meine letzte Tag in der Schule

My last day in class was bitter sweet. Sweet in that I’m so excited to come home and go back to the life I miss. But bitter in that I feel as if I’m just now getting to the point where I’m less afraid of the a language. I finally ordered some food at a takeaway stand in German without panicking! (Keine Panik, my teacher would tell us!) I’m becoming a lot more comfortable trying the little German I know and I understand a lot more than when I first got here. I’m sad to be leaving just when the break through seems to be happening. But somehow I knew that would most likely be the case.

For my last day in class I decided to be totally American and bring in cookies. No special occasion in schools in America passes without baked goods. It’s like the law. I made s’more cookies (a household favorite of mine back in the US) because I figured what’s more American than a combination between a s’more and a cookie? :) Usually they’re regular chocolate chip cookies with marshmallows in them baked on top of a graham cracker and then topped with a chocolate square right before they come out of the oven. Now making these in Germany proved to be quite the challenge. First of all there’s no brown sugar or at least I couldn’t find any. So I made some. Except generally when you make brown sugar you make it using white sugar and molasses and I didn’t have any molasses, so I used honey. They’re sort of the same thing, right? Then, I couldn’t find chocolate chips. But that one was easy, I just cut up some chocolate from a bar. I believe I substituted baking soda for baking powder… or vice versa. My phone translator said they both translated to the same word (they do not) so I bought the one the clerk found for me and hoped. Also, no graham crackers. So I used thin crispy German butter cookies. They’re pretty neutral flavor wise and they definitely have the crunch of graham crackers. When I told my roommate all the modifications I made she suggested I change the name!  Eh, they turned out alright. Different, but they did taste good. And the class seemed to like them so I’d call it a success.

I really am going to miss it here. I’m very excited to go back to my “normal” life, but I’m also very sad to be leaving behind these new friendships and experiences. I think if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this trip it’s that I will definitely be coming back. I don’t know when or how. But someday I’m coming back.