Rachel's in Germany!: Homework and food!

This morning was cool. I got up sort of late because I needed to sleep in after all my semi-early mornings this weekend, and when I went in the kitchen to have breakfast it was already almost 10:30. Corina, who lives next door to Indra, came in to make her breakfast too. She usually just makes her food and then takes it back to her room, but I was talking to her while she was finishing up her coffee and so she came and sat with me and we ate together! I was a little surprised because she has never done that before. Indra came in from her morning class a couple of minutes after that, and we ended up talking until almost noon. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed getting to know Corina a little more. I learned that she is half Colombian (which is why she speaks Spanish), and that she and I are alike in the fact that we love breakfast and could eat breakfast food any time of the day (though she doesn't like cereal--she usually prefers to have more of a spread, like eggs and toast, or rolls with cream cheese, butter and jam). Until today I had only had short conversations with her here and there. She isn't home a lot of the time, and when she is she is usually in her room or has one of her friends over. So this was the first time we talked for more than ten minutes or so, and I have to say it made my morning.

Spent the majority of the afternoon trying to get my homework mode into high gear. Got some more of my book done, though not as much as I would have liked. Petra knocked on my door around 5:30 to see if I was ready to go to the store. We were planning to make a tortilla soup from a package she had, but we had to go to the Lidl supermarket to get tortilla chips to put in it. So we walked there and got the chips and a couple of other groceries. We ended up having to go to Rewe for avocados, though, because the ones at Lidl were really picked over and the only ones left were too soft. When we finally got back, it was almost 7. We got the soup started, but then we realized that the beans in it were going to take a lot longer than we had expected because they were dry beans. So we got out our art projects to work on while we waited. Marni showed up a couple minutes after that, and we put on Mumford & Sons and made a humongous batch of guacamole with the avocados. Just when we were starting to get concerned about Indra and wonder if she had met with an unfortunate accident on the way home from her tutoring appointments (she tutors high schoolers in a variety of subjects a couple afternoons a week), she came in. She had been in her room, finishing up a set of calculations for her homework. (Such a contrast--Marni, Petra, and I have no homework other than to sit and draw, while Indra has to do complex math problems.) The beans were taking forever to soften, so we all just drew, talked, sang along to the music, and proceeded to eat a first course of chips and guacamole. It was Indra and Marni's first time trying guacamole! They both liked it, though Marni couldn't quite get past the fact that it looked like some kind of mushy green science experiment. Petra and I, of course, mowed through it like it was going out of style, being from that beautiful continent where guacamole is a well-known and well-loved phenomenon.

The soup finally was ready around 9 o' clock. It had such dark spices and was so thick that it really was more like bean chili than soup. We ate it like chili, with crumbled tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and sour cream on top (we had to explain to Marni and Indra how to assemble the toppings). It was super good. Not identical to U.S. chili--the cheese was Emmentaler, which tastes more like Swiss than cheddar--but I really enjoyed it. And it had no meat, so it wasn't overly filling like some chili can be. I told Petra that this was her and my super-late birthday celebration, because both of us were traveling on our birthdays (hers was in April and mine was in May). No better way for me to celebrate my birthday than with Mexican-style food!

We worked on our projects for a while longer after we cleaned up. Marni went back to her apartment pretty soon after we had finished eating, because if we're all honest with ourselves, we get a lot more done when we're alone in our rooms than we do when we're together eating, talking, and listening to music. Petra, Indra, and I were in the kitchen till almost midnight.

Um, which brings me to say it's now after 1 and I need to go to bed. Good thing I don't have to get up for any classes tomorrow.

Before I sign off, here are pictures from our night (sorry Indra, I never took any pictures of you):