June 17, 2011

Yay for sunny Sundays!!!!

1. When I woke up this morning, I could see the sun through my curtains.

First of all, it's been weird trying to get used to the idea of sleeping without rollos. Or living without them, for that matter. Growing up with blinds (you folks call them Jalousien... or something... here), I never really saw any reason someone would create a permanent change in the house structure just to be able to block outside view from a home/make it dark inside said home. I first understood the real advantage of them during stressful parts of my BA where I would work all night and then sleep all morning. Rinse and repeat -- I noticed the same thing last summer semester break when I spent all night writing and the rest of the day sleeping.

The thing that shocks me most about having no rollos, though, is not having sunlight or light when I'd prefer it to be dark. Despite living on a higher floor in my building, I still feel like my life is on display for others after dark. This bothers me. Maybe by the time it starts getting dark early, I'll be able to afford an investment in blinds or black-out curtains. But probably not.

Anyhoo, that's not my point. My point is that, after 124832 weeks of rain, the sun is shining this morning! I'm not exactly sure how long it's going to last, but I've got my balcony door thrown open wide, and I'm a happy camper.

2. Sunday means church bells.

Yes, thank you, captain obvious.

Most Germans I know either hate them or are able to ignore them. I remember when I first came to Deutschland to visit family in the summer of 2004, the combination of church bells and my first (and most terrible) bout of jet lag made me want to kill myself since the start of church bells in the early morning marked yet ANOTHER night I did not successfully sleep through.

Since I moved here five years ago, I've never lived anywhere near a church, so I've never really had to deal with it. I don't have jet lag anymore, either, which I suppose helps. In Hürth, I lived close enough to a church that every Sunday, if I tried reeeeeally hard and opened my windows reeeeeally wide, I might have heard a little "dong dong", and that was it.

Haha. Dong dong.

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure yet which church is making all the racket here, but it's kind of a nice change to hear the bells again. I am not religious (though I used to be, and our church never had any cool bells) and I dislike the church as an institution, but they're more than welcome to share their bell-havoc with me every Sunday. Which I suppose they'd do anyway without my endorsement. And which I suppose they'll do after the novelty wears off, too.

3. Sunday is baking day.

When I moved back to Germany last year and was faced with the task of buying a kitchen (yeah, cupboards and all cuz that's how they roll here), I was pretty picky on appliances. Or, rather, my wallet was picky. Anyhoo, I ended up with a grill microwave (so I could also cook pizzas) and a hotplate. I instead chose to invest my money in a washing machine (which I don't regret). One of the reasons I don't regret this is because had I bought an oven then, I wouldn't have been able to bring it with me in the move. And then I'd be sad now.

I'm a sucker for baked goods, you see. But in coming back here, I was convinced that I would never have to bake anything if I was craving something, since you can get everything in the bakeries here. Win-win? NO! LOSE!!

When making my decision to not purchase an oven last year, I forgot to consider the fact I love the act of baking just as much as the act of eating baked goods. I suppose the obsession started when the wife of a friend of my ex's (got that?) shared her Herman with me. Because Herman likes to grow and get strong, I "had" to bake every week. When I was in Calgary, I more so baked every week for fun and not because, if I didn't, Herman would take over my refrigerator.

I'm bringing it back.

Baking, not Herman.

I've recently acquired a countertop oven, and have now created my own Sunday baking ritual, even if today is only the second Sunday of it. Last week I ended up with a chocolate banana loaf, but only then because it was an impulse decision to bake and I had to raid my cupboards for possibilities since I haven't really owned any baking-like ingredients for a year and a half.

Since I'm still lacking baking forms (is this what you call Backformen in English?), today I'm making some sort of coconut drops. Because shredded coconut is cheap and tasty.

I have, however, chosen to limit my baking to one day per week, as this will make me fat enough as it is.