract to it. it's yet another very common ingredient found in u.s. "baking needs" aisles in every well-stocked supermarket. if you can't find it easily in germany, a little package of vanilla sugar will do just fine.














now whisk, whisk, whisk both kinds of sugar, the egg-vanilla mixture, and the liquid butter together. carefully fold it the flour (and salt if your butter is salt-free).















ode to its brownie cousin: some chocolate chips whoosh from the bag into mix to land on walnuts that go in as well.

















put some parchment paper into the baking pan so that the dough won't stick. in addition, smear some butter on the paper. you need a glass casserole about the size above.











into the oven the blondie goes: 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit or 180 degrees celsius.
















hot & yummy: the ready-made blondie. now you just need to cut them into small squares. thanks, sharon!

they whole recipe:

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush an 8-inch square baking pan with butter; line pan with a piece of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Butter paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugars until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Fold in 1/2 cup each chocolate chips and walnuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips and walnuts.
3. Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Set pan on a wire rack, and let cool completely. Using parchment overhang, lift cake from pan and transfer to a cutting board; cut into 16 squares. Store blondies in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

Makes 16 Blondies.

without media, midnight to midnight

have you ever gone without media for 24 hours? no tv, radio, newspaper, news magazine, cell phone, phone, computer, internet, ipod.

it's an experiment students in my college do as part of their media literacy class.

if they have to try it, why shouldn't i?

past weekend i did. the scariest thought beforehand was running outside without music and interview streaming into my brain to move my legs along the rhythm of beats and words. turns out i ran longer and farther than usual. i discovered a trail i hadn't seen before. i found a different entrance to the zoo. wrapped in my thoughts of discovery, i made a mental note to look up my new path on google maps.

wait.

can't do it. didn't i still have the old paper map of dc around?

since books were allowed i shifted homework for that day to the book chapters on my to do list. since i couldn't take notes on my computer i just race-read right through all. (well as fast as digesting studies can go, it actually took a good part of the day.) only some words were left over. but i could look them up.

wait.

my favorite dictionary only exists online. no English dictionaries lives on my shelf, only a german Duden [the Merriam Webster-like authority for German language so to speak].

that one came in handy later when i picked up yet another book. this time for fun. a german book i long had wanted to read -- a Tatort [one of Germany's most famous crime series] on pages. just better because true*. i devoured it cover to cover. it even made me skip a party i had planned to go. i had to cancel.

wait.

i couldn't text my friend to cancel. she forgave me the next day, though. (luckily, i had warned her of my experiment beforehand.)

not texting at a whim was hard. not only to reaching out myself but also to react. i had received a text message from my dad. if i would have texted back, he would have probably called me. because of the time gap he uses my quick response as signal that i am awake and reachable. not this time. i answered the next day. but 100+odd letters are too short to fully explain my delay.

i sorted paper piles, hole-punched studies, handcrafted a gift, designed a survey with pen and paper, made a research list, fixed a salad and ran out of ideas what else to do. i was bored, a rare situation.

not using my cell phone (and its free weekend minutes) was even harder. no human connection except a kitchen counter conversation with a house mate. it seemed oddly intense. no media seems to render human interaction and face-to-face conversations more valuable.

but what about loved ones in the distance?

not having any way to text, e-mail, call, chat or video chat with j. was the hardest. weekend time means catching up on left-overs from the busy week, no bedtime deadline to have to hang up on, no tiredness from long days.

wait.

it was soon midnight. i called him first thing breaking the media fast.

here's how students during their "day without media experiment" dealt with media abstinence.

URL: http://withoutmedia.wordpress.com/

* Verbrechen von Ferdinand von Schirach. Piper Verlag. 2009. 16.95 Euro